Story of the Day - Page 48 of 56

Chris Greenawalt Trespa Countertop - Kate McElwee

3 Stylish, Less Expensive Kitchen Countertops

November 3, 2010/7 Comments/in Home & Garden /by carolannrule

An expensive countertop can make a kitchen look predictable. We have the solution.

CHEAP + CHIC | If you were looking for a countertop material your design-loving friends would swoon over, would you pick granite, Caesarstone, another composite quartz, or marble from Carrara in Italy? These are luxurious and high-priced, but an expensive countertop doesn’t make a kitchen more interesting and could even make it look predictable. On the other hand, using an inexpensive countertop material in a creative way never looks cheap—only clever.

Right now our three favourite reasonably priced countertop materials ripe for inventive applications are Trespa, IKEA butcher block and glacier white Corian. Read more

Interlacing Fingers And Toes - C. Phaisalakani

Use Your Fingers To Wake Up Your Tired Toes

November 2, 2010/0 Comments/in Exercise, FITNESS, Fitness & Health, Five-Minute Yoga, HEALTH, View All Fitness Stories, View All Health Stories, Well Being /by Eve Johnson

Here’s how to wake up your feet by interlacing your fingers and toes.

FIVE-MINUTE-YOGA | Perhaps we lose touch with our feet because they’re so far from our heads. How else could we shove them into narrow shoes and ignore them until they hurt?

Good yoga feet with active, mobile toes bring life to every pose. They help you connect with the ground in standing poses and pull your energy upward in inversions.

In fact, if there were just one practice you were to take on for five minutes a day, this one would give you the biggest and fastest rewards.

How To Wake Up Your Feet Read more

Lanvin For H&M: See The New Collection Right Now

November 1, 2010/0 Comments/in Diffusion Collections, Fashion & Beauty /by carolannrule

The fashion world is aflutter—Alber Elbaz of the House of Lanvin has introduced his exclusive collection for the House of H&M.

CHEAP + CHIC | The most frequent criticism you hear about low-end couture, my term for the guest collaborations between haute couturiers and budget emporiums such as Target and H&M—is that it is never as creative as the designers’ “real” collections. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would expect it to be. At the very least these retail lines—Alexander McQueen for Target, Sonia Rykiel for H&M, Jil Sander for Uniqlo—are more interesting and imaginative than a lot of ready to wear and almost always decently made. After that, any extra bit of originality is a bonus. Read more

Nutrient-Rich Compost Is Free & Simple To Make

October 26, 2010/4 Comments/in GARDEN, Gardening How-To, Green Within Reason, Home & Garden, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Garden Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Felicity Stone

Nutrient-rich compost is easy to make at home, plus it’s absolutely free.

In the fall, I envy people who have red, gold and brown leaves carpeting their yards. Seeing them bagged at the curb makes me even more frustrated. With mainly conifers in my garden, I would love a convenient source of leaves to use as weed-suppressing mulch. Dried leaves are also wonderful for composting.

The best deal on earth, literally, may be compost. You throw in garbage and get back rich, black humus to use in the garden. And it’s not just for country folk and gardening fanatics anymore. A friend of mine just bought a compost bin for the roof deck of her downtown penthouse. Read more

Lip Stains: The Best Ones At Every Price Point

October 25, 2010/41 Comments/in BEAUTY, Beauty How-To, BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Fashion & Beauty, Makeup, Stealing Beauty, View All Beauty Stories /by Editor

Glamorous berry-stained lips are the fashion this fall. Allison Emery picks the top products that deliver the look.

This fall the trend is smoky, metallic eyes and velvety smooth berry-stained lips. The look is very retro, yet classically cool. One of the great things about this look is that you don’t even need the dramatic eyes to pull off the sexy, colourful lips. In fact, with a very glamorous lip colour, it’s better to keep the eyes soft and simple—neutral shadow, lightly smudged liner and mascara are perfect complements. Smoky eyes can be challenging, but trying a new lip colour is easy—all you need is the right product in a suitable shade. The easiest (and surprisingly affordable) option is lip stain. Read more

See Paris For Pennies (Yes, Really—It’s True)

October 20, 2010/1 Comment/in Travel /by carolannrule

How cool is this: cruising around City Of Light on a bicycle you can rent for a song.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | The next time I visit Paris (in my dreams!), I’m going to ride a bicycle just like the one Ross Bonetti is sitting on in this picture. Ross, who owns LivingSpace Interiors in Vancouver and travels to Paris twice a year to attend the Maison et Objet trade show, has always crisscrossed the city by taxi or metro—until a year ago September when he started renting bicycles. Now he can’t imagine getting around the city on anything but a two-wheeler. Read more

Easy Appie #1: Pamela Anderson’s Yummy Cheddar Crisps

October 19, 2010/1 Comment/in FOOD, Food & Drink, View All Food Stories /by carolannrule

With fall parties on the horizon, here’s Pamela Anderson’s slam-dunk one-ingredient appetizer made in less than 10 minutes. Flat.

ENTERTAIN SMART | Fall is easily the appie (est) time of the year. With house parties and holiday mixers to attend and/or throw, who isn’t on the lookout for easy hors d’oeuvres for hostess gifts or to serve to guests? My rule for homemade appetizers is that they need to be seriously tasty, gorgeous to look at and made in 10 minutes or less. Pamela Anderson’s (not that Pamela Anderson) lacy cheddar crisps will not disappoint. Read more

Heike and Coreen Do YVR On The Green Side

October 15, 2010/3 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Columns, My5 Finds /by carolannrule

Top casting directors Heike Brandstatter and Coreen Mayrs explore Vancouver (and Bowen Island) on the green side.

Emmy Award-winning casting directors Coreen Mayrs and Heike Brandstatter spend most of their days casting feature film and television shows, having worked on such past projects as Juno, Battlestar Galactica, Capote and Diary of A Wimpy Kid. Their current projects include This Means War (starring Reese Witherspoon), Hellcats, Smallville and the soon-to-be-released Tron: Legacy. In their spare time they can be found exploring sustainable design, green building and cooking with organic ingredients.

Heike and Coreen’s 5 free, cheap or worth it things to see, do or buy in Vancouver (or beyond) Read more

Move Over H&M: Joe Fresh Style is In Town

October 13, 2010/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, FASHION, Fashion & Beauty, Shops & Shopping /by carolannrule

Joe Fresh Style, Joe Mimran’s bright, fun, fashion destination for the cheap-chic crowd, opens today—with great deals for inaugural shoppers.

Cheap + Chic | If the French cult clothing labels A.P.C. and agnes b. hooked up and produced a cheap-chic North American love child, the clothing resulting from this sweet fashion union might look like pieces from Canada’s very own Joe Fresh Style line. Read more

Why You Need A Clothesline In Your Life

October 12, 2010/9 Comments/in Cleaning & Maintenance, GARDEN, Green Within Reason, HOME, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories, View All Home Stories /by Felicity Stone

Save your clothes, cash and the environment with an indoor or outdoor clothesline.

What is it with us? We can’t wait to air our dirty laundry in public but scorn hanging clean laundry outdoors to dry. Years ago I lived in the heart of Montreal’s Latin Quarter yet had a clothesline running from my back balcony to a post on the lane—and so did everyone else. Here in Vancouver, I can’t remember the last time I saw laundry flapping in the wind. A 2007 StatsCan Environment Survey shows the percentage of B.C. residents drying clothes on a line or rack at just 54 percent; in P.E.I. it was 75 percent. Read more