Shop the Neighbourhood

 As if Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren't enough, Shop the Neighbourhood is coming over to Ottawa to serve as a buffer between the two and encourage people to shop - local this time round.

Just a quick round-up of what it is, Shop the Neighbourhood is an initiative started by Yellow Media Ltd. (a.k.a. Yellow Pages) to support local businesses in Canada. On the day of the event, participating local businesses have exclusive deals to encourage residents to drop by and discover what their neighbourhood has to offer! The program launched November last year in Toronto, and this year, they extended the program to Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa.
Update: Over 8000 businesses nationwide participated in the event! Woop woop! Let's shop local more often!

You can check out a little more about the initiative here - and a bit of shameless self-promotion here, I wrote about it for a local community paper that you can check out here! 

  That being said, I definitely checked it out and man, I never realized just how much of a deal they were going to make out of it! ByWard Market definitely went all out (granted, most of the stores there did participate in the event) and there were yellow balloons, banners, people walking around with yellow shopping bags and scarves pretty much everywhere I looked.

I definitely took advantage and popped into a few shops here and there, even ones I had never heard of before. And man, there are quite a lot of them. I love the concept of events like this, and I think these need to happen more often! Shopping local is a great way to not only support small-medium sized businesses but it also offers you a great chance to see what is readily available to you a few steps out from your home. Plus, it's an awesome opportunity for anyone to explore their neighbourhood more!

I'm all for seeing what else stores along Bank Street and ByWard Market have to offer!

Do you shop local often?

Happy discovering!

Black Friday's when the damage is done...

 Oh dear...

In the spirit of Black Friday, I went down to Rideau Centre today and well, I did a little damage. But oh, how could I not? Such awesome deals were going on in seriously every shop (I don't remember it being this awesome last year) and I just got sucked in. Damn. 

I'd been wanting a good, sturdy faux leather jacket for quite a while now, and when better to snag one than Black Friday? I walked into the Aeropostale store and made a bee-line towards this one from the Bethany Mota collection. I'd actually seen this one from my previous trips, but always stayed away from it because, uhm, it was $73. As much as I loved the quilted sleeves, I didn't think it was worth shelling out almost $100. But low and behold, today? I got it for $20. OH EM GEE. BARGAIN. How could I say no? 

My first stop: Sephora. Every year they've got these $12 deals (in the U.S. it's only $10, lucky bums) and this year the range was pretty kickass. I'll be honest, I was trolling the internet for about three days trying to get a sneak peek at what would be in store today! Uber happy I was able to get my hands on the stuff I wanted, and really proud that I didn't purchase anymore make-up (not to say I wasn't tempted)! Hah! I've been really into fragrances and skincare recently, so I snagged up the TOCCA Beaty set (two hand creams and mini rollerballs), boscia pore-purifying duo (mask and blotting paper) and my, absolute favourite, the NEST fragrance mini-rollerball trio!!! Why settle for one fragrance when you can get three?

And instead of the standard paper bags I got this cute tote bag (which was also given out during the VIB/Rouge sale), so all in all, I think I got a pretty good deal. I believe these exclusive babies are still available online, so go snatch them up while you still can!

I also managed to head over to Forever 21 early enough and they were still handing out their little 'Black Friday mystery' scratch cards for a little surprise discount! And as much as I hate to admit it, I took advantage of that damn discount. *sigh*

I didn't just shop for myself and of course I picked up a few bits for my parents. So in some cases, my purchases were justified. Maybe. 

Thank goodness Black Friday only happens once a year, because I swear, I don't think my mind (and feet) could take another round. That being said, Boxing Day is just around the corner...

Did you manage to get any good deals today?

Ottawa: ByWard Market Adventures #2

I wasn't kidding when I said that there were more of these posts to come! There's so much to see over at the Byward area that I don't know how long it would take me to discover the whole place given my schedule! But I swear, I will find the time to get down there with my camera and do some more exploring - hopefully before the snow graces us with its presence!

Schnazy ride eh? Perfect ride for the summer times, but perhaps a skip for the coming cold!

One particular weekend, ByWard Market was celebrating Harvest Festival! This was the first I'd attended in the few years I've been here, and man have I been missing out. Even though I only caught the last day, I had such a blast with all the entertainment, food and just mingling with people!

There was a COP = Clown on Patrol roaming around, making balloon animals for little kids! I was so tempted to ask for one but managed to hold myself back... but now I kinda wish I did. Who doesn't want a balloon animal?

They also had horse-drawn carriage rides going on, as well as free Haunted Walk tours!

The main highlight for me would hands-down have to be the Alpine-themed entertainment they had going on! I'd never seen anything like it, and I gotta say, as humourous as I found most of it, it was pretty kickass! Props to them as well for going all out with the costumes! Absolutely gorgeous. You can check out the little Instagram video I took with a few seconds of each of the performances here!

This kid was just too adorable, walking up to these instruments and looking down the holes! My heart melted...

Despite the cold, the entertainment and company was definitely worth it! Granted, this post doesn't quite capture it (I'll be honest, I was mainly down here for work purposes hence the lack of anymore photos) but I promise the next few ones will be better! I'm looking forward to what else ByWard has to offer, especially with the holidays just around the corner! Uber psyched!

In the meantime, 

Happy discovering!