I know it’s been a minute. I swear I’ve started posts and just haven’t been able to finish them. I’m in a cocoon stage right now now. I am the caterpillar. I’m working on myself. I’ve been going to the gym, eating healthy, getting good sleep. This past year I really suffered from burnout. I’ve spent more than the last decade updating the world and the internet with my life and tbh, I’m tired. I need to find myself again.
I’m excited about the winter incubation to stay home, work on myself, and emerge in the spring a strong, beautiful butterfly. Looking into 2020, I want to start the year feeling refreshed.
2020 is going to be the year of ME.
Thank you Indigo for these cute snaps from their holiday preview today. There were so many nice things I’ll be ordering a few online (with Rakuten of course!). A couple of people asked about my hat this morning and it was a total STEAL from Amazon, buy it here.
In other news, I have a great post coming with my fav books I’ve read this year (there are a lot!). AND another post with the new Roomba we got for the office, it CLEANS THE FLOOR.
Hope your week is off to a great start. Sending love across the internet to your screen, from mine.
Last weekend Cory and I went on a BFF adventure to take photos at some walls we’d had our eyes on. This might seem weird to you but if you live that ‘blog life’ sometimes you need to shoot stuff and create content.
Our main goal was to this up this rainbow wall on Orfus road so we packed a bunch of clothes and set out on a nice sunny day. When we arrived, much to our surprise, there was a HUGE pink wall painted with a massive red heard. Very on-brand for me! It was perfect. I highly recommend it for fun photos, kids, family, or capturing content.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4CoBglnkbJ/
As we were leaving, I noticed the wall was one side of the YM Inc. building and I was flooded with flashbacks. My first job after university was at YM Inc., I was Assistant to the Purchasing Director. One winter when my boss went to Florida for a month, I decided to start a blog. It was on blogger, I could write text using a WYSIWYG Editor, upload photos, and share links. I posted mostly CGI photos I drew on the computer, told stories, posted really short thoughts and ideas. The first few years hardly anyone read it. There was no Twitter, Instagram wasn’t invented, YouTube only just launched.
At that time I had no idea where I was going with this blog thing but I liked it. It made me feel relaxed to write things down and document my life.
Almost 15 years later, I still feel this way about writing my blog.
I found something I loved and I did it every day. Eventually, it became the ‘thing’ that I did and it opened up career opportunities and so many more things I could only dream of at the time. Don’t give up.
If you’ve found something you love to do, stick at it. Go confidently in that direction. Do it every single day. With some consistency, confidence, and determination, you can make anything your reality.
I had such a nice weekend. I am always shocked at how happy I am to stay home. I had plans to be at a media brunch Saturday and it didn’t work out. Instead, I spent the morning cleaning and doing chores w/ Emily. We had a family thing in the afternoon for about an hour. The rest of the day I spent in the kitchen and it was magical. I made spaghetti w/ vegetable noodles, taco essentials, instant pot butternut squash soup, roast chicken & vegetables. I also used the cannabutter we made via sous vide at the cottage and made chocolate Rice Krispies. They turned out fantastic, not strong and super tasty. I’m sure mum will find it amusing that I modified her signature recipe.
Sunday I woke up, made coffee in my Keurig that’s right beside my desk. I started writing a couple of posts on the blog. It’s so wonderful to be home with all my things. Sean and I have our own rooms so when I’m in my space, it’s all my things, art, clothes, beauty products, colours, blankets, plants. It’s my sanctuary.
Over the winter I spend the most time here. Last winter while I was recovering from my broken collarbone, the Marie Kondo show came out and inspired me to clean the whole house. I’d wanted to make my space more ‘me’ for a while and I finally had the motivation. I went through all my clothes, the boxes under the bed, bags of old stuff, the ‘things to fix’ pile, jewelry, and anything else I had hiding.
The last year, living in a space that’s less cluttered has been so nice. I can’t even begin to explain the positive effect it’s had on my life, including my mental health. Knowing where things are when you need them. Knowing where your clothes are, that they fit, look good.
Last year I explored taking probiotics and started earning about gut health. It really opened me up to know more about my body, what foods are best and expanded my knowledge of microbiomes. A couple of weeks ago I got an email to try out a gut health test from Atlas Biomed. Obvs I was 100% down. They also sent a DNA Test which I had Sean do because I did one a few years ago.
Side note, since I did my DNA test, we’ve been very interested to find out Sean’s DNA results and what percentage of neanderthal DNA he has. This is because when I did my test, we found I had a larger percentage of neanderthal DNA than the average human. He’s been bugging me about and calling me ‘Cave Casie’ since lol.
Atlas Biomedlaunched in Canada this past summer and offers DNA & Gut Health testing in order to help people in heath & wellness. They’re the first company to offer both test directly to the public. Read more about their launch here.
“Our mission is to deliver knowledge directly to consumers to help them live longer, healthier lives and we’re excited to be able to bring our products to health-conscious Canadians.”
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, a woman is diagnosed EVERY 15 SECONDS. Multiple women will be diagnosed by the time you read this post.
I was asked to be part of Estee Lauder’s 2019 Breast CancerCampaign with a goal to raise $9M for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. By joining the campaign, I’m here to raise awareness and money to help fund more research so we can *hopefully* beat breast cancer. It breaks my heart hearing stories about how many people die from it and also talking with friends & family about our own personal connections to breast cancer. It can affect anyone.
This year, an estimated 268,600 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and 62,930 women will be diagnosed with in situ breast cancer. An estimated 2,670 men in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
25 years ago, Evelyn H. Lauder created the Cancer Campaign and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (#BCRF) and since have raised millions to find research, education, and services. All Estee Lauder companies participate in donating the BCRF and you can shop their pink ribbon products here.
