’nuff said

source: Puppetji Blog

A recent search string in my webalizer stats suggested that food-porn-purveyors, Williams-Sonoma, might soon be opening a store in Vancouver. Though there is nothing on the Pacific Centre website to confirm it, this Wikipedia page claims Williams-Sonoma will be a new mall tenant, as will their Pottery Barn spinoff.

Don’t get your shirt in a knot, though. Williams-Sonoma has nice stuff, but Vancouver already has plenty of shops with equally nice stuff. Mr. V. and I often like to stop in at the Williams-Sonoma store in Portland, where we always end up getting a few things. We love shopping in sales-tax free Oregon.

In the end, we found most of the Williams-Sonoma products good, but not outrageously special. Except for their essential oil dish soap. Mr. V. really likes it. I haven’t tried it myself, but happily pass along his recommendation.

A few summers ago, when I had more money than brains, I gave some of the former to a Vancouver medical man who shall for these purposes be known as “Dr. Botox.” My lips, you see, are miniscule–the sort of lips that make Clara Bow’s look like Mick Jagger’s.

In one of my more shallow moments I decided that fuller lips would make my life more meaningful. And so I found myself being jabbed repeatedly along my lip line. Dr. Botox was using one of the largest syringes I have ever seen, and it hurt like hell.

I resigned myself to the pain, sure the results would be worth it. Of course, they weren’t. After the initial swelling went down, my lips looks just like my lips.

“Well, it’s a subtle effect,” said Dr. Botox’s assistant during my next appointment, which was, of course, my last. I set about learning to live with, if not love, my lips.

Until I found DuWop Lip Venom, that is. This stuff is the bomb. It plumps my lips up as well as anything Dr. Botox could have injected and it doesn’t hurt a bit, though it tingles in the nicest way, because it contains cinnamon, ginger, and wintergreen. The tingle and the gloss last for hours.

While I may never have lips to rival even Clara Bow’s, Mr. V. thinks my “viper lips” are sexy. And really, when it comes to lips, what else matters?

DuWop Lip Venom is available in Vancouver from Beauty Mark, Beauty Bar, and Moule.

For Mr. Vancouverist and me, no trip to Victoria is complete without a stop at Ottavio’s in Oak Bay, where we generally enjoy a coffee and pastry before picking out a few goodies to take home. Ottavio has a very nice selection of cheeses, and on a recent visit we bought a six-year-old Quebec cheddar and a Beemster Gouda from Holland.

We also got some Mrs. McGarrigle’s Canadian Maple Mustard, which won third prize in the World Wide Mustard Competition. This mustard has its good points. It contains lots of crunchy almost-whole mustard seeds. But, being a maple fanatic, I’d like this mustard better with more maple, and will likely add some from the stash I keep on hand

Chocolate was on the shopping list, of course, and Mr. V. blanched when I picked up a 100 gram Amedei Toscano Black 70% bar that was priced at $18. I nearly blanched, too. Had it come to this? Was my search for more and better chocolate about to set us on the path to bankruptcy? Not just yet. Being a good girl at heart, I relented, substituting a small box that contained 5 squares of the Toscano Black that were about 2 grams each.

Amedeiis a relatively new chocolatier, and is attracting a lot of interest and gaining many fans who believe this may be the finest chocolate in the world. Amedei is a brother and sister firm—Alessio and Cecillia Tessiere—who work in Tuscany and who decided to learn how to make chocolate from raw beans, rather than from cocoa mass.

Alessio originally approached Tain l’Hermitage-based Valhrona and proposed that Amadei work with some of Valhrona’s single plantation beans. But Valhrona didn’t believe that serious, quality chocolate could come out of Tuscany, and they sent Alessio packing. Instead of getting mad, Alessio got even. By tripling Valhrona’s price, and paying off the farmers’ debts, he gained exclusive rights to beans from the Venezuelan Chuao plantation.

This year, the Academy of Chocolateawarded Amedei top honours for its Chuao, Porcelana, and Toscano Black 70% bars in the “bean to bar” category.

I’ve only had the good fortune to sample the Toscano Black so far, and found it light and fruity in comparison to most 70% bars. Very tasty and well made, but not memorable. I might feel different if I had a decent amount of the stuff to try, but I haven’t yet found any in Vancouver. Amadei will definitely be a more serious indulgence during my next trip to Victoria and Ottavio. Hopefully Mr. V. will be checking out the cheese and olives while I slip a few bars into our basket.

If you have a lot of “girls” on your “holiday” shopping list, a Crave Party might just solve some of your shopping woes, and enable a little self-indulgence at the same time.

When our cheap jolly roger motif shower curtain finally gave up the ghost we knew it was time to move just a tick upscale. We’d bought the jolly roger on a whim, hoping it would generate a few giggles and last a few months, which is exactly what it did. And then it got a little tired.

By the time the curtain rings ripped through the third unreinforced hole, we had seen enough of row upon row of skulls and bones first thing every morning, and I’d found our shower curtain woe solution.

In a word, Izola. Izola’s mission is to transform shower curtains into everyday art. They do this by reproducing graphic images, mostly full panel prints, that include objects like feathers, bamboo, and zebra skins, as well as limited edition art reproductions, and black and white shots of iconic travel destinations including the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, an overhead view of Paris, and the one we bought, of Venetian canals.

