Hi everyone!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Today I want to share some of my favorites
from January, and as you all know, my favorites are not always physical things.
It's a mix of tangible and intangible things that have brought me joy.
So this past month was interesting because I set all these new goals for 2017,
like I wanted to post two videos a week, post daily photos on Instagram,
and start recording my podcast early in advance.
Do all this stuff, but at the same time
wanted to have more space to breathe in my life and hang out with friends.
It was a challenge really trying to balance this new schedule with still finding time
for myself.
But there were some cool things that happened this month.
For example:
my Artist of Life Workbook, the print ones, came in!
Super, super excited about them.
I just want to bring it up so I can show you how great it looks and how proud I am about
it.
So those are being shipped out to everyone who purchased it,
and if you'd like to get one yourself, the link is down below.
Alright, let's talk about my favorites.
My first favorite of the month is, by far, the movie La La Land.
If you follow me on Instagram or anywhere on social media, you've probably heard me
post about it and rave about it.
I just love this movie so much because, first of all, I love musicals.
My past favorite movie was Moulin Rouge, so obviously I would love La La Land.
I see La La Land as a mix of Grease: The Musical with fun songs and also The Notebook
with a really great, romantic story, but also it has that artist, creative element on it,
talking about the artist's struggle and artist's journey that really hit me in here.
Honestly, it's a movie for dreamers and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you
watch it.
It's just so magical.
Honestly I went to watch it by myself in the movie theaters.
It was the first movie I went to see by myself.
It's because it was a Saturday night,
my boyfriend was out of town and I was at home working on something.
I was like,
"You know what?
Everyone's been talking about this movie.
I want to watch it.
If I want to do something, I'm going to do it."
I just bought a ticket, I went, and I had so much fun.
I do not regret going by myself at all because I got to fully appreciate everything
that the movie had to offer.
Just seeing all the details and cinematography was amazing.
A lot of the shots look like they were one-shot takes.
And the colors,
it just made LA look more magical but not entirely fantasy.
It was the perfect balance
between reality and fantasy.
It's just magical.
I love that movie so much,
and I've been obsessed with the soundtrack.
So the soundtrack is also my favorite of the month.
I've just been listening to that on repeat.
My favorite songs are probably "City of Stars" and "Another Day of Sun".
Also: I really love Emma Stone's solo song.
It's called "Audition".
All the songs are so fun
and the opening scene of La La Land was people driving in LA traffic
and they sing this big, fun song and you know, since I've been driving in LA traffic
a few times this month, I play that song.
It just makes me so happy to be driving in traffic in LA
because that is something that is unique and wonderful.
I know, right?
It just puts me such a good mood that even I will enjoy driving in traffic.
My next favorite is a song called "Low" by Trace, and Trace is my current favorite artist
right now.
She's also from LA.
I just discovered her on Spotify.
So do listen to that song and do listen to her.
I feel like that song makes me feel like I'm in an indie filming driving,
it's kind of bittersweet and you’re nostalgic.
It just gives you some sort of feeling.
I especially love listening to it when I'm driving.
The electric guitar and the chords,
it gives you that mood.
It's so soft and nice.
I really love it.
I feel like listening to Trace
and her music, it's almost as if that is the kind of music I wish I were to sound like
if I continue to make music.
You know, it's totally my style: chill driving music.
That's my style.
I also used one of her songs in an Instagram video that I made about the storm in LA.
There was a storm this past weekend which brings me to my next favorite
which are my new Instagram videos.
Instagram in general is getting more fun
because I'm putting more energy into posting daily.
And so many times I've struggled like,
"Oh my god, I have nothing to post," and I think that challenge is a good challenge.
It pushes me to figure out how to create content: if I'm at home, what can I take photos of?
What kind of video can I create from the footage that I have?
With the videos that I'm trying to post on Instagram, I call it my "Life as Art" series.
By that I mean, there are so many little moments of life that are so beautiful
and I really love to capture them.
I just love to capture beautiful things,
and just showcase that beauty, see the beauty in everything.
As I'm going about my life, I always have my camera with me and I'll take photos
and video footage as I go and edit little stories of pockets of time, pockets of beauty
here,
beauty there.
I'm just having a lot of fun with creating videos on Instagram,
just because there's no pressure and I'm not doing it for any purpose.
You know, I don't have to think about whether people want to see this, whether people care,
because I don't care.
I'll make what I want.
Also the thing I probably love most
is the fact that I can use whatever music I want for Instagram videos,
so using Trace's music, just using anything that I'm actually listening to
because the music that I use on YouTube, I always have to prescreen
and make sure it's not licensed and get artists' permission.
