Convocation

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently finished my degree and graduated from the University of Ottawa. A couple weeks ago I attended my convocation, walked across the stage and received the hard copy of my degree. It's been a long and stressful journey but I couldn't be more than happy to have reached the end of it. This closes one chapter of my life as I'm continuing onto the next one.

Congratulations to the class of 2014 and may you excel in all your future endeavors!

Ottawa Fashion Week F/W2014 Day 2

Day 2 of OFW was just as amazing as the first. Once we got used to the pace of things, it was much easier to run around on the second day to time what we wanted to do and when. This time I brought my camera with me while I was in the media pit and got a chance to snap a couple of photos from one of the amazing collections from the night. We also managed to snag some food this time as well, learning from the night before that missing dinner on a 7 hour night doesn't do well with your stomach.

For the first set of shows, I was placed in the media pit and snapped up some beautiful pictures of Bernice&Barclay's FW2014 Collection. I'm a huge an of floral so all of the body conscious dresses were beautiful! I'm waiting for some of the official collection pictures to become available so that I can compile a post with my favourite looks from each collection.

For the second set of shows, I was placed at our station and responsible for manning the Facebook page while the collections went down the runway. Although not as many posts were written on Facebook, those posts were more content heavy in terms of summarizing the overall designer's aesthetic with beautiful visuals as opposed to the fast-paced instant social media pages of Instagram and Twitter.

I did manage to sneak some time back stage in between shows to grab some photos of the models prepping for their next walk. Joseph Ribkoff's cool-kid-from-the-block aesthetic really attracted me with the funky black-out shades that all the models were sporting. Paired with Versace-like prints, the first part of his collection had a very street chic but sexy edge to it.

 My last position of the night was backstage to capture the chaos that ensues from a fashion show. Not only did I get a chance to view some of the designs before they hit the runway, but I got a chance to see just how dedicated the designers were. Frank Sukhoo literally used every last minute up until the models stepped on the runway to fix any garment issues.

One of my favourite collections of the night was Serendipity. The models were dressed up as dolls down to rouge on lips and overly exaggerated painted eyes. The dressed flowed beautifully with chiffon and everything just seemed to be floating on a cloud of pink.

Ottawa Fashion Week F/W2014 Day 1

Part of my social media intern responsibilities included covering the pre-runway shows. It was amazing to see how dedicated many of the designers were as they walked down the runway their models tweaking any final details before their shows. As some of the walks were more complicated than others - from walking in pairs to walking down one side and then walking down the other, run-throughs were evidently important to ensure that no mistakes occurred as the models strutted their stuff.

Since I'm currently in Toronto for the weekend visiting my cousins, friends and enjoying the city, I was only able to attend the first two days of Ottawa Fashion Week (OFW). The two nights showcased F/W2014 collections for many Ottawa native and Canadian designers. Throughout the night, the social media team was given various responsibilities which included photographing the looks in the social media pit, backstage, pre-/post-set-up and composing recap posts on Facebook. As much as I would have loved to be in the media pit photographing the collections, our responsibilities didn't cover that. That's okay though, there were much more talented media and photographers present there to do all of the work for me!

I had a blast working as a social media intern for OFW and getting the chance to see all of the backstage chaos as the models got fitted for each look. With hairspray misting through the air and eyeliner marks all over the make-up artists' hands, you can tell that creativity has found its home.

In between the shows, attendees were able to visit the Loft Market and where our sponsors had their products available to try. Barefoot Wine & Bubbly were also onsite for those looking for a little something something to sip on throughout the night.

Location Scouting and Congratulations!

Last week I was asked by my friend Abdi to help him scout out a location for his friend's surprise wedding proposal. We spent a couple hours in the afternoon in the downtown core of Ottawa looking at beautiful pathways, a bridge covered in love locks, out the back of the Parliament library and a couple of trails in Westboro before settling on the tree-encased pathway. Surprisingly, the pathway wasn't even on the original list of locations and we just happened upon it by chance while visiting the bridge.

My friend Abdi did a beautiful job capturing the moment even in the dead of winter, during one of the coldest snaps of the season. Can you guess her response? Obviously she said yes from the smile on her face!

Congratulations Troy, I wish you and Meghan both the best!
Please check out Abdi's page for more of his beautiful photography. I wish everyone the best and hope that everyone has just as great of a start to their new year!

Ribtober Fest

If you missed out on the annual Rib Fest that happens on Sparks Street this summer, you had a second chance this weekend. Once again, Sparks Street brought back the same street meat vendors but dubbed as Ribtober Fest (as a pun on October, get it?). I'm not an avid ribs fan, but there's always something there for me, pulled pork. I've never liked having to eat food that involves your fingers and getting sauce all over your face (this includes wings, don't judge) so pulled pork has always been a solid favorite of mine since I tried it for the first time.

I'm a loyal Camp 31 fan, but this time my friends and I wanted to try a different Ribber. Honestly, we had only just finished a gym workout about 20 minutes before hand, so the closet stall with the shortest line up was what sold us. Enter: Billy Bones. Now I'm extremely used to the sweet, peppery tang of Camp 31, and that's not to say that Billy Bones was bad, just different. It had more of a smokey taste to it. The same kind you get from a backyard grill when you accidentally burn your burgers. What was great about Billy Bones was that the napkin stands had huge pumps of their signature BBQ sauce just in case you felt that your order needed a little bit of extra juice. I'm not a huge fan of salt, so I didn't go for that option, but for those who like to be able to add more juice to their plate, I definitely thought that this was an ingenious idea!

I ended up ordering a pulled pork sandwich - as always, and got tempted into the delicious food that was cooking on the grill. My order resulted in some chicken as well. Can I say that I'm a convert to Billy Bones? Definitely not, once a Camp 31 fan, always a Camp 31 fan. But I did enjoy branching out and trying the flavors that other Ribbers had to offer.

Did you guys get to try Rib Fest or Ribtober Fest? Let me know if you have any favorite Ribbers that I should try, I'm always open to suggestions!