Plen+y is having a 25% off everything sale from today (October 28) until October 30. This may be a good opportunity to purchase a winter jacket…. Print out the below coupon to receive a $25 gift card with any purchase over $125 at Plen+y. Check out their website, I kind of like the track playing on it.

By Guest-writer Alicia Woodside

While waiting to be seated this holiday at Earls, I was pleasantly surprised by an offering of warm, delicious mulled wine. The popular restaurant was using a very unique and appealing way to keep customers pleased during the busy holiday rush. After quickly finishing my mug, I requested Earls’ recipe, which uses a simple and flavourful array of ingredients that would please guests at any gathering this winter. Mulled wine is a winter evening delight and a great addition to bring warmth, comfort, and style to any occasion this winter.

Ingredients:

• 2 bottles red wine: A Zinfandel or Merlot (avoid oak-aged wine, and choose a decent bottle- it doesn’t have to be expensive as it is just being heated anyway)
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup cognac
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 10 cracked cardamom pods

Directions:
Heat-up the flavour elements by bringing the two cups water, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom pods to a boil in a saucepan. Once it boils, lower the heat, and add the wine to the aromatic mixture you have created. Gently heat the wine to a simmer, without allowing it to boil, for anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours. Just before serving, stir in the cognac.

Tips:
For a gathering, continue to steep the wine as guests arrive to welcome them with the amazing fragrance of fruit and spices. Serve in mugs, and keep the wine warm throughout the evening in a thermos, as guests are likely to want more

*
Dear
MMV Readers,
Happy Holidays to you
and your family and friends.
Thanks to everyone for their continual
support of Modern Mix Vancouver over the
past seven months! Wishing you a Merry Christmas
and a joyful new year!
.

Cheers, Vanessa Choot
Editor-in-Chief
Modern Mix Vancouver
.

.

Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all;
.

Additionally, a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.

Playlist of holiday songs covered by pop artists including Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Clarkson, etc.

I’m no beauty expert, but I am a girl with chapped lips. Inspired by the freezing Vancouver weather and being snowed-in at home, I decided to come up with my own list of products to help chapped lips in the winter. Unlike my Mac lipglass and Chanel lipgloss (great color choices, crappy moisturizer), the below are my personal top three picks and the first products I reach for when my lips go dry and bizerk in the winter weather.

1) Bigelow & Co Rose Salve $5.50
Packaged in a cute vintage/retro tin, the rose salve has the consistency of petroleum Jelly (ie. Vaseline) with a slight rose scent from its 0.9% rose extract. This product actually places #1 on the Bigelow Chemists top-sellers’ list….

I can’t believe I got postal mailed VIP invitations to Caprice’s Winter Wonderland clubbing event this coming Thursday, December 18th. I guess this didn’t really come as a surprise because they called me a few days ago asking for my mailing address. But how they got my phone number is another mystery. I don’t know if I’m going to go yet, but it’s definitely an option for this Thursday since I have three postcard invitations for me and a guest! What music should you be expecting? “DJ DARYLO spinning the best of top 40, and Hip Hop.” Anyway, just because they took the time, effort and postage to do that for me, I feel like I should reward their targeted marketing and put up their event flyer on Modern Mix Vancouver.

Skincare tips and foreign products to give a try in preventing chapped skin and dehydration during the cold Canadian winter season.

If you’re out in Abbotsford, here’s another Christmas Show and Market for you to check out! The West Coast christmas Show & Marketplace is debuting at the Tradex Exhibition Centre (1190 Cornell Street, Abbotsford) from November 28th to 30th. Expect holiday entertainment to be brought together under one roof including holiday décor, gifts, food, personal services, festive seminars and celebrity stage presentations.

Visitors to the West Coast Christmas Show will discover amongst the many exhibits new ideas and products for holiday gift shopping, entertaining and home decorating. Amongst the many exhibits visitors will find holiday decor items, holiday spirits & wine, specialty foods, condiments, seasonings, chocolates along with unique and hard to find gift items both from artisans as well as unique manufacturers.

General admission is $10 with free re-admission for all three days with a hand stamp. Donate a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army Meal Centre at the Tradex main entrance and receive $2 off the Adult entrance fee.

From October 22nd to 26th, receive 20% off any coat purchase at PLEN+Y when you bring in a gently worn coat (any brand) to be donated to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. My first formal coat was a hooded navy blue “Propaganda” (in house brand) from PLEN+Y with a mint-green lining. Although it wasn’t very warm, the style of it instantly classed up any outfit I was wearing (as long as it wasn’t with runners!) Since then, I’ve moved on to a thin trenchcoat from Banana Republic and a $400 wool coat from Wear Else…but I still wear my PLEN+Y coat for “in-between” weather. In other words, I’m not quite ready to give up my “gently worn coats”, but maybe you are – and now you have a good cause to support too!