Out of the Blue

Thank goodness they finally moved to a new location — still in the Village but this time, they are on the street level (right across the street from the old location). No more treacherous stairs to get to this place. I like how they have expanded their offerings in the new larger space (the old Vita Health). Service is always pretty friendly and laid back. They have more changing rooms and a ton of cute casual and party dresses from $ 80-​$ 150. Lots of accessories like scarves, hats, earrings and necklaces that won’t break the bank.
It’s a fun place to shop and a must stop for me when I am in the Village.

I love that I spent under $ 200 there and got two one of a kind dresses, both remodelled vintage dresses that are absolutely killer, an adorable tank top, awesome sunglasses, a chic and sexy homage to the 1920’s flapper dress, and great customer service. Had a chat with the owner who was friendly, knowledgable, and genuinely passionate about vintage clothing and fashion in general. Definitely one of my favourite clothing stores in the Peg.

[In all fairness, I can’t really review this place since I didn’t shop there… but my boyfriend gave me the most amazing present from here so I just wanted to show some love]
Here’s a tip for all the guys: It’s the little things that count. Yes, you can show up in a flashy car or buy rounds of drinks for my friends or take me to $ 300 dinners… but what I’ll remember in 10 years… what will make me want to stay around for 10 years, are the little things. You can make me feel like I hung the moon by remembering a special moment.
My S. O did this with a trinket from Out of the Blue. It was a beautiful necklace with a sand dollar pendant. It was so special that the moment I opened it, it triggered a proustian memory and I was back to that beach in Africa. back to 2007 when he was Obama-​ing it up meeting long lost relatives in the motherland and I just happened to be staying at his birth father’s house while I was volunteering in the village. You know… the usualboy meets girl story. I left for Kenya and got trapped in the makings of a civil war. Passport stolen, city locked down, the sound of sirens and the smell of burning filled the air. This man, this guy who knew me not even in a biblical sense for just a few weeks took a 16 hour bus ride across 2 countries to make sure I was ok.
We ended up hiding away at his cousin’s beach house on a empty strip of sand in a remote village while he fed me pineapples in the day and at night I would wake up crying from memories of men with machetes burning down churches full of children. All he could do was tell me it was going to be ok. It was our morning ritual to make the only footsteps on the beach and collect sand dollars whose bodies wash up on the shore after their death. Every little sea creature skeleton wiped away a fearful memory until there were no more night mares… and after awhile they weren’t marine corpses anymore but reminders that though life can be horrid, heartbreaking, gruesome, unfair, dire, terrifying, it still has the capacity to be beautiful and birth love.
When I opened that sweet little cardboard box, all those feelings came flooding back to me and that necklace isn’t just a necklace, but a visual reminder of a memory of the heart.