Ina Finkbeiner was born in Germany. After graduating she worked as an accountant in Germany until 2007, but it never really grew on her. So along with her husband and she decided to start a little adventure and moved to Vancouver. They only planned to stay for a little while but they fell in love and couldn’t leave. In 2010 her biggest adventure Anna was born, and she started looking for baby and kids toys. Her favourites were sold by the German brand sigikid, and she came up with the idea of importing their products to Canada. In response, she recently launched her online store, My Little Mousie. We caught up with Ina recently to chat about some of her favourite things for herself, her business and her family.

What are your favourite things for your kids?

I enjoy baking pear muffins for my daughter (her favourite things). I enjoy watching her when she eats them even more.

What’s your favourite thing for you?

Hot yoga in the morning. It feels nice to be in the moment and focus only on yourself for a while.

What’s your favourite thing for work?

Having the satisfaction of really finishing something.

What’s your favourite place in Vancouver?

Stanley Park, because it’s so unique, and you can do so many great things there all year round.

What’s your favourite birthday gift idea?

My husband had my favourite birthday gift idea: he took me sky diving!

What’s your favourite Vancouver restaurant?

Bishop’s in Kitsilano. I love their fish dishes and it’s perfect for a romantic date night!

What’s your favourite kids’ book?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was my favourite when I was little, and now it’s my daughter’s! We even got her the caterpillar stuffed toy.

My Little Mousie

www.mylittlemousie.ca | Twitter | Facebook

A Connected Community Makes for Happier Moms

We believe that when you’re really hooked into your community you’re happier. That’s why we do what we do. Vancouver is a really great place to raise a family, but it’s even better when you take advantage of all that it has to offer. This month we’ll be focusing on a number of Vancouver neighbourhoods (and even a few out in the suburbs), highlighting what makes them family-friendly. Call it our love letter to this city that we call home.

Love Where You Live

One of the things that makes VancouverMom.ca so special is our community. We love connecting with you on our website, through Facebook and Twitter, in our RSS feed and in the emails we send out. We especially love hearing back from you, when you share your thoughts and stories. This month we’ll be asking for you to share why you love where you live. What makes Vancouver your city? What do you want other moms to know? Drop us a line and tell us … or contribute an article (or three) yourself!

Being a Vancouver Mom is Fabulous

Whether you’re wondering what to do in Vancouver on a rainy February day, or you want to know about family-friendly spots on The Drive, we’ve got you covered this month and all year long. We’re here to help you love where you live, and redefine the way you think of the word “mom”. So let’s join forces, and share what makes being a Vancouver mom so fabulous!

What do you most love about living in Vancouver? Leave us a reply and let us know. We’d love to hear from you!

Canadian designer Mark Fast has an intricate design process, relying on handcrafting and endless experimentation. He collaborates with Christian Louboutin, Swarovski, Aldo Shoes, and more. The fashion up-and-comer’s style is a hit, and his Faster collection has been spotted on celebrities from Avril Lavigne to Courtney Love to Kylie Minogue.

Get a Style Boost with Chic Hand-Knit Creations

Fast’s luxurious, ready-to-wear line features chic, Italian-made, hand-knit creations. The collection of sexy, skin-revealing dresses, leggings, and shoes is coming to Vancouver this weekend for a two-day event. The fashion show is a follow-up to his highly successful inaugural event which recently took place in Kelowna, where Fast encouraged show-goers to try on various items to experience the clothes. The result was a fun and relaxed atmosphere where women could style and steer each other toward different, adventurous pieces in the collection. The same format is planned for the Vancouver show.

Fast says, “I want to reach out to the Canadian market because I see so many women excited to challenge and excite presuppositions of how a woman should dress. Vancouver is my favourite Canadian city. Such a diversity in people and landscape. I love the fact that more women can experience the thrill of dressing as if life is a red carpet.” It sounds like a welcome style break from the yoga pants so many of us normally sport around town, don’t you think?

What to do in Vancouver: Fashion Edition

Since Mark Fast is busy gearing up for London Fashion Week, he can’t make the trip to Vancouver. Kim Appelt is going to be in Vancouver as Mark’s rep. She’s mom to a six-year-old and three-year-old twins. She loves fashion, and can’t wait to share Fast’s style with some moms in Vancouver.

