This Is Our Life

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, attaching our new price tags that Mike designed with Victoire's PRICE GUN (we are so getting one) and sorting all the pieces by colour. 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! 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.

We had some chill out time too. With neighbourhood cats that Regine allows to stay in her apartment (we named him Morris and he snuggled and purred by our sides all night) and pizza and hamburgers and french pastries and good sandwiches. Cats, good food, vintage and shop talk are common themes when White Elephant and Victoire get together.

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. 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 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.

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.