Bring on the Holidays!

We’re barely one week into November and I am happy to say I’ve made holiday cookies, decorated a tree, wrapped a present, sang Christmas music, and made a DIY ornament. On November 1st, Home Hardware hosted a Holiday Market fit with all kinds of family-friendly Christmas activities and the photos are so cute.  The holiday market was at Twist Gallery Queen West. I picked Em up from school and told her I was taking her somewhere fun, I didn’t realise they would have so many activities. ? We sat right down at the cookie decorating table after eating delicious mac & cheese and grilled cheese catered by Gusto.  I could have sat there all night.  We put a few decorations on the trees  and wrapped presents, both will be donated to a variety of Toronto charities. I love wrapping presents and the holidays so much.  It was so nice to sit down and make things. Natalie Deane joined Em and I to make a frame decorations for the tree. I  forgot to take a photo of mine, it was a reindeer (upside down gingerbread man) and I made a new hole to hang it. So fun though.  One crazy fact about this day is that I wore my glasses and I FORGOT MASCARA. I was pretty distracted when I left the house and I guess I didn’t really look in the mirror much that day because I didn’t notice until I got home. I am noting this in the blog diary because THAT NEVER HAPPENS. Mascara is the one thing I *hardly* ever leave the house without. Sometimes I wear it around the house when I’m not even going anywhere. Ok well, this section was longer than I planned it to be. My fav kind for the record is Loreal Voluminous, I’ve been using it for years. I’m excited for…

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Why Don’t You Have a Will Yet? Get One Today, Meet Willful. + Discount Code!

Do you have a will? No, of course, you don’t! Who thinks about that while you’re out living your best life? Hate to remind you but along with taxes, we can’t avoid death. You should have a will and you can get one with Willful in 20 min for less than $100 today. If you’re in a situation where you’re looking to contest a will, you might want to seek out will contest lawyers to help with this matter. This weekend my friends got hitched, Erin Bury married Kevin Oulds, the creator of Willful. I’ve knows this duo for 10 years and am not surprised that they had the most unique wedding guest gifts I’ve ever seen, they gave every one of their guest a will. Till Death Do Us Part, right? Kevin created Willful after dealing with a difficult family situation, something none of us wants to deal with. To be honest, I’ve learned anything from TV or The Young & The Restless, it’s really important to have a will. Do you have any idea what will happen if you don’t? Read this. If you’re common law, your partner gets nothing, the government will get involved in your finances, your family could have to vacate your family home, it’s not pretty. I saw first hand what can happen to families when certain aspects are unknown and what happens when there’s not a proper plan in place. I set out to make that experience easier to navigate and make it more affordable and accessible for people. Kevin Oulds, Willful Founder & CEO Their mission is to move estate planning from the back of your mind to the same spot as insurance, retirement, or financial planning. Stuff we might not want to think about and but get more intense the less attention you…

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Vancouver: The Telus Innovation Centre

Earlier this year I was in Vancouver for a city planning conference and stayed an extra day to pop by the Telus office and have lunch with a friend. I’ve been working with Telus since my days at Much/MTV Canada, about 8 years ago.  I’ve had the opportunity to do some really neat stuff like volunteering, videos, city adventures, and making friends. A couple years ago I helped them with some ideas to create their influencer program and it’s really grown into something awesome. Next month, they’re taking the ENTIRE GROUP of Canadian influencers (including me!) to their HQ in Vancouver. Telus Garden I was really stoked to visit this building. I remember when it started in 2012 and was opened in 2016. The Telus Garden building takes up an entire city block downtown Vancouver, totalling 1M sq ft. It has amazing energy saving features, a fantastic garden, and has won a bunch of awards for the design and sustainability. Unfortunately, I was there in winter so I didn’t get to see the outside areas, it snowed!   [symple_testimonial by=”” fade_in=”false”]“TELUS Garden is Canada’s most beautiful and ambitious LEED Platinum building, and one of the most environmentally-friendly developments in North America,” Darren Entwistle, TELUS President and CEO[/symple_testimonial] Telus Innovation Centre I met up with Ana from Telus (check out her IG @msanadouglas) and she took us up to the Innovation Centre where. I was amazed to see a beautiful bright space filled with technology. One of the coolest features were the doors. Telus has created a set of doors that have screens instead of windows. Hello, why didn’t I think of that!? They’re the only 4 doors like this IN THE WORLD and they’re right here at Telus in Vancouver. A couple of them have cameras where you can host meetings and…

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New Zealand: Aeroplan + Moments Worth Millions

