Artventure: #CUTMR2015 at Gladstone Hotel till Jan. 25th

You’ve got a couple dayS left to check out Come Up to My Room at The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto’s trendy Queen West (my fav hood tbh0. I popped by on Friday to check out the exhibit before it opened to the public. I’m not going to go into toooooo much detail but here’s a few of my fav things. Come Up to my Room runs until January 25th and is open Monday to Friday from 12pm to 5pm (open late for programs), Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 7pm. 3rd and 4th floor installations are open for viewing from January 10th to March 29th, 2015, daily from 12pm to 5pm. Visit the Gradstone’s website HERE for more info.  Love to know your favs so tweet me @CASIESTEWART! Hope you enjoy the artventure too! <3 CASIE    

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Like Whoa, Whoa Wednesday!

Whoa, whoa, whoaaa! It’s already Wednesday and I feel like I’ve lived a week since Monday. There’s lots going on and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed today but I can handle it. It’s that nervous excited feeling that keeps me going.   Sean got a new needle for his turntable so threw this record on last night and sang out loud while cleaning the house. I’m working to get our spare room turned into a nice little office now that I’m working from home. I hope the neighbours didn’t mind that I put it on repeat, a few times. Bennie and the Jets is one of my ALL TIME fav songs. I had a really great lunch meeting yesterday and am finally putting some production wheels in motion for two projects I can’t talk about. I’m pretty stoked that our film Behind the Red Carpet is now on CBC’s website too. (See here!). Went to Local in Liberty Village and had 1 fish, 1 chicken taco. THEY WERE DELICIOUS. Sunday is my sisters birthday and I booked us a room at the Royal York Hotel. I have never stayed there and it’s one of those places I’ve always thought of as very ‘Toronto’. Tomorrow is my slowest day of the week and I’m looking forward to working on some blog stuff, playing ukulele, and treating myself to a new mani. It’s a weird and wonderful world I live it in but I wouldn’t change it for anything! Hope there’s sunshine where you are and if not, ALWAYS BRING YOUR OWN SUNSHINE! <3 CASIE

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Blue Eyed Baby: New Air Optix Color Contacts

When was the last time you had your eyes checked? For me it was longer than I could remember so when Air Optix Colors invited me to visit an eye doctor for an exam and look into color contacts I was all in. Depending on your age and risk factors, adults should see an eye doctor every 1-3 years. Over the holidays I saw Dr. Acs at Toronto Eye Care. Turns out I’ve still got healthy eyes and don’t need a prescription. I was super impressed with the technology they used to creep inside my eye, look at my retina, and take images. It’s really been a long time because I don’t ever remember having photos of my eyes taken by an eye care professional. Here’s a look at the back of my eye and the retina. I was a little freaked out when I saw them but Dr. Acs confirmed this is exactly what a healthy eye should look like. Crazy eh! The little spidery things around the edge of this photo are my lashes. My first experience wearing contacts as an adult was in November last year after attending the Air Optix Colors Canadian launch. Remember those vibrant Sterling Gray ones? (see post here) I loved how they changed my look and they went well with my violet hair. I really wanted to try Brilliant Blue but they didn’t have them at the event so I picked up Brilliant Blue over the holidays. I love my natural hazel eyes but changing things up is fun too. I put these in and wore them for and entire day and to dance rehearsal. They’re comfortable and I forgot I was wearing them until I looked in the mirror. They’re so bright! I was a bit freaked out about removing them but Dr. Acs gave me some pointers and…

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Day 5/365 and We’re in Business, Baby!

What a whirlwind yesterday was whoa. I took a walk to get my nails done (manicure Monday!) and decided it was cold enough (-20 something w/ windchill) to whip out the vintage mink coat I inherited from Sean’s aunt via his mum last summer. Went well with my new YSL glasses & long read leather gloves. This coat is heavy and insanely warm. After about 10 minutes of walking, I opened it to get some air, I was sweating! I know how people feel about fur but this thing is already made and would be sitting in a closet if not worn by me. It’s back in hanging in mine now for a special event in the dead of winter. A friend of mine loved the coat but didn’t like the fact it was mink (understandable). She got a really similar faux version from Lily Lulu Fashion. It looks great and can’t even tell it’s faux fur. A floor length mink coat really isn’t practical for a girl on the go. Chuckling to myself as I wrote this. A few years ago I made a New Years resolution to take care of my nails. I’m not really into ‘resolutions’, I like setting goals all year but I felt this was something reasonable. Having your nails tidy and polished makes you look put together. Notable.ca posted yesterday that having your nails done is one way to look richer than you might be. I got this fancy shellac design to kick of the start of 2015 business. You like? In other news, my hair is crazy right now. I can’t decide that to do with it. It’s the awkward in between stage before a bob and the colour is so faded. I’m bored with it. Looks like I’ll be rocking hat head…

