Hair conditioner can do a lot more than rescue your hair from a tangled mess, and if there’s one person who can find multiple uses for this inexpensive household item, it’s Reena Nerbas. Click on for this week’s tips! Get the whole story

For the first time in a while, the Vancouver SPCA kennels were full this week. All the dogs I’ve written about previously have been adopted and their places have been taken by a new set of varying breeds and personalities. Luckily for the SPCA though, there are just as many dog walking volunteers as there are dogs…

This week I got to walk a 7 month old female Siberian Husky cross named Cinder. I don’t know much about Cinder’s history but I suspect that she was hand fed under the table a few too many times. Cinder loves hands. She doesn’t like being touched by them so much as watching them, following them, and eating from them. If you put your hand in your pocket, to her it means she’s getting a treat so she obediently sits down waiting to be fed. If you point in a direction, it means she should walk that way. If you pat her back, it means there must be something there she’s got to see. The upside to this is that Cinder is very good at following directions. The downside though is that she’s not the kind of dog you can cuddle with.

Cinder also likes her privacy when she’s out and about doing her doggy deeds. She actually gives you a look of embarrassment if she sees you notice that she’s doing a #2. Unlike most dogs that like to stop every 2 seconds to pee on a different tree, Cinder finds a spot where she’s relatively unnoticed and squats to pee a very neat little puddle after which she wipes her paws on the grass and continues on with the walk. She’s a real lady.

For details on Cinder (Animal ID: 122270), click here.
BC SPCA Vancouver Shelter: 604 879 7721 or vancouver@spca.bc.ca

To read the profile of another dog, click here.

At least once a year, every household in the small neighbourhood of Skoklefall just outside of Oslo, Norway assembles with their mowers, garbage bags, clippers and weed wackers to clean up all the public areas in the community. Playgrounds are maintained to ensure longevity, hedges in small parks or picnic areas are trimmed, lawns mowed, flower beds renewed with fresh blossoms, garbage cleared – all to beautify the neighbourhood and make it a nicer place to live in and share. Everyone does it willingly and voluntarily and they all have fun catching up with neighbours. This admirable practice is what they call a Dugnad (literally meaning “voluntary (community) work”) and is held whenever there’s a need to better a certain aspect of a community as a whole. Should a school start looking a bit drab, a Dugnad could be called where all the parents convene to roll out a new fresh coat of paint. It saves buckets of money and engenders feelings of citizenship and pride. There are even nation-wide Dugnads! My question is, why don’t we see this across the pond in Canada?! If everyone contributed in their own small way, we’d all be better off as a whole. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp but tougher than nails to implement.

Take our most basic need for instance. In a country as rich as ours, how can it be that over 720,000 Canadians need to use a food bank to make ends meet in any given month? Even with a job, some of these people struggle to feed their families. Something has to be done to eliminate the need for the nearly 300,000 children that went hungry last month. We have over 33 million people in this country. That means that even if only 3% of us donate a can of food a month, there would be no need for a National Hunger Awareness Day. So on Thursday June 5th, get into the spirit of Dugnad and do something to help eliminate hunger in Canada. We are all connected to each other so everything we do has a potentially monumental ripple effect on everyone and everything else, especially when our actions are focused on improving more than just ourselves and our lives. Just your signature in a National Hunger Awareness Day petition to urge Federal Government to take action can do the trick. But while you do that, also box up a few non-perishable food items and haul it down to your local food bank, cause even though we can persuade the House of Commons to develop a national anti-poverty strategy, you can rest assured that they’ll be takin’ their sweet time doin’ it! Please read on to learn more about National Hunger Awareness Day and what you can do to affect change. Get the whole story

From Student to Success – Fashion Community Helps Launch Local Grad

What does it take to make it in Vancouver’s fashion industry? Determination, money, design skills and a lot of support. There are hundreds of fashion graduates entering the industry each year, vying for their chance – Portobello West and fellow sponsors are helping one talented grad by putting everything they need on a silver platter.

