Believe it: essence & the Justin Bieber World Tour

A week ago I was in Brooklyn, NY on a press junket with the 2013 Justin Bieber tour sponsor essence cosmetics. It was awesome. I got TO MEET JUSTIN BIEBER. (I’m sure you saw or knew when I was there because I could not simply help myself from documenting the entire thing!) He was very… mellow. The concert was really good though, he’s a great performer. I was swooning, actually. essence is  the #1 value cosmetics brand in the world and I started using their products about six months ago after receiving them at the Canadian launch. All the essence products can be found at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada and range from $.99 to $4.99. There’s a new collection for fall that’s jam packed with great new items and colours. I’m in love with the new matt lip paint (the red I’ve been wearing recently) and the Extreme Lash mascara. There’s some rad new nail polish colours which are great because they dry really fast. Look at Shoppers, you will see a massive rainbow. [View the story “BROOKLYN + BELIEVE TOUR #essenceJB” on Storify]

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The #casiebieber winner has been contacted, thanks for entering!

Too bad I didn’t stop by Cabana Pool Bar yesterday to see my boy JB and tell him about this great contest with his tour sponsor essence cosmetics! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. On Twitter alone there were 125,923 estimated impressions from 62 Twitter mentions. Whoa mama! I drew a random name this morning and the winner has been contacted. If you are wondering why I didn’t announce them publicly it’s because I learned from my work at MuchMusic that the Beliebers can get mighty angry about winning/losing a chance to see their idol and I want to protect them from any chance of bullying. (BTW shame on yourselves if that’s you!) You’ll know who it is on Thursday when they are Tweeting from the concert! I can’t wait to see him in NYC. It’ll be great to get away for a few days and *hopefully* I’ll get that meet and greet the essence team mentioned! I will actually be my the third time I’ve seen him. I was the Social Media Manager of the MMVAs when he was there in 2010. NBD.  This is the dress I had made by Peach Berserk with his face on it along with other nominees.  Ahhh, memories… I’ll see if I can give away any more tickets from the tour. No promises! Hope your day is going in the right direction. Sending positive vibes your way 🙂 <3 CASIE

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WHO WANTS TO GO SEE @JUSTINBIEBER in TO?

Ok, guys, here’s the low down… Europe’s top cosmetic brand, essence, is now in North American and on tour with Justin Bieber! As the official cosmetics sponsor of the Justin Bieber believe tour 2013, they are hosting multiple sweepstakes and contests to AND ONE OF THEM IS RIGHT HERE ON YOUR FAVOURITE BLOG. THE CASIE + BIEBER PRIZE 2 tickets to see the Biebs in TO on July 25th (floor seats – within the first 10 rows) an essence gift pack a Shoppers Drug Mart gift card (essence is exclusively available at Shoppers Drug Mart) HOW TO ENTER Like and follow essence on  Facebook, Twitter Like and follow THIS IS MY LIFE on Facebook and ME on Twitter Share this CONTEST on Twitter by clicking below! Tweet Contest CLOSES Monday, July 22nd at 5pm. Travel not included. I won’t be there as my friends at essence cosmetics have graciously invited me to NYC to see the Biebs and (fingers crossed) have a meet & greet on August 2nd. AHHHHHHHH! I wanna make you one less lonely girl, enter now. <3 CASIE

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the art of marketing, mining & justin bieber

The Blondetourage! Blonde blogging babes Keri & Lauren. The Art of Marketing yesterday was really great. I enjoyed the speakers. Each one made their presentation very personal to the room and to Canada. Gary, Jeffrey and Guy were my favourite. It was a pretty rad day. I was interviewed by The Biz Media & My City Lives for the event video. We like to blooooooooooog. (That’s how you say it right Keri Blog? ;)) Keri & I crashed the Mining Conference. Cruised riiiiight pas security. You are gonna see more of this. I live right next door. I have no idea why I am not crashing more conferences. If you know one I should attend, LMK. We lingered behind this set and were on BNN. Did you see us? It was so sunny & pretty out. Oh, how I so love sun. Then I saw this unit penix Fenix. I was hoping to Chilean Miners were there for autographs and photos. Are they still famous? Maybe their run is over and they have gone back to work now. Quite a structure though. OMG I would not like to be a miner, I’ve never been in a mine have a I Mum, Dad? What about the Sudbury one? Then is was timne for Guy Kawasaki‘s talk to close out the day of TAOM. I snagged a VIP seat up front w/ Michael. Look, GUY. He talked about how to be enchanting. I was waiting for my photo to show up in the presentation. He was really nice.  I reckon if we had a lunch we would get along great. Gary too. Jeffrey from Kodak  (behind Michael below) seemed like a rad dude also, he smiled at me when I passed him. OMG fan girl. Ok now for the Bieber part. Guy’s…