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Last Min Gift Idea! You Can’t Go Wrong w/ Stylish EyeWear

New glasses! You like? They’re YSL! A gift to myself from SmartBuyGlasses.ca. I was invited to pick out a pair from their gift guide and these new YSL babies were my choice. I absolutely LOVE great eyewear. I choose fast shipping and they arrived in 2 business days. A great gift idea if you are one of those people who leaves everything to the last minute! You have Friday, Monday, Tuesday, get on it! If you follow me on Instagram (which you should be!) or have been looking at my photos for a while, you’ll notice my vast collection of great shades. I’ve moved on from a stylish box to an entire drawer in my wardrobe, you can never have too many! If you’re still looking to treat someone special (even yourself!) check out the gift guides for women and men from Smart Buy Glasses and pick fast shipping to get them in time for Christmas. You can also order a gift card to be shipped same day. I’ll be wearing my new sunnies from now till summer. Even at night. I love them! 🙂 HAPPY HOLIDAYS! <3 CASIE  

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Spa Review: Miraj Hammam Spa by Caudalie Paris

Last week I was invited to Miraj Hammam Spa by Caudalie Paris at the Shangri-La in Toronto. Let me tell you, spending Monday afternoon at a spa is a GREAT way to start the week or really finish off a weekend. There’s nothing like escaping your life and slipping away into a world of relaxation. Especially on a cold winter day! The PR team invited me to experience one of their treatments and I chose to go for a Hammam & Gommage. This steam and body exfoliation is part of the authentic traditions of the Middle East.   When I arrived I was taken into the change room, given a private locker, and a robe. I put my winter layers in the closet and hopped into the soft robe and went to the lounge area where I started to relax instantly. I had my own little booth with dim lighting. I sipped fruit infused water, tea, and snacked on dried fruit & nuts (see above). After a few minutes I was taken to the Hammam steam room where I relaxed on a Jerusalem gold marble for about 20 minutes. It felt SO good to just lay there and let my mind wander as I soaked up the steam. The Hammam cleanses your body while stimulating your senses and imagination. Next, I was treated to an invigorating full body Gommage (exfoliation) using eucalyptus infused black Moroccan soap. This experience is considered to be the ultimate detoxification treatment and I can agree 100%. I felt so good after the Hamman & Gommage, I didn’t want to leave! I went back to my private booth in the waiting area and laid back down. I wasn’t ready to face the world. Within a few minutes I was delivered some tea, fruit and baklava. See, you wouldn’t want to leave either! I absolutely love visiting the…

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Dinner with Chef Chef Nina Compton + Saint Lucia Tourism

On Monday night I travelled to Toronto’s Queen East for a mini escape to Saint Lucia with Chef Nina Compton and their tourism board. I’ve never been to Saint Lucia but I’ve also never wanted to go more than right now after tasting the food and hearing travel stories from other guests. Chef Nina cooked up some seriously delicious food. My fav was the cacao beef short rib with polenta and baby veg. The spicy cacao martini was a nice start to the night. You might recognize her from Bravo’s Top Chef, she was the runner-up and fan favourite on the most recent season. Chef Nina is in Toronto as the first culinary ambassador of Saint Lucia. Now that’s an awesome gig! = Here’s some snaps from the night by the lovely Becca Lemire. Did you know Saint Lucia, aside form it’s natural beauty, has a tropical rainforest and one of the world’s few drive-in volcanoes. DRIVE IN VOLCANO. A DRIVE IN VOLCANO. I can only imagine the other magical wonders waiting there for me. Thanks to the Saint Lucia Tourist Board and Chef Nina Compton for a delicious dinner and some time to catch up with Andrew (aka Dobbernation). I had a great time meeting Charlene who has been reading THIS IS MY LIFE for years had never ran into me IRL. HI CHARLENE. It’s a truly humbling and awesome experience meeting people who have been reading for a while. It’s nice to get to know ya. You know heaps about me! Here’s to a wonderful day. It may be getting cold outside but that doesn’t mean you can’t take the sunshine wherever you go.

