Day 373: Social and Culture

Today I started my new FT role at Funday Agency as Social & Culture Manager. My job is focused mostly on internal communications & operations relating to building company culture. Last year I came to the realization I didn’t want to work specifically in social media anymore. I was looking to expand and do more things related to general marketing. That beung said, it’s been 5+ years since I’ve worked FT and I expect there will be a *bit* of an adjustment. Today’s lunch was provided by Do Rueda in Spain who sent over a delicious selection of Spanish tapas and wine to taste. I saved the wine for after work but tuned in for a lunchtime seminar with several sommeliers from the region. Back in 2019, I went on a press trip to Spain where we spent a week visiting 13 wineries in Do Rueda, Spain’s top region for verdejo & white wine. See those posts here! Another great surprise today was the delivery of new blue light glasses from gry mattr, a new company from Joe Mimran (the founder of Joe Fresh). I picked this design on a whim without realizing they would look almost identical to my old fav glasses I wore when I first started Twitter (see small image here). I had this same black & white photo as my Twitter image from 2009-2012. Back then, I used to wear glasses ALL the time and I absolutely love these new ones from gry mattr. Thanks Joe!

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Day 372: Social and Culture Manager

Woke up with a killer toothache this morning and took an easy morning for my Advil and CBD to kick in. It was another beautiful day and I am loving the energy I get from this weather! I ended up taking an afternoon nap and felt nice and refreshed when I woke. Went for a nice walk to the grocery store to get supplies for the week. Sean is shooting something up north this week so I’m home by myself, which I don’t mind. ? This week I am starting full-time at Funday Agency and I am so excited! I absolutely love working with this team so it was a natural progression to move from contract to FT. My role is Social & Culture Manager and I’ll be working on Funday initiatives, branding, and merch. This is a new role that was created just for me and I’m really keen to develop the Funday brand. One of the recent tasks my team completed was our first round of Funday supplies including notebooks, note cards, Sharpies, and stickers. They turned out so good. Here’s to a great week! Sending sunshine!

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Vintage Ink Wine Celebrates 100 Years of Tattoo Culture 

Last weekend I was at 99 Sudbury for a gallery show called GENERATIONS by Vintage Ink wine celebrating 100 years of tattoo culture. It featured line drawings by several tattoo artists and photographs by Matt Barnes.  It was a great mix of drinks, food, music, art, and friends! I arrived early and spend a good amount of time admiring the photos and catching up with Tyler Kenny. He was on the scene representing the Freshly Educated Men blog.  We had heaps of laughs! TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER THE CONTEST You might remember a couple weeks ago I shared a few stories of MY tattoos and where/when I got them. Vintage Ink wine is holding a contest, in order to enter, upload a photo of your tattoo to Instagram or Twitter, adding the hashtag #MyVintageInk. Photos are displayed on via vintageink.ca. The winners will have their tattoo art displayed on 500 limited edition bottles of their wine along with a framed copy of their framed artwork. This photo by Matt Barnes was my fav of the night. I love the juxtaposition of this beautiful tattooed mama and this lil boy eating a hamburger. I wonder if it’s his mum? They’ve both got such a cute face. Chloe came by to enjoy the fun and have some wines. Vintage Ink wine is now available at the LCBO. Will share this video one it’s out, I think we’ve got a few cameos in there. Over the course of the night they filled up this wine bottle tree. Such a neat idea! I wonder if dad could make me one of these. It would be a great patio decoration or something to have at the holidays. Please let me know if you’ve entered the contest so I can share my love and vote for your tattoo. There will…

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Lovin’ the Crew – Tourism Calgary Arts & Culture Trip

Meet my crew! Sean and I were shooting w/ Tourism Calgary this week. If you follow me on the Twitter or IG you’ll know this already. Shooting in the pool was fun. Sean was a really good sport! Met up w/ Mike Morrison aka @MikesBloggity  to tour around downtown in the new bike lanes. He recently founded Calgary Bike, tours around Calgary by bike with landmarks, photo spots, facts, and history. We are inside this giant head, art sculpture.   It’s called Wonderland and is a female head that’s about 12 metres high.  It was created by Barcelona-based designer Jaume Plensa. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Rock show at Sloth Records for Sled Island. Picked him up a new hat. When in Rome, right? Went to the East End block party. Finally got him to let me do this. So cute. Had our caricature drawn by epic moustache guy. Finished the day at Wreck City, pre-demo car wash turned interactive art exhibit.    The sun sets just after 10pm. It was also super hot. Loved every minute of it. The video we shot will be shared by Calgary Tourism in a few weeks. I’ll post it too! 💛✈️👍CASIE

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Looking forward to culture & lifestyle.

