Today has been a great day, the whole week! Really taking a break from my phone. I’m sitting in this hammock right now blogging via WordPress Mobile. Have yoga shortly, then dinner, and a circus performance at Anamaya Resort. This trip is incredible. Have so many photos to process and share when I get back home.
Hope you’re having a great day! PURA VIDA!
During fashion week I worked with Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren to celebrate spring style with Hudson’s Bay and Fashion Magazine. The event was in the contemporary department on the 3rd floor and there was no shortage of activations including a Sandro sponsored photo booth, Maje sponsored nail bar (gold nails!), BCBG sponsored gelato bar (chocolate coconut? yes, yum), an amazing fashion illustrator, candy bar, and mojito bar.
Here’s some of my fav ? from the night. Most are from Snapchat & iPhone 6s but the pro ones are by David A Pike.
Before the event I stopped by the Denim & Supply section at HBC to check out key trends for Spring/Summer 16 season. Things to note – cropped denim (cute for tall and perfect for short peeps like moi), dresses (top I’m wearing is a dress), wovens, anything white, and shredded denim. I really love white denim for summer, and picked a pair of the cropped whites for myself.
I was really torn between this white dress and the military jacket. There are a bunch of great jeans and tops as well. I think I’ll go back for the cropped denim jacket. Gotta have at least one of those in the wardrobe.
Good morning from Anamaya Retreats in Costa Rica! Yesterday was our first full day here and it was magnificent. I’m really making an effort to take a digital detox on this trip but documenting is something I love. I’m running on wifi and often not able to connect with the online world. I’ve been taking photos, making notes, voice recordings, I wanna remember all my thoughts and feeling on this journey. It’s absolutely beautiful, photos don’t do it justice!
Feels good to be back on the yoga mat too, I’ve been a bit slack this winter and this trip is like hitting the reset button. Our menu this week is all gluten free and local, Anamaya has a farm that we’re visiting Wednesday to see where a lot of our food comes from.
We are staying in a treehouse that is 50ft up with a yoga/hammock deck, and a loft bedroom. It’s the most beautiful treehouse I’ve ever been into, it’s fully equipped a king size bed, drinkable running water, and AC. It’s giving us some good inspiration to build one at the cottage.
A couple years ago Lauren and I were show by Becca Lemire for Pink Mafia with Anna Von. Mica styled us up in this RAD vintage gear, overalls, florals, Versace, bomber jackets, all pared with big glasses and bandanas. It was super fun! I hardly had any tattoos back then, the big one on the inside of my arm is fake.
I found one of these photos in a search for pix Loz and I yesterday and wanted to re-live them all. We rolled up this this old school barber shop on Dundas and snapped a few shots in there. The old Pink Mafia office is in a super old building at Bay & Dundas with a cool old elevator and fire escape. The Converse I’m wearing were customized to say ‘Casie’ at a Marcus Troy MMVA event in 2011.
I love searching the archives. Can you believe next month is 11 years blogging? DAMNNNN. Time flies when you’re having fun. that’s why you need t document, so you don’t forget.
I find taking vacation or ‘staycations’ essential to my sanity. If you’re following my Twitter or Snapchat you’ll know that I’m always on the go doing something, events, speaking, dinner, travel. I love it, but tbh it’s pretty exhausting. Putting heaps of energy out (friends, work, or social) can take a lot out of you. In a recent TD survey, they found that us millennials have a hard time finding balance between financial and work commitments, and taking time to relax is a challenge. I can totally relate to this.
TD found that 46% of millennials don’t take their allotted vacation days, mostly due to heavy workload (31%) and lack of travel funds (29%). Back when I was working in an agency, I hardly ever took vacation, felt pressure to work late, and when I did take vacation, found myself constantly checking my phone and responding to emails. I know I’m not alone here!
The survey found, 90% of Canadian millennials agree that vacation time, even mini-vacations or “staycations”, are essential to keeping them happy. Taking time to recharge doesn’t have to be expensive, I find a good binge weekend with some cooking, takeout, and a nap (or two!) boosts me up. Having a financial plan and a budget will help you get that ROE – Return on Enjoyment. ?
This weekend we opened the cottage, going there, even for a 24 hour getaway gives me leaps and bounds of energy. Don’t have a cottage? Make friends with someone who does (heh heh) or check out options like Airbnb or Glamping Hub for affordable getaways.