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CottageLife | You Might Just Need An Entire Weekend of Sleep

Hellooooo November! I love summer but there’s something so calming and creative about winter that makes me want to lock myself inside and write or organize the house. I did neither of those things this weekend. I slept at least 25 hours.  I took as many extra hours of sleep as I could find! We spent most of the weekend on the couch watching shows and movies from Netflix or iTunes. The fridge is full of takeout. I was tired. I had work to do but I just didn’t have the energy. Today I feel much better and ready to take on the world! Whenever it’s a new month, year, and sometimes even day I look back and feel grateful for memories or think about how life has changed. Two years ago Sunday, Dad and I did the CN Tower Edgewalk thanks to Mastercard Canada’s Priceless Surprises. Timehop is a great app for looking back on that you posted on Twitter or Facebook that day (see posts about the app). Saw this rusty rat rod truck that made me think of you Daddio! He custom builds hot rods and is working on his own rat rod right now. It’s the start of Movember so I can’t help but think about the MoSistas TO pinup calendar from last year 2012. (Gah, I can’t believe it was 2 years ago!)  The girls and I had a good time getting dolled up. I was May. Apron was Mum’s and I love it. I use it on the regular. I hope I still have that scarf. In other news, Regina George started following me today and I’m already into the Christmas music w/ one of my favalbums by She & Him.   If you need something to cheer you up on this gloomy Monday, press play, or check out THIS happiest Christmas playlist ever…

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Fashion | CatFootwear in New York City

Last week Brock and I went to New York City with Cat Footwear to visit their pop-up shop at Lexington & 47th in Midtown. The shop is there until the end of October and hosting a series of PR and media events, along with a preview of their SS15 collection (details on their blog). We had a great time meeting the US Cat Footwear team, artists, and NY media.   Loading Cat Footwear challenged five NYC-based artists to look at their iconic Colorado as a blank canvas and create #ColoradoCouture. Here’s what they came up with. It was rad to see the boot transformed so many ways. I’m planning to customize my own pair when they arrive.  Loading   Four of our #ColoradoCouture artists at last night’s opening, all wearing their Cat Boots of course. #catbootsnyc @ivanorama @lizlomax @sparkpretty @blubeard_misha_t  View on Instagram   I fell in love with these platforms, they are my fav from the 2015 collection.  Loading   Whoa CAT daddy, I need you in my life. Platform #SS15 from @CATfootwear. #fashion #NYC   View on Instagram On Tuesday, Oct. 21st, Style Bloggers Adam Gallagher and Sazan Barzani will be hosting a Shopping Night. You can pop-in to shop with them and chat fashion tips and styling advice from 7pm – 9pm. Tuesday nights event in #NYC w @SazBarzani for @CatFootwear you’re invited to!!!! pic.twitter.com/1O6HUSS2ca — Adam Gallagher (@IamGALLA) October 18, 2014 Thanks to the team at Cat Footwear Canada and Elevator Communications for taking us on a fun adventure in The Big Apple.Will share when I have more info about SS15 because I was super impressed with how funky and stylish the collection is. Today kicks off World MasterCard Fashion Week in Toronto and I’ll be at shows the rest of the week. Tonight I’m speaking at Humber PR’s 2nd Annual Blogger…

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Travel | Savour the Taste of Montreal w/ MTL à TABLE

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Montreal with their tourism board to learn about their upcoming food festival, MTL à TABLE. I had an awesome time discovering their culinary scene, meeting other bloggers/media, and being back in my second fav Canadian city. This is part one of my experience. Scroll down to see what I got up to and get details on how YOU can win a round trip, including airfare to Montreal to experience MTL à TABLE for yourself! MY MTL à TABLE EXPERIENCE – Part One I arrived at Renard Artisan Bistro at 9am to greet Chef Jason Nelson and my blogger partner in crime Jason from shutupandeat.ca. After visiting the smallest coffee shop in all of Montreal and we decided to venture 45min outside the city to get local meat, wine, and cheese, a trip Chef often takes on Sunday afternoons. It was about 10am when we did a wine tasting at Vignoble Vertefeuille. I loved being at the farm. The air was fresh and the wine was good. Not a bad start to the day! Chef gets chicken, rabbit and wine from the farm on a regular basis. Our next stop was Fromagerie Au Gré des Champs where we sampled cheese and said hello to the animals. It was my first time at a fromagerie and I have never tasted cheese so delicious! This award winning fromagerie is one of very few in Quebec that uses raw unpasturized milk to make the cheese. It was DELICIOUS! Loading Love this beautiful lady. We had heaps of laughs on the way back to the city where blogger Jason from shutupandeat.ca and I met up with the other bloggers for lunch. Later in the day I really got my hands dirty prepping dinner. And by dirty I mean I got blood on my hands! This is the…

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Feeling Very Thankful. #ThankFALL

