WIML VLOG 🌱🍓 prepping my cut flower garden in Austin, easy weeknight meal ideas, A&F try on haul

Hey y'all, what's up? Welcome to a new vlog. My name is Denali if you guys are new here and I wanna do another week in my life vlog. I literally just edited and posted that vlog today and it's like reinvigorating something in me. And I've been waiting for this feeling for a very long time because I feel like I've been slacking on YouTube for the past like two-ish years, but I really wanna make it a thing this year. I feel like long form content is back. I've always loved to watch YouTube and I feel like there are so many people out there that are wanting to get rid of their short attention span and they're trying to watch more long form content. So if that's you, I'm honored to be your distraction. It's the start of the week. It is Monday and I had a very, very productive day today. Like I said, I edited and posted my YouTube video, but I've just been doing a ton of admin work. And another to do is to create a wedding registry. I need to do that tonight with Ryan. He's currently playing golf. Speaking of Ryan, he went to Costco the other day and picked me up these tulip bulbs. I think we've gotten these the past two years and I love them so much because all you have to do is pour water in the vase and like just right under their bulbs and they bloom. It's like the easiest thing. And you can like reuse this vase. I still have all the vases from the other years and I've been meaning to reuse them and turn them into citronella candles. So once this blooms, I'll take that all out and hopefully we can get around to that project this summer because I said I would do it last summer. This weekend, I did a lot of gardening. It's gonna be my third year attempting to garden. I feel like the first year was honestly the best, which is so weird because I actually tried a lot harder last year. I don't even know where I went wrong, but like everything was just not going well. I might've not added like enough soil to the beds. Halfway through the summer, I low-key give up on watering them because I'm just so over it. And I've been dying to try to get some kind of like drip irrigation system or like, I don't know, set something up so I don't have to like manually water them every single day. At first it was really calming and I loved doing it, but obviously we travel a good bit, so I can't always rely on manually watering them. And then our peach tree has a couple of blossoms on them, which I'm so excited about because last year I saw all these baby peaches and then I woke up one day and they were all gone. Like some creature must've taken them and it made me so mad because the first year we had the peach tree, it was totally fine. Like no creatures touched it. So I just didn't know that I needed to protect them. So I really need to do some research on how to protect them because that is not gonna fly this year. Last year I tried to plant a lot more cut flowers. And then this year I'm gonna do a mix of like flowers and vegetables because I've heard that in Austin's zone, I think we're zone 8B, and they say that peppers do really well. So I bought a bunch of those like red bell peppers and I want to get those green peppers, but I think I have to put in like a specialty order somewhere because I'm not finding them just in my regular like garden store, but I'll definitely keep you guys updated on all of that. Quick outfit of the day. I recently got this sweatshirt from Biore and I like it because it has that like mock neck vibe. It looks like so cool girl. And it's so thick. It's very, very comfy on the inside as well. And then I'm just wearing my Aritzia workout set. Can I remember what line this is? Is it golden? I don't know. Anyways, their Aritzia workout sets should not be slept on. They're just so cozy and they're the perfect like lounge workout sets. Like you could probably do workout, definitely like a lower impact workout. I personally don't wear these sets for like my HIIT and weightlifting workouts. I always get these freaking deodorant lines all over my sports bras. And I always wear like a tank top or a shirt to the gym. So that's a good thing. I don't really have to worry about those deodorant lines. I'm making dinner tonight. I'm like trying to force myself to get back into cooking because it just like annoys me when we get in the habit of eating out or like door dashing. I used to never do that kind of stuff. And now, you know, like the DoorDash subscription kind of comes with my credit card and you just kind of justify things. But cooking just gets me off of my phone. And sometimes I literally just need like 30 minutes to like take a break from my phone. I could just keep going, keep going, editing, filming, all this stuff, but I shouldn't, and that is not healthy. I saw that Rachel Kirkconnell posted this salmon recipe that's like covered in panko. Hey Alexa, what's the date? Today is Monday, February 23rd. Oh, okay. So nevermind because I just got a whiff of it and it smells a little funky and I just saw the use by date and it already passed. So that's okay. But I feel bad for wasting freaking food. That sucks. Low key, I'm gonna blame this on Ryan because every time I said that we should have salmon tonight he like totally changed the subject. He was like, what about this? What about this? I'm like, why does this man hate salmon so much? Like, I don't think he actually hates it. Whenever I make it, he eats it and he likes it. But like maybe the idea of salmon to him is like not very appealing. I'm sad, I have to throw that