- Category: Life -

  • Pink ruffled shirt and jean jacket

    Defining What Binds You and Frees You

    August 29, 2017 by  

    I can’t sit still today. My nerves won’t stop bubbling up from my stomach to my esophagus, getting caught at my throat, creating immense pressure around my head like a champagne cork about to go off. Except there doesn’t seem to be too much celebratory about this… particular emotion. Last night I sat at the hospital for 6 hours trying to figure out what’s wrong with my vision, which has been steadily declining for the past six months. And, though perhaps “no news is good news,” today now seems to be inherently hindered by a perspective shift I experienced last night as thoughts of glaucoma, a detached retina or a brain tumour ran through my list of possibilities, albeit hypochondria. The question remains: Are we all completely fucked? Live like you’re dying… We all know the saying but it doesn’t seem all that real, all the essential, until we’re delivered with some kind of diagnosis. It’s not until life isn’t promised that life becomes more gratifying, more real, and more appreciated. It’s not until we’re unsure we’re going to make it that we really try to make the most of it. Defining what binds you… If you have a job, or a child, or a family, they most often that not become what binds you. They bind you to certain agreements, a physical location, and a particular routine which you stick with because you love them. At times you may resent them binding you, but the truth is: we all need to be bound by something. I myself do not have a traditional “job,” a child, or a family, and so I must look elsewhere to define what binds me. My relationship ensures I have a more structured routine, my reward being that I get to spend time with Scott when he’s home, instead of working weird, sporadic hours throughout the day and into the night as I used to when there was nobody to be expecting home. But I hit points in my day when I just can’t. When the pressure of running my own business and satisfying clients becomes too much. When my ever-intense emotions overwhelm me, and the task at hand just can’t be performed. When my wandering mind takes over, urging me to do it all and paralyzing me all at once because that’s impossible.  I suddenly realize how tired I am of worrying – worrying about not making it, because there is no guarantee in the…

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  • Mott & Bow Ripped Black Jeans

    The 5 W’s to Finding Your Life’s Purpose

    August 25, 2017 by  

    Who, what, where, when, why. These are the 5 W’s to problem solving, the essential unknowns to conquer, or the pieces of knowledge to gain clarity on before moving towards any sense of progress in both schoolwork and, in well, lifework too. The 5 W’s may have been introduced to you early on in grade school, perhaps even with an additional H tacked onto the end, but I’ve found they are also the most essentials points to cover when determining what to do with your life and when trying to understand your purpose. I always love to have these conversations with people, not because I necessarily deem myself esteemed enough to be a life/business coach nor knowledgable enough to be a therapist, but because I have been through the trenches and I have found my purpose in life. Before you read forward, however, you have an important decision to make: why should you listen to me? This is an important question you should always ask yourself before you take any sort of life advice from anyone. The lesson I once learned is concrete and solid: you should only listen to people who have what you want. Otherwise, how are you ever supposed to get what you want?   So here’s a quick preview of who I am and what I currently have achieved in my life: I am 27. I dropped out of University in my 3rd year, during which I had decided I wanted to become a writer. At this time, I started a personal blog and entertained a freelance writing job where I got paid $12 per 500 world article. It was pennies, but I put my head down, wrote 10 articles a day to get by, and went travelling for about a year, more or less all on my own in Europe for half of that time. This is where I found myself. Today, I run a successful digital marketing agency where 10K months (albeit top line, that’s an important disclosure to make) are now the standard. I say this not to gloat, but to let everyone else out there know that you too can do what you love and be successful at it. On the side, I do this: my passion, my hobby, my blog – whatever you want to call it – and most months I pull in extra revenue (sometimes a sizeable amount), sponsored trips, and plenty of wonderful gifts. I work hard,…

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  • Rocky Mountain Soap Skincare