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Day 522: Live from the Lake

Comin’ at the live from the lake! Set up my WFH space on the dining table and had a productive day at work. It’s so nice to be able to work from anywhere. I’m really enjoying my role at Funday and what we’ve been creating with Hvr. The view here is absolutely stunning! We’ve been visiting this same cottage on Stoney lake for about 4 years. How about this for a view? haha. Did a poll w/ this filter on IG. I made a kinda hot dude, bit of a Bieber vibe. On the way home, we stopped by Cityplace, Sean and I both used to live here in these neighbouring condos. We passed by Michelle’s place to meet Beau, her new puppy, so cute!

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Great Reasons to Visit Stratford, Ontario

A couple weeks ago I went on an autumn adventure to Stratford, Ontario.  Home of Justin Bieber and the Stratford Festival, the city has lots to offer and is just a 2hr drive from downtown Toronto. We have so many great plces to visit within a 2hr drive of Toronto and it was so nice to visit Stratford again. I hadn’t been since I was a kid! I spent the day with Stratford Tourism and learned it’s quite the quaint destination for culture, food, shopping, and of course theatre. I was happy to find a few cute boutiques with vintage finds, local brands, unique jewellery, and beautiful housewares. Luckily I drove so I had room to fit my purchases in the boot!  What to Do: Stratford Ontario Here’s a few of the things I really loved about Stratford aside from catching a show. If theatre is your jam it’s definitely worth seeing one of the many nightly shows, we saw To Kill A Mockingbird which was great. (I did not know this story which is like whoaaa btw). The Stratford Festival is world renowned and for $29 you can get a bus to and from the theatre from Downtown Toronto. Upcoming shows include Billy Elliot, Othello, The Neverending Story and more. See the full list here. Shopping La Osa Vintage – This store is amazing. It’s on a side street from Market Square and FULL of vintage and new items from Canadian designers. They also carry heaps of unique jewellery. I could have really lit some $$$ on ??? in there! Wills & Prior – This spot in the heart of Market Square has heaps of beautiful items for your home. The owner used to live in TO and work in PR and she’s left the city for small-town life. I was kinda jealous hearing about her journey and the…

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These Are The Vines of Our Lives

I loved Twitter’s Vine app. I used it heaps when it first came out and have 200+ thousand views and 400+ videos. Yesterday Twitter announced it’s shutting the app down (and cutting 9% of global staff). This is a good reminder, it’s not about the platform, it’s about the content. As someone who’s been on the internet, making stuff for over a decade I’ve seen a lot of apps have their rise to fame, go viral, get a huge user base, then die. Lets look back at 12secondstv, I was one of their top users and in 2010 they got bought by AOL and closed up shop. I made short videos of almost everything I was doing and posted them on the app. Around the same time I’d been an active user on Dailybooth, a website where you shared a photo of yourself everyday (mostly from your computer webcam). When Instagram came out, nobody needed Dailybooth anymore, there was a new app with filters right in your phone. Dailybooth died in 2012. Anyone remember Viddy? I hung out with the founders in 2013 at CES in Vegas and joined the app right away. It was the video version of Instagram!  Justin Bieber and bunch of celebrities used it all the time. Then, one day, Instagram added video. It was game changer. In months Viddy was done. Users jumped ship to an app they were already on to share content to an existing audience. “it’s not about the platform, it’s about the content” SOME OF MY FAV VINES OF THE TIMES Here are a few of my fav Vines from my channel and the Internet. I hope you enjoy. As a reminder, keep making good content and try all the platforms to see what is out there.   LADA GAGA SCARES LEO – Remember this? OOP! https://vine.co/v/iMAHYTw00bH https://vine.co/v/inAiBuI6UOX THIS KID IS ALL OF…

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Events | WeDay 2015 w/ Team Telus Advocates

