Angelina Jolie, eyeliner

The Perfect Eyeliner Pencil + how To Use It

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Allison Emery shares her secret to applying perfect eyeliner, plus picks the ideal product to pull it off.

Angelina Jolie, eyelinerIf I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it dozens of times: “My eyeliner smudges all over my face and by the end of the day I look like a raccoon.” These women have confessed to me that they would love to be able to use an eye pencil but are intimidated by the application or worried that they won’t be able to make a straight line. Fear the eye pencil no longer! I’m going to let you in on a secret to applying an eye pencil:

STOP—trying to draw the perfect line.
START—applying the pencil in the centre of the upper lash line. Starting the line at the centre of the lash line as opposed to the outer or inner corner allows you complete control over how thick you want your line to be, and it’s much easier to ensure symmetry. Read more

Icebreaker Bliss Hood

Icebreaker TouchLab In Vancouver

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Made from nature’s perfect fibre, Icebreaker wool clothing is so versatile and long-wearing that you don’t need to buy a lot.

Icebreaker Bliss HoodGerman designer Dieter Rams, former head designer at Braun, is known not only for the stylish yet practical appliances he conceived but also for his 10 principles of good design (Good design is innovative, makes a product useful, is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last detail, is environmentally friendly and is as little design as possible).

All of these apply toNew Zealand Icebreaker clothing, now available at the company’s first Vancouver TouchLab store, which opened last week. The garments are made of an ingenious merino wool fabric that is easy care, lightweight and quick drying like synthetics but also breathable, odour resistant and biodegradable. Unlike cotton, it does not hold moisture. Read more

Easy Vegan, Simple Recipes For Healthy Eating

The Vegans Are Coming: What To Serve

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How to better serve the new wave of vegans coming soon to your table.

Easy Vegan, Simple Recipes For Healthy EatingThis year you may find more vegans among your dinner guests. Last summer the United Nations advised that diets heavy in meat and dairy products are not sustainable, and animal-based agriculture harms ecosystems even more than the use of fossil fuels.

Yikes! A lacto-ovo vegetarian all my adult life, even I find the prospect of cutting eggs and dairy as well as meat from my menu daunting. Although some recipes in the cookbooks I use regularly are vegan, most call for some kind of eggs or dairy: cheese, egg noodles, yogurt, cream. Read more

bob kronbauer, buntzen lake - katie cubitt

Bob Kronbauer’s Fave 5 Vancouver Haunts

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Internet maven Bob Kronbauer of the award-winning website Vancouver Is Awesome spreads some of that awesomeness around.

bob kronbauer, buntzen lake - katie cubittHe’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere: Bob Kronbauer, founder and chief booster and bottle washer at the delightfully addictive two-year-old website Vancouver Is Awesome (VIA was recently voted the best local blog of 2010 by Georgia Straight readers), is a man on a mission to introduce residents and visitors to the fresh, cool and ephemeral things that make our region the sweet place to live that it is.

When he’s not overseeing a team of 20-plus pro bono editors and contributors (this is a not-for-profit operation) who produce daily features on a smorgasbord of tasty local topics mainly of the arts and culture variety, Bob somehow finds time to involve VIA in an inordinate number of outside projects, either partnering with organizations or going solo to work on festivals, events and exhibits.

And in addition to all this, he has found a few minutes to write for Frugalbits. O Lucky Us!

Bob Kronbauer’s 5 five free, cheap or worth it things to see, do or buy in Vancouver (or beyond) Read more

Chef John Bishop’s Top Shops & Nosheries

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Celebrated Chef John Bishop shares his favourite shops and nosheries (and what to order) on Vancouver’s Westside.

Regional, seasonal cuisine made with fresh, organic, local ingredients is common- place at many restaurants in Vancouver today, but this notion was revolutionary in Vancouver in 1985 when John Bishop opened the casually elegant restaurant that bears his name on 4th Avenue.

