Culture & Leisure Archives - Page 5 of 6

Frugalbits For The Win!!

September 17, 2011/2 Comments/in Culture & Leisure /by Editor

With national nominations for both best online-only magazine and best web design at the 2011 Canadian Online Publishing Awards, everyone in our trenches feels like we’ve already received a prize.

GRATEFUL | This may sound cornball, but being a finalist in two categories at the upcoming 2011 Canadian Online Publishing Awards—best online-only magazine and best web design (consumer division)—already feels like a win to me. Positive national recognition at whatever level is a super confidence booster, not to mention a bonus for business. Read more

Repro Paintings - Photo By Calvin Whitehurst

Throw A Fab Party With Dollar Store Supplies

August 22, 2011/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Entertaining, FOOD, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Here’s how to throw a fabulous end-of-summer “arty party” with supplies from your friendly Dollar Giant.

DOLLAR STORE DAYS | I believe there’s an artist in everyone and I’m throwing an end-of-summer party to prove it. I’m inviting a close group of friends —many of whom have never picked up a paintbrush —to my first “arty party.” We’ll gather in a room with a raft of art supplies and let our imaginations take a walk on the wild side. We may unleash our inner Picassos, our native Carrs, our chaotic Pollocks (well, maybe paint-throwing Pollocks will get to create on the back lawn). Read more

Fun Summer Things You Can Only Do Here

July 21, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure, Go Here Now, TRAVEL, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

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

Fly—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

Frugalbits Hearts Canada: Here’s Why

July 1, 2011/1 Comment/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure /by Editor

Happy birthday to our home & native land.

How do we love Canada? Let us count the ways—or, better yet, let’s have a poet do it for us!! Check out this sweet video tribute on Frugalbits TV.

Cheaper Show’s Killer Art Sale Is On June 25

June 3, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure /by Editor

How to walk out of Vancouver’s upcoming coolest, most egalitarian and original art sale with a killer (dirt cheap) piece of art.

CHEAP IS THE WORD | Art auctions attended by moneyed insiders have their place, and public institutions like the Vancouver Art Gallery rely on donated art and the proceeds of their sale to pay for future programming everyone will enjoy. But thinking about them makes us grateful for the infinitely more populist Cheaper Show, taking place June 25. It’s easily the coolest, most egalitarian and original (not to mention cheapest) art-buying event in Vancouver. Read more

Taking {Card} Stock

April 6, 2011/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure /by Editor

It’s not too late to establish the tradition of sending out Easter greetings—particularly when they’re free!

FREE IS GOOD | We don’t know a lot of people who send out Easter or Passover cards to everyone they know the way they might do for holidays such as Christmas or Valentine’s day, but when cute easy-to-send-out greetings are available online for free, why wouldn’t you do it. Read more

Recipe For Happiness: Cooking At Dirty Apron

April 4, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure, Food & Drink /by Editor

Put your money where your mouth is—take a hands-on cooking class at the Dirty Apron Cooking School.

MONEY WELL SPENT | According to psychological research reported on recently in The New York Times, “spending money for an experience—concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco—produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.” Findings further suggest that the happiness accrued by spending money on leisure activities is amplified when the experience is shared with someone else.

Which brings us to our new favourite experiential “happiness place,” the Dirty Apron Cooking School. Everyone we know who has taken one of their four-hour hands-on cooking classes raves about it. Read more

How To Throw A Last Minute Oscars Party

February 5, 2011/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Food Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

How to throw a last-minute, stress-free Academy Awards party that everyone even the host will enjoy.

EASY DOES IT | Pamela Anderson, one of Frugalbits’ favourite food writers, says people should stop entertaining and “have people over” instead. “Having people over,” says Anderson, is about coming together casually with good pals and enthusiastic acquaintances. It’s about serving uncomplicated food and having no other expectation for an evening other than that it be fun. The Oscars this Sunday is the perfect “having people over” occasion. No worries that today’s Thursday and you’ve only got four days to get your event together. We started planning our Oscar party yesterday, and you’re welcome to follow our game plan and our menu.

Frugalbits Oscar Party Day-By-Day Game Plan Read more

TV + Internet: Thinking Inside The Boxee Box

January 18, 2011/4 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

This digital receiver provides a dead easy way to stream FREE Internet content—in glorious HD—on your big screen TV.

SHOPPING AROUND | When Apple TV relaunched last fall, I rushed out and got one and hooked it up to my television with an HDMI cable so I could gain easy, seamless access to Netflix and whatever other premium—a.k.a. paid for—audio/video content ITunes can persuade me to purchase from their online emporium. Now I’m wondering whether a Boxee Box would have been the smarter buy.

What Is Boxee Box? Read more

Put A Little Zip.ca In Your Movie Night

October 1, 2010/2 Comments/in Culture & Leisure /by carolannrule

With bricks-n-mortar video stores in steady decline, this movies-by-mail company is a solid alternative.

SPEND SMART | With Blockbuster gone and Netflix now in Canada but without new releases, what’s the best, most expedient, well-priced yet legal way to get both new releases and back-catalogue movies these days?

Though mom-n-pop video stores are one option, they are getting fewer and farther between. Another is getting movies by mail, and while this service lacks the instant gratification of streaming offered by Netflix, once you set up an account and get into the rhythm of the system, you can have batches of the movies you want to watch coming in and out of your house on a regular basis. Read more