hey guys how are you i am just sitting down having some tea and i thought i would do a q&a
i actually posted on the community tab of youtube and over on instagram and asked if you
had any questions got a bunch of questions kind of organized them a little bit and we'll see how many
i can get through covering a bunch of different topics from like diy specific questions to adhd
questions to personal questions and all sorts of stuff so i have them in a word document you know
and i'll just see how many i get through ready shall we start they're going to be fast answers so
just providing the right amount of detail hopefully how do you determine that a diy will
be worth the effort and cheaper than buying so my first step is always to do a bunch of research to
see if i can buy it for an affordable price i will often spend a lot of time doing that actually and
then when i figure that i either can't find the design that i want or it's just not available at
the price that i'd be willing to buy it for then i'll see if i can make it for a cheaper price
do you have a big diy project that you can think of that seems too big to tackle or it doesn't seem
possible to do at the moment and i absolutely do that project is that i would like to design and
build my own house i'm glad i haven't been able to do it so far because i don't have some of the
learnings in place that would lead to me building my ideal house for example i am still struggling
with figuring out what kind of designs have really long longevity versus just being really trendy and
i want to make sure that whatever i would design my house in has longevity i also want to figure
out like where houses should be facing how the windows should be so that i get the optimal type
of light that i want around my house i just want to make sure that it's like a place that
has lots of trees lots of nature and my ideal kind of home so that's a project that's too big
right now but one day fingers crossed i am going to be building my own house i hope how did you
get into diy my first ever diy project was a cross stitching project when i was in grade six i think
like i did crafts before that obviously but really into diy my first big project i didn't even diy
myself i just came up with kind of a plan it was a bench my cousin built it for me and we kind
of worked on it together he he physically built it though with his tools and then i finished it
and i just was hooked ever since then what is the first tool beginner diy or should invest in in my
opinion a drill i think you can do so much around your home that's even just so basic with a drill
a lot of people are really scared to hang things even curtains um if and if you don't know how to
if you don't have a drill then how he can do stuff like that so i think a drill is like the number
one thing next to that would be probably a saw have you ever messed up a diy project where you
scrap the entire project as there were no fixes if so what was it and how did you overcome the fear
of messing up another project to be able to start a new one so i do have a i probably i have a
couple projects that i've completely failed and haven't continued on with but the ones that are
coming to my mind are actually sewing projects sewing was like my first diy love i've taken on
some really big projects i made my grad ball dress which is a huge project but i bought a coat at a
thrift store and i wanted to adjust it myself and like do all sorts of alterations i took it apart
so i bought it i took it apart and then i was like oh my gosh this isn't working the material like my
needles weren't going through kept breaking my needles so yeah i just abandoned it and how did
you overcome the fear to be able to start a new project that's pretty simple i just
didn't pick a sewing project as my next project i just did something unrelated and we're golden
how are your herringbone floors holding up and how are your wood beams holding up is there any
warping or anything like that the answer is no both of them are holding up awesome
i'd say pretty much like the day that i installed them where did you learn and how did you build
your skill set did you how did you learn to use more advanced tools like cricket or wood cutting
and stuff like that i think i got a couple questions around them so i might have bundled
them i learned basically everything that i know how to do just through like thinking of something
that i want to do and then looking up how to do it so using like saws or more any advanced tools
literally i just would youtube it and i if it was something i was scared of like saws i just watched
like 50 safety demonstration videos before i went and started it for the first time and that really
helped just don't rely on just watching one video but like watch several videos and then you can
really get the hang of it the second part of the question was i have adhd too and i want to get
started with a bunch of stuff including my own youtube but i feel like i get stuck in the i
don't know how to do it mindset and then half and then the thought of having to dedicate the time to
learn and research drains me an executive function kicks in all i can say here is i'm totally with
you i totally have the exact same thing that pushes me from starting new projects and learning
new tools and it is also what keeps me buying something like i will bite the bullet after a lot
a lot of time of research and realizing that i want to do something i'll buy it and then i'll
keep it in the box and i won't open that box for like five months or six months or sometimes even
a year with the pocket hole jig for example and a lot of times it's really not as hard as you think
it's going to be but just just try it and just try and push yourself to learn it's often not as
hard as you think it will be but it will often take a little bit longer than you think it will
take now to more some more personal questions do you use youtube to fully support yourself yes i
do do you and your husband work on youtube together does he do his own career so
he does help me um here and now you know but no he has his own job it would be a dream of mine
for him to do this full-time one day if youtube could like grow bigger but right
now it's just it's it's he has his own job how old were you when you met your husband
we were we were in the first year university so however old that makes us what were your school
pass did you do any college or university design school oh and do you both work on your content
together that was me and my husband so we both went to university we both studied business
i did marketing he did finance and do you both work together on your content okay so i do want to
just reiterate because i feel like a lot of people have this belief that like we work and design and
