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Create, Digital Blooms, Flowers, Food, Summer

DIGITAL BLOOMS AUGUST 2018 | FREE DESKTOP WALLPAPERS

Friends, I’m so excited to share August’s Free Tech Wallpapers with you today! Since the inception of DIGITAL BLOOMS nearly 2 and a half years ago, we’ve always incorporated your feedback into our design process — whether it be highly requested flowers, coloured backgrounds or more minimalistic designs, you asked and we delivered! One request that we’ve consistently received this year is to create more masculine or gender neutral designs — and because of the nature of flowers being inherently feminine, it we knew this one would be challenging. So, we have a bit of a curveball for you today! August’s free tech wallpapers feature a gorgeous neutral palette along with and a handful of edible produce and herbs — a first here in the JustineCelina DIGITAL BLOOMS library!

Inspired by the bounty of summer gardens, Rebecca Dawn Design and I teamed up to curate a lovely selection of Quicksand Roses, Purple Artichokes, Safari Sunset, Mini Green Artichokes, Rosemary, Hypericum and Feijoa in an fresh, earthy palette of new green, aubergine, blush and sage. Add a culinary flair to your tech this summer by clicking through to choose from 3, free desktop wallpapers — we hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed drawing inspiration for new sources to create them for you!

August 1, 2018 by Justine

Flowers, Giveaways, Local Love, Pantone, Summer, Vegetarian, Wine & Cocktails

JAPANESE LILAC GIN LEMONADE

I’m not really sure what’s happened — but this year, my love of cocktails is outshining my love of sangria (hey… no hard feelings sangria — we had a really good run!). I’ve also been dreaming of publishing a lavender lemonade for years — but funny enough, it’s never made it’s way onto these pages. I had the most delicious lavender lemonade the summer before I started blogging at some small town in interior British Columbia on our way back from a music festival — and I’ve been determined to create an equally delicious lavender lemonade ever since! That said, I know there are tons of lavender lemonade recipes out there, but now that I have a few solid years of COCKTAIL development under my belt and some incredible, unique, delicious ingredients in my bar, I thought I’d give it a go this summer!

So, while I fully intended this recipe to be a vodka-based lavender lemonade, as I moved though a rather intense testing process (remember when I mentioned I was cocktail testing over the long weekend?), I ended up swapping lavender for lilacs and vodka for gin — and I’m so glad I did! My Japanese Lilac Gin Lemonade tastes like summertime in the country and is very near to my heart — incorporating Japanese Lilac blossoms from the tree at my childhood home in rural Alberta, honey from the hives just across the stream and Eau Claire Distillery‘s award winning Parlour Gin distilled from the flourishing barley crops and unique botanicals of Alberta’s prairies. This floral-kissed, lightly effervescent lemonade was created with a thoughtful, hand crafted, farm-to-glass approach and made for lazy summer days on the patio, easy entertaining and watching the sunset behind glowing fields of canola! Join myself and my Connecting Over Cocktails crew to indulge in a summer inspired cocktail menu (check out their creations at the end of this post!) and enter to win bottle of the best gin I’ve ever tasted, along with a Tour & Tasting for 2 at Turner Valley’s Eau Claire Distillery (giveaway now closed)! Cheers to hot summer nights, refreshing gourmet cocktails and the celebrating the bountiful offerings of this beautiful land!

July 15, 2018 by Justine

Dairy Free, Dinner, Flowers, Food, Gluten Free, Lunch, Salads & Bowls, Spring, Summer, Vegan, Vegetarian

VEGAN KALE CAESAR SALAD WITH GLUTEN FREE CROUTONS

Wow, has it ever been a minute since I published a non-cocktail recipe — let alone a salad or bowl! Remember that post I published back in January about sharing things as I feel inspired to, rather than sticking to my very rigid, previously very balanced, editorial calendar? Scaling back on extremely time consuming content in order to get our SPACE REFRESH series off the ground (did you know I test my recipes 3 – 7 times on average and that can translate to over 30 hours of work?)? These changes resulted in a steady stream of cocktail recipes during the first half of 2018 (they’re a blast to create also relatively simple to test!) — one of which landed me my first Style Me Pretty Living feature, so I guess it all worked out! And while my adventures deep into cocktailing this year have been a lot of fun, sometimes you just need to dry out a bit and eat a kale salad — you feel me?!

