how can you take simple steps to look after yourself when you're normally very, very busy looking after everybody else? That's what we're going to explore in today's podcast. So let's dive straight in. So today's podcast is entitled self care ideas for busy parents and carers, but actually these ideas are suitable for anyone who finds themselves largely in the caring role rather than the caring for self role. And it's very important that we do think about looking after ourselves partly because if we don't look after ourselves then we're not going to be able to be the adult that our children need. So actually we need to think of ourselves in order to be able to give of ourselves too. Also on a really practical level, if you find it really hard to do these things for yourself, then you can do them for the children in your care because in all that you do each and every day you are acting as a role model and we want our children to learn good self care skills. So we need to show them what that actually looks like from an adult that they care about and respect. Problem is though, when it comes to self care there's so much advice out there and so much of it either just feels like it's missing the mark.  Or it just feels wrong and irritate. I don't know, it's frustrating. These ideas maybe you'll find them wrong and irritating too but they're really, really simple things that you can just fit into your day to day. They're not gonna take up a lot of your time. They might be a slightly different way of doing things sometimes but lots of them will take really no time at all but should over time make a difference. And with all of these sorts of things when it comes to I was gonna say self care but really anything the key to making sustainable change over time is to find something so small, a step so tiny that you feel you can absolutely take and do differently today or tomorrow and every day. It's not about trying to make massive changes. So it's not having lofty aspirations. It's about saying I'm gonna do something just ever so slightly different but I'm gonna do it today and tomorrow and the next tomorrow and the next tomorrow and forever and those little changes over time will absolutely mean that you're headed in a bit of a different direction and that's where change really does happen. So let's jump into the ideas. So one of the things that we do in our family is to say good night to our phones. We put them in phone jail which is a charging station which is in a room in the house that nobody sleeps in. Our phones go to bed, they have a bedtime. One of my daughters is in charge of this process. Kids love a responsibility and it means it's more likely to happen because she's in charge of it. She wants us to put our phones away as well as her. This has kind of dual benefits. One is that it means that we're not looking at our phones lasting at night which tends to improve our sleep and when we get to bed earlier which is great for our wellbeing. But also it does create a little bit of extra time. So being able to give yourself a little bit of me time each day is a really, really nice aspiration when you might read or maybe you will do that yoga or perhaps you're someone who likes to crochet or just sit with a cup of tea or whatever it might be but a little bit of me time is a really, really precious thing. But where do you find the time? But what we found is if we put our phones away a bit before we go to bed suddenly there is a little bit of time that time when you might have been mindlessly scrolling is suddenly available. So I tend to use that time personally for reading. One of my daughters does love to crochet. We all do different things but it's our time and we've carved it out of nowhere just by not having our phones glued to us. So saying goodnight to your phone is suggestion number one. Gestion number two is about scheduling quality time or kind of golden time with the people that you really care about and love. And yeah, this one is a little bit about trying to magic time that we might not feel we have but it's about recognising that we feel good when we connect with and spend good time with the people that we really love, cherish, enjoy. But it can be hard to spend that quality time together but particularly when it comes to family there might be kind of a quantity of time. And it's about just saying, well, at this point we're going to really focus in on having a really good time together. So rather than just being present with each other this is a time when perhaps you'll introduce a few rules maybe this is a time when we don't use our screens or we're not thinking about the news and we're really, really wholly focused on kind of fun family activities or whatever works for you and yours really. But it's, you know, when we schedule that time in and we make a commitment and that time we're not going to be distracted by work or the outside world we're just enjoying each other's company. It gives a very, very different feeling to that time. And it's not about scheduling out a week or even a day this might be half an hour on a Saturday afternoon when your child or your best friend or your partner gets your undivided attention and you're going to really enjoy that time together. The reason that I talk about scheduling it in is just really taking those skills that we're pretty good at in the workplace and applying them to our day-to-day life. And also because when we have that intention like intention planning is a really, really powerful thing. And that's when we say, I'm going to do this thing in this way with this person at this time. And the more that we plan what and how we're going to do and who we're with and where and all those answers then the more likely we are to actually follow through with it. Having a loose intention that, oh, at some time this weekend I'm going to spend an hour with my daughter and we're going to really have a nice time together. It probably just won't happen. It gets kind of put off and put off. But if you've said, hey, Lucy, how about at four o'clock we'll go for that walk and feed the ducks and it's just you and me and we'll leave our phones at home and then suddenly it's much more likely that you'll actually follow through with it. So I'm a big fan of jettling stuff in. Maybe that's because I'm autistic and I like things to be planned and organized too. But, you know, you do it in the way that works for you but intention planning will mean you're more likely to follow through for sure. Tip number three is one that always goes down really brilliantly when I teach it and I teach it in lots of different contexts. And that is to write a to don't list. Yes, you did hear that correctly, a to don't list. So not a list of things to do but actually a list of things you're gonna stop doing. Things you no longer need to do. Things which have crept onto your to do list because they are somebody else's to do's and then nothing to do with you. Actually just taking a look at all the tasks that you are expecting to do daily, weekly, monthly and working out what you can let go of is one of the easiest ways of gaining some time in your life. It can also during this activity help to give you some perspective on what are the things that are filling your day, which of them really matter to you and then you can focus in on the ones that do really matter and we can give them a bit more of our attention and time and that can feel good too. And letting go of the ones that really aren't having an impact or making a difference to us day to day or helping to take us towards our eventual goal. Again, that can make a difference. Giving us a bit of freedom from the many, many, many things we feel we need to do and just focusing in on those that really matter can fundamentally change how things feel day to day. This is particularly helpful, important, life changing if you are someone who takes on many tasks of others and that might be within a family situation and it might be that there's delegation that can happen within the family. It is great for partners, for children, for other family members to take on some responsibilities. These are important learning and growth opportunities for them, equally in a work situation, perhaps you're someone who does all the things and you're not delegating there either. And if that's happening at work, then again, you are preventing people from having those important learning and growth opportunities of taking on tasks. So think about what can be passed back. Where it is simply that you're inheriting stuff that people don't really wanna do and say they're asking you to do it, then the question should become, how important is that task? Does it matter to me? I find this in particular with emails. I always think about emails as somebody else's to-do list. So I come to them last, actually, because I should be driven by my agenda and what needs to happen next according to the priorities that I have set and that matter for me and my community, not from the random asks and questions and tasks that are coming in in the inbox. So there's loads really to think about there, but think about writing a to-don't list. What can you stop doing that you've been doing? And when you're really honest with yourself, it is curious quite how many things that you've just been doing every day, every week, every month, every half-term as standard, which when you really stop and think about it, you don't really need to be doing. And it does take a really hard, honest look to be able to appraise that and let go of stuff that you might have done in a certain way for a really long time. But if it's really not driving you towards your goals or not filling you with joy or otherwise good, then just stop. The next idea is around sleep. Sleep really, really matters and being able to have enough and good enough sleep makes a big difference. And this idea is around upgrading your sleep space. So actually just looking at where you go to sleep and what small changes you might be able to make to make that space feel more conducive to sleep. So these are things like just making sure it's tidy because being in a tidy space that feels good for you, however you like things arranged will mean that you are more able to settle and go to sleep. It can be difficult to sleep amongst chaos or dirt. You might then also be thinking about things like the temperature and do you have the right bedding? Are you cool enough? Are you warm enough? Do you have comfortable pajamas? I'm a really big fan of having really, really nice pajamas that feel good. So can you do anything in that regard? The other thing when it comes to our sleep space is trying to keep it solely for sleep. And I appreciate that some people don't have lots of different spaces within their home that they can use and your sleep space, your bedroom, might need to be dual purpose. If that's the case, thinking about even in a really small space how you might be able to kind of zone it, it can really help with our sleep. The reason for this is because what we need is that when we get into bed, our brain goes, ah, yes, this is the place where we rest and we go to sleep and we begin to release all the right hormones and begin to feel sleepy and we've got those learned responses and that's all lovely and we go to sleep relatively easily. If however your bed is also the place where you work or you socialize and this is something we need to teach