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Why should Santa enjoy the comfort of his reindeer drawn sleigh while we circle parking lots, brave crowds and bah humbug over gas prices? This winter we want to erase those ghosts of holidays’ past and replace them with a memorable gift shopping experience.
Every Sunday until December 18, Shop Socials will be offering Santa’s Limo Helper, a chauffeured shopping excursion designed to tackle even the most challenging gift list with the help of luxury limousine transportation, an on-board gifting tutorial, festive cocktails, gourmet sweets and a two and half hour guided tour of Queen West, Leslieville or Yonge and Eglinton boutiques, hand-selected for their gifting charm.
Passengers enjoy free time to explore neighbouhoods on their own and can literally proclaim, “It’s a wrap!”, at the end of the day with complimentary gift wrapping. The Santa’s Limo Helper experience starts from just $65 per person and offers centrally located pick-ups east and west of the Greater Toronto Area every Sunday at 11 a.m. Private group bookings are also available until December 23.
Learn more and reserve your spot before they’re all gone at: www.shopsocials.com/ss/santa.html
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I’m DYING to get my hands on some of these unbelievable Versace dresses that will be available starting on November 17th at H&M.
Great design…great prices…sounds like my kind of offering! It’s the usual UBER-SEXY Versace style, which will come in sooo handy for all the holiday parties!
Here’s my top 5 picks:
1. The Red Dress – Oh my…so sexy & classy & red! All of my favourite things in one!
2. The Gold Dress – Soooo sexy & fun! This dress makes me want to party!
3. The Yellow Dress – Stunning colour, and looks amazing with this blue scarf & fun purse.
4. The Versace LBD – Classic!
5. Light & Dark Blue Asian Inspired Dress – This is just fun! It’s cute, girly and could be worn a million different ways!
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Nothing beats farm fresh produce. The rich flavours, divine aromas of fresh produce, and the pleasing process of farm to table.
This summer we’ve been making a big effort to support the local farmers. We stop by the farm stand a few times a week, and peruse their offerings before picking up a few of our favourites.
This summer the peaches have been insanely good! So incredibly juicy and rich and perfect! The onions are also a hit, and we’re getting pumped for the pears which should be available any day now.
If you get a chance, buy farm fresh produce. In Ontatrio, if each household spent $10 of their grocery bill on Ontario farm fresh produce each week, it would add up to a 2.4 billion dollar annual influx into our provincial economy. Good for you, good for farmers…..good for everyone!
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Today I travelled to Vegas.
And it was not that easy of a travel day!
For the first time ever in my life I MISSED MY FLIGHT! I’ve taken probably 100 flights and I’ve never missed my plane!
My flight was at 8am, and I set my alarm for 5am to make sure I had enough time to shower and get to the airport….but when I woke up at 7:47 (the irony of the time not lost on me!) I realized there was NO WAY I was going to catch my plane.
It was a terrible feeling!
The first thing I did was scramble to call the airline to re – arrange my ticket. They weren’t able to help me on the phone so they said to just go to the airport and try and catch the next flight at 10am.
After panicking, and racing to the airport as fast as I could I arrive at 9am, and am able to get booked on the next flight…but instead of flying from Toronto to Denver to Las Vegas and arriving at 1pm, I have to go from Toronto to Chicago to Houston to Las Vegas, and arrive at 6pm.
Extended travel time aside, I was just happy that I didn’t have to buy a whole other plane ticket. Wasting hundreds of dollars would have broken my heart!
After checking in I had to run to clear customs and then do the security check. As I approach the customs line I realize it’s miles long! I get through in about 30 minutes and go to security just as my flight is boarding! God forbid I miss two flights in one day…
I realize very quickly that there was NO WAY I will make my flight if I wait in line properly, so I ask the nice guy helping people through if he can help me jump the line so I didn’t miss my flight. Count my lucky stars – he helps me!
I make me flight, make my connections and make it to Vegas – totally exhausted!
After running a few errands for work I go to bed and crash really hard at 11pm.
So much for Vegas being my party town!
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I’m not really into animal stories, but I came across this picture on I am Chiq and almost fell over! This is HUGE!
The rabbits name is Darius, but I think he needs a tougher name.
