Slouching over computer

Easy Ways To Improve Computer Posture

Here is a dead easy way to automatically improve your posture (and circulation) while sitting at the computer.

Slouching over computer

EASY & EFFECTIVE | The consensus among pundits is that those of us who sit for a living all day—and then go home after work and sit some more—are killing ourselves prematurely. One way to combat this all this sitting, they say, is to engage our muscles and improve our circulation by doing our work standing up.

Standing desks are a possible solution for sure, but all standing and no sitting is not always practical, or even appropriate in some work environments. A height-adjustable work surface that allows you to alternate between sitting and standing could be a good way to go, but let’s face it, height-adjustable desks are expensive, and who knows whether they would be used as they were intended once the novelty wears off. Read more

www.randomhouse.com

This Cookbook Is All About Pretty & Sweet

Rosie Daykin’s new cookbook, Butter Baked Goods, offers treat lovers 100 sweet ways to say yum. (SNEAK PEEK)

Butter Baked Goods - Janis Nicolay

NEW NOW NEXT | It maybe be a little early to be thinking about what to get your foodie friends for Christmas, but I’m pretty sure mine will be receiving copies of Rosie Daykin’s Butter Baked Goods: Nostalgic Recipes from a Little Neighborhood Bakery. Not that I’ve thumbed through an actual copy of the cookbook yet—it won’t be available to purchase until mid October. What I have had is a sneak peek at a few of the pages, and I can tell you that they’re every bit as visually enticing as everything else this talented Vancouver interior designer/ successful baker turns her hand to. Read more

deluxe-down-pillow- Linens N Things

The Best Way To Care For Bed Pillows

Most of us are fastidious about changing bed linens, but pillows often fall by the wayside. Here’s how to keep them fresh.

deluxe-down-pillow- Linens N Things

HOME SCHOOL | Is there anything more ewww inspiring than a big perspiration stain on your bed pillow? Or knowing that in the time it took for the stain to materialize, entire nations of allergy-inducing dust mites have taken up residence inside the cushion where you lay your sweet head every night?

While most of us are fastidious about keeping sheets and pillowcases clean, pillows often fall by the wayside. Here’s what we know about keeping bed pillows fresh and in tiptop shape. Read more

Sunburn back

No Really, Vinegar Is Great For Sunburn

Who would have thought that plain old vinegar would be the best thing to take the sting and colour out of sunburn?

Sunburn back

THIS STUFF WORKS | If I were forced to go back to grade school in the coming days and then asked to write an essay about the coolest thing I learned on my time away from the classroom, I would definitely wax lyrical about how I discovered that common household vinegar is a rock solid remedy for sunburn. Read more

Oh Joy: 3.1 Philip Lim At Target In Canada Right Now!

For the first time, Canadian fashionistas can indulge in Target’s fabulous designer diffusion collections right on their home turf—and oh joy: 3.1 Philip Lim is the introductory line.

3.1+PhillipLim forTarget

CHEAP & CHIC | Love the bags; love the scarves; love the lingerie, coats and dresses. I love almost everything about Philip Lim’s highly wearable diffusion collection for Target, which Racked.com so perfectly pointed out in pictures is pulled straight from the fashion designer’s award-winning 3.1 line. Most of all, though, I love the fact that I don’t need to drive over the border if I want first crack at the best of it. Read more

Self Tanned Legs

The Right Way To Apply Self Tanner

Keeping that summer glow year round is easy once you get the hang of applying self-tanner. (VIDEO)

Self Tanned Legs

SLAM DUNK | Although I do not agree with Coco Chanel’s 1929 pronouncement that “a girl simply has to be tanned,” I do think women look better in dresses and skirts when they have some colour on their legs.

But what’s a girl to do, then, to get that colour when she stays away from direct sunlight and sun beds, and avoids sunless products—spray tanning booths and self-tanning potions—as if they were the plague? “Seriously, you need to revisit the fake world,” my friend Jess informed me when I complained about the prospect of wearing a short skirt to a stylish event last month. “Gradual self-tanners give good, natural looking colour now, and while I find all tanning products impossible to apply on my entire body, doing cream or lotion on my legs is a piece of cake.” Read more

Young boy jumping into lake

Take A Mini Vacay @ Cusheon Lake Resort

For us, the perfect vacation spot is a little less Napa and a little more Mayberry.

Young boy jumping into lake

 

TRAVEL ADVISORY | The province of British Columbia is peppered with posh resorts, and developers keep adding new ones all the time thinking that designer surroundings, celebrity-chef restaurants, spa treatments and 600-thread-count sheets are what make a vacation unique. That is one approach for sure, but it’s not our preference. We like a little less Napa and a little more Mayberry when it comes to summer retreats, which is why we love Cusheon Lake Resort on Salt Spring Island, a perfect example of the latter.

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Flying U

Mini Vacay @ Canada’s Oldest Dude Ranch

Pony up for a mini vacay at Canada’s oldest and most original dude ranch, The Flying U—where you’re allowed to ride out on your own.

Horse wrangle at Flying U Ranch

 

TRAVEL ADVISORY | I never went to a dude ranch as a kid, but my husband did. He and his brother spent a week as buckaroos at The Flying U guest ranch in B.C.’s Cariboo. It was their favourite childhood holiday. “Better ’n Disneyland” is how they described the experience to their friends when they got home, and the way they continued to speak of it years later. Read more

Kraft paper tablecloth - Vicky Tang

Make A Great Kraft Paper Tablecloth

In the right hands, cheap Kraft paper can be the thing that turns a dinner table from plain to poetic.
2 plate

 

DO IT YOURSELF | If you want to host a long table dinner this summer but don’t have enough matching tablecloths (or matching tables for that matter) to create an attractive, cohesive setting, Kraft paper can be a lifesaver. Read more

Rodney Graham

Get Better Photos With Your Digital Camera

This surprisingly inexpensive introductory class will teach you how to take much better pictures with your digital camera.

Rodney Graham

 

SUPER VALUE  | There’s no way my snaps will ever match the cinematographic style of Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham (featured above) or Ian Wallace, three stellar members of the internationally acclaimed “Vancouver School” of photography, but recently I learned how to get a better than average shot with my compact digital camera. For the surprisingly low price of just $25, I received two hours of solid instruction in alternatives to Automatic Mode, the most commonly used setting (and my former personal fave) on the mode dial of digital cameras. Read more