our kids as well, then actually our brain doesn't quite know that, ah, yeah, this is the place where we rest, particularly if we spend a lot of time in bed when we're kind of anxious or really excited. That's the opposite of the feelings that we're trying to provoke when we want to rest and go to sleep. So zoning our sleep space, making our space really, really, primarily for sleeping, even if that means that in the corner of the bedroom is the place where we work or we socialize can make a big difference. But yeah, just take a look at your room and just think, are there any simple changes I can make to make this place feel good? You wanna create in an ideal world like a sanctuary, somewhere lovely that you look forward to going to in the evening because sleep is the thing that will make the biggest difference to how you feel each day and your ability to cope and your ability to thrive. And so creating a place that you look forward to going to where you can really wind down and relax and get some good sleep will make a massive, massive difference. Idea number five is taking mini mindful moments. So this isn't about me saying to you, hey, invest loads and loads of your time in meditation and mindfulness, so that totally works for some people. This is about recognizing that if you're really busy and you don't have extra minutes in the day and maybe you don't have an inclination to do big mindfulness, then you can still make a difference to how you think and feel throughout the day by just taking little moments of mini mindfulness or kind of little mini resets. So these help to keep us emotionally regulated and it's about squeezing them in with things that we're already doing. So maybe for example, you might occasionally get the opportunity to drink a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and you might decide that maybe just even for a few sips of that you're gonna really focus in on the smell, the taste, how that feels, just drinking it mindfully, really kind of get yourself involved with that cup of coffee even just for the first few sips, allowing all the other thoughts just to drift by while you focus in on that cup. Or it might be that you decide that when you have your shower in the morning that you are going to make that a time that's just about you and about self-care. And again, you're gonna let all other thoughts drift away. You're not gonna engage with your to-do list for the day.  The easiest way to have these kind of mini mindful moments is just to think about your day and what you do every day anyway. And if there are moments in your day when you could just focus in on being a little bit mindful for even a moment or two. So these might be moments when you're walking between places, having a cup of tea, brushing your teeth. Any really simple regular activities that you might just be able to do in a slightly different way. And the general rule is about stopping thinking about all of the other things, pushing those thoughts away or allowing them just to drift on by, noticing them but letting them pass on by while you focus in on the here and the now and how that feels and what's going on for you and just being a bit curious about your body but having no expectations on yourself being productive or leaning into the thinking or making your to-do list just being for a few moments. Those mini moments of mindfulness, those mini moments of freedom can really help us to sit forward with that kind of emotional regulation. They give our body and our brain just a moment to go Okay, I'm good. It's like resting in between exercise and then we're ready to go again. So they don't need to be long. They don't need to be intense. You don't need to do anything special other than take an activity you're doing anyway and just doing it in a mindful way. So maybe that will work for you. Idea number six is just ab music. So this is about taking stuff we're doing anyway and giving it a soundtrack because music can feel really good. Music can make us feel different things depending on the music and how we want to be made to feel. So you might choose to have a calming playlist to accompany you in some activities but other times you might want to feel excited and happy and energized. So things that I will often do is I will often have a calming music playing in the background, if I'm reading just to really kind of add to that experience of calm and getting lost in other worlds. But on the other hand, if I'm cooking and I'm in the kitchen and particularly if I'm on my own doing that then I'm gonna put on something like a musical soundtrack and I might be singing along to songs from Matilda or something like that just because that's fun and nobody's watching and nobody's listening and it makes it feel really, really good. And it can take a really mundane activity. It doesn't have to be mundane but it can take an activity that has the potential to be mundane like cooking or cleaning or other daily tasks that you find yourself doing and turn them into something that can actually be really, really good fun. So thinking about how you might add music or other soundtracks into your day-to-day life with things that you're doing anyway in order to help you to feel the things that you might want to feel. So you could think about that when you're doing tasks around the home. You could think about that during any kind of commute time having perhaps headphones in and listening to music or even an uplifting podcast or something that makes you think and feel differently or in your car alongside you as you do whatever you like. But just again, just noticing where these opportunities are where you're doing things and they're not necessarily making you feel anything much but they have the potential to if you just added a little bit of music. Music can make a huge, huge difference to how we feel. So let's use it to our advantage. The final idea about kind of self-care for us if we're really, really busy is to hobby alongside our children. And this is something that ticks so many boxes. It's not funny if you can find the time and you do have to find a little bit of time to do this. But this is about taking a hobby or an activity that both you and your child enjoy and actually making a little bit of time to do that together. This is positive in terms of your relationship with your child. So it's a really, really good investment of time. It's really great in terms of role modeling to your child. So don't pick something that you're really good at necessarily. Your child seeing you learning, trying, failing these are really good things for them to see how you manage. How do you problem solve? What do you do next when you need help with something? How do you pick yourself up and find that resilience that you need to keep on trying? So that can be helpful. Also, it's just really good quality time and any kind of activity that we're doing alongside our child can create a really good environment for conversations to happen and for relationships to deepen. These kind of hobbies and activities as well as long as you pick something that you have at least some degree of interest in doing or that might bring you some sort of joy or fulfillment are great for our wellbeing in and of their own right and are something that we would often recommend that you would do in order to promote your own wellbeing. Just adding doing it alongside your child means somehow it may be a little bit easier to find the time because you're killing two birds with one stone and it also has so many more additional benefits because you're doing it together and you've got that connection and that relationship. Also, some of the activities that your child might be doing anyway, you might be acting as kind of taxi driver. So instead of sitting in the car for an hour, why not actually join in with the activity? It is also something that you could think about if you do have a hobby or an activity that you are regularly or semi-regularly or you'd like to try again to be regularly engaging with that you could invite your child along to engage in with you. So in our family, I love to climb and I have found that particularly now that my children are homeschooling, it can be a little bit more challenging to find the time to do that because I'm often supporting them. However, climbing is a really great activity for my children to do. They enjoy it. It's really good for their problem-solving skills and a great physical activity for them now that they're not doing games at school. So we go together and we have a really, really fantastic time and that means that I get to do the thing that I love. It's really good for my physical and mental wellbeing but also it's good for theirs too and we have some really great conversations and fun whilst we are there. So it's just something to think about. Is it possible for you to hobby alongside your children? It's so much easier often for us as parents, as carers, as caring adults to make the time for something that we know will benefit our children rather than to make the time for something that will benefit ourselves. So if we can do something that's gonna benefit our children and has a side helping of benefiting ourselves, perhaps we'll find a way to shoehorn it into our busy, busy lives. So I hope there were some ideas in here that you thought that you could pick up and take away. It's never about doing them all. It's about picking something so small that feels totally doable today, tomorrow, the next day and trying to stick with it. This will work best if you do go really small. Just pick something tiny. Don't try to do it all and do it with a smile on your face. Don't be doing this like having prejudged ideas about how this should work but do what's gonna feel good for you. It's not about what feels good for me and my family or other people. This is about what feels good for you and your family and your setting. The other bit of advice I would give is when we're trying to make changes no matter how small, it can sometimes just take a little while to begin to see the difference. So try to stick with it just for a little while and then be curious, is this having an impact?  Is this ultimately a good use of my time? If you would like to support my work, there are three different ways you can do that. One, you can share what I'm doing. Share it on your social media. Share it in your emails. Share it by word of mouth. Let people know what I'm doing. The further that my work goes, the happier I am and you're always welcome to use my stuff to support the children and young people in your lives and those who work with or care for them. The other way you can support me is to join me on Patreon where you can donate a pound a month towards the work that I'm doing in order just to share a bit of support. I'm really, really grateful of my Patreon supporters. It just feels like a little vote of confidence each time somebody new joins that little but growing community. And then the other way that you can support my work is to invite me to speak at your setting or your next event. I love the opportunity to come and talk with you and those you work with. So that's another option as well. I hope there was some good ideas in here. I look forward to speaking with you again next week. Do let me know if you have topics you would particularly like to see me cover and please, please be kind to yourselves in the meantime. Until next time, over.