    Travel Necessities: Rocky Mountain Soap Skincare

    July 20, 2017 by  

    Ladies, I know you feel me: when it comes to skincare, you could easily fill a giant beach bucket with all your favourite and “necessary” products to keep your skin young and fresh. But when that times come around for a vacation, packing all of those necessities into your suitcase – or heavens forbid, your carry-on! – you might have to give the word “necessity” a second thought. I recently did a trip to Canada’s metropolis cities out East (Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal) to celebrate #Canada150, and as if my a perfect alignment, I came across Rocky Mountain Soap just prior to my departure. This Canadian, all-natural skincare and soap company is not only completely toxin-free – their products actually work! I got to know the perfect on-the-go skincare for travel, which comprises of just three, all-natural products! Rocky Mountain Soap Skincare for Travel Pomegranate Day Cream I am thoroughly in love with this day cream, and I can honestly say it makes my skin feel the way it used to – when I was in my late teens/early twenties, and my skin was undoubtedly bustling with a lot more collagen. The pomegranate day cream is an awesome travel companion. I always find that my skin dries out or becomes imbalanced when I’m traveling, and this day cream is ideal for instant hydration. The best part is: a touch of this cream goes a long way! Beech Tree Bud Eye Cream Yes, the delicate skin around your eyes requires a different skincare product to battle signs of aging. I’ve always been a HUGE believer in eye cream, and I’ve tried at least 100 different kinds in my lifetime. Also an all-natural product, the eye cream from Rocky Mountain Soap has ingredients like coconut and jojoba oils, ginseng, and green tea, and provides instant and long-lasting hydration. It works wonders for ridding your under-eyes of that sleepy, puffy look in the morning, and is great for overnight as well. I especially love that it comes in a jar, and again, a little goes a long way! Hydrating Toner At some point, I stopped using toner, but now since I’ve reintroduced it back into my skincare regime, I can’t fathom why I ever stopped. The Hydrating Toner from Rocky Mountain Soap comes in a great mist bottle that is both refreshing and convenient. Applying a few spritz after cleansing is the perfect way to replenish your skin’s moisture…

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  • biking in Vancouver

    5 Why You Should Be Biking in Vancouver

    June 20, 2017 by  

    Biking is the best, particularly on a warm summer day in Vancouver. With the seawall beckoning and virtually endless bike paths around the city, getting around on bike is so incredibly easy and enjoyable in this city. But the truth is, it took me so much longer to get a bike in Vancouver than it should have. I actually never owned a bike until now, and I absolutely love my new bike – the Beliv – from Liv Cycling. 5 Reasons to Bike in Vancouver So, why bike? I have endless reasons at this point, but so as not to bore you, I’ll just share a few of my favourite reasons why you should be biking instead of walking, driving, or taking public transit if you live in Vancouver. Here are my top 5: You’ll discover new places. Sure, you might be a long-time local to Vancouver. Perhaps you were born and raised here, too. But what you might not be realizing is all of the places, restaurants, cafes, and shopping that you have been missing out on! Having a bike means that you can meander down side-streets, over bridges, and all over the place, discovering new areas you never would have thought to go with a vehicle or on foot. You’ll have the opportunity to visit your favourite areas more frequently. Not being an owner of my own personal vehicle, I find reaching particular areas of the city that I LOVE – like the West End, Kitsilano, or Granville Island – a bit of a hassle. I used to be very guilty of staying within the easy-to-access areas of downtown, but now with my bike, those days are long over! I can reach all of the areas within about minutes on bike – so why wouldn’t I? The Seawall and all of the bike lanes! Vancouver is actually surprisingly equipped for cyclists, and in addition to our incredibly bikeable seawall, the city has bike lanes that you may not have noticed in even the busiest of areas – like East Pender, for example. I’ve been referencing this map which gives you all the best cycling routes of Vancouver. It’s the best exercise. Exercising on the regular can be a difficult task to maintain, particularly during those times that get extremely busy. I used to be really good at going to the gym every morning, but for the last six months or so, those efforts have waned…

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  • tips for women in business

