Pet Peeve: Blog recaps

A lot of blog networks require their bloggers to publish weekly blog round-ups of each other's posts, titled after their network. How clever. They then require their bloggers to publish a short recap for each participating blogger's recent postings, which is painful to read and reeks of spam. Not only does it clutter an otherwise pleasant blog with unnecessary verbal diarrhea, it makes the poster sound as dull as the blogs they are touting:

Link Whore's Publishing Weekly Blog Round-Up

Whoo hoo! Look what fellow Link Whore Publishing members are talking about this week!

Dolly from Dolly's Ramblings is raving about those new pants she bought last week. LOL!

Sarah from I Love Makeup just tried out a brand new eyeliner... and she loves it!

Jessica admitted on Donuts for Life that she's gained 5 pounds.

TotalLoser.com just posted a new how to video on applying mascara. Can't wait to check that out!!

Betty from ThisIsMyLife is visiting her Aunt Bee in Detroit. Sounds like fun!

Blah, blah, blah, mundane, blah, blah, blah.

You get the point.

The objective of this is of course, to collect links for the publishing network and their bloggers. The traffic goes up for the Network and the bloggers who join these ridiculous rolls get more links and therefore a higher technorati score. But at what cost?

P.S. I do not blame the bloggers who are forced to publish this nonsense, it is the networks that are to blame.

To the Bloggers: Just say no!

How I Met My Husband

Ali and Alex ~ honeymoon in Spain May 2005

I have been a very naughty blogger.

The truth is, writing is not the easiest thing for me so posting on the ChickAdvisor blog as often as I do is already quite an accomplishment. With the amazing coverage the company has been getting Alex and I have been invited to speak at a number of events and I have another coming up on Feb 20th. I'm not complaining, we're thrilled. Just doin' a little 'splainin' for my absence is all.

A really interesting speaker that came into one of my classes last week said you should always keep up with your blog and write about the things you are learning and what is happening in your industry. So... I will attempt to write here more than once every 4 months ;)

I'm finally finishing my degree in April so I expect to have a more reasonable schedule shortly. In the mean time I'll leave you with this story that few people know but is quite unbelievable: How I met my husband... and business partner, Alex.

Alex and Ali at the Founders and Funders Dinner in Toronto photo credit: Istoica

Part 1: Kicked off Campus

I am originally from Winnipeg. About 8 years ago I was studying at the University of Manitoba and took on a part time job doing field marketing for a company with several clients including a new online textbook retailer for university students called ProfessorJones (now defunct). I promoted ProfessorJones on campus together with a small team I hired, and we handed out cd roms, put up posters and encouraged fellow students to buy their textbooks online instead of paying through the nose at the University bookstore. After a couple of weeks of intense promotion, we were kicked off campus because the university bookstore was upset about the competition and pulled out an old contract that said they had exclusive rights to sell text books on campus. The university paper wrote up a nice little ditty on the brouhaha here. They quoted me for it.

I didn't think anything more about that job until several years later...


Part 2: Living in T.O With The Roommate That Wouldn't Share

Shortly after my stint with ProfessorJones, I moved to Toronto by myself. I was working in the insurance industry as a claims adjuster, which I hated. I was very young, unconnected and underpaid. I knew I had much more to offer than assessing the value of a torn asshole from a slip and fall in a grocery store - yes, this was one of my files. One of the last. Despite the fact that I could hardly pay my bills, I put away 10% of my income every paycheque. After 3 years I had just enough to quit but didn't have the guts. I decided to downsize from living in my own jr 1 bedroom to sharing a 2 bedroom with a roommate. I found a beautiful apartment in Bloor West Village but didn't know anyone I could share it with. I told the landlord that I loved the unit but needed to find a roommate first. He mentioned that another tenant had a friend who was also looking for a roommate. We met later that week and realized we could stand to live together.

Part 3: Love at Second Sight

New Roommate had two guy friends help her move in. One of those guys was a somewhat grumpy but athletic looking guy named Alex. Our apartment had no air conditioning, we lived on the top floor with no elevator and it was 30 degrees outside that day, so understandably, Alex was no fun. We were equally unenthralled with each other.

