CASIE STEWART

THIS IS MY LIFE • BLOG EST. 2005
Inspiration

Enjoy A Little, Endure a Lot

This week felt like a long one and it’s finally Thursday. As Keri would say, “Best night of the week!”. Tonight I’m heading to my BFFs house out of the city and tomorrow we rented a sweet hotel room in a random Ontario town, not too far, for a well deserved girls getaway.

Sometimes when I look back at my story of the day, on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook, my short term memory forgets things even happen. This was the case a few times this week. I started the week slow, was super tired, and had a sore shoulder from an awkward sleep on Sunday.

New jacket from SheIn

Tuesday I spent most the day dragging my a$$ through the motions, but, by the end of the day I was so inspired I couldn’t sleep! I was a judge at the Women in Wearables Tech Meetup for the Female Founders Cup.  It was  great to be surrounded by incredibly amazing women making waves in the tech community. You can watch the livestream here if you’re looking for some inspiration. 

Women & Wearables: An evening of celebration, discussion & activism

Wednesday seems like a blur. Did yoga at 7:30 then drove home, picked up Emily and took her to school. Shawn Hawaii came over for quick head shot shoot around 9am and by 10:30, Sean and I we were heading to 1188. The rest of the day was non-stop and by 9:30pm I was finally ready to sit down and do things on my computer.

I am SOOOOO looking forward to a 2 night getaway with my BFF and a s-l-o-w pace. I love what I do but life is exhausting and I’ve had to teach myself to take breaks. Also, I can’t wait till we open the cottage and my regular weekend escape from the city is back in action. Cottage life, baby!

Here’s to the balance of hustling hard then taking time chill!

casiestewart, blog, blogger, toronto, canada, travel, tech

 

There is no sponsor today but I found the inspiration for my title from this (Brainy) quote.

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Tech

Light Up Your Life with Best Buy Smart Home

Last week I went to the National Home Show as a guest of Best Buy Canada to check out smart home accessories. After CES and the Interior Design Show this year I’ve become obsessed with making our home more efficient with smart things. Upgrading appliances in your space can help save energy (thermostats/appliances), make things more comfortable (lighting), and keep you safe (security camera).

For the National Home Show, Best Buy partnered with designer Christine Dovey to design a fully stocked smart home pop-up where you could see all kinds ways to pimp your place with technology. I left dreaming about new appliances for the whole house complete with a super skinny & smart Samsung QLED tv.

I was obsessed with the Samsung ‘Family Hub’ fridge, this thing is totally from THE FUTURE. It’s got a wifi touchscreen and three inside cameras that take a photo every time the fridge closes. Then, you can check your phone to see what’s inside, it also knows what’s inside, it make recipes, it can track expiration dates. Kinda hard to wrap the old brain around! I LOVE THE FUTURE. My friend was telling me about how they recently got a new smart AV system from Crestron System and I think she is as much in love with the future as I am!

When I was at CES in Vegas this year, one of the award winning new products was the Nanoleaf Aurora light panel.All the lights connect to my iPhone and can change a zillion colours and different shades of white (warm vs cool). I was so excited to order this for our house! I would love to say I went for the cool lights knowing Emily (9) would love them but they were totally for me too.

We had guests over this weekend and I set the Nanoleaf up on a table in our living room and it was so awesome. I set the lights to slowly go through colours of the rainbow (this gif is fast so you can see). The 9 little triangles can be moved around to any shape as long as they’re connected. I plan to put them on the wall eventually.

Some other things I ordered from Best Buy) were a set of Philips Hue A19 Smart Wireless bulbs, a cheap IP camera and the little Hue Go Portable Smart LED Light. They both can all be controlled by my phone and adjusted to encourage moods or be programmed to timers.

My mum stayed over the other day and this works as a great little night light. I easily fits on your hand, isn’t to bright, and is super light.

Phillips wireless HUE light in action

By changing a couple lights in the house to smart bulbs we’re saving energy and changing the way it feels. We’ve also compared Cirro Energy plans to our own to find where the most competitive rates are so that we can save money. These were all pretty simple to set up but you can always have someone from the Best Buy Geek Squad help you out.

Learn about the wide variety of Smart Home products available and determine what fits your home and lifestyle by visiting your local Best Buy or BestBuy.ca.

This post in is in partnership with Best Buy Canada and the National Home Show. In exchange, I received perks in the form of products and/or compensation. All opinions on this blog are my very own! Thank you for reading!
Inspiration

Make Yourself Happy. Do What You Love. #stickwithit17

Make Yourself Happy. Do What You Love. #stickwithit17

The last couple weeks I’ve been on a journey of making my self happy, practising what I preach, making the most of each day, and following things that give me joy. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, it has made a big difference. The last couple months of 2016 I was totally drained, didn’t feel creative, felt a bit lost like ‘what am I doing and why‘.

