NO EXCUSES

So this week-end for Halloween I really wanted to wear a flower crown. I didn't really care what the rest of my costume consisted of, so long as I could wear some pretty braided flowers in my hair. (Which Sparrow made for me to my delight!) So at various points over the course of the week-end I called myself Stevie Nicks, a girl from a 90s video, a witchy woman, a sister wife, etc etc. I figured it didn't really matter since Halloween is all about fantasy anyways, so I should be able to wear whatever the hell I want even if I can't get my story straight about what I'm dressed up as.


And I think alot of people have the same motivation as me. Halloween is maybe the perfect excuse to go out on a limb with your wardrobe since no one can really tell you what you're wearing is over the top. Like I saw quite a few sharp dressed men dressed as (among other things) Pee Wee Herman, Party Down catering (my fave costume of all!), etc - and perhaps for these dudes it was also an excuse to wear an accessory they'd been itching to wear and just needed the perfect excuse, except swap their floral crowns for bow-ties.


Well I am thinking GUYS (& gals) - let's band together and DO THIS. Let's take the ballsy-ness and lack of inhibition characteristic of our Halloween get-ups and keep that spirit going year-round.



So guys - wear that bow-tie next time you go out on a Friday night for dinner. Or to work instead of the requisite tie. We just got in these lovely hand-made ones from Lithuania in lots of different colours. They're double-sided, so it's like getting 2 bow-ties in 1. They're just 32$ and come with cute hand-drawn instructions on how to tie them. (phew!)


Girls, I'm taking this new balls-to-the-wall attitude to integrate one of our new Species X 1000 camp necklaces into my wardrobe. It's a departure for me cos I've been wearing more simple, vintagey necklaces for so long now, but I'm excited to be a bit more adventurous with my style starting with this. I wore it this week-end with my costume(s) but I'm ready to plunge into every day wear with it now.

54$, available at both locations

No excuses, and NO REGRETS! (Also FYI, Susan Miller's monthly horoscopes are OUT TODAY!)

Support Local, Support Ottawa

It's no secret that we LOVE this city like mad. One of our favourite things about Ottawa is the amazing community of small businesses we are lucky to be surrounded with. Ottawa is truly like no other city in the way that across the board small businesses band together and support each others efforts against "Big bad box store culture". It's just awesome to know that we are all united in wanting to introduce our customers to other businesses that they might be super into. As part of this effort, and in a way to have a whole lot of fun this November, Support Local, Support Ottawa was launched. We are so super thrilled to be involved in a month long event with some of our very very favorite businesses. You should all check out the whole list of events to see what interests you - from movies, to lingerie, to furniture, photography and food, it's gonna be a month of discovering brilliant local businesses and artists. We are involved in 2 events that I think you will really appreciate:

Just a sample of the sassy cross-stitching courtesy of Heidi's Home Ec

Talk to the Hand:
On Nov. 5 from 6:00-9:00 pm we will be hosting an evening of all-things-girlie at the Dalhousie shop. Glitter, decal and colour that pops with nail art created by Beauty School Drop-outs will allow guests to get pampered in-store while partaking in a game of Truth or Dare and Telephone. Auntie Loo’s will be serving vegan cupcakes and Heidi’s Home Ec. will get those creative juices flowing with a cross-stitching workshop for guests to show off their skills (or learn a new one!) and take something home at the end of the night.

A small sample of what the gals from Beauty School Dropouts can do!

We'll also be giving away a free Victoire tote showcasing the old City of Ottawa crest with every purchase that night so you can show-off your civic pride in style.

Town and Victoire "Favorites" discount:
For the month of November when dining at Town or shopping at either of our shops you guys will get the opportunity to cash-in. When ordering our favourite dessert at Town, you'll receive a voucher for $20 off any purchase over $100 at Victoire. Similarly, when purchasing Town’s favourite designer at Victoire Boutique (Birds of North America), you guys will receive a voucher for a free dessert at Town. How awesome it that???