If you follow along with my Insta Stories, you’ll know I’ve been eating this Vegan Kale Caesar Salad with Gluten Free Croutons almost weekly since I first whipped it up back in April. In the process, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tested this recipe and it’s since become one of our favourite salads! The best part? There’s no marinating or planning ahead (I’ve really been focusing on keeping it simple lately!) and it can be on your table in 15 minutes. It’s a nutritious, protein packed, plant based spin on a classic that eats like a meal — and I promise no one will know it’s vegan (in a blind taste test, it was praised by meat eaters!). I’m also sharing my secret for flavourful, tender, raw kale! If you’re looking for quick, healthy meal options to add to your summer rotation (or #MeatlessMonday!), I cannot recommend this contemporary spin on traditional caesar salad enough!

July 10, 2018 by Justine

Fashion, Fitness, Food, Life, Local Love, Plants, Sponsored, Summer, Vegan, Vintage

EXPLORING EAST VILLAGE JUNCTION WITH TOURISM CALGARY

Happy Friday, friends! Things were a bit quiet here at JustineCelina during early June — and whenever that happens, I promise it’s for good reason! As I mentioned, I was working on a couple of exciting projects BTS — and this was one of them. We spent a beautiful Sunday earlier this month Exploring East Village Junction — and you can read all about it in my second article for in partnership with with Tourism Calgary!

What are you up to this weekend? If you’re craving an inner city adventure this weekend, I highly recommend spending a few hours exploring Calgary’s colourful East Village Junction! Tucked away behind the iconic King Edward Hotel on the corner of 4th Street and 8th Ave SE, EV’s liveliest lot showcases the vibrancy and charisma of Calgary’s oldest neighbourhood in an innovative, market-like community space where 15 local businesses and artisans have utilized shipping containers to create an entirely unique retail experience in Calgary’s core. Discover all #evJuction has to offer now through September 3rd — complete with unique wares for fashion, art, vintage and home decor enthusiasts, food trucks, delicious vegan eats, bicycle rentals, live performances and yes… even fitness classes! There’s something for everyone at Calgary’s East Village Junction Pop-up Retail Park — and today I’m sharing a handful of my favourite things to see, do, shop and eat!

June 15, 2018 by Justine

Dining Room / Bar / Kitchen Reveal in Partnership with HomeSense Canada | A Bohemian, Mid Century Modern Apartment in Calgary, Alberta, Canada // JustineCelina.com

Bar, Create, Creative Process, Dining Room, DIY, Dwell, Entertain, Flowers, Goals, Kitchen, Life, Plants, Space Refresh, Sponsored, Wine & Cocktails

SPACE REFRESH | DINING ROOM, BAR & KITCHEN REVEAL

Happy Monday everyone — and welcome back for the next, highly anticipated reveal in our SPACE REFRESH series! Today, in partnership with HomeSense Canada, I’m elated to unveil the other half of our refreshed main living area — the Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen. While we’ve been refreshing our space since last summer (when we embarked on our huge Paint Transformation!), most of our time was spent gathering inspiration for the Living Room, as we almost completely started from scratch furniture and decor wise over there. Our Living Room took the better part of 6 months to pull together — and during my many HomeSense runs as it came to life (a lot of you came along via Insta Stories!), I also had a vision for the adjacent Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen in mind, picking up items for this space as I curated details for our Living Room. So, relatively speaking, this area came together quite quickly in comparison!