On Thursday last week Emily and I got up realllllly early and drove down to the ACC to see the red carpet for WeDay with the Team Telus Advocates. I’m pretty sure it was her first time attending a red carpet. She did however, do her first live hit on TV and was seen on Breakfast Television by people across Canada. I’m teaching her the ways of the media early! Don’t mind the pixelated photo and my windy hair.  The ACC was filled with about 40K people, mostly students, there to kick off 365 days of making the world a better place. It was a bit overwhelming but totally inspiring. Loved seeing all the performers and speakers including Hozier, Nick Jonas, and Shawn Mendes, Rookie Mag editor-in-chief Tavi Gevinson (LOVE HER) and social change activist Tonika Morgan. It was great spending the day with this group of ladies from the Team Telus Advocates. Having a blast with these #TeamTelus tweeps #WeDay pic.twitter.com/60UmG5MyZu — Julie Height (@SoberJulie) October 1, 2015 This is Em watching Nick Jonas perform ‘Levels’. I snuck her down to floor level to see him up close, it was for her I swear. ? After lunch, Telus took us back stage to the media area where we had a meet & greet with Francesco Yates. He was so nice. Very chill. Took heaps of photos with everyone. I chatted him about meeting Justin Bieber in NYC a couple years ago. Leading up to WeDay 2015 Telus asked people to answer the #CallForChange and be part of his latest music video. It premiered at WeDay for all 40,000 people to see. Take a peek below and see who you recognize, there might be a few people! YOU joined the movement + helped remix ‘Call’ by @FrancescoYates. See who else accepted the #CallForChange!https://t.co/kFeIv9jg88 — TELUS…

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Contest | TIFF ’15 Win A Celebrity Gift Bag from the #NKPRIT15 Lounge

Last week I visited the NKPR IT Lounge at the TIFF bell Lightbox. This lounge, hosted by NKPR, celebrates it’s 10th year and brings together an array of great products and sponsors, to offer gifts to celebrities in town for the festival. I was very Ellen Degeneres/Justin Bieber when I visited. haha.  “Celebrating 10 and 40 years respectively, NKPR’s highly sought-after IT Lounge and the Toronto International Film Festival will officially partner for the first time – a coming together of the decades – to create an exclusive anniversary Festival experience at TIFF. … In 2006, NKPR’s IT Lounge was the first gifting suite in North America to bring cause to the forefront. This tradition of giving back continues, and in 2015 a donation will be made to Artists for Peace and Justice for every celebrity who sits for a portrait.” Since Last Week An Array of Celebrities Rolled Through   What’s in the NKPR It Lounge Swag Bag?   The winner will receive premium festival treats below, plus extras including an eOne DVD collection of popular films from previous TIFF years. – Racinne Lady I Messaging Rejuvenation System $69.99 – Saje Natural Wellness Pocket Pharmacy $59.95 – OGX Beauty Organix Sea Mineral Moisture Surge Treatment $14.50 – Case of Flow water – BottleGreen Sparkling Elderflower Water – David’s Tea – Pumpkin Chai – Barilla Pasta – CROSS Pen – Square One – $50 Gift Card – Festival Hair Essentials Pack from Goody valued at $50 – Fuzz Wax Bar – 1 free service – Tom Tailor Canvas Bag Enter to Win an The NKPR IT Lounge Celebrity Swag Bag   a Rafflecopter giveaway For an EXTRA entry retweet this tweet and comment on this Facebook post. Each one will get you another entry and increase your chances of winning the mega prize. Open to anyone in Canada. Sorry Americano &…

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Events | A Toronto Scavenger Hunt w/ Ford Canada

Oh haiiiii! That’s me in the new Ford Escape w/ CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge  in the background. The scavenger hunt I did on the weekend called for a photo with a famous person. They didn’t specify if it had to be a famous person IRL, y’know? We started out at Rock Lobster Queen East with a bunch of bloggers for some eats. There, we got a tour of the features including Ford SYNC 3 and AppLink. It was my first time having brunch at Rock Lobster and the food was delish. We were two of the first to arrive and it was so fun seeing the blog crew arriving. Lots of hugs and screaming and laughter. I’d worked with most of the crew hired to shoot the day (via 1188), so we all had a chuckle when I walked in! The rest of the afternoon had us touring the city with a list of tasks to accomplish before meeting to tally the winner our last stop. We ended up having a car to ourselves, so we sang really loud to Justin Bieber and the playlist Ford made us on Spotify. This is one of Toronto’s weird houses. It’s covered in dolls and children’s toys. It’s super creepy. The owner once won the best garden. Seriously. For more photos and a few close-ups, see my blog post from August 2009 ‘we have hundreds of McDonalds toys‘. Thanks for the nightmares! #thehunt pic.twitter.com/DO2sgqPFZ5 — CASIE STEWART ☀️ (@casiestewart) August 29, 2015 Another task on the list was snapping a photo of the Escape in one of Toronto’s many graffiti alleys. I love this one of Kate Moss in a mock Supreme shirt. It’s located King & Portland behind Portland Variety. There’s heaps more graffiti alley art around King/Queen West, see more here. Know where this house is? Well, this half-house…

