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Hi my loves. Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's spring, it's my favorite time of year.
And I just wanted to capture my life lately
and share a little behind the scenes
of what I've been up to.
I'm starting my day with a little kitchen reset,
just putting away all of our clean dishes.
This is basically my daily life.
I do a little bit of tidying each day.
Sometimes it's tedious but at the same time
I get so much joy and satisfaction
from having a clear and organized space.
So it's important for me.
Next, I'm making Togi's food.
I've been trying to feed him healthier meals
with more whole foods and alternating
between different proteins
and ingredients each meal.
Today we're doing some chicken ,rice, carrots,
Greek yogurt and mixing it in with his kibble.
Now to make myself something.
Today I have some time to make
a batch of kale bean salad.
I was inspired by Violet Witchell on Instagram
to start making dense bean salads.
They're basically protein rich salads that
you can make a big batch of
and eat throughout the week.
It's a great way to get in your veggies
and have a healthy side always on hand.
Today I'm adding chopped kale,
great northern beans, cucumbers,
roasted red peppers, pickled onions
and mini mozzarella balls.
For the dressing I'm doing olive oil,
red wine vinegar, juice of half a lemon,
dijon mustard, agave, some kosher salt
thyme and rosemary.
Mix it into the salad.
And then I'm serving it with
some grilled chicken breast that I made yesterday.
After eating, I'm packing the rest of the salad
so I can have it throughout the week.
This makes it easier to prepare my other meals
and saves some time.
Hello my loves. So it is spring over here.
The weather's been beautiful,
the hills are green, the cows are out.
Yes, I feel like one of my biggest luxuries
and biggest flexes in life is that
from my backyard I can see nature.
And I can see cows roaming and eating grass.
So anyway, I wanted to do a
little vlog before my big trip.
So tomorrow, I'm actually going to Coachella.
But the day after I come back from Coachella,
I'm going to go to Korea and China for a month.
So Korea I'm going with my girlfriends.
It's just going to be fun, shopping, skincare.
And then I'm going to China.
I'm doing some solo parts by myself.
So like maybe a week and a half is a solo trip.
And then I'm going to connect with my dad
and see some family in Shanghai
which I haven't seen them
since 2019 and some 2018.
So it's been many many years. So yeah.
I'm doing kind of like a revisiting
and reconnecting with my ancestry.
And I'll talk a little bit
more about that trip later.
I'll pack later tonight.
But in about 30 minutes,
my friend Mei is coming over
and we're going to do a photo shoot
for her new beverage brand.
I'm super excited because
she is like a lawyer turned entrepreneur and
I think she has just the coolest story
and I'm so proud of her for
like starting this new brand
and we're just going to take
some photos of her products.
I am actually really excited
to just be a photographer
because I have so much fun like art directing
and just being the creative.
There's just so much that I
want to share with you guys
and I really haven't found the
time to turn it into content.
So I thought a vlog would
probably be the best way
cuz in the past couple weeks,
life has been pretty dramatic and I just feel like
there's a lot of lessons that
I want to share around it.
But I'll get to it later.
Let's get some work done first.
Quick plug if you haven't
checked out my podcast,
The Lavendaire Lifestyle check it out.
I'll link it down below but
today I'm recording an intro
for a bonus episode
and I have a new miniseries
called Dear Aileen that I'm going to test.
So I don't know, I was going to shoot it today
but I might end up shooting it tomorrow.
That's life. I'm always pushing back content.
Hello. Are you excited? Yes. Okay.
So this is really, this is how
you can create the smooth look.
Yeah these ones. I think
you basically go like this.
Oh yeah. Perfect. Oh this is good.
It just gives a little extra oomph.
I don't know if it's bright
enough for like the flowers.
Yeah I think it's better with the color on top.
These are product photos
like yeah shop. For sure.
And then a horizontal photo,
like a horizontal photo
and then the individual cube.
Oh you're so cute.
Mei came with some example photos
she wanted to do and I was a
little uncertain we can pull it off
since I didn't have studio
lighting like her examples
but like with any creative
process we figured it out
and found our flow as we went on.
Maybe we do the flower there.
Or do you have more flower?
Okay fine you can come here, sit here.
Togi come here. You can go back.
We are chasing the light.
Since we are shooting with natural light
I kept having to move
our setup to chase the light
as the sun was setting.
What a cute flower thing.
I'm just trying to get it right you know.
There's a potential. Do you see the potential?
Oh I see the potential.
I think it's cuz it's like
too messy. Is it the blocks?
We moved upstairs for the flatlay
since it was brighter in my office.
I was much happier with the lighting here.
And eventually, we got some really great shots
and had a lot of fun.
Oh this kind of looks weird too though.
Yeah yeah but what if I go in the back.
Yeah yeah I mean this way is definitely easier.
Okay so Mei just left.
We took Togi on a walk and had
dinner and then cleaned up.
We basically did like a three-hour photo shoot
and in the end it was so much fun.
I just have a lot of fun being a creative.