It really is something that can never be done by any one person; it has to be done by a group.
On Wednesday night next week, I’m speaking at an event hosted by The Big Idea Agency. It is a discussionon big brand authenticity and transparency and I would love to invite you. I’ve also asked Telus to donate a giveaway so you’ll have the opportunity to win something awesome. I’m excited, I feel these conversations are extremely important for all of us in the space to learn and grow.
About The Event | Women On Influence: Maintaining Authenticity & Working With Big Brands
If you’re an entrepreneurial brand partner on social media and wondering how to maximize your impact working with big brands, join us to sip on Prosecco and listen in to a valuable conversation with long-time blogger and influential communicator Casie Stewart. Casie will be sharing her experiences working with corporate marketing teams, staying true to your own brand and having an impact on the outcome. This event is perfect for women growing their social media following and looking for insights into how to be in the business of influence.
You only live each day once, tomorrow is a new day. How are you spending your time?
A few months ago I was feeling really burnt out and over everything. I had no energy to go out, write, do anything creative. May was a really stressful month and by the time June/July rolled around I was stressed TF out. All I wanted to do was stay home, watch Netflix, my room was a mess, I’d piled up boxes and paper that needed to be processed. I didn’t have the energy to do it.
So I rested. I took time to chill. I’m grateful for the privilege to mostly work from home, to work on myself, and to breathe. I started spending a bit less time on asocial, taking breaks. I began to really love seeing the + beside my name on IG Stories, showing I hadn’t posted anything in 24 hours. That felt like a win with me. I’ve been updating the internet for 15+ years about my life and what I’m doing, burnout is real and it’s ok to take a break. I thought about what I wanted (even though I’m constantly trying to figure out exactly what that looks like!) and I focussed on it.
Made some other changes too. I got serious about drinking less and explored being sober curious. I even spoke at an event where I shared some stuff I’ve never talked about. I was hesitant at first but I figure, if I can make this change in my life, it might be helpful to someone else going through the same things. It was the first TIFF in 10 years where I didn’t get drunk, I didn’t even drink at parties. And y’ know what? IT WAS AWESOME AND I STILL HAD FUN.
I started intermittent fasting and stopped the late-night snacks. I’d been stress eating at all hours but the night munchies before bed were making me slow and tired during the day. I started going to bed earlier. Drinking more water, eating more plant-based meals. I cook on weekends. It’s been a gradual life change vs a diet or restrictions. I want to live happier and healthier. Today I fit into a pair of Ted Baker pants that have been in my closet for years, they’re a size 2!
So, here I am three months later and I can say, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER! Over the next few months, I’m planning to up my exercise to combat the winter SAD. Sean has been running every day and it’s really inspiring.
I guess my message is you can make a change any single day, you don’t have to wait for a new year, new month, new moon. September always feels like a new start for me. I like to make a plan to work on over the winter so I have things to look forward to in the spring. Change is good, baby.
On a side note, I ordered these glasses from smartbuyglasses.ca and was telling one of my BFFs that I got them. I’d been looking at them for a while but she didn’t know that. She had recently just purchased a pair of Chloe glasses in Germany (that I hadn’t seen) and guess what, they were the SAME ONES! Ha! She’s the kind of friend where we are always doing the same things without knowing. Little things like this give me so much joy. ?
I shot this in an alley with my tripod (aka Julia), notice how one photo doesn’t even have a doorknob or leaves. Wtf? I feel into the damn IG trap! I edited my photo for Instagram to take out imperfections but like why?
Can you spot all the differences???
It’s easy to get looped into thinking you need to edit to make things seem more perfect for the gram but it’s really not necessary. What is perfect anyways?Perfect is honest, authentic, being true to yourself.
I love posting Stories bc they’re real and raw. Sharing that side of my life and being real has been my MO for the past 15 years of my internet life and it’s worked out a-ok.
Don’t feel you need to put internet gloss over those human parts of your life, people want to see THE REAL YOU.
Today we’re going to the cottage for 5 days. I can’t wait to make a fire, read my book, make elaborate meals, and sous vide some weed to make cannabis oil. ?✌?? There’s also a full moon on Sunday! ?? See here for some rituals I like to do.
Feeling excited today! The sun is out, it’s layering weather, and I’m expecting mail. I’m really looking forward to the weekend, Sean and I are going to the cottage for five days, just the two of us. I’m planning to cook, read books, have a fire, relax, it’s going to be so great.,
The photo above is my outfit from the Booby Ball ‘Under The Sea’ event on Friday night. Thank you Ryan Emberley for the snap! I went as a mermaid queen and made a crown + shell phone to complete my look. I’m so happy with how it turned out., This winter will be all about DIY projects in my little boudoir studio at home.
I got a couple of shipping notices today for stuff I ordered recently and I can’t WAIT for them to arrive.
These Chloe glasses are on their way from SmartBuyGlasses.ca. I wanted these in the summer and when they reached out about doing a post on the blog, I was so happy to pick these out!
This weekend I finally ordered a hat from Lack Of Colour Australia. I’ve been creeping the website and Instagram for months and have wanted one of these for ages. I’ve also found a few great hats on Amazon lately like this black boater hat. See my store here!
Two weeks ago I went to a plant event with Native Shoes and was given a gift card. I finally decided on these super cute, warm, waterproof boots ‘Chamonix Junior‘. They fit a bit big so I went for the kid’s ones. They’re out on the truck for delivery today!
We have an exciting meeting today at 1188 and I really hope it all works out. Here’s to good vibes and great things happening!
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.
I was very interested in what’s happening here! For the record, we used thyme & rosemary in the class and not cannabis.
How to Make Cannabis Oil for Cooking
Save this photo with the recipe!
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!
