You need only scroll a post or two to figure out that one of my favorite things is documenting life—especially the sparkly, special moments. It’s kind of my jam.

Since I began putting more time into producing videos for my YouTube channel this year, I thought it would be fun to try #vlogmas. If you’re not living on YouTube like I am, this is a popular theme of video around the holiday season where content creators vlog anything vaguely holiday-related (and sometimes not all that related) in December.

Vlogs, in general, are kind of like hanging out with a friend: going through daily activities and routines, traveling, shopping, etc. Vlogmas includes fun things like gift-planning, wrapping, holiday parties, reflecting on the season, and usually trips to Target.

As a disclaimer, my vlogs do not contain any trips to Target. But if that’s your thing, you’ll find a billion videos of people doing that on YT.

Anyway, I thought I would wait until all of my vlogmas episodes were complete before I shared them here. I’m proud to say I followed through with the project and published 4 episodes. The last one is kind of epic (by my standards) at 20 minutes long. Editing it looked like this. Plot twist: It made me realize that longer vlogs are actually a lot more fun to watch! So I might adjust my vlogging strategy moving forward. They’re a bitch to edit, though.

Without further ado, here are all of my vlogs, embedded for your viewing convenience. If you like them, head over to my channel to subscribe and hit the bell for alerts when I upload! My channel is all about creative, imperfect living, from balancing the freelance life to DIY and decor.

What do you think? Are these fun to watch? I hope to infuse more helpful content into them as time goes by. I still feel kind of weird talking to the camera, but I’ll get better. 😉

I hope 2020 is treating you well so far.

I’ll be back after a few client deadlines to check on ya.

Since the end of 2017 I’ve created a mashup/montage of the years by piecing together all of the random videos I took over the course of the year.

It was a random project I started after looking at folders full of small clips and footage that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I knew I’d never go back and watch a year’s worth of videos for nostalgia’s sake… but I might if it were condensed into one smooth little clip.

Hence, the “year in 2 minutes” video was born.

It’s really become my end-of-year ritual that spans about a week (a few hours each day) where I review the hundreds of videos I’ve taken and just soak it all in. This is really the best way I’ve found to access those sensory memories, laugh, cry, and just seep in the vibe of the year one more time before transitioning into a new one.

This year I had so many clips from vlogging and filming regularly that I couldn’t possibly fit them all, so it took more curating willpower than usual to cut them down accordingly.

I hope you enjoy watching—and that you make one of your own in 2020!

Happy 2020! Let’s pack this year with magic.

Back at the very start of this year, which feels like just yesterday—and also like 5 years ago—I posted about the 50 things I wanted to do this year that were non-crucial. I made this list because I felt like my big, important, “crucial” life goals were overshadowing some of the less intense things I wanted to do this year.

Also, I love making lists.

So, I listed out all of the things I thought would color my year in a bit. I wanted to have some new experiences and sink my teeth into some things I’d been curious about.

In the summer, however, I checked back in on this list in yet another blog post after experiencing some mental and emotional transformation at the hands of my mentors.

Long story short? I realized I was filling up my lists with things I didn’t actually need or want to do. A lot of it was clutter, added because I saw other people doing cool things and wanting to stamp my name on it, too.

I have a tendency to tack things onto my list for the wrong reasons. I get excited about things and I want to be a part of them. That’s why I thought it was important to go back through the list in this blog post and do an honest check-in with myself.

Were the things on the list actually important to me?

Did I even want to do them?

I considered each item carefully. Was it passion-fueled, fear-fueled, ego-fueled?

You can see my footnotes in that blog post linked just above, where I broke down some of the reasons I crossed things off the list. It was kind of fascinating to pry into the mind of former me from a few months ago (and I’m about to do the same right now to “summer me”).

So… how did I do?

Hello friends! I just wanted to pop in on Christmas day to wish you the happiest of holidays. I hope you’re spending this season with friends and family (both chosen and related), or however makes you feel alive and joyful.

It’s been an incredible, complex year and we’ve all grown a lot. I hope you’ll take some time to be grateful for your own tenacity, creativity, and drive before you dive into resolution planning for 2020.

I’m taking a quick trip to the Hudson Valley for merrymaking with the fam—and my main squeeze—before returning to Brooklyn mid-week. It will be a quick trip, but definitely a magical one!

Here’s hoping we’ll all be warm, cozy, jolly, and full of good vibes during the last days of the year.