Millennials like us can save for activities by creating a financial plan to account for funding life’s pleasures (or unexpected moments). We could all use a little more vitamin SEA, amiright? ? Other activities with good ROE – concerts, a spa day, beach day, a trip to Toronto Island, a picnic in the park with your BFFs, or a nice long bike ride in the sun. (Spring will be here soon!)
Getting to a happy work-life balance can be a bit of a challenge, Hellen Buttigieg, life coach and founder of We Organize U has a few tips we can all use. I personally like her mention of ‘relaxing’ looks different to everyone, sometimes blogging is a really relaxing things for me since I started it as a hobby and I love writing. Other times, it feels like work and I’d rather do take a yoga class, nap, or go out for dinner.
Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you can’t afford a vacation, remember it all starts with a plan. Write down your goals, where you want to go, what you want to achieve, and set a budget to help you get there. If you need a hand getting that in order, stop into your local TD branch for helpful advice.
You 100% can get there. ?
* this post is sponsored by TD in my ongoing partnership, all stories and opinions my own, see other posts in this series below!
Word on the street is that the new Instagram timeline is dropping tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know! Apparently 70% of us are missing posts we actually wanna see, this new algorithm will hopefully make it better. For advertisers, this means you really need to pay to play Hopefully, the changed algorithm will result in more likes for us all. Although, I haven’t been in need of many more links since finding the best powerlikes service on the internet.
If your favorite musician shares a video from last night’s concert, it will be waiting for you when you wake up, no matter how many accounts you follow or what time zone you live in. And when your best friend posts a photo of her new puppy, you won’t miss it. – Instagram blog
If you’ve been on IG the last 24 hours you might have noticed a ton of posts tagged #turnmeon or #turnonnotifications, this is people asking for you to make a slight change so you don’t miss their posts. It’s kinda annoying and tbh, I don’t want to notifications from everyone, there’s a bunch of people I follow that I should probably just unfollow. BUT, if you want to turn on notifications for your fav peeps, it’s v easy.
Over the last decade, one thing I’ve learned about the internet and content creation is if you make great stuff and tell good stories, people will want to read it. This is where CONTENT IS KING comes from. If you want to build a following or grow a brand, you need think about what you’re posting and where. The platform it’s posted on today might not be there in 6 months or it might totally change functionality. It doesn’t just stop with posting good content though. Instagram is changing so much now that you can even directly message people from your computer using things like igdm, which is helping people stay connected to one another as well. So it’s certainly an improvement!
If you share content that gets a lot of likes, comments and shares, based on the new algorithm, your content will be seen by even more people. Good photos and lots of natural lighting are a great way to get likes. Buying an instagram likes booster is also a good way to get likes. It could be a good method of actually getting some recognition on the platform in lieu of natural engagement, springboarding your Instagram to allow for building up popularity.
To be honest, I feel like Instagram is on it’s way down. I like the idea of a curated stream, I think the algorithm will be good. How many posts do you see now that are from Snapchat? Once a platform stars being the secondary place content is posted, I feel it’s the decline. I’ve seen a bunch of apps rise to popularity then quickly decline when users hop over to the latest thing. Social is ALWAYS CHANGING.
Only time will tell if my prediction is true! Until then, make sure you visit my profile, and turn on notifications if you want. I’m heading to Costa Rica this weekend and I assure you, you don’t wanna miss it’s beauty!
I’m pretty excited because today is one of my most fav days of the year, the day we open the cottage! ????✌?️?????✋?
We’re en route to Muskoka to see how it handled the winter and do some cleanup. It’s a fair bit of work but I take joy every moment. Being up there is so relaxing, the fresh air, lake, trees, country roads. It’s so calming.
Make sure you’re following me on the Snapchat ? for a little bit of cottage life.
This past weekend I was joined by mum and my sister for an event with the United Nations Association of Canada where I spoke on a panel for IWD 2016. Although International Women’s Day was on March 8th, we celebrated the economic, political, cultural, and social achievements of women in an afternoon at the Fairmont Royal York. Visiting the Royal York was always so iconic growing up and to be speaking there as a grown up felt pretty neat. Having my family there made it even more special. The first question I answered from the stage was about inspiration and I proudly shared things mum taught me and a quote from her.
[symple_testimonial by=”” fade_in=”false”]Just because you don’t have money, doesn’t mean you can’t compete, you just have to be more creative.