It’s been so beautiful out the last couple days.My week has been pretty chilled out which makes me reallllly happy. Everyone needs  a break once in a while. I wasn’t outside for long yesterday but I did have a charming stroll in the sunshine mixed with a few short Bixi rides (thanks Telus). Was almost ‘unplugged’ all say Sunday while we watched a marathon of movies eating Chinese takeout. Perfect day if you ask me. So good to disconnect once in a while. I’ll be less connected next week but not offline. Decidedly detoxing right now (sugar, carbs, drinking lots of water) so I’m cleansed & ready for nine full days of surf, sun, sand and yoga starting this weekend. I booked a room in a 1920’s mansion turned hotel for my first night before I get to Anamaya Resort. Yeowwww. This is going to be me:  My mouth is watering just thinking about fresh fish, bowls of fruit, salty skin and the smell of the ocean. The more I read about CR, I think I might fall in love. Pure love. Pura vida! * Actual Hipster Mermaid wig via Lauren O’Nizzle!  

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arts & culture writer = me

I wrote an article a few months back about a fascinating artist named Michael Golland. Afterwards, I found out that it was going to be the feature cover story! I was quite excited given I’m yet to have ‘write a cover story’ checked off my list. An excerpt is below. You can read the whole article here. “He wants people to be captivated, to find and immerse themselves in their flow of consciousness. Michael’s art is about finding the Zen within and connecting to its powerful energy. His paintings are unique and recognizable. Fluid lines dance across the canvas creating trajectory spaces filled with monochromatic colors. He aims to draw connections between the objects, the lines, the space, the spirit within and the essence of life itself. Michael was born in Yorkshire, England during the Second World War.” [get all the juice]

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TIFF 2022: Twitter x The Woman King

I didn’t go to many TIFF events this year but I hate to miss a Twitter event! I had the day off from work to prepare for Lauren’s wedding so it worked out perfect that Twitter hosted a TIFF lunch that day for ‘The Woman King’. It was a panel Q&A w/ Academy Award winner Viola Davis & the cast of the upcoming film. Joining Ms. Davis were four other stars of the film: Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, & Sheila Atim. Leveraging the important themes from the film, this panel conversation was focused on celebrating Black women & how we can all #TakeUpSpace. i can’t even begin to explain how powerful the conversation was. Twitter’s global director of culture and community God-is Rivera (@GodisRivera) was the moderator and TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey (@cameron_tiff) was also there to introduce the guests and give opening remarks. After, I took a stroll with Natalie before going to Yorkville to pick up Lauren’s dress. Traffic was insane, it took me almost an hour to get from Yorkville to my place in Dundas West. I look forward to seeing The Woman King in theatres., Find your local times here! Thank you Twitter Canada for another amazing event!

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Day 556: TIFF 2021

TIFF 2021 looks a little different than past years! We went to the Visa Skyline Drive-In at Ontario place to see Lakewood. Thank you Proof for hooking us up! The movie was pretty good but I think our fav was the local food trucks. I thought sean would enjoy this film as it’s called Lakewood and was shot in northern Ontario. It follows Naomi Watts as the main character and she spends most of her time running through the woods and dealing with a tragedy at her kid’s school. We both left thinking about what we could shoot up and around the cottage with a couple of cameras and the drone.

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Day 503: Bloom with D Luxe Lab in Yorkville

My friend invited me to stop into the re-opening of D Luxe Lab, a premier cosmetic treatment clinic located in the heart of Yorkville. It’s absolutely beautiful! I sat down for a chat with the female founder, Dema Najjar scroll down for my interview with her. Dema is an immigrant to Canada from Syria and a graduate of Rotman Business School’s MBA program, alongside many other talents. I had a consultation followed by treatment with Dr. Basil. I’m very happy with the results, workin’ to keep my face looking rested and refreshed! As a female immigrant in Canada, how did you best prepare yourself for becoming a business owner? I moved to Canada with the intention of establishing a connection with Canadian culture and community. I completed an Executive MBA at Rotman School of Business and then integrated the Canadian work force. I spent 5 years working in the financial industry at MCAP, which allowed me to build and expand my knowledge base of this industry, as well as to grant me exposure to meet new and different people. From this, I was able to better understand Canadian culture and experience daily life as a Canadian. Through my work with MCAP, I gained valuable insight into agreements and deal-making, which encouraged me to pursue a Global Professional Masters of Laws at U of T.  During the past ten years in Canada, I have had the chance to work in finance, marketing and accounting, and through my network, I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to many wonderful people who have encouraged me along the way. A couple of years ago, I took a step back and began thinking of how I could combine my Canadian experience with that of my family’s in Syria. After evaluating the cosmetic beauty industry market and establishing that…

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Day 347: Toronto Creator Power Hour

Went for a nice walk went near High Park today. It was so lovely outside, felt like spring. Last night I was a co-host of Toronto Creator Power Hour, a Clubhouse room hosted by Joëlle Anello, Casey Palmer, Solmaz Khosrowshahian, Trisha Enriquez. I pitched the idea to have a chat about blogging and we had Hawley Dunbar from Sidewalk Hustle join us. We had a GREAT chat about blogging and how as a creator, it’s important to have an online home for your content that you own. When it comes to social media, it’s more like renting space as you do not own the platform and you can’t control what happens on IG, Facebook, etc. After work, I listened to my latest book on Audible, ‘Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol‘. This is the viral book Chrissy Tiegen read before getting sober. I also made a delicious sandwich, I love sandwiches. ?