Consistently listed among restaurant guidebooks as one of the city’s top fine dining eateries, award-winning Bishop’s seasonal menus continue to reflect Chef Bishop’s original commitment to sustainable ingredients and the growers who produce them, a dedication also affirmed in his now-classic 2002 documentary, Deconstructing Supper, that investigates food safety in the age of GMOs (genetically modified foods) and industrial agriculture.

This past year, John Bishop received the first-ever Governor Generals’ award for culinary arts, plus a coveted Edna. The Edna, a Canadian Culinary Book Award, is a lifetime achievement prize given to someone who has contributed significantly to the promotion of regional cuisine In Canada.

John Bishop’s 5 free, cheap or worth it things to see, do or buy in Vancouver Read more
Kraft Paper Christmas Wrap

Make Your Own Kraft Paper Gift Wrap

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Simple white kraft paper offers infinite wrapping possibilities. Here are three to get you started.

Kraft Paper Christmas WrapWhite kraft paper, the kind that comes in big rolls from art supply stores, is the perfect blank canvas to use for wrapping  gifts. I like it plain, dressed up with beautiful ribbon topped off with greenery such as sprigs of holly or bits of twig. I also like it decorated in the ways I’ve shown here. Read more

Live, Potted Christmas Tree - Clinton Hussey

Super Sources For Eco- Friendly Christmas Trees

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A symbol of life after winter, the greenest tree is real, fresh, local and even organic.

Live, Potted Christmas Tree - Clinton HusseyLast year in an effort to simplify my life, I looked into buying an artificial Christmas tree, preferably one that came predecorated and opened and shut like an umbrella: I could pop it up before Christmas, then collapse and store it till next year. Then I discovered that the whole point of a Christmas tree is to bring evergreen trees or branches indoors as reminder that winter will eventually end and the world will turn green again.

Real Christmas trees are green in more than colour as they are a renewable crop and often grown on land unsuitable for growing much else. And like any crop, there are different shades of green.

3 Ways To Get A Real Green Christmas Tree Read more
Martin Tessler

Martin Tessler Views, Noshes and Shops YVR

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Photographer Martin Tessler is our guy with an eye for what to see, eat and buy in fair and rainy Vancouver.

Martin TesslerA favourite among Canada’s top shelter magazine editors and art directors as well as talented architects and interior designers from coast to coast, Vancouver photographer Martin Tessler is known for exploiting the most dramatic, least apparent angles of the buildings, rooms and gardens he shoots.

Tessler recently won both gold and silver honours at Canada’s National Magazine Awards and includes among his current high-profile assignments Douglas Coupland’s home and James Franco’s portrait for The New York Times. Oh, and he also covered Canadian Architect with Bob Rennie’s private and uber cool Wing Sang [art] Gallery located on Pender Street. Read more

Gift-Wrap That’s Easy, Quick And Reusable

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Forget gift paper and ribbon, traditional Japanese wrapping cloth is easy, quick and reusable.

WASTE NOT | The first Christmas morning my husband spent with my family was a culture shock. Before we opened our presents, my mother handed each of us a knife, which we used to carefully slit the adhesive tape instead of ripping the paper off in the mad frenzy my husband was used to. When all the presents had been opened, my mother collected and folded the paper to save until the following year. We would no more have thought of throwing it out than tossing the Christmas ornaments after dismantling the tree. Read more

Kelly Deck

Kelly Deck’s Top Sources For Home Decor & More

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Top Vancouver interior designer and media personality Kelly Deck shares great + affordable sources for stylish things for your home.

Kelly DeckKelly Deck has immersed herself in the spirit and lifestyle of the West Coast design community. When she opened her interior décor boutique on Vancouver’s Main Street in 2002, she began a successful foray into homes and backyards, developing a design presence that champions the integrity of coast living and the importance of design.

Now the director of Kelly Deck Design in beachside Kitsilano, her full-service interior design firm specializes in private residences. Her ideas have gained national reach through her Globe and Mail column The West Coast Way; her HGTV series, Take It Outside; and her appearances on Urban Rush, CityLine TV and Breakfast Television.

Kelly Deck’s 5 free, cheap or worth it things to see, do or buy in Vancouver Read more