Category Archives: Fashion & Style

Tribute to Small Business Owners: Hardworking. Resilient. Supportive.

Islamic woman small business owner holding blackboard with smiling.2023-02-01 vLife Blog image Tribute to Small Business Owners

Ever look at all the small business owners at your local market, admiring their wares, and thought about how much work goes into them just being there? We think about this a lot at vLife. About our hardworking small business clients. So much so that we put on a Local Market featuring some of our […]

Local Fall Products And Where to Get ‘Em

Montage of Fall Products, pumpkins decor pumpkin spice late, Fall drinks local fall products

Me, one fine Wednesday morning. Phone buzzes and I flip it over to find a text with those faithful words – “On my way to go get a pumpkin spice latte.” Fall products. They’re back. Yep. It’s that time of year again. Leaves are starting to change, mornings are getting colder, and the smell of […]

Local gifts. The perfect solution to supply chain anxiety.

vLife Blog 2021-11 Supply Chain Local Gifts image

Worried about that pesky supply chain? Local gifts to the rescue! As yet another pandemic festive season barrels down upon us, our thoughts turn to making the hopes and dreams of our loved ones come true. Of course, here at vLife, we want you to think local gifts first. And this year, taking a buy […]

On local gift baskets and how they saved my holiday bacon

Local Gift Basket curated by vLife writer and passionate buy local supporter Erin Casey

Local gift baskets — and shopping for said baskets — has taught me a lot this holiday season. Mainly that while I seem to be quite good at locating and spending money at small businesses near me, I am NOT very good at actually assembling my haul of local goods into an attractive package. Before […]

9 Ways to Shop Small & Local this Holiday Season

Two hands giving a red and gold wrapped local gift

How can you shop local? Let me count the ways… But first, a moment of recognition of the stresses that can accumulate with all the demands on our time during the Festive Season… Holiday Stressors The Pressures of the Holiday season can mount pretty quickly – and it seems to start mounting earlier and earlier […]

My Fast Fashion Fast: 800+ days of local looks and big bargains

fast fashion fast

Over two years ago, I went on a Fast Fashion Fast. Since then, 90% of my clothing purchases have been second-hand, vintage, hand-me-down, ethically produced, or Canadian-made. What’s fast fashion? Cheap clothes produced in a hurry by mass-market retailers, usually imitating the latest catwalk trends. Most of us have enjoyed the benefits of fast fashion: […]