Fingers crossed for snow…

‘Tis the season to bust out the glue gun and glass glitter!

I’ve been listening to podcasts and lo-fi beats while crafting up a storm this season. It feels amazing to sit down and dedicate a few hours each week to pure creativity and festivity.

It’s been a little hectic (client work is always layered on thick around this time of year) but I wasn’t going to let another season pass by without making good on my words to create more.

And, of course, I filmed it all, too.

My favorite project this year was a bottle brush tree centerpiece created using some amazing miniatures from Etsy and a slab of wood my mom cut with her new chainsaw.

As a sidebar, I hope to someday know how to operate a chainsaw. 😉 Yanno, for the zombie apocalypse and all.

Watch the DIY below and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel if you like creative, festive videos!

I also tapped into my undying love of a timeless ’90s elementary school project… the diorama.

Once again sourcing adorable miniatures—and a vintage Barbie ornament—from Etsy, I put together a vintage-inspired wintry scene that lights up and brightens up the room.

Watch the process of making it here:

In addition to these DIY projects, I busted out my sketchbook and did some “draw with me” style videos where I sketch something and speed up the footage.

In both of the below videos, you can watch me sketch out some festive, wintry scenes and then color them in using watercolor pencils. This process was very therapeutic and reminded me how much I love drawing by hand.

Here’s the first. My camera angles aren’t great—still learning:

And here’s the second. This time the pencil is too light to view in the first part of the video but skip ahead and you’ll see it coming together.

I had such an epic list of crafts I was hoping to complete before the Christmas season was over, but I’m glad I got a few things made.

I’m also working on a very special project that will be filmed and posted sometime in the next couple of weeks, but it’s kind of a secret~

I hope you’re gearing up for a warm, cozy, creative holiday!

P.S. Are you subscribed to my newsletter? I’m kicking off weekly sends in 2020, so don’t miss it!

It’s Black Friday, friends. The frenzied holiday retail season has officially exploded in our faces.

I wrote this post a few times, editing down a lot of the darker things I had originally written. Why? I’m an optimist. I just believe that things are going to be okay. That the human race—and all of its magical members—have undiscovered potential and capacity for greatness/kindness/brilliance that will fight evil by moonlight, win love by daylight, and see us through any crisis.

However, one cannot ignore how much darkness we’re facing in the world right now. After all, I’m an optimist—not an idiot.

This morning my inbox is an even mixture of branded marketing emails that attempt to sound detached while saying “please, please buy our leftover merchandise” and alarming environmental newsletters breaking our planet’s rampant pollution issues and harrowing climate crisis.

How can one make sense of this mix?

One is indicative of a robotic consumer culture that has us shackled at every extremity, funneling our money into quick fix purchases that we think will somehow improve our lives, make us more appealing, or simply brighten up our days.

(Hands up if you buy things to “brighten up your day”!)

The other is, well… indicative of a grim reality most of us would rather not think about while we prepare for a festive season ahead.

These “buy, buy, buy” promotions don’t feel fun and whimsical anymore. Instead, they echo that second half of the mixture. Our addiction to more, our insatiable starvation for novelty and newness (and our tendency to define ourselves by those purchasing moments even when we don’t give a crap about the item we’ve purchased weeks later), is killing the planet and the people who live here.

But, as I said… I’m an optimist.

I try to focus on a positive action that can be taken to counter the darkness. Like most people, I want to be proactive and helpful. I want to make a difference through my daily life and whatever grand efforts I can muster.

And like most people, I could be doing a lot more.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the seasons and how they impact us mentally, physically, etc.

I thought I’d share a bit of that over some footage I took around Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley this fall. 🍁

To be honest, vlogging and documenting (or digital scrapbooking, as I think of it), has been the most cathartic thing about 2019. I hope to continue that trend in 2020.

Watch the new video below—and don’t forget to subscribe to the Hey Mishka YouTube channel for more.

I hope you’re staying cozy out there…

It’s mid-November and getting super chilly in Brooklyn. Halloween (which spanned two full weeks) and my birthday have come and gone, leaving autumnal sparkles in their wake. Libra season was pure magic (obviously), and Scorpio season has been treating me pretty well.

This week I’ve been doing a lot of coffee sipping, video editing, sketching, and observing the work of creators I admire. Watching what other people are making can be inspiring, but as you may know, it can also result in some existential spiraling around one’s own creative output.

