Van Der Pop & Cooking w/ Cannabis

Last week I went to a cooking class hosted by Van Der Pop, a female-focused cannabis brand, and had my mind blown! I’ve been interested to try cooking with cannabis now that it’s legal but was kinda worried about stinking up the whole house, wasting the flower, or making a mess. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I learned you can sous vide your weed. SOUS WEED! We learned tips and tricks from Monica Lo and her sous chef, Big Bad Wolf, both from San Francisco. Monica’s Instagram hangle is @sousweeed, (so smart!), follow her! I left feeling inspired and thinking up all kinds of things I could make for the holidays, as gifts, and to enjoy at home. How to Make Cannabis Oil for Cooking Here’s a few recipes you can try. Sean and I are going to the cottage this weekend and I’ll be having a go at making my first sous vide weed. You can use any kind of oil ex. olive oil, vegetable oil, bacon fat, duck oil. I am quite interested in making my own hot chili oil. Woo hoo! Cannabis-Infused Butter Cannabis-Infused Roasted Tomato Soup Cannabis-Infused Tropical Smoothie Cannabis-Infused Simple Syrup Cannabis-Infused Vegan Green Goddess Dressing Cannabis-Infused Coconut Oil THANK YOU Van Der Pop for a fun time, look forward to your next event! Have an awesome day!

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Sharing the Love w/ Ford Canada – Weekend Getaway at JW Muskoka

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. it’s amazing what a weekend away can do for your happiness, health, relationship, and spirit. Over the winter we don’t get away too often so when Ford Canada offered up the new Ford Expedition and hotel stay, I was so down. We stayed at the JW Marriott Muskoka, one of Canada’s top 10 luxury resorts as voted by Conde Nast. I’ve wanted to stay here for ages and tweeting back in forth about Muskoka and cottage life for years. The staff were nice, the food was good, it was quiet. We didn’t do much other than eat and sleep but it was just the relaxing 24 hours we needed. The lobby is quite modern and the whole place has a country house vibe. There was warm apple cider in the lobby, complimentary snowshoeing, snow bikes, and valet. We were upgraded from a standard room to an apartment style suite which was verrrrrry roomy. A family of 4 could have stayed here no problem. It had a full kitchen, fireplace, two tvs, a private bedroom, washroom with 2 sinks, and a separate toilet/bath/glass shower, so you could use each independently. I could have honestly stayed there for a week working on the great Americancan novel, or my blog. Inside the JW Mariott Muskoka The hallways feel a bit like you’re in a movie. We’re definitely going back in the summer to take in the outdoor spaces and activities. The weather wasn’t great and neither were the roads. I was happy we were in a vehicle with 4 wheel-drive. The 2019 Ford Expedition Platinum is huge, especially when you are only 5’2 driving an SUV that seats 8! It’s also rollin’ on 22’s so you’re seated above most cars on the road. Great for…

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Easy Ways to UP YOUR MOOD in Winter

I don’t know if I’ve ever spent so much time at home, inside the house, as I have the past month and during the Polar Vortex. Thankfully, today our upstairs patio door is no longer frozen shut but winter is far from over. Long winters like these are often hard to get through and the constant dull weather can really bring down your mood. If you’re feeling stir crazy or craving some something to boost your mood, here are a few things I like to do to make me feel happier when the SAD kicks in. Home Spa Love yourself and self-care your mood to a higher frequency with a little time, DIY beauty hacks, and products. You don’t need heaps of money or fancy stuff to pamper yourself like the queen you are. I love doing masks and usually get them from Shoppers. Also recommend checking out the beauty section of Winners, they almost always have a good selection at a great price. I got this set of metallic masks to nourish, brighten, and hydrate plus an applicator brush there the other day for $7! ? I Pinned a few DIY recipes with ingredients you probably have on hand here or scan the pin code in the Pinterest App. Make a quick body scrub by mixing your used coffee grounds with coconut oil. Or make a simple lip sugar scrub with and a combination of white/brown sugar plus olive oil/coconut oil/honey, with peppermint, lemon, grapefruit, lavender, or activated charcoal to brighten. My mum makes a GREAT, thick, face cream with marigold, frankincense from New Direction Aeromatics. I love it! Light Therapy This helps to boost your mood, deal with SAD, and can (not an expert!) help depression. I have the Phillips Hue light system in my room that includes Hue…

