Sunday, August 24, 2014

DIY :: His and Hers Wall Art

Hello everyone!

David and I are looking at a year (hopefully only a year) of long distance, and well... who likes long distance relationships, eh?  but having something close to you that reminds you of your loved one will definitely help you get through it!  

Thinking about decorating my new room and apartment in Boston really gets me giddy, and during one of my daydream sessions about the decor, I thought it would be nice to create something to hang over my bed in Boston!  Then, I thought it would be nice to create something to hang over the bed together with David!  I had the idea of what it would look like  (something like this)

and pitched it to David over the phone (because we were apart for the whole summer) but he wasn't really able to visualize it, so we put that on hold until we were back together in Houston.

When I got to Houston, I went to go pick up the supplies at the art store, and lo and behold! the canvases were buy 1 get 1 free!  so the idea of creating something to hang over my bed became, let's create 'His' and 'Hers' that can stand alone, but still work together when they come together!  so 'His' will stay with him in Houston for the next year until David (and the 'His' painting) can join me (and the 'Hers' painting in Boston!  =D   yeah I know.  it's cheesier than nacho cheese, but hey, we're looking at an impending long distance relationship here.  we'll take it!

So with our supplies in hand,
--2 canvases
--paint brush
--paints

we began our art project.

Now, if it was up to me, I would just dumped the paint, and begin creating something. and then we would see where that leads us, and then make things work with the rough idea of what I wanted it to look like in my mind.  but it wasn't 'MY' project, it was 'OUR' project, so this is where we ended up. A rough draft of what our handy work would look like on a white board.  haha  We each designed our own, and then tweaked them to make them work together


Throughout the project, we just had to step back and laugh at how different we are as people.  I think it works though because I would come up with these crazy ideas, whether it's for an art project, or for our dance routine, and then David would set about making the ideas come true.  and we're pretty good about being flexible... like if I really don't like the placement of the word 'love' on David's design... then he would let me change it  mmhmm  ;)

David wanted a certain type of blocky/bubbly lettering, so we put down a layer of masking tape, and drew the letters out.  Then, we cut it up, and placed it on the canvas so that we could paint the background over it.  We used the plastic wrapping of the canvas to use as a backing for the tape, but we wouldn't really recommend doing that, because after we cut it out, it turned out to be pretty difficult to take the plastic wrapping off of the tape..


For mine, I just wanted a free-hand cursive, so I just free handed mine.


So this is what David's looked like in the middle of the project,,


and what mine looked like haha


so different..

For the colors of the background, we used blue and orange because they are complementary colors, and to apply the paint, we just balled up some paper towels and dabbed it on.  We didn't want a super precise line between the colors and the white part of the canvas or anything, and wanted a more hazy look, so dab, dab, we went!  It felt like a 2nd grade art project, and we loved it!  haha


Then, I free handed my gold fireworks, David and I dabbed some orange paint to make the spheres on his canvas, painted the edges of the canvases gold,,,



and tada!!  Our His and Hers Wall Art  =)

looks a bit different than our original designs, but that's the beauty of art, isn't it?  ;)
Now we just gotta transport my half safely to Boston this year, and David's half next year!

Did you do anything crafty this weekend?
thanks for stoppingy by, and have a great week!
--Janny





Friday, August 22, 2014

Belated Birthday Date :: Uchi, Houston

Hello everyone!

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, which I spent among best of friends feeling incredibly blessed, but seeing as I was away at a music festival, I didn't get to celebrate it with my guy, who was stuck working in Houston.  So, on Wednesday, we went on a belated birthday date to Uchi!  =)
Amulet had highly recommended this restaurant, and since she never leads us wrong, we thought it would be the perfect time to try it out!

I have dubbed this dress my 'date dress' and I couldn't be happier with it.  You can find it here  and you're going to flip when you find out how much it is.  go on, take a look, and grab it while you can!

my handsome date for the night  =)



If you plan on going, I highly recommend going for their happy hour, 5-6:30, and also making a reservation.  When we tried to make our reservation, the place was booked for days in advance!



Once we sat down, we were greeted by the friendliest waiter staff, who began by bringing us piping hot towels to wash our hands.  I had never been to anywhere that did this, so I was a bit surprised when they brought us a bowl of towels, but it's actually really nice!  all restaurants should do this haha


Then, we started looking through the menu, which turned out to be totally unnecessary because our waiter offered to just bring us whatever he thought we would enjoy!


the menu wasn't all that helpful anyway because I had no idea what most of the things were on there.. haha


So began the marathon of little dishes that our waiter picked out for us.
The first one was this little beauty, Machi Cure, which was apparently on Top Chef (or Iron Chef..)! 


deliciously fresh blend of baby yellowtail, yucca crisp, asian pear, almonds, and garlic..




Next came the Uchiviche.  salmon, striped bass, tomato, bell pepper, garlic, cilantro...



haha he looks very suspicious of it, but we assure you, it was quite delicious  ;)





Each dish was about 2-3 bites each, so in between tastings, we chatted, enjoyed the industrial/chic vibe of the place, watched the chefs, and just enjoyed each other's company.


and I decided that I want a water jug like this one  haha





the next couple came in such quick succession that I honestly can't recall what the waiter said they were, but they were all amazing!



this one, we thought was scallops, but wasn't... sea bass?  can't remember  haha but it was gone oh-so-fast!




incredibly fresh sashimi...  can't remember what the fish was  haha  but it came on top of oranges, and we really enjoyed the blend  =)



the next dish was perhaps the...  most interesting dish of the night.  It was actually mistakenly brought to our table by a different waiter (we had one main waiter, but we had 3 or 4 other waiters bringing us food and taking away the empty dishes in a blink of an eye all through the evening), and it was...  rabbit.  yup. hoppity hop.  

It was my first time trying rabbit..

It was ok, but it was a bit too rich for me after a couple of bites.  A bit like duck but I think richer than duck.

Incredibly fresh oysters?  yes please! amazing.


eggplant!


and we finished the dinner off with some pork!



If it's your first time at Uchi, I would highly recommend doing what we did and have the waiter bring out his favorite dishes.  It was nice to be surprised with different dishes continually throughout the evening, and this way we didn't have to be completely lost in the menu for the better part of the meal.  More time to chat and gaze into each other's eyes...  haha who are we kidding, like we would be the romantic type.. for us, it' was more like goofing off and being snap-happy like the little kids that we are.  =)

After dinner, we decided to check out the Menil Collection


I had never been, so it was nice to finally check it out before I leave Houston!  No photos were allowed inside, but we enjoyed the little exhibit thoroughly, and would definitely recommend checking it out.  It's free!  ;)



with a little bit of amazing gelato in our tummies (from Sweet Cup), we tried to find other classy things to do around the area (all three places mentioned here are all within a couple of blocks from one another), but by then most things were closed, and it was too early to head home... sooo....



We went and watched the Guardians of the Galaxy!   hahaha   yeah,,, little kids.  that's us.  But we really enjoyed the movie!  It's really quite funny, and a fresh take on yet another super hero movie. Oh, and Zoe Saldana?  she's now in my mind, the alien lady.  She was in Avatar, the Star Trek movies, and now this one?  and I haven't seen her in any other movies (though I'm aware that she did them) so yup.  the super attractive alien lady.  

Anyway, we would really recommend the movie. my favorite character is the tree man.  You'll see why when you get to the end of the movie  ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you visit any of these places, and how you liked it!
Have a wonderful weekend!
--Janny