    Tips for Women in Business #MakeGoodMoney

    May 24, 2017 by  

    It’s true: being a woman in business is certainly not the easiest thing in the world. Though we rarely discuss it (especially publicly) the challenges involved in the workplace or in running your own business as a woman are very real. I recently got together with two other women, Pallavi Gurrala and Marissa Grootes, to discuss what it’s like being a woman in business – and we captured it all on video with Vancity here! In addition, I’m sharing my top tips for women in business when it comes to the finances involved in the business world that will help you boost your confidence and get those left-brained aspect of life flowing. PLUS – catch yourself a great financial offer from Vancity down below! Tips for Charging Your Worth Charging what you are worth is almost always a challenge, especially if you are in a creative field, more especially if you are providing a service, and most especially if you are a woman business. As a woman, you may feel like you have to undercharge in order to win the business or you may even feel guilty for asking for what you deserve – and this usually comes from a place of insecurity or intimidation. As we discussed in the video, men usually feel much more confident asking for a tip when they feel they deserve it than women do. You’re not alone! My tips for charging your worth are as follows: Research your competitors, find out what they are charging, and measure yourself next to them, as objectively as possible. Use a professional service for sending estimates and invoices, work on the industry standard of net-30 for payment terms, and always follow-up immediately when a payment is overdue. Just do it! Don’t let emotions such as guilt or low confidence weigh in on your business decisions. You do deserve to be paid fairly! Financial Tips for Women in Business From having enough financial runway to get your business off the ground to learning the ins-and-outs of cashflow to keep it going, there are many challenges involved in the financial aspects of business which you may not be so familiar with. My tips for navigating the finances of business are: Be proactive and hire a bookkeeper to keep track of your books on a monthly basis; hire an accountant to file your taxes at the end of the year. Don’t…

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  • Wearing my floral dress and brown leather jacket in Vancouver

    Waiting on Spring: Tips for Adding Warmth to Your World

    April 7, 2017 by  

    I love being Canadian, and there is no better time than now to wear our patriotic pride on our sleeves. But living in Canada brings with it at least one sad fact: we absolutely have no options when it comes to the weather. It’s either wet, wet Westcoast or super dry, super freaking cold East Coast *with clear skies! I was having a conversation with someone about this recently. No matter how long we live in Vancouver for, from infancy to adulthood, the seemingly endless rain never gets easy.And as an individual who works solo and from home almost 100% lately, the weather in Vancouver can be more than just depressing – it can be unnerving, even if you don’t leave the house until late afternoon. Now approaching mid-April, and we are still waiting for some sunshine to appear. But, since we unfortunately do NOT have control of the weather, I’ve got some tips for adding warmth to your world, even when it’s utterly shitty outside. Warming up your world, without the sun The downright reason that the sun feels so good boils down to a million lifestyle reason – getting the chance to hangout with friends and drink beer on a patio – but really just one scientific one: exposure to the sun raises endorphin levels in the blood. These are coined as “feel good hormones” by scientists. With that being said, here are some alternative ways to get your happy hormones flowing, sans sun: Get sweating. Go for a run, if it’s not pouring rain, or hit the gym: exercising releases endorphins, too. Meditate. For a long time people didn’t understand the scientific benefits of meditation, but more recent studies have uncovered an array of actual scientific benefits, one of which being that, yes, meditation is yet another endorphin-releasing activity. Have a long hug. I was in San Diego, CA when I learned of this phenomenon for the first time. Locals there, apparently, will hug even relative strangers for 60 seconds. And for good reason: a good, long hug lowers cortisol (the stress hormone) and boosts oxytocin (the love or bond hormone). Have a hot shower. If you don’t have a buddy to hug onto for that length of time, a hot shower actually has a similar effect, stimulating the release of oxytocin and bringing down stress levels. Turn on a happy light. I have a final tip, and confession, for you. As I write this I currently…