Support Local, Support Ottawa month launches this Tuesday at Shanghai featuring one of Ottawa’s favourite DJs spinning sweet sounds. Shanghai has local Beau’s on tap, and you’ll have the chance to enter into a draw for cool prizes from some of the shops participating in Support Local month. Everything gets underway around 8pm - hope to see you all there!

Creepy crawlies

Halloween themed post!

Here are some spooky gems we've got in stock that will be sure to send shivers down your spine.

Momento Mori skull candle set - $55

Audrey Cantwell stone skull necklaces - $29

Mon Petit Fantome spiderweb print - $18

Butternut Squash Soup

I have given myself a new goal. One simple little goal. Make one thing from SCRATCH each week. One damn thing a week. So far so good. Two weeks down, Two recipe's completed. This week I went on my favorite new website (thanks to Kristal!) called TasteSpotting. I wanted to make Butternut Squash Soup. I typed it in the side bar and got a million great recipe's! I combined some and changed them to make the SIMPLEST one possible. Here it is..it is God-Damn-Delicious!

• 1 Butternut Squash
• Olive Oil
  
• 3 to 4 cups Vegetable Stock
• 1 cup Coconut Milk
• 1 Onion
  
• 1 Clove of Garlic
  
• Any Spices you want, I used Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Salt & Pepper
• Dollop of Plain Greek Yogurt (optional when serving)
  

Peel and cut Squash into medium size cubes. Add a tablespoon or so of oil in a pot over medium heat. Throw in the squash, onion and garlic. Add some spices here if you want. Stir everything together and cook for a few minutes more, so that the squash begins to caramelize a little.

Pour in vegetable stock until it just covers up the squash. See how easy this is? Just eye-ball it! Who cares! Let the soup come to a boil then put a lid on the pot and turn down the heat to low. Cook until the squash in tender (you will know this by poking it with a fork or just stirring it).

My cut-up Squash! What a work-out getting that thing diced.

When squash is cooked, take the soup off of the heat. Blend the soup with an immersion blender or in a regular blender until it is smooth. I was lucky enough to have one of those funky hand held ones.

(Just after blending, without the coconut milk, taken with my crackberry!)

Stir in the coconut milk and add whatever the hell else you want! Serve the soup with an extra drizzle of coconut milk or a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on top. I also realizied that it would be totally superb with roasted pine nuts on top. Too bad those puppies are so expensive. Anyways, if I can make this soup. Believe me, you can.

* P.S. If any of you know me, you know the truth is the first time I made this recipe I messed it up by buying condensed sweetened milk. it was so freakin sweet. You use that stuff for TRUFFLES. Always read labels, kids.

Just Fall into Fall

There is really no season I like more then Autumn. I love the knits, the woolies, the tea, the root veggies, the smells, the colors and snuggling up to my ginger kitty named Hank while watching spooky movies. But most importantly, more then all those things... I love sweaters. so much. I buy them compulsively. The woolier the better.

Ella Peru Holiday Cardigan, $160

Maison Gold Blouse, $160

Pre-loved Odetta Sweater, $158

Pre-Loved knows where its at in the sweater department. I cannot wait to slip into this delightfully warm number first thing in the morning when the lack of sunshine and the cold winds outside make it so hard to get out of bed. Each of them is one of a kind re-constructed from bits and pieces of other people's favorite fall woolies. In celebration of the most beautiful season, lets all treat ourselves to a brand new cozy xo

Astrology Zone never lies

Hollie & Jane at White Elephant just posted the BEST blog post about the vintage sale, so I thought I would repost most of it here as a sort of "guest blog" with my own little additions in an editor's note kinda way. Hollie's photography just can't be beat, and those gals always make me lol too. So here goes!

"Our whirlwind weekend came to an end. And man, was it ever a good one. Ottawa ladies love their vintage, and we love Ottawa ladies. We got into our capital city late Friday night after a 6 1/2 hour drive full of construction, traffic and a George Stromboulopoulos sighting at a rest stop in Port Hope. We tweeted that we saw him, and he tweeted us back a picture of him searching for us. It made us totally giddy and made the rest of the drive that much more bearable.