Hi everyone, Joe for jazby'scasebrakes.com coming at you with 2021 upper-deck Skybox Metal Universe Champion's One Box Ram Letter Break number 25. This is a one box break from a fresh inner case, the second one from the master case we opened a little while back. Going by the first letter of their first name and the first 10 spots gets a chance at extra spots. So thanks for being an early bird. Lock four after nine. Good luck. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine. After nine, Steve, Chad Chad, and Greg. Congrats to you, King's power play goal. Nice. Who was that? More? Dylan Moore? I'll put those rooftop symbols next to your name so you know you won those spots. Now let's randomize you a letter. What's the letters right there? Get your names in here. All right, good luck. Two and a four, six times are names and letters. One, two, three, four, five, and six. Greg down to Chad. Two and a four, six times for the letters. One, two, three, four, five, and sixth and final time. After six, we got S down to P. All right, Greg with S, Chad with D, Michael with K, Steve with Z, and all other letters not on this list. Chad with B, Steve with NT, Greg, HVC, Chad with WR, wide receiver, Michael with J, Steve with L, looks like leg right here, right? Steve with LEG, leg, Chad, EG, and A, Steve with M, and Chad with P. We've got amp right there as well. Let's sort alphabetically by letter and keep the video running while the trading will be the time it takes me to select a box right here. There's Skybox for next time. All right, so there's eight boxes here. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to select left or right first, and then we'll go one, two, three, four. But one, two, three for the left side, four, five, six for the right side. One, two, three, four, five, six. So we'll save these for next time. We're going by the first letter of their first name, Mock Tiger, and all of these breaks. And then we'll go one, two, three, four on the dice roll. If I roll a five or a six, I'll just roll again. Six, roll again. Five, roll again. Two, so second box down right there. And we'll put X's on here so we know that they're from the same case. All right, no trades, no trades, no trades. So TWC, trade window closed, let's print and rip. All right, here is the list, hot off the presses. And let's see what we got in here. I don't think, I don't know, I'm probably not remembering correctly, but I'm pretty sure we didn't see a jumble, I might be in this inner case here. I think they're one per master case, unless they're more short printed than that. All right, good luck everybody. A master case is what we call the sealed case that has inner cases inside. So it's just one giant cardboard box that has two smaller cardboard boxes inside, filled with delicious, delicious hobby boxes. We sure do Rex, we have some old printing presses in the shop. We got Franz Wagner, 27 out of 150, that's the PMG, they're generally one per box. Sometimes we've seen none, sometimes we've seen two. It goes to first letter, first name, F. F is not on this list, so it goes to all other letters, Steve H. Josh Giddy is in this, yes. I might see a base card or two of his. There's Mac Jones for Steve H, and the letter M, H and M. Josh Giddy, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Steve H with M, and Steve H with L, good letters to have. And an autograph, nice, Colin Morikawa, Greg with the letter C. He's pretty good in studying his iron game, great iron player. I guess he's sort of, after that big major win, I feel like he's sort of tailed off a little bit, but he's too good, and he's super young. So I'm sure, still knows what early 20s, mid 20s maybe, so plenty of time for him to get some more Ws in the books. Autographs are definitely not one per box. There are fewer and far between.  It's a cut above Trevor Lawrence, letter T. That's for Steve as well. Nice, nice Skybox break for you, Steve H. And there you have it, quick little box of Skybox Metal Universe Champions. One box, random letter break number 25. I'm Joe, and I'll see you next time for the next one. Bye-bye.


Today we're talking about soap bottles or oil bottles. It just depends on which one we put in there We've got a soap bottle or we have an oil bottle I like it when I'm making a soap bottle to be a little shorter and fatter bottle and an oil bottle to be a little Taller and thinner, but however, you're allowed to like what you like So I'm just going to throw a soap bottle a short fat bottle And they're just basically a vase but a vase without any flair on the neck They're just straight neck so they can hold and support the cork So this is going to be a short fat bottle and I'll show you in a minute how to measure for the cork to fit Open the way I always do And I set it before you got here. You guys don't want to watch me center So pull my middle finger to the palm of my left hand both hands go up together And then just going to go tidy at my bottom a little bit and pull up This is about a pound of clay or 450 grams of clay. It's not a lot of clay You don't want a great big bottle. Well, I don't want a big bottle As I said, you're allowed to like what you like. I like the smaller one and I'm going to push out the belly Now that I'm pushing out the belly my fingertips are just right across each other They're just kind of dancing together as the clay goes out I'm going to go in there and clean up the water because I'm going to close it up And we don't want to trap any water in there And then I'm going to close it in And I call this six point cuddling because it's six one two three four five six I know it's technical pottery talk. Actually, it's like the way six point cuddling sounds. It sounds so cute So push it in and up when you push in you have to go up your clay has to have somewhere to go So now I'm just going to pull up a neck And I got some Action happening on the top of that. I'm just going to cut that off Now right now it's far too small to put a cork in so I'm going to tidy it up Open it up a little bit If you make the opening of your bottle with a V shape and your cork is a V shape It'll fit in there somewhere And keep in mind you're going to lose about 15 percent of your size in the shrinking so That's down there pretty good.  I Think I'm going to leave it at that size I've got my chamois here when I throw these smaller bottles and pieces on the wheel I throw them with the intent of they come off finished. I'm going to chamois the edge So it's a nice smooth edge.   Just give it a smooth And there we go and it's going to move that under there a little bit to undercut it and now this is trimmed it is It's undercut it smoothed. It's chamois. So now when I cut it off I'm going to set it on the board. I always put it on a board with paper so if it sticks to the paper the paper comes off it doesn't stick to the board and When it's a little bit dry, I'll sponge it off and sign it and it's done And I'm going to cut it off with a bit of water pull that wire under there and Put it on the board with the paper. So there we have a short fat soap bottle Now we're going to make the oil bottle.  I'll show you why So we're just going to throw a tall thin cylinder And this is the same amount of clay as I had for the short fat guy It's about 450 grams or about a pound of clay And I don't like a big olive oil bottle on my counter. I don't use a lot of oil And then you have to have a little bit on your counter and the rest of it could sit in the fridge and it waits And it lasts for a long time Okay, so now I've got enough water down there. I could swim and it's going to go in there and clean it up Give my Bottle a little bit of tummy And then close it up Again, as in the soap bottle my fingertips are right across each other working together And then I'm going to Clean it up again there not enough to swim but enough to clean up And I'm going to Close it in and up we're going to do our six point cuddling our technical pottery talk When you when you're pulling it up when you're pushing it in You have to pull up the clay I still somewhere to go Going Going messy is somewhere to go the top went messy. I can just get rid of that not a big deal And tidy that off a bit Okay, so I'm just going to give that a little definition here I'm going to give this one a little bit longer neck Because we don't have the cork to fit in there. You couldn't do what you like It's gonna There we go. It's a little bit taller thinner bottle Oh if tall and thin we're only that easy Okay, so uh, let me measure let me just tidy it up a little bit. It's a little thick on the neck Tidy that up Now before I tidy up too much I'm just going to measure for size keep in mind. You're going to lose that 15 percent You do have quite a bit of play in these corks And I think I want it just a little bit bigger And again like the soap bottle you want to have it as a bit of an angle so you have Again as it goes down in that you have play in there Okay, so I think I've got it the size that I want And I'm going to undercut it with the needle Now you can run the rib up the side if you like Um, sometimes I do sometimes I don't I did on the the short fat guy I'm not going to bother with the tall thin guy stuff that tall and thin I'm just going to tidy it up And the rib is one of those things you're allowed to like what you like I just want a bit more definition And the bottles with the straight up neck Are I find are kind of plain But you put a cork in it and some fancy glaze and they're marvelous I'm just going to shammy it off and like the short fat soap bottle When this guy comes off the wheel it's done Let it dry And Yeah, that'll fit about right so Okay, so now the last thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to give it one more little undercut with this stick So now it's trimmed It's smooth it's shammyed But I mentioned I'm going to show you how to make it more comfortable in your hand So all you want to do is just because it's going to fit in your hand Is just give it a little bit of a squeeze And I'm going to turn around and give the other side a little bit of a squeeze So it fits comfortably now that will quite often knock your Top off so just give it a quick throw And now it's comfortable in your hand. It's ready to take off the wheel and now your Tall bottle is done I'm going to put it on the paper with the short fat guy They can dry and there'll be buds in the kiln If you enjoyed watching me make the the the tall guy who's not that tall and the short guy He's not that short if you like watching the soap bottles and the oil bottle So please hit the like if you want to see me make more stuff hit subscribe If you have anything you'd like to share in the comment section Please do I'd love to hear from you and thanks ever so much for watching


Let's drop it. Let's go. Let's drop it. Let's drop it. So we have had a companion collection.  Okay, a little bit of a secret So there was something that was in the original promo Banner right a character in there and they did not get added to the collection So we are utilizing them in a different way for the companion collection So that's gonna be really exciting and what I want to integrate is if you own a companion And if you own a nudie, you'll be able to breed them Yeah, for sure