away. Good thing we have the backup plan. I'm just gonna make these bratwurst sausages and then sweet potato on the side. There's this one place in Austin on Ramey Street called Bangers and there is this bratwurst that they have like tomato jam or like bacon jam. I don't even know what it is, but it is so good. I did not buy the buns though. I forgot the buns, but that's okay. We can just like cut it up and eat it that way. I don't know if you would call this a trend but I've been seeing this specific way of how to cook sweet potatoes all over my For You page. So I thought we'd give them a try today. It's basically like you coat them in olive oil and salt and pepper. That's it. I pretty much do that, but I usually just like soften them in the microwave and this time we're gonna bake them. I'm doing some parchment paper. I think you also put the olive oil like on the outside which I haven't really ever done. So I wonder if that actually makes a big difference. I think that was a lot. Now some salt and pepper. And I usually add garlic powder. So I think I'm gonna just go ahead and do that too. The grand reveal. It looks good. I don't think it looks like the TikTok I saw, but yep, they're soft. These look delicious. I just caramelized some onions to go with it because I just love onions so much. I love some wieners. Ryan. Happy Tuesday. It's already been such a productive week and I'm very proud of myself for just like hunkering down and getting ---- done because there's so many like small little tasks that I push off for days at a time. And once you do them, you kind of beat yourself up for taking so long because it takes like two seconds to do. So I had a lot of those little tasks that I finally did today. I purchased some things on Abercrombie last week and I thought I would do a little try and haul because I think the things that I got are gonna be really, really good. I honestly have not purchased from them in a very long time. They just have such good basics. So let me show you guys what I got. I just realized that my whole order isn't here. There were like two more tank tops in this exact same style, but just different colors. And I really wanted to test the white one, but these are like a newer collection. I feel like I haven't really heard of it, but I think they're like bra-free or bra-less tanks and it's not a bodysuit. I like don't even buy bodysuits anymore really because I just feel like they are so inconvenient and I just would rather have like a top so I could pee normally, but they have this like nice little ribbed texture on them. I tried to like get off the deodorant stains. I did size down to a medium. It feels pretty supportive. There is like a scoop neck kind of style bra in there. And then I got these sweatpants. I feel like I can never have enough sweatpants. I mean, I guess we are moving into the warmer months, but especially during winter, I needed more. So I got these. They're so cozy. Oh my goodness. Backing up so you can see the bottom of the pants. They kind of flare out or maybe they're just like wide-leg. I love when websites give you the option of getting the shorter version. And so this is a medium short. I know brown and black don't go together, but I just wanted to show you guys these other pants that I got. I think these are kind of like a Fiori dupe. In the last vlog, I was returning some Fiori pants because I just got them in the wrong size. I still need to order them online so I can match the shirts that I got. But low-key, these are kind of like the same thing. And I'm betting you they're half the price. I think these are $50 and they are so soft. The material on them is insane. I think they have a gray and I might have to go and get the gray because I just love these pants so much. I'm gonna update you guys when my white tank top comes in because I really want to test to see if it's like see-through or if it's like the perfect white tank. I do have high hopes because the black is 10 out of 10. I'll make sure to link all this down below. Tonight's dinner is green curry. I put some bell peppers in there and the sauce is literally just from an H-E-B packet, but it's a go-to. As someone on GLP1, I've been obsessed with chicken salad. It is not even 10 a.m. yet and I'm gonna have some chicken salad for breakfast. It's just nice because you pretty much just meal prep it and it's like super high in protein. Whenever I'm feeling hungry, I just like grab some scoops out of it. I make my chicken salad with like grapes, pecans, raisins, and that's why I like it so much, I think, because it's a little bit sweet and salty. I love a good sweet and salty combination. Today's really exciting because if you've watched the last vlog, you know that I said yes to the dress, which I really didn't think I would get here. It has been a journey. Honestly, I'm just glad to have that like checked off the list. I'm going back to the bridal shop because I asked to like film a YouTube video with them because I thought it would just like be really cool to film the whole process since I am getting a custom wedding dress. I'm not looking forward to the drive there though because last time it took me a little under an hour. It's in Lakeway and I am going at a different time, so I'm not sure if it's gonna be better or worse because it is around lunchtime, probably worse, but hopefully I'll just like have a really good podcast in the car. One thing about me, I absolutely hate driving. Like I will do anything not to drive somewhere. For my photography business, I always get inquiries asking me to drive like even