 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Sonali. Welcome to a new vlog. It is not gonna be a week of my life just because we are going on a road trip on Wednesday. So I'm gonna do a whole separate travel vlog. So this vlog is just gonna be maybe just today, maybe a couple of days. We'll see how long I wanna vlog. But I'm really hyped for our little road trip because I've been wanting to go over to Big Bend, Marfa area for so long. We live in Austin currently. And so it's like a, I wanna say like a seven hour road trip over there. And we also just wanted to wait till it was like good weather, not too hot because it is the desert and we didn't wanna be miserable. I feel like there's not a lot in Marfa, but at the same time, there's a lot of creativity because there's a bunch of art installations that I'm really, really stoked to see, including the Prada Marfa store. It's not a real Prada store, but it's still cool looking. Apparently it's like 30 minutes outside of Marfa. So technically it's not in Marfa, but we still have to see it. This morning, I actually ended up purchasing a drone which has been like on my mind for a while now because I actually had a drone when I was at my corporate job. My title there was a content creator. I used pretty much all of my own equipment except they gave me a work laptop. They gave me a drone and I think that's it. So like stabilizers, lenses, cameras, all that was mine. But I did have to give back the drone when I quit, obviously. And I didn't really like use it too much. I mean, I did use it for my personal vacations and stuff. You might have seen drone footage in the past year's vlogs, but not as much as I would have liked to. And especially because we're gonna go traveling a lot more this year in the coming years, I thought it would be fun to purchase another drone because now I know how to fly it and everything like that. So it should be fairly easy. I am getting it from the same brand, DJI. But it's a smaller version of the one that I had at my job. It's about 1 p.m. on a Monday and I feel like I've been really productive today. I'm still keeping strong with waking up at 5.55 a.m. on the dot. Actually, my body woke me up at like 5.43 or something. And I tracked my phone and I was like, oh, I guess it's time to get up. So I'll play on my phone for a little bit. But I try to get to the gym by 6.15, no later than that, because then I end my workout at like 7.45-ish and then try to be like in the shower or taking out Sophie by like 8 a.m. So it's kind of this whole like timed out routine, which doesn't work for everyone, but I feel like it just kind of like gets me going because if I don't have like a timed out routine like that, I will literally sit on my phone for hours and just not get anything done or just like not go on to the next like part of my routine if that makes sense. So I did that and then what else did I do? I wrote a contract for someone that might be joining the team, which would be the first person to join the team because I've never hired anyone. So I'm really freaking excited for that. But she just seems so passionate and I just really need someone like that to do just like small tasks here and there. She hasn't signed her contract yet, but maybe in the next week in my life, I can go in depth of what I'm having her do because I feel like that would be interesting. And it's going to be just like weird to have someone help me out for once because I have been doing YouTube for since 2013. So almost 10 years and I have not really ever hired anyone. She's not a video editor. So again, still looking for a video editor if you guys are interested, let me know. But she is just going to help me with like other tasks. And I feel like it's just going to be really helpful to have help. It's also officially grad season. I mean, technically tomorrow's March and that's like when grad season kind of starts for me. But it really ramps up after UT spring break, which is also South by Southwest week. And that worked out perfectly because I did not want to have any shoots during that week. Just in case I got invited to any events, which I have gotten invited to some events and I'm so excited. Hopefully I get to just like see what South by Southwest is all about. I do have a grad session tonight at 5 p.m. And usually Mondays are not really content days. They're usually like admin days, but I was really just feeling like getting ready, getting dressed up, creating some content. So I filmed a couple of TikToks this morning and edited those. And what else did I do? Cleaned up the house a little bit. And yeah, now I am going to enjoy some H-E-B sushi since Ryan just picked it up for me. I have a salmon delight combo. Love that for me. I'm literally addicted to raw fish. And it is horrible because I know one of these days, well, it's not manifested. But my mom always told me in college, she would see my vlogs. And maybe every week I would get sushi and she'd be like, you can't eat sushi that often. You're gonna get mercury poisoning. But if I do, then maybe that will determine. But right now I'm just like obsessed with sushi. Also my phone case is sushi. How fitting. I really need to do my nails too. And I have these press-ons that I asked you guys which ones