Two months later we all joined a beach volleyball team and it turns out, Alex was not only the best player of the bunch, he was also a lot nicer than our first meeting. We found we had a lot in common. I didn't know much about him, but there were definitely mutual sparks. The Roommate saw the sparks. The Roommate didn't like the sparks. The Roommate said she didn't want her Roommate and her good friend to date. And so we didn't.

Part 4: Love Over a Bowl of Paella

Six months later, Alex threw a Paella night where he invited a bunch of friends over to share this traditional Spanish dish. He invited Roomie.... and me! By this time I realized Roomie was selfish in many ways and no longer cared if she was offended by me getting to know someone she had no intention of dating herself. He invited for 7. I came at 7. Everyone else came at 8. ... The Paella was delicious.

Part 5: Destiny

Two months later in casual conversation, Alex said, "well at my first company, ProfessorJones, we blah blah blah..." I nearly lost my lid. I said, "WHAT?! ProfessorJones?? I worked for you!!!" We immediately went online where he showed me his articles on ProfessorJones and I showed him my notorious affiliation.

He convinced me to quit my job and go back to school. We got engaged 5 months later and married 9 months after that. This May, we celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary. Our anniversary as business partners follows shortly after.

Do you believe in God - Fate - Destiny now?

Where did I go?

In case anyone still reads this very neglected blog, I'm posting over at blog.chickadvisor.com, the official blog for my website, www.chickadvisor.com.

I may post here on occasion but most of it will be on the chickadvisor blog. The reason being, I'm in my final year of my degree (Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University) and with the continued success of ChickAdvisor, I haven't had time to post my usual rants, raves and commentary here - even though I am practically hooked up intravenously to my macbook :P

I'm really excited about where the company is going! Our podcast was under "What's Popular" on Slice all summer, we appeared in the Toronto Star yesterday with a ginormous picture which was just kick-ass (do people still say "kick-ass"?) anyhooo.... and now this month we are being followed around by television cameras from CBC Newsworld for a new show they are doing called Fortune Hunters. The show itself is a really great concept and is airing early 2008. I can't really say anything about it except it's about time someone did something like this... :)

So as you can imagine things are a little hectic, but going swimmingly and I suspect I'll hit the ground running after graduation, which was all part of my master plan.. mwahahaha!

Seriously.

I have a lot of wasted years to make up for, what with my 4 year career as an insurance adjuster, which nearly killed me of boredom.

I may pop in here from time to time but primarily you can find me on ChickAdvisor :)

xoxo,
Ali

Schmoozing in the City

It was only a year ago that we lost the entire summer so we could launch ChickAdvisor. Our developers worked around the clock with us, watching the gorgeous summer weather through the window of our small apartment. This year, less than 1 year after launch, we're working hard once again to do bring you some cool new stuff.

The 2nd episode of our street fashion podcast, Summer Trends, aired on Friday, and we've been working for some time on some top secret exciting new stuff.

Toronto members, we are planning an event this summer so we can finally meet in person!

We've also been busily attending a number of events around the city, networking and schmoozing to get the word out.

We recently attended the Poa Studio shopping party at Verity, which made us wish all shopping experiences could be that much fun! There was a fantastic dj, a fashion show, sushi and other munchies, and of course fruity cocktails to sip on while perusing Catherine's latest imports. Unfortunately we had to bail early as we had double booked ourselves at a 2nd event that night.

Those of you who have been following the misschickie blog may recall our stylist friend, Giselle from Argentina. A business contact of hers told us about an event that was billed as a night of dinner and networking with local Toronto entrepreneurs. It was taking place in the posh neighborhood of Rosedale, so we thought it would be a reasonably swanky affair. We bought our tickets online arrived well stocked with business cards and smiles, anxious to make valuable contacts in the fashion and beauty space.

What we encountered could best be described as something of a Stars Hollow Town Meeting ala Gilmore Girls.