Our Living Room, Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen are all located in the same space — a large, long and somewhat narrow room. So, we kept the overall look and feel as cohesive as possible to unify the separate areas of the room with an overarching design sensibility. We took design cues for our SPACE REFRESH from our developer who was inspired by earth’s natural elements — our space features natural materials and textures with a warm, mid century modern vibe, a touch of boho and an abundance of greenery! Not only are we thrilled with the aesthetic appeal of our refreshed Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen, this space is also very functional for the way we live in it, which I consider the true mark of great design. Today I’m sharing all my tips, tricks and inspiration for designating different areas within one large room, creating and maximizing apartment storage, as well cost effective ways to refresh your space while repurposing your existing furniture (our only new piece in this space is our sideboard — the rest has been with us for years!). Pull up a seat at our table and settle in for your evening read, friends — can I fix you a cocktail?

May 28, 2018 by Justine

Business, Create, Creative Process, Dessert & Treats, Dwell, Flowers, Goals, Inspiration, Life, Local Love, Occasions, Pantone, Spring, Wellness, Wine & Cocktails

MY 3RD BLOGIVERSARY + 10 THINGS I LEARNED IN MY THIRD YEAR OF BLOGGING

Friends, welcome back for my annual (and very belated!) Blogiversary celebration! My 3rd Blogiversary went roaring by on March 2nd — but to be honest, I was completely engrossed in our Living Room Reveal and some other fun, last minute projects at the time. Earlier this year I chatted about changing things up around here and creating space to let life happen — and that’s exactly what I’ve done! There’s been a lot happening here at JustineCelina lately as we get ready to reveal the next rooms in our SPACE REFRESH series (coming your way later this month!) and I simply had to prioritize my time differently to make this all possible. March was one of my most creatively fulfilling months of my life — it left me completely exhausted but also incredibly inspired! In the two months since My 3rd Blogiversary I’ve reached some milestones I’ve dreamed of achieving since launching JustineCelina and they’ve reminded me exactly why I started this whole thing in the first place. So, although it’s a bit late and I’ve been chipping away at this post when I can, I couldn’t be more thrilled to share this Pantone Spring 2018 inspired 3rd Blogiversary soirée with you!

In the midst of it all, I came up with the concept for this celebratory post pretty last minute — about 10 days before the shoot (which, admittedly, was about 2 months ago!). It was so spontaneous, but serendipitous and things just fell into place (I shot it myself one sunny Friday afternoon with my tripod and self timer). This year, we’re going all out — because after 323 blog posts, almost a million views (OMG!), 180 000 images, 2 900 comments and a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears (quite literally), I truly never thought I’d get here! My third year was one of intense growth, both on these pages and off of them — I hope you enjoy reading about 10 Things I Learned in my Third Year of Blogging in this raw, honest, unabashed post (you may need a sparkling glass of rosé to get though it!). Whether you’re new to JustineCelina (and there are a lot of you beautiful people — welcome!) or have been with me since the very beginning, I’m so grateful to have you here celebrating with me today!

May 19, 2018 by Justine

Dwell, Flowers, Music, Spring, Wine & Cocktails

APRIL 2018 SOUNDTRACK

And just like that it’s the end of April, which means it’s time for another Monthly Soundtrack! April was such a whirlwind month — from our first Apartment Therapy feature to working with Tourism Calgary and SAKS to lots happening BTS for our upcoming Kitchen / Dining Reveal (there’s still a lot of work to do but it’s coming together!), this chill, eclectic, easy going playlist was on repeat the entire time! My April 2018 Soundtrack features 3 hours of instrumental and electronic (I love to listen to music without lyrics while I’m reading, writing and working), tropical house, alternative and indie with a dash of hip hop thrown in for good measure. If you’re looking for some inspiring tunes to help motivate you this spring, I have just the playlist!

A few of my favourite tracks this month include LAYNE’s The Fog, Blockhead’s Insomniac Olympics, Kodomo’s Concept 16, TM Juke’s Marbles & Drains, Mishegas Episodes, Soccer Mommy’s Your Dog, The Voidz Leave It In My Dreams (major The Strokes vibes!), Sir Sly’s &Run, J-Walk’s Soul Vibration, Moby’s Mothers of the Night, Hovvdy’s Pretend, Bite’s Plastic Picnic and Phelian’s Grimoire. If you take a listen, be sure to let me know what some of your favourites were!

April 30, 2018 by Justine

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