Items from the Faster collection will be on sale at the event at 50% off their regular retail prices. You can expect to pay from $80 for a pair of signature cut out tights, to $350 for a signature cut out dress. But bring your cash, because that’s the only form of payment that will be accepted.

Mark Fast “Try and Buy” Event

If you’re ready to step up your style, we have the details for the Faster “Try and Buy” event.

When: Friday, February 3 from 4:00 – 9:00 pm and Saturday, February 4 from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Where: The Westin Bayshore
More Info: Mark Fast on Facebook

Happy shopping!

Five Quick Wellness Boosts for Vancouver Moms

1. Get a Facial – A couple of us here at VancouverMom.ca had the chance to try facials at Skoah recently, and we’re hooked. If you’ve never had a facial, you’re really missing out. Skoah’s “Quickie” treatment will have you in and out on your lunch hour with time left over to eat something, and will leave you with glowing skin and a heavy dose of relaxation. What mom couldn’t use a little more pampering? It’s a definite wellness win in our book.
2. Practice Mindfulness – Back in December, Lori Lucas offered us some tips for A More Mindful Holiday Season. Her suggestions for practicing mindfulness work all year round. By being truly present in what you’re doing you can reduce your stress level and increase your mental and emotional wellness. The best part is that you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything differently than you normally would – you just have to pay attention. Plus, it doesn’t cost a thing!
3. Attend a Drop-In Playgroup – If you find yourself at home alone with your kids all day, it’s easy to go a little stir-crazy, especially when the weather is cold and rainy. We recently shared three West Side community centre drop-ins with you, but there are many more all across the city. Call up your local community centre and see what’s on offer, then get out and connect with some other moms and see how it improves your frame of mind.
4. Try a New Workout – We teamed up with the folks at Executive Lifestyles to sample their Gravity Training System, and one of the things we loved about it is that the workout is just 30 minutes long. A new fitness regime can really boost your energy. You don’t need a ton of time to take care of your physical wellness, and by switching things up you can keep it fresh and interesting.
5. Eat Something Yummy – Dine Out Vancouver is running until February 5, which is a great chance to get out and sample some Vancouver restaurants. But you don’t need a prix-fixe menu to have a great dining experience. We have lots of Vancouver restaurant suggestions for you. Or maybe you don’t want to leave the house at all. Whatever tickles your fancy, eating something really good is a great way to take care of yourself and give yourself a quick mental boost at the same time.

How do you give yourself a quick wellness boost when your energy is flagging? Leave us a reply and let us know.

*Image credit – Foundry Park Inn on Flickr.

Two Worlds Collided

Wendy was born and raised in Coquitlam, and she started off her career working at BC Tel, which later became Telus. It wasn’t the best fit for her, though, so even before she had kids she sent about redefining herself by going back to school to study fashion. Like a lot of moms, things changed for Wendy when she had a baby. She says, “My two worlds collided, and that’s where I came up with the idea for our first product, which is the PumpEase hands-free pumping bra.” She was pumping once a day, so that her husband could take a late-night feeding, but she didn’t enjoy it. “The thought of sitting on the couch, unable to do anything else, pretty much drove me crazy.”

Wendy made her first hands-free pumping bra for herself. It wasn’t long before other people heard about it, though. She shares, “A couple of friends caught wind of it and suggested that I sell it. I never had any plans to sell it. But then I thought this product-based business would be passive income, naively.” It’s been a lot of work, but Wendy loves it. “It’s been really successful, we’re now launching a nursing line, but I just really kind of fell into it.”

Redefining “Mom” on the Dragons’ Den

Wendy and her PumpEase pumping bra were on Dragons’ Den in late 2010. While they didn’t choose to invest in her business, she had a very positive experience. Wendy says, “It was anything I could have imagined and more. The people at the CBC were amazing. There was no negative experience there at all.”

Hands-free pumping bras are outside the mainstream for a lot of people, on or off TV. It’s certainly not something most of us would ever have heard of before we had kids, let alone actually considered buying. Wendy gets some varied reactions when people encounter PumpEase for the first time. At consumer shows, she says, “I actually love watching people’s reactions when they walk by my table – the double-takes, the looks of horror. I totally take that opportunity to talk to them about it. It’s pretty funny.”