Hey guys, what is up? Welcome to my channel. For today's video, I am pumped because I'm going to be reviewing the entire Melt Cosmetics Amor Imeriposa collection. Now it is a large collection. We got the whole PR box here in front of me. This is our first impressions. I haven't tried anything yet, so rest assured, I will have an updates video up with this collection featured in it as well. But if you want to ride along with me on these first impressions and just keep watching. So some deets on the collection. This is currently available on the Melt Cosmetics website and it will be available on Sephora on the 24th of this month. I have the PR box. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but Melt Cosmetics actually DM'd me and asked if I wanted the collection and I was like, heck yeah. I actually was going to purchase the palette to review, but the entire collection, I'm not going to lie. It was a little overwhelming to me. So I was like, let me just get the palette, stick with what I'm comfortable with, but I am so thankful to the Melt Cosmetics team for reaching out to me to send this amazing PR box to me, which she's expensive and I'm going to be honest, I must not have watched my previous videos because I do think Melt Cosmetics palettes are quite inconsistent, but I've never tried anything other than their palette. So that'll be fun today to play with. Yeah, really pumped. So like I said, they did send me the PR box and you can pick up the PR box that I have if you would like, but she is $425. It's quite exquisite. Have a quick video up here showing you how amazing it is, but I'm going to try and break down each of the products and kind of tell you what's worth and what's not, so you don't have to spend $425. I mean, if you have somebody that you love in your life that loves makeup, this potentially could be a great Christmas present. So the entirety of the collection is going to consist of a seven-piece brush set. You can also get a mirror. There are three lip liners, three gel liners, five lipsticks, a six-pan blush palette, and then a first of its kind in terms of size, a 20-pan eyeshadow palette. So just really quickly, we have the Amor Emeritus Process mirror, which is $19. It feels kind of heavy. I mean, personally, I probably wouldn't spend $19 on this, but that's cute. Then we have the brush set, which is what I am going to be using today to apply my shadows. So they have this really cute kind of charm in the middle. This brush set is $109. So she's not cheap. I don't necessarily think it's worth $109 for some other brush sets that you can get at this price point, but I will admit the shapes really, really nice and they feel quite soft. So I'm not knocking it yet because I do think it's expensive, but they do feel nice. We have two face brushes in here and then some interesting shapes for eyes. So I'm excited to test these out today. So those are kind of the accessories. Let's take a look into the eyeshadow palette. This is what I was most pumped about and I will have timestamps to where I cover each type of product individually if you are only interested in certain products, but this is the obviously Amore e Maripostas eyeshadow palette. So this is $70 on its own. Please be aware that this is a pressed pigment palette. This has a 12 month life span and is made in Italy. Comes in really gorgeous golden packaging. The inside is lined with red velvet. This isn't just a red inside. It's velvet. Okay. Wow. The detail and then here is the packaging very artistic here and then the back also has some butterflies running along there and then tada we have the gorgeous palette. So I wouldn't say I was initially super in love with this color story just because it's not the kind of color story that typically I would go for, but I was excited for it nonetheless because I do think it's an interesting array of colors and I do like the way that the palette is actually laid out because it's very kind of clear and concise, which I do think makes it easy for you to create a look because a palette that does contain this many color stories maybe can get confusing but the way that they laid it out, it just makes sense and I was really excited for this palette because they've never come out with a palette this big. I will admit the pans were smaller than I thought they were going to be. They're about the size a little bit smaller than a quarter, but I did expect the pan sizes to be a bit bigger, but I'm not mad. I'd rather have smaller shades with more colors in a palette. So I'm really excited about the layout of this palette. The close look you can see each shade is embossed with a butterfly. Absolutely gorgeous and the palette itself feels quite sturdy, very heavy. So without further ado, let's get into the swatches, shall we? We have a lot of colors to swatch. So bear with me. I probably should try and pronounce these. I've been working on my Spanish pronunciation. If you don't know my husband is Spanish. So we have Cielito Lindo, Carina. I think I said that wrong. Carina, Carina, I don't know. Sentimientos. Okay. I have no clue how to pronounce this. Mitchell icon. Okay. Put that it. Okay. So here's the first four swatches. Ooh, the green, blue row. Let's see. I did put my finger in quite light. So that's why they're a little bit sheerer. I will try to press harder for the next row. It's watched. Okay. Not bad. Troubles really hard words to pronounce. Guamochil. Guam. Okay. This is a hard one to pronounce. Okay. Mensaje tequila. I can pronounce that. Te adoro. Te adoro. I'm trying y'all. Ooh, that's watched really, really nice. We have, we're going into the warmer kind of orangey reddish row. They feel pretty nice, but we won't really know until we get to application. We have Senales, Mesquite, Maria, Mariposa. Ooh, that's watched stunning. Ooh, this row, it's watched amazing. Abuelita, Abrosas, Nueva Vida y Charro. Charro, Charro. Ooh, that red. Oh my geez. Okay, we're getting into the row that you know I'm excited about. Nube, Monjada, Sagrado y Perla. Wow. Okay, these are all 20 shades. I'm going to lie, they all watch really, really nice, but obviously the truth is going to be in application, but very happy with this so far. Okay, so here's the look. Probably not my best work, but this palette did push me out of my comfort zone and I'm really happy about that. So I did find that with the brush set, I feel like because I'm doing such a detailed look, the set didn't have all of the brushes that I needed. So I grabbed into my own personal collection. But I think for simple looks, the brush collection does have everything you need for an eye look, but we use a lot of colors today. So anyways, starting off with Sonales, I'm using an Esum G34 and this is just going to help colors blend really and just coming up front, this is a good mouth palette. I didn't have any problems blending the shades and I specifically went into shades that were typically harder to work with and blend, purples and greens and I had no issues. So very happy with the formulation of this palette and the clear of your interest. It is what I'm trying to get across next. We're going to take Almohada and I'm using this brush from the set using this color in the inner half of my crease. Okay, I want to show you how nice this is going to blend and work out. See that? That was super easy and it's a purple shade. These purples are really good and purple is one of those colors where most brands kind of fail at. Except we're going into Nube and I'm going to put this in the outer half of the crease. This one is a little bit more cool whereas the other purple shade that we used has more warmth to it. Again, you can see it's blending out quite easily. This palette has a lot of depth to it. I would say for my taste and this palette wasn't made for me. I would like some lighter tones in here, something I could put under the brow bone and even the shimmers I felt were quite dark. So I feel like if you use this palette, the look is going to have some depth to it. So just be aware, great for smoky eyes and a lot of color and opacity. I'm taking a smaller brush and I'm using that Nube shade again and I'm running it to the outer two thirds of the lower lash line just like this. So we're going to take Charo. This we're going to use to add even more depth. So I'm going to circle that in the outer V of my eye and then also kind of get it in the outer quarter of the lower lash line. I'm taking my makeup sponge and I'm cleaning up the outer edge here. I mean those purples blended super easily. I do need to blend this a little bit more. I'm very very impressed with how these purples worked out. They were quite easy to use.  It doesn't need to be perfect. I tried using this brush from the brush set, but honestly it was just a little bit too flimsy. So I kind of struggled. So I'm just going to use my own brush and I'll be right back. So cut crease guide is laid down. I wanted to pop some green in. So I'm using Senta Miantos and I'm just using this angled brush. This has a lot of pigment. It's going to cover right over that purple. So just be aware of that. I'm just kind of placing it right here and this is going to kind of be the base for the other green blue shades that we're using and it doesn't get too muddy with the purple, which is what I was worried about. You can see the amount of pigment. It doesn't need to be perfect. We're going to go in and blend later. The ESTEM W21 we're starting off with Cielito Lindo and this is what I mean by I wish maybe there was something lighter than this because this is one of the lightest shimmers in the palette and it's more of like a medium shade. So maybe something lighter for a highlight would have been nice. I'm not complaining though. I'm not mad. I'm just it's just an observation gorgeous, right? Very pretty applied with a brush really nice. Okay. Now we're going to add some depth. I'm using this shade right here and the green that we put underneath is going to help it pop more. And I want you to go in with the brushes that you used already and kind of work on blending the purple and this green edge just so that it looks softer. You don't need to blend them together, but just soften it so that there's a little bit more of a haze. This eye looks a lot better than the side. I'd like to add. I did better on this side. I always do better with the second eye because I have practice next time taking the pencil brush, which I love. It's really, really tiny and we're going into Karina. I'm just filling in the inner corner of my lower lash line. Wow. This eye so pretty. This eye was definitely a trial run, but I love this. Okay. So so far, I mean like I said, I haven't used every shade. I'm going to continue using this palette and in one of my speed review videos, I will have the whole collection featured in there, but not a dud palette from Melt at All. I really like it. The formula really does seem amped up. There's something about this formula that is different than even some of my favorite palettes from them. The colors are more blendable. They're more soft. They're easier to work with, but they all are just as pigmented as Melt's is known for. Not just saying this because they sent me an NPR. FYI, legitimately really good palette. Thus far with the shades that I've used. Okay. Let's move on to the three gel liners that came out in the collection. So each gel liner is going to be $22. They come in this gorgeous box and I'm really excited. I don't have a lot of fun colored gel liners in my collection, but it has a gold top and butterflies running along the side. So the first color that we have is Estrella, which is a nice gold. So that's Estrella. Really pretty. I can see this being really fun. The next color that we have is Concha and she is a hot, hot pink. You can see these have so much pigment to them. It's incredible. So the Estrella gel liner has more of a metallic finish, whereas the Concha a little bit more matte. And then last we have Colibri, which is a metallic kind of teal shade. And this is what I used for my look today. So here's the thing with these. By the way, here's the swatches of all three of them. This does have more pigment. I just did a really soft swatch. These are super soft. I have never come across a gel liner that feels so soft, which is why this looks messy. I just when I stuck my brush in, I wasn't expecting it to be not wet, but really, really soft. I worry might make it a little bit hard to do too much detail work with this. I don't know. At least it's not really hard, but it doesn't have any drag. So it is really easy to use, but because it's so soft, I do feel like you lose some precision. So I just put it right over my cut crease. I'm kind of nervous to do this because again, it's really, really soft and I wasn't expecting that with the first application. So hopefully this one will be better. They are so soft. Okay. I'm just going to align the top of the cut. Well, let me just say with these gel liners, I will never, ever do a graphic liner tutorial because that was really hard for me. Not very good at that, but I had to at least use one of the gel liners extremely soft, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. I think if there's a color that you feel like you would use, it is worth it. At the end of the day, I do really like how soft it is, but it is going to take some adjustment on my end to get used to applying it like that. But I think this could be pretty cool bases for the look because they are so soft. So you can put them all over the eyelid. They're going to be great in the waterline. Actually, you know what? Let me pop this in the waterline as well. I'm going to continue to use the same shade. Let's see how it acts in that scenario. Okay. Very cool. I mean, that just glid on so easily. So I really do like these gel liners. It just kind of depends on if you're going to use them or not because they are interesting colors, but I think they're the perfect complement to this collection. They're super duper fun.  