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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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A Blog Post About Blogging for Bloggers – WP 4.2, Mobile

I don’t usually blog about blogging but this blog post is about blogging because I have some blog updates to share on my blog. You know that I like giving tips and advice to those of you who want to start blogging. I’ve told you about SEO, the articles on MangoMatter about web hosting, different ways to come up with content, the list goes one! But today I’m going to be talking about WordPress! Ok, the new WordPress came out yesterday and this update has some neat things to help you as a blogger, communicate and share, globally. You can watch this quick video or read more about it after scrolling my list of favs from their post. If you blog you should watch it because it will make you a better (WordPress) blogger. Even more embeds: Paste links from Tumblr.com and Kickstarter and watch them magically appear right in the editor. With every release, your publishing and editing experience get closer together. Host of new characters: Native Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters, musical and mathematical symbols, and hieroglyphs. Streamlined plugin updates: Goodbye boring loading screen, hello smooth and simple plugin updates. OMG! Emoji are now available in WordPress! Get creative and decorate your content with ?, ?, ?, or?!! IS YOUR BLOG OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE? UPDATE IT TODAY. LIKE NOW. Google announced that the Mobile Friendly Update began rolling out YESTERDAY. This update is going to be the largest Google update ever and if you don’t get on it, you’ll notice a drop in traffic. And it might be huge. If you don’t know if your site is optimized for mobile, check this link to find out google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly. There’s a good blog post on searchengineland.com from yesterday that states: Postscript: SEO Clarity’s Ryan Heuser sent me some early data…

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Fashion File: #LillyforTarget, Joan for Céline, #mycalvins

Here we go, couple great fashion stories yesterday! I also had my hair done. Stopped into The Loft, Queen West and decided it was time to ditch the violet and bring back blonde. I love the decor in there, it’s all vintage and charming, the furniture,  old trunks, china plates, brass fixtures. Reminds me of Mum’s house growing up. I’m heading back there Friday afternoon for a Dermalogica facial. I’m addicted, I’ve been getting them on a regular basis for a year now. A photo posted by C A S I E S T E W A R T (@casiestewart) on Jan 1, 2015 at 10:23am PST Target announced their latest collab, Lilly Pulitzer for Target. The collection comes out April 19th AND Target Tweeted me IT’S COMING TO CANADA. I’m so stoked. I can’t WAIT to redo our rooftop patio and spice up the cottage Palm Beach Style. I’ve reached out to my friends at Target to see if I can get involved or at least front of the line on opening day. Read more about the collection in the release from Target here. Chalk this on the life goals board! Author, fashion icon, and one time Vogue editor Joan Didion was named as the new face of Céline at 80. You’re never too old to have great style! I love that they’ve made this decision. Read more about it on Vogue or anywhere else that reports fashion. In other news, The Biebs is the latest to join the ranks of notable celebs to post for Calvin Klein. He’s all grown up and totally catching some heat for the campaign but mostly because some of the shots look weird. I reckon the one shot looks like his head has been shopped onto his own body and it’s ver giraffe like. See the video below. The…

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Fashion | TakeTheLead w/ Ted Baker AW2014

I love seeing brands create good video content. Now, I’m a little bias on this one because I’ve been working w/ Ted Baker London for over a year and I absolutely love the clothes. Here’s a look at what’s coming to a store near you for Autumn/Winter 2015. Since it’s Thursday, here’s a pic Ted Baker posted from my visit to their 5th Avenue Grand House in New York last August. We had a blast! Later that day I met Justin Bieber. NBD! Take a peek at all the beauties in the latest collection at tedbaker.com. There’s a downtown store opening on October too FYI! Huzzah! With love, CASIE  

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