Mattress Vancouver

Christmas crafts sales are a one-stop shopping centre for all those people on your list that need something simple but festive. From ornaments, to wreathes, to salt and sweet treats, you’ll find everything under the broad blanket of Christmas crafts.

This weekend hosts a number of Christmas craft fairs around the city. Simmons Mattress Gallery suggests the following sales:

Friday, November 25th

-9th Annual Chilliwack Christmas Craft Crawl

Various times and locations in Chilliwack

-North Delta Potter’s Guild Christmas Pottery Sale

Artspace Studio (11425 84th Avenue)

-Richmond Potter’s Club Christmas Sale

Richmond Cultural Centre (7700 Minoru Place)

Saturday, November 26th

-Dunbar Community Centre’s Annual Craft Fair

10am – 5pm (4747 Dunbar Street)

-Renfrew Community Centre’s Craft Fair

10am – 3pm (Eastt 22nd and Renfrew)

-Strathcona Community Centre’s Winter Craft Fair

601 Keefer Street, Vancouver

-Urban Artists’ Craft Fair

10am – 5pm Roundhouse Community Centre

-Woodside Gallery Christmas Arts and Craft Show

10am – 5pm (2226 Lougheed Highway)

Homemade Christmas Gifts

The new moon has a special significance in October (and no, it has nothing to do with Vampires). It marks the date of the cultural festival known as Diwali. Observed by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, Diwali is a fall festival that celebrates ‘good over evil.’

In traditional celebrations, the triumph of good is portrayed through the lightening of lamps and candles.

The new moon is the darkest day of the month. In a natural setting, void of electrical lights, the candles represent a defeat of the darkness that exists during the absence of the moon.

Like Thanksgiving, Diwali is traditionally a family occasion, with activities organized around the family unit.  But it is also celebrated with community events and decorations.

The slogan for Vancouver’s publicly organized Diwali celebrations is “Light your Spirit.” There are five major events put on by Vancouver Celebrates Diwali. They run from October 15th to the 23rd. Here is a brief summary of the planned festivities:

October 16

“Dance All Sorts Diwali Style” (2:00 pm)

-The festival will begin with a performance by Bageshree Vaze, a contemporary kathak dancer, who will preform at the Roundhouse Theatre in Yaletown. Tickets at the door.

October 18

“Diwali Bright Lights” (4:30 pm)

-This night is dedicated to emerging South Asian artists in the Vancouver community. It will include classical Indian music and a variety of dance groups, including the ever-popular Bollywood style. The event will take place at the Heritage Hall on Main Street. This is a free event.

“Chai House on Main Street”

-This is an upscaled version of the earlier event. The headline performer will be Grammy winner Chin Injeti. Tickets are $10.

October 23

“Diwali Downtown” (12:00 pm)

This is a family event to close out the public festival. It runs from noon till 6:00 pm at the Roundhouse in Yaletown. There will be a variety of musical acts, dance teams, craft workshops and traditional Indian food. Tickets for this final event are by donation.

Festival of Lights

Summer is winding to a close and fall is starting to show on the leaves. This is great news for corn lovers in B.C. as the fields are filled with this year’s crop. It’s also the time of year when farmers with an entrepreneurial artistic side, can turn their land from simple fields of corn into complex harvest labyrinths.

One of the largest mazes in the Pacific Northwest is located in Pitt Meadows. Appropriately titled the ‘Meadow Maze,’ this year’s design boasts 6.3 kms of pathways. The theme is the Vancouver Zoo. Previous themes include: the PNE, the Golden Ears Bridge and ‘eat local.’

The corn maze design begins on a computer, where a designer creates an image and then maps out the pathways. The maze is then cut when the corn is a foot high using a tractor with GPS compatibility. Before the cut, there are nearly 1 million plants in the field.

Visitors to the maze are encouraged to bring water and a hat. The Pitt Meadows location occasionally closes when the temperature is too high. The average walker takes about 1 1/2 hours to complete the maze. The fastest time for this years design is 35 minutes.

The Meadow Maze also boasts a full concession and market area, plus a petting zoo and hay rides.

