Quick Update from the Treehouse in the Woods

Helloooooo! This week has been absolutely amazing. My batteries are recharged and I’m fuelled with a fire that will last forever. ☀️?????? We have had so much fun out here. It’s truly amazing to connect with nature and disconnect (a bit). We’ve survived the last few days with no running water, a portable burner for cooking, and logs on the wood stove. Thankful for snow to melt! A photo posted by C A S I E S T E W A R T (@casiestewart) on Jan 5, 2016 at 2:05pm PST Woke up early to a pink sky so I trekked to the top of a hill behind us to appreciate it. Video on Snapchat ? casiestewart. TECHNICOLOR DREAMBOAT ✌?️???❄️☀️ Loved being in the woods the last few days. Getting into the swing of 2016 & will share my thoughts on treehouse living on the blog. This suit was my mum’s ski suit in the 80s ?✌?️ #discoveron #cottagelife #glampinghub #vintage #travel A photo posted by C A S I E S T E W A R T (@casiestewart) on Jan 6, 2016 at 1:21pm PST Heading back to the city today!  

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Travel | Detroit in January w/ Ford Canada

Early January (after the tree house adventure) I’m flying to Detroit, Michigan for the North American International Auto Show. This is my third time at the show with Ford Canada as part of their global blogger/media outreach. A couple years ago I attended the show and Ford snapped this great photo of me right before the auditorium filled up for a major media announcement. The NAIAS is very exciting and a super cool experience. I even made it into the Detroit Free Press, see here! Last year 5,000 journalists attended from 60 countries. Happy to be heading back! On Earth Day 2015 I was in Dearborn, Michigan to learn about Ford’s commitment to sustainability. Can’t wait to find out what secrets and launches will be revealed in January. TELL ME ALL THE THINGS. The press preview (Jan 10-12th) features 750 vehicles, interactive displays,  as NAIAS is North America’s largest and most prestigious auto showcase. I’ll be documenting my experience with Ford and sharing all kinds of BTS about launches, announcements, and other fun stuff we get up to. Make sure you’ve got me on the SNAPCHAT: casiestewart. This year we’re staying at the Westin instead of in Dearborn, MI. It’s been ages since I visited the D and have a little bit of time to explore when I arrive and the start of our media adventures. Canadian Bloggers Attending #FordNAIAS 2016: Andréane Viau Ann Bacciaglia Chad Cranston Daniel Bader Daniel Desforges Davindra Ramnarine Eric Novak Jennifer Van Huss Jessica Terry Justin Connors Kathryn Lavalee Knowlton Thomas Matthew Tully Mike Grenek Nancy Polanco-Chansavang Shannon Leverette Shannon Mischuk Vernon Chang I’m ready for a year of adventure and excitement!

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I’m Going to a Treehouse!

2016 is almost here and I’m feeling excited, finally. The last couple of months my energy has been low and I’ve been spending more time at home recharging. Well, it worked!  I’ve got three trips planned for January and this year will be full of adventure. [symple_divider style=”solid” margin_top=”10″ margin_bottom=”10″] The first on my travels is a short stay at a treehouse North of Toronto via glampinghhub.com. I’ve been working with them to plan a stay at one of their many glamping (glamourous camping) locations in Ontario. I’ve never been one for camping but glamping or a quaint cabin in the woods is right up my alley. This is a new take on the winter cottage, cottage life! We’ve chatted about building a tree house at the cottage in Muskoka and something like would be a DREAM. I can’t wait to take you on my adventures! The Glamping Hub location I’m staying at with April next week is a solar-powered treehouse hidden between trees, located on 6,000 acres of forest and trails. It’s the peaceful escape I’m looking for without being TOO far from the city. I hope that it’s snowy and we spend our days reading by the fire and cooking up hearty, healthy meals. If winter has left by then (you never know these days!), we’ll take advantage of the trails. If you’re keen to book a weekend in a fancy tent, cabin, treehouse, cozy cottage, or some other unique space, check out Canadian Weekend Getaway or other glamping spots around the world at glampinghub.com.

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Travel | Travelcuts DOCUMENTARY Finalists – Vote for Your Fav

Hola and Happy Tuesday! Last week I viewed all the entries for the travelcuts documentary film festival and piked my favs. There were a handful of awesome entries. I’m dying to jump in a plane and go on an adventure after watching. It’s easy to vote, just share the hashtag that goes with your fav entry. I’ve listed each hashtag with the videos below. If you visit travelcuts.com/filmfest you can see the 3 finalist videos and easily vote there too.  Voting goes until Nov. 17th and the winner will be announced the following week at the screening. Exciting! ?☀️✈️?????✌️??❤️??

