I love fall, it is by far my favourite season though I admit mostly for entirely superficial reasons. It all starts at the end of August; the nights get longer, the days shorter and what hits the store shelves but the best fashion binge of the year, the Vogue September issue. This year I am especially excited  (even though *shocker* no maternity clothes can be found in the colours) because I am absolutely in love with the fall colour palette; It’s all about luxurious shades of brown like camel, staples like black and grey and pops of vivid colour like vermillion and crimson and (weirdly enough) orange.

No… I am not a fahionista. I don’t make enough money to own anything uber designer, but I love to look and I like to follow trends. My philosophy is, if you’re going to be out of fashion, you may as well know it and own it. I will be wearing my lightweight, wool, plum caplet coat this Sept/Oct with my head held high knowing it’s not Camel but loving it anyway. Anna Wintour would be appalled. No Anna, I did not sell my second child to buy the coveted Burberry Prorsum jacket, my conscious got the best of me and I just couldn’t do it .

Enough of my fantasy convos with the ice queen herself. My next reason for fall affliction takes me a little closer to the deep-end (of sincerity not sanity here people). As summer is waving a final farewell an event is happening that could ease any Mommy’s fretting mind: The Vancouver Island Baby Fair.

Have you been to the VI Baby Fair?

Ahh yes, I still remember my first time.

I stepped through the doors of the Pearkes arena and it was as if I had entered a magical land bathed in white light that was created just for me. Not only were there booths upon booths of amazing baby and parent swag, there were endless amounts of free samples and giveaways and entertainment and education on everything from cloth diapering to parenting tips, and right in the middle of the whole thing is what I considered the holy grail of the VI Baby Fair: The baby change area and the feeding station.

On my first visit to the VI Baby Fair, I stumbled upon the baby change area by accident and I was blown away by it. I was a new mother at the time and I had learned quickly that a large portion of businesses and restaurants did not cater to parents with small children because of their lack of high chairs and baby change stations. I was growing accustomed to changing my son in the back of the car or on a wet counter wedged between two sink basins.

So, when I walked into the baby change area at the VI Baby Fair, with it’s attendant and countless changing stations, I was blown away. I was even offered diapers and wipes, which I politely declined as I am a cloth diaper user, but still I was affected… like deeply affected. I really felt like this was a place that was created for me and that was before I stumbled across the nursing area with it’s comfortable seating and subdued vibe.

Yes, I was in heaven that weekend as I walked the booths and shopped and learned. And, it wasn’t just me that was impressed, my son’s adoptive Grandmother came and she was also blown away with the whole experience. No doubt about it, The VI Baby Fair is a great autumn event and I look forward to each year in Victoria and it’s something I definitely won’t miss this year as I finally have my baby girl coming in November and I need to do some serious research (in others words scouting/shopping) for baby girl swag.

I know what you are thinking… this still sounds a little like we are wading in the shallow end right? But here is the kicker… The VI Baby Fair is the brainchild of an awesome local Mommy, Shirley Broback. I had the pleasure of having a fab phone convo with Shirley recently and besides the endless yaking and divulging of secrets – Shirley confessed that she always thinks she looks thinner in her online photos for Twitter etc. and I confessed that I am so much cooler in the written word than I am in real life – I learned a great deal about Shirley which made me even more excited to attend this year’s fair.

It’s a win/win peeps: We get to shop, learn and be entertained in a total mommy, daddy, child and baby centric environment all while supporting a local mompreneur… hell’s yeah I will be there again!

I’ll be busy falling for fall, won’t you join me?

Now for the really good news: Shirley has offered 2 free sets of tickets to the Victoria Vancouver Island Baby Fair next weekend (September 25th & 26th) for two lucky Modish Mama readers. Getting entries are easy just read the rules below.

Get one entry for each of the following:

- Leave a comment on this post saying what booth you would like to visit at the Victoria Vancouver Island Baby Fair the most.
- Leave a comment on any other past Modish Mama post.
- Retweet the link to this post (be sure to include @TheModishMama in the tweet so I know about it).
- Like the Modish Mama page on Facebook.
- Like the Vancouver Island Baby Fair page on Facebook.

BONUS: Get 2 additional entries for already being an email subscriber or becoming an email subscriber to the Modish Mama. Click the little white envelope at the top of the blog homepage to do this.

*please send me an email with Baby Fair Contest in the subject line detailing each action you took above so I can get all your entries in the draw. Remember the email address you put as your contact email is the one I will contact you at if you win so, be sure it is an email you check. BTW if you already like Modish Mama or Vi Baby Fair on FB tell me and I will give you those entries. Contest will close at 11am on Sept 22nd.

I will be drawing the winner by random number draw on Wednesday, September 22nd and will be announcing the winner on the blog on Thursday, September 23rd. Good Luck!!

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