Prelude
A year back, I decided to move my newsletter off of Substack. Maybe it’s the marketer in me, but the feeling of knowing that this platform (with it’s lackluster email newsletter features) would control how I send things to my community. I went over to Kit (formerly Convertkit) and also moved my blog entirely to Ghost. Ghost also shares similar features as Substack, minus the community portion so although it also allows me to email my articles to the members of my site, I still ended up deciding emails would go out from Kit.
Fast forward 1 year, and I’m now copying all my writing into Substack. What’s drawn me to continue to share on this platform is the community aspects. Being able to follow the writers you love on the platform and see more than just their articles has been a joy to explore and discover. Will I ever fully return to relying on Substack? No. Probably not. I’m a firm believer in owned digital spaces and audiences and the thought of Substack forever keeping my writing and audience in one place scares me to death.
When I created my new newsletter, I started a series called ‘5 Things’. It’s a bi-weekly update on 5 things that have caught and held my attention. It could be things I’m loving, books I’m reading, shows I’m watching, or even just something I wanted to buy. Although I’ll keep that exclusive to my newsletter (you can sign up here and receive my writing and the ‘5 Things’ newsletter if you’re curious), I’ve decided to create a monthly wrap up that I’ll share here instead.
Truthfully it’s mostly for me. Something I can look back on to see what I was loving from month to month. A culmination of what’s been going on my life—almost like a sneak peek into my journal.
I though there’s no better time than the first month of a new year to start this new tradition so keep reading for my January wrapped.

January
Hello my forever coffee date,
January felt like an entire year crammed into one. Mostly because I went through several different mental states (grieving, healing, relearning how to be a human…you know. All the regular programming), but also because there was so much going on with work as well. After pushing back several projects and delaying videos for weeks, I finally started to work again. So suddenly, all the deadlines stacked up and I had to hit the ground running.
On the bright side, the amount of growth that happened is something that will live on my gratitude lists for months. In many ways, grief is like a reset. It makes you question how you’re living especially when you take those first steps out of the darkness. Things that seemed to matter so much before starts to seem trivial. Although my world was turned upside down, when I decided to upright it again I started to rearrange things piece by piece.
One main focus that I’m proud of is my health. I’ve been coping with severe acne since December, although adult acne itself has been a persistent issue for the past 2 years. After trying topical creams and ointments, prescribed clinical skincare, and clinical treatments and facials, I finally decided to turn inward and examine what else might be going on that could be causing the outbreaks. My attention shifted to what my Oura ring has been trying to tell me for a minute—I live with an abnormal amount of stress. What feels like a stressful day to someone else is an average day for me. And because of that, my body was breaking down.
This showed up in every moment I had a break from work. Without fail, every Christmas break I would fall sick. It’s actually been happening for years and for the longest time I couldn’t figure how I could possibly be so unlucky. The patterns are clearer now—Christmas break is the only break from work I have in the year where I’m not typically travelling. It’s like my body was just holding on until I finally had nothing to do and then finally—upon it’s first exhale—tearing itself into pieces.
I’ve been trying to learn how to slow down since I came back from Europe back in September, but this month I finally decided to explore Chinese medicine and what it has to offer. I started a 3 week acupuncture program that’s supplemented with a strict diet. I’ve started writing an article on my experience so I won’t talk about it too much here. But since I started that diet, the acne flare-ups have eased up slightly and my body just feels cleaner. This is the rest I needed. What I do after still needs to be planned out.
Although I’m still far from having clear skin and a perfectly healthy body, I do really feel like I’m headed in the right direction. I’m feeling really proud of my decision to try this because not only am I eating healthier than I have my whole life, but the discipline is seeping into other areas of my life as well and it’s been a beautiful lifestyle change overall.
That’s my long-winded way of saying that one of my biggest intentions this year is to actually learn how to listen to my body and take care of it. I think this monthly wrapped series will be a great way for me to track the progress and take you along for the journey as well. If nothing else, I hope it serves as a reminder to examine your own life habits and inspire you to turn inwards to see what you may really be needing.
Making:
Post coming back to the content world, I’ve been feeling creatively inclined to just make things that I enjoy. Being a full-time content creator (wow, I still can’t believe that’s my job) is a constant balance between creating what brands want, creating for discoverability, and creating for myself. I’m just learning now how to straddle that line and ideally turn it into a venn diagram that I can stand in the middle of.

This month, along with getting back on track on my main platforms, I also started to make vlogs again for my second channel. The goal of this channel is to act like what my main channel was in the very beginning—be a safe space where I can share my thoughts, create vlogs because I want to, and talk about anything and everything (but mostly books). The themes are life, comfort, and books. Follow along if you’re looking for a new comfort YouTuber to add to your list.
I also got back onto a consistently podcast schedule so here’s a recently episode I created on ‘How to make 2025 your “selfish” year‘.