As soon as we arrived at Victoire, we set to work with the help of Regine, Katie and one of their fabulous employees, Emily. Steaming all of the dresses that got wrinkled in the car and sorting all the pieces by colour. [Part of what was so great about having Hollie & Jane bring their dresses is that with so much more selection we were able to merchandise the racks by colour, and it was so beautiful! A full rack of peaches, seafoam and pastels, a rack with every shade of blue, black and grey in the spectrum, another for creams & whites, and finally one for brights!] What a serious haul. We talked about how exquisitely beautiful all this vintage was together, and how sad it is to think that each year the supply will dry up more and more.



Saturday we opened up bright and early to a lineup of people wanting to check out the collection. I don't think anyone was disappointed. So many good dresses went to so many good homes. There is seriously nothing more satisfying for me than to see an incredible, well-tailored dress fit someone like a glove. They just don't make them like that anymore. A woman visiting from the UK took home two beautifully crafted pieces. A girl walking by who stopped in without knowing that the sale was going on went home with her wedding dress. A couple of ladies bought dresses because they had balls to attend. Balls! [I'm embarrassed to admit that this made me laugh] Making real life fairy tales come true, over here.






Luckily we had some time for sight-seeing this time. I found out the last time that we visited that there are a whole bunch of stray cats that live behind Parliament Hill - The Canadian Parliamentary Cats. Why isn't this common knowledge? Maybe it is. It wasn't to me, anyways. We didn't have time to stop by last year, so I made it a priority that we visit Sunday morning. IT WAS GREAT. Stray cats, living in harmony with politicians, with their own little cat homes. Maybe White Elephant and Victoire will jointly sponsor these cats one day, as it is an volunteer based humane effort. [BEST IDEA!!]



We had some chill out time too. With neighbourhood cats that Regine allows to stay in her apartment [I hope this doesn't make me sound weird!! They just follow me in! And I love them. So there.] We named this one Morris and he snuggled and purred by our sides all night. And pizza [We brought them to Vanier for Louis' pizza! Hollie & Jane started hatching a plan to get White Elephant spelled in pizza dough on their next trip like this one. Also check out my horoscope themed nails in that pizza pic. Susan Miller said I would have a "magical and enchanting week-end", so I painted my nails accordingly. Though they came out a little Harry Potter, I still like them.] and hamburgers [Hintonburger!] and french pastries [Macarons et Madeleines!] and good sandwiches [Art-is-in!]. Cats, good food, vintage and shop talk are common themes when White Elephant and Victoire get together. [There really is no need to ever talk about anything else. Except for inspirational/hilarious youtube videos now and then too.]



[Now the next part is weird for me to post for obvious reasons, but I think it will help to put my extreme gushing about Hollie & Jane in context and not make it seem like creepy weird fandom here.] I seriously cannot gush over Regine and Katie enough. It's so weird to think that we only really met them in real life a mere year ago. It feels like we've known them forever. [It's true! We actually only met for the first time 1 year ago, when they came down for the vintage sale at the Chateau Laurier. But it was INSTANT friendship, and before we knew it we were already making plans to go visit them in Hamilton. Now we hardly go more than 3 months without seeing each other? It's like, when you know, you know!] Without sounding overly cheesy, these ladies are big time inspirations. Our mentors. Smart, passionate, stylish women making a go for themselves, and making their city a better place. [We feel the same way about them! The small business & arts community in Hamilton they've fostered, their beautiful and hilarious blog, their eye for vintage & new designers are such inspirations to us too!] We can only dream that White Elephant will one day achieve all of their successes. If you're in Ottawa, make sure that visiting Victoire is on your list of things to do. You won't get a warmer greeting in the city than you will from these two. [Ditto!]

We already planned our next trip back. We're going to do the vintage sale all over again in the spring. I'll be counting down the days, ladies. And we better start hoarding some amazing dresses starting now. [Ottawa (& Morris) eagerly await your return! Until then, we'll have to keep playing pen-pals. We want our Beyonce tour video back, and we'll send ya the next issue of Faces in a few weeks.]