I should do yesterday. And you guys voted on the static nails instead of the often gene ones. So we'll be putting those on today. I did static nails the last time. And I don't know, they were kind of thin and I just didn't really like them because the white was chipping off. But someone in my DMs just told me that some of the more sheer nails are a little bit thinner than just like the solid colors or just like the darker colors. So I will be keeping that in mind and I actually did buy like a green solid color. So I'm gonna wait till maybe St. Patrick's Day to put that on. I feel like this shirt would be a really cute shirt to wear to St. Patrick's Day. It's from Amazon and I think it is so flattering. Like it literally makes me look snatched. I'm not wearing a bra currently but it is so freaking cute. And it was really affordable. It's linked on my Amazon storefront. And I will also link it directly below if you guys are interested. I got cold so I put on my aloe zip up. But before I do anything else, I think I'm just gonna go ahead and put on the press ons. So this is the Alvin June ones. And then these are the static nail ones. What color is this? Almond, oh toasted sugar almond. And then this one is length is medium and then the color is pink sand. So let's do these. I'm nervous because I feel like my nails haven't been that long in a while. I used to have really freaking long nails when I used to do dip. My nails would just grow out and I would just keep them long. And I really liked them but sometimes it would just get so annoying to have long nails. So I started getting them a little bit shorter. And I actually really like the short press ons because it makes your nails look so put together. But, oh hello Sophie, you open the door. But your nails won't get in the way if they're short and stuff. So I'm going to prep the nails. The Alvin June one comes with a little prep pad. The static nail one doesn't. So I'm just going to buff my nails a little bit and then push the cuticles back with this little wooden stick that's from the Alvin June one. But whatever. I purchased a lot of random stuff on Amazon. Just like a couple of clothing items. I got this one chain belt. I have like a vision for some photos and Marfa and just like Big Bend. When we go to Big Bend, we are going to go golfing. And Ryan's really excited about that. But I also have to get the cutest little golf outfit. So got to think about that. We're actually staying in some really cool like Airbnb kind of things. It's not a hotel, but basically we're staying in like teepees and yurts the whole trip. So that will be very interesting because I wouldn't call myself high maintenance, but I mean maybe. But no, I actually really wanted to stay in a teepee. I just feel like it'd be a really cool experience. So we're going to stay at Cosnico. I feel like that's a really popular one too. I've been doing a little research on what to do there. And I feel like everyone does the same stuff. So I don't know if there's much to do there, but apparently people are saying that Marfa has really good food, which I would have never thought. I literally thought there was nothing there. In my mind, it's just Prada Marfa, the tents and a gas station. But apparently like there's like a beer garden and like everything like that. So it'll be really cool to explore. Ryan's been to Big Bend alone. He like went on this like camping trip, like two-day camping trip alone. But I think it was like in the middle of grad season when he went, so I couldn't go with him. Cause I had shoots planned, but we literally blocked these days on my calendar at the start of the new year, because I was like, okay, I want to go. I want to like cross this off my bucket list, but I don't want it to be too hot. So I feel like we're going at the perfect time and we're going to get a little bit of sun. It's going to be like in the 80s, 78. I feel like we're going out a really good time. So I'm pumped about that. It's been really cold here. I'm just like ready to feel some sun on my skin. Here are the nails up close. So the next step is to just like find which nail fits, which nail. So this is honestly the hardest part. Cause you don't want to go too small and you'd rather go like a little bit bigger. So let's do this. Wonder how long these really are. Hello. Hey. Hi. Have you given? Yeah. I'm going to put on my last nail. This is the thumbnail. They're already so freaking long though. Don't love them. So I'm definitely going to have to file them down, but I'll do that after I place this last nail on. So what I like to do is to really like push my cuticle back with the nail. So like really stick it in there because then it lasts so much longer and it doesn't like look really grown out after like a week. Usually can get like two weeks on these things if they're not shipped or like falling off. So just push it back. And then your like cuticles will be sore for like a day, but it's worth it because you'll have like really nice nails for a week or two weeks. So now I think I'm going to file these down because this is what it looks like, which they look good, but I feel like they're just so freaking long. Like, ugh. And way too pointy. And also it's kind of weird because they're like facing