We had Thanksgiving up at the cottage this year and it was so great! We headed up north on Friday to spend time with Sean’s parents and family. I planned to do some work around the house on Monday but instead I slept in, relaxed, and watched Netflix. It was a holiday! Fall is a time of year we give thanks and think about what we’re grateful for. Target contacted a bunch of Canadian bloggers and asked us to share what we’re thankFALL for. Scroll down for a few of my favourite things and a chance to win a $250 gift card from Target Canada. FAMILY Sending love and hugs through the internet to my whole fam. So happy to be able to hug them or pick up the phone and give them a ring anytime. I recently went home to see my parents so I didn’t make the trek to KW this weekend but I’ll be back home to see them again soon. Much love to all my sisters and quite thankful for Facebook so I can see all my Kiwi cuzzies in New Zealand. Yay Internet! FRIENDS Lucky to have great friends around me! These are old photos of Lauren, Carly, Raymi, and Keri, our OG blog crew. We’ve had some rad times over the years! THE INTERNET I am extremely thankful for the Internet. It’s enhanced my life in SO many ways, I can’t imagine a world without it. We probably wouldn’t even know each other! I’m really happy that I’ve used the internet to document my life over the last 10 years. Hard to believe it’s been so freakin’ long!   MY LOVE Sean, this one’s for you baby! So thankful to have a wonderful boyfriend who is also my best friend. We love travelling, spending time at the cottage, or just sittin’ around watching Netflix. I…

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CottageLife | A Boy And A Girl In A Little Canoe

Back to the grind today after an absolutely wonderful weekend up at the cottage. Sean and I went for a nice long canoe jaunt yesterday in the sunshine. How lucky are we to have this weather!? You can like this photo on Instagram right here. We attempted to go through this tunnel to another lake where our friends cottage is. It was like being inside a beautiful painting. The colours of the leaves are so vibrant and the sky was incredibly blue. We were ill prepared to portage the canoe over this little blunder. Next time I’ll wear better shoes and put my phone in something more secure than a ziplock bag. Did you know you can still use your phone while it’s in a ziplock? The more you know. Learned that trick in Thailand last year. I finally got to float in my donut. The water was pretty cold but I really didn’t care! Went on a crazy fast seadoo. Heaps of fun! MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, MY FAV. This week is gonna be a busy! Tonight my sister and I have a date for the premiere of Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck. I’m hosting a Twitter chat with Hotels.com X Nine West tomorrow then speaking to fashion students at Seneca College. Thursday I fly to Montreal for a couple days exploring culinary awesomeness with Tourism Montreal. It will be the weekend again before we know it! Happy Monday, make sure you soak up some of that sunshine!  <3 CASIE

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Tech | Muse Headband + Google Cardboard

Last week I got to try out Google Cardboard. It’s a small Oculus-like box that attaches to your Android phone where you can experience virtual reality games etc. I went on a roller coaster ride and it was pretty trippy. You hold up the box to your eyes then move as if you are on a coaster, I nearly fell over! 1188 Films (Sean’s company) has been working on some pretty rad VR stuff for Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard. I ca’t wait to see what they come up with next. My love for technology knows no bounds. I volunteer to test out everything! I was trying out the Body Mind Change + David Cronenberg Oculus Rift experience and did not know what was going to happen… then, a monster popped out and I totally jumped and screamed. The office at 1188 roared with laugher at me. HAHA GUYS VERY FUNNY. My other latest technology toy is the Muse brain Sensing Headband. It’s been a neat journey so far trying to make myself relax. I may seem like a care-free, fun loving person, but TBH I can be really uptight sometimes! This is a snapshot of my (lack of) calmness last week on Monday right in the middle of TIFF. The second photo is Friday afternoon, post TIFF. HUGE DIFFERENCE. I’m going to test out my cottage calmness this weekend. You unlock different milestones the more calm you are. I’m going for a SERENITY NOW mentality. After I did a session on Friday last week I took the streetcar. A man across the car was playing his music loud, like NO HEADPHONES loud. The driver even yelled for the person playing the music to turn it down. It took every ounce of my patience to hold it together, it is so frustrating…

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#TIFF14 Bang Bang Baby Premiere

 On Monday night I joined Sean for the premiere of Bang Bang Baby.  The feature debut film is directed by Canadian Jeffrey St. Jules. It’s a surreal, fever-dream fusion of small-town musical and 1950s sci-fi. The event was at Spice Route on King West. Thanks EXPRESS for this shirt + pants I paired w/ my fav Rudsak leather jacket and clutch from Banana Republic. Sean (Visual Effects producer) posing w/ Bang Bang Baby producer Don Allen. Fun night but going on on a Monday sure takes it’s toll! Here’s to a couple more days of TIFF then R&R at the cottage. In other news, how much do you love these? Blue suede boots from Shelly’s London X NastyGal. I got dinged on customs, $60 but I caved and picked them up from the postie anyways. LOVE. <3 CASIE  

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