The family that owns him should get rid of the Rottwiler and just keep Darius at the door.
Robbers would be so freaked out they would never break in, nobody would come to your door trying to sell you anything, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses would never dare knock!
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This morning after picking up my Starbucks coffee, I felt hungry. Since Starbucks has such terrible tasting food I decided to walk across the street to a small grocery store to pick up a small yogurt.
One yogurt – that was all.
I walked into the store…and saw some nice looking organic blueberries, so I picked those up. And then I saw some Tangerines, which would sweeten up my plain yogurt wonderfully! Then some bananas caught my eye, followed by some almonds, sunflower seeds, and nectarines.
I had to put all my goodies down, go back to the entry of the store, and get a cart because I couldn’t carry all the things in my arms!
When I headed over to the dairy aisle I picked up my plain yogurt, but there were flavoured kinds on sale too – so naturally I picked up a mango flavour, berry flavour, peach flavour. I also bought some cottage cheese because it has loads of protein and is healthy too!
Almost ready to hit the checkout some muffins caught my eye, so I added them to my bursting cart.
Finally I was satisfied that I had enough food for my breakfast.
After I left the store I thought about what I intended to buy:
- one small yogurt
Vs. What I actually bought:
-bluberries
-bananas
-nectarines
-tangerines
-sunflower seeds
-almonds
-4 big containers of yogurt (literally, 2 Litres of yogurt!)
-cottage cheese
-muffins
I intended to spend $2.00
I really spent $29.67
It’s true, you really shouldn’t go to the grocery store when hungry!
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Every New Years loads of resolutions are passed around – eat less, exercise more, take your lunch to work everyday….all sorts of promises that don’t typically live for longer than 2 weeks.
For real, have you heard anyone who actually kept a resolution for a full year? I don’t think it’s actually happened.
So, instead of making resolutions we’re making some lifestyle changes.
Our goal is to make 2011 the best year ever!
How are we going to do that? By making 5 important changes in our life:
Focus On What Makes You Happy. That’s right. If you don’t like, don’t do it. Enough with saying yes to people, invitations, obligations that don’t really “work” for us. If it doesn’t make us happy, we’re not doing it!
Make Fun A Priority. In university life was good. We got together with our girlfriends, watched movies, went to free concerts, had picnics in the park, and most importantly WE HAD A BLAST! We didn’t have much money, but we sure had fun! Now we socialize by going to restaurants, having wine with friends, but it’s all getting kind of routine, and we only do it when it fits into our weekend schedule. After all, we spend all our time during the week thinking about work! Now we’re making good old “fun” a priority. A street party on a Tuesday night? Sign me up! The free lunchtime concerts hosted by the Canadian Opera Comany – sign me up! Bring back the good old fashioned fun!
Save More Money. You can’t live rich if you feel poor, and as women taking charge of our finances is extremely important. We’re not going to live like Scrooge, but we arere saving more. Remember that saying – “Pay yourself first”. We’re doing it and we’re having more “free fun” at the same time.
Relax More. That’s right, we’re going to chill out more. Enough with the crazy speed of life and all the work stress. This year, you’ll find us sitting at the cafe, watching the passerby, taking a stroll after dinner, and reading good books. When we work, we’re going to work really hard. When we’re not, we are either having fun, or relaxing.
Surround Yourself With Happy People Who Make You Feel Good. Your social circle has a huge influence on your happiness. Breakup with your negative friends, and spend more time with positive, interesting and inspiring people who make you feel good.
Sound like a recipe for a good life, doesn’t it?
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This year why not give gifts that are budget wise AND actually make you feel good?
1. Water.org’s “Camelbak Water Bottle”
Promoted in part by Matt Damon this cool water bottle gives 100% of the proceeds to support nearly a billion people in the world who lack clean water.
The bottles are $18.99 and can be bought here.
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2. Me To We Style’s “Maisha Life Key Ring”
The folks at Me To We Style sell socially conscious and environmentally friendly clothes, books and music – as well as life-changing experiences. This key ring is part of the Artisans line; original accessories, handcrafted by artisans in Free The Children countries across the globe. Each unique piece is a connection between you and a working artisan, sustainably produced and using as much local supply as possible.
