Lazy Sunday

Man, what a weekend.

I get to see my friend Erica about every couple years or so, whenever she happens to be travelling across the country and decides makes a pit stop in Hamilton.  We briefly lived together in Halifax, and getting to spend a few days with her is always amazing.  This time she was on her way from BC to Quebec City, and stopped to spend some time in Hamilton.   We took Pepper out to some of the trails around Dundas for a super beautiful hike near Borer's Falls.

We also tried our hand at friendship bracelets, which Erica hadn't made since she little, and I'm not sure I ever have. I used to make a lot of those spiral-style ones, and I could make a mean gimp bracelet, but I don't think I ever attempted a full fledged friendship bracelet before. I'm only about a third of the way through and my fingers are all cramped up.



There was also apple crisp, scary movies, delicious home cooked meals, and pumpkin carving!!!

Erica's pumpkin, on the right, was supposed to be a portrait of Doug.  She had a little trouble with his beard, and as a result the entire front of his face fell out. When all hope was gone, she really turned it around with some clever toothpick use and a little ingenuity.

All in all, a really great fall weekend.  I'm looking forward to giving out Halloween candy tonight, although I have so far failed at all attempts to come up with a costume.

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.

Drool

Please excuse the radio silence over here. Hollie and I are feverishly preparing for our road trip to Ottawa this weekend for the You Love Vintage and Vintage Loves You sale.  I hung up most of the dresses yesterday and proceeded to drool for the next ten minutes.  The girls over at Victoire have promised tears as each dress goes, and I'm starting to feel the same way about some of these pieces. Can't I just hold on to a few of them? Please?

Ainslie Wood Update

I know we've already mentioned this, but we're updating the Ainslie Wood Co. shop daily these days, Monday-Thursday. Just look at some of the pieces we added last week. We have tons more things photographed and measured, just waiting to be added this week. So many pretty things.

Speaking of pretty things, this Saturday is the You Love Vintage and Vintage Loves You sale at Victoire! I cannot wait. Seriously. Besides another chance to see our lovely friends Katie and Regine, we get to finally unveil the amazing collection of vintage dresses we have been hoarding like madwomen. I'm also dying to see the collection the girls have amassed, and judging from this sneak peak it's going to be amazing. We'll make sure to add anything that's leftover to the shop next week, although to be honest, we're hoping we get to come back with empty bags!

Shiny New

It's actually a little crazy how much new stuff we've been getting in these days. A good thing too, since Supercrawl cleared us right out. I thought maybe we'd have some downtime in between that and gearing up for the holiday season, but that's totally not our style over here. Yesterday we even had a little bit of a visual stress/clutter meltdown because of all the new things we have, and how little room we have. I guess that means that you'll have to come down and take some of it off of our hands.

First introduced to Katie Walker at the Beehive Summer Craft Fair, her silk and cotton hand-dyed and silk screened scarves are gorgeous. They brighten up our branch so merrily! Seriously great prints.

A huge new shipment of MaaP Studio's porcelain rings and earrings came in and have made their home on an amazing under-lit deco tiered stand that we picked up at Aberfoyle. I love the organic look of these statement pieces so much. There's one ring that has braille along the outside, which a customer told us read "love". LOVE.

New issues and more back issues of Worn in stock. If you're not familiar with the publication, it's a timeless fashion journal printed in Toronto. We've got a limited number of gift packs, which include multiple issues, to get any new readers up to speed.

These clay bauble necklaces from Not Tuesday are just awesome. Beautiful colour palettes mean they lend themselves to being a work of art as much as being a personal accessory.

More tea towels in from the ever popular Leah Duncan. Her geometric designs are sure to please everyone. And do I spy some knits in behind there? Yes, we've brought them out. But don't worry, all of our mittens and hats and scarves are super cute to make the transition a little easier for everyone. We have to ask our knit artists to start creating allllll the way at the beginning of the summer, so when you wear these pieces, make sure to think of all the hot, sweaty love that went into making them for you.

