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Pattern Play | Stripes | How to Style Stripes for Summer 2018 | AW18 Stripe Trend | The Best Rainbow Striped Dresses 2018 | 3rd Floor Studio’s Petra Dress | Calgary Fashion Blogger | Canadian Fashion Blogger // JustineCelina.com
Fall, Fashion, Life, Pantone, Pattern Play, Summer, Travel

PATTERN PLAY | STRIPES


Happy Autumn Equinox, everyone! Today I’m saying farewell to summer and welcoming fall with the second installment in my PATTERN PLAY series, dedicated to one of my favourite prints — stripes! Remember when I mentioned that I took some time to get re-inspired style content wise this summer and was planning to bring you more comprehensive, multi outfit posts to JustineCelina? Well, this is the first of many! I’m kicking things off today by rounding up all the different ways I wore stripes this summer, highlighting key stripe trends and colours I’ll be wearing into autumn as well as sharing shoppable links for my transitional striped wardrobe (plus my AW18 wishlist!).

When I look back on all the content we captured this summer, one thing is very apparent — I wore a lot of stripes! These past few months I really took my commitment to getting back to a way of living and working in a way that nurtures my passions seriously — which included lots of time spent outdoors with friends and family. I also switched things up and shot more style content in the moment whenever possible! I wore stripes from the prairies, to farmers markets, to berry pick, to mountain lakes and just about everywhere in between. They’re such a versatile print that can be worn in both personal and professional settings, ranging from classic and understated to bright and bold — a true chameleon print! If you’re a stripe lover or are looking for some fresh styling ideas to incorporate stripes into your autumn wardrobe, join me today for a crash course in all things striped!

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Guest Post: Exploring East Village Junction with Tourism Calgary // JustineCelina.com
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!

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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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