Fabulous Gifts for $50 or Less

The under $50 gift guide is my favourite gift guide because it includes items that are fun, silly and understated. The male versus female gift guides always end up being very gender-specific and as much as I try every year, it still happens. Perhaps next year, I will stick to making gifts of different price tiers. 

I am loving the cross-stitch kits and have already purchased three from Stranded Stitch (review coming soon!) What makes these stand out for me are the fun quirky designs like La Croix, Llamas, plants, Frida Kahlo and so on. The 365 days of Art, Creativity or Drawing are fabulous little books that have a daily prompt for a small sketch. Calendars may not seem like the most exciting gift, but the Rifle Paper Co. calendars are definitely more of a "premium luxury paper goods." This is great for someone who likes to make notes in calendars because most Rifle Paper Co calendars are made with a paper that can be written on, not a glossy paper that causes the ink to smear. 

Aurora Winter Festival Food Tour

picture from Maggi Mei

Can you believe the holiday season is almost over?! Fortunately some of the holiday festivities are going to carry over into the New Year. Aurora Winter Festival has made its annual return, but this time they have partnered with Playland. The Aurora Winter Festival will remain open till January 5th, 2020! I got to tag along with my friend Maggi (Maggi is a Vancouver-based foodie & lifestyle blogger: http://vieamaggi.com) for the Aurora Festival media food event. Thank you Maggi for thinking of me and inviting me to be in your video!!! 

I was Maggi's plus 1 for the Aurora Winter Festival, so I decided to be lazy and not bring my camera and simply enjoy my time there. In hindsight, sort of silly of me because now I have no pictures; however, Maggi is an absolute gem and asked me to be in her Youtube video and has given me permission to use it for this post! We got to visit 7 restaurants dishing out delicious eats at this year's Aurora Winter Festival. 

Gift Guide for the Boys, Guys & Gentleman in your Life

Shopping for men can be a bit tricky because they are often so indifferent and nonchalant about everything. How do you shop for a person who is happy with everything? That is not good enough for me. I want them to be wowed and excited by the gift. I hope this gift guide will spark some ideas for you. 

As the old adage goes, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Every guy I know is absolutely infatuated with cooking meat. The meat cooking device they are all fawning over is the Dash sous vide circulator. According to my male friends, cooking meat via sous vide makes for a more tender, evenly cooked and importantly a juicy piece of meat because the meat is cooked in a vacuum-sealed pouch of its own juices.

Gift Guide for Gals, Girls & Females in your life

This gift guide inadvertently turned into a partial wishlist of mine because I kept thinking, I am a female, so what would I want to receive as a present? Then I became overwhelmed because I felt my gift guide was not diverse enough in price point, so I added additional items that are not pictured above, but can be found at the bottom of the post. I tried to select items that are functional and can be used long-term. Hopefully, my gift guide will help you procure the perfect present! 

Smash + Tess is a Vancouver-based company that specializes in comfortable rompers made with a bamboo cotton blend. This summer I had picked up their Play Set in Billy Jean Blue and I am obsessed with it. Hoping to pick-up one of Smash + Tess' Sunday Rompers soon. Another Canadian brand, Roots, makes the best sweats and their updated silhouettes include slim-fit styles like the Cabin sweats with cuffed ankles. 

H2 Rotisserie & Bar serving up Holiday Movies and Dinner

Holiday Movie Night at H2 Rotisserie & Bar at The Westin Bayshore

What are the holidays without a couple of holiday movies? In fact, holiday movies are the only kind of movie that I am able to re-watch over and over without getting bored. H2 Rotisserie & Bar within The Westin Bayshore is showing beloved holiday movies on Mondays leading up to Christmas.

This past Monday I made a reservation for their 6:00 PM screening of The Holiday and it was an absolute blast! The team at H2 Rotisserie rearranged he furniture in the lounge. Their comfy velvet couches were positioned in front of a large screen on which they projected the movie onto. Each couch had its own table, so you can kick back, relax and eat while you watch the movie. They are also doing this adorable hot chocolate cart during the movies which come with a plethora of cute toppings and if you are looking for more of an adult beverage, you can have the hot chocolate spiked from the bar.

Discover Unique Oddities at 2019 The Weirdos Holiday Market

Have you ever been baffled as to what to get that one friend of yours because they are just .... weird? I myself happen to be a weirdo and I am happy to say that I am weird and proud! This year I discovered a new market, the 2019 Weirdos Holiday Market. It is hosted by This Monkey's Gone to Heaven and today,  December 15th, 2019 is their final day. You have until 5 PM to pop by the Ukranian Cathedral Church on West 10th, just off of Main Street to take to discover "Oddities, Trinkets and Scientific Interests."

Most people would say I am a preppy girl, which is true, but I have always been fascinated by unique weird objects. I just find it fascinating and something interesting that we do not often see. At the market, there were lots of taxidermy, sculptures made from real bones, and mounted butterflies. One of the vendors makes statues out of various animal bones. I loved the Chameleon and it comes with the most stunning glass dome making it ready to display. I was pretty close to bringing it home! 

3-Day Mini Vacation at the Four Seasons Resort Whistler

Four Seasons Resort Whistler - one of many cute details

Living in Vancouver has its perks. We have access to the most stunning temporal rainforest-covered mountains, some of the best weather year-round and Canada's largest ski resort, Whistler, is just two hours away by a car making it perfect for a quick getaway. I was in desperate need of a mini-vacation to decompress and re-energize, so I hopped online and booked myself a 3-day stay at the luxurious Four Seasons Resort Whistler. 

There is so much I want to share with you all about my stay at the Four Seasons as it was beyond amazing - simply magical! The customer service at the Four Seasons is top notch and you would be hardpressed to find better and the building itself is grand, furnished with warm walnut wood, plenty of crackling fires and perhaps the largest covered valet entrance I will ever see in my life. Since the hotel is nestled amongst the mountains secluded in the Upper Village, you get the most unbelievable views. 

Challenging myself to 15 blog posts in December 2019

Another December and another potentially failed attempt at Blogmas by me! In fact, I have already missed publishing a post on December 1st - Whoops! This year, I am going to be a little more realistic and aim to publish every other day. I like to do things a little differently and actually post for the entire month, not just till Christmas. The goal is 15 posts for the entirety of December! 

For December 2019, I am going to be publishing a diverse array of posts. There will be food - obviously - some skincare, clothing, gift guides and of course, lots of Winter adventures. I already have a couple lined up.

The first post is going to be my stay at the Four Seasons Resort Whistler! I have been working on it for over a week and cannot wait to publish it because I had the most amazing time staying with them and cannot wait to share it with all of you.