All Izola shower curtains are 72″ x 72″, machine washable, and reinforced with metal grommets.

Prices in US dollars range from $35 to $40, but if you order on the internet and pay with Canadian funds, expect to shell out about $100, including shipping costs and Canadian taxes–maybe a few pennies less now that the GST has dropped.

Every time I venture over to Kitsilano's 4th Avenue shopping area I find my mind, my heart, and my feet leading me to Beauty Bar.

It's not for the make up, although they carry many luxe, hard to find, and specialized brands like Lip Lingerie, which bills itself as lipstick to wear with your negligee, and Girlactik, which re-interprets glitter so that even women of a certain age can look good wearing it.

It's not for the men's shaving bar, which they say is the world's best, or for their metrosex grooming products, that include Acca Kappa and Jack Black, though I've noticed Mr. V. eyeing the latter's Signature Eau de Toilette.

Nor is it for the mother and baby things, though they have a range of intelligent and naturally formulated lotions, potions, and creams for babies, moms, and moms-to-be.

It is because Beauty Bar is a friendly and welcoming garden of possibilities. It's packed to the rafters with lovely, innovative fragrance and self-care products–simple indulgences, thoughtfully selected, and offered in a spirit of style and delight.

Beauty Bar treats I've picked up so far include Mor's Persian Peach soap, Fresh's Vanilla soap, both all vegetable and triple-milled, Fresh's Sugar Shea Butter, which has a light lemony scent and is great for cuticles, chapped lips, and other rough spots, and my favourite to date, Lollia Concrete Perfume in Sugarcane, which is redolent of muguet and lilac.

You won't find any of the fabled Kitsilano attitude here. Instead you'll find professional, friendly, and helpful staff, and their Elixr tonic bar which serves refreshing and reinvigorating fruit and herbal based bevvies that are good for whatever ails you.

They have a manicure and make-up bar, too, where they'll do your nails, brows, and make up, and release your inner princess.

Beauty Bar is located at 2142 West 4th Avenue, in Kitsilano.

 Some headaches can be serious. Others can result from a little more indulgence than our bodies want. More often than not, headaches are signals telling us to slow down, take a break, and smell the lavender.

If you’re a headache sufferer, you’ve probably been to a doctor who’s recommended an over-the-counter remedy like aspirin or ibuprofen. Maybe you’ve even been given a prescription for a $30 migraine miracle pill.

Let’s say you’re not the most enthusiastic proponent of the “better living through chemistry” mantra. As you swallow your jagged little pill you wonder what people used to do before the pharmaceutical industry cared so much about our well-being.

Or perhaps you already know about plant-based remedies, the herbs and essential oils that have been used for eons. You decide to give the pills a pass. Instead, you pour a few drops of your favourite carrier oil in a bowl and mix in a few drops of balancing and calming lavender before adding a few more drops of cooling and pain-relieving peppermint. Then you massage this mixture into your temples, scalp, and the back of your neck, and begin to relax as the healing powers of the oils obliterate your headache.

And then again, maybe not. If you’re like me and find the mixing of potions a little too messy and time consuming, you reach instead for Vancouver-based Escents Aromatherapy’s Headache Relief Therapeutic Roll On. Simple, quick, and so effective. Unscrew the cap, and roll it on. Its perfectly proportioned essential oils blast away all my tension headaches, and most of my migraines, too. Which makes smelling the lavender (and the roses) so much more enjoyable.

The nasty onslaught of rain we’ve experienced over the past couple of days has made me glad for one thing, and that’s my Silver Lining Umbrella.

Cheerfully and cleverly, but not completely accurately named, these “brallys” aren’t lined in silver. They do, however, sport a silvery reflective strip along the base of their fabric covers, making their bearers highly visible when out on rainy nights.

Mine is a cadmium yellow telescoping model that I fell in love with at first sight. It’s the only colour I know that can stand up to Vancouver’s dirty winter rains and tell them to take a hike. Or at least encourage me to take one.

A real plus is that these babies are sturdily and wonderfully made. I’ve owned mine for a good long while, and have subjected it to plenty of abuse. It has never let me down, even in vigorous torrents and winds.

Silver Lining Umbrellas are made in Vancouver by people who understand our weather, and are available at various outlets of the Bay.

Like pretty much everyone who lives here, towards the middle of the interminable rainstorm that was January in Vancouver, I needed a break.

With neither the budget nor the time for jaunting off to Baja or Kauai, I needed something that was cheap, quick, and could be repeated as necessary with no ill effects.

My solution was Alba Organics Papaya Mango Body Cream, which has a gorgeously rich botanical fragrance, and is made, according to the label, from 72% certified organic ingredients like shea butter and kikui nut oil.

Just opening the lid and taking a whiff provides the needed quick hit of pleasure, but this is actually a body cream that lives up to its claims. My skin feels great. Unlike the women who wail on certain TV commercials about their “right” to freedom from dry skin, I have it.

I get compliments everywhere I go when I wear this stuff, though some folks mistake the lovely mango-papaya fragrance for pineapple. No worries, they’re all wonderful tropical scents, and I’ll be enjoying this body cream all through summer as well.

Alba Organics Papaya Mango Body Cream is available in Vancouver at Capers, Choices, and London Drugs.