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  • sylvania LED bulbs

    Let There Be Light: Tips for Lighting Your Home

    February 21, 2017 by  

    If you haven’t already seen, I recently relocated from a West End studio to a much larger, Crosstown/Gastown loft. This rustic yet modern space is quite big, at over 1,000 square feet for two, and features large bay windows, wide-panel oak floors, a roaring, open gas fireplace and plenty of room for play – and work. While typically I’d work from a nearby co-working space, I’ve taken to working from home much more lately, but in order to so adequately, I had to pay some keen attention to lighting first. Let there be light! Here are my tips for lighting your home, or alternatively, lighting your life with SYLVANIA Canada bulbs. Tips for Lighting your Home Choose the right bulbs for your preferred temperature, and no I don’t mean hot or cold – but rather, warm or cool when it comes to the appearance of the light emitted by your bulbs. This might seem like a trivial matter but it isn’t. Especially because I work from home, I find light that is too cold in temperature to be a little irritating to my rather sensitive eyes. I wanted an energy-efficient LED bulb with a warm hue, unlike what you usually find in a corporate office space, which is the exact opposite of what I wanted to create in my home office. I recommend SYLVANIA ULTRA LED Filament which last 15x longer than incandescent bulbs and offer a warm, uplifting atmosphere. Add a standing lamp or two to your living space. There’s never enough lighting, like never, so be sure to add one (or in my case, two) standing lamps to your living space. I’d recommend an arch over-hang type lamp for your living space, especially if you have a sectional, as these types of floor lamps not only provide ample and correctly directed light, they also add an attractive design feature to your space. This turns your otherwise dimly-lit space into one that you can use for all sorts of things: socializing, relaxing, working, reading – you name it! Add additional lighting to your workspace. I also opted for the same warm LED bulbs in my workspace, and made sure to add an additional lamp to the space to brighten it even more. This way, I find I can turn down the brightness on my laptop and save my eyes some strain. I sometimes opt to use only the dimming light above my desk when I’m working in…

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  • at home with Rove Concepts

    Modern Home: Keeping a Vintage Aesthetic with Rove Concepts

    February 15, 2017 by  

    Modern home decor is of course everyone’s greatest wish when they move into a place they love, but there’s always those specific pieces from that past – sometimes the distant past – that you wish to keep around. So, how do you do it? I recently finished my home decor and furnishing with a set of vintage velvet (but brand new) Rove Concepts pieces, and I inadvertently stumbled upon the perfect way to keep a vintage aesthetic to a modern home. My new Rove Concepts pieces Before we start talking about the old, can we take a moment for the newest in town (or rather, my loft)? It took me a little bit of time to choose the colour I wanted for our gorgeous Luca Armchair and Luca Sofa, but ultimately we decided on the Solstice Vintage Velvet, a subtle blue/grey with the most luxurious feel. I was really excited to find that those round tube-like accents are actually detached pillows! Up until this point, all of our pieces were an exciting range of hues: white, black, and grey. And, while it took some courage to step outside of that boring yet safe arrangement of non-colours, I am so incredibly happy we did. Now not only does our home boast a little bit more personality and life, I have a couch (and armchair) that is seriously just as comfortable as my bed. This could pose some danger for working from home, but honestly, so far it’s been a miracle. To finish off our living room, we also went for the Kure Arc Floor Lamp which provides the perfect lighting for the relatively large space, has the most incredibly marble base, and acts as a focal point for the room as well with its relatively dramatic aesthetic. It’s arguably the most drool-worthy floor lamp I’ve ever owned, which has made me a believer that whoever said a floor lamp can’t change a girl’s life was clearly wrong. Not all vintage items are worth keeping around, and certainly most are not worthy of being on display in your home, but what about those specific few pieces that are?  My recommendations for keeping a vintage aesthetic to a modern home: Keep only the vintage pieces that mean something to you, and that are truly valuable. This is step number one, which often entails a pretty significant decluttering. The thing is: if we value…