Leander and Round Rock. Like I just won't do it because one, I hate driving and two, I like find myself low key getting really sleepy behind the wheel and that just feels very risky for me. So that's just like one boundary I set up for myself. I'm just gonna shoot in Austin. If you wanna shoot with me, then you can drive to Austin. We have so many beautiful locations here, but it does limit me, which kind of sucks, but I'm just like not willing to drive that far. And some of you from Austin are gonna be like, this bitch is crazy. Like Round Rock is not even that far, but I'm telling you guys, like I get so sleepy behind the wheel after like 15 minutes in the car, especially when it's like a sunny day. I don't know if I'm alone in this. I almost just like don't feel comfortable driving that far, but I'm gonna eat my chicken salad for breakfast and do some emails. No. Okay, you guys, I'm here. I just tried on the wedding dress that I did choose and we went through like things that I wanna change and things that we wanna add. And now I'm just trying on mini dresses for fun. These are so gorgeous. Again, she like makes them custom to you. So like you can see kind of like that bra lining, but she can make it to my skin color so it doesn't show. But I think this is so flattering, so cute. And it's like the perfect little after party look. And again, these are fully custom too. So you can literally do anything that your heart desires. Another one, last mini. And this one's a two-piece set. Look how flattering the corset is. So cutie. Happy Friday. I was in a little bit of a funk yesterday, so I didn't pick up the camera, but today we were doing something that I've been pushing off for a very long time. And that is planting some of my seeds, which is really exciting. I actually did a good amount of seeds. Like I tried to start a couple of them indoors, like veggies, a couple of flowers, but there are a lot of flowers that you could just like direct sow because now it's, what day is it? Why am I blanking? Okay, we're still in February, but it's warming up. Like I don't think we're gonna have another freeze. So I think it's a good time to just start all of my seeds outside. If you're new here, it is my third year gardening, which is crazy because I remember the first year gardening. I was like so intimidated and I basically did like chaotic gardening. I think that's what it's called. It just means like sprinkling seeds and seeing what grows and kind of just like taking notes from that. And then the next year I tried a little bit harder, actually a lot harder. And of course that season was not great. First year went surprisingly well, but also like last year we were traveling so much. And even though we had a sprinkler, I think it was probably just like, I wasn't, you know, tending to my garden. So this year we have a lot more time at home. We're not traveling as much because mainly we got to save for the wedding. This year I got some like specialty flowers and veggies, which I'm really excited about. I remember the first year, my tomato plants went crazy and I barely used them. So I really tried to like think about what I could actually use, like bell peppers. I use that a lot in cooking and like jalapenos, which I guess I grew that the first year. If I thought about harvesting them, it would be too late and they would be like blistering from the sun because it gets so hot here. I'm in Austin, that's zone 8B, I believe. Maybe just like double check with Google. But a tip out there for my beginner gardeners, I highly recommend using AI to help you kind of like plan out your garden. I'm pretty much still kind of chaotic gardening. I don't want to be like super type A about it. And I'm kind of just like lazy in that way. I'm not sitting down writing it out of like how much space is in between each seed. I'm just gonna like, you know, sprinkle them here and there. But at least this time I have like little labels that I'll put in the ground. I think the flower that has done the best for me these past two years have been zinnias. So I got these, they're called salmon queens. And then the other one that did really well, I can't remember if it was poppies or cosmos. I get those really confused, but I think they're cosmos. This doesn't have a picture, but these are specialty ones from Eden Brothers. They're apricot lemonade. So please send all your good vibes because I really want like a flourishing garden this year, especially now that I have the time to be home and like, you know, see them grow. I'd be so sad when I traveled last year and like saw a flower start to bud. And I just knew that it would be like beautiful while I was gone and then it would just like die. So I couldn't really even enjoy my garden. We've had so many freaking hoses break on us by the way. And we just got a new one delivered from Amazon. So hopefully Ryan can hook that up today. If you were watching our vlogs during our whole home buying process here in Austin, you would know that my dad did not let me buy a house unless it was facing east. If you're South Asian or just even Asian, cause I think it's like a feng shui thing. Please let me know, are your parents like this? Because he was very, very adamant. And it's not like he was like helping us buy the house, but just because I'm his family member, I don't know if it like affects him in a way or if it's just cause like he wants the best for me. So if you buy your house when it faces east, the sun rises in the east. So that's why it's shaded in the backyard right now. But then in the afternoon it will be fully