Or get it free from no-copyright music, and it's kind of a headache.
I really don't enjoy that part of finding unlicensed music for YouTube.
So just having the freedom, the creative freedom, to use whatever music I want
in Instagram videos-and just really to do whatever I want, just to have fun with it.
I don't know if you saw my Smoothie Party/Morning Party video on Instagram, like it's so stupid.
I had so much fun editing that video, I've never laughed so hard to myself while editing
a video.
I just had an idea and I ran with it, and I just put a lot of stupid stuff in it.
And it was so much fun!
So I'm just really grateful I have a new creative outlet
where I could just really be free, and just be myself because I feel like
you have to practice being an artist.
You can't just stick to one medium.
Practice experimenting in other ways, other ways to express yourself,
and see what else is there.
You know, there's always more to explore.
My next favorite is something that you've probably seen in a recent video of mine.
It's this dry brush.
Dry brushing is something that I started to try this past month,
and it's in my natural detoxing video if you want to see that.
Dry brushing, if you haven't heard,
is where you dry brush your dry skin before you shower.
You do it while you're naked.
You start from your feet, you work all the way up your body.
You always brush toward your heart.
It's something that-it stimulates your skin so you feel really refreshed.
It exfoliates your skin, but it also improves circulation of your lymphatic system
because your lymphatic system is right beneath your skin.
So getting into those parts,
like literally under your armpits, those are the parts where you have a lot of lymph nodes,
and it's good to circulate things through.
Feel free to do more research on dry brushing.
I'll have some links in the description.
I just love it right now.
It makes me feel so refreshed and so great.
My next favorite is this dry body oil that is a spray and it's in a rosy scent.
It's marula and argan oil that is very lightweight.
I just spray this all over my body
after I shower and rub it in.
it's just so much easier to have oil in a spray form
so you don't have to pour it out and be all clean with it.
You just spritz and rub,
and it makes things really convenient.
I found this as I was browsing Thrive Market
because I was seeing what was the most popular beauty/skincare stuff on that website.
My last favorite this month is this travel magazine called Musotrees.
Honestly I would not know about this magazine if it weren't for my friend Sam.
My friend Sam gave me a copy and it's because he has a company called The Goods
and they're in this magazine.
Apart from that, it's basically a magazine based in Malaysia,
I believe, and it just looks so gorgeous, honestly.
I think last time
I shared in my favorites something called Cereal magazine.
I feel like they have a similar vibe, like a very hip, very fresh vibe.
The articles are all about travel.
They feature Croatia, Prague, and Morocco in this issue, and photos.
I really look at it for eye candy and travel inspiration because it's gorgeous to look
at
and it's really nice to have something in your hands, physically in your hands,
instead of always browsing your computer or your iPad.
Alright that's it for my favorites.
Before I go, I do want to announce
that I've decided to create a Lavendaire Facebook group for all of you guys to join
and encourage and support each other, and just communicate.
I wanted to create
more of a community-like feel.
Last time I did monthly favorites, I talked about
my Artist of Life Mastermind which is a Facebook group for the Workbookers
and I had to make that a secret group because so many of you guys wanted to join
but you didn't buy a workbook, but I wanted to make that group specifically for Workbookers.
So my solution is I'm going to make a separate Facebook group for everyone,
all of my followers, to join so that you can connect and ask each other questions,
and I'll be interacting in there as well.
You know, you can give me video ideas and such.
Another reason I created this new group is because I have a podcast
where there's not really a social element to the podcast.
I feel bad that when I put up an episode,
I can't really see what people think about it.
There's no way to really make comments on iTunes,
so I'd like to have some sort of community made for everyone who follows my YouTube
and my podcast, and a way for you guys to connect with each other,
because I'm sure you're all very similar.
You have similar goals and ideals,
and it'd be really fun to get together in that sense.
If you'd like to join
the Lavendaire Facebook group, then definitely click the link in the description.
I'll be so excited to see you there and we can chat more in that group.
I also want to give a heads-up that February's theme of videos will be self-love and self-care.
So if you have any questions or any video suggestions you'd like me to do around those
topics,
leave them down below.
I do kind of have broad themes for my content per month.
January was new year, refresh theme.
Then February will be self-love, self-care theme.
March, I'm thinking, will be more like organizing, productivity theme.
And I'm not sure
about the rest of the year, we'll play it by ear.
I don't always have to stick to the theme,
but it's good to kind of have a theme just to get content ideas.
So just so you know,
that's how I'm going to go about this year, and see how it goes.
Yeah, send your suggestions down below.
I'd love to hear them.
Thank you so much for watching.
I love you all so much, and have a beautiful day.
Bye!