As Maya Angelou famously noted, “you can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.” But what happens when it piles up inside of you because the act of creating has become disconnected from the inspiration—from the creativity itself?

Today, I thought it might just be nice to chill on the scrolling/watching/consuming and check in here instead. Maybe get some of this off my chest.

I’ve been especially full of inspiration lately—as if I recently gave my brain clearance to bombard me with seemingly brilliant ideas day and night. Obligations like staying on task while hitting client deadlines and sleeping regular hours are difficult. In the midst of it all, I want to reach for my journal and scribble something down or sketch something out.

A DIY project here, a themed vlog there…

While seasons of extreme inspiration always feel like a blessing at first, they rear their ugly head quickly. Namely, because I’m left feeling too scattered to take decisive action on this ever-growing list of projects and goals (as a decidedly indecisive Libra).

On top of comparison-itis—a phrase coined by Marie Forleo, I think—I do believe too many options, ideas, and outlets can paralyze you rather than lead to abundant creative expression.

I’m feeling that lately. Do you relate?

Perhaps if you’re also a right brain-focused individual, you know what I mean. Trying to exercise your creativity can turn into a vicious cycle of doubt, procrastination, flashes of inspiration, and …confusion.

There’s just so much I want to make and learn, so much inspiration to bask in and then “spin into gold”… but if I’m honest, much of the time I set aside for experimental creativity on my calendar ends up misused.

Sometimes it’s because I can’t decide what to work on first. Sometimes I can’t muster up the presence of that muse after the initial idea hits. Sometimes I can’t shake the feeling that there needs to be a “point” to the project. Is it monetized? Am I sharing it? Is the idea good enough?

I hate thinking that way, but sometimes I do.

I also fall into the trap of organizing my to-do lists, shuffling art supplies around, and reorganizing my digital and physical worlds needlessly as I chase that feeling of “having my shit together” in order to validate spending time creating.

I actually had this alarming thought the other day: Am I becoming all ideas and planning… and no substance? *gasp*

I’m not going to drag or judge myself for this, but I wanted to write it down, observe it, admit it. I don’t want to let myself get away with it anymore. And you know something?  I’m 99% sure I’m not alone in this struggle.

I think there are three ways I can increase the effectiveness and frequency of my creativity sessions…

Greetings from chilly Brooklyn!

I’ve been vlogging my way through November as a way of keeping my sanity under a mountain of client work—and figuring out my creatively confused life. My suspicions were correct: it’s extremely cathartic, even though it’s not “perfect”.

It kind of reminds me of busting out the scrapbooking box and pasting photos, twigs, and tape onto a page. Except, it moves!

Today I’m showing you what it’s like when I work from home, from my morning routine to the basic makeup routine that literally on one asked to see.

Do I hit my deadlines? Do I clean my desk? Do I remember to shower…? You may think (some of) these questions are ridiculous, but when you’re your own boss, keeping track of everything you need to accomplish in one day can be something of a mind frack.

You’ll have to watch and find out…

I feel confident that this video will smash whatever preconceptions you had about the work from home freelance life being glamorous. 😉

What do you guys want to see next? Drop a comment on the video—and of course, subscribe to the Hey Mishka YouTube channel/hit the bell for alerts when I upload each week. I have a lot of fun making these videos, so I’d love to hear your feedback.

Off to plan my schedule for the next few days (with a v. strong cup of coffee in hand).

Halloween was wild this year, for one simple reason: It fell on a Thursday.

What significance would that have, you ask?

Even during a regular year, NYC tends to get a bit bananas about this particular holiday. If one were so inclined, one could spend a solid week celebrating.

When Halloween is on a Thursday, however, there’s such a debate about whether parties should happen the weekend before or after that they end up spanning both. What you essentially get is nearly two full weeks of Halloween fun!

I made multiple costumes for multiple parties and danced the night away with friends. The city was buzzing with creepy energy—in a good way, ha.

In addition to being the nerd at the party who had to vlog the whole experience, I threw in a little last-minute DIY cat costume I pulled together for the finale. I hope you enjoy!

If you like this video… you’ll most likely like my others! Subscribe to the Hey Mishka YouTube channel and I’ll pop up once per week or so with fun new vlogs, creative projects, and an IRL look at my #freelancelife in NYC.

Stay spooky out there.