like build everything together i typically will come up with designs and i'll figure out what the
plan is to actually build it we'll go buy supplies together a lot of the time sometimes not depending
on if he has time and availability and then i will pretty much almost always do the majority
of the actual work that's there he'll help me if he has time and if it's something that like
just to speed up the process or if i really just need a second set of hands how old are you
i could tell you right now but i just want to know how old you think i am so please let me know how
old you think i am and maybe i will tell you next video what is your ethnicity are you indian or are
you filipina i got several different questions about my ethnicity and they were all like one
person said are you indian someone else said are you filipina i am actually mixed so my mom
is chinese and my dad is middle eastern and i'm just like a bunch of different things so i am not
actually indian or filipino but i think that a lot of people do think on those two things
are you happy someone asked thank you so much for asking that question that's really sweet
i would say i'm i'm not always happy but typically like i'm reasonably happy i would say
i don't really strive towards happiness per se but i think i strive more towards contentment and just
like really being aware of what we have and being um appreciative and grateful for what i have and
sometimes there's things that are going on that are sad and sometimes there are things that are
going on that are stressful and that might take away from the happiness peak but overall like
contentment is what i strive towards how is it to live by your parents so i live by my mom
and she lives in like in the next building to me and i love it so much to the home depot people
know who you are they do not know who i am to my knowledge um i've actually only been recognized by
one person ever and she worked at michael's so go figure that makes sense do you listen any podcasts
currently i do not i have there have been a few that i have like but i would be open to podcast
recommendations if you have any where do you draw inspiration i wish i could say there was
one specific place but there isn't i try and i do consume a little bit of instagram content and
i typically try to look at accounts that are in different parts of the world like germany or bali
or different places that just have different vibes to them i guess and that really interests me and
spikes my curiosity but yeah there's no like one specific place ever want to remodel spaces outside
of your home i would but it it's too much pressure for me i feel like the first thing
would be that i really like to design to my own inspiration and when you're designing someone
else's space you have to really think about what they would like in their style and i don't
enjoy that nearly as much and i think the other thing is it's too much pressure like i would be
too focused on like are they going to like it are they going to like it and that would stress me out
so i i currently just like doing myspace maybe if i was more trained in interior design and knew all
the more like technical way to go about it and had that baseline i would but i don't have that if you
chose to buy a house will it be a fix-it upper or move-in ready with minor changes to be honest
i mentioned i want to build a house um if i were buying a house that was already built i probably
i would want it to be in a decently good state to be honest just being honest that's
just my personal preference i there's something i struggle with a little bit with
like having to really do like fixer-upper per se but with minor changes i mean i would probably
i would like for it to be in a good state and then be able to customize it to what i want if
i were buying a house that was already built and not designing it from scratch my ideal scenario
if i do just say would be to design it and have it built by a builder to a certain point and then
be able to finish it myself like maybe i put in my own floors i do my own backsplashes i'd paint
the walls myself i would put in beams myself but like maybe less of like the mixing the concrete
laying the foundation that stuff maybe i could just work with someone to do that kind of thing
but yeah would you ever consider creating an ecommerce store yeah i hope i can do that one
day in the future uh that's definitely a goal for me to have some sort of business i guess and my
background in business my husband's background in business that would be a goal for sure okay now to
some questions around like adhd and anxiety have you ever had anxiety that came in the way of you
making your home cozy for example you didn't do crafts because of it yeah absolutely i think the
anxiety of like figuring things out and learning something or feeling like there's too many steps
in the way that actually has gotten in the way for me when have you been diagnosed with adhd
did you notice it's in school or did you man or did it manifest in a certain moment of your life
i was accidentally first diagnosed i don't know if it was fully accidentally i actually have some
troubles reading if you haven't noticed but or maybe i've repeated things so you're only going
to get the polished version but i was actually diagnosed when i was in grade one with dyslexia
and because i had reading problems i still kind of reverse things a lot when i'm reading normally
anyway i digress when i was in grade 12 i was diagnosed again both of those times i actually
went to like educational psychologists they did extensive tests that lasted days of testing
essentially and when i was in grade 12 i was diagnosed with adhd and issues with my working
memory and now as an adult and doing youtube i'm actually realizing how much adhd impacts me more
than just like oh there's a class that i'm not that interested in i'm struggling to like learn
science because like my brain can't hold different types of information in the right way to be able
to learn and now it's like i can see it actually just impacts me in general like i've talked about
before i want to do things so much like i will want to do a project but like all those steps
that clutter my mind or all the different projects that i have on my mind can make it so it's so hard
for me to start so yeah i've definitely noticed it it's been there my whole life really but i was
officially diagnosed in grade 12. what helps you start projects with adhd i'm having a very hard
time starting a project so i'm wondering if you have any tips if you write out the steps actually
that can help because i think what happens to me at least is a lot of the steps will just be
jumbled hitting me at all times like if i needed to make over a room i'm just giving a big example