in the sun. So you gotta think about like what plants can survive in full sun because there's a lot of hours that, you know, these plants get hit with that really hot Austin sun. We did have snow in January and it just like killed everything like so fast. But our grass is finally starting to grow back, which it makes me so happy to see green again. And I'm like waiting for all of these trees to be filled with leaves. I get so happy and like low-key emotional. I think I've said this before in years past, but when I see a new bloom on my peach tree, these are just so gorgeous. If you guys didn't know, me and Ryan are from Georgia. That's where we were raised. So we planted this as an ode to our hometown. A little update over here on our shed. I used to have two jasmine plants right here. There's still one right there, but the freeze pretty much killed this one. At least it looked pretty dead. And I was just kind of like over them. They didn't really flower too much. I don't know if it's because this side is pretty shaded or if it just like needed more sun, but I've always wanted roses and I decided to pick up these roses at HEB. I think they're like JFK roses. Is that even a thing? They're white roses. And I thought I would just like try out two over here. I don't know what's going on with this one. Maybe I just like did not pick a good one. But this one already has little baby leaves, which is so exciting. So I pulled out that jasmine plant, but this one I'm just gonna keep here and like let it do its thing and see how that goes this year. Over here are my planter boxes that Ryan made me. And I already planted some Dahlia tubers in the back over here. And I've never planted tubers before. So this is my first year doing that. Please wish me luck because I would love Dahlias in my garden. They do come pre-sprouted, which gives me a little bit of hope. And then all of these, I don't have anything in. This is our newest addition. Last year Ryan built me this tomato planter and I basically just like hang some yarn and then I'm able to grow like the tomatoes a little bit more vertically because the first year when my tomato plants were going crazy, it was just this giant bush that was like taking over everything. These yarns, you basically just like intertwine them and they grow kind of like more up that way. And that allows you to grow more and just like makes for there to be more space in this thing. I think I read somewhere that marigolds and basil do really well with tomato plants. So I think I'm just going to plant some like in front right here, but just double check that because I don't know if that's true. I'll probably plant some of my vegetables in this one, like the bell peppers and all the peppers that I'm going to do. And then I think these will probably be my two cup flower ones. I think I'm going to look up on AI what kind of flowers go well with like peppers and stuff. And that way I can kind of like space out some flowers in here and make it pretty in my little pepper garden. So that is the plan. I feel so dumb for just not figuring this out this year, but this is like weed blocker fabric and the previous years... Wait, actually I don't think I used this the first year, but I used this the second year. It's basically just like this mesh fabric that you put over the soil and then that way weeds don't go through it because it's just so annoying when weeds start to take over your planter box. But last year I put this down first and then the soil over it and apparently you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to put the soil down and then this over it and then when you're planting your seeds, you're supposed to cut a little baby hole and that is where your seeds should sprout through. So we're going to try it this year. I'm just worried that the hole I cut won't be big enough and like the sprout won't know where to go. It's all trial and error. I honestly thought I would need Ryan's help to do this, but I did it all on my own and it looks pretty dang good. Hopefully I did it right. But I was looking up some TikTok videos and I think I'm actually gonna start the seeds in containers just so that it's easy to like transport and like cut out the holes in the weed blockers. So I'm just thinking if I plant the seeds directly in the soil, like I just don't understand they're gonna grow through that hole properly. I did my HIIT slash weightlifting class that I usually do on Fridays this morning. So it's definitely a hair wash day. For years now, I've been trying to find a good lumbar pillow that looks good with our bedding and I found that at Walmart for $15. It's not like the best quality in the world because as you can see, it's a little lumpy and I do need to cut that tag off today, but it works and it was super affordable. If you've ever looked up lumbar pillows, they are so expensive, you guys and it matches our bedding perfectly. Okay, maybe not perfectly. It's like one shade off, but hey, I'll take it. I think it's so cute. I will link it. Hopefully it's still available. There's also like these cylinder lumbar pillows that look really cute. Another day in the garden and hopefully today is gonna be a very productive one because I finally got all the things I need to do my seed blocking. So this is a new technique I'm gonna do this year. It number one, allows you to use less plastic containers and then it also kind of like promotes healthier seedlings. It just can sense that it's not like cooped up in this plastic box. That's what I have read. And so I got a bin to kind of like mix my soil in. A lot of