Bringing Sexy Back to New Motherhood

Wendy runs really cheeky ads for her products. She says, “When it came time to come up with a marketing image I didn’t even consider having some generic, kind of frumpy, mediocre, mainstream image. That’s just not what I’m about. Our bras are the only fashionable hands-free pumping bras on the market, and the only organic ones as well. When it came time to choose fabric I considered solids in pretty colours, and I also ended up with these prints.” She adds, “I’m just trying to make it a little more fun. I mean, pumping is not fun. If I can bring a smile to someone’s face when they’re reaching for their bra … you’re a mom, you know. The postpartum period is not when you’re feeling really sexy.” She’s redefining the way moms feel about themselves after having a baby.

Wendy’s recently branched out by introducing the Toni Top, a maternity and nursing top. Her fashion background once again combined with her experience as a mom. She shares, “I never really went out and bought maternity clothing. A couple people gave me these jeans with the big panel on the front, and I hated them.” She wants to avoid that fate for other people. “I just wanted to beautify the world a little bit by offering moms something that didn’t scream maternity or nursing, and also worked through pregnancy and nursing, and be something they would want to wear after they were done.” She sees that mothers have a negative relationship with the clothing they wear during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and she wants to change that. She says, “If you can get something that looks good, and feels good, then that’s my goal.” She’s redefining maternity and nursing fashion.

Inspiring Others, Redefining Motherhood

Wendy is on a mission to make moms look good and feel good at a time when they otherwise might not. She says, “My mission is to support a mom’s decision to breastfeed through education, community and beauty.” She isn’t just re-defining motherhood for herself, by raising her kids and running her own business. She’s redefining motherhood for other moms, too. That’s what keeps her going, and brings her inspiration. She shares, “What most inspires me is when I get a testimonial from a mom. Some of them bring tears to my eyes. I never, ever set out to do this. I’m working from my home office, and I kind of get holed up in this small little mindset, and then I realize the reach that I’m having and how I’m changing people’s lives and I’m just like wow. I’m honoured to be able to help moms reach their goals.” We can’t think of anything better than that.

Thank you so much, Wendy, for sharing how you’re redefining the word “mom” for yourself and others!

Snugabell

www.snugabell.com | Twitter | Facebook

We are always on the lookout in my family for restaurants that open early for breakfast on weekends. We recently discovered that The Naam, the quintessential West Side vegetarian restaurant, is open 24 hours. Sold. Early morning weekend breakfast it is.

Up Bright and Early at a Vancouver Restaurant

Whether you’re a vegan, a vegetarian or an omnivore, you will find something to suit your taste buds at The Naam. With a good variety of egg (or tofu) dishes, omelettes, pancakes, cereals and smoothies, both you and your picky little ones will be satisfied. The ingredients they use always seem super fresh and healthy – which is important in a vegetarian restaurant.  It certainly beats a whole lot of other early morning breakfast places where the closest thing you’ll find to a vegetable is hashbrowns.

On a recent visit to the Vancouver restaurant, prompted by my daughter’s early rising and a complete lack of food in my refrigerator, I ordered the spinach and feta omelette. Was it the best breakfast I’ve ever had? Probably not. But it was still pretty tasty, and the ingredients were exceptionally fresh and healthy. And did I mention that they’re open 24 hours? If your kid is going to wake you up at 6:00 am on a Saturday, you might as well get out there and get some fresh, yummy food in your belly!

Not Just Breakfast

For those of you who are fortunate to have children who don’t wake up before the sun rises, you can still check out The Naam for lunch or dinner. Don’t be scared off by the fact that you can’t order a steak. Their salads, Mexican dishes and veggie burger platters more than make up for the lack of meat on the menu.

While The Naam is certainly a child-friendly Vancouver restaurant with their high chairs and generally welcoming attitude, it is also a great place to try for date night or an evening out with friends. They have live music every night from 7:00 – 10:00 pm. The schedule of performers is posted on their website, so once you find a favourite, you can be sure to go back again and again to hear them some more.

What’s your favourite Vancouver restaurant when you’re looking for fresh and healthy food? Leave us a reply and let us know.

