Mostly Danish Boutique’s Open House & Holiday Social – S11E12

It’s close to the Christmas holidays and I had the opportunity to check out Mostly Danish in the Hintonburg area. The boutique held an open house and holiday social to the public.

As part of their two night grand opening, the boutique brought Datsun (located on Elgin St.) and Tooth & Nail Brewing Company (located in Hintonburg) for foods and drinks. As well as a live DJ playing some music.

For those that don’t know, Mostly Danish is locally owned and specializes in unique furniture imported from the world. They had some oriental designs and displays at the boutique. Very high end products from chairs, sofas, tables and etc.

It was great to see some people out there and lastly, you check the photos from below.

National Gallery of Canada’s Christmas Tree Lighting – S11E11

On Thursday night, the National Gallery of Canada held their traditional Christmas tree lighting event as part of their holiday activities. Their Christmas tree is quite tall and just astounding to look at.

Aside from Parliament Hill’s Christmas lights which started on Wednesday, I never knew the National Gallery of Canada had their Christmas tree lighting event as well. There were hot chocolate and cookies served at the event. It was a good fun for the family and a nice way to stay indoors as Winter approaches.
The photos are posted below.

2015 Advent Calendars – S11E10

It’s back for another year and this time, I got two advent calendars to contend with. It’s been a yearly tradition getting DAVIDsTEA’s 24 Days of Tea. In the last minute, I decided to get Squish Candies’ 24 Days of Gummies.

This year’s DAVIDsTEA’s advent calendar is different it looks more like a drawer and sliding or pull the small boxes. Don’t worry, I’m not going to cheat.

For those that don’t know, Squish Candies makes gourmet gummies and candies and they’re based in Montreal. They’ve been established since 2014, so they’re basically a new and young company. The candies caught my interested when I was browsing around Hudson’s Bay at Queen St. W in Toronto.

As with past posts, I will be posting the list when opening the teas and candies for the 24 days. Keep on checking. I will also post the openings on Instagram.
Note: I’ve come to realize that Squish’s advent calendar is random with their boxes. If you check their Twitter, it will be different than mine.

Empty NAC – S11E09

The National Arts Centre with partnership with Instagram, hosted an event called Empty NAC on Wednesday morning. The event invited Ottawa Instagrammers and welcomed the new Minister of Canadian Heritage, Mélanie Joly.

As Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary, it was fitting that Instagram will be holding events across the country leading up to the celebration in 2017. The goal of the empty events is to bring people together around photography and celebrate Canada’s wonderful arts, culture and digital media scene.

With Empty NAC, we were shown the hidden spaces around the building, as well as what’s planned for the renovations leading up to 2017. I had the opportunity to shoot with a digital camera, a Polaroid camera and iPhone. It was fun to shoot with the past and present devices through the eye of the lens.

It was a privilege to meet with other Instagrammers and a surprise to meet the new Minister of Canadian Heritage. When Joly approached me, she talked about her use of Instagram and how she loves the arts. It was quite interesting to see a politician be knowledgable in technology and the arts scene.

You can check out the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.
There’s photos by various Ottawa Instagrammers from #EmptyNAC over on Instagram. CBC Ottawa also covered the #EmptyNAC event on their website.
In case you don’t have me in Instagram, posted below are a few photos on Instagram. As well of a few Impossible/Polaroid photos.

The 2015 Plaid Parade – S11E08

It was a chilly and cold Sunday morning as I rushed over to Lansdowne Park for the 4th annual Plaid Parade. It’s an event done by XO Velo and to showcase the bike fanatics in decking out on their plaid clothing. It’s my first time checking out the event and sorry, I didn’t use a bike nor take part in the parade as I decided to take fun photos. The previous bike parade was held at a different location. Lansdowne Park was a nice location and there were the farmers market happening as well. It’s become a lively place to be at.

The 2015 edition started at Lansdowne Park and ended in the Dalhousie St. area (in Ottawa). Just funny that I bussed to downtown as the parade started and thought they would be at the Dalhousie St. area. I got there before the parade finished.

That was a nice way to spend Sunday morning checking out the start of the bike parade. You check out the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Ottawa’s Music Scene: Class of 2015 – S11E07

It was a chilly and windy Saturday afternoon in downtown Ottawa as I attended the Ottawa’s Music Scene // Class of 2015 group photo. There was a similar one which happened in Toronto not too long ago and why not have one for Ottawa as the music scene has been unique and creative.

There’s been a diverse genre spread throughout the music scene in the Nation’s Capital. It’s like a who’s who of the music scene and more like a six degrees of separation as the community is always interconnected.

