Giro 2012

The crowds are wild. The sky brims blue, and Milan’s rigid, snow-capped mountains are reduced to mere blurs as bicyclist Ryder Hesjedal zooms over the finish line of Giro d’Italia, becoming the first Canadian to ever win the prestigious race.

Across the pond, a pursuit is pulling Vaughan’s citizens to the streets. The air buzzes with excitement as jersey-clad riders make their way to Villa Charities’ fourth annual Giro cycling event. While the crowds aren’t in the millions, and the prize isn’t a swirling golden trophy, community members beam with generous hearts.

Like Hesjedal, it was Nick Sanci’s first time reaching the finish line, and like his fellow Canadian champion, Sanci’s race began long before May 27. Sanci, who belongs to Team Rosehaven, began collecting donations weeks prior to hitting the track, striving to meet Read more

Paralympic Super Athlete – Golden Moments

The buzzer sounds and for three and a half minutes Victoria Nolan pulls on her paddles with all her might, feeling the tension of the water through her arms. A year of intense training has led up to this crucial moment, and soon she’ll have her victory.

“To come out and win gold, you realize that this is what it takes, and it was all worth it,” she says of her and her team’s triumph in the adaptive rowing event at the 2010 World Rowing Championships in New Zealand. She has maintained this philosophy of hard work while training for this year’s adaptive rowing event at the London Paralympics. Dedication and perseverance are common words in Nolan’s vocabulary. Diagnosed with an eye disease at 18, she discovered that she had been gradually losing her eyesight for years. With the birth of her two children accelerating her condition, Nolan was left with three per cent of her vision. As a result, she became Read more

Fears and Phobias – In Fear and Trembling

Sprawled out on a lakeside dock, you revel in the sun as it warms your body. A tall glass of lemonade with crackling ice cubes sits next to you, beckoning another refreshing sip. With a page-turning book in hand, you absorb the words found beyond the lines of everyday life in a faraway land called cottage country. Slightly sensationalized perhaps, but we can all relate to that idyllic sense of escapism that can’t possibly be marred by anything. Right?

For most, this is true, but for some, this seemingly perfect scenario can be curtailed by one itsy bitsy encounter. For the latter group, an eight-legged creature can creep through the cracks and kill the entire experience. In fact, it can go further than that, preventing you from ever putting yourself in situations where the presence of spiders is probable.
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Neece Electrolysis & Lasar Studio

As the summer heat intensifies, so does our desire to look and feel our best. Covering all areas of hair removal and esthetics for over 20 years, Neece Electrolysis founder Angela Martino provides innovative beauty solutions that deliver transformative results. Her newest services include EpilFree, a leading permanent hair reduction treatment that delivers effective results for both men and women. While a combination of natural ingredients work together to effectively inhibit the growth of hair follicles, visible results are experienced after just one session. An alternative depilation procedure, EpilFree gives you the freedom that comes from removing unwanted hair in the summer. “This alternative approach to permanent hair reduction is great for any skin colour and hair types and does not cause skin damage,” says Martino, a certified laser technician and licensed electrologist. “While laser and electrolysis Read more

Picasso at the AGO – The Big Picture of Picasso

The exhibit begins with a small hallway of photographs. Some may bypass the section, but if you stop to look you’ll see Picasso, the man himself. The photographs of the artist featured in the exhibit show an ordinary chap enjoying a day at the beach and a drink with some friends. But it’s the art – the paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings – that reveal the extraordinary talent that was Pablo Picasso.

On May 1st, 2012, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris debuted at the AGO in Toronto, the only Canadian venue to receive the touring exhibit, which includes 141 masterpieces from the French museum’s 5,000-piece collection. As the first major Picasso display to land in Toronto since 1964, visitors from across the city have been flocking to the exhibit before it makes its exit on Aug. 26. Read more

Frankie Flowers Gardening Tips – Time to Talk Tomatoes with Frankie Flowers

The taste of a juicy tomato freshly plucked from the garden is one of my favourite summer-gardening moments. Undoubtedly the world’s most popular fruit grown in the vegetable garden, tomatoes come in all shapes, colours, sizes and flavours. From cherry tomatoes, slicers and plum tomatoes, to colours of red, yellow and purple – believe it or not, all require the same growing conditions. Here are some quick tips to get your perfect tomato garden growing this summer.

Make Them Feel Hot, Hot, Hot
Tomatoes like it hot and sunny, requiring at least six (but ideally eight) hours of direct sunlight – preferably in the afternoon – for optimum growth. The hottest summers produce the best tomatoes.

Feed Your Soil
Whether planted in the ground or in a pot, tomatoes require rich and
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Advice on the House

Mortgage broker Cristina Piccirillo of Dominion Lending Centres brings hot topics home.

Q: I am thinking of purchasing a property in Florida. Is pulling equity from my home the right thing to do?

A: The answer to this relies on the circumstance. If, for example, you are thinking of purchasing as a rental income property, then yes, it could be beneficial to pull equity from your home. This will help carry the costs to maintain the property, such as mortgage, property taxes, condo fees (if purchasing a condo), property management, etc. If, on the other hand, you plan on buying a vacation home for pleasure, be mindful of the additional costs to maintain the property, which could run up to $20,000 annually. It’s important to think about what your intention is and ensure that you have the money at your disposal to Read more

Toronto Condo Law – The Condo Uprise

The condominium scene has exploded: There are roughly 525,000 units housing over one million residents in Ontario, and that number is on the rise. The concrete jungle grows thick with these popular homes, reshaping the city skyline and how urbanites experience the metropolitan milieu. This chain reaction has also sparked here in Vaughan, where new developments are breaking ground across the city.

But while projects rush upwards, and eager townies flock, complications emerge. “Right now, there are few consumer protections in place for condominiums, especially when it comes to preconstruction,” says Todd Hofley, a condo owner and president of the Liberty Village Residents’ Association. He explains how many residents are forced to move into buildings with unfinished corridors, accept substituted features of equivalent value and wait years for Read more

Expo City – The New Era of Vaughan

The memory is all-too-familiar: sitting in the backseat of the family car with your elders, listening to them reminisce about the past while proudly pointing to residential or commercial areas that were once plains of nothingness. Press the fast-forward button to the near future and you’ll soon be extending your hand towards the unprecedented growth of Vaughan: towering skyscrapers, an integrated subway network and a bubbling metropolitan centre. “The generations coming up are going to drive their kids around and say, ‘you know, when we were younger, this was just fields and no buildings,’ which is sort of the same thing my dad did with me when he drove to some of the sites he was developing,” says Peter Cortellucci, deeply involved in the development industry since he was a teenager. As vice-president of the Cortel Group, a diversified development firm building sustainable residential communities across the GTA, Cortellucci, 25, is palpably young, but somehow formulates words of Read more

Spaces in High Places

Tao Condos
Feng shui master Paul Ng creates a balanced and harmonious space in this seven-floor building. The Richmond Hill sanctuary is complete with a yoga studio and airy design, lifting stress away from residents every time they walk in. www.signaturecommunities.ca

King Oaks
A luxury home in a humble community is the ideal place for a family. King Oaks estates are spacious four-to-five bedroom homes conveniently surrounded by public and private schools, recreational parks and the Go train station. www.aspenridgehomes.com

Vaughan Valley
Located west of Weston Road in Woodbridge, Vaughan Valley consists of townhomes and detached estates from 2,000 to 5,000 Read more

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