All right. Let's move on to the blush palette. So this is the Monarca Monarca. I'm trying blush palette. This is made in the USA and it has a 12 month shelf life. The price of this is $58. There's a pretty good deal on the Mel website where you can get this blush palette and the eyeshadow palette for $95. So that's actually a really, really good deal. Here is what the packaging looks like on the outside. So beautiful. You do have a mirror and then it's going to reveal the blushes. So you're supposed to be able to really layer these shades. Like these two shades right here are shimmer finishes and the rest are matte. So they do say if you want a little bit of a glow to add these on top, the colors look really pretty. It's a great variety of light pink to a brighter pink to a deeper red, a warm orange shade and then you do have the shimmer finishes. So let's swatch these. Okay, so let's go through the top. Milacritos, Vida and Flor. So this is a matte soft peach tone. They say this is a rose gold blush and we have a brighter pink tone here. Let's get to the bottom. Feliz, Sonrisa and Conmigo. And this is a row that I think you guys are really going to love. It really plays with the warmer tones here and then you can see we have a shimmer shade here and we have more of a burnt orange and then a matte rust, which did not swatch super pigmented, which is nice. I mean, it does have some pigment, but it should still be pretty usable. The formula feels really nice and soft. I've never used a blush formula for melt before so I can't speak on my experience with that. But let's start off light here. We're going to use this shade right here. I think we're going to layer and build a little bit just to play with the formulas. So this one is quite soft, which I think is going to be really great for my lighter skin tone girls. Oh, but it builds up quite nice. I like this formula. I think this is a really nice formula. It seems to be nice and blendable, buildable, which is something that I look for in a blush. And now we have a little bit more intensity. I'm going to go in with some of Conmigo and I'm going to focus this toward the back, almost the lower back of my cheek to work almost as a contour. I don't think this color, by the way, goes with my look, but we're just we're practicing. I just want to show you some of the colors. Wow, definitely not too difficult to apply, which I'm very happy about. And then let's layer. Finally, this brush is awesome. I really like this brush with a little Vita because this is more of a rosy gold. Yeah. And this does add a little bit more shade to the blush. So if you have like a medium to deep skin tone and this color would be a great as a highlight. If you're a little bit on the more fair side, use it as a blush topper to add that shimmer finish. I'm actually going to focus this as a highlight for me because I think it can work. So I have it blended onto the apple of my cheek, but I'm also going to concentrate it on my cheekbone just to lift my face and the look. Okay, I really like this. I mean, I know it's my first time using this, but I think it's a very layerable palette. You can customize how you want. You can change around the finishes and I love the colors in here. They do seem to look different on the cheek as well, which is something that I look for for blushes. So gorgeous. I'm going to do lashes now and then we'll be back to finish with the lip products. Okay, so let's move on to lips. It's going to make the look very extra because very bright colors, but we'll start off with the perfectionist lip pencils. I've never tried a lip pencil from Melt before, but everything on this collection is just amazing. Even the velvet insides to the box is here and here are what the colors will look like. I think you have the ends here so you can see what color, but let's swatch these really quickly. So these are sharpenable. They are made in the Czech Republic. So this first shade is Corazon, which is a red. Oh, I love the feeling of these. They aren't too creamy. They're more of a waxy consistency. So some of you might not like that, but I feel like I'm going to get great control, especially with deeper colors like these. You don't want them to be too creamy because you need control. Otherwise, your lips won't look very good. This is Familia, which is a deeper purple shade. I love the way that these feel. I like my lip pencils dry. Okay. And then lastly, we have Esperanza, which is like a hot pink. So those are the lip liners. Let's go over the lipsticks, but these are $19 each by the way, or you can get all three in a set on the Melt website for $48, which is a better value, but are you going to use these colors? You need to think about that. And finally, there are five lipsticks in the collection. They are going to come in beautiful golden packaging like this and oh my gosh, look at the outer packaging of these lipsticks. They are stunning and the inside even more stunning. Do you guys see that glitter? I don't want to use these. Do you see that? Okay. So let me open all of these. Each of these lipsticks are going to be $22 each. So we have a more eternal. Oh my gosh, it's absolutely stunning. So yes. Okay. It looks really pretty. And then we have Bezos. Now Bezos is a matte. It doesn't have those glitters. This is going to be like a brighter coral color. It has a lot of pink to it. Individible hot pink. So the colors in this collection for the lips aren't necessarily like wearable, but they're really, really fine. Okay. Then we have Alma Gemela. I might have said that wrong, but I think I didn't. This one is a matte like kind of like a hot pink matte. Okay. The last one is Recuerdos. Recuerdos, Recuerdos. Anyways, it's a deep, deep purple. This is a matte finish. So those are all the lips. We have three matte lipsticks, two of that glimmer finish, and then we have the three lip liners. I mean, no matter what lipstick I use, it's just, it really is going to clash, isn't it? Should I do dark purple? Should I be extra like that? Or should I do like a hot pink? Let's just do the freaking purple. So I'm going to use Familia Lip Liner. BT Dubs. Lipsticks are made in USA. I forgot to mention that. Even though these are more of like a waxy texture, they glide on easily. There's no drag. You have so much precision with these, almost too much because you can clearly see how uneven everything is. I know it's messed up looking, but it's part of the process. Okay, we're going to go into Recuerdos. Okay, I will say my lips were dry and this makes them feel dry. Their matte lipstick is not very creamy, quite drying. Lots of drag on the lips. So this is not my favorite matte lipstick formula. It's just not. I'm sure it will stay a long time, but it's not very comfortable. So in terms of the matte lipstick formula, not a big fan. And I'm going to clean the outer edges, by the way.  Okay, let's go in with the Individable Glitter Lipstick and let's put it on top. This is a combo. And you can kind of see the little glitters on the lips. If you buy the PR set, this is a combo that I personally recommend. Let me clean up the lips and then I will be back to give you my rounded up final thoughts on everything. So this look is super intense, but it really did pull together. This is like a melt cosmetics kind of look. I'm very happy with it. And overall, I am really happy with this collection. I'm not saying you need to go buy the $400 PR package, but in terms of the eyeshadow palette, if this is something you were kind of eyeing and you like the colors, I must say this is probably the best melt palette that I've ever tried. I had zero issues with it. Everything blended so smooth. I feel like they really stepped it up with this palette. I would say the color story is probably not my kind of color story. There are some things I would change about it. There are some shades missing that I feel like would be good, so it's not curated for me. But in terms of quality, it's the best palette that Melt has had. So if you're eyeing it, amazing. I even really love the blush palette as well. It's just so customizable. The formulas are really easy to use. So far, I'm really liking this as well. I do recommend this if this is something you're eyeing. What else really impressed me? The gel liners really impressed me. It's a formula that I certainly had to get used to, but they seem to be quite pigmented. They set down pretty fast. They don't see to budge after they set down. I mean, the color is nice and strong in my waterline still. So if these are colors that you think you would use, these are really fun to play with. I like these a lot. What don't I like from this collection, right? The lip liners love the formula of this. It's a little drying, but you have so much precision with them. The only thing for me is the colors are a little out there for me, but the formula is really nice. And the lipsticks, very fun. Definitely, again, colors outside of my comfort zone. I don't like the matte lipstick formula. I think the matte lipstick formula is a bit too drying for me. So it's not a formula I would reach for. The glitter formula is also quite drying. It's fun, but the lipstick formulas aren't for me, but I will say the packaging themselves are probably some of the most beautiful pieces in the collection. I think the brushes are really, really nice. Arsynthetic hair, if you were wondering, they do feel quite high quality. They're very, very soft.  I don't have anything bad to say about them. I do think, you know, brushes that I like, I feel like I could probably get a better deal with brands that I like better, but still, it's a nice brush set. I mean, the mirror, it's kind of, it's $20. I don't think you need the mirror, but yeah, overall a very successful collection from Meltz. I will say you can definitely tell how much love, thought, blood, sweat, and tears went into this collection down to every detail. So it is a collection that is very thought out. So much love is put into it. I feel like so much love was put into each of these formulas, the color choices, the packaging, the theming behind the collection, the meaning behind the collection. If you're into it, absolutely go for it. I am a huge fan of this collection. This is my favorite collection that Meltz has ever come out with. So cannot say enough good things about this. Thank you so much to Meltz cosmetics for sending this my way. I had so much fun playing with this collection. And again, this was a first impressions. I will be continuing to play with this collection. I will have a speed makeup reviews video up in the next few weeks and this collection will be included in there to give you my updated thoughts. So if you guys aren't subscribed to my channel already, I would love it if you would consider taking the time to do so. I will see you all in the next one. Bye guys. Have a good one.