And when I get in the flow,
I'm just like I just keep wanting to continue.
It's almost like we were done
getting all the shots we needed.
But at the end I just like:
"Oh let's try this let's try this."
So I had a lot of fun.
Now I'm going to look through her photos
and pick my favorites help her edit a little bit
and then I'm going to see if I
could get some packing done tonight.
All right. It's the next day because last night
after editing photos I was exhausted and so
I couldn't vlog and it was
too late anyway to vlog.
But I just wanted to catch
you guys up on the big trip
that I'm taking and life as of now.
Like I mentioned I'm going to be traveling
for a whole month to Korea and China.
Korea with friends and then a little solo time
for myself traveling and writing.
And I'm going to spend time with my dad in
Shanghai who I have not seen since 2019.
It's been a long time.
I already know that's going to be a very emotional
and healing type of trip.
But yeah I guess I don't know until I get there
and we'll see how it changes my life.
I feel like every time I see him and we reconnect,
it always shifts something in me.
Because it's growing up, you know.
I've always had that
interesting type of relationship
where I only see my dad every few years.
So there's a lot of things left unsaid
and there's a lot of things that want to come out
when you do see each other.
But yeah it's I definitely
feel like I'm in a new era
like I'm going as my adult self.
In short my relationship with my dad
has given me the most pain but also the medium
to find the most healing in my life.
And that's where a lot of my story
and a lot of my healing videos kind of stem from.
Like that that story of my childhood.
I told the story in a couple of my older videos.
I'll link them below.
Like story of my 20s or my
self-love self-worth journey.
But anyway, another thing that I'm excited to do
when I go to Shanghai is,
I have a grandma who's still
alive but she has Alzheimer's.
So I'm definitely gonna see her
even if she doesn't remember me.
I'm going to cry okay.
Like I said it's going to be an emotional trip.
I am basically doing a week and a half solo.
So part of my solo trip I'm going
to go to two cities in China.
One is called Suzhou, one is called Wuxi.
And the reason I'm going there, not only are they
like beautiful cities with a lot of sightseeing.
But those are the two cities
where my grandparents are from.
My grandpa's from Wuxi,
my grandma's from Suzhou.
And so I want to just go there
and just reconnect you know.
Like my grandpa's not here anymore.
So I'm going to visit his grave.
My grandma's still here, I will try to see her.
But I also just like you know
I just want to reconnect.
And I have so many questions for my dad.
Because I don't get the
opportunity to ask questions
and I just realize we're getting older and older.
And there's there's so much that I have to ask.
So much that I want to know about my family
and so that's kind of what I'm doing.
I'm also about to start my period
so this is why I'm emotional.
So yeah, that's why the first part of my trip
is going to be fun
social connecting with friends.
Also very special because in my 30s,
with my friends, some of them are moms
it's so hard to like get together
and make time to actually
travel somewhere together.
So this is an epic trip
that I'm super excited for.
And then the second part of my trip
is going to be a lot of reflection a lot of
solo time, writing hopefully.
And then healing or whatever.
Just connecting with family
and seeing what comes of that.
The past couple weeks have
also been kind of dramatic
in our lives and it's really given Wilson and I
a deeper perspective on
life and what truly matters.
So about a couple weeks ago,
Wilson and I went to Vegas.
It was a 4-day golf trip that he planned
with two other friends.
And one is his business partner,
another one is like a older
friend from his golf club.
And long story short,
while we were at our first dinner
like the first night in Vegas,
one of the friends, the oldest
one started feeling unwell.
And it became this whole thing where
we had to call the ambulance
paramedics or whatever.
And they took him to the hospital.
Basically we found out that
he had a heart attack at the restaurant
and luckily we were in a Vegas hotel where
they had medical people on site.
They could take him to the hospital like
he was attended pretty quickly I would say.
And he was able to have surgery
2 days after he got into the hospital.
But we learned after the
fact that his heart attack
is called the widowmaker heart attack
which means that it's like
one of the biggest arteries to
you know bring blood to your heart
and with that type of heart attack
if you're not in the hospital within 90 minutes,
you have like a 10% chance of survival.
Something crazy like that.
And so luckily he's doing fine
and so it was like a very dramatic
kind of wakeup call.
But also like just gratitude of life.
Like we're so happy that
everything worked out okay.
We just felt really lucky that
all the circumstances around the situation
made it work out.
Because if anything was different,
it could have easily gone the other way, right?
He could have easily not survived
if it happened on the way to Vegas
where you're in the desert
with no one around you.
Or you know, because he's older
his English is not good he only speaks Chinese.
If he didn't have Wilson and his friend James
doing the translation, working the doctors,
calling our doctor friends and this and that,
they would have had a harder time managing that.
Basically it was a lot of things but at the end,
we're we're just very grateful for life.
The second part of this dramatic story is
literally one week after this incident happened,
Wilson had another friend from his golf club.