videos that I've seen that do the seed blocking thing are like mixing all of these different like fertilizers into the soil and I'm just feeling lazy. I just wanna do like the soil, get it really wet, get it compact in there and try it that way because like I also don't really wanna spend so much money on all of this fertilizer stuff. So hopefully it works out. We'll see. This morning we actually went up to Georgetown because Ryan got a driver off of Facebook Marketplace. He's like always on Facebook Marketplace looking for golf stuff and he got a really good deal today. So that's exciting for him. But we went up to Georgetown. We met the girl at an HEB and we decided to go in and they had a bunch of plants that were honestly pretty affordable. So I decided to get some herbs because I have like a little herb raised garden. So I think I'm gonna plant some in there and they also have these snapdragons which I was so excited when I saw these. I need to decide where I'm gonna end up planting these because they are a more cool season flower. Like they'll definitely die come May and when it starts to get really hot here in Austin. But I'm so happy I found these. All right you guys, I am done. I think I'm just gonna leave it at this. I do have a couple more trays but I think this is good enough for now. I am only realizing now that I lost a couple of like the things that make these little indents and so a couple of them don't have it but I guess I'll just have to like poke them. I just wrote down all of the labels for them and a bunch of these are flowers. I already did so many veggies and so they are actually growing in the garage and I can show you that in a second but I'm gonna go ahead and plant all of these. I was seriously about to pass out and then I remembered that we have this nice umbrella so I set it up and it definitely was a very big help because I needed shade. It was super hot today but I got all of it done. I repotted some of the plants that we got so I got a little strawberry one. This is the lavender type of plant. We did the snapdragons over here and then all of the seeds. It's all trial and error guys. I really do not know what I'm doing but you know every year you can learn something different so we have a lot of zinnias because I just know they do really well here. Also cosmos did really well for me so I did a bunch of those but everything else we're just you know gonna see if it does well and hope for the best. Everything fit on the corner of the patio which is perfect. Over here we have the herb garden and I just put the parsley, basil, cilantro. I definitely want to get mint. I love having mint just like around. I don't use it often but when I do it's just like the perfect addition to a drink or like a little salad so definitely need a mint plant. Can't believe like I didn't see a mint plant at H-E-B. And over here you saw that I weed blocked all these planters and then I planted my first tomato plant. They had a Cherokee purple heirloom tomato seedling so I had to get that because I didn't get the seed for that this year. Before I close out this vlog I want to show you guys what I have in the garage. I cannot believe how fast these Persian cucumbers germinated and they are literally growing by the hour. I could have sworn that this one was like up to here this morning. They are growing so fast it's crazy and then over here we have some tomatoes and I'm starting to see some sprouts in the back and there's one in that corner so that's really exciting. And then over here we have some Dahlia seeds which I actually did plant some Dahlia tubers but I thought I would try to plant some Dahlia seeds. This didn't work out for me last year but you know I'm trying again. The ones that are sprouting are on heat mats. It basically just warms the seedlings up and I just got this. It's like an electric mister so I don't have to like douse them in water which actually you know what? I should fill the bottom tray up with water. I actually meant to do that. But how cool is this little mister thing? Recently we've been getting in bed so early and I would not have it any other way. It's currently 8 20 and I'm sitting here editing this vlog. This morning we woke up to the news about the shooting here in Austin, Texas and it was just terrifying to hear especially because I saw so many people out and about last night that usually don't even go out to the bars near where it happened. Like I know these people and they just like don't really go out. It was just such a beautiful day yesterday that like I think vibes were high and people just like wanted to be out and about and that is such a shitty way to end that beautiful day and I mean just such a shitty thing to happen in general and it's scary thinking that that's a bar I used to go to and like I used to always go out on West 6th Street. It's probably one of the biggest bars on that street and it has like a lot of like openings on like the patio front side and I did come across like some really graphic videos and it's just so sad. I really can't even find the words but this world is just it's been crazy but it's just getting crazier and crazier every single day. Like what the actual heck. I hope all of you are staying safe out there and hopefully this vlog was a little bit calming and just like lightens the mood a little bit. I also want to thank you guys for watching these vlogs. I feel like I'm really getting back into the groove of them. Enjoying sharing my weeks with you even though they're kind of like all over the place but I will see you guys in the next vlog. Bye!