Reading:
The colder months are always when I breeze through books as if I have all the time in the world. It’s usually because I’m going outside far less so in reality I do have more time than I usually do. In January I finished 8 books. My reading will probably slow down quite a bit in February but that’s to be expected as I ramp up my regular work schedule again.
- The City in Glass - Nghi Vo. This book was a wild ride. Honestly a tad confusing with an ending that felt completely out of pocket.
- Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) - Sarah J. Maas. This was good. I honestly just wanted to wrap up Throne of Glass asap because taking nearly 2 years to finish a fantasy series is so unlike me.
- Immaculate Conception - Ling Ling Huang.* I loved Natural Beauty by Huang and I predicted correctly that this would also be a twisted, dark experience. It definitely did not disappoint. I can’t wait to see what else Huang comes up with.
- Unromance - Erin Connor. I ordered this and Bride as a part of my Aardvark book subscription. I think what I’m going to do moving forward is order 3 books each month that are all under one genre. Kind of like having a reading theme for the month. January’s theme was romance. This book is your most typical rom-com plotline and although I’m all for some spice in books, there were parts that felt unnecessary here. Like did you guys really fall in love after sleeping together and hanging out a few times?
- Bride - Ali Hazelwood. I loved this. But I did not need to read about the ehem wolfy anatomy that comes into play with werewolves mate.
- The E-Myth Revisited - Michael E. Gerber. I’ll be doing an entire podcast episode where I distill the lessons I learned from this book. That’s how much it resonated with me. Definitely a must read for anyone who’s thinking of starting a business whether you’re a freelancer, contractor, creator, or something else.
- The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. Boy am I glad I listened to this after I started to heal. I love a good messy woman but this felt heavy. It did also make me feel seen in some ways. Something to explore in therapy maybe.
- The Songbird & The Heart of Stone (Crowns of Nyaxia #3) - Carissa Broadbent. The first two books of the Crowns of Nyaxia series are still my favorite romantasy books of all time. This was also amazing but I’m not sure if it stands up to the first two. I’ll have to read the next book (it continues the story of the two characters brought up in this one) to see how I feel.
*starred books were ARCs gifted to me by publishes. These books will be released this year.

Watching:
As a part of my master plan to learn how to slow down, I started to watch shows and movies during/after dinner. There were many years I resisted this because it felt like a waste of time. Now I see it as intentional consumption of another art form I can learn from.
- Severance. Loving this so far. I’m not caught up on season 2, mostly because I got rid of my Apple TV subscription. Will have to find another way to finish it.
- Disclaimer. Ooo the twists in this was so good. Not to mention so well written and directed. This had me at the edge of my seat from beginning to end.
- Shrinking. This was probably my favorite show of the month. Does Apple make anything that’s not good? This also couldn’t have come at a better time because it so deeply explores what grief after death could look like.
Listening
I’m back on my podcast grind, not just in creation but also consumption. They’re the perfect media to consume on my 2 hour commute to and from the city. I like to listen to a variety of shows (and am constantly searching for new recommendations so if you have any, please send them my way!)
- Acquired. The two hosts do extensive 4 hour episodes that deep dive into the creation, history, and modern day financial standings of well-known brands. I believe they used to only do tech brands but now have expanded into other global companies. My favorite episode so far is the Hermes one, but their Nike episode comes in close second.
- Everything I Know About. This was actually recommendation from someone in my community (thank you!). I’ve only listened to half an episode so far but I already know it’ll be one I reach for on my drives.
- What’s the Juice. I love listening to Alia and Yoni ramble about whatever. I also have been religiously watching Alia’s vlogs on YouTube. She’s just great.
Loving:
- Gourmand scents??? I don’t know how this happened but I went from someone who couldn’t stand gourmand scents to now wearing one every night for bed. Yes, I’ve turned into one of those freaks who spray perfume for bed. I like to cater my bedtime experience, don’t judge me. I didn’t love Bianco Latte by Giardino di Toscana the first time I sprayed it but man has this scent grown on me. I’ve been wearing it nearly every night. (I now have a discount code with Twistedlily! Get 10% off samples or full-sized bottles with code ANGELZ)
- The Sony ZV-E1. I tried this as a part of the Sony Creator Loan Program and ended up buying one after my trial was up.
- My humidifier. I swear the cold air and having the heat running was killing me. The stark difference in how I feel when I wake up in the mornings is baffling.
- Retro photo booth pictures. Went to a gallery near Commercial Drive with my bestie Janice just to relive our euro retro photo booth moments. Loved it all over again.
Snapping:
My camera roll dump this month makes me happy.









That’s all for January. Here’s the a growth-forward February.
x Angel