down. Like it literally looks like a witch's nail. Not my vibe. So we're going to file them down. I need to make a couple returns at UPS and I don't know if I should go do that now or just do it on the way to the grad shoot, but I need to return all the curtains that didn't work out, but at least Amazon returns are really easy. So thank God. But I was making a tech talk about just like how much my rent is in Austin because I feel like that would be an interesting tech talk. So I went on my apartment's website just to find out the square footage. And I saw that another unit that is just like mine is like still available. I guess a lot of the units in this place are not available, which is kind of interesting because I didn't know that they were that full, but I saw the price on this unit and I literally want to throw up because it says it's $3,200. I do not pay that. That is not what I pay for rent. And I am so freaking scared that it's going to be that high. Like if I renew, I'm like really scared they're going to raise their price really, really high. Although I don't think they can raise it that much higher because that's like actually insane if they raise it to that price. But I'm really nervous because I really like it here and I want to stay in East Austin. But I just feel like the rent here in Austin is getting crazy, like scary crazy. I used to pay $1,800 for a two by two. Granted it was a little bit farther from the city than where I am now. But still, like it was a steal for a two bedroom, two bathroom and it was way bigger than this apartment. I feel like so many people are like just moving to the verbs but I'm just not ready for that. I'm like trying to hold on to the city life as long as I possibly can. So let's just pray manifest that they won't hike up our rent because I'm just like dreading the day that that email comes into my inbox. It's that time of the day where I'm kind of craving something sweet. So I actually went to Whole Foods yesterday and we went kind of ham while I did at least with the snacks because we were going on the road trip and I was like it would be nice to have some like healthier snacks so that I don't get tempted at the gas station unless there's a Bucky's though. We're definitely gonna have to stop in a Bucky's and I will get one unhealthy snack. But I got two of these lilies like chocolate things I've actually had their chocolate bars and I want to say they're chocolate chips but this one is the peanut butter cups and these are the chocolate covered caramel. So thought we could do a little taste test. All right, starting with the caramel. Really not what I was expecting. That's one gram of sugar. I think there was like zero amounts of sugar. It just like didn't taste that amazing. I really wish I was one of those people that did not have a sweet tooth but God just had to give me a sweet tooth. So here I am not thinking that's enough sugar. Even like when I get matcha at anywhere really nine out of 10 times I will literally go back and ask for more sweetener because it's not sweet enough and like I should probably train myself to just like get over it and drink it how it is but then like it's just not enjoyable. Like I literally want a matcha because I want it to be sweet, you know? Sometimes like I get when people say like matcha is gross because it is really earthy but when you get it really sweet like with lavender syrup, that's my favorite. It literally tastes like fruity pebbles. Really hoping that these are a little bit better so. Also both of these bags were not cheap. Like I just hate how healthy foods these days are just so expensive. Why? Why? I cannot. Days like this I'm just like will I ever be healthy? Like will I ever have that lifestyle that I want so bad? Will I ever not really crave sweets? Like will I actually think that this will satisfy me? It's just not enough sugar for me. Maybe like if I try to cut out sugar and this was like the only option then obviously it'd be like a little bit of something something, you know? But for now I'm just like really want to taste like matcha to be honest. That was kind of disappointing to be honest. I do have a couple of other snacks so I'll be sure to do like a taste test whenever I open those. So if you saw me eating and think she wants a treat, you want a treat? This is another issue with my sweet cravings. I'm always craving something salty afterwards. It's like this whole cycle of just wanting to eat. I hate it. It's almost 420, shoot is at five and it's at Seaholm which is kind of far away. I mean 16 minutes but I'm gonna leave now so I can do the whole UPS thing before. Just got home from my shoot and the lighting was so good today and it was a little bit cold but I guess I wasn't expecting that I actually took like a power nap before and I literally just like ran out of the house and didn't really think that it would be cold outside but I keep forgetting that it's still winter kind of. I don't know if I showed you guys the static nails. This is what it looks like, final product. I did shave them down, file them down quite a bit. Not really loving the color on my skin tone and two already popped off. No, maybe that was my fault. Like maybe I did the glue wrong. I don't know, I'm gonna glue them back