Though the event began at 6:30 we only arrived shortly after 8pm, since we had been at the Poa party. When we entered the dusty blue hued lobby (our first red flag), we were greeted by two elderly gentlemen:

"How can we help you, ladies?"

"We're here for the entrepreneur event. We bought our tickets online. I'm Giselle and this is Ali."

"Well where is your receipt?"

"Oh. We didn't know we were supposed to print it off. Do you have us on your list?"

"No. How could we possibly have a list? If you registered on the internet, everything is on the internet!"

"Ok, but you can access that information online. You didn't print off a list of who bought tickets?"

"No. Like I said, it all happened on the internet so how could we access that??"

"Usually, an organizer will print off a list of people who have rsvp'd and paid online."

"Well now, I don't know about that! Anyway, I guess we'll just have to trust that you two paid."

We put on our "Hello, My Name Is..." name tags, and walked down the blue hallway to the room where the event was taking place. We could hear a man's voice droning in the background. We took a seat at the back of the room, several feet away from the buffet table with crackers, veggies and dip (the dinner). Turns out, the key note speaker was an Historian. While he discussed the gargoyles that used to be on top of various buildings in the city complete with slideshow, Giselle and I looked at each other confused, wondering if we were at the right event. There were about 15 people there, many of whom, were senior citizens. There was a plastic shelf in the corner where everyone left a stack of business cards and we were strongly encouraged several times that evening to do the same.

After 30 minutes of Q & A with the Historian about why certain streets were named whatever there names were, it was time to mingle and network.

We were enthusiastically greeted by a variety of very genuine locals: the insurance broker, a couple of real estate agents, a chiropractor and so on, but not a single person from the beauty or fashion industries or anything even remotely connected to what we were doing or anyone who understood the internet.

As we were trying to figure out how to leave without offending anyone, I was approached by an adorable East Asian gentleman in his 60s. "I saw your name tag from across the room, and so I had to come over and introduce myself. You see, Ali is actually a man's name..." He then invited me to join their chapter.

Giselle said something about going to the bathroom and I said I had to go too. We got in the car and laughed all the way home. Next time we'll be doing a little more research.

Bikini Wax Trauma

I should've waited until Roza got back from vacation.

I consider myself to be a veteran of waxing of any kind since I've been doing it since I was a teenager. I've seen many estheticians over my years of waxing and have yet to cry or yelp out loud.

Normally, I only see Roza for these delicate matters, but Alex and I are going to the inlaws for a few days and they have a pool. So, when I called to book my appointment and found out Roza was away, I settled for getting someone else to do it. Some person I'd never heard of who was new.

I tried to be optimistic, but wasn't exactly a confidence builder when newbie started talking to herself under her breath going, "Oops! Oh, that didn't work. Hmm... what if I try it this way?"

She yanked and pulled from every direction, digging her sharp fingernails here and there on my raw sensitive skin (which was excruciating - not to mention unsanitary), using my woohoo as leverage to yank the strips away. It's the first time I almost screamed during a wax. I got the feeling she was ready to cry as well since it wasn't going very well from her end. She got so much wax caked on one spot that it wouldn't come off, so she started dabbing kleenex on it (an excellent idea putting wax and tissue together) and of course none of it came off. So she proceeded to gloop by the handful, some miscellaneous post-wax lotion that is supposed to get rid of any wax residue as she scratched with her nails on that raw sensitive wax and tissue covered patch to get it off. Simultaneously, to my horror, I felt an intense burning sensation in another area - an area that needs no introduction.

I begged her to stop what she was doing so I could go to the bathroom and wash everything off. She didn't understand and added another blob of this mystery lotion. "Here, this will help!" I tried my best to explain that this lotion had found its way inside and I needed to take care of it. Pronto. She offered me the lotion again insisting it was the only solution. I grabbed my skirt and ran to the bathroom.

I'm home now covered in teatree oil feeling much relieved.

Never again.

Where'd You Get That? Is Now LIVE!!

