Friday, I’m In Love – Holiday Style!

I absolutely love this. One of my fav songs since I lived in Australia 10 years ago. Heart warming to see this big group singing amongst the lights of the Toronto Christmas Market. I’ve not gone by there yet but plan to pop by next week during the day. [iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/LvUnBEA7_ZI”] Something cool about this vid and another reason I wanted to share… To perform Friday I’m in Love, they required permission from Robert Smith of The Cure. After he watched a short clip they sent him, he loved it SO MUCH he asked them to donate the licensing fee to charity. Together, Koodo & Choir! Choir! Choir! (80 choir singers in TO)  are donating that fee towards sponsoring a Syrian refugee family. ALL THE FEELS. I love it. In other news, I went to the Koodo office during my last Telus visit and it’s full of bright colours and smiles. Happy Friday, spread that holiday cheer!   

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Events | Woodbine Ricoh Mile Rock N’ Racing Festival

Sunday marks a big weekend at Woodbine Racetrack with the $1 million Ricoh Woodbine Mile. Along with the races, there’s also a whole slew of live music, food trucks, and fun. If you’re just tuning in, I’ve partnered with Woodbine for the entire race season and went to a few races earlier this year including The Queen’s Plate and Woodbine Oaks. Over the past couple months I’ve learned how to bet, had some good times, and actually won a few $$. I’m yet to visit the horses up close though. To be honest, I’m kinda scared. I’ve never ridden a horse, only elephants! This is Obviously, I’m betting on him this weekend based on my research reading the Woodbine Entertainment site. #OfftotheRaces Contest Details Snap a selfie at the racetrack Post to Twitter using the hashtag #OffToTheRaces Cross your fingers! By posting your selfie at the track with the #OfftotheRaces hashtag you’ve got a chance to win a $1000 Woodbine Racetrack gift card at the end of the horse racing season. Please remember, your selfie MUST be taken in front of the racetrack!   Ricoh #WoMile Notes for Friday, September 11, 2015 – http://t.co/TfFD59oPSg #WinAndYoureIn #BC15 pic.twitter.com/6Ch5rYN58p — Woodbine Racetrack (@WoodbineRacing) September 11, 2015 I’ll be sharing my experience from the track on Twitter, IG, and Snapchat, hashtag #WoMile. If you’re looking for info about the Ricoh Woodbine event see here and if you’re looking for general racing info, see here. If you can’t make this event, hopefully you can join me in another racing event before the season is over in November. LMK if you’ll be there! ?????? CASIE    

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Events | WayHome Music Festival 2015

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the first WayHome Music Festival in Canada. It was at a park not too far from the cottage so instead of roughing it at the campsite, we stayed in Bala. It was a REALLLLLLLY hot weekend and by the second day, I was pooped. My favourite parts were: – Neil Young rocking in the free world – Future Islands on Friday dancing the night away on Friday – Soaking up the sun w/ the sounds of the Sheepdogs on Sunday Here’s a few snaps from the weekend! <3 CASIE

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TD Canada + MusiCounts + Serena Ryder in Ottawa

Last weekend mum and I went on a trip to Ottawa. I was invited by TD Canada & TD Music to bring a guest to see Serena Ryder and attend a special ceremony where TD Cafe & MusicCounts made a music announcement. It has been a loooooong time since mum and I went on a plane together (NZ in the 90’s) so we made the most of every moment and it was so much fun. We flew Porter Airlines which involves taking the worlds shortest commercial ferry to the island. It’s a wonderful flying experience! MusiCounts is Canada’s music education charity associated with The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) to help keep music alive in schools across Canada. TD Canada has been working with MusicCounts since 2012. They support Community based organizations, schools, and picka  MuciCounts teacher of the year. This year’s winner was Steve Sainas from BC and he received the award at the JUNOS. TD Canada has worked with some great Canadian artists through MusiCounts including Arkells, Kevin Drew, and Tegan & Sarah. They’re excited to add Serena Ryder to the mix.  WThey also work w/ the JUNOS team to partner with artists. TD Canada is committed to music as an organization with a genuine interest in music and communities. They’re not just a cheque signing bank, they actually follow through and make communities better. Serena made a $25K donation to Musicounts.ca! These kids were SO EXCITED to hear the donation news, receive violins, and to find out they were performing on stage WITH Serena Ryder herself. It was a magical moment.  A photo posted by Gracie Carroll (@graciecarroll) on Jul 3, 2015 at 2:39pm PDT The concert was at TD Place in the new Lansdowne Centre and was opened by The Strumbellas. They were amazing. The 6 piece band rocked…

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Where You Land is Where I’m Gonna Be

Was all decked out in pastels this weekend. I really love my hair this colour. Thinking I’ll go back to blonde for spring but it’s gotta get a bit longer. Growing out your hair from a pixie takes real dedication. Slept half the weekend and feel great today.  Had some time with friends and got some Christmas shopping in. Can’t wait till see all my family on Wednesday. Mum is hosting a huge group for dinner including my Dad and his wife.  It’s gonna be great! Have you heard this song in the Walmart commercial? I love it, Paper Planes by East of Avenue. Was created by a TO agency. We kept singing it whenever the commercial came on and Sean learned to play it on guitar this weekend. Title is a line from it. Where You Land is Where I’m Gonna Be How cute is this little Christmas Mini! It’s got pressies and lights (kinda hard to see the lights but we were driving!).  I love all the lights on everything this time of year. Sean told me he’ll have the hugest display of lights when we get a bigger house/yard and I fell in love all over again. Timed to music too. What a dreamboat! Discovered a new app this weekend called Shift that allows you to create filters and it’s kinda net. Spiced up this photo of Queen West (it’s $0.99). Will be at the Gladstone Hotel tonight teaching a class on blogging in their new Get School’d series. I believe it’s sold out but if you are interested in coming, lmk. After today I’m going to really try and take a break from my phone and laptop. I doubt I’d be able to digital detox without being at a beach, I can’t go a day without my phone. I can barely go…

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