i would literally every single day probably twice a day i would be thinking what paint color what
color would stain oh but what if this goes wrong what about my bed frame what about my side table
what about this side table and if i were sitting down to just think about like oh i gotta work on
my bed frame then i'd be like okay well what if the bed frame color doesn't match with the beams
like it's a struggle so i think just writing down the steps that you have just to complete can be
really helpful how do you learn to appreciate your own work and diys and not feel like you could have
done better to be honest i i really do appreciate my own work a lot and not feel like you could have
done better sometimes i feel like i could have done better but i still will always appreciate
it because i appreciate the time and effort that goes into it and then i appreciate the outcome
but yeah there's certainly like there's certain things that i could have done better for example
with a headboard i put batting down and it made it so that there was no lumps and it was super smooth
for the bed frame i didn't put batting down and there is some bumpiness it still looks
good and to everyone else who sees it they're like oh it's still it's good but to me i'm like
i wish i did that i wish i could have done better but i still appreciate that i made it and then
it came together um so yeah where and how do you keep all your craft supplies and tools organized
i've never seen them stored in your videos until you pull them out for a project
i'm actually a very disorganized person and they're hidden in closets or on other sides of
the room that you don't see and are they organized no they're not i hope to one day get organized i
hope to one day like organize my craft closet and have like built-ins and stuff like that that would
be a dream for me but currently i'm not there what equipment do you use to make your videos like what
camera editing software etc i wanted to start making a youtube channel but on a super tight
budget i had other questions about what equipment i use um and what my process is like so i'll link
all the equipment that i use down below and you can get started with a phone like i film my travel
like when i travel and i do vlogs or if i'm not at home and you would see any footage from anywhere
that's outside of my home i've taken it with just my like my phone so you can get started just with
that but i think in terms of like having a good tripod having a decent mic or having if you're
actually having a camera making sure that the camera is like taking nice quality video footage
that stuff makes a big difference for me at least in terms of how much frustration i had while i'm
actually making videos and filming content so i'll link what i have down below but like one
of my biggest mistakes was getting a bad like a cheap tripod to begin with it's just caused
me so much annoyance and also my camera that i started out with was really really annoying so
i don't know it works if you have a phone a good phone start with your phone i feel like that can
be a good way but other than that i will link what i use down below and then in terms of the
recording and editing process all i could do like a whole video on that because it's quite a lengthy
process i think at least for me i'll usually end up with like quite a lot of footage even
though i've gotten better i used to start out with like four hours of footage for a video and
then to bring that down to like 17 18 20 minutes is really hard now i have it down probably to like
an hour and a half of footage maybe two hours of footage and then i bring that down once and then
i edit it again and then i just keep editing it until it gets down to like 20 minutes of footage
and editing used to take me almost 20 hours and now it probably takes me maybe 12 hours ish i
don't do voiceovers anymore and that's really helped me because that used to stress me out but
yeah so i did just want to let you know that i might be decreasing my youtube upload schedule
a little bit maybe i'll go instead of like every single week of the month i might go two weeks and
then skip one week and then two weeks skip one week two weeks skip one week i'm trying to decide
that essentially because i just wanna a couple things i want to be able to also be creative on
other platforms like instagram and tick tock and i'm finding that that would be impossible right
now with where i'm at i know some people do weekly uploads or two uploads a week i have no idea how
that's possible but for me with my abilities it's like literally impossible since 2018 and i really
started with youtube again i have had literally no free time and no work-life balance and i don't
say that as a good thing at all whatsoever to me that's like one of the worst things and that's
been one of the biggest sacrifices to me because i'm someone who really really likes doing nothing
i really like relaxing i like going to the beach i like going shopping i like just wandering around
and doing things and i haven't really been able to do that at all and it's so been worth it because
i was able to turn this into something that i do full-time but i was really hoping that once
i started doing it full-time which was a a year ago that i would now have that
like i can like relax and have time to do those things and allow myself to do those things and
instead i'm still really stressed so i wrote down my goals for the year that's my number one goal
is to find a way to create while also being fair to myself and having time to relax and spend time
with friends and family and stuff like that so i think i'm going to be adjusting a little bit
i'll let you know what i land on but like honestly i love youtube this has been the best thing ever
if i were to compare how i felt in my outlook on life before doing youtube when i had free time
but i was doing my corporate job and my outlook on life was so bleak and now my outlook is not
bleak and it's so worthwhile i can't think of the word right now but i look to my future and i think
this is awesome but i'm just stressed you know and i need to decrease the stress but i'm really
thankful for the outlook that you guys have given me i'm grateful that i'm able to do this
i love doing this i love being creative and i love storytelling and i love having videos that are
more relaxing and it can act as an escape so thank you so much for being here thanks for listening
in on these random questions that i've just answered if you have more questions that you want
me to answer drop them down below the next time that i do a q a i will pick some questions but
thank you once again i love you so much you guys have changed my life youtube has changed my life
you guys have literally changed my whole outlook on life so thank you so much i love you bye