The key ring sells for $9.99 and you can buy it online here
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3. Unicef’s “Beautiful Birds Magnet Notepads”
These stylish notepads are beautifully designed and you get 2 in a pack with a pencil. They have a bird design and a fresh cut flowers design.
Two magnetic notepads: 9.5cm x 9.5 cm. One pencil: 16.5 cm.
The notepads are on sale for $6.99 and you can buy them here
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I’m not sure that I’m fully in the grinch category…but Christmas does not excite me at all, which means I wait until the last possible moment to buy gifts and do all the preparations necessary.
I’m not into complaining, so I’ll leave the long list of things wrong with Christmas off this post (hint, hint, it’s freezing, expensive, stressful, involves terrible music and forced encounters with work mates you’d probably rather avoid…..just to name a few). Regardless, the fact remains, a little coaxing is required to bring out the “ho-ho” feeling.
To get ready to get in the Christmas spirit here’s what this (faux) Doctor orders.
1. make yourself some wonderful hot chocolate with marshmallows. Add lots of cream, and things you wouldn’t normally drink.
2. put on a warm sweater.
3. curl up on the sofa.
4. make mental notes of memories you’ve shared with all the people on your Christmas list.
5. Enjoy those memories. Savour the fun times…when you laughed together, beautiful meals you shared together, maybe getting out of some sad times together. Enjoy the *real* moments you shared.
6. Then think of what each of those people would like for Christmas. Not some fancy, new, hot thing…but something meaningful, and set yourself a nice modest budget for each person.
Maybe their grandmother’s favourite vase broke this year and you know a guy who can fix it – get it repaired for them and wrap it up for Christmas.
Or maybe they are always losing their golf balls when playing – get them a golf ball personalizer (you can type your initialls on the ball!)
At the end of your list if you have some empty names make an effort to do some good this year – buy gifts from great (& charitable) organizations such as Me To We, or Unicef. Give your friends a gift & the proceeds will go to the charity!
Doesn’t that make you feel excited about Christmas already??
See, it’s not so bad after all.
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Kevin O’Leary is one of the most famous folks from Dragon’s Den. To put it mildly, he is definitely not afraid to share his opinions on pretty much everything – whether you asked him or not!
But, it’s that same brash personality that has made him a millionaire many times over.
So when someone who has succeeded and failed, and then succeeded again tells you 5 things you need to be successful, it’s definitely worth listening.
For entrepreneur week Kevin spoke at The Ted Rogers School of Management (Ryerson University) on Tuesday night, and here’s what he pinpointed as the 5 things you need to be successful.
1. You need to admit your weaknesses to yourself.
Only focus on your strengths, give someone else the work that you’re not good at. And you can’t be good at everything!
2. Communication Skills
You need the ability to stand up in front of a big crowd and share your vision with confidence, to articulate what you are trying to do, and inspire others to take action.
3. A Laser Focus On Shareholder Returns
Your bottom line should be your bottom line. As Kevin says “If you have to fire your mother, fire your mother”. It seems harsh, but it’s painfully true.
Here’s how Kevin put it, “If you’re an employee, the CEO is always looking for way to fire you, because you are a cost, and the CEO’s job is to cut costs and make more money”.
When he puts it that way it kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?
4. No conscience.
According to Kevin “You don’t make friends, you make money. If you have to, fire your best friend”.
When I raised this point to fellow entrepreneur he came back with an interesting story.
Brad mentioned “It makes sense. My best friend and I started a venture a few years back and decided to fire each other. We realized we were bringing the same things to the table rather than complementing each other as we always had outside of business. We each run our own successful biz’s today and remain best friends.”
That situation does take a lot of maturity, and also confidence to believe that you can do it all again.
But that’s the kind of belief you need to be a successful entrepreneur.
You need nerves of steel!
5. You need luck
Kevin believes there’s just something…an energy, or some sort of karma, that successful people have.
And that’s pretty true, too. Successful people inspire success. They are normally confident, and they normally have lots of interesting stories and they know how to embrace opportunity. Look at Kevin, he’s just got it. He’s crazy wealthy, but he’s smiling and having a good time during the presentation. He’s convinced all of us at the presentation that we can be successful!
That something, that luck/karma/energy….he’s just got it!
