Diane von Furstenberg’s new collection for wee-to-tween girls are now at two Gap locations in Metro Vancouver.
NEW NOW NEXT | If the economic downturn in the U.S. has proven anything, it’s that diffusion collections, clothing lines by top fashion designers for less-expensive off-the-rack shops, are good for business. Witness the recent mad rush to purchase Marni’s collection at H&M or the near panic buying that ensued when Missoni for Target launched last September.
With all the advanced hype, Diane von Furstenberg’s cute-as-a-button collection for wee-to-tween girls, which launches North America-wide today—and will be available for purchase at 8 a.m. (yes, that early—they promise coffee and sweets!) at the Gap in Park Royal and Oakridge Centre—will undoubtedly trigger a similar outbreak of shopping fever. Read more
Top Universities Offer Courses For Free
/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW /by EditorCrazy about learning but not about the costs of higher education? Some of the world’s top universities offer their courses online—for free.
FREE IS GOOD | If the best things in life are free, what’s the deal with university tuition? In B.C. the average tuition fee has increased 96 percent in the past five years.
As it happens, you can get a university education without paying a cent, and what’s more, from top-flight institutions like MIT, Stanford and Cambridge. As long as you’re more interested in learning than in obtaining a formal degree, many universities provide courses and lectures online for free. Read more
DVF’s Fashions For Girls Are At The Gap
/0 Comments/in Diffusion Collections, Fashion & Beauty /by EditorDiane von Furstenberg’s new collection for wee-to-tween girls are now at two Gap locations in Metro Vancouver.
NEW NOW NEXT | If the economic downturn in the U.S. has proven anything, it’s that diffusion collections, clothing lines by top fashion designers for less-expensive off-the-rack shops, are good for business. Witness the recent mad rush to purchase Marni’s collection at H&M or the near panic buying that ensued when Missoni for Target launched last September.
With all the advanced hype, Diane von Furstenberg’s cute-as-a-button collection for wee-to-tween girls, which launches North America-wide today—and will be available for purchase at 8 a.m. (yes, that early—they promise coffee and sweets!) at the Gap in Park Royal and Oakridge Centre—will undoubtedly trigger a similar outbreak of shopping fever. Read more
How & Where To Buy An Engagement Ring
/7 Comments/in Fashion & Beauty, Shops & Shopping, Styling Tips, View All Fashion Stories /by EditorHere’s the formula for buying a diamond engagement ring—and—where to get maximum bling for your buck.
SHOPPING AROUND | We like to think that it isn’t the size of a diamond engagement ring that matters—but let’s face it, that’s what most people notice first. Still, what really draws you to a diamond and holds your attention is its visual performance—the brilliant, sharp flashes of multicoloured light that give it “life” when it’s moved. This has nothing to do with a diamond’s size and everything to do with its cut and clarity. Read more
You’ll Scream For This: 5-Minute Ice Cream
/2 Comments/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by EditorCaren McSherry whips up the yummiest ice cream ever in under 5 minutes—flat!
EASY & DELISH | Talk about fingers in pies. Celebrity chef Caren McSherry is one of the hardest-working (and most upbeat) women in the food business in Vancouver. Not only is she hands-on at her cooking school, the longest-running private school of its type in the country, but she also runs the Gourmet Warehouse, her large specialty store on East Hastings Street that sells thousands of competitively priced gourmet food items and housewares to appreciative local foodies. Then there are her media gigs: weekly columnist for TV Guide magazine, twice monthly appearances on Global TV’s Saturday morning news and once a month on Bill Good’s radio talkfest. Oh, and there are the cookbooks. Read more
Tame Your Paper Tiger With Neat Receipts
/8 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOME, Organizing, View All Home Stories /by EditorIf piles of cash receipts make you feel trapped like a circus cat come tax time, this scanning device could bring relief.