on later but now it is bachelor time and I keep forgetting. Wait a second. We don't have a TV. Wait, what the hell? How are we gonna watch the bachelor? I don't know if I told you guys. I think I did in the last vlog. Our TV fricking broke out of nowhere and we've been using my Samsung projector but I don't think you can really watch cable on it. I'm gonna have to tell Ryan, he's gonna be upset. He literally just texted me when his batch, can you pause it for me? It's hometowns. And I was like, oh my God, I already forgot one. And second of all, I would not even thought it was hometowns. So it's so funny how he like actually is really into it but he's gonna be sad about that. Tonight for dinner, I was thinking I could try out that ripe rice that I got from Whole Foods and then maybe just like some veggies cause I don't think I have meat. I don't think we have any chicken or anything. We do have mushrooms and then we could put that bitchin' sauce on it that I got. I don't know, could be a vibe, a little chicken toggle bowl without the chicken. This is what I'm inspiring my meal tonight around. This ripe rice, Spanish rice, made from vegetables. So that'll be interesting to see if it's really good. Also, I've been really liking these carrot wipe hands and I'm gonna do like a full review on it but I wanted to cook with them for a little bit and then let you guys know how I like them. But I do have a discount code if you guys can't wait for that review or you know that you want them. It's 10% off anything, even like the bundles I checked and so that's like a good discount. It is, I think you just go through my link so I will link it down below if you guys want that discount and then I also wanted to show you guys this because I've been loving TikToks that are like those aesthetic cooking videos, those are my weakness and I've noticed that a lot of them have styled kitchen counters which honestly I had no idea was a thing. But I've noticed that a lot of these people have like these really cool vintage boards and then like a basil plant or something or cookbooks, you know, I don't really wanna make it too cluttered but I really wanted one of these and guess where I got this? Amazon and it was actually not that crazy expensive. Like you would think this was like vintage from Etsy or something, which you can definitely find them on Etsy but I found this on Amazon so I will definitely link it down below because it's stunning, I love it. And now I just have to find some other stuff to like style this corner with. I'm thinking of getting like a nice clear bottle for my olive oil that like, you know, has the spout kind of thing so I don't have to like unscrew it every time because I just have like, you know, the normal olive oil that's kind of ugly. So I was thinking I'd do that and then like maybe get like a little lazy Susan wooden thing and just like have olive oil and maybe like some salt, my flaky salt or truffle salt. I don't even know. I'm gonna do it slowly. So the cutting board is definitely the first one and Ryan used it for steak yesterday and I was trying to tell him like, it's not for use. It's for decoration because he kind of fucked it up. Like it did not look like that at first. I don't know if I can like clean it or what or maybe I just need to like oil it down. Maybe that would help but he better not use this side and fuck it up. I'm gonna be mad because, okay. So I need to cut the vegetables and I'm probably not gonna film it just cause it's just gonna be me cutting vegetables and I don't wanna go really fast. So I'll be right back. I already tried the right rice and I actually really like the texture. It's like kind of chewy and I like it. Like I like chewy stuff. It's actually really good. So I hope it's actually like healthier or I don't know maybe I need to do some more research about like why I should be eating right rice. I can't even say it. Now we got some bell peppers and some onions cooking. I want them to be like really, really cooked, you know when they're all mushy and stuff. And then I have an avocado. I was gonna put that guacamole. I'm getting out of avocados and then can I put the salsa though? So avocado, cilantro, lime. I'm just gonna make a bowl. We couldn't figure out how to mirror the TV in there onto this projector thing because the TV in there is not a smart TV. And like I swear I have not seen that TV turned on in our bedroom for so long. I was just telling Ryan how that TV in there is like ancient cause it's not a smart TV and it looks so old but at least we can watch the Bachelor in there. There's just not as comfy, you know to watch it in the bedroom like to eat on your bed. It's just not a vibe, you know. You wanna try this right rice, babe? You know, if I, if it, what? It doesn't really taste different. It's Spanish rice. Morning, happy Tuesday. We are starting the vlog off from Seaholm which I was here just yesterday but I actually have another shoot. It's for like a real estate company that I've done a couple shoots with them before. So we're just gonna shoot all around the Seaholm power plant. I think they want a more like industrial vibes this time. I think we shot at the long center last time and that's more like nature-y. But I just booked our Marfa stay so