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Using Products at 1/2 Strength Makes Sense

March 19, 2012/0 Comments/in BEAUTY, BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Cleaning & Maintenance, Goods & Services, HOME, View All Beauty Stories, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Using everyday products at 1/2 strength is often more than enough.

WASTE NOT | It all started with my first highlights. My stylist swung me around to the mirror for the reveal, and I basked in the glow of my glorious, glittering bangs, confident I would gleam forever in a radiant halo. Then he pulled me back to earth with a thump: “You’re going to have to stop washing your hair so much.” My wise stylist explained that daily washing strips the hair of colour and leaves it dull and dry.

I’d spent big bucks on my hair and was determined to protect my investment, so I cut down on the number of times I washed, and I revisited everything I thought I knew about shampoo. Instead of Shampoo, Rinse, Repeat, it became Shampoo, Rinse for me, all the way. Then one day it occurred to me—not only was my hair looking just as good or better, my shampoo budget had been cut in half. Read more

All Washed Up: White Washcloths Are Over!

February 15, 2012/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Forget about the colour of your parachute. We ask, what colour is your washcloth?

BUY RIGHT | Blame it on the spa industry, or decorating magazines if you want to, but the idea that thick spa-white bath towels and washcloths are the best and only way to wash and dry yourself is hogwash. White towels go with any style décor and feel indulgent in a good way, but white washcloths? No way, never! Easily stained light-coloured washcloths look dowdy quickly. Their low life expectancy means having to replace them frequently, which is both expensive and wasteful. Better to adopt the approach of more and more luxury and “cheap chic” hotels by having dark-coloured washcloths on hand, particularly for washing off stubborn makeup. Read more

When Dishwasher Soap Packets Are Overkill

February 9, 2012/1 Comment/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Premeasured dishwasher soaps are convenient but overkill almost everywhere—and particularly unnecessary in places where the water is soft.

WASTE NOT | When my four-year-old European dishwasher crashed a while back, I called in a repairman who made an eye-opening comment about my dishwashing detergent. “You use that stuff?” he asked, pointing at the Electrasol Dishwasher Detergent with Powerball Tabs I’d bought in a convenient 100-tab tub at Costco.

“Yes, and I love it. It’s so easy,” I chirped, citing a no-mess no-fuss defense and explaining how my dishes looked at least as sparkly clean as they had with other detergents I’d employed. Read more

Thinking Outside The Conventional Vase

February 6, 2012/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

It’s not the flowers, it’s the unusual containers that make these arrangements pop.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS | In early February, when thoughts turn to hearts and flowers, it’s easy to think that a dozen red roses are the key to a woman’s heart. Not necessarily. In the floral department, sometimes something both ordinary but imaginative will do the trick. It’s not the flowers, it’s the original containers that make these arrangements pop. Read more

Get Nood Now: They’re Closing In Canada

January 27, 2012/3 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

With prices slashed in a closing sale, these New Objects Of Desire are flying out the door.

STEALS & DEALS | —27-01-12—Nood, the New Zealand/Australia-based furniture and housewares retailer known for good modern design at reasonable prices, is shutting down operations in Canada. Their killer closeout sale is currently underway with everything in their two Metro Vancouver stores at 50 to 75 percent off the regular price. Though Nood won’t close its doors permanently until early March, we can’t imagine there’ll be much left to purchase by then (maybe its fabulous in-store hanging light fixtures?). Stuff is flying out of there really fast.

Here’s what we like best of what’s left. Read more

Tropical Plants Are Great In Arrangements

January 12, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Add fresh drama to your home in winter with long-lasting—and inexpensive—cuttings from supermarket tropical plants.

By this time of year, when the garden is devoid of flowers, the florist shop is not the only source of plant material to put in an attractive vase. Cuttings from a potted plant purchased at your local supermarket or corner store can take their place.

Ingredients For Tropical Punch Read more

How To Deep Down Clean Your House

January 3, 2012/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

How to keep your house deep down clean year round—without a live-in maid.

CLEAN SMARTER | Have you ever noticed there are two kinds of house dirty? The first is surface dirty. This is what most of us deal with on a weekly basis, doing the dusting, vacuuming and general tidying that keep our homes looking presentable.

The second is deep down dirty. This kind of dirty creeps up on you while you’re religiously attending to the surfaces. Deep down dirty is the leather sofa that never gets conditioned, or the back of the insides of bottom kitchen cupboards that become magnets for grunge, or the dust and gunk that gathers on baseboards behind bedroom dressers that seldom if ever get moved.

Deep down dirty can make even a tidy house feel unclean. Read more

How To Make An Edible Place Card Super Quick

December 21, 2011/0 Comments/in Entertaining, FOOD, HOLIDAY, Holiday /by Editor

These unconventional place cards are beautiful, organic, yummy and take only minutes to make.

EASY & QUICK | Silver and pewter are traditional materials for decorating and never go out of fashion. These metal place markers were created by cutting bannerlike shapes with scissors from a disposable aluminum baking sheet. Read more

Origami Boxes Cover Coloured LED String LIghts - Casey Phaisalakani

Make Easy Origami Cubes For String Lights

December 5, 2011/3 Comments/in DECOR & DESIGN, Holiday, HOLIDAY, HOME, Home & Garden, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Easy to make origami boxes add depth, elegance and fun to LED and other string lights.

BEAUTIFUL & EASY | We’ve used a combination of origami light cubes and bare LED bulbs (in a ratio of 1 boxed light to three bare bulbs) on every Christmas tree we’ve decorated in the last dozen years. The origami boxes produce beautiful, diffuse squares of light, something you don’t normally see on a Christmas tree. Some years we’ve chosen to box only white string lights, but mostly we box multi-coloured ones. To make our boxes, we worked with vellum squares (available at art supply stores or online) that deepen and intensify whatever colour light they cover. Read more

Find Eco Friendly Christmas Trees

December 1, 2011/0 Comments/in Holiday, HOLIDAY, Home & Garden /by Felicity Stone

Here’s our 2011 guide to finding the eco-friendliest Christmas trees in and around Metro Vancouver.

HOLIDAY 2011 | While artificial trees come in hues to match your decor, real Christmas trees are green in more than colour. They are a renewable crop often grown on land unsuitable for cultivating much else, they remove carbon from the air while they’re growing, and they can be chipped for mulch after use. Here are three ways to get an eco-friendly green tree this Christmas. Read more

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