Story of the Day - Page 37 of 56

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

Dentists Go Off The Record On White Strips

July 20, 2011/0 Comments/in BEAUTY, Fashion & Beauty, HEALTH, View All Beauty Stories, View All Health Stories /by Editor

What dentists told us off the record about teeth whiteners + a product to think about.

CHEAP + EFFECTIVE | While our own jury of dentists gave a thumbs down to repeated, long term brushing with baking soda as a safe way to whiten teeth (CLICK HERE for our story), every one of them we spoke to on the topic sought fit to add—on the condition of anonymity—that white strips really were as effective a bleaching agent as the bleaching gel dentists provide with their custom-made application trays for in-home teeth bleaching kits. Read more

Ilia Pure Lip Care Is Definitely The Bomb!

July 19, 2011/0 Comments/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., CANADIAN CONTENT, Fashion & Beauty, Makeup, View All Beauty Stories /by Editor

Somewhere between a lipstick and a lip balm, this product looks rich and feels richer.

MONEY WELL SPENT | It’s not every day that Daily Candy, the U.S.-based email newsletter that reports on the latest of everything its three million trend-conscious female subscribers could possibly want to buy, anoints a barely launched product available in just 20 boutiques as the “Holy Grail.” But that’s exactly what happened last week when the online behemoth’s L.A. editor reported that Vancouver’s own Ilia Pure Lip Care was the be-all and end-all of lip conditioners. Read more

Rent Your Castle When You Take A Holiday

July 18, 2011/1 Comment/in TRAVEL, Travel, Travel Advisory, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

Rent out your home/castle when you go away—you’ll get both a house sitter and extra cash for your vacation.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | One major perk of being married to a university professor is that we can go on extended summer holidays when school is out. Last summer, our family took off for Europe, spending time in London, Paris and the south of France as well as all over Sweden. It was an expensive vacation, but we were able to offset the cost by renting out our house. For two months, a quiet and incredibly tidy family from Oman enjoyed a holiday in our city while helping us bankroll our good times abroad. We’ve done this for several years now, and overall, the transactions have been smooth. There are a few sites on which you can list your home (do a search for vacation rentals or holiday homes – you’ll have no trouble finding them), but we like SabbaticalHomes.com. Read more

Yes You Can! Recharge Your Alkaline Batteries

July 11, 2011/5 Comments/in Columns, Green Within Reason, HOME, Organizing, View All Home Stories /by Felicity Stone

Don’t even think about recycling: used AA and AAA disposable batteries can now be given new life.

If you’re like me, you probably have a bunch of dead AA and AAA batteries rattling around in a drawer—possibly scattered among several drawers. You can’t throw them in the trash or even in the blue box. And even though since July 1 all household batteries (alkaline and rechargeable) can be recycled at almost 1,500 collection locations across B.C., you still have to take them there. Read more

Stage Craft: How To Sell Your House Quick

July 8, 2011/1 Comment/in Home & Garden /by Editor

If you want to cash in on the current real estate boom by selling your house, here’s what you can do to sell it quick.

TIPS & TRICKS | The real estate market is so white hot across Metro Vancouver right now that I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you were thinking about selling your place—or knew at least six other people who are contemplating selling their homes, too. But when there’s a plethora of properties to choose from, how do you make your home the one shoppers need to buy? Read more

Dorie Greenspan’s Apple Cake Is Easy

July 7, 2011/1 Comment/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Taking over from Julia Child, Dorie Greenspan offers contemporary French cooking for those with more taste than time.

EASY & DELISH | In a world awash in cookbooks filled with pretty pictures and recipes that come up flat, Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan, published last fall, reads and eats like a classic—a book that will do for contemporary French cooking what Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking did for Cordon Bleu. Read more

Spa Like A Finn At Scandinave In Whistler

July 6, 2011/1 Comment/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Fitness & Health, Go Here Now, HEALTH, TRAVEL, View All Health Stories, View All Travel Stories, Well Being /by Editor

The eco-conscious Scandinave Spa at Whistler focuses on traditional treatments instead of gimmicks—and it costs less, too.

BACK TO BASICS | Say goodbye to spa therapies that only go skin deep. Thermo- therapy and hydrotherapy, practised throughout Europe, are showing up across the country. These therapies use extreme heat and profuse sweating to flush out deeply lodged toxins, relax muscles and improve heart health. 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.

Could Bosa Foods Be Our Italian Costco?

June 28, 2011/3 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Food & Drink /by Editor

Could Bosa Foods be the “Italian Costco?” In some ways it certainly is.

SHOPPING AROUND | In 1960, when my grandmother lived two blocks up from the original Bosa Foods on Victoria Drive, I remember being a curious five-year-old suburban kid standing in the store, totally in awe, wishing I had easy access to so many noodles back in Burnaby.

Bosa has been selling an unrivalled selection of imported Italian specialties since 1957, and in 2006 finally opened a spacious second store off Boundary Road near 1st Avenue. Called the “Italian Costco” by some, the new store has a very un-Costco-like Tuscan bell tower, but the description does fit the generous supply and variety of free samples—cheeses, biscotti, mini cannolis, pizza and breads—offered. Read more