– Judith Stewart, my mum[/symple_testimonial]
I’ve kinda neglected my blog the last week… Posts have been few and far between but I’ve still been active on all the socials. Over the last 10 days I won a Canadian Screen Award as an innovator in social & digital media (Voice Pioneer), I spoke at a conference in Edmonton where my name trended in Canada (ahhh!), spoke at the United Nations of Canada International Women’s Day event, and was a director on a TV commercial. So, safe to say lots has been happening! I’m happy and healthy and wanted to let you know, in case you’ve not peeped my daily Snapchat stories (follow here ?), read tweets, or seen posts on Instagram. I’m hustling hard to make 2016 the best year ever! So far, it’s been amazing.
These flowers were on set yesterday and now they’re brightening my home office and filling it with a springy scent. I’ve FINALLY organized the spare room to have an office that’s tidy, with a great work station, and bright light. I’ve been spending more time at the 1188 offices since January but I’m planning to spend more time working from home and the cottage for the next few months.
Title of this post is a quote by Arthur Rubenstein and it really resonated with me today because although i’ve slightly neglected my blog the last two weeks, I’ve been showing my life extreme love and appreciation. Each day I’ve put my head and heart into my work and feel like the universe is rewarding me with gratitude and more of what I truly want.
On the day of Canadian Academy of Film & Television’s #AcademySocial Awards I had a complimentary psychic reading with Angel Morgan at the Spoke Club. I’ve not really been into that type of things but with heaps on the go, I was interested to see what she would say. The first thing she said when I walked in the room was ‘WHOA, you have a very strong tiger medicine’ meaning I have very strong business energy. She mentioned a few things about my sister that she could have never known, including the cat food indecent Jenie had the night before. ?
She said I have a very masculine energy, a very ambitious energy. She said I’m in a good place in my career and she saw people around me clapping. Later that night I won the award and that weekend I really killed my talk at the conference. Lots of claps! ? It gave me a bit of confidence that calmed me down when all this stuff could have really stressed me out. Something else she mentioned was that I should share my story more, not just what’s on the surface. Whilst I am now debating having a regular psychic reading, I’m taking all this with a grain of salt. But what it did make me think about is sharing more opinions, thoughts, feelings, struggles. I’ve always kept my blog as a little ray of sunshine on the internet, a place you can always go and see bright colours, a smiling face, usually mine haha. I plan to write more. I started blogging as a way to keep more memories and I can’t thank the internet enough for helping me create this space. Next month, April 2016, marks 11 years of blogging, it’s something I’ve done since I finished university, done my entire career. It’s NOT something I ever plan to stop, this is my diary, my place to share stories and moments, this is my life.
Congrats to my girl @casiestewart and all other winners and nominees! #AcademySocial pic.twitter.com/wtQr160Kjc
— Kelsey Irvine (@Kelsey_Irvine) March 11, 2016
Today I’ve been listening to Gwen’s new album and I’m into it. I need to charge my phone.
Feeling it. pic.twitter.com/hCxEsoSwbR
— CASiE STEWART (@casiestewart) March 21, 2016
Looking forward to opening the cottage this weekend and taking some long weekend time to relax with the fam. Next weekend we are heading to Costa Rica for vacation, an actual NO WORK getaway. Can’t wait. It’s been a WHILE since I went on a trip and wasn’t working.
Hustled hard today and shall reward myself with a mani/pedi. Perks of working form home and being your own boss. ?? Thanks for following along my adventures. Wherever they may be!
Going into this week I was thinking it would be a pretty easy one, after last week’s crazy, I was ready for some chill time. BUT, as usual, something came up! I’m grateful for opportunities that come my way and I’ve learned I really only have one speed, GO. And fast. Aside from *just* fashion week things, I’ve been tasked a new project at 1188, casting & co-directing a commercial. Last year I directed 2 commercials and I realllllly want to do more this year. I’ve always said ‘be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!“.
I’m a firm believer that thoughts become things, intentions become actions, if you channel your energy in the direction of your goals, you’ll be closer to achieving them. So, here I am, wrapped casting auditions for about 75 ppl today. (Snap says 100 but there’s always a few no-shows!)
This is Sergio from Brunch Store Casting, he’s cast people in Say Yes To the Dress, Food Truck Face-off, Amazing Race, and more. He’s auditioned me a few times too. Today we sat at the table, behind the lens, picking people we though fit the request. V judgey. Casting people is pretty fun, I always thought it was something I’d like to do and I’ve had a few casting gigs over the last few years. It’s always a learning experience. We were looking for a couple, so a man and woman enter the room, they’ve never met, and we get them to act out a short scene together on camera. I played the female role a few times, about 8 husbands.
Looking forward to more casting and set-life adventures this year. Remember, follow your dreams and set your intentions. If you believe you can do it, you can.