To a skull and she was like flopping all about a little bit. It was pretty good Episode 24 we've just come back from Los Angeles We haven't done a podcast for about three weeks and we sort of forgotten how to do it You wouldn't believe this shit that's happened in LA hectic hectic hectic with this week We have a we have a special guest waiting in the in the shadows. He's behind a curtain right now getting ready He's naked. Yeah, he's Saw his willy and he'll be coming on later. I'm not even gonna tell you who it is, but he'll be coming. It's Nigel month Oh, yeah. All right on this day in 1692 Five people were hanged for witchcraft We've got a in Salem and guaranteed if Michael was alive during that time he would a hundred percent have been hung I wouldn't have died though. Yeah, we've we've tried to hang Michael before I've come into his room in the morning and He's just been hanging there and I was like, what are you doing dude?  Yeah, I was a rough Well, you know that week was pretty rough for me, but yeah, his face was a bit red But it was fine. Yeah, and then he just sort of pulled himself out of it slivered out of it The snake that he is Matthew Perry the actor from the TV show friends. Happy birthday. He's a regular viewer of this So happy birthday Matthew. It was good to catch up in LA mate.   So he has watched a few episodes as well He's commented on our on your YouTube yet murderer.  My man. All right. So yeah, we've been in LA We we got back about a week ago and LA was pretty nuts But we're gonna save the bulk of the stories for story time, okay But all you need to know about LA is that things take time.   Yeah, I don't know. I was pretty good though There were some pretty cool things about LA and overall we we gave the trip a 6.5 out of 10 which brings us to our second segment which has been renamed Of course in this segment we just answer fan questions, so Michael pull out the fan questions. Let's have a read this one's from to greedy alex underscore He's asked how are you able to deal with the pain?   I think that's the uh I'm the scientific reasoning I'd back that up. Yeah Jerick co underscore with a double o on the end. He's asked have you guys ever went to each other's dicks? Well, I don't know There was a time in germany when we were touring around with our with our friends that in germany There's just 24. There's just a porn channel on tv and we were upstairs in my grandmother's house On the margar and it was dark and we all had our own little separate beds And we just had the porn on And we're all just we all just will be watching porn and one of us I just have a wank every now and then and if I can walk out and come back in It was a lonely week like there was we're in a time. It wasn't lonely. We chose to do that Yeah, yeah, well, we didn't have any girls because it was like a 200 population town. There's no people there. No bars. Nothing. Yeah, that's no excuse No, no group of grown men should do that, but we did and we called it batfest Yeah, we we should have saved this for a story. I don't think so many batfest. No, there's no way we should have saved that for a story Saunders are your podcasts the best Well, obviously if he's asking that he knows yes, they are the best We might not get the most views and listens or good positive feedback or anyone saying anything nice about it But at the end of the day, we know that they're the best you the person was that probably know that it's the best We are the best So it's just natural like whatever we do it really is the best So of course the podcast is going to be the best The the fame will come later. Maybe any of even if it doesn't we're doing this for the love of it We're not it sucks.     We'll do what we want with him Next one's from sizzle led underscore underscore. Who is youtuber?  Yeah, there's a funny looking up on instagram He is probably the funniest dude in australia. There's there are there are very funny people That we would like to collab with but there's no one that really sticks out brandon dot willams What are the thoughts of your parents where you are our parents? I guess have come around more than they used to they didn't understand they don't understand Well, I think they've just given up really like yeah, but mum is still very resistant still wants me to go to university that's sick That's sick man. Yeah, tell me about it. Yeah, she would prefer that I went to university and finished my primary school teaching degree Jesus, but yeah, it's it's I guess it is hard for her to explain to her other old older friends and yeah Mum's embarrassed of me. She doesn't tell anyone what I do Sometimes mum just pretends that she only has one son my older brother.  All right, so um, nigel used to work for uh, logan law And he was doing uh, you know some social media work for them and working with some other influencers and filming like some Just some social media videos and basically they were trying to find like it was like logan's got talent or something What was the premise of it was like? Yeah, well, well jacob jacob, uh an old friend of ours Uh teed this up and I remember him calling me and saying hey, do you guys want to be involved in this? You can literally say and do whatever you want and then I said to him What do you mean?        I'm singing about pingers and then michael rips his um Used condom off and slaps it onto the ground. I'll pull a knife out and you got did you get aggressive on me? Yeah, I push you. Yeah. Yeah, you pushed me onto the ground.  But I thought it was all part of the show.  There were kids in there.