We literally stopped fashionable women on the street to find out where they bought their stuff. The most surprising thing for me was the amount of money these women spend on their bags!! It was a lot of fun to shoot and people were really receptive.

It was a lot of work and we've hardly slept for weeks but we're really excited about the way it turned out.

You can watch it on ChickAdvisor or Alliance Atlantis' Slice. Please add your comments and vote for your favorite looks!

The Best Foundation I Have Ever Used

This foundation is amazing!! Lately my skin has been really terrible with a bunch of bad breakouts. It started a couple of months ago when I was testing some products and hasn't recovered. I was really nervous shooting Where'd You Get That? (our street fashion podcast) because of a ginormous zit on my chin for half of the shoot. Luckily, my makeup artist (blogger Makeup Junkie in Canada) used Make Up For Ever on me and I couldn't believe how well it not only hid my breakouts but kept my skin even, smooth and relatively oil free. Considering I have very oily skin this was a feat by itself.

I loved this product so much that I bought it for my own use. I have never used a better foundation. It is a lot more money than I usually spend but for the results it is totally worth it and when I run out, I'll definitely buy it again. I have very pale skin but I use #30 (porcelain), a hint darker than my natural skin tone, which looks amazing. I highly recommend this foundation to anyone.

P.S. The good thing about Sephora is you can always get samples and try them out at home for free before you invest.

Odd Happenings of Late

While we've been working on our upcoming vidcast, there have been a number of odd things that have happened to us:

- We met Toronto Zanta at the Waterfront, who was only to happy to entertain us with a few of his famous pushups. We're pretty sure he isn't allowed within the city limits of Toronto but anyway...

- We got pooped on by birds at least 5 times during our outdoor shoot. Once on my hair during an interview.

- The camera fell over and had to go in for repairs.

- A number of people commented aloud as they walked by that I was some famous person - the most common guess was that I was Lacey from Corner Gas.

And then today, during a short break as we've been busily getting the new pages ready to display the vidcast, we happened upon this...

B Espresso Bar and the Pineapple Basil Martini

B Espresso Bar is our absolute favorite cafe in Toronto. They make the best lattes in town and have a fabulous selection of lunch dishes including pastas, pizzas and mouth watering panini's. We often try to meet people here for business lunches and find every excuse to come here.

Generally they are only open until 5pm so we were really surprised to discover yesterday evening walking by that they are open until midnight on Thursdays for "Italian Cocktails Night". We popped in for a drink and were glad we did because we had the most delicious refreshing martini we've tried yet.

The owner, Alessandro recommended we try the Pineapple Basil martini (the Martini Andrea). While we were skeptical at first, we figured we'd give it a try and see. It was so, sooo good! It is made with fresh pineapple and fresh basil leaves which is a surprisingly delicious combination. Apparently it takes a little while to make because you have to mash everything together so that it isn't chunky.

We took a photo of the menu so we could attempt to duplicate it at home, but we aren't holding out hope that it will be as good.

Now we just need to go back and try some of the other ones. Apparently the watermelon one is to die for!

A Cab Ride With "Mr. Geography"

Yesterday I was on my way home from Five on Spadina, my arms laden with clothes and hangers for an upcoming podcast I'm doing. I was considering walking the short distance but decided to take a cab so I wouldn't drop anything and ruin the clothes.

I hailed a cab and had just gotten settled in the back seat when the driver casually turned to me and said, "Princess - If you will answer my geography question correctly, your cab ride will be free."

"Umm... ok" I knew there was pretty much zero chance of me getting his questions right with my limited knowledge of geography.

"Princess.... Please tell me what is the capital city of Nigeria."

"I have no idea."

"It is Abuja. That's ok. I give you another one and the free offer still stands. Please name all 5 countries surrounding Switzerland."

I got all but 1. Stupid Liechtenstein.

"We'll try again. Please tell me the capital city of Iran."

I of course didn't have a clue. He offered for me to quiz him and, not knowing what else to say, I lamely suggested he name all of Canada's Provinces and Territories. He pretended this was an excellent and challenging question, but easily rattled them off one by one.