The Naam

www.thenaam.com | Facebook
2724 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver

French Bakery Offers Colourful Treats for the Sweet Tooth

This small, family-run French bakery specializes in delicious macarons. Macarons, in case you didn’t know, are not to be confused with what we would usually call macaroons. Proper Parisian macarons are light and airy little almond-based biscuits sandwiched around a layer of ganache. They come in many different colours, each with its own flavour: Earl Grey, raspberry, yuzu, passionfruit, chocolate, coffee and many more. The flavours vary seasonally and for special occasions like Movember and Breast Cancer awareness. These macarons also happen to be gluten-free, too! Macarons make a great present and are available in gift boxes of various sizes. French Made also takes special orders for things like wedding favours.

Another hard-to-find-in-Vancouver specialty you’ll find at French Made is Canelés de Bordeaux, which are lovely little rum cakes, traditionally eaten with coffee in the afternoon. I tried one for the first time and loved the caramelized outside and rich, moist inside. Also available: brioche (a sweet, rich white bread sprinkled with pearl sugar), Financiers (almond flavoured mini sponge cakes), pain au chocolat and many, many more treats.

Not Just Sweets

Stop by the French bakery to pick up pastries for brunch or a simple sandwich made with Terra Breads baguettes and quality local meat for lunch. If you get there by 10:30 am, you can take advantage of their breakfast combo: tea or coffee, a pastry and a Happy Planet juice for $7.50. French Made Owners David and Catherine have plans to expand their offerings to include grilled sandwiches like Croque Monsieur as well as including seating inside and out.

French Made Baking

www.frenchmadebaking.com | Facebook | Twitter
81 Kings

Mama Needs a Babysitter

In response, Connie Peters, mom of three and founder of Modern Mama, has organized the Mama Needs a Babysitter event. It’s happening on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at Nesting Kids in Kerrisdale.

The event features several qualified candidates, all 17 years of age or older, and all with their own transportation. All the candidates will have their resumes ready, and local moms can meet and “speed interview” each one until they find their perfect match. No more scoping out random teens on the street.

Getting Moms out of the House

Connie wants to help get moms out of the house and back into enjoying events and activities that enrich their lives. “The babysitter match is a great event for moms, as most don’t know where to look or who to trust,” says Peters. If you need a little me-time, or you can’t remember the last time you visited a restaurant that doesn’t have crayons on the tables, this evening may be just the ticket.

Modern Mama is new to Vancouver, but has been running in Edmonton for the past four years. Connie’s glad to be a Vancouver mom, saying, “Coming back to Vancouver is great. I look forward to introducing my business, Modern Mama, to Vancouver moms and to bringing moms together at worthwhile events; providing them with much needed me-time.” Most Modern Mama events include nanny services so both moms and kids can enjoy themselves.

If you’d like to attend the Mama Needs a Babysitter event, you can register online at the Modern Mama website.

Modern Mama

www.modernmama.com | Twitter | Facebook

Winter Cycling in Vancouver: The Gear

As I set out on my first ride in real Vancouver winter weather back in November, I decided not to wear waterproof pants. “How wet can I really get on a ten minute ride?” I wondered, like a fool. The answer is: very wet. Drenched, in fact. I arrived, sodden and freezing, at my destination, vowing to never do that again. When you’re cycling in Vancouver, waterproof pants are a must. I got mine at Mountain Equipment Coop, and now I won’t leave the house without them on a wet day.

I’m frugal, so I held out on getting shoe covers despite having had experienced cyclists tell me they were a must. “So what if my feet get a little wet? I can bring extra socks and shoes and change when I get there,” I thought, again like a fool. While this approach did work, I was pretty miserable with feet that never quite warmed up after my ride, and putting wet shoes on for the return trip was also less than ideal. Worst of all, after a couple of weeks, the running shoes I’d been wearing for cycling started to fall apart from all that moisture. I wasn’t exactly saving money by destroying perfectly good runners, so I caved and bought shoe covers. I’ve also found gloves to be essential to winter cycling in Vancouver, not so much from a drenching-prevention stance as from a so-cold-I-can’t-move-my-fingers perspective.