SAVE TIME | Everyone has their own idea of Hell On Earth, but sorting a year’s worth of scrunched up cash receipts spilling out of plastic bags and bureau drawers is a one-way trip to bookkeeping-Hades for pretty much anyone.
I’ve tried various organizing and recording methods, but my favourite is NeatReceipts, a mini “scanalizer” that reads, records and analyzes data from both sales receipts and business cards. It also allows you to print out copies with multiple receipts on a page. Read more
Why You Want To Avoid Left Hand Turns
/0 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by EditorWith gas prices soaring, here’s a surprising, absolutely free way to economize.
SAVE MONEY & TIME | Is the high and climbing price of gasoline weighing on your mind? On Saturday, the Vancouver Sun reported that over the past week the price of gas across Metro Vancouver jumped to $1.40 a litre and that locals should brace for increases as high as $1.60 a litre heading into summer (CLICK HERE for the story). Last spring The New York Times ran a practical piece on ways to save on gas with reporter Michelle Higgins recommending, among other things, that drivers download an app like GasBuddy.com to help them find cheap gas while on the road (locally try online at VancouverGasPrices.com); that they fill up with regular instead of premium; and that they check to make sure their tire pressure is right (CLICK HERE for the story).
Fabulous as Higgins’s 13 suggestions are, she neglected to mention a proven way to economize on fuel, save on time spent in traffic and reduce injuries to drivers and passengers: Avoid turning left. Read more
Marshmallows Are Super Easy To Make
/0 Comments/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by EditorGourmet marshmallows are sooo easy to make and sooo damn addictive.
EASY & DELISH | Made-from-scratch marshmallows are having a moment. That’s the headline that jumped out at me last month in T, the New York Times style magazine. This may be what T’s editors think, but actually, among foodies, fresh-made marshmallows have been enjoying a moment since 2008, which is around the time Vancouver’s Butter Baked Goods began making and marketing its delectable gourmet marshmallows ($7.99 for 10) to an appreciative audience—and famous food bloggers like Deb Perelman of smittenkitchen.com could be found whipping up marshmallows and visually documenting the process on their websites. Read more
Why You Want A Password Manager
/4 Comments/in Goods & Services, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All How-To Stories /by Editorç with this dead-simple password manager.
LIFESAVER | Everyone has their own definition of personal insanity. Mine is wasting colossal amounts of time trying to log in to all the Internet stuff—websites, social networking platforms, and software applications, whatever—I subscribe to. Experts warn us to mix up passwords to keep hackers at bay, but that’s created a nightmare for me, and plenty of embarrassing moments when I’ve needed to access key information quickly and couldn’t do it. Read more
2 Top Beauty Box Services In Canada
/14 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Fashion & Beauty, Skin & Body Care, View All Beauty Stories /by EditorSubscribe to an inexpensive beauty box service to receive monthly packages in the mail filled with top products geared to your specific needs.
CHEAP & CHIC | I have been using the same brand moisturizer for over 10 years. Ditto eyeliner, mascara and toner. The facial cleanser I use? It’s been my staple since high school. It’s not that I’m not curious about other beauty products or uninterested in new things, but I am overwhelmed by what’s available these days. I need my own personal beauty editor, someone to curate the beauty aisles and find the best products for me. This is why I love the latest idea in e-commerce: the subscription beauty box. Read more
How To Stop Getting The Yellow Pages
/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Goods & Services, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by EditorIf unwanted telephone directories go straight to your recycling bag, here’s how to opt out of receiving them.
WASTE NOT | According to a 2010 Globe and Mail article, plenty of people still let their fingers do the walking through the physical pages of a hard copy version of the Yellow Pages. Funny, I don’t know even one of them. Everyone I know from 8 to 80 has switched to the computer to find the telephone numbers of their favourite businesses. For me, the Yellow Pages has become a shelf-grabbing dinosaur, and I cannot remember the last time I leafed through my copy—oh wait, yes I can. It was last week after two copies of the latest tome arrived on my doorstep and I picked up one them to look for a way to opt out. Read more