He then passed me several laminated newspaper articles of him from various publications. "I am very famous you see..."

Apparently, Mr. Geography has appeared on Conan O'Brian, Mike Bullard, Oprah, and pretty much every major Canadian network. He is known as "The King of Geography", has his own IMDB page (though it is empty) and says he is an international celebrity.

D'oh! Had I known that I would never have embarrassed myself by giving him such a stupid question. Still, this brush with celebrity was well worth it. Next time I'll be prepared.

Google results for Mr. Geography

The Cutest French CD You've Ever Heard: Putumayo Paris

I bought this cd while in New York from some random internet cafe and I LOVE it! It's my favorite of my whole Putumayo collection because it is just so darn cute! It sounds like something you'd hear on older movies like French Kiss or any charming movie about Paris really.

The best part about these cd's is that a portion of all proceeds goes towards Terre Des Hommes to help with their efforts in providing active support to disadvantaged children around the world.

So... I get a collection of adorable songs and I get to help underprivileged children. It's a win win for me. You can preview the cd's on putumayo.com or buy it from Amazon for $12.99 USD.

Eating Our Way Through NYC: MissChickie's Trip Vlog

I made a silly little video from our trip. The best part of course is the song from the Putumayo cd we picked up while there called "Paris", which is an adorable collection of french songs you'd hear at a cafe or something. And then of course there is the bull balls part.

As you can see we ate a lot. I really miss New York!

Building Your Own MAC Eyeshadow Quad

I've been using MAC eyeshadow for as long as I can remember. I recently bought a few new eyeshadows and was informed that you get a better deal when you create your own quad vs. buying the eyeshadows individually. Each eyeshadow is about $16 or so, but if you buy the quad case ($4.50) and the quad inserts ($12.50 each) instead, you save money. They are magnetic and pop right in - you don't have to buy the pre made quad color combos.

I was a bit confused at first when she explained this to me but, the quad inserts are the same size as the regular eye shadows and come in all the same colors - all it is, is different packaging. The quad shell is also part of their recycling program, which, by the way, I was told, has now been extended to include eyeshadows and one of their lip gloss'.

MAC eyeshadows are fabulous to apply and blend without getting blotches of darker color here and there that you can get from cheaper eyeshadows. They also stay put and are less prone to those dreaded crease marks that appear on your eyelids halfway through the day.

A Trip, A Dress & My In-laws

I finally have some time to myself to get a few things done and inform you all that yes, I am still alive and doing well despite the fact that I haven't blogged here in ages. A thousand apologies.

Our trip to NYC was fabulous and I absolutely fell in love with that city. As soon as we got home, we discovered we were having family over the very next day for the weekend. So I had exactly one day to clean up, get some work done and prepare to entertain. We did our best despite an empty fridge and it was a lot of fun.

I always get a kick out of Alex's parents because they funny, charming yet often, brutally honest. Being South American, they love their wine - with ice and/or water in it. 50-50. Every now and then they would ask, didn't I want some ice in my red wine to cool it down? Or, maybe I should try my white wine diluted with half a glass of tap water? I thought this was very odd, until I saw a movie this weekend where some Italians did this and I realized it wasn't just them. Still, I think I'll pass.

South Americans are also very comfortable speaking their minds. We spent a little time on Queen Street popping into various boutiques when I found the most sexy gorgeous little black dress in RK, which was marked down to $40 from about $200. They only had one size. One teeny tiny size, but I decided to squeeze myself into it.

Alex immediately insisted we buy it. My Mother in law said it was too tight. Alex immediately insisted we buy it.

On the way out of the store, she leaned towards Alex and talk-whispered, "She will have to eat nothing but salad and water for a WEEK!" I guess I know who to ask next time I want an honest answer to the age old question, "Does this make my butt look big?"

I have some crazy things coming up this summer, but I'm really excited and looking forward to seeing what happens next! I will try to post more regularly.

New York Pics!

