Browsing Category

Occasions

Entertain, Local Love, Occasions, Pantone, Spring, Vegetarian, Wine & Cocktails

RASPBERRY RHUBARB ROSÉ SPRITZ

In the wake of Summer Solstice, I’m so excited to share the first clean COCKTAIL of the season here at JustineCelina! Those of you who follow along with my Instagram Stories will know this one has been in testing since early April, when the first rhubarb of year starting popping up in my local farmer’s markets. This year I hosted the special ladies in my life for Mother’s Day brunch and created this signature cocktail inspired by them to celebrate the occasion! I’m happy to report my Raspberry Rhubarb Rosé Spritz received rave reviews after 15 rounds of testing and perfecting — my Mom even exclaimed “Now that’s a keeper!” upon first sip!

My Raspberry Rhubarb Rosé Spritz typifies the season in a jubilant celebration of all things feminine, fruity and nostalgic. Rhubarb and raspberries have always reminded me of my Grandmother’s garden and berry picking at the family farm — so I channeled some of my fondest childhood memories into this cheerful libation! A summer-inspired trio of rhubarb, raspberries and honey combine in a scratch-made Honeyed Raspberry Rhubarb Syrup to infuse this effervescent cocktail with seasonal panache, beautifully complimented by sparkling rosé, local craft vodka, soda water, fresh lime juice and a dash of bitters. Enjoy this pretty, Pantone Living Coral inspired spritz with the special ladies in your life this summer — it’s the perfect menu addition for your next summer soirée, brunch, baby or bridal shower, or girls night in! Cheers!

June 26, 2019 by Justine

Fashion, Jewelry, Lookbooks, Occasions, Pantone, Vintage, Winter

WINTER 2019 LOOKBOOK

Beautiful people, I’m elated to share the first seasonal LOOKBOOK of 2019 here at JustineCelina! If you’re just tuning in and you didn’t catch my 2018 Review + 2019 Goals post last week, you may have missed the announcement that I’ll be producing one, 12 outfit LOOKBOOK seasonally this year to help inspire your sartorial choices — and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Although winter officially arrived about a month ago, we’re now in the heart of the season. Surprisingly, the weather here in Calgary has been very mild and relatively snow-free (most days have been above freezing!) — presenting some unique style options to a girl who’s used to making the most of our long, harsh Canadian winters!

With January sales in full effect and the onset of a new year, now is the perfect time to clean out your closet, identify holes in your wardrobe, get inspired and refine your personal style! As always, this LOOKBOOK features everything I’ve been wearing and loving in both personal and professional settings this season — a melange of high, low, old, new and vintage, along with tons of shoppable links at every price point! Although winter can be an uninspiring time for many in the FASHION department, I use cooler weather as an opportunity to experiment with cozy layers, sumptuous fabrics, unique textures, daring prints and a rich colour palette to create polished looks to take me from day to night. You’ll find cold weather classics intermixed with a sprinkling of this season’s hottest trends, colours and a hopeful nod to spring’s blooming arrival — there’s truly something for everyone. I hope you enjoy my WINTER 2019 LOOKBOOK just as much as I enjoyed creating it!

January 29, 2019 by Justine

Dwell, Living Room, Music, Occasions, Winter

DECEMBER 2018 SOUNDTRACK + BONUS 2018 SOUNDTRACK

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m sharing two fresh playlists for all your NYE listening needs! First up, my December Soundtrack — a short n’ sweet playlist featuring 33 of my favourite tracks from the month, including a few alternative, jazzy, chilled-out Christmas tunes thrown in at the end for good measure! A handful of my favourite tracks from this past month include Chill Cole’s The Infinite Dreamer, Ariana Grande’s thank u, next (it’s just so damn catchy and the music video was amazing!), Grapel’s Sucker, Chain Wallet’s No Ritual, Mishega’s Episodes, Galavant Cross’s Needless To Say, The Raveonettes The Christmas Song, Nikki Lane’s Falalalalove Ya, Laura Gibson’s Silver Bells, The Ronette’s Sleigh Ride and The Head and The Heart’s What Are You Doing New Years Eve?

If you’re in need of even more fresh tunes, check out my Spotify-generated 2018 Soundtrack, featuring my 100 most played songs from 2018! I really look forward to these automatically compiled, year-in-review playlists — they bring back the best memories. If you’re looking for some easy listening music to enjoy as we wind down 2018, this is your playlist. Whether you’re staying in or enjoying a night out, I hope you all have a fun, safe and happy New Years Eve! Thank you for spending a little bit of the last day of 2018 with me and for your continued support here at JustineCelina! Happy New Year and cheers to a fabulous 2019!

