When the 2 p.m. hunger pang hits, all bets (and vows of healthy eating) are off.  So we were more than happy to stave off empty-calorie pitfalls with these tasty treats.

Guilt-free snacking? Yes please! McDonald's new McCafé Real Fruit Smoothies are jam-packed with real fruit purée and low-fat yogurt.  These treats are great for any time of the day, from a post-workout snack to an afternoon refuel.  At under 150 calories, the mango pineapple snack-size smoothies are quickly becoming my new go-to sweet (but smart) dessert!

With a choice of three different flavours (Blueberry Pomegranate, Strawberry Banana and Mango Pineapple) and a variety of sizes from snack-size to large you can choose the smoothie that suits you. 

Tasty, nutritious and low-calorie? That goes down smooth.

Find McCafe Real Fruit Smoothie nutritional info at www.mcdonalds.ca
www.facebook.com/McDonaldsCanada
www.twitter.com/McD_Canada

We wined, we dined, and then we did it again.  Some highlights from 48 hours in Oliver/Osoyoos Wine Country:

Sundown at Spirit Ridge in the sagebrush that's part of the distinctive terroir.

Banée is a French term for the winemakers’ dinners and festivities that happen in the shoulder season. The spirit of the wine industry (and its successes) were apparent in the event that brought together chefs from top regional restaurants, as well as 23 wineries, to the Banée Pig Roast.

Elopement anyone? Hidden Chappel Winery could work!

At the Okanagan Barrel Works we saw the fine craft of cooperage firsthand. The reason these barrels are so pretty, according to GM Cal Craik:  “Winemakers want furniture.”

Ever wondered what a master cooper from Bordeaux looks like? Voici Eric!

At Rustico winery local artifacts abound, and wineglasses get lined up like shots. Also know for their award-winning "Threesome" red.

Overheard:

Guest 1 “I’m sorry I’ve barely had a chance to speak to you this weekend.”

Guest 2 “It’s hard to talk with wine in your mouth.”

Parting words to live by.

For more timely travel tips, see our Okanagan hot sheet. 

Between airline points and discounts, access to catalogs of merchandise and experiences, and earning cash-back, choosing the perfect rewards credit card takes some research – and a little introspection.

Points junkie? You may do well with a card that allows you to earn points or miles on the purchases you make, which can be redeemed for travel, merchandise or experiences.

Or maybe you’re a more rational consumer for whom cash is king. If you prefer cold hard cash to collecting points, a cash-back card could be the right choice for you.

Unlike many rewards programs where you earn points towards travel or items in a catalogue, a cash-back card rewards you by with a cash-back percentage on all of the purchases you make on the Card, often with an accelerated earn rate for certain purchase categories.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love to travel. But for me, a cash-back card offers the ultimate freedom. I’ve been using the TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express for several months now. Between fill-ups at the gas station (up to 2% cash-back), meals out with family and friends (3% cash-back) and weekly shopping at Costco and everywhere else (up to 1% cash-back), I’m earning money back on the purchases I need to make every day. And when my rebate comes in January – just when the holiday bills are coming in – I can spend it anywhere I choose, on anything I choose. I like that flexibility.

It’s simple: Every time you use your TrueEarnings Card, you’re earning moolah for the little extras. And if you’re anything like me, a little reward goes a long way.

Excuse us while we go shopping—our piggy bank needs filling.

Apply for the TrueEarnings Card here.

Clearly I got the memo about the dress code at Joe Fresh's Fresh Off The Runway spring preview: bold, bright colours were the name of the game. Laura and Michelle of Tara Parker Tait PR actually wore Joe Fresh, I just look like I did.

The rainbow of spring blouses called to me -- I'm tempted to pick up a few in different hues.

Alison Lawler-Dean, Senior PR Manager at Joe Fresh, rocked one in mint polka dots. In fact, she was wearing Joe Fresh from head to toe.

With a manicure to match.

Among the fashion set in attendance were bloggarinas Alicia Quan of Alicia Fashionista and Lisa Wong of Solo Lisa. Can't wait to see how they style their finds. They'll each have a fresh take, I'm sure.

When Hudson Bay Company's The Room announced that Mary Katrantzou was coming to visit Vancouver, we were super excited about meeting her, but also having an up close look at her incredibly detailed clothing. Featuring heavy beading, trompe l'oeil printing, and crazy embellishments (like pencils...) the clothes were more art than fashion. We sat down with Mary to talk about print and the comeback of the train.

Vitamin Daily: What is the key piece in the collection right now?

Mary Katrantzou: There is one amazing dress which combines the fish and the flowers, which was the dual theme of that collection. It is called Salamander dress (above) and it has a detachable train at the back, but it is short at the front. That was a really big silhouette of that collection and it can be worn for evening and for day.

VD: Do you think the train is making a bit of a comeback?

