Hey everyone!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Hope you're having a great day.
Today I'm just gonna share my April highlights, lessons, and favorites, just recapping the month that I've had.
So before I begin: Yes, this is new, all of this artwork. I don't think I've shown it in a video yet.
But yes, I'm planning to put this artwork on the walls. But at the moment, I kind of
like that it's just sitting on my couch because you could see it in this video.
If it's higher, I don't know if you could see it as well.
Anyway, I will be coming out with apartment tour videos, so wait for those.
But let's talk about April.
The biggest event of April was Coachella, for me. This was my fifth Coachella in a row.
So my first Coachella was 2014. And I remember it distinctly because I filmed my first videos
for Lavendaire ever before Coachella.
And then I went and then I launched Lavendaire when I came back.
I think it's really cool to look back at all my Coachellas and see how I've grown each year.
It's kind of a milestone for me, just to mark where I am in life.
Anyway, I had such a blast at Coachella this year.
Beyonce was the highlight, THE highlight of my life.
It was the best show I've ever seen in my life.
She was just so on point, she was perfect, she was powerful.
Her facials were on point. Never for a second does she falter or have any flaws in her performance.
It was really crazy.
So that was just amazing and I was so happy that I saw the whole set from beginning to
end, and it was so worth it.
I also really, really loved seeing Eminem perform.
I was excited to see him because, yes, he's a legend. We grew up listening to his music.
But I didn't realize how many of his songs I knew, and it brought back so many memories.
When I was young, I was maybe eight or nine years old, I had older guy cousins who would
blast rap music and hip hop music, a lot of Eminem.
And I realized I knew so many lyrics to his songs. I went crazy, I had such a blast.
I didn't expect to have that much fun at Eminem, but I did.
Moving on, another fun thing I did just this past weekend was take a pottery class with my girlfriends.
It was one of my friend's birthday, so we booked a pottery class for ten of us.
And I've never done it before. It was just so fun to use your hands and get dirty with the clay.
Obviously I didn't vlog during the clay as much as I wanted to. Your hands are just so
dirty that it's hard to do anything else with your hands.
But I had so much fun and it's just something that, if you're ever curious about it,
I suggest that you go try it because, I don't know, just making something with your hands,
molding it and getting dirty, is just so much fun.
Another thing is: I'm actually gonna go back to Shanghai at the end of April, so I'm leaving in two days.
So by the time this video's out, I'll be in China.
But yeah, I'm gonna see my dad and my uncle and my grandma.
So my dad's side of the family is all in Shanghai, and I only see them every couple years or so.
So it's always a very important trip for my family. And this time my brother's coming with us to go.
So my brother hasn't seen my dad in even longer, so it's just going to be - I feel like
it's always life-changing every time I get to spend time with my dad and my grandma and stuff.
It'll be nice to just have some real family time and hang out with my brother because
I don't get to see him often. He lives in Seattle.
So I'll kind of be off the grid for the next couple weeks, but you guys will still be seeing videos from me.
But just an FYI that I might come back, I don't know, with a new perspective on life. We'll see.
Let's move on to the lessons that I've learned recently.
First off, I want to show off this Quarter 1 review graphic that I did with some of the
people from our Artist of Life Mastermind.
You can click on the blog post down below to read this further, but it just shows everybody's
lessons that they've learned from the past quarter
and the thing that we're most proud of accomplishing. So that's pretty fun.
So aside from those lessons from the first quarter, one thing I've learned recently or
was reminded of recently is that
you are whole - we are whole - no matter where you are in life.
Sometimes we can get caught up in measuring our success by material things or with numbers,
whether it's what you have in your life, how much money you have, what your job is, how
well you're doing in your job.
For me, it would be how many subscribers, how many views. And those numeric things,
you kind of use those as benchmarks of success,
when in reality, deep down, whether you have those material things or not, you are still whole.
And success is not necessarily measured in those physical, material things. It's really
about how you feel.
Do you feel empowered? Do you feel free? Do you feel joyful in life?
Going back in time a few years before I started Lavendaire, before I was doing anything, I
was still the same person.
I was still Aileen, living my life, and I was still a person of value.
Even when I had zero subscribers or no money in my bank account, I was still alive and breathing.
And the fact that you are alive and breathing as a human being means that you are worthy,
you have value.
You are made of love and light. You are still you whether you have material things or not.
So that's just a reminder to me and all of you. Success doesn't have to be measured by
those physical, material things. It's how you feel.
But also that, no matter what you have or don't have, you are worthy.
If you are alive, you have this energy within you. You are a lifeforce and you are worthy,
you are valuable.
If you're breathing, you're capable of taking action in this material world and you can
make things happen.
