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 is located at 54 1/2 St. Patrick. It’s a product of history, poverty, property changing, and has a story that’s way too long for this blog post. You can read it on BlogTO if you’re keen.

Value in 2013 was ~$650K, it was vacant. Given the TO housing market it’s probably $1M now.

Towards the end of the hunt we really got creative, time was getting short. Spell out FORD and make a collage? OK! Flowers, Oranges, Raspberries, Driving.

We arrived at Big Crow at Dupont & Davenport around 5:30 for BBQ. I ate a few shrimps right when I walked in and OMGWHOA they were good. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay for the whole meal (we were heading to cottage) but it looked good. I saw a rack of ribs on someones Twitter and I’m still thinking it about days later.

We didn’t win the Toronto scavenger hunt but we DID have a super fun time w/ heaps of laughs. I thoroughly enjoyed driving the Escape all afternoon. It’s a powerful lil’ SUV that’s not too big, good for city driving. Great turning radius and Active Park Assist means you can parallel park like a champ anywhere, anytime.

I’ve done it a few times. Here’s a vid of me parallel parking an Escape with no hands back in 2013.

https://youtu.be/vnb46qtu6vU

Thanks Ford Canada for a fun time w/ friends exploring our city. I’ve lived here for 10 years and there’s always something new to discover. If there’s any footage from the GoPro or video from Ford I’ll update this post. I’m sure you’re just dying to hear us singing loudly! ?

?? CASIE

This week was a busy one! I was looking through photos and decided it would be a good idea to take a look back.

Monday I was back on Sirius XM co-hosting the Todd Shapiro Show. It was super fun. Listen to it here.  

I’m working on a big project at 1188 and we had a meeting over foot massages. SMARTEST IDEA. There’s a little spot at Queen/Portland, $25 for 30min. Not prices like Thailand but the massage was just as good!

Work work. 

Tuesday was the NKPR pre-TIFF media event at Natasha’s house. Tahnee was there! It was great to see all the fashion/media peeps after a long relaxing summer. The crazy is about to begin! Can’t wait for TIFF.

Recognize these bachelors? Tim (L) and I shot a TV show earlier this year with NKPR. Todd isn’t a bachelor anymore tho. Brad (R) is on TV in Canada and a former Bachelor for those of you not from here.

The NKPR IT Lounge has been going on for 10 years. It’s a VIP gifting suite and portrait studio. Caitlin Cronenberg is shooting it for W Magazine again this year. I’ll be popping by on Sept. 9th.

Wednesday night Greta Constantine hosted La Piscine. A glamorous night held at 77 Admiral Road, a three story brick mansion with beautiful backyard and pool. See more photos of peeps at the party on shedoesthecity.com.

Recognize this babe? Abe Hotaki was there stomping grapes in his underwear. He was at our cottage this summer for the Archibald Men magazine shoot. 

Next week I’m attending a top secret party hosted by Rickey, if you don’t know Rickey, you will soon. #ChezRickey is sure to be an amazing night. 

The tips I ordered for my new Jeffrey Campbell boots arrived. I think these are my new thing.

Thursday I got a preview of the new ALO Restauraunt. It’s beautiful. Located at Queen/Spadina on the third floor, it’s a dining experience with a New York feel.

They made an AMAZING cocktail with cilantro infused vodka. I can’t stress enough to how good it was.

Was great to see so many friends this week at all the events.  April & Jillian, I love you!
Next stop was the H&M Studio preview hosted at the Horizons Restauraunt atop the CN Tower.

H&M Studio is the collection of seasonal pieces, created by their dedicated in-house design team. Each season, H&M Studio presents directional fashion and shows at Paris Fashion Week.

I absolutely LOVE this look. Need. Want.  
We walked from ALO to the CN Tower. Talia (middle) is a stylist and a cute little button. Love her. Nice to meet you Britlynne!

Beckermans were there, all smiles. Blondes unite! They’re kinda a big fashion deal…@beckermanblog.

The H&M Studio collection is worth checking out. I will let you know when it’s in store around the world. These two items are from the KIDS collection. Aren’t they amazing!? I can already see myself trying to get Emily all dolled up.

Sean and I closed out the week with dinner at Valdez on King West. The food there is really good, ceviche, octopus, and beef ribs are a few of my favs. ?

? CASIE