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Review: Roomba i7+ Robot Vacuum

Over the past 45 days, I’ve been testing the Roomba i7+ from iRobot. Overall, awesome vacuum, especially great for bungalows, love the self-cleaning feature. I’ve wanted a Roomba or years and talked about it on Twitter back in 2012. Hello, who wouldn’t’ want a little cleaning robot?! We have quite a few stairs at home, so I decided Roomba would live at the 1188 office. Honestly, it’s been such a hit with everyone, they were all so excited when the big box arrived, it would be interesting to find out what is best robot vacuums to try out. It feels like we have an office pet again! This works for the floors, but for the rest of the Office Cleaning we do still hire a specialist cleaning team, as the Roomba can’t clean walls, fridges, technology, and other office items! I would say the only downfall about the Roomba Robot Vacuum is that it can’t do stairs, yet! It does have Cliff Detect so it won’t fall down or take a tumble should you have some stairs around. Once I got everything set up, it was really quick to download the app and connect the device. The Roomba i7+ is the smartest robot vacuum yet. It has a cleaning dock to empty itself plus an app that lets you control it and see where it’s cleaned. You can see it was super quick to set up. I snapped these screenshots all in the same minute! My favourite part aside from clean office floors is the app (by the way, this is the perfect vacuum for wooden floors). I’m able to see if there’s an issue, what’s been cleaned, or set it to clean at any specific time. Cleaning Two features that make this an amazing machine are 1) Dirt Detect™…

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Ways to Make Some Extra $$$$

This blog post is an extension of a conversation, an email, and a couple texts. I finally got around to it hahaha. I remember learning about the ‘multiple streams income’ concept from The Wealthy Barber, Dave Chilton back in college. I always wanted to get to point where I had multiple streams of income and wasn’t waiting for my next cheque to arrive. There’s working hard and working smart and I am a big fan of being creative and efficient. Depending on where you’re currently going in life, there are different options you can take. For instance, if you’re a retired homeowner, you may even be able to take out a loan using your home as security. A lot of retired people turn to equity release as a way of finding extra money. Check out EquityRelease.co.uk to learn more about some of the equity release options available. But what about ways to generate more income? If you need to get more $$ in your pocket get smart about making more money. If you are in urgent need of cash then you may want to see what your local pawn shop can do for you. Get bills in your bank, scroll on my friend! Get Money w/ Ebates Cash Back + Referrals I’ve earned over $100 on my purchases in the last couple months. I have both USA and Canada accounts. I (spend all my money on the internet and) love buying things at Sephora and Amazon.ca. It’s free money you get back on things you’re already buying! Sign up her One of the other cool things is you get $$ for referring friends with your sign up link, so send this out to your fam and get them to sign up. BAM! You get money and in the form of…

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You remind me of a sunshine the way you light up a room.