MK: I think that this season it is. There was a review of show called Train in Vain, which was pretty much the only negative review that that show had gotten, and it was saying that there were too many trains on everything. But I think, with my work, every season it is about a theme and it was the train for that season. There were a lot of trains, but I think it is a good way to wear print for evening or occasion, but also to be able to detach the train and wear the dress to a lunch. It is a flexible thing, the train.

VD: How do you encourage people, who are afraid of bright prints, to try print?

MK: It depends what is picked up in the stores, there are a lot of tops and blouses and little skirts, little pick up items that people can buy. People are starting to embrace print and it is so easy to wear it, maybe a tank top with a printed skirt, or a printed blouse with jeans. A strong print should allow you some flexibility on how to wear it. It is fun, and there should be a little bit of fun and creativity with what you wear.

(Above: The pencil dress.)

VD: Who is the most exciting person you have dressed for red carpet?

MK: That is difficult to say. Recently for the Met Gala we dressed Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis, she is a German princess and also Style Editor at Large at Vogue Germany, and we did a print that we have never had on the red carpet, it was on meters and meters of chiffon, so it was really nice to see a silhouette that was a lot more fluid, on the red carpet.

The Room's Creative Director, Nicholas Mellamphy, with Mary Katrantzou.

VD: What has been inspiring you recently?

MK: World history has been inspirational these days. I can't really say to what length, but I sat down with my boyfriend when I was researching a new theme and asked for a lesson in world history, in ten minutes. So he started with the dinosaurs. After doing a collection on everyday objects, I want to turn away from objects and do a collection on something that is a lot more encompassing.
 

I couldn't resist meeting the newest birds in town: the African Penguins. They just arrived a couple of days ago, and seem to be loving their new home at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Penguin Point opens to the public this Friday and, let me tell you, its inhabitants are pretty adorable. Sadly, these guys are endangered, and they arrived to our city through the Species Survival Plan program of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Out of six yet-to-be-named birds, five are female -- the oldest being 15 years old -- and the one male (pictured above) is the youngest of the bunch. Full of personality, these guys seemed to love the attention, alternating between waddling on the rocks, catching the breeze by spreading their wings, taking short swims, and giving you that intense penguin stare. Cuteness overload.

PS. For 24 hour cuteness, make sure you check out the live Penguin Cam.

Jason Matlo doesn’t do runway shows often. But his latest collection of gowns – created using couture techniques – calls for a venue as grand as the ballroom of the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, which is where I caught up with the man in white as he prepared for his presentation.

On history

“We wanted to create fantastic special occasion dresses that you could get married in. We were inspired by the room and the history of this building. In the 1920s and 1930s fashion shows happened in ateliers and we’re hoping to bring people back to an intimate atelier type of show.”

On nightmares

“We haven’t actually costed these dresses yet but I’m sure they’re going to cost a fortune. One of the dresses is covered in beads and I constructed almost the entire dress by hand. It was a treacherous nightmare to work with.”

On the process

“When we were making these I swore I’d never do this again – we will, of course – but my hands are thrashed from so much hand-sewing and from washing my hands so many times to keep everything pristine.”

On standing out

“When you go into bridal boutiques you see a sea of sameness and we didn’t feel the need to create dresses that look like everything else. We wanted to create a niche.”

On expectations

“It’s been almost two years since our last runway collection presentation and I feel like we need to keep raising the bar because expectations keep getting higher from editors and bloggers and our clients. We wanted to elevate to the most couture collection we possibly could.”

I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm not the next Bill Cunningham but since I was in Paris, I couldn't resist snapping a stylish Parisian, or two.

I remember an old interview that Charlie Rose did with Joan Juliet Buck back when she was an editor of French Vogue, and her stating that "a French woman doesn't need to be told how to dress." This is true. If there was one word to describe Parisian style it would be "effortless." Or at least, they make it look easy.

From far away I thought "this could be Sofia Coppola." It wasn't, but you can't deny black on black is a winning combination. In the same aforementioned interview with Joan Juliet Buck, she explained that during her tenure with the magazine, they never featured black, because that's the first thing a French woman will buy each season -- black doesn't need advertising. 

Effortlessness most often comes with flat shoes. You won't see a Parisienne limping down a cobblestone street in 6" stilettos. The most popular shoes? Chucks!

This girl is sort of a quintessential Parisienne, a Francois Hardy type, with that long flowy hair and thick fringe. I love that she is sporting the holly grail of French style: the striped tee.

I spotted this stylish gamine a mile away. It was the red accents on her coat that gleamed colour in an otherwise very neutral style palette.

Speaking of neutral, this woman could teach a class on how to dress head-to-toe in khaki. I need these roll-y boots for next fall, and I need white jeans ASAP. (No she is not wearing a scrunchie -- it's a little scarf of some sort.)

