L-A: Okay, so, we get invited to stuff. And sometimes we make it. A lot of times we don’t and we feel this serious bad blogger guilt because we wish we just want to be everywhere and support all of our favourite things. But when you’re working full-time and out for different things every night of the week (class, children, work events, craft shows, etc), sometimes you can’t (if you are a blogger and you manage to do this, please email us your secret. Unless it’s energy drinks. I don’t do energy drinks). Which is why we feel super guilt for missing the Mercedes Benz Start Up and seeing the work of some of our favourite designers hit the runway to fame and fortune.

But! Sometimes we do make it out and we’re so frigging glad we did. Like when Unpaid Staffer Mel and I made it out to the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Red Hot in the City.

I failed to get pictures of our outfits (because I am awesome like that), but whatever (we did look cute. Mel wore shoes that look better than they feel). We were no where near as fancy as the other ladies in the room – because ladies of Halifax – you brought it hard.

But let me back it up for a second and explain the event. We went because we were invited and it sounded cool, but it had been a busy week and we didn’t give it much thought. I come from a long line of heart disease and I still didn’t give it much thought. Why? Because it’s pretty much been all dudes with the heart disease in my fam jam. And while I do occasionally check in with the doctor on things like blood pressure (okay, she does that anyway during that annual torture session) and cholesterol (once and I was pretty smug about asking to have that checked), I don’t really think it’s an issue for me.

And that is why this event exists. To raise money and awareness about heart disease and stroke and it’s effect on women in Canada. As in, it’s actually the numero uno killer of ladies. That ladies are more likely than men to die of heart disease.

All of this made me realize: this event is totally my jam and not just because it was fancy. It’s my jam because this is actually a disease that affects my family. Affects me. Affects my lady friends and that includes a lot of you. So I’m pretty stoked that some ladies in our community are trying to change the way we think about the disease – not just scaring us, but reminding us that you can reduce your risk by 80% if you make a few lifestyle changes (oh man, so glad I bought those cute new sneakers now). And I’m glad they’re raising money for the cause – almost $300,000 since the start in 2010.

But this event, as maybe you could tell from the photos, wasn’t all about chit chat about heart disease. Oh no. It was definitely about good times. Tickets were $300, but so worth it (full disclosure: we were there with media passes). Fancy desserts? Sushi bar (where someone was making the sushi for you when it ran out)? Bruschetta bar? Veuve and Nova 7 and other wines flowing tout le temps? Yes. So worth it. (Trust. Mel was pretty stoked when the waiter walked by with a bottle of Veuve).

So here are the highlights of our evening out with all the ladies in red.

There was some swag from the sponsors. We love you sponsors.

Not photographed – Redken samples from Jonathan Neil Salon or the displays from folks like Debut, Foreign Affair and John David Shoes.

Fancy desserts. I was clearly enamoured by the macarons on a stick. That’s Martha Stewart levels of awesome.

We missed the latter fashion shows from places like Foreign Affair, but here are our favourites from Mills and Debut.

Sweet, totally work appropes outfits (for us agency ladies) from Mills.

Striped jacket outfit? Mel and I agreed they could package that entire outfit up up right there on the spot and we’d wear it to work the next day. Bright blue pants? I admit, the bright coloured jeans are growing on me. And the shoes? Yeah, we wanted to tackle the model and take them home with us (I decided she probably wasn’t a size ten. and that I that I shouldn’t cause a scene).

As giant fans of the awesome soapfest that is Revenge, Mel and I agreed the following two outfits from Debut would be perfect to wear when revenging on the beaches of the Hamptons:

ABR: Always. Be. Revenging. (and doing it in style, of course)

We also figured they’d be good for summer weekend wear, even if you aren’t trying to take down the wealthy and powerful one by one in a complicated Count of Monte Cristo style scheme.

To sum up what turned out to be kind of a long blog post: this event was totes swank and I’m pretty sure I’ll be back next year. And attempting to fundraise some coin for this cause. How about y’all? Anyone want to join me? A night of looking fancy and drinking fancy drinks and eating fancy foods? I propose we get fancy and have an FPQT field trip next year.