 Hello everyone, good morning, how are you? Happy new year, happy holidays. I can't believe that I'm picking up a camera and talking to you again. It's been like three weeks I think of much needed rest. I am back, I am so happy to be here with you. Today I just really wanna do like a reset vlog and just really get back into my routine, sort of ease back into my work month, year, et cetera. But first I am gonna go wash my face before we get ready and chat together. This portion of the video is sponsored by Neutrogena, so let's go ahead in there and we'll continue to chat. So we are going to wash our face and then get ready together. The face wash that I have been using and really, really loving lately is the Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel Cleanser. I have the fragrance free version and this is phenomenal if you have acne prone skin, sensitive skin. I have always sort of had like problematic skin and this is great because it's gentle but it's effective. Like it makes your face feel like it's clean but it doesn't feel super stripped down and dry. I recently ordered some skincare scrunchies to supposedly help with dripping when you wash your face but we're just gonna use regular scrunchies so I'm gonna wet my face. So this cleanser is clinically proven to improve skin appearance as well as feelings of skin sensitivity in just four weeks. It literally just glides on, it's so nice. It's formulated with hyaluronic acid to increase your skin's hydration which is great. It lathers really easily and then rinses clean which is always what I'm looking for in a cleanser and it's now available in fragrance free which is what I have right now which is perfect for all of you like me who have sensitive skin. I cannot describe to you just how nice this feels. I could sit here all day and do this. So you can shop the Hydro Boost Gel Cleanser online or in your nearest store. You can check the link in the description box below and find out how to get yours today. I highly recommend it. I'm gonna rinse this off now and you can see just like how clean my face is afterwards. There you have it. I'm gonna take these scrunchies off. So thanks to New Jersey Uniform for sponsoring that portion of my video. Now let's jump back into the vlog, my regular content. I'm gonna do my skincare and then we're gonna sit down and chat and we're gonna catch up all the life updates, all the things. Okay, apologies if this is a little wobbly. We moved some things around in my office. I'll show you like updates and stuff in the next video but I've got my coffee nice and hot. I just heated it up and I put my makeup out here and we're just gonna get ready and chat. Also, you're probably gonna hear rain sounds outside. I actually have a couple of buckets or like little bowls and things out there because I'm collecting rain water to water my plants here in a little bit because it has been raining so much in LA and I could not be happier about it. I love the rain. I'm an Arizona girl so like it never really rained and I mean, I did live in Tennessee for like 17 years of my life and it rained a lot but I've been back in Arizona for the last like six or seven years or something like that. And so it just like never rains and I'm so happy every time it does. But yeah, hi. Wow, it's really, it's been a minute hasn't it? It's been a few weeks since we caught up. I'm trying to think of like what even I've been up to. Like, I don't know. I guess where we left off was that I was leaving like the next day. I think the last vlogmas that I filmed, like the following day, which was the 23rd, we were leaving for Arizona and we went back to Arizona for Christmas. It was really lovely. We actually ended up renting a van so that Layla would be more comfortable. We found a pet sitter to come take care of Moo but Layla just requires like a little bit more, just a little bit more. She's our special girl, we love her. I think it was like accidental one time that we rented a car and they gave us a van and it worked out so well for Layla because it's really low to the ground. So she doesn't have to like jump up or anything like that. And also you can like fold the seats down and she can just spread out. So we ended up putting her bed in the back of the van and like loading up all of our presents and heading back to Arizona. It was really nice. Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with our families. It was great. It was just so nice to have time staying at my mom's again and seeing Drew's family. We also ended up staying for my birthday, which was December 27th. So we had a day where we spent time with our best friends in Arizona. They're literally like our family at this point. We've all been friends for well over a decade and it's just amazing. Love them to death. That was wonderful. And they like decorated and Drew had set the whole thing up so that like when I got to their house like the decorations were already set up for my birthday and it was really cute. Like he sent the decorations to their house and then they set them up. And it was just, I felt so special and so loved. He ordered a cake. We had pizza. It was great. It was like a really wholesome day. And then the following day, which was my actual birthday we spent the day with Drew's family, his nieces. We took them thrifting. Like it was a great time. So loved that. And then a couple of days later we drove back to LA, returned the rental car and then just kind of like hibernated. Honestly, we didn't do anything for New Year's like anything for New Year's. We literally like went to bed before midnight. I don't think I've ever done that before. I literally fell asleep before midnight. So I was just like, I think that happens maybe when you get older. And we were like, should we be going out and should we be doing something? And like one of my friends was like, do you want to come over? We were just like, no, not really. Like honestly just really wanted to go to bed. And so we did. And I'm just trying to put less of like a emphasis on New Year stuff. Cause I think we just put a lot of pressure on ourselves and it ends up just becoming like kind of stressful. So yeah, just went to bed at 1130, felt great about it. Couldn't be happier. And that's pretty much it. That's what I've been up to. It's been great. So today pretty much what's on the agenda is catching up. Like I said, sort of easing back into work. I'm going to film stuff for my