So, I made a change. I started putting  myself first
and really doing WHAT I WANT.

It’s easy to get side tracked from your goals, over worked, under stimulated. The thing is, you can totally turn that around any singe day, at any time. You’re in control of your happiness. You’re the director of the movie that is your life. You always have a choice.

2009 BLOG POST

Years ago (2008-09) when I wanted people to remember me and my blog I made these little stickers on white Avery labels after work (at an IT company). I didn’t have $$ for real stickers, so I had to be creative.

They had a strip of photos I took of myself (now called selfies) and my Twitter @casiestewart with my URL casiestewart.com.

While most people will take your business card and never follow up, this is not the case with stickers. I found that people would go to my blog the day after a fun party where I stuck my sticker on them, their sweater, conference badge, and leave a comment, or tweet me it was nice to meet.

The first round of ACTUAL real stickers I made were from StickerYou when a friend worked there. They were heart shaped photos of me with a painting in the background and my Twitter handle.

2017 reissue of 2011 stickers (see originals)

This month I was invited to create a Mantra Box of stickers to keep me motivated. WELL, I went and ordered a whole bunch. So many that I ended up spending more than the gift code they sent!

Over the last week I’ve mailed out a bunch of hand written letters to long time blog followers, old and new friends, with pieces from my Mantra Box. I already knew the quality of stickers and I can say I am so impressed with this batch. I really love them.

Use code CASIESTICKWITHIT17 to order some for yourself.

The price point is affordable, here’s a screenshot from part of my order. I’m surprised how many stickers I got. I also ordered clear stickers of my signature (for windows/everything) and signature tattoos. Yay!

I have a bunch so if you want some LMK.

casie stewart, autograph, famous, blogger, canada, toronto

 

 

 

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LIFE

Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’

Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’

This weekend we had friends in town from Boston. Instead of facing St. Patty’s Day crowds on Friday we hosted them for dinner (Uber Eats!).

Saturday was pretty relaxing except for the call I got at 10:30am saying Mum was in the hospital. She ended up having appendicitis and getting her appendix out. Just like that! She was back home just after dinner time. Canada is such an amazing country.

Hale Coffee, love this place

At yoga on Sunday, Sandy read a few horoscopes and mine mentioned gifting myself a young cactus. The cool thing about that was I had a ticket for a terrarium workshop that afternoon.

It was my my 3rd terrarium workshop of the year and want to make a really big one now that I understand how. It was at Untitled&Co and a couple friends joined me in the fun.

This week I’ve got an event at Twitter HQ & am seeing another show at Mirvish. Since I’ve made yoga a priority and started focusing on doing things for ME that I really want to do, I’m so much happier.

Today I’m doing 9am yoga with the team at 2Social in the Junction. Hope to get my bike tuned up later today.

Here’s to a great week! Sending sunshine through the internet to you! Longer days are on the way! ☀️??

 

TITLE QUOTE IS BY ROBIN WILLIAMS VIA BRAINYQUOTE.

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Fashion

Live Action Short Drama? Story of My Life! 2017 #CdnScreenAwards Recap

Last weekend I attended the Canadian Screen Awards as a guest of the First Weekend Club. It was my second year attending the ‘Canadian Oscars’ after last year winning the award for Voice Pioneer at CSA’s Social Awards. The awards were hosted by Howie Mandel and held at the Sony Centre on Front Street.

I absolutely love attending these kinds of Canadian events. Since my first job working in TV almost 10 years ago, and being on tv/in a couple documentaries since, I’ve grown to know a lot of people in the industry. I love seeing old friends and colleagues take the stage and supporting creative work by amazing Canadians.

This great dress was rented from Studio Fitzroy, my go-to!

One highlight of the show for me was when Strombo announced an award in the name of Canadian filmmaker and friend Rob Stewart (Sharkwater) who recently passed away. Starting in 2018, the award for Best Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series will be in Rob Stewart’s name.

The pre-show was hosted by Emma Hunter (The Beaverton) who was super funny. My fav line of hers was when she was announcing the nominees for ‘Live Action Short Drama’ and she said ‘story of my life’. I was like ME TOO GIRL, ME TOO. Haha.

I made notes in my phone during the show of Canadian films to add to my watch list including Weirdos, Born to be Blue, and Two Lovers And A Bear.

Thanks you kindly First Weekend Club for inviting me to be your guest. I hope to attend more Canadian Films things with you this year!

casie stewart, toronto, blogger, speaker, influencer, "this is my life"

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