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Travel | See The World Your Way – travelcuts FilmFest

After working with travelcuts earlier this year, I’m happy to share they’ve hired me as a travel expert to judge their travelcuts Doc Film Fest. Yeah baby! The festival will be a collection of short travel docs covering awesome featuring young travellers on exciting and unique adventures. This contest gives aspiring filmmakers a chance to show off their talents. It’s expected that a lot of people will enter this competition, meaning that the standard will probably be high. To ensure your film stands out amongst other entries, it might be worth looking into some specialized software. As many professional filmmakers make use of digital cinema package editing software, people entering this competition might want to look for an online DCP guide to include some advertising in your travel film. This is the first teaser trailer for the four-part mini-series. [iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/-lQOwG2XNAQ”] Now it’s YOUR chance to show us where you’ve been. At the end of November, we’ll have an official screening where the top three submissions will be showcased as well as the full-length videos from the mini-series. One finalist will be announced as the winner of the $2,000 travel card. Look out world! How to Enter the Travel Cuts Doc Film Fest Upload your video to YouTube and include your first name + last initial and #travelcutsDOC in the description. Videos should be 2-5 minutes in length, and must be created by YOU! If you’re using footage from a trip you took a while ago, make a nice new cut for your entry. Contestants must fill out the form on travelcuts.com/filmfest, only entries accepted will be those submitted using the entry form. On October 21st, we’re hosting on online Twitter chat from from 9-10PM and Id love you to join. I’ll make sure to remind you closer to the…

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Travel | 48 Hours in Calgary – Public Art Around Every Corner!

Had a chuckle watching this video shared by Tourism Calgary today. We were really busy and did heaps of things in 48 hours, there’s so many moments little moments I kinda forget. Good thing we had a camera crew following us around to capture them. See the full 2 min video here and check out all the fun things to do in Calgary at visitcalgary.com/calgary48/bloggers. [youtube id=”IXcGPddYkx0″]   Get your camera ready—there’s public art around every corner. @casiestewarthttps://t.co/Gm2hnsCjUk — Tourism Calgary (@TourismCalgary) September 2, 2015

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Travel | Working From the Cottage Today 

Hello, hello? What’s that sound? Waves crashing in the background! Stayed a little longer at the cottage this weekend and am working from this little spot after spending 2 hours on emails + editing in the hammock. It’s a rough life! Biebs just released the video for What Do You Mean and I’ve been playing this tune over and over. I’ve always been a fan of his! Back in my days at MuchMusic & MTV he performed at the MMVAs and I was SO close. Once I got to meet in him NYC. Here’s to a great week my friends. SUMMER IS NOT OVER. This week is gonna be mega hot, get your togs on an hit the beach! ☀️? CASIE

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Hometown w/ Ma Homies

This weekend I’m heading home to hang out with my parents, sister, and go to an old friends wedding. I’m pretty excited to see everyone. There will be heaps of people I’ve not seen in a LOOOONG time. I know we’ll have lots of laughs and I can’t wait to cut up the dance floor like old times. Me: Seeing everyone and the whole wedding thing gives me a bit of anxiety. Knowing I’ll be there with my sister is comforting though! Sean is getting construction started on the cottage so I’m taking mum as my date. Next weekend we have another wedding! My blog babe BFF Carly is getting hitched! If you ever get that chest pain anxiety, I know how you feel! Found this the other day via Tanvi Swar and I’ve watched it about 1,000 times since. Make sure you’re following my SNAPCHAT – casiestewart. I’ll be amusing myself with Snaps all weekend and sharing my hometown! Sending you sunshine through the internet.☀️☀️☀️☀️ ? CASIE

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The Cottage in A Mens Men Magazine

Recognize the view? Check out these pages from the latest issue of Sylvanus-Urban magazine. Select areas in Toronto will get a copy in this weekend’s Toronto Star. View the online Edition III of the magazine at here. This was a really fun shoot. Would love to do more up there. Thanks Garret Tonge & team!