Pitt Meadows Maze

*From Experience: Do not watch “Children of the Corn” before a trip to the Pitt Meadows maze.

Vancouver is blessed to have so many diverse ethnicities infused into its kaleidoscope culture. Celebrating specific regions of origin helps Vancouverites appreciate the richness of our multicultural society.

This weekend, the city is proud to host Taiwanfest. With a variety of events planned around the city, Taiwanfest hopes to offer a sampling of the entertainment, food and art from the island of Taiwan and Mainland China.

Free musical performances will be held all weekend around the Vancouver Art Gallery. One of the anticipated highlights of the Labour Day weekend will be the Musou Girls. Starting at 8pm on Saturday, the Musou girls will play a mix of modern and traditional Chinese instruments. The music is composed by the founder of the group, Mr. Xue Xuan Liu.

For a deeper look into the Taiwanese culture, checkout the four documentaries that will be showing around town. Simmons Mattress Gallery suggests “Faces of Taiwan.” This film is made up of five mini docs that focus on overcoming adversity.

On the edible menu will be Vancouver’s first street banquet. This event is being sponsored by the city as part of Vancouver’s 125th celebrations.

Taiwanese ceramics will be on display at the Roundhouse theatre from September 3rd to the 10th.

Enjoy the festivities!

For a more detailed schedule of events click here.

The Pacific National Exhibition is back to close out summer with a bang. The fun started Saturday and continues until Monday, September 5th.

Poke around the agricultural exhibits, take in the hilarious and amazing antics of the Superdogs and watch the night sky light up with Pop City’s nightly pyro celebration. With tons of activities for families during the day, including family theatre, the nights belong to the musicians. The Summer Night Concerts series will host a different performer every night until the final show on Labour Day. This year’s big draw is Kenny Rogers on Monday, August 29th, the Annual Evening with Elvis on the 31st, hosted by the immortal Red Robinson and the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack makers, Wilson Phillips, on September 1st.

General admission is $20, but all children under 13 are free. VanCity (the bank) is also offering $5 admission for there customers on Wednesday, August 24th. Another way to save on admission costs is to come on August 27th. If you are the holder of a Whitecaps ticket, you will receive free entry into the fairgrounds.

For more information on the Pacific National Exhibition, visit their website or check out their smart phone daily schedule.

SUPERDOGS!

You wouldn’t think the airport would be a weekend destination spot, but YVR has other plans. This summer, experience ‘Take-Off Fridays’ at the Vancouver International Airport for games, family events a live DJ and multicultural mingling.

The final Friday event is August 27th. The fun starts around eight in the morning and wraps up around four at night. The festivities are spread out over both the domestic and international terminals.

Activities include face painting, dancing, food specials and the ‘money machine.’ The latter offers each contestant a chance to grab as many YVR bucks as they can. The catch: you need to grab them while standing in a closed wind cylinder. Each ‘buck’ you grab can be used towards purchasing items at stores around the airport.

The backdrop to this event are the finely carved and crafted First Nation artifacts that routinely offer travelers a glimpse at the beautiful history of the first West Coast peoples.

Come and enjoy the richness of YVR with the whole family. Your kids will love it and you will be reminded of how lucky we are to have such an amazing airport to welcome and bid farewell to travelers from all over the world.

Acute illness is usually connected with the winter months, when our bodies react to the change in temperature. The common cold usually strikes us somewhere between the months of October and early December, when our immune system is weakened due to the seasonal climate change.

But the summer months can be just as deadly on our immune system. During summer, we often treat our bodies with less care. We indulge in greasy food, we neglect the gym and we also sleep less. Reducing our sleeping hours is the major cause of summer immune deficiency.

The temptation to sleep less is high in July and August because of our activity loaded days and nights. A fireworks show, two barbecues, a staff party and a wedding can run a hefty sleep debt. It is important to make time, even when the weather is nice, for a few early nights.

A consistent eight hours of sleep can keep our bodies running at maximum capacity. This may mean going home a little early from the party or declining the odd invitation for dinner, but it could also mean not getting sick.

Do your body a favour and make time for sleep this summer.

