Make me a simple, unaffected cake (or three) decorated with nature’s own ornamentation.
EASY & AWESOME | In food TV land, cake decorating has been out of control since 2006 when “Ace of Cakes” débuted on the Food Network. The runaway success of this reality program inspired legions of pastry chefs and bakers across North America to seek TV fame by constructing crazy, teetering cakes—the more outrageous the better—on shows such as “Cake Boss,” “Wedding Cake Wars” and “Ultimate Cake Off.”
All of this excess is enough to make anyone pine for plain cake, simply iced and decorated naturally with real wildflowers and herbs. Here are three of our favourite cakes topped in this beautiful, natural way. Read more
The Awesome Baggu
/3 Comments/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., FASHION, FOOD, Goods & Services, HOME, Organizing, Shops & Shopping, View All Fashion Stories, View All Food Stories, View All Home Stories /by EditorWhy I’m replacing my cache of nonwoven polypropylene shopping bags with ripstop models from Baggu.
BUY RIGHT | It was cleanup month around here so I tackled the buildup of shopping bags that had threatened to devour my closet. I don’t know how it happened, but over the past two years I’d managed to accumulate around 50 reusable polyester and nonwoven polypropylene “billboard shoppers” (so called because they often display a company logo) in every size imaginable. These shoppers are awkward and bulky even when folded and gang-bagged, and they easily turn into an unwieldy space-stealing mess when stashed in the back of a car or cupboard.
To add insult to injury, nonwoven polypropylene bags are no better for the environment than those disposable plastic bags they’ve come to replace. Read more
How To Decorate Cakes With Real Flowers
/3 Comments/in Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, View All Food Stories /by EditorMake me a simple, unaffected cake (or three) decorated with nature’s own ornamentation.
EASY & AWESOME | In food TV land, cake decorating has been out of control since 2006 when “Ace of Cakes” débuted on the Food Network. The runaway success of this reality program inspired legions of pastry chefs and bakers across North America to seek TV fame by constructing crazy, teetering cakes—the more outrageous the better—on shows such as “Cake Boss,” “Wedding Cake Wars” and “Ultimate Cake Off.”
All of this excess is enough to make anyone pine for plain cake, simply iced and decorated naturally with real wildflowers and herbs. Here are three of our favourite cakes topped in this beautiful, natural way. Read more
Five Tips For Returning Store Purchases
/0 Comments/in FASHION, Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, SAVE MONEY, Shops & Shopping, View All Fashion Stories, View All How-To Stories /by EditorWhat you need to know about taking purchases that don’t work out back to the store where you got them.
SHOPPING SMART | It takes me a long time to make up my mind about buying something so I have always tended to take things home, think about them and then return them once I’m sure they’re not right for me. I do this even more since I started shopping at stores such as T.J. Maxx and Winners where there may be only one of something so it’s best to grab it while you can.
Here’s what I’ve learned about returning merchandise back to the store where you bought it. Read more
Where To Buy V-Day Roses Right Now
/1 Comment/in Culture & Leisure, HOLIDAY /by EditorOf all the quality roses available for Valentine’s Day, the one’s at Whole Foods really are bargain priced.
PRICE CHECK | Just like at Christmas when they sold fresh, beautifully proportioned eight-to nine-foot-tall Noble fir trees for only $59, Whole Foods markets are offering a killer botanical special for Valentine’s Day: long stem roses at a particularly persuasive price. Read more
We’re All Heart: Find Free Valentines Here
/1 Comment/in Culture & Leisure, HOLIDAY /by EditorThis year, make it personal with downloadable and DIY valentine cards to give—and eat. (FREE, PRINTABLE VALENTINES + RECIPE)
FREE & EASY | Lucky in location, I live in one of several provinces in Canada that celebrates Family Day, a statutory holiday dedicated to promoting family life, on the second Monday in February rather than the third as some other provinces do. Having an extra day off just before Valentine’s Day means my kids and I have more time to make valentine cards to hand out at school and the heart-shaped cookie notes we share with one another. Read more
4 Fab Bookcases That Take Up Little Room
/0 Comments/in DECOR & DESIGN, HOME, Home & Garden, Organizing, View All Home Stories /by EditorShort on floor space? Here are four fabulous bookcases that take up very little room.
DESIGN WISE | Those of us living in condos and townhomes are forever on the lookout for ways to save on space. One way to do this where books are concerned is to store them horizontally in a vertical bookcase that climbs up the wall rather than in one with a more conventional shape that gobbles up a larger floor area.
Vertical spine book towers can hold lots of books in a vertical stack. Here are four of our favourite models. Read more
Get Rid Of Stinky Washer Once & For All
/17 Comments/in Cleaning & Maintenance, HOME, Home & Garden, View All Home Stories /by EditorWhat you need to know about eliminating the disgusting smell in your front-load washing machine.
THE FIX | Stink happens. If you have one of those pricey front-load washing machines and do not micromanage its maintenance, the chances are great that the tub will develop a foul odour and your freshly washed clothes will eventually take on the sickly sweet smell of pond scum. Read more
Is Consumer Choice Award A Gimmick?
/7 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOME, View All Home Stories /by EditorA sloppy house-cleaning job by The Maids prompted a look at the Consumer Choice Award, a marketing-driven awards program.
CONSUMER BE AWARE | With company coming over the holidays, I did what I do every year and gave myself an early Christmas present by hiring a cleaning service to power scrub my house. In the past, I’ve used Molly Maid, but this year I waited too late to book them and wound up looking for an alternative on the Internet, which is how I discovered The Maids. Read more
It’s Easy To Make Crispy Krispy Chips
/3 Comments/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, FOOD, Food & Drink, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by EditorWhy would you ever buy prepared kale chips when you can easily bake up a batch of this tasty snack in your own kitchen?
EASY & DELISH | Kale chips are the currently cool snack among the super health conscious (kale is a seriously high in beta carotene and vitamins A and K). Snack manufacturers such as Rhythm Superfoods and Kaia Foods (both sold at Whole Foods) have jumped on board to churn out very small packages of very pricey dehydrated kale chips that are, in my estimation, so overseasoned with flavours like mustard, cheese and chocolate that you’d think their producers were trying to disguise the true taste of this big leafy green.
The best kale chips are only lightly seasoned so the subtle yet distinct flavour of the vegetable is equally present as any seasoning. The best kale chips are the ones you bake yourself, which you can easily do in fewer than 15 minutes.
Here’s how. Read more
Use Marine Paint To Make Old Vases New
/2 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, Home & Garden, View All Home Stories /by EditorAdd rich colour to plain, old clear glass vases by using this simple painting technique.
DO IT YOURSELF | Clear glass vases are the classic and obvious choice for displaying flowers and branches, which is why most of us have probably collected a few extra ones over the years. Many of these are no doubt tucked away in the dark reaches of rarely opened cupboards. Why not bring these dusty specimens back into the light and turn them into something different and original by painting their insides with coloured enamel.
This technique has been a design trick for years on sheet glass (to create lustrous walls) or as ornamental glass insets in furniture. Read more