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48 Hours in Calgary with Tourism Calgary

Last month Sean and I flew to Calgary to shoot a video for their website documenting a 48 hour adventure. Check out visitcalgary.com/calgary48 to see heaps of fun things to do and other 48 hour adventures.

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World Elephant Day – Throwback to Visiting Maesa Elephant Camp

In honour of World Elephant Day, here’s a throwback visiting an elephant sanctuary in Chaing Mai,  Thailand.  ปางช้างแม่สา aka Maesa Elephant Camp is like a retirement camp for elephants that aren’t able to go back into the wild after they’ve worked. There are over 75 elephants and they do activities like soccer, basketball, and painting. I was so impressed with their painting skills!

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Cottage Casie in Full Effect! 

Came in from a nice float out in the water just now. It’s so warm, the lake feels like a pool. This is my first blog post on the new computer. I’m so stoked to be up here and have 10 days to work on creative things. My new blog is on the works, I love the design and I hope you will too. It’s been years since I gave it an update. The current look and feel is very similar to when I first started casiestewart.com in 2005. The first site is still alive at casiestewart.blogspot.com. Working on this new machine feel like a Porsche or Ferrari compared to my little MacBook Air. Today Sean picked up a huge new monitor and comfy desk chair for the cottage, I’m ready to ROLL. I saw some amazing desk chairs on www.bestgamingchair.com/herman-miller-mirra-2-chair-review and I decided it was time for a new COMFY desk chair! The view from where I’m sitting is the photo above. I’m planning to put big 10 person tent on lawn and make a nice glamping hideaway. I attempted to do it on my own today (never having set up a tent) and gave up after a few minutes. I need help, I don’t know where everything is. This is me after a I made a Pina Colada and decided to go floating in the sun instead.

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Today in #Toronto: Tattoos, Water, Wine, Bikes, Blue Skies

Out on my bike this morning to put on a basket before hitting the road. I’ve got 2 things on today: EskaQuest giveaway w/ Eska Water at 2pm in Yorkville – find me first to win a $300 GC to StillWater Spa at the Park Hyatt Vintage Ink Wine presents: GENERATIONS, a celebration of tattoo culture through art at 99 Sudbury. It’s open to the public and you’re invited. Other than that, the day is mine! Gonna bike around and see what I can find.  Took a look at the new-ish street art under the bridge on Bloor at Dundas. It was all done a couple weeks ago and worth checking out. A bunch of Toronto artists’ work to see. Went on lock up and found my Schwinn Twinn! In case you missed it this week, I’ve been welcomed to the Schwinn Team as an official ambassador. They hooked me up with a sweet bike! Picked this one out, it suits me, good for cruising the city and just needs that basket. Bike selfie is dangerous but I’ve got it locked down. The city workers were taking down all the street art near the new Union Pearson Express station at Bloor-Dundas. I asked what was happening to it all and GO was giving some away but decided to keep it all. I would have dragged this one home and taken it to the cottage. I’ve been writing this while circling the Dollar Store for zip ties and now I’m gonna go riding. The PanAm Opening Ceremony last night was really neat. Loved watching all the athletes walk in. I posed a bunch of photos etc on twitter.com/casiestewart. Have an awesome day! CASIE ??

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Heading to Our Nations Capital, Ottawa!

Friday morning Mum and I are heading to Ottawa and it’s her first time flying Porter Airlines. I’m so excited to be travelling with her! Last time mum and I went on a trip together I was in middle school. We don’t often get to hang much, especially not in the summer is mum is usually at the boat and we spend heaps of time at the cottage. We’ll be seeing Serena Ryder, with special guests The Strumbellas at TD Place Stadium to celebrate Canada Day weekend. Earlier in the day, TD Bank and MusiCounts will be be announcing the 2015 MusiCounts grant recipients and have a special surprise planned for a local Ottawa recipient.  I’ll be doing a short interview w/ TD Canada about TD MusicCounts and sharing it with you next week. Oh hey @serenaryder! See you on July 3rd! #tdmusic #lansdowne #tdplace A photo posted by TD Place (@tdplace) on Jun 18, 2015 at 1:09pm PDT Feeling excited to take mum on a press trip and hang out at the hotel together. We don’t leave until 4pm the following day so hoping to take a walk on Parliament Hill. I’ve never been to Ottawa around Canada Day. Last time I was in Ottawa was March 2012 for Ottawa Fashion Week and it was very snowy. Looking forward to some fun times w/ mum and lots of laughs! 💛 CASIE

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