I used to post a lot of collage photos of my faces, different faces, expressions. I mean, used to as in the ‘old days’ of social media, pre-Instagram, early Twitter. I love taking photos of myself and documenting them. I love myself and I want you to know that. You should love yourself too. What else can I say? You gotta love yourself first because the more love you have, the more love you can give to others. Love and kindness are infinite. I always thought it was fun to take a million (ok, a hundred?) photos of my facial expressions and post them. As a kid, I spent heaps of time making faces in the mirror, ask mum. Honestly, I take about 50+ sometimes before I get one I want to post. I’ve always had an expressive face. When I was a kid, I did a lot of dance competitions across Ontario, New York, Myrtle Beach. At one competition my adjudicator was Patsy Swayze, Patrick Swayze’s mum. She trained him for Dirty Dancing in 1987 when I was 5. It was circa 1990 when she recorded a tape about me.  Back then, judges used to record their comments on tape while you were dancing and give it to you after the awards. I still have the tape of her talking about me. She said, “it’s too bad we don’t have lighting from the audience to show this child’s facial expression because she really does deserve it”. To this day, that is one of my proudest moments. “it’s too bad we don’t have lighting from the audience to show this child’s facial expression because she really does deserve it” I will never stop showing who I am. I’m too damn old to try and pretend to be someone else, gah, imagine how much work that would be? I am who I…

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DO IT FOR YOURSELF. #JOMO

I read a great article on self-care yesterday about how it’s not all chocolate and bubble baths. Self-care is doing stuff for yourself like not going out, eating well, making time to exercise, and fighting through the hard crap like cleaning your room and doing your taxes. I finally did mine this year after more years than I care to admit.  This Is What ‘Self-Care’ REALLY Means, Because It’s Not All Salt Baths And Chocolate Cake In January I set out to take better care of myself and started regular yoga and since I’ve become stronger physically and mentally. I’ve carved out time in my life to do things FOR MYSELF and not be pressured to do things or go to things if I really don’t feel like it. Sure, I have missed out on fancy parties, previews but do I really care? No. I’ve gone to more parties and events in the last 10 years than some people will ever go to. I never feel FOMO when I scroll past familiar faces smiling or posting the perfect cheers in a Boomerang. I am all about the JOMO – THE JOY OF MISSING OUT. I love skipping things to go to yoga or leave early because I have something important t0 get to (aka yoga). Last winter I invested in creating a beautiful workspace for myself at home filled with smart lights, an air purifying fan, all the plants, and photos I’d been meaning to frame for years. I love staying home and there is nothing wrong with that. This is a reminder to you and myself to not feel bad for putting yourself first. If you don’t, who will? By taking care of myself, I free up room to do more and take care of others without feeling drained or worrying about things I need…

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In case you need a reminder…

Last night I was not feeling great. I wasn’t sick-sick but it had been a really busy day. My head was full of anxiety, my mind was racing, and I was feeling stressed TF out. I realised it’s easily been two weeks since my last yoga class and I can 100% feel a difference in my mental health when I stop going. So, I scheduled my smart lights to turn on at 7am and set my alarm. I planned to get a coffee but then realized I forgot my wallet in the car. Urgh! I didn’t let that stop me. I was the first one at class just as Sandy was putting on a pot of coffee. It all worked out. It felt so good to stretch and work up a sweat. I came home, took my vitamins, and had a new perspective on the day. I work hard at being positive and sunshiney all the time. It’s not always easy but the more you give and share, the easier I find it is to be genuinely happy. If you are having a hard time, or you feel like quitting, remember why you started. 

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Make friends. Make moments. Make memories.

Had a great weekend after my super relaxing day on Friday. Saturday morning I went to yoga at 8:45 am, then came home and went to the Yoga & Wellness show w/ Sarah. It was pretty small so we walked around the whole show and went for lunch. I bought a beautiful rose quartz/gold/sandalwood bracelet. We walked to Terroni and got a gorgeous little table by the window upstairs. I ate the Saturday Special lasagna (my fav) and washed it down with a nice glass of wine. It was perfect. The last year or so I’ve been trying to make more time for my friends not to just hang out but to hang out in pairs/small groups, to talk, listen, and make memories. For so long I spent heaps of time going to events and not really listening or opening up. I feel so grateful to have smart & talented people around and I wanna cherish that. I may not see some of my good friends all the time but when we do hang out, it’s magical. Last week I went over to visit my friend Sasha who just had a baby and the other week I sat down with an old friend for a tarot reading. So energizing! If you’re ever having a bad day, or want to make your good day better, write down 3 friends you haven’t seen in a while, call them. If one doesn’t answer, call the next! You’ll feel a smile on their face when you say hello and you’ll both feel an electric charge.     

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Skincare Stuff You’ll Find in My Summer Bag

Summer, yay! ?? Hard to believe it’s almost the of July! ?? Have no fear, there’s still plenty of time to soak up the sunshine, read books in the hammock, and have delicious snacks on the dock. As you know I spend most weekends at the cottage over the summer, this list of skincare stuff isn’t super fancy but it’s a combo of things I was sent to try out (then replaced with my own money) or products I stock up on so there’s one at home and the cottage. I love all things skincare and there are so many other products I want to try. If you’re as passionate about skincare as me, you could become a social marketer. If you don’t know what this is or you’d like to learn more, click here. This post is sponsored by Boxed Water, is a socially conscious packaged-water company re-thinking the way water is sold, shipped and consumed. For every photo posted of Boxed Water with#ReTree on social, they’ll plant two trees. ?? I love the little box, so cute. Ok, here we go! Summer Skincare Stuff I Love 1. WATER – Drink heaps of it. Your skin will thank you. ? Drinking water has some fantastic benefits, it can make your skin look really bright. The Neostrata Enlighten Ultra Brightening Cleanser is a creamy foaming cleanser that also brightens the skin if your skin often looks a little dull. Boxed Water is triple filtered for purity using reverse osmosis, carbon filtration and UV systems and filled in both Michigan & Utah. The entire carton is recyclable and 100% BPA free with 1% of all sales going to reforestation. ? ? ? You can find it at Loblaws or Sobeys in Canada. ?? Keep your skin and immune system healthy by…

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This Is My Life | Cyberbullying

Putting yourself out there on the internet or *IRL takes a lot of courage. Having a blog opens you up for all kinds of criticism, haterade, or anonymous comments. My world, the one I’ve created online, is pretty positive, but I’ve had my share of cyberbullying. It’s important to fight back against trolls, for example you could use an instagram story viewer app to save any abusive posts so that you can use them as evidence against them. It’s also important to learn how you can avoid being exposed to this kind of harassment and Telus has an award winning Canadian program about how to protect you and your family online. They offer online info and offline info like in-person training sessions for business customers and their fams. Thanks for this @TELUS! #TelusWise pic.twitter.com/uIpjxQArfZ — CASiE STEWART (@casiestewart) August 20, 2015 Telus is one of my longest standing relationships and this program is one of the reasons I love them. Not to mention the owl for this campaign. I like owls. I’ve had more than one stalker over the years and had to contact the police several times about something internet related. I don’t share this stuff often because it’s hard to talk about. There’s also SO MUCH sad/bad news out there I want this to be a happy place for you when you’re having a bad day or want a cheer up. The things about bullying is it can stay with you forever. It’s hard to forget the way they made you feel. A couple of years ago a ‘friend’ had been commenting mean things under an alias for months. It was really hurtful, the things she said were spiteful, stuff only someone who knew me would say to be mean. I did some investigating and finally tracked the…

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4 Companies Offering Great Customer Service

One of the things I really love about Telus is their commitment to customer service. They feel great customer service starts from the ground up and they’ve made a commitment to telling Canadians they need to Expect More from their telcom providers. Today I’m sharing a couple other great customer experience stories from other companies putting customers first. Little Burgundy – Broken Boots Near the end of summer I purchased a killer pair of boots designed by Jeffrey Campbell from littleburgundyshoes.com. I’ve been wearing them regularly but recently the cool cut-out heels broke.   I didn’t want get stuck on the phone ringing customer service so I sent a tweet with some photos to @LittleBurgundy and they replied within about 30 minutes. It took about 5 min to fin d a new pair of booth in store and the return was easy. I really love when a company is socially connect and able to help their customers over Twitter.  Nice work guys! Now I will check out the sales and probably buy more. 🙂 @LittleBurgundy hi guys, @JCshoes I ordered <2 mo ago broke this week. Both of them! Can you help!? ?? pic.twitter.com/eiXtpAEHnK — CASiE STEWART (@casiestewart) October 21, 2015 Go Daddy – Server Upgrade I’ve been with GoDaddy for my website hosting since switching over to WordPress from Blogger.com years ago. I’ve had nothing but great customer service from their team. I’ve had them renew my domain (until 2022!) help with a hacking situation (on the 1st day of TIFF!) and more recently with a server upgrade. GoDaddy recently changed their hosting and the plan I was on no longer had analytics. As a blogger and online business owner, the stats are important to me. I had considered switching to another host when their help team offered to look into my situation. Instead…