Summer Sickness? Get More Sleep!

How much money do you spend at the pharmacy each month on products designed to improve your looks? Close to a hundred dollars probably. You need to buy shampoo, bodywash, facial scrubs, toothpaste and beauty products – it all adds up. What about for your interior organs? You probably buy at least one multi-vitamin and maybe one package of stomach relief.

Did you know that a good night’s rest could change your daily complexion and help you fight off illness?

Your gym membership costs more than half your pharmacy bill and you still have to put in the work.

An undisturbed rest is free on a Beautyrest.

Those Sudoku puzzles you do to keep your brain active are rather time consuming. The first four were fun, but numbers really aren’t that interesting.

Eight hours of sleep is the perfect amount of rest needed to maintain your mental potential throughout the working day.

Seems like you could save a lot of time, money and stress by upgrading your mattress set. A Simmons may not freshen your breath, but it will do wonders for your health. Try one today at Vancouver’s mattress store, Simmons Mattress Gallery.

Sleep First

The Westender Magazine has just published its annual Best of the City reader’s choice awards. From dining, to shopping, to health and fitness, the results are in and some of them are a little surprising.

In the people section, Mayor Gregor Robertson seems to be in every category. He’s third in the Most Wonderful Vancouverite category behind David Suzuki and our timeless captain Trevor Linden. He’s first in the Most Trustworthy Politician, in front of Spencer Chandra Herbert and ‘None’. But Robertson is also second in Most Spectacular Failure and second again in Biggest Windbag. Conflicting messages from the voters…

The city’s new bike lanes also seemed to be a dividing issue, with people either loving or hating them. The bike lanes won Best Use of Taxpayer’s Money and also came first in Worst Use of Taxpayer’s Money. The lanes also won Most Spectacular Failure, ahead of the wonderful HST.

Clear favourites in the foody section were Tojos for Chef and Japanese and surprisingly, the White Spot, which showed up on a number of the categories for casual fare.

We were a little surprised that Mattress Store was left off the list. We know it’s not nice to brag, but we’re pretty sure Simmons Mattress Gallery would have received top honours. 

In keeping with the ‘Best in Vancouver’ theme, Simmons Mattress Gallery would like to mention a few categories that we thought were left off the list:

Best Summer Beach: Third Beach in Stanley Park

Best Winter Date: Robson Street Plaza Ice Rink (three dollars for skates and ice)

Best Late-Night Character on Granville Street: Spoonman

Best Late-Night Fast Food: Donair Dude on Davie

Best Balloon Tricks: Arty the Jester at Stanley Park

Best Outdoor Art Installment: The ‘White Man’ at Sunset Beach / East Van sign

Best Crosstown Bike Lane: Tenth Avenue (runs level from West to East Van)

Best Bike Rental: Spokes Bicycle Rentals / English Bay Bike Rentals

Best Summer Event: The Fireworks / Outdoor Cinema

English Bay Crowds

Best Local Band Done Good: The New Pornographers

Best Elevated View of the City: Puget Drive

Best Place to Spot a Hipster: Rickshaw Theatre / Foundation

Best Dog Friendly Beach: Spanish Banks, at the bottom of the Marine Drive hill

Best Place To Find A Good Night’s Rest: Simmons Mattress Gallery

If you have any comments for our list, or know of any categories we may have missed, please share your musings as a comment below.

At Simmons Mattress Gallery we accommodate all comfort levels to find our customers the perfect bed for their lifestyle. In the food world, this task is often a little more difficult, especially if your chosen lifestyle is vegan. Finding goods that meet your ingredient standards can be a difficult task. Finding baked goods – almost impossible.

Well that is all about to change, with the opening of Edible Flours (cute little pun), the first all-vegan retail bakery in Vancouver. The bakery will launch in late March, on Broadway, between Vine and Yew. Edible Flours will offer sweets of all sorts that are dairy and egg free. This includes cupcakes, cookies, muffins, loaves, brownies and even birthday cake. All the sweeteners used in these products will be un-refined.

Their menu will also include items for specialty diets, with the option of gluten, wheat, soy and sugar free products.