December 31, 2018 by Justine

Dairy Free, Entertain, Giveaways, Occasions, Vegetarian, Wine & Cocktails, Winter

HOMEMADE DAIRY FREE COCONUT RUM EGGNOG

Happy winter solstice, beautiful people! I’m back today with my Homemade Dairy Free Coconut Rum Eggnog — a festive holiday beverage that’s been in my family for decades, but has recently undergone a contemporary, plant-based makeover! I have so many cherished memories of our neighbours making this eggnog for everyone on our country road to enjoy on Christmas Eve (it never lasted long!). Unfortunately, over the years as I developed a dairy sensitivity I was no longer able indulge — that is, until last holiday season! I decided it was about time to give my favourite eggnog recipe a clean, dairy-free makeover by swapping milk and heavy creams with coconut-based alternatives, regular eggs for the free-run, local, farm-fresh variety, table sugar with 100% pure Canadian maple syrup, spiced rum for Eau Claire Distillery’s seasonal, Limited Edition Gin Rummy, infusing our homemade eggnog with cinnamon sticks and topping it off with decedent dark chocolate shavings. As always, this festive cocktail is free of dairy, gluten and refined sugar — and has become my favourite healthier holiday indulgence!

We actually perfected this recipe last holiday season (who remembers the Stories?!) shortly after I discovered Eau Claire Distillery (I’ve since used almost every single spirit they make in my COCKTAILS!). During our lazy, cozy days in the country between Christmas and New Years Eve, I took a trip to the visit their distillery in Turner Valley with my Mom (who loves gin) and my brother (who was home from New York and loves cocktails) for a tour and tasting — and that’s where my love affair with these incredible, farm-to-glass, artisinal spirits began. For their Christmas presents, my Mom and brother chose a bottle of their favourite spirit, on me. Gin Rummy was Jared’s spirit of choice — a unique, wintery, gin-meets-rum remix boasting warm notes of winter spice with a botanical, herbaceous backdrop. It was actually this limited edition spirit that inspired the makeover of our favourite holiday eggnog recipe — as soon as it hit my lips, I knew it was the missing ingredient! As we enjoyed the second batch of experimental eggnog for New Years Eve, my family confessed they actually liked it better than the original version — and that’s when I knew I had to share our update Homemade Dairy Free Coconut Rum Eggnog with you! To celebrate our one year anniversary and thank you for your support this year, I’ve teamed up with Eau Claire Distillery to give away a bottle of Limited Edition Gin Rummy, along with a Tour & Tasting for 2 at Turner Valley’s Eau Claire Distillery (check out the bottom of this post for details on how to enter!). Cheers and happy holidays!

December 21, 2018 by Justine

Create, DIY, Dwell, Flowers, Inspiration, Living Room, Occasions, Plants, Winter

APARTMENT FRIENDLY MODERN HOLIDAY DECOR

Friends, I’m elated to finally share our Apartment Friendly Modern Holiday Decor with you today! If you’ve been following along with JustineCelina this past year, you’ll know we began refreshing our inner city Calgary apartment to create our dream home. We started from scratch with a fresh coat of paint, new furniture and new decor — and this year, I was so excited to decorate for the holidays for the first time in 6 years (we decorated fully for our first Christmas here… and never again!). Since we’re always out of town for the holidays (we split our time between our families homes in rural Alberta), I usually just save myself the extra time and effort and keep our holiday decor super minimal. Because we live in an apartment and have limited storage, the thought of hauling down a huge artificial tree from recesses of our entrance way closet and sorting through boxes of decor was simply never a priority during this busy month! But this year, I decided to sell all the old decor that no longer worked of us and start fresh (literally!) with our first real Christmas tree, tons of greenery and festive DIYs, plus all new holiday decor — and tonight I’m sharing every detail about how I pulled it all together!

If you’re a fan of mid century modern or more natural, earthy, bohemian elements, I’m sure you’ll agree that traditional holiday decor leaves a lot to be desired. I knew I wanted the look and feel of our holiday decor to be cohesive with our space and bring in lots of living greenery, warm neutrals, natural wood and stone textures, mixed metallic accents and free spirited, whimsical textures. I also wanted to incorporate a nod to vintage, mid-century inspired design while keeping a mixture of traditional and contemporary elements and cozy up the space with layers of faux fur, wool and chunky knits. After many HomeSense, Canadian Tire and plant / flower shop runs, I’m so pleased with the way our holiday home has come together and can’t wait to spend some downtime here as the year draws to a close! Pour yourself a juicy glass of red wine and come join me on our leather sofa as I walk you through our Apartment Friendly Modern Holiday Decor!