What would you do with a Million Miles? Where would you go? I visited New Zealand and Portugal #withAeroplan this year and if I had a million miles I’d be off to India, South Africa, and Japan. I’m so inspired by adventure! Travelling is the best way to enrich your soul, feed your curiosity, and expand your mind. Portugal #withAeroplan  Aeroplan is back this summer with their incredibly cool contest, Moments Worth Millions. They’re giving away 5 Million Miles over the course of 5 weeks where 5 winners will each win 1 million miles. Think of the possibilities? 5 weeks. 5 winners. 5 million miles. Do you know how many trips you can take with a million miles? You can take 20 friends to Hawaii in economy or a handful of besties in business. You can take 40 trips from Toronto to LA or take someone you love on a first class trip around the world.  To enter the contest, follow @Aeroplan and share your favourite travel memory and tag #withAeroplan. Last summer I wrote about the Million Miles contest and how I was planning to use my miles to visit family in New Zealand. Little did I know I’d be heading there so soon with mum over the holidays. That trip created so many memories and was really special for mum and I.  Road trip sing-alongs in the car while driving the other side of the road, exploring the North Island, Eketahuna, Taupo, Dessert Road, visiting family, friends, and spending our last moments with Nana. It was an experience that enriched my life in so many ways my heart swells with love thinking about it.  If you win the contest and need a great travel buddy. I’m always here haha. Love you!  buy Cialis Soft

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It Takes Practice.

This weekend was super relaxing. Bed early on Friday, Saturday nap, made dinner & dessert, Sunday boating, blogging, reading. I love the weekend to slow down, talk less, sleep more, and take a break from email. I didn’t use to be so good at it, I had to work at relaxing, I couldn’t sit still. Last year I went to regular yoga at a studio. One of my fav parts about yogayoga was the practice, making time for it, laying on my mat, moving through the poses, sweating, meditating. Something I learned from my teacher, Sandy was ‘not reacting takes practice‘. And although she said it in the context of trying to stay still in savasana, I carried it with me right out the door and into my life. Not reacting takes practice. It took me a while to be able to lay there, still on the floor with my thoughts and not move when a bead of sweat dripped across my face. I’ve been doing yoga on our rooftop patio and it’s good but not that same as a quiet room and music lead by someones calming, familiar voice. [Studio is back open in January!] When I think back to Sandy saying ‘not reacting takes practice’ it’s so true if you apply that to stressful situations. Especially those where you could react with rage or anger, not reacting there is a real test of your patience and just how much practice you’ve had. My mum has a couple of good sayings like ‘water off a duck’s back‘ or ‘build a bridge and get over it‘. She always knows the right thing to say. If you’re feeling stressed or holding something inside, let it go. Write it on a piece of paper and throw it in the fire. There is…

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Getting Higher: Rock Climbing

I’m writing this from the cottage with the lake as my second screen. Last week was a busy one after being away but I love those weeks almost as much because things move fast and it’s motivating.  The other day I went rock climbing with Raymi and some friends at Hub Climbing in Markham. I like rock climbing but it gets harder as you get older haha. My arms were a bit sore this week from wakeboarding and my trainer. I’m chuckling a bit to myself writing this because back in 2001, I was a Sunshine Girl (Toronto Sun) and my bio said I liked ‘baseball, rock climbing, and want to work in marketing‘. At the time I had never gone rock climbing in my life. Safe to say I always knew what I wanted career-wise!  We were invited to check out  Hub Climbing‘s 18,000 sq ft facility with over 200 climbs and bouldering. They’ve got locations in Markham (where we went) and Mississauga where they offer camps, classes, school groups, and yoga. They were very helpful in training us to ‘learn the ropes’, climb safely, and push ourselves to the limits. It’s definitely a fun experience, we had heaps of laughs. Martin from @Studenomics was REALLY good. He scaled the speed wall in under 10 seconds!  Hello, I am a rock climbing bae now.  The thing I like about rock climbing is that you use every muscle in your body including your brain. You have to think strategically about where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. Such is life.  Thank you Rob & Hub Climbing for inviting me to climb at your gym. Looking forward to my next visit!  buy bupropion online Buy strattera online http://buywithoutprescriptiononlinerx.net/fluoxetine.html http://rxbuywithoutprescriptiononline.org/citalopram.html

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WordPress Finally has a New Editor: Meet Gutenberg