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  • car2go mercedes-benz

    Car2Go Mercedes-Benz: Luxury Car Sharing for Millennials

    February 6, 2017 by  

    Have you heard? Car2Go recently made an incredibly exciting announcement that they are rolling out their fleet of luxury vehicles, which also happens to be my dream car: Mercedes-Benz! I’ve been a Car2Go member for over a year now, unable to really grasp the responsibility, time, and cost involved in personal car ownership, but I’ve honestly been drooling over having my own Mercedes-Benz CLA for a while. I had a friend who would often go out of town, and offer up her Mercedes-Benz CLA to help me get to-and-fro her home to feed her cat while she was gone. These were the times I got to do my dream-building, feeling like, once I got myself in the driver’s seat of one of these vehicles for the long, that’s when I’ll know I’ve made it. What do I love most about car sharing with Car2Go? Car sharing with Car2Go has made my life incredibly easy and convenient. I honestly don’t even know what I did before signing up for this car sharing membership. Growing up outside the city, I always had a vehicle of my own up until I decided to become a digital nomad about 3 years ago. When I returned back to Vancouver from my stint abroad, I simply didn’t have the money to buy myself another car. And, living right downtown, I quickly realized – for the first time in my life – that I didn’t need a car. It was an elating discovery. Eventually, I got myself a studio in the West End at English Bay, and this is when I began running into some problems. Being off the track of public transit and a long foot-travel away from much of anything, I found I was okay until I needed to get to an appointment. I found my Car2Go membership virtually saved my life, providing that mobility solution I so needed and craved at that point in my life. It also allowed me to get out to see family outside the city on a more regular, convenient basis. My favourite aspects of being a Car2go member: Affordability. It’s only about 40 cents/minute, and you don’t have to pay for gas or insurance. Abundance. There are Car2Go’s all over the place! If you happen to not find one, just turn on your radar and for sure within 5 minutes, one will show up. Parking. If you’re a West End dweller,…

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  • Structube Eiffel Dining Table and Chairs with Roses

    Rose Connection: Tips for Displaying, Keeping, and Buying Your Roses

    January 29, 2017 by  

    I’ve got the most incredible rose connection to share with you guys, which I was super excited to stumble upon the other day, and cuts the insane price of roses in half. But before we get there, I want to talk about all things roses – how to display them in your home, how to keep them around longer, and why they are so important for your home decor. And yes, I’m positioning myself a self-proclaimed expert on the subject. My middle name is Rose, after all. Tips for Displaying your Roses Once you’ve got your fresh dozen (or two dozen in my case) roses safely stowed in a fresh, clean vase – advice for doing so properly below – you’ve got to decide where in your home they are going to be displayed. While your hallway table might welcome your guests with the right sense of warmth and vibrance, I’ve always been a fan of displaying my bouquet right in the centre of my dining table. This is what we opted for, placing our bouquet on our beautiful new dining table set, the Eiffel Dining Table and matching chairs from Structube. I absolutely love this table for several reasons: it’s the perfect size to fit up to six for a dinner party, which we did the other night, it’s a beautiful, pristine white, making for the perfect vibrant pop with your roses, keeping your home looking minimal, or even acting as a backdrop for your professional flat-lay photos. Yep, tried and true! The matching chairs are super comfortable too, and when you take a look at the leg details, you begin to realize where it’s name, “Eiffel,” comes from. This 47″ Eiffel Dining Table is available at Structube.com for just $249, and the matching Eiffel Dining Chairs as well for just $49 each. How to Keep Your Roses Alive Longer Before placing them in water, trim the rose stems at a 45 degree angle. This is a trick I learned from my grandfather – who nurtured countless rose bushes in his time – which helps to keep them fresher longer by allowing them to take in more water. Remove leaves from the stem up until the point of the surface of the water. In other words, the part of the stem that will be submerged in water should be free of leaves. Continue to trim the stems every 2 to 3 days to keep them…

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