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Business, Fashion, Fitness, Flowers, Goals, Inspiration, Life, Local Love, Planning, Travel, Wellness, Winter

2018 REVIEW + 2019 GOALS


Well hello, friends! It’s been a little while since I’ve posted — I took some time during the first half of this dry January (it’s actually been great!) to reflect on the past year, get re-inspired and really put some thought into what I’d like to achieve in 2019. It’s been a very valuable exercise, so thank you for your patience! Today I’m dishing on everything I’ve discovered in this real, raw, lengthy (we’re talking the longest post I’ve ever written!) read recapping 2018 and sharing my intentions, aspirations and goals for the new year — plus exactly how I plan to achieve them!

When I look back on my goals post from last year, I feel grateful to be in a much better head space and place in my life — although it was a long road to get here. Longtime readers will know I’m always very transparent about the staggering amount of work that goes into blogging, content creation and creative entrepreneurship — and from the day I stared this blog in March of 2015 through to the end of 2017, I hustled hard. As a result, I entered 2018 feeling completely burnout, uninspired and unsure of how to proceed. I knew a change was necessary for me to move forward and progress in a way that would allow for more balance and well being in my life (and therefore more inspired work), but I wasn’t exactly sure how to get there. I felt like I needed to slow down and take life as it came, rather than creating an exhaustive list of all the things I felt I needed to accomplish — and I spent 2018 doing just that. I changed course and made chasing my passions for HOME and FASHION based content my first priority, which resulted in a pretty monumental year here at JustineCelina. That said, the largest shifts I made were off of these pages, in my mental and physical health, relationships and life in general. Fast forward to January of 2019 and I’m feeling energized, more inspired and productive than ever — and ready to make 2019 my best year yet! If you’re curious about what what’s to come, my favourite tools and resources to stay organized, inspired and fit, or in need of a healthy dose of motivation, cozy up with me and let’s chat about living and working with confidence and intention this year!

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Intermission | Why I Took a Month off From Blogging & Social Media | 1 Month Digital Detox // JustineCelina.com
Business, Create, Dwell, Fall, Fitness, Goals, Inspiration, Life, Planning, Wellness

INTERMISSION


Well hello, friends! If you don’t follow along with my Instagram Stories, you’re probably wondering where the heck I’ve been. It’s crazy to think it’s been over a month since I’ve posted — something I never envisioned would happen here at JustineCelina. And I promise it was never my intention to just abandon you guys and go MIA without an explanation. So, tonight I’m going to catch you up on everything that went down over the past month to contribute to my forced blogging break.

First things first, I’m okay. And thank you so much to all you kind souls who checked in on me or sent sweet messages while I was away. Although this past month has been incredibly challenging in every avenue of life, it’s also granted me a fresh perspective that I wouldn’t have otherwise gained without taking this unexpected step back — and for that I’m very grateful. This a long post — so if you’re curious about what been going on in my life lately and what you can expect from me moving forward, get cozy, pour yourself a glass of wine and settle in for a real, raw, lengthy read!

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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?

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My 3rd Blogiversary + 10 Things I Learned in my Third Year of Blogging | Tips for New or Aspiring Bloggers | A Pantone Spring 2018 Inspired Birthday Celebration // JustineCelina.com
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!

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JustineCelina Living Room Featured on Apartment Therapy // JustineCelina.com
Dwell, Flowers, Goals, Guest Posts & Features, Inspiration, Living Room, Plants, Space Refresh

OUR APARTMENT THERAPY LIVING ROOM FEATURE


I interrupt regularly scheduled programming to share the most exciting news, friends — our Living Room was featured on Apartment Therapy yesterday! To say I’m absolutely ecstatic to have our home featured on Apartment Therapy is a huge understatement. It was a dream of mine to be featured at Apartment Therapy years ago when our SPACE REFRESH was just an idea (and bit of a fantasy!). I had always envisioned the blog taking more of a home decor and interior design focus, but it’s been a long road to get there — and now, here we are! I’ve spent countless hours pouring over the gorgeous homes and endless inspiration Apartment Therapy provides since my art college days — and it’s completely surreal to now be featured among them and be recognized by such an iconic publication. I don’t typically publish blog posts dedicated to features (although I do I let you know about them on my socials and you can always catch them on my PRESS page), however, this one deserves an exception. I submitted our Living Room for consideration last month — knowing it was a long shot since we’re a) Canadian (they feature American homes prominently), b) it was just one room (they typically feature entire homes) and c) it was my first submission. To be honest, I’m still in shock!