At the photo shoot, there were bloggers, musicians and fans congregating for the group photo. As usual, it was great seeing G.Grand and Scary Bear Soundtrack. Danielle Allard, Malak and others who I might forgot their name as they were part of the fun photo shoot.

The photo above was shot on the Polaroid camera using The Impossible Project film and it didn’t turn out as great because of the cold temperatures.

You can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Ballads for Ballets – S11E06

It’s one of the rare times I would write about Canadian politics. Wednesday night at Babylon Nightclub was a free event of live music and getting people informed to vote for the upcoming Canadian election in a non-partisan way. The federal election is less than a couple of days away and so far, there has been a bigger turnout for advance polls during the Thanksgiving weekend and interest among the political parties vying for people’s vote.

The event, Ballads for Ballots was hosted by Ottawa Showbox in conjunction with Beau’s All Natural Brewing & Gallery Recording Studios as they brought the best in the Ottawa music scene. The three acts ranged from Folk to Hip-Hop to Pop. First to perform was Malak, who’s from the US and now based in Ottawa. Her music ranges from Jazz, Opera and Pop. Second was Ottawa’s own Jim Bryson and it’s pretty self-explanatory about him as I written so many times about his music. He did talk about politics and the place he’s living at. Last but not least was G.Grand as he’s become prominent in the Ottawa Hip-Hop scene. He made some accomplishments as he performed two times on different days at the 2015 edition of RBC Ottawa Bluesfest.

There were speeches by Jenn Jefferys (freelance writer) and Elizabeth Gray-Smith (iPolitics) as they told the crowd to get out and vote on October 19th and get their voice heard. As well, there were booths by Samara Canada and Elections Canada to show how to vote and practice come voting day.

It was good event and great to see people I know around as usual. Good job on Ottawa Showbox for holding the event as well as the sponsors that helped out to do raffle draw.
You can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

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Coca-Cola Life – S11E05

Prior to going to Beau’s Oktoberfest on Saturday, I went to T&T Supermarket (Ottawa location) and stumbled into this Coca-Cola flavour. Imported from Japan, it’s Coca-Cola Life. I was pretty curious because of its green packaging and not knowing much on it. There’s some Japanese words on it which is unique than the Cokes in North America.

I had a taste on a Sunday and to my surprise, it didn’t taste very sweet and very rich. From what I read on Wikipedia, it uses sugar (less amounts than normal Coke) and stevia instead of corn syrup/fructose used on original Coca-Cola. It’s somewhat in-between Coca-Cola Zero. I would think that it would taste like Mexican Coke, which I tried at El Camino awhile back but it’s different in tasting.

There you have it. Not sure if T&T will restock more of it as I took the last bottle. The price goes for $2.79. It’s pricey than the usual 500ml bottles, which has been the new norm in 2015 as Coca-Cola is lowering calories in their products. Check the photos below.

Beau’s Oktoberfest 2015 – S11E04

It was a chilly and windy Saturday as I went to Beau’s Oktoberfest 2015. The event was held at the Vankleek Hill Fairgrounds in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, it’s further east of Ottawa. It’s about an hour’s drive to get there. The event is now in its seventh year.

There’s lot of activities from midway games to learning about beer and food. The popular had to be the Craft Haus as it had various craft beers from Ontario, Quebec and a few from the United States. I didn’t drink any beers but my dad and brother did.
There were the food tent section from popular eateries in Ottawa like Pressed, two six {ate} and a few elsewhere.

The concerts which I didn’t get to check out ranged from Yukon Blonde to F’ed Up to the 2015 Polaris Music Prize Shortlist nominee, Alvvays. It’s great to see a festival showcase Canadian music.

It was great to bump into some friends at the event. Later in the afternoon, there were a lot of people and lineups for certain foods like the pretzel. At least this year wasn’t raining as I attended last year and regret having to wear shoes.

Overall, Beau’s definitely made a fun event for families and young people alike.
You can check out the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Sage Wellness Open House – S11E03

Sage Wellness had their open house on Thursday night over on Gladstone Ave in downtown Ottawa. For those that don’t know, Sage Wellness is a space where they specialize in massage therapy, acupuncture, and various health and holistic practices. The reason for going was that I know someone on social media and an opportunity to check out the place for itself.

I was curious to try an acupuncture, which you can see the photo from below and also on Instagram. At first, I wasn’t sure if there was a sting but I felt nothing. It was a relief to get it over with.

With the open house, there were paintings from local artists displayed and appetizers and goodies by Thyme and Again.
Overall, the open house was pretty good and I’m pretty interested in trying out the infrared sauna that they have.

You can check out the photos from below. There’s some Impossible B&W Photos as well.