Okay, so our helmet laws prevent us from ever looking this chic on a bike, but this may just be the most stylish city cyclist I've ever seen. Another effortless tip to take from the French? You will never see a Parisienne with a perfectly coifed head of hair. And she will never be caught wearing too much makeup.

As for the designers they wear? Well, I did run into one... Yohji Yamamoto, looking as cool as one can possibly look. Let's call it my magic Parisian moment, shall we?

It's not often that Banana Republic is awash with bright colours and print, but that is set to change when the Trina Turk collaboration launches in store this month. We sat down to chat 60's fashion, Palm Springs, and sportswear with the woman behind the eponymous Trina Turk line, and Banana Repulic's latest collaborator.

Vitamin Daily: Like many American female designers (DVF, DK) you appear to design for yourself.  Is that how you began your collection? And as you evolve and change tastes, do you find your collection evolves with you?

Trina Turk: Yes to both. I started my own collection because I was in the junior market, and I never really wore the clothes that I was creating at work. I wanted to be doing better fabrications and styles I would actually wear myself.  That was definitely one of the motivations when I started my company. However now, when I am designing the line, our business has grown, it is not only about me anymore, it is not only about what I want to wear. There is also a lot of market factors that you have to take into consideration. If there is something that I am really craving for my closet, then of course we would put that into the line, but it is not like I personally want to wear every single piece in the entire collection. A lot of it is driven by the market.

VD: The Banana Republic collection you designed is said to be inspired by the Southern California lifestyle. Do you find that your Palm Springs home (below) and surroundings are your biggest inspiration?

TT: I think that what's happened is that our company has become closely associated with Palm Springs, and it is definitely our inspiration; however, it's not the only inspiration. There are a lot of things about South California that are inspiring, mainly that there's so much going on in Los Angeles. There are so many museums and galleries, new restaurants, new stores, and I am inspired by all of the above. I guess the other thing is that is really important about LA is the climate and the variety of landscape and the architecture. I am really interested in modernist architecture, kind of as a hobby, and that's part of what the draw is to Palm Springs, but there is also a lot of cool modern architecture in Los Angeles.

VD: Your blog featured some images of Rudi Gernreich's work and his muse, Peggy Moffit (above.) It looks like that's an aesthetic you are inspired by, is it a reference point you find yourself going back to?

TT: The important thing about Rudi Gernreich is that he was introducing something that was really unconstructed, at a time when that was new. His clothes didn't have a lot of inner linings and structure built into them. They were very easy and introduced a different sort of type of clothing. The other thing I love about Rudi is that he was based in LA, like I am, and he was always based in LA, and he never moved to New York. LA was integral to what he was doing. It is also partly the era he was working in, the mid to late sixties and the early 70s, those are the eras that I gravitate towards.

VD: Any other vintage American designers you turn to for inspiration from that era? Or international ones?

TT: I love Pauline Trigère, she was an American designer working in the 50s and 60s. Bonnie Cashin, another American designer, they were sportswear designers, it wasn't about red carpet or gowns, they were designing clothes that women could wear every day. The designer that really started American sportswear in the 40's, Claire McCardell, her stuff is amazing and introduced a much more simple way of dressing, which for women, was pretty liberating at the time. And of course Halston, I can't really leave him off the list.

VD: What is your personal favourite piece from the Banana Republic collection?

TT: The whole collection revolves around 5 prints from the Trina Turk archive, and so the prints are the very important to the look of the whole collection. The pieces that are my favourite are the ones that are printed. The printed short in the crazy multicoloured botanical print that represents undersea print. We also did it in a brimmed hat, and those are two of my favourites. (See above.)
 

But for one night, my name was Susan. Or at least, according to the Opus Hotel, I was a Susan. After booking my room for a staycation at Vancouver's favourite boutique hotel, I was sent a quiz. I answered questions about whether I was healthy or extravagant, and whether I prefered my dog, myself, or my wine (and we weren't allowed to choose all three!)

Based on the results, Opus wrote me back with my profile, whose name was Susan. I was a fashion exec who liked arts & culture, and whose room decor preference was stylish and sophisticated. I can work with this...

First off, they put me into a room that best suited Susan's tastes. Then, my personalized ipad featured customized tips from a digital concierge who magically seemed to know what I'd like. Fashion? Holt Renfrew. Home? Martha Sturdy. Dinner? Rodney's Oyster House. The stay suddenly sounded very promising.

But as this was a one night staycation for an editor and her husband who don't get much downtime because of a ten month old baby and a demanding dog (yes, she was the one thing I preferred ) so we decided to explore the room's offering, namely the Telus Optik TV, best viewed from the comfort of a king size bed. And that way, we also got to test out Opus' room service, which is great, in case you are wondering.

And choosing the stay-in option made most sense after we saw the thoughtful, but depressing weather forecast. That was a reminder that we most definitely had not left Vancouver.

www.opushotel.com