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For the 20-something Fashionista

Like every good girl in the 90s, I was obsessed with Full House, except in the Georgia household it was known only as “Michelle.” Screw uncle Joey or Bob Saget, I was in it for the twins. Safe to say my Olsen obsession has continued to this day and I know I’m not alone.

The Olsens are no longer icons of cute chidhood catchphrases or teen eating disorders, but instead icons of style and these twins coined the disheveled I-just-woke-up-on-the-floor-of-a-bus-with-a-condom-in-my-ear-but-I’m-going-to-work-it-and-go-to-Starbucks-anyways-P.S.-I’m-really-skinny look which has become the ideal for 21 year old girls across our great land (which is actually kind of disturbing when you think about it). In the Olsen’s new book Influence the girls discuss their well, influence in both fashion and life.

From the publisher:

Influence has 4 major sections: Fashion, Environment, Art and Giving Back, as well as an introduction and conclusion. This category-breaking book will show that with an open mind and a little bit of curiosity, everyone can have INFLUENCE.

Oooh and introduction and a conclusion? They went all out! Honestly it sounds like a total crock, but the book includes a ton of new pictures of the tiny twins as well as an interview with the man who can make your unbelievably frightened just by looking at a picture of him from two thousand miles away, Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld. The whole thing is a great conversation starter, plus Influence would give any girl some definate coffee table cred.

The Olsen Twin’s Influence is available at Chapters (if you’re in Canada) for the low low iRewards price of $23.83. And bonus, This Sunday is Chapter’s customer appreciation day where all regularly priced merchandice incudling CD’s and DVDs are between 15 and 25 percent off, so you can pick up this great gift for well… less than $24!

Goes great with: Two of a Kind Diaries #38: Holiday Magic

Taken from City of Glass by Douglas Coupland

Bellingham and the Border
Vancouver mothers visit Bellingham maybe twice a year.  The reason for this is flat-out shameless shopping, these days mainly at the legendary retail kingdom called the Bellis Fair Mall and the factory outlets along I-5.  Things really are cheaper in the U.S.  People once went to Bellingham simply because their stores and bars were open on Sundays and ours weren’t, and it’s amusing to recall that Bellingham was once our own region’s “Sin City.”

Everybody always brings (smuggles, really) back way more than they declare and everybody knows the falsetto their voice hits as they declare “Oh, maybe fifty bucks in groceries and a tank of gas.”  Nobody wants the dreaded Strip Search Room, or possibly worse, Those Miserable Bastards Who’ll Rip Up Your Car Leaving You With a Pile of Metal and You Have No Legal Recourse Whatsoever.  The truth is actually more boring.  Canada’s bankrupt and needs all the money it can get.  In the end, it’s easier to… pay the stinking $5.63 tax.  That, of course, means standing in the tax lineup…  But this is outweighed by the elation of smuggling back twenty pounds of Jack Cheese, four hundred frozen bacon-rolled scallops and a pile of Liz Claiborne towels.

Yesterday my mother and I made our second trip of the year down to Bellis Fair Mall. For those living in America, you may never understand the overwhelming feeling of happiness when you are faced with Bath and Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s, and the holy grail of the cross border shopping experience Target.  Somehow Canada missed the boat on these shopper’s Meccas and we suffer daily for it.
Needless to say, my mom and I went kind of… insane.

Reviews to come.

Before Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin’s book Skinny Bitch I had never bought a dieting guide. I always figured that I could learn what I need to know about weight loss and staying healthy from websites and from my mom, a dieting master. But Skinny Bitch attracted me with its sassy cover and even sassier insides, and I thought I would give it a chance. But after I took the book home and had a closer look I realized that Skinny Bitch is not so much “a no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous” as it is a no-nonsense guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating meat and dairy and start shopping at Whole Foods.

The book does have some great tips, like eat fruit for breakfast and stop drinking caffeine, but these words of wisdom are buried beneath chapters like “The Dead, Rotting, Decomposing Flesh Diet” and “The Dairy Disaster” that preach the so called evil truth behind animal products.

Also included in Skinny Bitch is a list of foods appropriate for eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Don’t have a Whole Foods in your city? Don’t bother reading the lists. While a few of the brands are available at say, IGA or Loblaws, like Nature Valley and Amy’s Organic, I’ve never heard of Fabe’s Bakery, Food for Life, LightLife or many of the other brands this book recommends.

Following the lists is a four week diet plan, but unless you plan on giving up steaks, its pretty useless. In fact, I found the whole book pretty useless to me. I just love meat. I even like those little sausage nobules on McCain’s rising crust pizzas. In the end Skinny Bitch’s vegan agenda didn’t change my thinking or teach me anything new or useful about getting thin and fit, it only served to briefly turn me off Olde Orchard Pub’s honey garlic chicken strips… briefly.