I’m writing this post using the new WordPress Editor, Gutenberg. It takes some getting used to and I had almost finished my post when I accidentally deleted it so now I am paying more attention. It allows you to add content blocks, ex. a paragraph of text, image, gallery, audio, subheading, columns (beta). It’s similar to how Medium works or LinkedIn work for posts.  It’s much easier to move parts of your post around without cut/paste. I think that columns is a neat idea. Wondering how I can use this in a creative way to tell a story. The new format is similar to medium or LinkedIn where you are working with content blocks you add to the post. They’re easily searchable and you can add favs to a quick menu. [Columns didn’t work for me they looked ugly, still in Beta so I’m sure will improve] One of the really great things is adding Twitter/Youtube/IG/FB embeds from the blocks. You can also easily add almost any kind of content. I’ve been using WordPress for years and I think this is a real step in the right direction. I wonder if they will add more photos editing options?! If you want to try the new Gutenberg editor you have to install and activate it as a Plugin while it’s still in Beta [dowload here]. WordPress dashboard has a welcome message for the latest update outlining some feature and benefits (I am using the fully hosted option not wordpress.com). I‘ve been thinking about editing my theme and might do that during my vacation next week. I’ve decided I like the new editor. Hello Gutenberg, my new friend that I will spend countless hours with. Drop cap is kinda nice. I feel like using the old editor will be like going back in time.…

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Up North: Summertime Glamping at The New Farm

I went glamping on a farm and it was amazing. Chefs cooked all the food, we did yoga in a barn listening to Tragically Hip, I went in a greenhouse, there was a pond, the outdoor showers were glam, and there were 250 people. I knew this would be cool based on the invite, it was unique. ????? The glamping trip was hosted by Up Cannabis at The New Farm. The Tragically Hip are big investors in the company and the band was there the whole day and had dinner with the group. It was the first big cannabis event I have been to. There were plenty of edibles floating around as well. Like the edibles online that people regularly order. Seeing as I was new to it all when they kept referring to their business as a cannabusiness and at the time, I wasn’t too familiar with this term. But the more I spoke to some of the people there, the more of a better understanding I had. I should have read This CBDistillery Review before going then, I would have had so much more knowledge. There are so many things you have to think about when running a cannabusiness. For example, before this trip, I knew very little about the wide range of cannabis packaging options out there, but now I am something of an expert! It was also the nicest camping experience I have ever had and would 100% do that again. Up Cannabis can’t actually share their product with us but for the 50 media that stayed over to camp, they infused the same terpenes found in the product into the soaps, drinks, food, and everything around us. The event was really well done. The tents were like little apartments with electricity, real beds, furniture, lights,…

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Building a Great Influencer Program

This summer I went to Vancouver to meet with the Canadian team of Telus Advocates. I’ve shared my love for Telus over the years but this experience was truly amazing. They flew in content creators from across the country to visit their Vancouver office, tour Telus Garden, create, eat, explore, and build relationships. I’ve worked with heaps of brands but I truly admire the influencer program Telus has built over the years. Ok yes, I am a little bias because I chatted with the team before they created the program and shared my likes, dislikes, and brand experiences. They have set the bar high for what it means to work with a telecom company or a big brand. The experience (as an influencer) is tailored to each person’s style of content and audience. This kind of influencer marketing service is bound to provide a great product for their clients too, as they clearly value quality and retention. In this post, I’m sharing a few of my tips for creating a great influencer program with Telus as my example. Build Relationships The thing about being an influencer is that you’re usually sharing your real life, so when you work with a brand, it means authentically integrating their content into your own experience. You have to get to know each other in order to learn what works and create opportunities that mutually benefit the relationship. It’s cool when you work well together and even cooler when it becomes a friendship. I’ve worked with Telus for about 8 years now and we’re colleagues but also friends. I can text with jokes, links, or that odd time on the weekend when I broke break my phone. (Sorry!) Since we’ve built a good working relationship, we all reach out whenever something cool comes up like…

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The Praries: Ford EcoSport Cross-Canada Tour

This year for Canada Day weekend I was part of the Ford EcoSport cross Canada road trip with Ford Canada. My friend April and I were Leg 14 of the adventure and driving from Regina to Medicine Hat, SK and finishing in Calgary Alerta. It was both our first time in Regina and we had heaps of fun along the adventure. Thank you Ford Canada for this experience! Scroll down to see what we got up to along the way. The Ford Eco Sport Tour involves 14 different content creators each driving the exact same Ford Eco Sport for a relay across the country. When I first received the email I was so excited and even more so that I got to bring a friend! I’d been wanting to go on a trip with April since that great weekend we spent glamping up north a few years back. We started in Regina, SK and it was the first time there for the both of us. We arrived late afternoon and checked into Hotel Saskatchewan, an extremely elegant hotel. Ford hooked us up with a 2 room suite and it was perfect! The hotel offered great views of the city, was walking distance to restaurants and bars, it had a nice gym and a hot tub too. We drove around and made use of the SYNC® 3 with Apple CarPlay™ and FordPass Wifi HotSpot. Instead of doing typical tourist stuff on our road trip, April and I made a point to stop at different vintage and second-hand stores across the two provinces. We love to shop! I’ve always found that shops in small towns are where you really find the gems. Our first stop was T&A Vinyl & Fashion and the owner was so cool. We shopped the vintage finds/records and he gave…

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