FIVE-MINUTE YOGA | Massaging the soles of the feet loosens the starting point of a network of connective tissue that runs up the back of your body to the crown of your head. Rolling a tennis ball under each foot for just five minutes a day will lead to more relaxed feet and flexible hamstrings. Read more
EASY & DELISH | In the annals of dinner party desserts that look so impressive everyone assumes they must be horribly complicated to make, the chocolate soufflé is right up there. To begin with, it’s a soufflé for gawd sakes, and everyone knows that making any sort of soufflé can be a recipe for disaster. Read more
CREATIVE SOLUTION | I first spotted brilliant orange Chinese lanterns fitted over mini-lights on an organically decorated Christmas tree. This is one way to use them for sure, though I like them better when they are used to create an original Thanksgiving or Halloween display. I love them threaded through a tangle of branches on the front porch or on top of the mantel or on a dinner table. I also love mini-lanterns strung around doorways for a punch of spot-on seasonal colour. Read more
MAKE ME SCREAM | There are plenty of public opportunities to get your BOO! on this week, including houses so haunted they’ll scare the bejesus out of you (Dunbar Haunted House and Fright Nights At Playland are among our favourite scariest). But I’m happy to report that my all-time personal favourite eerie Halloween activity is the torch-lit Parade of Lost Souls Secret Souls Walk, which takes place on Saturday, October 27th, at a mysterious locale somewhere among the back alleys, streets and open spaces around the Commercial Drive area. Read more
Design Wise | If you love beautiful gardens and find yourself near Robson and Georgia this evening with an hour so to spare, you might want to walk over to UBC Robson Square where international superstar garden designer Andrea Cochran will give a free lecture at 7 p.m. Read more
CULT FASHION ALERT | I’m a grown-up woman with grown-up kids and I can’t believe I just called my local mall to ask about the protocol for camping outside overnight. Because that’s exactly what I’ll need to do if I expect to acquire a single piece of the—“wonderfully weird and wearable,” to quote WWD—clothing from Maison Martin Margiela debuted at select H&M stores November 2012.
CULT SHOPPING ALERT | It’s no secret Frugalbits loves Uniqlo; we’ve spilled enough digital ink to prove it. The Japanese fashion behemoth has captured our hearts with inexpensive, well-made fashion staples such as cashmere sweaters in a dazzling colours for $50 to $89 (take that, J. Crew), barely there ultralight down sweaters and coats for $50 to $90 (take that, Patagonia) and crisply executed men’s long sleeve dress shirts for $30 (take that, Brooks Brothers). Read more
FREE & EASY | Whether it’s branches in vases or individual leaves strewn along a dining table or on top of a napkin or plate, nothing looks more striking than nature brought indoors and left in its beautiful, natural state. Around here, we subscribe to a natural, casual approach when it comes to arranging botanical materials, and a less is more strategy for tabletop décor. Read more
BIG DEAL | On the hunt for inexpensive cashmere, I trekked out to Costco last month to see whether their most recent shipment of Kirkland brand cashmere sweaters included the V-neck version in navy I’d been pining for. Sadly, it didn’t, and I was resigned to returning home without new apparel when I spotted a display table piled high with shockingly inexpensive V-neck sweaters in 100 percent merino wool. Read more
QUICK & DELISH | Though no one seems to know exactly where the American phrase “easy as pie” originated, it appears to have nothing to do with actually making pie—unless you’re making a rustic pie like the one pictured here, which, with minimal practice, really can be oven ready in minutes. Read more