 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Sonali, welcome back to my channel. Today we're filming the first of many monthly favorites videos. I really wanna bring these back and also just like throw in some recaps of the month. I think it'd be really fun to just catch up at the end of the month. Even though I do film a lot of my life, it's not everything. This is almost like a monthly reflection for myself and just to remember things cause I really do have like bad memory and I should be working on that. We're currently in my office and I'm really hoping to get some like decor back here so that this setup will look a little bit more interesting but for now we're working with a plain white wall and if you hear sounds in the back it's because our bathrooms are getting renovated and we're gonna get into that. I'm trying to be a little bit more of a professional YouTuber and use this little mic thingy so hopefully you won't hear it. We'll start with our monthly recap. On January 7th, Ryan and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary. Like what the heck? I cannot wrap my mind around that and the fact that I feel like we've known each other more than half my life. At least the years that I can remember, you know when you're a child, I feel like you don't really have much memory of it. We went to a new restaurant here in Austin doing what we do best, eating and trying out new restaurants. This month two of my friends here in Austin moved away which is like so weird to think that this is a temporary place for a lot of people. Most people move here right after college and it's not everyone's like forever place. To be totally honest, I don't even know where my forever place is but I absolutely love Austin and I see myself here for a very, very long time. But it's just very sad because you invest so much time into these friendships and adult friendships are so hard to make because you're not with them every single day like your sorority sisters. So it's easy to make a bond like that but in adult friendships, it takes so much longer to like connect and not be surface level friends. So when a friend moves away, I feel like it hurts even more and I lost two within like the month. I'm so sad but hopefully they'll come and visit and I'll go and visit them. But it's just like a weird thing to realize and especially at this age of your life you really have to like sit down and think like, okay, do I want to be in Austin long-term? Like, do I need to go somewhere else? So I feel like that's why like these conversations are happening and it's just not there forever place. Like I said, on a lighter note, bathroom renovations have started this month. It truly feels surreal that like we own this house. I swear every single day, Ryan and I like, oh my God, how is this ours? Buying this house is definitely one of our biggest accomplishments and it's what we've been saving for for, I don't know, the past four years ever since we got to Austin, we knew we wanted to buy a house here. I'm filming this video the last day of January. I'm doing a daily vlog today. So I'm gonna give you guys a bathroom update and I'll obviously update you guys more throughout the process. But from today, I'm thinking that they'll be done in like two weeks maybe. I'm hoping not longer than that because I'm just like over having people in the house every day. Also about a week ago, Ryan made me some planters and he also assembled one that I bought from Amazon. I'll go ahead and link the Amazon one down below and the ones that he built were super simple. Like he just kind of screwed in some stuff and Home Depot cut the wood for us. I cannot wait to start growing plants and growing fruits and vegetables. And my goal is to like literally have a farm to do a restaurant in my house. I don't even know if I have a green thumb yet. I guess we'll see this spring and summer if it comes naturally to me but I definitely need to do a little bit more research. I bought a ton of like fruits and vegetables and flowers but I think I have to plant them after the flasprost which I believe is probably gonna happen sometime in February because it always gets really cold at the end of that month. Moving into my big wins of the month, I kind of did these categories like a podcast would be. So feel free to like, I don't know close out of the video and just like have the audio playing like a podcast. But one of my big wins is obviously starting the bathroom renovations. And then another big win was saving Rosie. If you haven't seen that vlog, Ryan found a dog on the road and she was super skinny and it was like right before the freeze happened in Austin. Thankfully she had a happy ending and was able to go back to her family. Definitely go and check out that vlog if you wanna hear more about that story. My office is like 50% complete. I just need to get some decor and organize my office. I love to pretty much everything in the closets in the bathroom, except for the things that were on the floor because they're replacing the floor. So it's all like in here. So that's another reason why I can't wait for these bathrooms to be done. So I can like go in and organize it and then like clean out my office. But it's just nice that it's practical and I've been using it and like sitting in here and Ryan has his own office. Like in the last department, we shared an office and his calls were really ramping up. And I'd be like, I want to film something like this is my filming background. And obviously like he needed it first calls. So we were definitely kind of butting heads a little bit there, but it's just so nice to have our own offices. I also grew a substantial amount on Instagram and TikTok this month, which is honestly such a good feeling because I feel like I've been plateauing on my followers and not that like numbers really matter. But when you're putting in so much effort daily and you don't see like any growth, it kind of stings a little bit, you know? What they don't tell you about going viral is that if you have like one specific video about like home run-outs, then you kind of have to make more videos about home run-outs to keep those followers that just followed you interested