Hey there, my name is Lenora and today I'll be talking to you about how to learn Ember in 2021. This is based on my journey of learning Ember as a designer in 2020 and my dad during a global pandemic. Learning during a global pandemic is so hard. However, without the help of the Ember community, my mentors, and Pure Willpower, I don't know if I can find through it. Do you want to know more about how I did it? Keep on watching. I'll just pour some tea while I'm at it, you know? So, let's set the scene. So it is about the 18th. I, Lenora, just accepted her first silicone valley roll, right? That's like groundbreaking if you're from any other place outside of the silicone valley. Just accepted my first silicone valley roll at Heroku as a senior product designer. Before all of this, I was a ninth grade math teacher teaching algebra one to students in my hometown, Miami, Florida. I guess I just didn't see how that opportunity would have shaped my entire future going forward, but it really did. To go back into time and see, boom, now I'm a senior product designer for a silicone valley top-notch company working for some of the best designers I've ever been around in my life. I'm like, who would have thought? As I started to work and started to get acquainted with the Heroku design system and what Heroku needed feature-wise, I started to see more opportunities to be able to contribute to our design system via coding. So, I want to take the leap. I want to take the leap because I was very passionate about that gap and I'm still passionate about it. I'm passionate about filling the gap between design and engineering. I'm passionate about being able to fill the gap between design and engineering communication. I'm, you know, very passionate about making sure that the designers and the engineering team is in line. They have parity, they talk, they communicate. I'm all about that piece, that gap. And the more I just started to work with the team, I'm like, I think I want to fill that gap. I'm more comfortable in that gap. Please give me that gap. An opportunity arose and I took it. Now, the opportunity wasn't presented to me in a, hey, here is a gap title. The opportunity is presented in a way of, here's a software engineering title. Now you have to learn, Amber. And I'm like, oh wait, I didn't ask for all that. But at the same time, I'm like, hmm, this is a good challenge. I love challenges. Let's go, right? So my trajectory into learning, Amber, yes, it was a little nuanced. But at the same time, I feel like as a total beginner, I chugged it to Amber without any knowledge of it. And now I can call myself a learner or a novice or a person who can actually do things using Amber. Because of the pandemic, I've had to revise my learning plan a ton. I couldn't go to the conferences I wanted to go to. I couldn't meet the folks I really wanted to meet. I couldn't hug the people I wanted to hug. So a lot of my time was spent cultivating relationships via social media. And honestly, so what I wanted to show you today was, you know, how those learnings happened. I went through failures. I went through success. I went through, I don't know this. I'm defeated. I'm tired. I don't want to do this anymore. I went through all of those things. And I've gotten out on a, to me, much better space when it comes to Amber. If you are a new learner, this talk is for you.  If you are someone who believes in a phrase, always be a beginner. This talk is definitely for you. Let's get started.  So what will we talk about today? Number one, the mindset of a beginner. This is a foundational work. You need to do this part just so you can cultivate your mind and get prepared for this journey. This journey is a long journey and you need to be in the right mindset for this type of growth. Number two, pre-curriculum, prep work. This is where you do some research on yourself. You figure out how do you learn? How long do you want to learn? Are you better in the mornings? Are you better at night? Are you better during the day? How best can you maximize your learning? Number three, we're going to focus on creating your learning curriculum. From here, this is more of a structured guide. Okay, 30 days. This is what we're going to be doing. Here's your goals. Here's what you're going to be learning. Here are your weekly to-dos. Here's your daily to-dos. This is where we break down our actual learning goals. Number four, we're going to be talking about this method. It's called try, fail, learn, and repeat. This is one of my favorite pieces of the entire presentation, to be honest with you. It talks about my entire journey when I failed, how I got back up, what trying looked like for me, what practice looks like for me. This is the actual practice hustle grind part of it. So yeah, let's go. Mindset of a beginner, preparing yourself, like I said, foundational pieces. This is what we all need to prepare our minds. Preparing for a new learning journey. Your mindset can make or break your learning journey. I get it. Who wants to be the incompetent one? Or the one with the least knowledge in the room? Everyone wants to be able to contribute to their team, to contribute to themselves and their future. However, we cannot be that rigid with ourselves. We have to give ourselves grace. We have to give ourselves some kind of flexibility. In my opinion, to me, the best way to cultivate a growth mindset or a forever learner mindset is to accept and own your curiosity. I know that children, we all forgot that. We forgot that. We no longer do it. But when we get to the mindset and the place of owning our curiosity, it would open up so many doors. I mean, it'll be a place where we can imagine endless possibilities. We could stop all limiting beliefs. We can go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. That part, the last part, without losing enthusiasm. That one's hard. That one is very hard. However, you have to get to that curiosity where you don't even care if you fail. That's strong curiosity. That's the kind of curiosity that will never waver. That's what you need. So I'm just going to say it one more time to create and cultivate a really good beginner mindset you need to own and accept your curious mind. With that being said, do you remember how being curious made you feel? Do you remember your first time being curious? Well, if not, allow me to reintroduce you to your curious mind. We're going to be watching a scene from my favorite movie, Up. Give me one second. Adventure! As Carl was, I mean, he was so curious that he risked walking into an abandoned house. Like, whoa. That's how curious you need to be. That's how open to curiosity and open to adventure that you'll need to be when you embark on a new learning journey. Let's put it on our jetpacks and move on to our next point. And that is the pre-periculum stage, the pre-work. How long will this even take? Research says it takes 10,000 hours to learn a new skill. That was quoted in the book The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. And he also cited it from a journal article in 1993 by someone named Anders Erickson. And Anders studied how, well, what it took to be the best in a particular field like sports, medicine, music, et cetera. So he studied these people until he realized, oh, these people take around 10,000 hours to be masters at their craft. So I wanted to do the math. I'm like, okay, let's put this in perspective of a 40-hour work week. So you have 40 hours times 52. That's 52 weeks in a year. So you get 2,080 hours. 2,080 hours, to me, covers your entire year approximately. 10,000 hours divided by 2,080 hours. That gives you 4.8 years. If that's the case, it takes you about five years to become a master at your craft. Now remember I said master. Anders Erickson debunked what was going on in the Outliers book and let everyone know that is not what I said. What I said was it takes you 10,000 hours to master, not to learn a skill. Does not take you that long to learn a skill. Later on, Jacob Kaufman of the first 20 hours, he theorized that it takes 20 hours to learn a skill. 20 hours is pretty doable. So now that we understand how long it will take, let's move on to our second point. And that is what's your learning style. When it comes to learning styles, I can never choose one. I'm learning all of them. But it all depends on how familiar I am with the topic. So if it's my first time learning particular skills, or if it's my first time using Ember, then I'm more of a visual learner. I could watch the choreo and not do it. I could look at pictures and illustrations through the guides, but I will not actually put those things in context. I just want to visualize it, get a sense of it. As time goes on and I become a little bit more familiar with it, I'm more of an auditory learner. At this point, I can turn on an audio book. I turn on a podcast. I can turn on some kind of like screen reader to listen to a blog post. I can do that because now I can visualize it. I don't need to see it. I can visualize what they're talking about. So number three, I made note of the subject, but I'm not proficient in it. When it comes to that, I am totally a hands-on learner. I need tutorials. I need to actually put my hands to the actual code. I need to study. I need to pair with other people. I need to rubber duck. I need all that. I need all the hands-on training I can get. And then the last one, if I'm not proficient in it yet, but I can do enough to be dangerous, I think it's time for me to teach. I think you don't know when you don't know until you teach someone else. That means teaching your parents, teaching via social media, learning out loud, which is what I usually do when I want somebody to learn something, but I also want the accountability piece. I will learn out loud. Hence, I did a few things while I was learning. Every morning at 5 a.m., I would learn out loud via Twitch and people would watch me learn. So what I'm going to do right now is just show you exactly what I mean by that. I have broken down my resources based on my learning styles. So you have your visual. These are all of the tutorials that I watched. They were very small, easy to digest. Then I move on to my auditory learning. These are the podcasts. These are, you know, the weekly newsletters. Then I move on to hands-on learning. Hands-on learning are the actual tutorials. My north was probably one of my faves. Gavin Joyce, chefkiss, loved it. Then I move on to teaching opportunities. Teaching opportunities were me going on Twitch and learning out loud. Emory Kumpf, I'm right here. Beginner is my week at work, where I did a mob parent session with all the developers of my team. And a few of the Instagram posts that I created around Ember, just showing, highlighting what I've been learning and some of the tutorials that I've completed. Lastly, I've been reading. I don't like reading, but I do like it once I'm familiar with the subject and I'm curious about it. I can read all David. But I have to like train my mind to want it. So, reading, I have all the books that I've read, like the Lit Erdies book, Rock and Roll with Ember, I have the newsletters, I have pro-Ember data, that's one of the books that I recently bought, so I can understand data better, but yeah, you get the point. Then I have my social media accounts. I feel like this is one of the underutilized areas. You have to get surrounded and embedded in the community without the people that's a part of the community. You won't really know what's going on. So, get embedded, join into a community. And then of course, I have your open source projects that you contribute to. This is another easy method of learning. So, I created this compile list just so I can always go back and visit it and see what I need and what I can grab from. So, let's move on to our next piece and that is creating your first curriculum. In the spirit of the first 20 hours book, I decided to play it on my first 30 days. 20 hours is usually one hour for two weeks, but I thought if I'd spanned it, it was 30 days. That won't hurt. So, I spanned it for a month and I plan out my 30-day learning curriculum. I write out my goals. Where do I want to level up? This particular example, I discussed that I wanted to level up in all Ember core concepts. I make a plan. So Monday through Friday, I do tutorials and learning. And that will be at 5 a.m. one hour a day, a minimum of one hour. If I go over that, that's fine, but a minimum of one hour a day is totally fine. And on weekends, I take my breaks. Always make room for breaks.  