Ben and Oliver! Ben and Oliver! Ben and Oliver! We've finally acquired more of these best sellers. Versatile and subtle, these can be worn with anything and offer a hint of bashful femininity to any outfit. I actually can't believe that I don't own a pair of these myself yet. I vow to buy myself a pair of black roses studs soon. There. It's on the internet. I have to stick to my word now.

Oh man. Speaking of things that I bought from the store...we just got Jenna Rose's fall/winter 2011 pieces in yesterday and OH MY GOD. We rave and rave and rave about Jenna on here, but she keeps hitting them out of the park. Like this ship bag for example. I immediately bought one in brown with some birthday money, even though we only ordered two for the shop. I couldn't help myself. So, now we've just got this lone guy left. He won't be here long, I'm sure of it. It's a beautiful bag, meticulously crafted with such a high attention to detail, just like everything that Jenna creates.

Look ma! I'm modeling! In addition to the ship bag, we also got a ton of tea towels in Jenna's new prints and colours, and some wicked circle scarves. Last week I picked up some new lighting equipment for Ainslie Wood Co. photoshoots (among other things) and tested out some portraiture in the back room. That glorious light! That gorgeous honeycomb print scarf! However, I'm pretty sure it would look better on you. Come down and try it on sometime.

Geez, this is only like, a third of the new work that has come in lately. We're carrying a number of new artists including iswas+willbe, Marianne Chenard, Wit & Whistle, and Threadbare Supply Co. We've got restocks of old favourites with new designs from Oh My Cavalier, Kate Broughton and Things by Slo. And 100 bowties from Paukstukai are on their way to us as we speak.

Oh! And all of our natural, handmade soap from Rocky Top Soap Shop is on sale. There's just so many reasons to come visit. Damn.

Birthdays All Around

Today is Hollie's birthday! Yesterday was also the three year birthday of our store!! Celebration time!

Hollie and I have been officially friends for 11 years now. We've known each other longer, but thinking that far back hurts my head. In so many ways we are completely opposite people, and in others, we are exactly the same.  Case in point, while she was just recently telling the Internet she wanted to see pics of me eating a sandwich in order to believe it, I was sending her those exact pictures without knowing about her tweets. That's really a terrible example, but you get the idea. I think.

Despite our individual differences or similarities, each one of us is hell of a lot different than we were 11 years ago. Yet, we've managed to do it. White Elephant the retail shop has been open for three years, White Elephant online has been going for over four, and this blog that we've been running together is celebrating five years. I think that means we won. It's not always easy, to run a business with a friend and to stay friends, to grow with any one person for that long, but if it was that easy making it this long wouldn't feel so sweet. Opening a business in the middle of a recession is an uphill battle, and we've come this far and are still talking to each other. 

WE DID IT HOLLIE. WE ARE SUCCESSFUL VENTURE CAPITALISTS. OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

Happy Birthday Hollie and our communal baby, White Elephant.

By the way. That is the most embarrassing picture of Hollie and I in existence. I feel OK about posting it because this picture marked the opening of White Elephant, and also I'm pretty sure I am equally as embarrassed as Hollie is about this picture, so it's not like one of us is hanging the other out to dry. Don't kill me, OK Hollie?

(photo c/o Jeff Tessier for HMag)

Gift Certificates Now Available

We just got amazing new gift certificates printed for the shop, thanks to our designer to the stars, Mike and lovingly printed by Tom at Copydog.  I love them so much. Would it be weird to give everyone on my Christmas list a gift certificate to my own shop? They're just so pretty!

Gift certificates are available in any denomination and come adorably wrapped up in twine.  Available now at the shop!

Back In Action

OMG, we're totally back online over at Ainslie Wood Co. with so many pretty new things in stock. And starting next week, we'll be updating with amazing vintage pieces daily. Daily! OMG. OMG. OMG. Right!?