Portland, Oregon, White Stag Sign

3 Reasons To Visit Portland Right Now

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The perfect last-minute no-brainer getaway. Here are three reasons to go right now.

Portland, Oregon, White Stag SignTRAVEL ADVISORY | Did you get sidetracked and forget to plan a vacation this year? No worries: you’ll always have Portland. It’s the perfect last-minute no-brainer getaway. You could fly, of course, but why not drive? If you leave Vancouver at 6 a.m. and ignore the siren call of Seattle, you’ll be in the City of Roses by early afternoon with plenty of daylight remaining to dive into interesting things.

Here are three irresistible reasons to visit Portland right now. Read more

Nordstrom Rack

Ambushed By Low Prices At The Rack

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Ambushed by unbelievable prices at Nordstrom.

Nordstrom RackSAVE ON CHIC | While I am seriously involved with a website that deals with shopping topics, I am not a shopaholic. When it comes to buying clothes, I like to have a specific goal in mind, like buying a bathing suit for example, and I can usually resist pulling out my wallet for anything other than the exact item I have on my list. Where this blue steel resolve always breaks down is when I am standing on the threshold of one of my favorite deep-discount meccas, Nordstrom Rack, where the deals are usually so crazy good that I never fail to find something I wasn’t necessarily in the market for, wonder if I’ll ever use but always wind up wearing till it dissolves into a few random threads. Read more

Toms-The Row Fall 2011

Shoe In: TOMS New Euro Shoes By The Row

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Last week TOMS introduced its new pricy classics by The Row. Does this mean a Three For One program will follow?

Toms-The Row Fall 2011SHOPPING AROUND | I’ve been wearing the same pair of classic TOMS shoes for three years now, and I love them. I don’t know whether the alpargata, the Argentinean farmer/polo player’s shoe (a variation on the Spanish espadrille) that is the basis for the TOMS design has any arch support, but TOMS shoes have some, which makes them particularly comfortable—and a foot-healthy alternative to that other ubiquitous casual shoe, the flip flop. Read more

The Dukan, The Duchess & Me: Diet Like Royalty

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Kate Middleton followed the Dukan diet before her wedding. Now the book is also reduced.

Kate Middelton

 

LOSING IT | Losing weight wasn’t at the top of my To Do list. It hovered somewhere between sorting out the basement and organizing the family photos, promising to be just as much of a chore. Then recently, I looking around on Abebooks.com and I noticed that they are practically giving away copies of the The Dukan Diet.  Read more

Harbour-Air

Fun Summer Things You Can Only Do Here

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Three once-in-a-lifetime fun summer experiences you really don’t want to miss.

Harbour-AirFly—What could be more B.C. than a floatplane ride? It will give you a bird’s eye view of our unique topography and capture the essence of the place where we live. Harbour Air offers “flightseeing” tours over Vancouver (and Victoria too) that will supercharge your senses. Consider a city look ($99 per person, $289 per family), a fly-to-Victoria-then-ferry-back-to-Vancouver package ($179) or a Mail Run ($185). On a mail run, you ride along with the locals on regularly scheduled service flights from Vancouver Harbour to the villages of the Gulf Islands. This trip is different each time, depending on the day’s pick-up stops.

Harbour Air, 604-274-1277, www.harbour-air.com Read more

Dentist Examining Mouth

Dentists Go Off The Record On White Strips

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What dentists told us off the record about teeth whiteners + a product to think about.

Dentist Examining MouthCHEAP + EFFECTIVE | While our own jury of dentists gave a thumbs down to repeated, long term brushing with baking soda as a safe way to whiten teeth (CLICK HERE for our story), every one of them we spoke to on the topic sought fit to add—on the condition of anonymity—that white strips really were as effective a bleaching agent as the bleaching gel dentists provide with their custom-made application trays for in-home teeth bleaching kits. Read more

Ilia Pure Lip Care

Ilia Pure Lip Care Is Definitely The Bomb!

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Somewhere between a lipstick and a lip balm, this product looks rich and feels richer.

Ilia Pure Lip CareMONEY WELL SPENT | It’s not every day that Daily Candy, the U.S.-based email newsletter that reports on the latest of everything its three million trend-conscious female subscribers could possibly want to buy, anoints a barely launched product available in just 20 boutiques as the “Holy Grail.” But that’s exactly what happened last week when the online behemoth’s L.A. editor reported that Vancouver’s own Ilia Pure Lip Care was the be-all and end-all of lip conditioners. Read more

Rent Your Castle When You Take A Holiday

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Rent out your home/castle when you go away—you’ll get both a house sitter and extra cash for your vacation.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | One major perk of being married to a university professor is that we can go on extended summer holidays when school is out. Last summer, our family took off for Europe, spending time in London, Paris and the south of France as well as all over Sweden. It was an expensive vacation, but we were able to offset the cost by renting out our house. For two months, a quiet and incredibly tidy family from Oman enjoyed a holiday in our city while helping us bankroll our good times abroad. We’ve done this for several years now, and overall, the transactions have been smooth. There are a few sites on which you can list your home (do a search for vacation rentals or holiday homes – you’ll have no trouble finding them), but we like SabbaticalHomes.com. Read more

Batteries - iStock

Yes You Can! Recharge Your Alkaline Batteries

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Don’t even think about recycling: used AA and AAA disposable batteries can now be given new life.

Batteries - iStockIf you’re like me, you probably have a bunch of dead AA and AAA batteries rattling around in a drawer—possibly scattered among several drawers. You can’t throw them in the trash or even in the blue box. And even though since July 1 all household batteries (alkaline and rechargeable) can be recycled at almost 1,500 collection locations across B.C., you still have to take them there. Read more

Barbara Barry & Peter Block Architects

Stage Craft: How To Sell Your House Quick

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If you want to cash in on the current real estate boom by selling your house, here’s what you can do to sell it quick.

Barbara Barry & Peter Block ArchitectsTIPS & TRICKS | The real estate market is so white hot across Metro Vancouver right now that I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you were  thinking about selling your place—or knew at least six other people who are contemplating selling their homes, too. But when there’s a plethora of properties to choose from, how do you make your home the one shoppers need to buy? Read more