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NYC: Here we come!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never been to New York, but as of this weekend, that will no longer be the case!

Alex and I try to get away every year for a few days to unwind and have some fun. This last year has been insane and we've had very little down time. So, when I came across a fantastic deal on Expedia, I planned a surprise trip to New York for his birthday! I tried to make the whole thing a surprise: I secured his vacation time, booked everything and last night, packed our bags. The plan was to tell him where we were going when we got to the airport and he wouldn't have to lift a finger. Well, that was until this morning when he received a phone call from a mutual friend suffering from a terrible bug - who knew this was supposed to be a surprise - and in a cold medication induced fog accidentally announced, "And when you're in New York this weekend, you MUST check out the following restaurants...". Oh well, she meant well.

So the beans are spilled, but we're both really excited for the trip! The hardest part will be controlling myself with the shopping. I look forward to that challenge ;)

Steamed

I got this book from one of the authors, Jessica Conant-Park. I am always nervous when people send me stuff - what if I don't like it? But my fears were unfounded cause I loved it!

It's a fun lighthearted murder mystery with interesting characters and amazing mouth watering food. It even has recipes at the back for some of the dishes they talk about.

This is perfect chicklit to read sitting on the beach or vegging after a long day at work. If you enjoy books like the Shoppaholic Series you'll love this forsure. I definitely recommend it!

ChickAdvisor Product Review Club

We realize "Product Review Club" is a totally unoriginal name for what is in fact a very cool thing, but hey, we came up with the idea during one of the gloomier days in April when the weather was so bad it stunted our creativity. So there.

Anyhoo, we've been bombarded lately with fabulous products from companies who'd like to get them reviewed and as much as we'd love to hoard it all to ourselves we decided to share the love and pass some freebies on to our members.

ChickAdvisor members who sign up for the Product Review Club will get free stuff to try, review - and keep. All we ask in return is that you review it within 2 weeks of receiving it.

We've already done this twice and so far there have been Chicklit books, and Sunsilk hair products. This is a great way to try cool new stuff for free rather than shopping by trial and error.

For more info on our review club, read the forum post here.

Did You Know About Zanta?

Every city has their own collection of oddballs and wierdos and Toronto is no exception. We have several Santa Claus impersonators downtown that beg for change or just make a public spectacle of themselves all year round. I spotted one Santa at Fashion Week wearing a red leather jacket, hamming it up in the media lounge that I'd given money to in the winter when I thought he was homeless. I nearly asked him for my twoonie back. Like that turban wearing, electrical guitar toting dude on rollerblades in Santa Monica, Harry Perry, some of our Santa's are practically famous.

Take Zanta, for example. No, I have not spelled his name wrong, this dude goes by "Zanta". He wears nothing but shorts, boots and a Santa hat on all year round, is obsessed with doing push-ups in public and shouting "Yes yes yes" and "Merry Christmas". He is also known for disrupting filming outside the CHUM building, his appearances on Speaker's Corner etcetera and so forth. There is a theory that he bumped his head and has been nuts ever since.

He has been banned from the TTC (public transit), and, last I heard, the City of Toronto, though I'm not sure how that's possible.

Sooo.... wanna meet him?














The man has his own Wikipedia page and yes, this is how I spend my time when I don't feel like studying.

Oh, and here is his website.

And here is a really funny article about Harry Perry.

Baghaus "Designer Inspired" Bags

Baghaus is for the girl who loves the look of designer bags but isn't willing to give up her grocery budget for a month (or several) to pay for one.

The schtik on their website says these aren't your typical knock-off bags you'd find on the street. They are quality well-made handbags that just happen to look like your favourite designer bags - and they do look mighty similar.

You can shop by celebrity style or look alike brand so if you've been lusting after a certain lesportsac bag, you can snag one that looks just like it for a fraction of the price.

With average prices around the $40- $50 mark, I think it's at least worth investigating, however, I wonder how all of the designers whose creations "inspired" all of these bags feel.

What do you guys think? Would you buy one of these or would you rather go for the designer label?