in your content. So I feel like I'm more like beauty and fashion. I definitely do home videos here and there, but now I'm like ramping it up just to make sure that I keep those followers engaged. And honestly, there's like a lot of home stuff going on. So it's not too hard, but I definitely don't want to lose those followers. Moving on to small wins. I believe it was the Amazon Creator Stars newsletter, but it was like the first newsletter that they were coming out with. And I was featured in the email. I had a little headshot, a blurb and like some pieces of content. And like honestly, that just made my whole freaking week. Another small win is just like staying home after so much travel. You guys know that we travel back home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So it's like back to back travel to the same place. It just is a lot especially because my busy season at Lisa with content creation is December and like the holidays, you know? So I feel like I need to be back in Austin filming. So it's just, I don't know, just very chaotic during those months. So it's been nice that it's been slower with travel and just work in general. Speaking of work, if you guys are new here, I'm also a photographer. And my niche is UT grads, which my busy season is coming up for that. I also do couples and families and headshots and all of that. But within the past month, I think I've shot around three or four proposals and I love taking photos of couples. So it's been so fun doing that. And my last small one might be stupid to some people, but it's not to me because it is one of my goals for this year. And that is that I haven't opened my Instagram feed planner app since like December. My friend told me to delete it, but I literally just cannot bring myself to do that. But it's just so that I don't really think too much about my feeds, both on my personal and my business account, because it really just holds me back from posting all this content that I'm already making and with my photography. I take pictures, like that's content, but I feel like it needs to be in the perfect spot on my feed. So just getting out of that mindset and not opening that app has really helped me with that. Let's get into my favorite beauty products of the month. First off, the House Labs Foundation and the Hourglass Concealer combination. I've been using both of those for about like two or three months. I actually bought a new concealer because the ones that I have right now are like the color of my skin tone and I kind of want like a little bit lighter than my foundation so I can have like a brightened under eye. So that should be coming, I think, tomorrow from Sephora. But the House Labs Foundation is seriously so freaking good. It's so skin-like, it makes me look like a porcelain doll and the concealer itself just does not crease. I know the concealer comes in a little mini size, so maybe try that first and see how you like it. But the House Labs Foundation, I do like two little tiny pumps and a little goes a long way. The other day I was in Target trying to go to the Target Pharmacy or the CBS Pharmacy Inside Target and basically I didn't realize that it was an opening for another hour and I was in one of those like really small targets. So I was like, oh, I don't wanna go back to my car and then like come back in, I'll just like shop around. But it was like a really small target. So I pretty much spent the whole hour looking at the makeup section and twiddling my thumbs. But I did find one of my new favorite beauty products and that is the Elf Blushes. I got two really pretty pink colors because I've seen so many people with my skin tone using like really bright pinks so I was very intrigued. But my favorite is the mauve color. I just feel like it's so perfect. The pigmentation on these blushes are insane and Elf is just so affordable. So I had to share this by with you guys. My last favorite beauty product is Bio Oil and I found out about this during my breast reduction surgery, my doctor recommended that I put it like on my scars every single day. I was so consistent and I really think it helped a time and I don't know what's gotten into me over the past month, but I've been picking out my face so bad that I'm really scarring a lot. And I've been using this one product by Mira that's supposed to like fade the scars and it does that, but I swear Bio Oil works 10 times faster. I used Bio Oil a week ago because I like remembered that I had it. And just within the first night, like I swear my scars were way more faded than they were with the original product that I was using. Anyways, Bio Oil is great. If you have any scarring anywhere on your body, if you're very consistent with it, it will do wonders. Let's get into current fashion obsessions. The first one is Renting Your Clothes. This was a big in for me this year. I've been doing it on and off since last year I would say and I tried Fashion Pass and Rent the Runway. And I think I'm gonna try a new leaf for a wedding that I have coming up. They seem to have great wedding guest dresses, but I'm super into this because it deters me from buying a new outfit for every occasion. And yes, I am spending money renting clothes, but at the end of the day, I am spending less and I'm getting new clothes every single time. And because I take pictures and everything, it's so much more fun to like have different pieces. So renting clothes has been one of my favorite things. One staple that I could not live without this fall and winter are my Skins Long-Sleeved T-shirts. I've had the short-sleeved T-shirts for a year or so and I love them. I believe that the material is the cotton T-shirts. And so I decided to get some long-sleeved T-shirts. I have it in gray and black and I wear them all the time. If it's really cold, it'll be like a layering piece under my sweater. Obviously they can be worn on their own too and it just looks so chic because it's very tight, but it's also really, really comfortable. Next up is Amazon jewelry. I feel like there's so many trendy jewelry pieces out there. Like I heard of this brand called Heaven Mayhem. It's really just like chunky earrings, but I just feel like you can