Culture & Leisure Archives

Why You Want To Work In 20-Minute Spurts

July 30, 2014/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, SAVE EFFORT, SAVE ENERGY, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Everything in your daily life—be it a physical or mental activity—can be vastly improved by working in 20-minute spurts.

WORK SMARTER | While there is proven science behind the idea that just 20 minutes of the right kind of daily physical activity leads to a longer, healthier life (read Gretchen Reynolds’s The First 20 Minutes, or an article on the book in the NYT), there’s no specific science I know of linking 20-minute chunks of mental focus to greater effectiveness at work. And yet I’m living proof that this is the case. Read more

Baby Cakes: Hosting A Gender Reveal Party

February 3, 2014/3 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Entertaining, FOOD, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Food Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Here’s a fun and memorable way expectant parents are revealing the gender of their baby.

SNEAK PEEK | Our daughter Alexis got married last spring, and now she and her husband Dave (pictured here on their wedding day) are expecting a baby. Last week, they went for their 20-week ultrasound. This imaging technique is used five months into a pregnancy to determine whether a fetus is developing normally. At 20 weeks, it can also detect whether the baby is a boy or a girl—if the gender is visible, of course.

Lexi and Dave wanted to know the sex of their baby. And they wanted to share the experience of finding out what it is with members of their immediate family, so this past weekend we had what’s called a gender reveal party at our house.

Here’s what Lexi and Dave did to ensure the baby’s gender was kept under wraps (and unknown even to them) until the appropriate moment.

Get All Your Fave Mags For Just $10 A Month

January 9, 2014/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure /by Editor

If you love popular newsstand magazines and own an IPad, Android or Windows device, then the Next Issue app is going to be right up your alley.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT | As someone who is at this very moment staring at a mile-high years-in-the-making pile of magazines that needs to be schlepped to the dump, I look forward to switching from print publications to digital ones. Read more

PICTURE THIS

December 9, 2013/0 Comments/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Culture & Leisure, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, TRAVEL, View All How-To Stories, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

This is how you take an unforgettable Photo: 228 ideas, tips and secrets for taking instantly better photos.

WHAT TO GIVE | Are you casting around for an inexpensive gift for someone you don’t know all that well, or for someone you do know well but, for whatever reason, everything you can think of to give that person doesn’t feel like a fit?

You won’t go wrong by shooting them a copy of esteemed American photographer George Lange’s The Unforgettable Photograph, written with the assistance of journalist and onetime Vancouverite Scott Mowbray. Everyone is snap happy these days—it’s not for nothing that “selfie” was named Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year for 2013—and most of what is being shot would be instantly improved by adopting any of the 228 dead easy non-technical suggestions put forward in this meaty $6 picture book.

Here are three favourite takeaways from my now dog-eared copy. Read more

Use A Work-Back Sheet To Get Stuff Done

November 28, 2013/6 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Holiday, HOLIDAY, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Take the stress out of planning any event with this tool used by event planning pros. (WORKSHEET)

FREE WORKSHEET | The holiday season will never be as carefree for adults as it is for kids—we have too much work to do behind the scenes—but this year why not make things easier on yourself by using a simplified version of a “work-back schedule,” a tool employed by event-planning pros, to get everything done in a less hurried, more orderly and enjoyable manner. Read more

Our Top 3 Printable Holiday Gift Tags

November 1, 2013/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Holiday, HOLIDAY /by Editor

If you ever buy another gift tag, you will be wasting money. Here are a few of our favourites among the hundreds of printable ones you can find on the internet.

FREE & EASY | While most of us put thought, time and money into the paper and ribbon we use to wrap Christmas presents, gift tags are apt to receive only brief and unsympathetic treatment. My brother, for example, doesn’t bother with tags at all, preferring instead to use a Sharpie to scrawl the recipient’s name across the top of his offerings. I’ll cut him the tiniest amount of slack given he’s an overworked business exec with a partner who’s not into Christmas, but the rest of us have no excuse for going such a lacklustre route with so many gorgeous, printable gift tags available for free on the internet. Here are three of our favourites, plus tips on using printable tags effectively. Read more

Pink Petal Dust On Pumpkins-Such Pretty Things

Where To Find Pink Pumpkins Right Now

October 24, 2013/2 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, HOLIDAY /by Editor

Whoever said pink and orange never look good together hasn’t seen what devotees have done to the humble Halloween pumpkin.

TRENDING NOW | While we’re not about to completely write off the orange jack-o‘-lantern as the most recognizable symbol for Halloween, we have noticed that pink pumpkins in a variety of permutations are popping up everywhere. Read more

Wayne Ngan Ceramics On Sale

October 1, 2013/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure /by Editor

Here’s your chance to acquire older works—some priced as low as $40—by Wayne Ngan, one of Canada’s most distinguished ceramic artists.

SALE ALERT | (25-10-2013) If there were such a thing as ceramic arts royalty in Canada, Wayne Ngan, just named the recipient of the 2013 British Columbia Creative Achievement Award of Distinction, would be considered a crowned head. Not that the much-honoured Ngan, who for the past several decades has lived and worked on coolly bohemian Hornby Island, would remotely approve of the moniker. He’s way too humble—not to mention too busy firing beautiful presentation pots in the Sung-dynasty-inspired kiln in his studio, or casting large-scale bronze sculptures in China—to spend time thinking about things like that. Read more

Get Better Photos With Your Digital Camera

July 25, 2013/4 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, TRAVEL, Travel Advisory, View All How-To Stories, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

This surprisingly inexpensive introductory class will teach you how to take much better pictures with your digital camera.

SUPER VALUE | There’s no way my snaps will ever match the cinematographic style of Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham (featured above) or Ian Wallace, three stellar members of the internationally acclaimed “Vancouver School” of photography, but recently I learned how to get a better than average shot with my compact digital camera. For the surprisingly low price of just $25, I received two hours of solid instruction in alternatives to Automatic Mode, the most commonly used setting (and my former personal fave) on the mode dial of digital cameras. Read more

See Canada’s Wonders On FlyOver Canada

July 5, 2013/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure, Go Here Now, TRAVEL, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

See all of Canada’s natural wonders on FlyOver Canada’s spectacular virtual flight ride.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | I flew across Canada the other day. It took a total of 30 minutes to travel from coast to coast. For $20 dollars I dipped, dove and soared in an aerial dance that began in Newfoundland’s surreal Iceberg Alley and ended in the Northwest Territories, where glowing, auroral streamers swirled in the northern light. Along the way, I flew into the misty middle of Niagara Falls, over the top of the astounding cirque glaciers found along ridge crests in the Rockies, and through a procession of other breathtaking Canadian landscapes. Read more