Now is the perfect time to give your home's exterior some attention. These easy end-of-season updates will help keep your property looking sharp and transitionready.

1. Mow Tall One Last Time: Before putting the mower away, give your lawn a few final trims at about three inches high. Longer grass retains moisture better and provides more shade to protect roots when temperatures fluctuate. It also helps crowd out weeds and crabgrass and prepares your lawn for a healthier comeback next spring.

2. Refresh House Numbers: Consider upgrading to larger, more-readable numbers in a clean, bold style. This small update improves visibility for guests, deliveries, and emergency responders.

3. Add Driveway Reflectors: With shorter days ahead, adding reflectors to your driveway helps guide visitors and increases safety. They're especially helpful if your home is on a dark street or in a rural area. It’s a low-cost, high-impact improvement.

4. Repair Walkways While Weather Holds: Fall is your last good stretch of weather for outdoor repairs. If your walkway is cracked or outdated, then consider replacing it with interlocking pavers.

5. Transition Flower Boxes To Fall: Replace tired summer blooms with fall favorites, such as mums or autumn sage. When those start to fade, cut them back and tuck in evergreen branches for a simple way to keep things looking fresh into the holiday season.

A little upkeep now can go a long way toward maintaining your home's charm— and saving you time and effort later.

Summer’s long days and late nights can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule. If you’re feeling the effects now, then you’re not alone.

September is the ideal month to reset your circadian rhythm. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 15 to 20 minutes of early-morning sunlight, reducing screen time after 8:30 p.m. and adding magnesium-rich foods, such as pumpkin seeds or dark leafy greens, into your routine.

Consistent sleep and wake times are key.

Try winding down with a book instead of a scroll, and make your room as dark as possible. Yes, even that blinking router light counts. If you prioritize rest now, then your fall energy will thank you later.

Think you don’t have time for a hobby? Think smaller. Micro-hobbies bite-sized activities that take 5 to 10
minutes are trending during 2025 by offering a loweffort way to recharge your brain without overhauling your schedule.

Popular picks include doing origami, learning one word in a new language each day, partaking in five-minute sketches and brewing a perfect cup of tea. These quick bursts of creativity or calm act like mental palate cleansers by helping reduce stress and boost focus.

They’re also surprisingly habit-forming; what starts as five minutes can easily turn into something more meaningful. And in a world that’s always rushing, these tiny rituals offer a gentle way to slow down.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how most changes don’t start with a big decision—they start with a feeling. A quiet discomfort. A flicker of curiosity. A thought you keep brushing off because it isn’t “urgent” yet, but it keeps coming back anyway.

Maybe it shows up as restlessness. Maybe as a craving for more calm, more space, more energy that feels like your own. Sometimes it looks like rearranging a room. Sometimes it looks like unsubscribing from things that used to matter. Either way, it’s real—and it’s worth listening to.

We often wait for clarity before we take action. But in my experience, clarity usually follows motion. The first step is rarely a big one—it’s usually a conversation, a decision to explore, or simply the act of saying something out loud that you’ve been holding inside for a while.

If any part of your life feels like it’s ready to shift—your environment, your pace, your energy—I’d be honored to help you think it through. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You just have to keep paying attention.

In the meantime, I hope you’re giving yourself permission to pause, recalibrate, and move at your own speed.

In the moment,

Gino Pezzani

Canadian retail sales increased by 1.5 per cent to $70.2 billion in June compared to the previous month. Compared to the same time last year, retail sales were up by 6.6 per cent. Furthermore, core retail sales, which exclude gasoline and automobile items, were up 1.9 per cent month-over-month. In volume terms, adjusted for rising prices, retail sales increased by 1.5 per cent in June. Quarterly retail sales rose 0.4 per cent in the second quarter.

Retail sales in British Columbia were up 1.5 per cent in May from the previous month and rose by 10.2 per cent compared to the same time last year. In the CMA of Vancouver, retail sales were up 2.0 per cent from the prior month and were 12.4 per cent above the level of June 2024.

June's report represents a rebound in retail activity from the previous month, with sales rising to their highest level this year. However, over 25 per cent of business respondents reported negative tariff impacts through changes in final prices and demand. While this report favours another rate hold, markets remain uncertain about the Bank of Canada's decision in September as core inflation stabilizes near its upper limit and economic growth remains weak.

https://mailchi.mp/bcrea/canadian-retail-sales-july-2025

For more information, please contact: Gino Pezzani.

There was a time when silence was expected and was built into the fabric of daily life.

Think about Sunday afternoons, unplugged dinner tables, walks without earbuds, and the hum of a city before the 24/7 noise loop of pings, podcasts, sirens, and scrolling.

Now, silence feels rare and almost indulgent.

Yet it’s making a comeback—not just in wellness retreats or remote cabins but in cities, architecture, and even luxury branding. Developers are marketing soundproof windows, minimalist homes promise “visual quiet”, and some high-end hotels now include silence as an amenity. Copenhagen even has a “silent bike lane” where talking is discouraged.