we're gonna be staying in a TP. I could only get it for one of the nights so the next night is just gonna be like a safari tent. So it's just gonna be like a tent, not as exciting but it's actually cheaper so we can get one night with the TP and like, you know, experience it and then we'll do the cheaper one on the last day. I'm honestly not a big fan of road trips but I'm really excited about this because I feel like it's something different and obviously I've never been there before so just excited to explore a new city. Back home shoot went well and now we're trying to figure out which way Prada Marfa faces so that we can go at the best time for lighting, for photos. I don't understand like this stuff but Ryan's gonna figure it out. I can't see the big crop circles. I don't understand the spatial stuff. Okay, so wait. So if the sun rises in the east and it's facing the east then the sun is gonna be directed in the morning. So the sun's gonna be like this. So we'll probably wanna do it in the afternoon. Well, I'm gonna be a equator so you wanna do it in the morning. I wonder if we can do it. Well, yeah. You can't do it in the day. Well, no. It doesn't matter. It's facing the north so it's like facing that way. Imagine in front of our house or like that front door is in front of, All right, let's see how far this is from actual Marfa because apparently the Prada Marfa thing that's like really famous just for photos in front of it is not even in Marfa. Okay, it's 36 minutes, which isn't horrible. That was gonna be an hour or so. We still gotta go for going to Marfa. We gotta go to Prada Marfa. Look how cute Sophie's being. You're so cute. I'm currently making an egg sandwich so I have my Dave's killer bread, one of my favorite, favorite breads also something that I learned from my mom like every time I go home to her house, I always find like a new snack that I really like. Just cooking two eggs. It's currently 11 a.m. and I wanted to just run you guys down of my day today or like hopefully what I'm gonna be doing. So first off, I need to edit this vlog because I don't really wanna worry about it tomorrow. I was going to vlog a little bit tomorrow but I just wanna get it up for a Wednesday post date and that is tomorrow. Grad season is like officially officially starting when I get back and I want to kind of create this like guide for all of my grads just to know like what to expect and then like what to bring because I feel like I have so many just random things that are like good tips for them and I always text them but I feel like it would just be really nice to see it all visually laid out in like a PDF. So like bring lipstick. I always tell my clients to bring a lip color and not just gloss. Sometimes it just washes out people if you're not having anything on your lips just looks a hundred times better when you have a little bit of color on you. So that's just like one thing I need to put in there. What else? I need to pack for our trip tomorrow. I'm kind of going for this like Coachella Western vibe like a stage coach kind of vibe. I don't know, I've never been to either of those but I kind of want to just like pull some really cool outfits and you know, do some content creation there. And then also I want to like favorite some TikToks that I want to make on vacation because I'm always thinking like, oh my God, I'm going on vacation. I'm going to create all this content but then when you're actually there you never know what to create unless you like plan it ahead of time. So I'm going to try that out this time and see if it's like more helpful. And then later on I do want to try to play with my drone. I'm supposed to be getting here today by 10 p.m. So I don't know if it'll be here. When the sun's still up, hopefully it will be. And then I also have to charge it. So maybe I should like look where it's at. Is it out for delivery? Oh, it's not even out for delivery yet. Okay, so maybe I won't be able to do that but that's okay because I have flown like a similar drone before. So it shouldn't be too hard. What else? What else do I need to do? Very good news. Our TV is fixed. I literally just called for an update which is weird that I even had to call for an update. Like why did they not call me? But they said it's ready today. So we're going to go pick it up at like around two-ish. And I'm so happy that they were able to fix it like pretty quickly. I think we dropped it off on Friday. They said they would only be able to look at it like this Monday, which was yesterday. And then we would have to wait like another couple of days for the part to get in. But I guess it's done early, which is great. I really liked that living room TV also it's like a lot bigger and it's just nicer. So very happy about that. So we need to pick that up. And I don't know. I really don't know what else. Oh, but I will say that Stanley Cup is restocking today. It's like one of my new favorite cups and it's definitely replaced my hydro flask. And they have so many new colors. I'm not sure if it's going to be out of stock by the time this vlog goes up but hopefully they'll still have some in stock. So I will go ahead and link it down below. And I'm going to do a little PSA on my stories just because I feel like everyone