Make Yourself Visible

When you’re cycling in Vancouver in dark, wet weather, being seen is a huge concern. I’ve already talked about lights and how important they are. My hideous jacket of high visibility is okay for cloudy but dry days, but not waterproof enough for the average downtown Vancouver slog through winter rain. I already had a great rain jacket with vented armpits – a must for long rides where waterproof outerwear can cause unpleasant sweatiness – but it’s dark grey, which does nothing for visibility. To stand out, I picked up one of those obnoxiously bright reflective safety vests they wear on construction sites and road crews. It may not be pretty, but it makes me hard to miss. Or perhaps better stated in this case: easy to miss.

Five Safety Tips for Cycling in Vancouver

Five quick tips to increase your odds of arriving unscathed:

1. Obey traffic laws. Don’t blow through red lights, don’t dart out in front of cars or pedestrians who aren’t expecting it.
2. Learn the hand signals for left and right turns and use them. Letting drivers around you know what to expect is basic common sense.
3. Stay off the sidewalks. For one thing, it’s against the law. For another, it’s rude, and makes the rest of us look bad. If you must go on the sidewalk, walk your bike.
4. Don’t ride around with earphones in blasting music so loud other cyclists can hear it. You won’t know about the vehicle coming up behind you on your left if you’re too busy getting your groove on to hear it.
5. Don’t assume drivers will give the cycling lane the right of way. Most do, some don’t. Make eye contact with the driver before making any move that takes you in front of a vehicle.

Most of these tips boil down to don’t be that guy. If you’re interested in cycling in Vancouver but unsure about how to navigate downtown streets, check out the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and their Streetwise Cycling Courses.

Any essential tips I missed for winter cycling in Vancouver? Please let us know in the comments!

As if it wasn’t enough to provide such a wide range of class and services, what makes Body & Soul stand out from the crowd is how they integrate your various experiences at the studio in order to produce a better and more well-informed result for your overall wellness. For example, a health assessment report goes in your file so your personal trainer can better plan your workout and go on to leave notes and comments to guide your massage therapist. I found this sharing of information between the various trainers and practitioners I worked with made for a far better experience than I’ve ever had in the past.

Taking Stock of Your Health and Wellness

If you want to take charge of your health or get in shape this year and don’t know where to start, I would highly recommend getting an health assessment done at Body & Soul. While it is not always the most enjoyable thing to get on a scale or have your thighs measured by a stranger, the health assessment provides you with an invaluable, detailed and succinct picture of you current health and wellness. In addition to the simple weighing and measuring, you also go through a series of tests and exercises (i.e. running or walking on a treadmill, pushups, plank, etc.) to measure your endurance, strength and flexibility among other things. The tests and my results were explained to me along the way in a clear and interesting way. I was put me at ease right away and I found that I wasn’t as intimidated or embarrassed as I thought I would be, which we all know is key when experiencing something so personal.

Personal Training

If you’ve ever worked out with a trainer before, you know that finding someone you click with is important for feeling motivated and for seeing an improvement in your physical wellness. The trainers that I met at Body & Soul were friendly, approachable, creative and knowledgeable. Thanks to my health assessment report, my trainer had prepared a workout that was custom designed to strengthen my weaknesses and challenge my strengths. The exercises were creative and dynamic, which kept it interesting and made the time go faster than I had expected it to!

Massage Therapy

In my experience, there is no such thing as a bad massage. There are, however, several degrees of good massages. My massage at Body & Soul was one of the best I’ve ever had. I attribute this to the fact that my RMT took the time at the beginning of our session to discuss my history with me, to feel and observe my posture and alignment and to perform several easy tests to determine my range of motion. As a result, she was able to target the exact location of my tension and strain and used her time most productively in those areas. I was so grateful for this purposeful and educated approach.

Yoga

Yoga is supposed to be great for your mental and physical wellness, but I have historically not been the biggest fan. I find many of the poses difficult, which leads me to feel easily discouraged. My experience at Body & Soul however was fantastic. The small class size made it easy for the instructor to guide me with custom modifications that challenged my flexibility and made me feel like I was actually getting something out of it.

There are a lot of health, fitness and wellness options out there, but there are very few places that offer so much variety under one roof. If you want to get serious about taking better care of yourself this year, check out Body & Soul Health and Fitness and find something that works for you.

Body & Soul Health and Fitness

www.bodysoul.ca | Facebook | Twitter
3785 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver