Last week I attended the What If Women Gala in support of War Child Canada. Since I was young volunteering has been something very important to me. In the last year, I’ve donated my time with Telus, served a few meals at Evangel Hall Mission, Movember Canada, Brands For Canada, and partnered with War Child Canada. Aside from the gala being super fun, it was inspiring to hear stories of survival and celebrate the incredible accomplishments of women in attendance. I went with Deane from Veritas as an Ambassador for War Child. I rented this beautiful dress from Studio Fitzroy, my go-to place for great dresses. I was jazzed to meet Margaret Atwood and Sarah McLaughlin. I loved that M. Atwood and her husband were both wearing Coogi Sweaters. When I complimented her on it she seemed surprised and pleased I recognized the Australian classic. I used to have one and it’s my most regretted piece of clothing I gave away. I think about that bright beautiful thing all the time and wonder where it might be.  My favourite part of last night was that @MargaretAtwood and her husband were both wearing COOGI sweaters. Couple goals. ?? — CASIE STEWART ☀️ (@casiestewart) November 7, 2017 Over dinner, Chantal Kreviazuk performed with Sarah Mclaughlin and Ruth B. It was great. I love Ruth B.’s ‘Lost Boy’ and hearing her sing it live was amazing.  Dinner was also good. Deane and I had so many laughs together and I met some great people. It’s truly amazing what we can do when we work together. Today on National Philanthropy Day, think about how you can give back to your community or online to an organization that matters to you. To support War Child Canada visit the website here. If you need help getting involved and giving back, ask me! Happy…

What a nice surprise it was to receive this package, cheese! ??? To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Canada, Dairy Farmers of Canada is highlighting three distinct Canadian cheese from local cheesemakers.  This weekend I’ll be hosting a friend from NYC at the cottage and treating her to wine and great Canadian cheese. TODAY IS A GREAT DAY…. ??? #CanadianCheese pic.twitter.com/noMdZbbViU — CASiE STEWART ☀️ (@casiestewart) June 27, 2017 Canada has a tradition of producing high-quality, great tasting cheese. A couple years ago I was in Montreal and visited Fromagerie Au Gré des Champs, one of the top cheese makers in the province. It was so cool to see how and where cheese is made. Tasting fresh cheese really gave me an appreciation for it. Safe to say my suitcase was loaded up with cheese for my trip home! Growing up I didn’t eat a lot of cheese but *luckily* I grew out of that lactose allergy in my teens. I had hardly tried anything other than cheddar and mozzarella before Sean and I  started dating 7 years ago. Since then,  he’s shown me a whole new world of great cheese! There’s so many great varieties, and ways to eat it; sharp ones, super soft ones, melted cheese in general, cheese with garlic, on crackers, with potatoes, pizza, fruit, or my personal fav, with vegemite on toast. A Bit of History Cheese making in Canada goes back to our French and English heritage, “French settlers brought over methods for making soft, ripened cheeses, while United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, introduced the distinctly British characteristics of cheddar“. In my research, I learned cheese making in Canada can be traced back to the early 1600s but it wasn’t until 1864 when the first cheese factory was set up. Cheese making in Canada is older…

Canada Day weekend is just around the corner and as you’re aware there’s heaps of celebrations of our wonderful country. One in particular, I’m sharing with you right now combines two of my fav things, PIZZA and ART.  Also, I really love, love pizza…. Panago partnered with Toronto-born born artist Chairman Ting to create a one of a kind rad drawing you’ll find on their pizza boxes until August. AND, in true #RandomActsofPizza Panago fashion, if you colour in the box and share it with them on social, you might just score yourself some free pizza.     For #CanadaDay150 @panago_pizza has these rad artist designed boxes by @chairman_ting to celebrate our awesome country. Colour yours in & post w/ #sharemorecanada, you could win free pizza! ???❤️???❤️??❤️? A post shared by C A S I E S T E W A R T (@casiestewart) on Jun 22, 2017 at 8:50am PDT   To get my hands on the new boxes, I hosted a pizza party at the office. We had the new Canadian pizza with all the trimmings. The boxes are actually really cool! I’d love to do something like this. There’s all kinds of little Canadian things including the CN Tower, a Mountie, lighthouse, the Rockies, Parliament in Ottawa in more. Panago is a Canadian brand and you’ll find locations across the country. “We wanted to celebrate all regions across the country,” says Christie Coughlan, Panago VP Marketing Director. “The summer box is the perfect packaging to promote our Ultimate Canadian, True Canadian and Vegan Canadian pizzas this summer, while shouting—not whispering—Happy Birthday to the Canada!” Visit panago.com or give them a ring to order yourself a pizza. If you colour in the box and post it to social with the hashtag #sharemorecanada you might be rewarded with a #randomactsofpizza and FREE ‘ZA! XO WITH…

Last week I was a speaker at NextMedia, Canada’s leading digital media conference. the 2 day conference focusses on creation, distribution, and monetization of digital media content and technology. Our panel, moderated by Amber Mac, was Blurred Lines: Best Practices for Disclosing Paid Content. I’ve mentioned it a few times how this is a hot topic. My thoughts are that if you are working with someone or got the product/thing as an in-kind donation or gift,, just say so. If you always work on things you genuinely like, being authentic is easy. This isn’t a great photo but it was a memorable moment. Jake said people who will just work for any brand and do it for the money are ‘brand whores’. It’s hard to trust someones opinion if they don’t really have one and they’re just slingin’ stuff at you all the time. Discussing the #BlurredLines on #Disclosure of #Paid #Content via new #Advertising Standards #Rules ☠️ #nextMEDIA16 #handshake A photo posted by Kevin September (@septembersphere) on Nov 10, 2016 at 7:49am PST Amber asked me to be a presenter at the Digis which is the award show closing out the conference.  In it’s 10th year, the awards celebrate Canada’s most successful digital media companies and creators. I wasn’t nervous at all until it came time for rehearsal and I had to read a teleprompter. Which, by the way, was easier than I thought! I presented the award for Best Branded Content. The winner was Lilly & The Snowman from Cineplex. In other news, I left getting a dress to the last minute. So, I popped over to my go-to girls at Studio Fitzroy to rent something. Remember in the summer when I blogged about their dress rentals? That biz was SO SUCCESSFUL they’ve opened a dress rental spot on Dundas West.…