main channel. I'm going to, I've been like answering emails, doing tax prep stuff. We have some laundry to put away. We have some dishes to put away. So in the meantime, I am going to finish doing my makeup just sort of like enjoy this rainy, cloudy day. I'm going to finish my coffee, maybe make some breakfast. It's about that time. I'm getting kind of hungry. It's around 930 now. And then film up my main channel video and then we'll continue this day. But cheers, welcome back. I'm so happy you're here. Got myself all ready. I actually did, I've been doing like a little bit more of a soft eyeliner lately. And I've been doing eyeshadow. I don't know, it's like kind of hard to tell in this lighting, but I've been doing like eyeshadow instead of like my liquid liner. And I decided to do, I don't know, I've been seeing a lot of people do this sort of like hair front pieces tucked in the front. That made no sense. But you know what I'm trying to say. So I'm attempting that. Anyways, we're going to film a main channel video for the first time since literally, I honestly don't know. Maybe late November of 2020, like very first week of December. So it's been like a full month since I've filmed a main channel video. And I'm actually really excited about it. We are going to tackle this bad boy today. By the time this video goes up, that main channel video will probably already be up. But yeah, let's clean, clean out the closet. Time to film. Okay, it's many hours later. It like literally looks like it's seven PM outside. It's three 28 and it's getting dark, like dark outside. I think it's also just the rain in combination with winter time. So that's depressing. I'm literally wearing a jacket. I had to put a jacket on over my shirt because I took Leila outside hour and a half ago probably for her like midday post lunch walk and poor thing. I was wearing a raincoat so that I could have like the hood all pulled up. So literally all that was like was showing was my face. And then I was holding an umbrella over her and like she went to the bathroom, everything was fine. But I guess just standing out there, I got like a little bit wet and I'm like chilled to the bone. I want to take a bath so bad, so I might. But first what I'm going to do is I am going to take some of the rain water that I got from this rain today and water our plants with it. I feel like that's such a, you know, you're getting old when thing to do. But I don't know, like plants, they want fresh water too. So that's what we're gonna do. Okay, we're gonna move a few of these to the bathroom. I don't have that much. And I'm honestly, I'm way, way, way, way too cold to go back out there again and get wet to get more of the water. So I'll collect more of that water tomorrow. Cause it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow but in the meantime, we'll just use what we have. All right, and here it is. This is literally full of rain water. I think there's like a little bit of dirt at the bottom but that's all right. And she is full. Let me tell ya. So we'll see how far we can get with this. Oh my God. It's so heavy. Look at that. I got to sound like my dad. Drink up babies. Aw, they get rain too. I'm gonna give them a little, a little shower. How cute. Why is this so sweet to me? There you go. Hope you enjoy. Okay, you can probably hear the rain hitting. I did end up going out there and I put the watering can back outside so it could refill and then emptied the bowl into another bowl. And now you can probably hear the water filling up the bowl again. But I'm trying to save all that rain water I can. So basically I filmed my main channel video. I ended up sending what in the heck? I don't know what that is, tape. I ended up sending the footage that I just filmed over to an editor that I used from time to time and really need to start utilizing more this year because that's sort of like one of the things I wanted to talk about is just like doing a reset for 2023 and sort of like what I'm looking for, what I wanna do, boundaries I wanna implement, et cetera. And I think it's good for everyone to do this in their life in general, not just like if you do social media for a living but just like at all. I really, really need to start accepting help this year. I am not good at that. That's like number one on my list is to start kind of reaching out if I need help. Both mentally and also just like work-wise, I run two YouTube channels by myself, literally by myself. And I have tried various techniques of like hiring editors or hiring people and I'm always like, I can just do it myself. And sure I could, but at my own expense, you know, and I end up being extremely stressed and it's just like not worth it in the end. So that is definitely something that I would like to work on for this year is being more intentional about having free time. I would like to have more of a work-life balance. Actually, I already put it up so I can't grab it but my friend Laura came over last week and we made vision boards. We spent the night making vision boards and it was so much fun I have decided that my word of 2023 is balance. That is the word that I want to guide me through this year and just really be the thing where I close the chapter on 2023 and be like, yeah, that was the year I finally accomplished that. I think I'm like getting better year by year but this needs to be the year where something gives because I can't take on that workload alone anymore. And in just a lot of ways, like I want to find balance with like how I eat, how I move my body. There's just, I could say so many things but I just feel like I'm an extremely all or nothing person in a lot of areas of my life and touching on the body thing for a second. I feel like when it comes to trying to put nourishing foods into my body and try to implement an exercise routine, I can be very all or nothing. I can fall into like diet culture or into extremes and I'm really trying to strike that balance this year and just be like, yes, I wanna move my body because it feels good physically and because it's good for my health overall but also because it's good for my mental health and because I want to and because it gives me endorphins and you know, all these different things. So that's kind of one of the big things that I really want to work on is balance and then yeah, just like work-life balance, making sure I'm really good at unplugging in the evenings and the weekends. I