Like someone that he
chats with in his group chats
like just one of his friends
that he knows pretty well,
he basically passed
suddenly this past weekend.
So it's it's been like, I don't know a few days.
And Wilson was in shock. He's processing.
All his friends are grieving and
they're still not sure what it was it happened.
Either in his sleep or something at night.
It may have also been a heart thing.
Anyway we don't know but he was young
he was like 45 I think.
So it's just two people that we know in our lives
where something scary
health related happened to.
And what's also ironic is like these two people
that this happened to are like literally
two of the most successful or
wealthy people that we know.
You know and it really puts into
perspective a lot of things.
Like you can have so much money in the world,
you can have this and that
but it really doesn't matter
if you don't have your health.
It's also just a reminder that life is short.
So there's no promise that you
and I will be here tomorrow.
Or if our loved ones will be here tomorrow.
Or the day after.
So really live your life the way you want it,
make the most of it, right?
If there's something you want to do, go do it.
Don't waste your entire life sacrificing
and overworking yourself
or overstressing yourself.
It's not worth it because
there's so much life to be lived.
Like yes, do the thing, right?
If you have a goal, if you have a career,
if you want to work, do it.
But know what matters to you in life.
Know what your priorities and your values are.
And make sure you're living aligned to that.
And so that's why I'm also excited
to just embark on this trip.
Because it gives me an opportunity to spend time
with my friends and reconnect
with my family which is
really important to me.
Like I can be a really busy person,
I have so much on my plate.
I have endless to-do list.
And it's like I can continue going on and on.
And sometimes as an entrepreneur,
or a content creator,
you literally feel like you're not doing enough.
You could be doing more.
You see someone else online.
Oh they're so successful.
Oh they're making so much content.
Or they're coming out with
these new products or whatever.
And you feel a little bit like you're behind.
And then you're like:
Oh maybe I should work more.
Maybe I should focus more.
And do this and whatever which is fine.
If you have the drive, right?
But also don't forget everything else in life
that you are leaving behind or sacrificing
if you are, you know spending
too much time on one thing.
So although I have a lot of unfinished tasks
on my to-do list, a lot of
videos that I wanted to do,
wanted to make for you guys but
haven't been able, to I'm still okay.
Because I am spending my time
on the things that really matter to me.
And it's okay to not be the best
and go be super perfect and
super productive all the time.
It really is okay to devote your time
and energy to those areas
of life that matter to you.
Even if it doesn't show on the outside.
Work will always be here.
It will always be there
when you're ready to do it.
I don't know if some people will always be there.
Especially if you have aging parents
or I don't know you just
never know in life, right?
So if there are people that
you want to say something to.
That you want to reconnect
with, make time to go do it.
You know how I talk about how life has seasons.
There's ups and downs.
There's winters and summers and springs.
And I sometimes yes, your
life is one of those things.
But sometimes I feel like your life
can be multiple of those
things at the same time, right?
Like you can be in a winter in one
area and a summer in another area.
At the same time in your life.
And there's just all these,
I don't know life is just
like a chaotic beautiful mess.
On that topic have you guys watched
When Life Gives You Tangerines?
It's on Netflix. It's the best Kdrama ever.
It will make you cry.
Every single episode, I loved it so much.
I'm sure a lot of people
watched it, it's super popular.
But if you haven't seen it I
recommend you watch it because
it's just the human experience.
It's so moving and the two lead actors,
IU, Park Bo-gum, two of my favorite people
in just the K entertainment.
It just really puts into perspective
the ups and downs of life.
How life can have beautiful celebratory moments
and then really tough rock bottom moments.
But at the end of the day, all of it is beautiful.
And what's most beautiful really
is the love is the connection
between the family, the people,
the stories of their lives
and because their stories are so crazy,
it makes you like really love them and
really proud of them.
So why am I getting emotional?
Literally I sobbed so hard
to some of those episodes.
It's very healing like just watching what happens.
And crying it out makes you
feel like you're healing
your own childhood traumas
and your own family stories.
The point I want to make is this show really
drives down the point that your life is beautiful
not because it's perfect and not because
everything went exactly the way you wanted it to,
but your life is beautiful because of everything
that you experienced and
everything you went through.
And who you became in the end.
That's why we have those ups
and downs, rock bottom moments.
It's not always going up,
sometimes it's going down and sometimes
it's going up and down at the same time, right?
Sometimes you're in a summer
and a winter at the same time.
A spring and a fall.
And that is just what's so
interesting about this experience.
That's all I can say.
All right I guess I'll leave it at that.
I'm going to get to packing
driving to Coachella tonight.
Sending you all lots of love.
Do you want to say something Wilson?
Sending you lots of love.
Stay tuned for more videos from this channel.
But please don't leave if it's been a while
because I might be a little bit more sporadic
with posting for the next month and a halfish.
But I will be here.
I have a lot of plans, a lot of new content
I want to make and I'm still
chugging along on those big projects:
the book and the app.
So I'll keep you guys
updated when I have updates.
All right my loves. Bye
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