New Room in Boston!!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my humble abode!!

I'm so excited to share my new room with you today.  It's a lot smaller than the room I had in Houston, but I really love how cozy it feels.  It's also much brighter in here than in my previous room, mostly because I put in a lot of extra lamps haha   and I'm absolutely in love with the wooden floors!

So here is the view when you first walk into the room.

If you remember the little His/Hers DIY project that David and I did awhile ago, you may recognize the painting hanging over my bed  =)  I absolutely love it there. It brightens up the whole room, and it serves as a happy reminder that this long distance-ness will not last forever! (fingers crossed)

This bed frame makes the whole room feel super girly/princessy, and it is the girliest room I have ever had in my life.  But we found the frame for whooping $0 during Allston Christmas, so I have no complaints!  surprisingly, it's actually growing on me, and I think it ties the whole room together really well  =)

Oh, and I totally stole the two lamps idea from the lovely Mary we stayed with in Baltimore during our drive up to Boston!  (She was the one with the beautiful kitties) she had the lamps set up like so in her bedroom, and I loved it so much that I recreated it for my room  ;)

When you look to the left from the bed, I have the Audrey corner.  She came all the way to Boston with me from Houston, and I love having her here! such a classy lady, that one  =) It's also where my a/c, heater, and the window that wakes me up almost exactly at 7 AM are located.  Yeah, I haven't had to use my alarm clock once since being here... I love my East facing window...  mmhmm...

I had the lights that are surrounding Audrey in my last room too, and they were given to me by my first roomy ever, Alina, and they've been following me around everywhere I go ever since!  =)

Other than that, it's just a bunch of my music, books, makeup, and other odds and ends that reside over here.  Only two things worth mentioning are my DoTerra essential oils collection, which I am totally obsessed with right now (they make life soo much easier, whether it's treating bug bites, treating stuffy noses, coughs, or allergies), and the HEPA air filter, which is the white thing sitting on top of my little plastic drawers.  When we were moving in, I was quite literally sneezing every other minute.  I don't know why exactly, but probably because it was so dusty... I'm uber sensitive to dust for some reason...  so one day, David shows up with this little guy, and my sneezes have gotten sooo much better!  I still sneeze, but it's more like once in the morning and once at night  haha

on the other side of the room, I have my pants rack, dresser, and my table.   

Not too tooo exciting, but I really love my table.  It's an old antique desk and chair set that I found during Allston Christmas for... yup, again whooping $0!  I would have paid for it though if I had to. It's solid wood, and it has so much character!  Perhaps later, I may put a stain or a gloss over it, but I think for now, the little imperfections are totally charming  ;)

and really, one of the best things about this room...  I have 2 closets!!  I know, right?!  any girl's dream come true haha  the doors don't close all the way, so that's why they are both slightly ajar in the picture, but that's a small price to pay for an abundance of closet space in my humble opinion haha  They are really cute inside too since one of them has a built in dresser  =)  

So that's the tour of my small but cozy bedroom in Boston  =)

I really love it, and I'm glad that I do, because I will be (and have been) spending a whooollleee lot of time here studying for my doctorate degree...  le sigh...   haha   at least I have a great place to study  =)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful beginning of the week!

--Janny

San Fran with the Larks!

Hello everyone,

My hopping around the United States is almost coming to an end!!  It's been a crazy wonderful summer of Houston-Seattle-Oregon-Bozeman-Las Vegas-SoCal-San Fran-Seattle.  I am so blessed to be pursuing something that allows me to travel so much, especially since it's with two of my best friends  =)   This summer has really been an amazing one for our trio, and it's been exciting to see our group grow as a group, and also to meet amazing people along the way.  We are now in Seattle to perform one last time for the summer, but I wanted to share some photos of the lovely city we just left: San Fran!  It was kind of funny because I was just there for spring break with my man a couple of months ago, and it certainly brought back amazing memories, especially since we also visited Berkeley this time to see baby bro and my dear friend Alina again!

Anyway, we got to enjoy a couple of days in this lovely city of San Fran, and we can't thank Timmay's sister enough for letting us stay with her!  It was such a different experience too, staying in the heart of the city and exploring via the public transit instead of driving in from the suburbs!

walking around downtown...

We also got to meet some amazing faculty from San Francisco Conservatory and had a few coachings!

and if you haven't had Bi-Rite ice cream, and you're in the San Fran area, please, do go right now! so. soo good.  =)  Their Salted Caramel. Oh my goodness.  Just go try it (and all the other awesome flavors) and tell me it was not worth the trip into the city  ;)

One of the days that we stayed in the Bay area, we took the Bart over to spend a day in Berkeley with baby bro and Alina!  As we were wandering around waiting for them to both get off work/get done with class, we stumbled upon this store.