*Also Susan Miller was right - it WAS an enchanted week-end.*

TV is hard work

A few weeks ago we had a TV crew at the shop filming RUBY. Here they are interviewing Valerie Dumaine, she was so honest talking about how busy she is and how hard she works. Our designers work their buns off supplying us fashionable, well-made and ethical pieces of clothing to fall in love with. Aren't we so thankful they do?


RUBY filmed a segment with Regine and I as well. We did an okay job but man is it ever hard talking to a camera. We were so nervous we kept laughing awkwardly. Oh and the make-up lady was so super nice - so nice that she didn't act weird about having to dab my upper lip ever 30 seconds because I was sweating so much!

Here is a link to the episode, there's great footage of Ottawa Fashion Week too.

Ella Peru Tea Party

Ella Peru just released her new Look Book for her Holiday 2012 Collection. These pictures are stunning and make me want to get married, British-Tea-party-Style, in the woods! Thoughts?

Party dress, $190

Hunter Skirt, $125

Holiday Pullover, $160

Holiday Cardigan, $160 (also available in Camel color)

We are carrying these styles at both locations.
Check out the full Look Book here

xoxoxo

Our Friend Beatrice Halloway

MonthThe sale was crazy, thank you all so much for supporting us and loving vintage dresses as much as we do. But after all our hard work we are gonna chill now. Tonight we are going for a staff party at Back Lane Cafe and then in no time we will start telling you about all the awesome events Apt613's Support Local Month has in store for all of us!

Swell, $99 at both locations

Ponytail, $99 at both locations

Harlow, $110 at both locations

If you love Auntie Loo's, nail polish, gossip, and cross stitching dirty words: November 5th 6pm-9pm we know where you are gonna be!

Black-out

I found some black velvet in the basement at the West Wellington location today and decided to make a background for our gold frame that we usually display necklaces on. Craft projects on a Saturday are usually a big no-no, but it's been oddly still in the west end today. I trust all of you are at the dalhousie location trying on our beautiful vintage frocks. If not, you've still got until 7 to scoop one up. Hurrrrrrrrrrry!

Some cardboard, some velvet and a bunch of new pieces from Species x 1000.

The bright necklaces on the top are so killer - brightly colored skulls, crosses and stones make these voodoo inspired necklaces really stand out ($54).

We've reordered their popular stone earrings, too - amethyst, citrine and quartz will look gorgeous peeking out of your hair. These are great as gifts and only $25 dollars a pop. All of these styles are also available at Dal, too.

Baby, I would rather a song then dimonds or gold

We are so excited to have you all see all the vintage dresses. They are all up and ready to be tried on and taken home at the Dalhousie shop, so come on down early all you faithful blog readers! These pictures are of some of our older gals, but man are you all gonna freak over the new gems. So excited for you guys to be proud of our hard work!!
Here are some of my favorite things:


This made me cry. Also that I got a fortune cookie at Shanghai that said "Do good, someone is watching you for guidance" Talk about PRESSURE!



Funny and brilliant!

But my real favorite thing is that Hollie and Jane will be here in a few hours and we are gonna paint the town (by eating so much pizza and maybe dancing on tables, but only a few tables and only in Vanier)

Vintage Sparrow

If this Saturday isn't going to be sweet enough...we bring you MORE exciting goodies to take home with you! You may remember this display at our Wellington West location (pic via Twitter)....

Well, the gals of Sparrow Floral Design are gonna do it again, and for you guys! THIS Saturday at our annual Vintage Dress Sale we will have mini bouquets for sale to take home with you! Because our homes are filled with fresh flowers and vintage, why should yours not be too? Here's some beautiful pictures from a Wedding they did this summer!



I KNOW RIGHT?! We are so lucky it hurts. YOU are too! 2 more sleeps, 2 more sleeps, 2 more sleeps, 2 more sleeps.....
xoxoxo