Penelope Sloan Design Launch Party

I scoped out this event on Facebook and as fate would have it, I got a lovely email from a woman named Penelope Sloan inviting me to review the launch party of her business. When I visited her website (penelopesloan.com), immediately I could see that Penelope Sloan was going to join the club of Vancouver’s smart, savvy businesswomen turning a talent into a business. I immediately jumped on the chance to go and coincidentally this was my first time at Tunnel Lounge.

Tunnel is cool – long and narrow, with lighted tables and giant screens that displayed pages of Penelope’s website and the sponsors that donated food and gift bag swag.

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I’m going loco for local fashion for one year!

I don’t know what it is, but lately I’ve come across signs that are telling me I need to shop locally. First, I met the designer of Die Constant, who sells his shirts in a few boutiques I haven’t been to.

Then there was the Reach Magazine Mixer a few weeks ago. I didn’t meet any local boutique owners there, but Misty Greer told me she sold her stuff at Scout Boutique, and then I met Jamie Marriot, Founder of S2S Nation, which gets artists to design eco-friendly t-shirts. Plus, we got a bunch of discount cards in the swag bag for Invito Couture, LYNNsteven Boutique in Gastown, and violet hill boutique in Steveston, Richmond (opening this Saturday officially). So I will be making my way down there eventually.

I discovered one of Leo’s acquaintances, Klaudia Lo, is the co-creator of Klosit Clothing – which is going to emerge in Vancouver this Fall/Winter in a big way — and another acquaintance, Stephanie Jhala, does Marketing for Obakki. The three of us went out for early dinner last week before heading to the Vancouver Fashion Industry Meetup together (we were all VFI Meetup virgins). And I met more people there, including Carlie, the creator of the monthly Portobello West fashion & art market, who talked about being inspired by business models. My interactions have been endless.

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Laundry is good with LG’s SteamWasher

One of the perks that comes with living beneath my parents is being able to take advantage of the appliances that are shared by the house.

They just renovated the laundry room and took the opportunity to dump the dryer (that came with the house), sell the washer, and get a new washer and dryer set. They chose LG’s Large Capacity SteamWasher and dryer, which are energy AND water efficient. To use these appliances, a more expensive “high efficiency” laundry detergent is required, and is inserted into a little plastic container in a drawer, which also holds bleach and other unnecessary ingredients.  However, with the money you save on water and energy use, a couple of extra bucks on detergent should be no problem.

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