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.
– Millennials often set high expectations for themselves when it comes to professional advancement, but it’s important for them to recognize that taking time off can actually benefit their work life.
– Making time for yourself can help boost productivity and makes employees better equipped to handle challenging tasks, clients or colleagues.
– Maintaining a work-life balance is essential to one’s health and well-being – to avoid the anxiety that comes with leaving a heavy workload behind, book time off during slower periods and space out the days throughout the year.
– Relaxing also looks different to everyone – whether you want to invest in a new hobby that can be experienced time and again – so maybe something like an airsoft hobby? If this is something that you are interested in then you can easily find the Great Airsoft Guns Great Prices and the biggest selection here. If you don’t want to start a new hobby, then plan a getaway, what’s essential is to take a break, refresh, and invest in some much needed time for yourself.
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.
1. Tap the little ?? ?? ?? on the top right of any profile
2. Tap ‘TURN ON PROFILE NOTIFICATIONS’
3 Enjoy posts fro your fav peeps. Try here w/ my profile ???
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!
Being good at social means being agile and ready to change at the drop of a tweet.
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.
On Instagram as a platform…
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.
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.