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Day 314: Friday, Chill House

I usually start out the week with high energy. On Monday, I get getting fully dressed, have coffee, exercise, and get ready for the week. I was quite productive for the first few days but by the end of the week, I felt drained. It’s not that I was doing a lot, it’s just life these days, pandemic fatigue. I didn’t really leave the house from Wednesday-Friday, except for the odd trip to the corner store. By Friday, I was tired, wearing jogging pants, a messy bun, and spent the day on the couch with my computer. Friday, chill house vibes all around. I successfully watched the entire first season of Bling Empire on Netflix in none day. Next, I watched Y&R (as usual!) then Death of Me on Netflix. Sean arrived back home just after 6 pm and we ordered takeout pho (Vietnamese soup, so good!). Looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home, maybe some self-care, and catching up on blog posts. I try to write each day but if I don’t, I batch update with photos from the week. Hope you are hanging in there, we’ll get through this. The next couple months will be hard but before we know it, grass will be growing, flowers blooming, and spring will be in the air.

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Day 59: Support Your Friends!

Right now, more than ever we need to support our friends! We are all in this together and we will get through it by being there for each other, at a distance! Social media is an amazing tool to share the things you love, you like, and support others. This tweet has been pinned to the top of my Twitter profile for over a year! Last night I joined in a pop-culture trivia game on Facebook hosted by my friend Alex. Follow her on IG @lexniko, I love the content she creates and she’s funny AF. Today my friend Mariah sent me a message about her latest project, a film called Pamela & Ivy. I know I don’t do movies reviews often but today her message came just as I was about to have lunch. So, I watched it and put a few notes into a post here. You can also watch the full 16-minute film in the post or on YouTube. Mariah and I had been internet friends for a little while and last year we met for a coffee date. It was so since to meet face-to-face! I am inspired by her work and how much she has accomplished at a young age. She founded GTE Productions at 21 and is an award-winning actress & filmmaker. Her talent is out of this world! After lunch, I went to the post office to ship a wee package of a card & friendship bracelet + an item from Knixwear. I am so impressed with their customer service! A couple of weeks ago I placed an order from the warehouse sale and when the package arrived, the order wasn’t correct. That same afternoon I was refunded for the missing items and they asked that the wrong size item I received was…

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Day 24: Lake Life

This morning I woke up and really felt like I needed a workout. Sean was up before me (as usual!) and suggested we go for a canoe. We had to take a bunch of stuff out from the basement including the hot tub, which we might set up later today. I am so happy it’s finally getting warmer, we’ve been waiting for this. The sun has such an influence on my mood, it always makes me feel like everything is ok. The first canoe of the season is always pretty magical. We were hoping to be the first ones on the lake but there was a rower passing by before we set out. Saw a few other canoes out later in the morning. There is still a bit of thin ice across the lake but most of it is all melted. There were so many birds out singing in the sun. Today I am making sweet potato brownies, pasta salad, and tuna salad. The other day I made this great granola recipe and I made a another batch yesterday. It’s so easy and we’ve all been enjoying it for breakfast or a snack. I’m planning to go for a long run today and get in a yoga class in the afternoon. I’m hoping it’s warm enough to do it outside! Video: First Canoe of 2020

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Day 22: Make Something Each Day

Yesterday I made granola, a chickpea lentil curry, spicy roasted chickpeas, roast potatoes, and Sean made meatballs. I spent some time drawing on my iPad and decided to test out my old Crimper. It still works! The granola was a recipe from Pay Chen in The Kit. I modified for what I had and MY GOD IT IS DELICIOUS. I forgot how much I love granola. I am now a forest dwelling, yoga lady, who makes her own granola. I am not surprised at all. Em made a mask from an old bathing suit and we went through my art supplies. I did Soca Yoga and some stretches while watching movie in front of the fire. TY Amy for the reco, great class! There was an Amber Alert to stay home that came thorough our phones. This is the second time it’s happened, the last alert was for anyone who had travelled outside the country. We have not left the compound for one full week and Sean is planning to get supplies Monday. I’m gonna stay here with Em while he goes out. We made the strategic decision for him to go during the week so people who can’t go M-F, can have the weekend. We have a running Google doc with everything we need for the house and he will wear gloves, a mask, and change clothes as soon as he gets home. Aside from some groceries, need a part to fix the washing machine. Made a pavlova for Jake Gold’s birthday party on Zoom. We don’t have birthday candles so a big one had to do. It was BYOC – Bring Your Own Cake, everyone lit candles and sung HBD at the same time. Welcome to life in the year 2020. Sean and I started Unorthodox on Netflix…

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