During 2019, The Atlantic dubbed silence “a new luxury good,” citing how hard it is to find it in modern life and how deeply we crave it when we do.

However, silence is not only aesthetically pleasing. Studies show it boosts memory, lowers blood pressure, and increases neurogenesis in the brain. Only two minutes of quiet can be more restorative than listening to relaxing music.

In a world that won’t stop talking, the decision to go quiet, intentionally, even temporarily, is a power move.

If you find yourself closing the door, pausing the podcast, or simply sitting in your car a few minutes longer after work, then that’s your nervous system saying, “thank you.”

It's Time To Break Up With Overhead Lighting, and fall in love with lamps, moonlight, and a better vibe.

If your space feels cold or chaotic, then your lighting, not your furniture, might be to blame.

Overhead lighting, especially the bright, cool-toned kind, can feel harsh and overstimulating. It flattens textures, casts odd shadows, and creates a subtle stress response that your body picks up on, even if your brain can’t name it.

Ready for a change? Here’s what happens when you switch it up:

1.Softer Light = Softer Mood. Table lamps, sconces, and indirect lighting (sometimes called “moonlighting”) mirror natural light, which is warm, low, and gentle. Your nervous system reads it as safe, which helps you relax and feel more at ease.

2.Better Sleep Starts Here. Bright lights during the evening can confuse your internal clock. Switching to softer, warmer bulbs, or even candlelight, helps signal your body that it’s time to wind down.

3.An Instant Ambiance Upgrade. Warm, layered lighting transforms your space. Whether it’s a cozy dinner, a solo evening with a book or just winding down after work, the right light makes everything feel more intentional and more beautiful.

Pro Tip:

Start small. Replace one overhead bulb with a floor or table lamp using a warm-toned bulb (look for 2700K or lower). Your eyes and your mood will thank you.

Most parents complain, at least from time to time, that their children don’t listen to them. Shouting doesn’t help, and chances are it will only aggravate the problem. Try these tips for forging better communication with your kids:

• Get their attention. Don’t start talking if they’re focused on something else. You may have to do something unusual—to reach a toddler having a tantrum, for example, trying giving his or her back a few pats or a tickle. For older children, singing a song may break through their wall of boredom or inattention.

• Be brief. Most kids don’t want to listen to long lectures. When you have something to say, get right to the point. They’ll get the message without feeling patronized or growing bored.

• Write a note instead. If your message isn’t time sensitive, try writing a note to your kids. They can read it at their convenience, and you’ll be able to put more detail into it than you would in a brief conversation.

• Stay positive. Don’t just assign chores and tell kids what they’re doing wrong. Praise them and thank them so they won’t automatically tense up when you ask, “Can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

• Set the right example. When kids have something to say, give them your full attention. If you ignore them when they’re trying to talk, they may do the same.

Who says fresh starts are only for the new year?

August carries its own kind of in-between energy. Although summer plans are winding down and the temperature is still hot, fall hasn’t arrived yet and "back to school" and pumpkin-flavored everything are creeping in. Consider this your gentle nudge to pause and reset—your way. No big overhaul and no pressure, just a few small shifts that can bring a welcome boost of clarity and calm.

Five Simple Resets To Try This Week:

1. Declutter your camera roll.

Delete the screenshots you’ll never look at, archive the blurry photos, and create space— for your phone and your mind.

2. Take a “fake commute.”

Even if you work from home, get out for a coffee, take the scenic route, or queue up a podcast that has nothing to do with work.

3. Audit your calendar.

Are you still honoring your boundaries? Clear out the obligations that drain you. Make room for what fuels you.

4. Do one thing purely for fun.

It doesn’t have to be productive to matter; for instance, catch a matinee, treat yourself to lunch away from home, or wander without your headphones.

5. Pick a word for fall.

Skip the goals and pick a guiding vibe instead: Centered. Brave. Rested. Focused. Choose which word feels right and let it shape your next season. Save it. Share it. Send it to a friend who needs a reset, too.

You don’t need permission to start fresh—but here it is anyway.

There’s something touching about watching a child prepare for their first day of school. The careful selection of the perfect outfit, laid out the night before. The new backpack, zipped and unzipped a dozen times to make sure everything fits just right. The quiet rehearsal of walking to the bus stop, just to be certain they know the way.

Most of us remember our own version of this ritual. Maybe it was practicing a locker combination all summer long, terrified of fumbling with it in a crowded hallway. Or memorizing the route between classrooms, worried about being late and having everyone stare. Those seemingly small preparations felt monumentally important because, to a young mind, they were.

What strikes me now is how we adults sometimes forget what it feels like to face something completely unknown. When did we stop remembering that every “first time” requires a special kind of courage? That six-year-old practicing their walk to the bus stop is doing exactly what we all do when facing the uncertain – finding one small thing they can control and mastering it.

The truth is, we never really outgrow those first–day butterflies. Starting a new job, moving to a new town, walking into a room full of strangers – that same flutter of uncertainty is still there. The same need to prepare, to practice, to feel ready for what we can’t possibly predict.