You can create things out of nothing. You could feel emotions.
And all of that is beautiful. All of that is so valuable.
So that's something that, I don't know, I was trying to remind myself of lately, to
just forget about everything else and just focus on how I feel.
Alright, moving on, here are some of my favorites from April.
The first one is a YouTube channel: Jasmine Lipska. I'm not sure how to pronounce her last name.
But she is the most adorable, the most sweet and positive Hapa girl.
So she's half Chinese-half Polish, but she's Australian.
And she makes vlogs also on self love and self care and health, but she also speaks
so many languages.
I think she speaks Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, a little bit of Polish.
If you're curious about language-learning, definitely check out Jasmine's videos, because
she has a lot of videos on how she studies and how she learns all these different languages.
I even downloaded her ebook on how to learn languages. I haven't really read it, but I
downloaded it and I plan to read it soon.
I especially like watching her Chinese speaking vlogs because her Chinese is so impeccable.
She's just so good at speaking Mandarin.
So I was brushing up because I'm going to China soon, and I started to take notes and
visually practice Chinese by writing it down.
Because I think, previously, I would be lazy to write it down. I would just listen from
podcasts or audiotapes or even mobile app games.
And I realize that I am a note-taker type of learner, obviously. I don't know why I
didn't realize that earlier.
I'm a journaler, and I love to take notes and write things down. So I learned from Jasmine
that I learn so much better when I take notes and take the time to write things down.
That's just how I reinforce what I'm learning.
Also, Jasmine is just such a good-hearted person. She is truly a light, just in her
personality and the content she creates
and what she speaks on her Instagram and her YouTube. You just know that her soul is enlightened.
I really look up to her and it's cool because I know she watches my videos as well.
So it's really cool to see a lot of young people being so bright.
You know, when I was 18, I was not in that state of life. Let me tell you, I was totally
just frustrated, angry, lost, just not -
I don't know, I feel like people are getting woke so much younger now.
And it's so cool to see a lot of new, up-and-coming young people spreading their light. It's so cool.
My next favorite is a song that I really, really loved. It's such a fun song to sing.
It's "Some" by Esna Yoon. This is a Kpop song that Esna Yoon wrote, but she covered it in
an English version on her YouTube channel.
So I will link that below. It's a fun, catchy song. But also, Esna's voice is so soulful.
And she just reminds me of Amy Winehouse, who I love. And Esna Yoon is someone who I
was watching on YouTube back in the day, like 2007, 2008, practically 10 years ago.
And I remember loving her voice back then. And then she kind of dropped off because she
went to Korea to work in the music industry there.
And recently, because I'm getting into Kpop,
I just browse music on YouTube and I found Esna's music again.
And I'm so happy to see that she's working in Korea, doing her thing, and that she's still making music.
It's really, really nice to catch up with people that you used to watch on YouTube, isn't it?
I don't know about you, I don't know how old you are, but if you watched YouTube in 2007,
2008, 2009, aren't there people that you miss?
There are so many YouTubers that I miss watching. One of them is Jeni Suk. She's an amazing singer.
I'll link all these channels below.
I also miss watching Michelle Phan videos, just in general. She was always my inspiration.
And now that she doesn't really post videos anymore, I feel like I miss her.
There's a lot of people I miss.
Obviously, there's so many new channels popping up and the industry is changing.
But sometimes I think back and I'm like, "What are they doing now? Why don't you make videos? I miss you."
Lastly, I have favorites in jewelry by Mejuri.
I don't know if you can see the rings. I have three rings here on my fingers.
And then I have this delicate little chain bracelet that says "artist" on it. It's a custom engraving.
I've worn Mejuri jewelry for three years or so. I feel like they're always simple, minimal,
delicate, and very high quality.
Also, these are pieces that you could just wear every day. They match everything.
And as a person who likes versatility and wearing things multiple times, that's the
kind of stuff I need. So I'm very happy with them.
Alright, that's it for my favorites, highlights, and lessons of April.
Let me know, what was your highlight of April? And what did you learn in April?
Also feel free to share a favorite thing that you think I should check out.
But yeah, I'd just love to know how you guys are doing and I want to stay connected.
Also, let me know if you are based in LA or southern California area.
I do want to organize a meetup in the summer.
So I don't know when, I don't know the details, but just throwing it out there that if you
would like to meet me - I haven't done anything like this before.
But I had a friend who encouraged me like, "Hey, you should probably do a meetup."
And I'm like, "It's so scary!" but I think it'd be super cool to meet you guys in person
and have real chats face-to-face.
I think it'll be a really fun time, so let me know!
I'll see you guys in the next video.
Have a beautiful day.
Bye!