The Portobello West Graduate Award will provide one outstanding fashion student with the means to launch their line. They will receive over $15,000 in prizes, including one year at Portobello West fashion and art market, a website, a professional photo shoot by Co.lektiv Images, five months of PR support from The Honey Mustard Fashion and Media Services, a Fashion High membership, a full page ad in The Block Magazine, and a one year membership including a $250 starter kit of eco-friendly fabrics from SYKA Textiles.

You’ve only got one month left to apply so click on to read the rest of this press release! Get the whole story

With summer road trips heating up, we’re looking for more out of hotels than just a place to catch some zzz’s. For 2008, destination hotels – hotels that inherently offer activities and amenities that make for a unique vacation experience – are the hot ticket, offering road enthusiasts everything from rustic wilderness resorts and majestic castle settings to water parks and casinos. But with the cost of filling up gas tanks climbing, we’re opting to take road trips closer to home. So to help you get a head start on your plans, Hotels.ca has compiled the top ‘Road Trip-able’ destination hotels that are a perfect fit whether a romantic getaway or a fun family outing is on the itinerary. Get the whole story

Move over acai. Watch out pomegranate. It’s time for the latest wonderfruit to have its fifteen minutes of fame. The latest in the long list of foods that will fight cancer and extend your life expectancy: the mangosteen. Enter XanGo, the only company out there to harness the full power of this little purple fruit. Not only have they bottled its goodness, but have gone one step further by putting it in convenient little one ounce drinkers. Somehow “a shot of mangosteen a day keeps the doctor away” just doesn’t have the same ring to it…let’s take a look. Get the whole story

Reena’s Finger-Lickin’ Good Tips of the Week!

Juice from canned peaches, apricots or pears may be mixed with melted butter and lemon juice and used as a yummy baste for broiled chicken.

The most important factors contributing to perfectly fried chicken are the temperature of the oil and the actual step of frying. Vegetable shortening, lard, and peanut oil are all popular frying mediums as they have a high smoke point.

To get truly golden-brown and crispy chicken, you’ll need a cast iron skillet, which cannot be beat when it comes to even heat distribution and temperature maintenance.

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Vaid’s Verdict: Sound advice for toning your trouble spots, eating well and dressing for your body type – if you’re still living in the 1980’s, don’t own a computer, and aren’t big on ‘self-esteem.’

Sometimes we all need a lesson in common sense. For instance, just because low rise jeans were in fashion didn’t mean that your butt crack was ever trendy. Are you one of the many women who still sport Uggs? Wear hot pants regardless of orange peel and dimples? Do most of us even know how to cover up unsightly arm wobble, sagging cleavages, stocky ankles or the cursed Buddha belly? Your Perfect Fit is here to do just that – advice on how to tone your body, eat right and give you more neuroses about your body than you ever thought possible.

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I’m pretty good at some things and can wing most others, but if there is one thing that I’m absolutely clueless about, it’s beauty products. I’ve never quite understood why my sister refuses to leave the house without her makeup on or her hair just so. But while going through all the hair extension options available to us ladies (and some laddies) at the annual ABA (Allied Beauty Association) Show this year, I couldn’t help but try out some blue stresses against my black. Gone are the days when hair extensions meant pain and permanently damaged hair…actually, there are still products that will give you that, but the good news is that there are many other pain- and hassle-free ones that will still give you a gorgeous look one day AND a different one the next should you desire a change. Today, we’re featuring three such options and I bet you’ll want to try out at least one of ‘em before the video ends!

An artist by the name of Benjamin Verdonck has built a man-sized swallow nest and hung it on the side of the Weena Tower in Rotterdam, Holland (aka The Netherlands). From his perch high above the city, he is behaving like a bird and staring longingly at a giant ‘lost’ egg he has placed on the sidewalk below. Based on the reactions from the people in this video, I’d say they think Mr. Verdonck is just moments away from the cuckoo’s nest.