My sincerest thank you to the team at Apartment Therapy for the beautiful feature and to my longtime partners, HomeSense Canada and Rebecca Dawn Design for embarking on this journey with me as I chase my passions and transition into more HOME based content this year — our space refresh wouldn’t be possible without their trust and support! It was a huge gamble making the transition this year as I had to really scale back on the content I produced in other categories to make our space refresh possible. It’s been an extreme labour of love (including many late nights, early mornings and countless sacrifices) and a challenging process to conjure up brand support, as home based content and interior design projects aren’t something I’d produced previously here at JustineCelina. But friends, this is just the beginning and I promise the best is yet to come! I hope you’re as excited as we are to continue our SPACE REFRESH journey — up next is our Dining Room, Bar & Kitchen (publishing next month in partnership with HomeSense — be sure to tune in to my Insta Stories for a BTS look at how it’s coming together!). In the meantime, you can hop over to ApartmentTherapy.com for the full feature and some exclusive snaps of our Living Room! Also, hello to all you lovely people coming over from the feature — I’m thrilled to have you!

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Living Room Reveal in Partnership with HomeSense Canada | A Bohemian, Mid Century Modern Apartment in Calgary, Alberta, Canada // JustineCelina.com
Create, Creative Process, DIY, Dwell, Flowers, Goals, Life, Living Room, Plants, Space Refresh, Sponsored, Wine & Cocktails

SPACE REFRESH | LIVING ROOM REVEAL


It’s such a surreal experience finally being able to share our Space Refresh | Living Room Reveal with you today, friends! If you just tuned into our brand new SPACE REFRESH series last week and don’t follow along with Instagram Stories, it probably seems like this happened overnight. Let me assure you — nothing is further from the truth! We’ve been planning our Space Refresh series since January 2017 and working on the Living Room since the summer. I truly believe that authentic, functional design takes time — especially in your own home. Once we had a fresh coat of paint up, we decided to start redesigning our living room first — the largest space in our apartment and where we spend the majority of our free time. The process of creating our mid century modern space with a bohemian twist was an organic one, with lots of unexpected twists and turns — but we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results!

Today I’m absolutely ecstatic to bring you our Living Room Reveal in partnership with HomeSense Canada — a longtime partner here at JustineCelina and my favourite destination for unique decor and entertaining essentials. A heartfelt thank you to HomeSense for embarking on this journey with me as I transition into more DWELL content this year — I truly couldn’t imagine a more perfect partner to have by my side! Throughout this process I’ve made countless HomeSense runs (my Insta Stories crew knows!) and it’s where I purchased about 90% of our decor. I’m so excited to walk you through every detail of our refreshed Living Room — so please make yourself at home, I have a glass of chilled rosé waiting for you!

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Space Refresh | Paint Transformation | From Builder’s Beige to Behr Ultra Pure White | DIY A Professional Quality Paint Job // JustineCelina.com
Bar, Bathroom, Create, Creative Process, Dining Room, DIY, Dwell, Goals, Kitchen, Life, Living Room, Space Refresh

SPACE REFRESH | PAINT TRANSFORMATION


Welcome back, friends! This post officially kicks off our SPACE REFRESH series here at JustineCelina and I’ve never been more excited to publish as post as I am today! If you don’t follow along with my Insta Stories (where I’ve been documenting our Space Refresh BTS for the past 6 months!), you may only vaguely remember that we embarked on a massive space refresh project in August — starting with a with a fresh coat of paint. Due to some furniture delays as we refreshed our Living Room, we finally completed our huge paint project mid February (yes, really — you’ll have to read the post to find out why!). Today I’ve compiled a mega post detailing every step of our Paint Transformation and how you can DIY a professional quality paint job yourself — including the tools you’ll need, tips about paint selection and finish, what to expect when you’re painting over a dark colour, project cost and time involvement. If you love a good before and after, you’ll love today’s post!

But first, let me bring you up to speed about why we decided to start this huge project in the first place! We purchased our home, a 1500 sq ft apartment in inner city Calgary, from the builder back in 2012. At the time it was very modern compared to everything else on the market, but it was love at first sight! However, as the years passed we grew increasingly tired of the builders greige and the itch to refresh our space struck. Ultimately, in 2017 we decided we’d be here for another few years and there was no time like the present to start creating a our dream space. Initially I had planned to have our apartment professionally painted — that is, until the estimates came back! On average, a professional paint job for our entire home rang in at $2300 (and I was shocked!). I knew we could take the project on ourselves and achieve similar results for a fraction of the cost. Interior design, styling and DIY are huge passions of mine and I’m elated to be sharing more DWELL based content here at JustineCelina this year in our freshly painted space — so come on in!

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