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New Things I Love! Short Hair, Tesla Cruisin’, MacBook Pro, Meat Pies ✌?️

It’s almost the weekend. I’ve worked hard. I’m ready to reeeeeeeeelaxxxx! Looks like we’re gonna get some rain, I’m working on a blog makeover so I’m ok with that. Won’t feel bad missing sunshine to nerd out ON MY NEW COMPUTER! Sean picked it up for me yesterday and I can’t WAIT to tour around this amazingly fast little machine. He also came home with meat pies from The Pie Comission. Seriously, what a dreamboat! I’m so stoked. It’s been a few years since I upgraded my Mac Game and I’m proudly replacing my 11″ MacBook Air with a 13″ MacBook Pro. Welcome to the family! Sean recommended that I got an external monitor for my MacBook to make my life a bit easier so I’m looking at reviews on bestbezellessmonitor and will keep you updated on whether I get one or not! I’m also going to be a lot more careful with this one, as I know that they’re susceptible to cracked screens if not looked after properly – I don’t want to have to fork out to repair it any time soon. All my Apple gadgets over the years have been named after famous men in history. This guy is yet to be named… Went to the Indie Ale House last night. Food was really good! She moved to the junction recently so I have another friend in the hood. Woot! The desserts, so good. Loving my hair short. Getting it trimmed a BIT shorter today too. Rode in my first TESLA yesterday. What a car! It’s so fast, smart, good looking, efficient, I can’t get enough. Snapped this out the sunroof. Beautiful day! Back seat is quite roomy and with TWO trunks you can fit heaps of clothes and food for a weekend getaway. Three cheers for…

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My Bloggy Lies Over the Ocean

Oh hey, guess who? It’s me your friend from across the internet. Working away at the computer most the day. Monday is my ‘don’t leave the house and write as much as you can’ day. Spend a bunch of time sitting on the couch with my Macbook yesterday but fell into scrolling things on the phone, deep into a Netflix binge and did nothing from my To Do list. I find the weekends are really important for me to chill out. I used to blog every single day and it was really draining. Now, I aim for 5 posts per week and if I feel inspired to write a few more, good for me. The more documenting the better. Today when I did leave the house I was at Lit Espresso bar on Roncy and the staff were trying to name one of the girl’s blog. A staffer guy said ‘My Bloggy Lies Over the Ocean’ and I thought it was so funny, got totally distracted paying for my sweet treat. Title today inspired by that guy, good one buddy! These are my latest glasses from Polette Eyewear in France. I really love them, they sit high on the face and the thin frame is different than any other glasses I have. L’usine à lunettes by polette offers highly-competitive prices, no compromise on the quality. Frames from $9.99 to $49.99 and lenses from $9.99 to $89.99. I love that they have HEAPS of different selections. They’ve just launched E-Pollette, lenses that protect your eyes from screens. SO SMART. Ordering those next. Cold & shaggy west end girl at @ExtraBCoffee. #Roncy pic.twitter.com/QqInWm25yr — CASiE STEWART (@casiestewart) March 30, 2015 I’m working on a new site that will HELL OVER HIGH WATER launch by my blog’s 10th birthday. I want to have a place…

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