find something very similar on Amazon and something like this that's really trendy. I don't know if I would like wear it in a year from now. So spending seven to like $15 on a pair of earrings, I don't feel as guilty if I don't wear it a year from now, you know? But if I'm spending like $100 or $75 on a pair of earrings, I feel like they need to be timeless and classic. So this is your sign to buy your chunky, trendy jewelry on Amazon. I have a folder with some really cute, gold jewelry from Amazon on my Amazon storefront. So I'll link it down below. This ring is not from Amazon, but it's definitely been a favorite of mine. This is from Avery Jewels. It's my friend Pia's Club and it's just like this stunning vintage looking ring. I usually get my rings to fit my ring finger or like this finger, but usually my ring finger and basically sometimes my hands get really itchy. So I'll like switch my ring to this finger, not even knowing, like subconsciously doing that, I swear. And obviously since it has like this little crystal on it, people are like, are you engaged? I'm like, girl, let me set the record straight. It would be a hard launch. You guys would know, I wouldn't just like wear my engagement ring and not talk about it. So if you see this on the other hand, it's just because all my fingers are really fat. Lots of background noise going on right now, but let's just get into the next section, which is gonna be my favorite creators of the month. I thought this could be fun to give them a little shout out and to share their content with you guys. So the first person is Danielle. She does outfit of the days and I just really like her style. I can't tell if she lives in Florida or California, but either one, I know that she lives in like warm weather. So if you guys are traveling soon, it's a good place to look for like a vacation outfit in Spoe or just like daily outfit in Spoe. I just think her style is pretty unique. Next up, we have Luffy Lee and my friend Nancy actually sent me this girl because she is also undergoing some home renovations and we are literally going through like some of the same problems. So it's so interesting to see and also just get ideas from her. The last one I'm not really sure how to pronounce her name, but I think it's Roti Brown. I'm not really sure, but she has the most beautiful cooking videos and I actually made one of her recipes. I think it was like the roasted corn guac or something over the summer and me and my friends were obsessed with this guac. I have to make it again this summer. Her content's beautiful. She's beautiful and it's really calming watching her cook. Next category is kind of random, but I feel like I needed to throw this in there because I personally have so many random food fixations throughout the year. So next section is my food fixations of the month. First one being my chocolate cherry smoothie. I think I shared it on the vlogs. If I didn't, it's on my TikTok, but basically you just put a fair life individual chocolate protein milk thingy with cherries, with frozen cherries, yes. And then a half of a banana and it's so good. It's different than your normal strawberry banana smoothie and you're obviously getting a lot of protein in from the fair life drink. Number two is a Costco rotisserie chicken. I'm still mind blown that this thing is only $5 and I spend the whole week eating it, picking at it and it's just so flavorful. I literally crave the Stan rotisserie chicken and that reminds me I really need to go buy Costco and pick another one up. Next section is for all the miscellaneous things that I've been loving this month. So current random obsessions. I've had my hatch alarm clock for a really long time now but I'm just now getting back into using it because I think I put it in one of my drawers when I moved over here. So I kind of forgot about it for a little bit but it is just so nice to wake up to like it brightening up your space because when I wanna wake up, it is still dark outside. So when I'm waking up for an early morning workout it's a lot just more gentle to wake up to. When I first bought it, I was really pissed off because I didn't realize that you had to have the subscription to access like so many more sounds. But I've just been using the ones that are free and I'm okay with it. I do have like the first generation one but I think the second generation you can like do custom sounds. So that's kind of fun. Another random obsession that I have is my bed. I am obsessed with my adult bed is what I call it because we originally just had like a bed frame and a headboard and now the full thing is connected and it just feels so bougie and like luxe and it looks bougie and luxe. It was worth every single penny. It's from Living Spaces. So if you guys are interested, I'll link it down below. Lastly, I wanted to get into some goals that I have for myself in February. Number one, I'm gonna book an international vacation. I'm dying to go to Mallorca, Spain this summer. I know I wanna do it but it's something in me is just so scared to actually go and book it. So I need to grow some balls and do it before prices get insane. I'm going to a wedding later in February and I just tend to over complicate travel like you probably just witnessed but more so when I'm packing for my travel. I always say I wanna be minimalist but let's be real. I don't know what that's happening anytime soon. Maybe just planning out my outfits ahead of time so that I am not packing like so many options. And the last goal that I have for myself is to be consistent with my healthy habits while I'm traveling. I think this is gonna be really hard because I'm going to a wedding with a really good food but I need to just like stay consistent with being active and just like cutting down my portions. Like I know I can have whatever I want just like not as much as I want, you know? And I think this whole calorie deficit thing has really opened my eyes to that. So that's it of this monthly recap videos slash my monthly favorites. If you guys wanna see daily updates on bathroom renovations and just my life in general you can go follow me on Instagram and TikTok and I will see you guys in my next vlog. Bye.