So, third, we have proficiency metrics. And with proficiency metrics, I basically wrote down all the topics that I really want to understand. So, if anyone ever asks me, hey, Lenora, what's a model? I'll know exactly how to answer them without hesitation. Number four, preferred learning resource. I picked one learning resource for those 30 days, especially the first 30 days. I do not want to mix my learning. I use Blip, Erdies, Rock and Roll with Ember. And that's just what I stuck with. The last thing is weekly study plan. So, with my weekly study plan, I will literally write out week one, do these things. Week two, read chapters three through six and do these things. I had a very structured learning. So, let's move on to our weekly daily plan. With my weekly plan, it was more like it was notes. It wasn't really like rehashing what I'm going to do. It's mostly notes. So, each week, I'll read ahead to look at what topics will be covered. And I'll categorize them by what I already know, the areas that I kind of know, and then the completely new areas that I have no idea what they are. I've even added a section called phrases brought up at work. Now, let me explain why I did that. So, one day, my mentor, he talked about Ember concurrency. And I'm like, oh, let me write that down. And I started researching and learning about it. The next day, I'm like, yeah, he don't struggle with Ember concurrency. He's like, Laura, what are you doing? That's not why I talked about that. I was working on that. But that's not something you need to worry about. You need to focus on the foundational pieces when I'm not Ember concurrency. So, I would definitely say, save those phrases for later. It will definitely come back and it will definitely help you out later in the future. That's for your future self. But for your now self, you just focus on your foundational pieces. But write down when you hear different things that you'd like to explore later. In an effort to learn out loud, I would basically post my notes via social media. Let's move on to part three, mentors, coaches, and community. This is one of my favorite parts. These are all of the amazing folks who've helped me. Who've helped me cultivate my career. Who've helped me learn Ember. I would like to point out to you people, Jamie and Micah. Jamie and Micah did an amazing job at cultivating a relationship with me early on, so that when it was time to coach me or mentor me, it was like butter. Jamie was more of a coach where he was a lot more hands-on. He's like, hey, let's actually do the work. You drive, I watch. If you run into issues, I'm here.  Micah was more of the, no, tell me what you know about models. Tell me what you know about template files. Explain to me what you think you know. It was more of that I had to talk to you about it. Honestly, everyone's teaching style worked out perfectly for me. It helped me keep track of things. And yeah, if you have time to build up your mentorship and your coach tribe, please do that early on. There are so many communities available, especially within the Ember community, that will help you ramp up and will help you get the coaching you need. And yeah, I don't think there is an actual coaching program, but everyone's so helpful that you indirectly get the coaching. Like for instance, I have people that's our friends in the community. I don't talk to them every day, but whenever I send the PR in, they send me feedback. They allow me to understand what I did wrong and they help me learn how to do it better. So that's still coaching within yourself. So, how did this all work out for me? For overall. With that said, I would like to move on to a scene from the movie. Up! Yep, it's back. Shit and Burn was a person. It'll be me.  It was just, you really needed to pace yourself. And in my perspective, without a coach or without deliberate practice with someone guiding me, saying, yeah, you may not want to do that yet. Do this instead. Without a coach, I probably would have gotten as far as I have gotten. You can plan out your learning. You can structure your day. You can do all of these things. But there's nothing like having deliberate practice via a guide resource and consistency that will really pull you along the path. There's plenty of times where I'm like, all right, cool. I'm going to practice. I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to learn. And I couldn't get through a small little Pomodoro. It's like, come on out. You're talking about going to learn, but you're not even doing your due diligence. So I would tell you all, if you feel like giving up, that is a natural feeling. If you ever feel like giving up, own it. Own it when it comes time to take a break. If it's time for your break, listen to your body. Listen to your body when it tells you to stop. Listen when it tells you to go to the beach.  You tried. But let's give our brain a rest because right now we're trying to reconstruct those new neural pathways and you're interrupting. So let us help you. Please rest. Listen to it. Listen to it and take your rest. So I do want to let you all know that when it comes to this journey, you will need to take rest. And sometimes that could last two weeks. Sometimes like less than a month. Take your breaks. There is a quote that I found on Instagram not too long ago. It said, passion lights the way while discipline paves the road and hope is the fuel. Not sure who created it. I tried to Google, couldn't find it. I thought I would change it up a bit. I think it should be passion lights the way while discipline paves the road and making it personal is the fuel. Now during those moments that I just talked about where you feel defeated, where you feel like, oh my gosh, this is it. I can't do it anymore. I'm done. That's the time I feel like you need to try that try, fail, learn, repeat method where you make it personal. Create a personal project. I created my personal project right in the very beginning. So remember those 30 days I talked about? I created my personal project during that time. When I realized the way to create a Ember project, all you need to say is Ember new in the app name. I'm like, all right, cool. Ember new mad reminder. And the reason why I created this was for a special guy in my life. It's my dad and my dad went through a few things growing up. When he was in his 20s, he basically met up with some police brutality and he was hit in the head by a baton so hard to a split his skin. And if you take a look at the actual skin, you can tell that someone stitched it up really badly. So that means that either he was, he went to jail and they stitched it up any way they wanted to. And I don't know what happened after that. I don't know whether he sat in the jail cell. I don't know. I have no idea. But he survived it later on had me. And now, as a 50 year old, six year old person, he's having issues with his brain, with remembering, with dementia. There was a time where he would get severe headaches and he would be like, hey, I've got to pull over on the side of the road. And I always questioned it, but I didn't really understand. I was a kid, so I didn't know. But it wasn't until one day in 2000, oh wait, what was that? 2006, where he actually passed out. And when he was rushed to the hospital, they found an aneurysm. And if you know anything about aneurysms, aneurysms are extremely deadly. 60, 60% of people survive. Now 60% is very close to 50%. So that's like half of the amount of people survive this thing. And 66% of the survivors have permanent neurological damage. Well, that's my dad. He has extreme short term memory. I'll tell him something today and he'd like, wait, what did you say? The next second. So he can't remember things that happened long ago, but he can't remember what happened today. And that creates a problem when it comes to him taking his medication and taking it on time, remembering to take it. So I created a personal project to help this special man of mine remember to take his medication. So basically it's an embrap. It has a daily tracker. And right now he's on track. He has taken his medication alone by itself without needing any assistance. And basically my dad is young. He's not like in his 70s or 80s or 90s. He's young.  And I'm like, well, would you take this app just so you can keep track of it? And so I can also keep track of it without like bug me you were calling you every day. So this app will allow me to peek in on what he's doing but also allow him to remember if he already took it. So there's dashboards all over the house or he'll be able to see. Hey, yes, I did take my medication already. All right, cool. I'll take it again. So this is how it works. I kind of guess I didn't really explain that. So it sends him a text message in the morning. Hey, did you take your epilepsy medication or whatever other medication he has? Did you take it? And if he presses number one or if he sends one as a response, it will basically send back to Ember letting them know, hey, perfect. This person took their medication on time if it was within that time gap. And they'll give us a check mark. If the person did take the medication but it was late, it will put on the right side taking epilepsy medication, but it was late. Just to let me know what's really going on and if I really need to talk to the doctor or let them know, hey, he took it but he still had a seizure later on that day or he took it and he didn't have a seizure. I want to keep track of those things. So with that police brutality moment, later on he started to occur seizures, severe seizures. And my dad has ketonic seizures. So you don't even know what he's having a seizure.  So I wanted to create a app that helps me with that. So in my perspective, I feel like if you make something personal and you pull out your heart strings, you will learn. There's plenty of times I put this application down because I couldn't figure out how to get Tulio to talk to Inverter. I'm like, all right, I'll put it down for now. And then when I learned something new at work, I'm like, oh cool, I've got it. I can go back to my project and add that piece, that missing piece that I was looking for. So my advice is when you're learning something new, create a side project, create something personal. And that will keep you going when times are low. So if this inspired you in any way, here are some action items.  I want you to join the Discord community. I want you to contribute to the open source projects. I want you to create your own curriculum. And if you do not know how to create it, I would love for you to go to my GitHub. I'll have a starter pack there. Or you can just quickly fork down a Inver learning resource or a learning plan and go forth. Learn, I love. If you are a mentor or a coach, I would like you to let your mentees know how to learn deliberately. I want you to navigate them. Tell them, hey, no, don't learn Inver concurrency. Learn about templates. Learn about functional helpers. Learn about other things, but not this just yet. I want you to put them on a path of success. And I feel like if you do that, it will help them create an environment where they are challenged. Yet they can still achieve the tax you're asking. If you are an Inver community leader, I would tell you to encourage newcomers as much as you can. If you're on social media and you hear about someone saying they want to learn Inver, encourage them. Bring more people in. There's so many people that's ready to learn a new language. And honestly, the community will be the it factor. Our community at Inver is, in my opinion, the it factor of what made me stay. I could have gone to any community, but the Inver community was so, so welcoming and I was so about it. And honestly, that's the only reason that I stuck so closely. How to contact Lenora. So if you want to contact me, here's my Discord. It's Lenora Porter, Twitter, Lenora Porter, Instagram, Lenora Porter, GitHub, Lenora Porter, Twitch, Lenora Porter, YouTube, Lenora Porter, and my website, LenoraPorter.gov. Basically everything is Lenora Porter. So if you do want to reach out to me, I am at Lenora Porter. If you need any more helpful guides, how to learn coding, or how to learn during a pandemic, let me know. I would love to be a resource to you. Thank you so much for listening to my talk. See you later.