December 19, 2018 by Justine

Digital Blooms December 2018 | Free Holiday Floral Desktop Wallpapers | A Whimsical Christmas Tree Made from Flowers, Berries and Twigs | Pantone Fall / Winter 2018 Free Tech Wallpapers | Design 1 // JustineCelina.com x Rebecca Dawn Design

Create, Digital Blooms, Flowers, Occasions, Pantone, Winter

DIGITAL BLOOMS DECEMBER 2018 | FREE DESKTOP WALLPAPERS

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and this December, Rebecca Dawn Design and I are here for all your festive, floral Free Tech Wallpapers needs with a very merry edition of DIGITAL BLOOMS! Each holiday season, we look forward to coming up with fresh festive inspiration, taking cues from current colour trends and the wintery seasonal blooms available to us. In year past we’ve gone moody and luxe and cool and crisp — but believe it or not, we’ve never actually gone classic and worked with red hues. So this year, we went semi-traditional with a palette of vibrant red, snowy white, sage green and deep berry, inspired by the familiar holiday hues present in Pantone’s Fall / Winter 2018 Colour Trend Report. For a bit of juxtaposition, we’ve gone really playful with our designs — this year, choose from a whimsical tree, jubilant wreath or playful snowman (he’s so cute!) to adorn your tech this holiday season!

December’s Free Tech Wallpapers feature a festive medley of classic, red and white Ranunculus, ethereal Blushing Bride Proteas, Delano Chrysanthemums, cheerful red and moody black berries and a few foraged vines and twigs! Get in the holiday spirit with us DIGITAL BLOOMS style by clicking through to download 3 festive, floral tech wallpapers — absolutely free! And don’t forget to share your holiday-ready tech with us using #justinecelinadigitalblooms or tagging me on social media — we love to see how you’re using them and I always share my favourites on Insta Stories! Wishing you all happy, healthy and joyous holiday season.

December 1, 2018 by Justine

Entertain, Fall, Giveaways, Local Love, Occasions, Wine & Cocktails

LATE HARVEST SPICED APPLE SANGRIA

I bet you thought I’d abandoned sangria for COCKTAILS, didn’t you? Although sangria was definitely my first love, as I’ve dived deeper into recipe development and mixology here at JustineCelina, my foray into cocktailing over the past 3.5 years was something I never would have predicted (I’m a huge wino and I thought I’d always prefer wine based libations to cocktails!). I’ve published just about every type of sangria recipe you can think of on these pages, incorporating red wine, white wine, rosé and prosecco — you’d think I’d have my bases covered by now, right? Nope. I’ve always wanted to create an autumnal sangria incorporating October’s beautiful BC apples and late harvest wine, but could never find the right spirit to bring it to life — that is, until now! Enter Eau Claire Distillery‘s newest limited edition offering, Apple Brandy. This seasonally inspired spirit is infused with orchard fresh Okanagan apples and the essence of warm French oak — and I knew it would be the perfect ingredient to elevate my Late Harvest Spiced Apple Sangria with handcrafted flair and character!

Just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving, I’m thrilled to bring you a fresh sangria recipe inspired by changing leaves, cozy knits, brisk autumn evenings and celebrating this beautiful life with family and friends! My Late Harvest Spiced Apple Sangria combines late harvest riesling with Eau Claire’s Apple Brandy, freshly pressed apple cider and ginger beer with a sweet and spicy trio of Okanagan apples, fresh ginger and cinnamon sticks to infuse this comforting, apple-centric sangria with autumnal warmth. In the spirit of the season to thank you for all your support this year, I’ve teamed up with Eau Claire Distillery, Calgary Farmer’s Market and Rocky Mountain Food & Wine Festival to create the Ultimate Local Foodie Giveaway — including a bottle of limited edition Apple Brandy, 50 Farmers Market Bucks so you can shop for everything you need to recreate this sangria at home while supporting our local farmers and attend Calgary’s premiere food and wine festival, on me (check out the bottom of this post for entry deets!). Wishing all of my Canadian friends the happiest of Thanksgivings — I’m so grateful for each and every one of you!

October 5, 2018 by Justine

Older Posts

Newer Posts