You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2008.
Sigh. It finally feels like summer! (Well, it did a couple days ago, anyway.)
Rob and I escaped Vancouver last weekend for the twins’ birthday party on the Island (Vancouver Island, that is) for a glorious sun-soaking, bbq-eating, popcan-shooting, pond-paddling, frog-catching, cake-munching day.
Ahhh….
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better… it did!
BC Ferries is currently having a sale on trips between Vancouver-Victoria, and Vancouver-Nanaimo/Duke Point.
Which means that for what would normally have been $69 (2 adults + a vehicle) for a one-way trip to the island, we paid only $30!!
That’s $60 instead of $138 for a fun-filled weekend, just a ferry trip away.
This promotion (if we can call it that) seems to be a bit confusing. We didn’t even know about it until we visited the website as there’s no advertising around for it. And while the website calls it a 
fare, the BC Ferries employee who took our money at the booth told us it was a ‘Customer Appreciation’ event.
Whatever the case, we love saving moola.
If you’re thinking of getting out of dodge for a few days, the CoastSaver sale fares are available until the end of June.
Just make sure you check the CoastSaver calendar online before you go–you may have to go from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay on the way there but leave from Duke Point to get back to Tsawwassen to get the CoastSaver both ways. That’s what we did. It wasn’t far at all, and well worth it.
Even if I didn’t have an excellent excuse to go back to Victoria soon (which I do… miss you Kym!!), I’d go. You should, too!
I’ll definitely look back on 2008 as the year the plastic bag died… and the year re-usable tote bags exploded on the scene.
It all started with that silly cloth bag:
And then the retail sector caught onto the hotness and started churning out their own versions. The first one I got was from Lululemon and I thought, wow, this is really cool.
Then Jacob had them and I thought, awesome, this is the perfect size to bring my lunch to work every day. But now EVERY store is handing them out like crazy–I have a Capers one and a Bay one and a TELUS one and probably more but I can’t remember. Everyone’s doing it. It’s not so neat anymore.
But I have to say, these new Commercial Drive banner bags bring the funky back to non-plastic bags.
Almost every year the Commercial Drive Business Society prints 256 32″ x 60″ nylon street banners which help create a festive, colourful atmosphere for this unique shopping neighbourhood. Eventually each edition of these unique designs must be retired, so rather than sending them to the landfill they’ve come up with a very green idea — transform them into reusable nylon shopping bags!
Now that is clever.
The banner bags are are available in 2 sizes ($9.95 & $14.95) and 10 different colours. Info on where you can get your hot little hands on one of these babies here.
This brought to mind those iconic banners that Calgary splashes all over the city each year for the Stampede–you know the ones…
Wouldn’t I love to get my hands on a bag made of one of those! (Yes I am both cheesy and nostalgic. As if you didn’t already know that.)
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UPDATE: NKOTB is coming to Vancouver Nov 21, 2008
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The other day I was seriously annoyed that there is not, nor do there appear to be any plans to open, a Sephora store in Canada’s THIRD largest city, Vancouver.
Today I have a new reason to be annoyed.
Apparently, Canada’s THIRD largest city, Vancouver, is also not important enough to make the list of locations for the forthcoming New Kids on the Block concert tour.
Man, it’s days like this that I wish I still lived in Montreal or Toronto (yes, I’ve done both). Granted, there don’t seem to be any west coast locations at all on the tour, but still.
To make me even more miserable, it’s raining today in Vancouver.
Crumminess all around!
On another note, can someone tell me what is the point of subscribing to receive news updates from NKOTB.com when they don’t send you any news, let alone the most important news of all–tour date announcements?! “Exclusive first access”, my @$$. Toronto’s already sold out!… and I got the news from someone’s Facebook update, of all things. Lame.
I know it seems like I’ve been talking a lot about shopping lately but hey, there’s a lot of shopping involved when you’re planning a wedding – dresses, shoes, makeup… and that’s only for the girls. So lately, things that pop up that I normally wouldn’t pay attention to suddenly become interesting.
Like the email from Sephora I got the other day:
Judging by this, it looks like Sephora is NOT coming to Vancouver anytime soon, contrary to popular belief.
So let me get this straight.
Ontario just opened another Sephora store and has another opening in May. This brings the total to SEVEN Sephoras in Ontario and THREE in Alberta. And oh, this is really rich: there’s going to be not one, but TWO in Montreal’s suburbs.
All this and there is not one Sephora in Canada’s third largest city, Vancouver???
I don’t get it.
I like free stuff. I mean, who doesn’t? The thing is, free stuff isn’t easy to come by – the good free stuff, that is.
I saw an Oprah episode about 10 years ago that stuck in my head, about this woman who entered every single contest she got her hands on. It showed her in her garage completely surrounded by all this stuff she’d won – cars, bikes, food, toys, clothes… you name it.
With this in mind, I sometimes enter the odd contest. My personal rule is that I’ll enter only if it’s something I’d actually be elated to win (and if it’s a reputable source). Granted, I’m starting to get a bit of email clutter as a result of this despite the fact that I always check the little box to opt-out of “future mailings from us or our trusted affiliates that may be of interest to you”. I can only imagine how much junk mail that other lady gets.
But I still haven’t won anything.
Maybe that’s partly why I am so pumped over my newly discovered tactic of getting free stuff – store openings and product launches!
See, I subscribe to a few email newsletters that interest me and a couple weeks ago one of them was advertising a Mavi store opening event here in Vancouver’s Gastown.
Normally I’d never attend something like this but I was enchanted by the magic words: “goodie bags”. Especially as those words followed “one night only discounts” and “chocolate tasting”.
So I convinced a friend to meet up with me for pre-goodie bag martinis followed by the main event. And you know what? It was totally worth it! Not only did I snag a pair of new jeans for 25% off (regular $88), but I got a whack of free stuff: bag, chocolates, Estee Lauder mascara, Lou Lou magazine, Parissa wax strips, spa discount coupons, underwear and, my personal fave, Mariah Carey lipgloss and purse-sized perfume!
Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking… Mariah Carey lip gloss?? But wait–the lip gloss wand has a light in it which shines on your lips when you’re putting it on!! And even though I’m aware of the irony of that (if you need a light to put on your lip gloss, doesn’t that mean it’s so dark that no one would see it anyway???), I still dig it. And I didn’t pay money for it, which makes it cool even if it’s not cool.
Let’s see if we can go two for two – I’ve conscripted a couple more friends to hit the Bombshell Bargains Event this Friday, May 9th in Yaletown. One of them really needs a pick-me-up (her twin just moved away and I can’t imagine how tough that must be!) and nothing says happy like swag. The website claims: “These highly anticipated sales will feature best-selling products, special discounts, giveaways and lots of fun.” And of course, it includes those sparkly two words which are music to my ears: Free Gift. Ahhhh….!
If want to get in on these scoops, subscribe to I Love Sample Sales (for cool stuff in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, NY, LA), The Style Spy (for hip chicks in Canada) and Vitamin V (for Vancouver vixens; Montreal mavens, check out Vitamin M and Toronto gals- Vitamin T).
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