Winter is upon us, and while we welcome the sunshine instead of the usual dark, gloomy Vancouver weather, sunny days are cool and crisp. You may have noticed your skin feeling dryer, tighter and lackluster at this time of year. Even oilier complexions feel dryer and tighter than usual. As a result, we often reach for heavier creams and moisturizing masks, which can help, but the best solution is a good exfoliation or polishing of the skin.(...)
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Post tags: beauty, beauty products, microdermabrasion at home, microdermabrasion do it yourself, Neostrata, Neostrata Skin Resurfacing Duo, Stealing Beauty

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SPEND SMART | If you’re an American citizen resident in Canada (or know someone who is), you know from the ruckus in the press last year that you’re required to file two income tax returns annually: a Canadian one because you live here, and a U.S. one because you are an American citizen and the U.S. taxes on the basis of citizenship rather than residency.

Never mind the fairness issue, or that people such as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney game the system by legally parking their jillions in accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, you still need to file—and unless you’re familiar with the U.S. tax code, you will require professional assistance. This service can cost plenty in Canada, which is why some filers head south.(...)
Read the rest of Some Relief For Expats Filing US Tax Returns

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Post tags: expat Americans in Canada, expat Americans in Canada taxes, services, US citizen working in Canada taxes, US citizens living in Canada

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SHOPPING AROUND | “Tangerine Tango” may be the Pantone colour of 2012, as Sarah Richardson reported in The Globe and Mail last weekend, but I’m not sure how many fashion retailers got the memo. Local shops are showing red right now, particularly in the pants department. Red jeans can be spotted on everyone who is anyone—Ines de la Fressange, Reece Witherspoon, you name her—and I just don’t see these women trading in their ruby trousers for orange ones anytime soon because red is the more flattering colour all around.(...)
Read the rest of Red Jeans Look Great On Just About Anyone

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Post tags: beauty, best red jean brands, fashion, Ines de la Fressange red jeans, Pantone Tangerine tango, red jeans, red jeans at Old Navy, red jeans at the Gap red jeans on Polyvore, red jeans brands, Reece Witherspoon red jeans, Sarah Richardson, Sarah Richardson tangerine tango, tangerine tango, top red jean brand

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FREE & SPECTACULAR | Vancouver real estate marketing mogul Bob Rennie’s private art gallery in the Wing Sang Building on East Pender Street has been open to the public just over two years now. I had been putting off seeing it for a completely irrational reason—you need to sign up in advance to get in. Lucky for me, friends added my name to their group of four planning a visit, and we all went for a free one-hour guided tour last week.(...)
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Post tags: art, Art collecting in Vancouver, Bob Rennie Wing Sang, bob rennies private art collection, culture, largest private art collections in Canada, leisure, Rennie Collection at the Wing Sang, siteseeing, tourism, Wing Sang building Vancouver

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EASY BAKE | I’m not an accomplished cook. I can produce a nice meal and make complicated dishes when I need to, though I prefer to leave the culinary wizardry to my friends born with chef’s knifes in their mouths. Quick and easy are my things (along with tasty and attractive), so I was shocked when a good friend suggested I make my own bread. I’d been going on about how my family was plowing through Terra Breads’ pain de campagne to the tune of $10 to $15 dollars a week when she popped the suggestion.

“You’ve got to be joking,” I said. “Making bread is an art that takes years to perfect. I thought you knew me.”(...)
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Post tags: baking, bread, DIY, food, homekeeping, homemade, Italian, Italian rustic bread, Jim Lahey, no-knead bread, slow-rise bread, Sullivan Street Bakery, whole foods

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STEALS & DEALS | 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.(...)
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Post tags: furniture, garden, Home, Nood, Nood furniture, Nood Going Out Of Business Sale, Nood Housewares, Nood on sale, Nood Vancouver

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DINNER IN A MINUTE | When I really don’t want to spend time making dinner but can’t be bothered to go out or even order in, I love to boil up a big pot of water, throw in dry pasta and open a can of tomatoes. Oookay, you say, making nice but imagining I’m nuts to think plain spaghetti and canned tomatoes “straight up” could be anything but spectacularly boring. And maybe it would be if I opened your Hunt’s garden-variety dice, but the canned tomatoes I’m talking about taste nothing like that.(...)
Read the rest of Are These The Best Fire Roasted Tomatoes?

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Post tags: Community Food Co-op Bellingham, entertaining, fire roasted tomatoes, fire roasted tomatoes in a can, fire roasted tomatoes in Vancouver, food, Galloway’s Specialty Foods, Galloway’s Specialty Foods Burnaby Richmond, Galloway’s Specialty Foods fire roasted tomatoes, Italissima brand in Vancouver, Italissima fire roasted tomatoes, Italissima tomatoes in Vancouver, Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes, recipes, Scarpone fire roasted tomatoes, Scarpone fire roasted tomatoes in Vancouver, Scarpone's fire Roasted tomatoes, the best fire roasted tomatoes in a can, Western Family fire roasted tomatoes

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SALES WE LOVE | Okay, so it doesn’t do bleeding edge leather the way Skingraft does—hey, who besides Nicki Minaj dresses like a rock star anyway—but Canada’s Danier makes clothing and bags with enough twist and bite to appeal to most leather-loving fashionistas. It also has wicked ongoing sales, which is how we came to discover it—and why you’ll want to check it out.(...)
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Post tags: beauty, best leather fashions in Vancouver, Daniel Leather sales, Danier Leather, Danier leather in Canada, Danier leather in Vancouver, fashion, leather coats and jackets in Vancouver, Leather fashions

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THE FIX | As someone who has recently fought and (hopefully) won a holey war, let me predict this: if you leave your windows open a lot in the summer and have lovely 100 percent natural fibre garments (regular wool or cashmere; silk; fine cotton—whatever) evil brown casemaking clothes moths will find them, they will lay eggs, and their damn little label-savvy larvae will feast on your Hugo Boss, Mackage and Missoni.

Here’s how I retaliated when moths went to war with me.(...)
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Post tags: clothes moths, fashion, goods, home maintenance, how to get rid of cloth moths, how to get rid of clothing moths, how to get rid of moths, how to kill clothes moths, moths how to get rid of, rid of cloth moths, services

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OUTLETS WE LOVE | Generally I put little stock in outlet merchandise, imagining most of it to be cheaply made items by high-end labels looking to cash in on the wannabe crowd, but recently I found myself in the enviable position of cruising through two Lululemon Athletica Outlet stores (one off Interstate 5 in Burlington, Washington, and the other in Burnaby) and I have to say that I was dead wrong about outlet shopping where Lululemon is concerned.(...)
Read the rest of Where To Find lululemon For Less

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Post tags: activewear, athletics, clothing, lululemon, outlet stores, Washington, workout, workout wear, yoga apparel

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