mean, occasionally I'll vlog on the weekend or if I have a deadline or something but I'm pretty good about that but I just need to have like a separation. Like I need to have much more of a separation going on and more of a balance, like I said. I would be so curious to know if you all have, you don't have to have a word for the year by the way. I just noticed some people doing it and I thought about it and that was kind of what I came up with. So be really curious to hear if you have a word of the year and sort of what that is for you and your thought process behind it and all that stuff, because I find it so fascinating. I really do feel like with my vlog channel, particularly with this channel, I have struggled because on my main channel, I really kind of keep that focused on like fashion, secondhand fashion, body image, sort of confidence, body neutrality, all that kind of stuff. And so when someone leaves a comment that's maybe negative on that channel, it kind of rolls off my back. Someone's like, oh, you've tried those boots on wrong or you look ugly in that shirt or whatever. Doesn't bother me. But on my vlog channel, on this channel, my content is loosely, I mean, based around my life. So my life is my content. So sometimes when I get unsavory comments from people, it can tend to feel like a personal attack and it happens to everyone who makes videos on this platform, but I'm just gonna be a lot more strict in blocking people and possibly even look into someone who can like monitor my comments for me to like help my mental health so that I'm able to continue doing these videos because I really, really enjoy it. It's obviously for you all, but it's for me too. It's like a diary of my life. And I love that I can go look back and watch, you know, when Drew and I went to Japan in 2018 or see both of my trips to England or, you know, just like, I love it. It brings me great, great joy, but I need to find balance with that as well because especially towards the end of the year, last year, it started weighing on me mentally and just letting other people's opinions, you know, get into my head and whatnot. And I have to say that 99% of comments are so wonderful and amazing and I'm so appreciative. Like I'm just so thankful that I get to do this for my job and that these are my things that I want to change in 2023, you know? But yeah, as far as like some boundaries, we're gonna do a little boundary town hall. I'm not gonna like useless criticism that's like very nitpicky and like kind of rancid in energy, if you will. That's just gonna get blocked. Like I don't care to see that. No one does, honestly. And it really is a reflection, like I fully realize that. It's not necessarily as much about me as it is about the person who's leaving the comment. But yeah, just a reminder to like be nice to people on the internet in everyday life. And yeah, I don't know about that, that's boring stuff. But yeah, will be, you know, protecting my peace this year, very, very much so. Also, I talked about this in my vlogmas Q&A where someone said like what was one thing that you did this year that you were really proud of? And I said, like I'm learning to advocate for myself, say no, et cetera. I wanna get better at that. Just because I'm doing that doesn't mean it's easy. I did finally text our upstairs neighbor, Drew and I text our upstairs neighbor and we're just like, hey, sorry, don't know if you know that we can hear, but like, would you mind? Like we were really, really nice about it. It was just like, we would like to kindly ask if you could just take notice of like, you know, laundry at three in the morning and blah, blah, blah. And his response, like literally I built it up for weeks. I was like, no, I can't say anything. I can't say anything. Like I don't wanna be a difficult neighbor. What if this, what if that? And like wasn't advocating for myself or speaking up. And then finally we decided that we were gonna do it. And he wrote back and was so nice. And he was just like, I'm so sorry. I had no idea that you guys could hear that. Like I will absolutely do that. Happy New Year, have a great night. Like literally the nicest guy ever. And so it's just like a lot of times things like that work out in your favor. And you kind of like, I don't know, I was scared to speak up and take up space and scared to like say something. And I was in that situation before with, you know, previous neighbors. So things are great now, no complaints. And yeah, I just wanna be better about that and not have it be such an anxiety inducing thing to be like, hey, this is what I need or hey, can you please do this or that or whatever. So yeah, and I have, I've actually, do we wanna talk about this? I have actually started being honest when I reply to people in text messages when I can't or don't wanna hang out. So like before I used to, I don't wanna say lie but I would give this like long explanation instead of just being like, nah, I'm not feeling it tonight or whatever because I am such a deep people pleaser that like even just the thought of saying no to something could make me unlikable or something. So anyways, I've started just being like, nah, I'm in bed for the night or I'm on the couch in my pajamas or like I need a couple more days to hibernate or I'm not feeling so hot or whatever. It's been really great and it's a good sort of practice for me because it's not like I'm trying to hide the reason that I don't wanna go or I can't make it or whatever. It's because I don't wanna like disappoint the person or make them think I don't wanna hang out with them or whatever. And so I've just been trying to get better about that instead of doing the like, oh yeah, I'm busy this week but check in with me next week. I'm just like, no, I'm not gonna be able to make it. You know that type of thing. So I want to continue to get better at that and just get more comfortable saying no and advocating for myself. So yeah. Anyways, that's gonna do it for the rest of this vlog. I just kind of wanted to ease back into the year and let you know where I'm at mentally. I'm really, really excited to hang out with you this year and take you along on the, you know, small parts of my life that I share on the internet. It certainly means a lot to me that you're here. So thank you so much. I'm gonna go sit on the couch in my comfy blanket and enjoy this rainy evening and I will see you very soon in the next vlog. Bye.