Unfortunately, the bakery will not initially produce bread, but co-owner Paul Briggs claims it may be a possibility further along.

Briggs and Alli Neville started the project with a make-to-order bakery a year ago.

Divine Vegan Treats

As a society, we are so hooked on caffeine that we are constantly finding new products to add it to. Some of the most bizarre caffeinated products currently on the market are:

Soap – Products like “Bath Buzz” contain 2400mg of caffeine in every bar. We guess this product is intended for those people who don’t have enough time to brew a morning cup. But mixing it with soap? What next? Morning caffeine toothpaste?

Oatmeal - Answering the question above, Sturm Foods has produced an warm breakfast cereal with a cup of coffee’s worth of caffeine. “Energy Instant Oatmeal” comes in three heart-racing flavours: cranberry apple, mixed berry and peach cobbler.

Inhaler – Yes, they’ve done it. Why bother drinking a mug of Columbian, when you can puff it back in less than a second. Buzzaire has created a puffer to blast 150mg of caffeine into your system with each depression. The manufacturer warns that no more than four doses are suggested in a 24-hour period.

But we’ve saved the best for last….

Pantyhose – Slim Fit 20 has a line of tights with sewn in caffeine microcapsules that release with body heat. The really alarming fact about this product is that the developers are trying to sell it as a weight-loss inducer. Somehow injecting caffeine into your legs will increase metabolism.

We Dare You To Keep Your Leg Still!

Our suggestion, avoid them all. The ONLY reason people need caffeine is to artificially stimulate wakefulness with increased adrenaline production. The only natural answer to daytime drowsiness is increased sleep at night. For those of you running on five hours each night, you are doing your body a daily disservice. Find the rest you need on a mattress from Simmons Mattress Gallery.

It started over drinks at Bin 942. They had been set-up by a mutual friend who thought their mutual love for indoor climbing and after-dinner mints made them a perfect match.

They shared the ‘picnic on a grilled flat bread’ and a bottle of Heartland Shiraz. The music was low and bass driven and the date ended with a kiss; a soft kiss, with the hope of more to come.

Three months later, after many trips to Cliffhangers and a plethora of after dinner mints from some of the cities finest restaurants, the two decided to move in together. But both had terribly small beds; being single for that long has its effect on furniture choice.

Together, they visited the Broadway Simmons Mattress Gallery. It was a flirtatious outing, where both made quiet jokes and hinted at the passion of the nights to come.

On the advice of one of the many in-house mattress professionals, the two finally decided on a mattress from the Cartier line; a king size bed, designed to eliminate motion transfer between couples and provide the ultimate in undisturbed sleep. With the non-flip pocket coil design, the Cartier would be their foundation for play and rest.

The first night of use, he made the bed and left a small mint on her pillow.

Mints To Share

Tired of your partner bringing snacks to bed?

The annoying cookie crumbs, the red wine stain on the sheets, the pastrami under your pillow, with all the culinary clutter it’s hard to enjoy your amazing new Beautyrest properly.

Maybe it’s time you stood up and said something.

You could confront the issue head on, banning all edible items from the bedroom. You could collect articles on how food attracts bugs and decreases the sanitary level of your sleeping quarters.

Or… you could plan a quiet vacation to Germany with a casual stop at The Food Hotel.

The Food Hotel in Neuwied, Germany

It seems counter-productive, but after spending a night in a room totally devoted to food, your partner could be scared straight.

The Food Hotel offers thirty-six rooms devoted to thirty-six different household food companies. Each sponsor had free reign to design a room that featured products from their own line of food and drinks. The cost of sponsorship included paying for the room’s furnishings and contributing towards the construction costs of the building itself.

One of the hotel’s highlights is a room produced by Chio, a German chip manufacturer. The room features a rotating mirror ball, strobe lights and an integrated sound system. Who knew potato chips were the life of the party?

The hotel also has its own private supermarket.

So buy all the crumbly items you can, choose a product theme and send your partner over the edge.

Hopefully they will come out of the experience with a renewed belief that food belongs in the kitchen, not in the bedroom.

If that doesn’t work…

There’s always the threat of abstinence.