Too perfect. Isn't it?  haha    so sad..  =p  

Then, we met up with Alina and walked around the Berkeley campus  =)  It was so nice having my bestie roommate from high school and my bestie from college years both with me!  and they seemed to hit it off right away as well which was awesome!  but I mean, I knew they would, how could two awesome peeps not get along, right?  ;)

Oh, and funny story!  As we were walking around the campus, we happened upon this hip hop group rehearsing, and I said, "haha! that looks like something baby bro would be doing!"  When I looked around the group though, I didn't see him, and then I promptly got distracted by this adorable little puppy.  A second later, Abers poked me in the side, and pointed to this random kid in the back who was waving at us, and it was baby bro!  haha!  It was so funny, and we laughed about it all evening  =)

we ended the night with a lovely dinner with everyone, and then Abers and I took the train back into the city!

Oh San Fran, you wonderful city, you!  with amazing mochas. and beautiful people. and colorful buildings!  I would really love to live there one day  =)  Thanks for being the background for some incredible memories!

Next stop?  Seattle.

the view coming into Seattle

We just got back from a camping trip to the Goldmyer Hotsprings, so stay tuned for the update!  It is such an incredible place, and I can't wait to share the pictures with all of you!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

Spring Break Part 3 :: Berkeley

Hello everyone!

The penultimate day of our spring break was spent in Berkeley!

It began with a lovely brunch at La Note with my baby brother

Such a cute little place, and amazing food!

and of course, wonderful company  =)

It was so nice to catch up with lil bro again,

and it was fun seeing David and lil bro meet for the first time 

and bond over their experiences attending Berkeley.

Then, because lil bro was preparing for midterms and such undergraduate tasks,

we went for a walk around the Berkeley campus.

The first place we visited was the stadium because before I left, Mr. Lin told me that I HAD to go straddle the fault line that runs through their stadium.

so, here we are, straddling the fault line,

thanks, Google, for telling us where the fault line was located!  ;)

Then, we ran around the field and goofed around a bit.  =p

More of the Berkeley campus,

on a tour with my very own tour guide  ;)

When we got tired of walking around the giant campus,

we took a lunch break and went to the Cheeseboard.

yuuuuummm!! 

so good, AND they had live music!

AND THEN!!!!

we met up with ALINA!!!

AHHHHH

we hugged and screamed for good couple of seconds when we first saw each other,

and I still feel so warm and cozy inside whenever I think about our reunion!

We were roommates in high school when we both attended Interlochen Arts Academy,

and we just clicked from the first moment we met one another.

you know when you meet someone, and you just know that you are like soulmates?

yup. that was us.

So many nights spent staying up talking about history, literature, current events, religions, etc etc...

yes, we were quite the nerdy room, but we LOVED it so!

It was so awesome because she gave us a tour of the farm she's working in,

--because she is uber cool like that and is working in a food justice program--

and we got to harvest chicken eggs, try whole bunch of different plants she has helped to grow,

and for the first time in my life, we tried edible flowers!

and then we took a long walk, caught up on 6 years of our lives we spent apart from one another.

(this must change, dearest cheerio, 6 years is just too long!)

It was so incredibly wonderful to be reunited again, and I can't wait to see her again  =)

After the wonderful afternoon spent with dearest Alina,

we went out for dinner at Chez Panisse.

such a classy restaurant with amazing local, organic food!

the atmosphere was wonderful, our waiter was so classy,

trying oysters for the first time was awesome,

and though I'm not usually a pasta fan, 

their homemade pasta was so delicious!

After our wonderful dinner,

David took me on a hike that he kept promising would be wonderful.

I was a bit skeptical at first, because it was a moonless night, 

and most of the hike was really really dark, 

and then I got rather scared because I kept hearing noises that sounded like bears or coyotes or something of the wild animal kind.

However, once we got to the top, it really was quite breathtaking.

You could see the whole of the Bay area!

it was definitely worth the hike  =) 

That wrapped up that day for us, and we proceeded to go back home to our family friend's house to pass out for the night.

Sight seeing is rather tiring!  haha

I'll be back soon with the post about our last day of our spring break soon!

Happy beginning of the new week!

I can't believe school is starting again...  I'm not ready yet!  haha  

--Janny