always sells them out so quickly. So that is why you should be following me on Instagram. I'll also have my account linked down below. We just got our TV back. I have never missed something more to be honest. While my video is importing I was kind of craving something sweet because I'm drinking this. It is a energy drink, like a clean energy drink. Fire, healthy energy. I'm pretty sure we picked that up at H-E-B but I got these while I was at Whole Foods over the weekend and I promised you guys I would do a taste test if I tried anything else. So we are trying sea salt premium roasted seaweed today. Looks like this. Very interesting. Okie dokie, here goes nothing. Okay, first impression. It didn't really taste like anything at first but then it like really reminded me of those hand rolls that we got here in Austin and that I crave on the daily. So even though this is not raw fish and it's not like helping satisfy my raw fish addiction it does like kind of like taste like sushi obviously. You know, sea reeds and sushi. So, mm. You know, I love salt and everything so I feel like it could be saltier. I was definitely expecting saltier. Also, I have become like overnight obsessed with that ripe rice. I like really, really like it. Like the texture is like kind of like chewy like I think I was describing it last night. I apparently have risotto which would also be so good. All the hell is at 5.30 already. I feel like I had so much to do today which I feel like a lot done but like not really like completed many of the tasks. This is the summer Fridays. Lit Balm, I just got it over the weekend. Did a little Sephora haul on my tech talk. I'll link that down below but I've been kind of like looking to shuffle all day so I'm sorry about that. Starting to get hungry but I actually have a scheduled FaceTime call with my besties from college at 6 p.m. So that's in like 20 minutes and I'm just feeling so hungry. So I think I might eat, ooh no. I actually got these out to eat and I totally forgot about them. Birthday cake bites, these are so good. Kind of just like rice cakes with a little bit of like the sweet icing on them. Then also I forgot to show you guys my tulips. I think tulips are my new favorite flower. They are so beautiful and they're like opening up really beautifully. I actually looked on tech talk this morning to see how to like care for them and just like make them last long. They said to put a penny in it. So I need to find a penny. I don't really care you change but apparently the copper like makes them not droop as much. Sophie carried this ball all the way down the stairs. This way. You want the water? Oh. Oh my gosh. Sophie literally just smashed a new glass gate. You're so silly. Sophie sit, sit. It is almost 7 p.m. I'm starving and I'm craving a burger. So we're gonna go get a burger and I think we're gonna go to Hop Daughty. We don't have that much food in the house just cause we're leaving tomorrow anyways. During our FaceTime call we planned a trip, a girls trip which I'm so excited about. I think we're gonna do a Miami trip which in college there was always like groups of girls that would like go to Miami, stay at Fontaine Blue or whatever it was called. I thought that was like very normal. Like I thought I would be at Fontaine Blue every weekend but that did not even happen once. So we're gonna make it happen. Like I don't even know if we would stay there. There's probably nicer like hotels especially now but I'm really excited. We're gonna go in the summer and oh wait, I'm just gonna be really hot in the summer but we'll make it work. We'll do pool days and everything like that. Just got done packing this one up and I needed a second bag so I just got this duffel. It's kind of small but it has like this shoe compartment on the side so I put two sneakers in there and then I'm just gonna bring like shower shoes. Should probably not be on my bed. And then I'm gonna bring this hat for like hiking, golfing. Then the Gigi Pip hat is coming with so cute and so perfect for a Texas road trip. I think I'm done packing but I'm like really nervous guys. Even Ryan was like I'm really curious to see how you'll do. Like I think you'll go crazy and I'm like, thanks. I feel like I wasn't that nervous until he said that. So, and then I clicked in my head. I'm like, oh okay, I'm actually going to be like literally camping pretty much cause like the showers are outdoors, the bathrooms I don't even know. Like even though we're like glamping, it's still camping and I have not done this in so freaking long so a little nervous but I'm really, really excited to just like fly the drone and just like be creative on this trip just because I feel like I haven't been able to do that. Like I feel like I vlog my everyday like realistic stuff like this vlog but I love like just travel vlogs, watching travel vlogs, editing, filming travel vlogs. So I don't know if I'm hyping it up too much. So if it's not that good, just like lie to me. I highly recommend to go follow me on Instagram and TikTok cause like I said, I really wanna film like a lot of TikTok content while I'm there and it's just gonna be so fun. So follow me on those social platforms to keep up with the everyday life and I will see y'all in my next vlog. Bye.