Marliave and the Nutcracker

Hello everyone!

After freezing our tooshies off outside at Feneuil Hall, we headed indoors for some French cuisine at the Marliave.  If you are a French cuisine fan, this is definitely a place you have to check out in Boston.  

We were meeting Tristan and Daon (the cute engaged couple you've seen here) but we were early, so we sat down at our table, chatted about our relationship, the evening, just anything and everything we always end up talking about, and took some photos until they joined us.

couldn't have asked for a better date ;)

Then, our double date partners joined us, and our favorite part of the evening began: the FOOD!!

They ordered steak and risotto which they really enjoyed, and we got a little shrimp/lobster dish and gnocchi.  All of them were spot on.  We will definitely go back  =)

Having had our fill, we walked a few blocks over to the Boston Opera House for something I have been wanting to do for soooo looonngggg..

The Nutcracker ballet!!!

I grew up dancing, David and I still dance (ballroom, not ballet, but still) and I absolutely LOVE watching ballet.  I think it's one of the most beautiful things.  Not really sure David shares my same obsession, but he's always a good sport about things  haha  ;)

It was an even better evening because at the last minute, Daon and Tristan decided to join us for the ballet!  Daon and I are lucky to be with men who will humor us and attend ballets with us with smile on their faces  =)  They may protest before and after, but at least when we are there, everyone is having a good time, and that's all I care about (that and the fact that they know that they have no ther choice)  ;)  haha

The Opera house was beautiful..

and the ballet was so much fun  =)  such a classic.  

I can't wait to go back to watch other ballets in the future!

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you know that David and I love anything and everything to do with food.  I mean, we are the couple that got each other a stand mixer and a food processor for our anniversary presents last year  haha.  We also love dance. I always have, and I'm so glad that David does too, and that we have a hobby that we can do together.  

This Thanksgiving weekend was really an incredible mix of so many of my favorite things; good food, lots of dance (ballet and ballroom), and amazing company.  It makes me so happy to be looking back at the pictures now and reminiscing, and really, this is why I blog; to share all of these amazing experiences with my friends and family around the world, and to document it for my future self.  =)   Thanks for reading and letting me share my experiences in this tiny portion of the Interweb that I call my blog, and I hope you are all having a wonderful week!!

--Janny

Thanksgiving in Pictures!

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by good food and company!  Our Thanksgiving was really everything we could have hoped for (minus the fact that we couldn't go home to see our families).

Shawn, my roomy, and I hosted Friendsgiving at our place, and we were joined by our guys to prepare the meal!  Long distance can really make or break a relationship, and I'm so thankful that ours have been going so well (knock on wood).  It is hard, I'm not going to lie, but it makes the time spent together that much more amazing!

We had to get over our I'm-So-Happy-To-See-You giddiness pretty quickly though since we had a whole Thanksgiving meal to prepare.  haha  but we got right to work, and had everything ready with time to spare.

all David and I had to do was to prepare this sweet potato roast dish, and while it was pretty easy to make, it was rather time consuming to set it up in this way  haha.  

It was fun though because I had this goofball to keep me company  =)

and TADA~  The finished product.

and I had to taste test of course  ;)

Our little (big) helpers for the night, Carl and David  =)

and the whole Friendsgiving crew!!

It was such a fun night, and I'm so glad we had our little friend-family to spend the Thanksgiving day with!

I hope you all had a wonderful time, and also hope that getting back to the reality after the extended break hasn't been too tough for you all.  It has been rather tough for me, to be honest, but I'll make it, I'm sure  haha

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

--Janny

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

100 Happy Days Challenge!

Hello everyone!

Have you guys heard of the '100 Happy Days Challenge'?

You just document and share something that makes you happy for 100 days!  It's a really simple idea, but a really wonderful one I think.  =)  

Apparently, 71% of the people who tried to complete the challenge failed, and they said that it was because they simply didn't have time...  While it is really sad that they didn't think they had enough time to appreciate just 1 thing every day and to be happy, I think that often happens to be the reality of today's world for so many people, including myself.  I mean, when you have sooo much work to do, when you have sooo much to practice, the last thing on your mind is to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.  So I thought it would be a perfect challenge to finish off my time at Rice!  =D

I'm going to be posting on Instagram a photo (or more) each day that makes me happy, and I hope you will all join me!
Don't forget to hashtag #100happydays!

Have a fantastic weekend!
--Janny

The Jazz Age

Hello everyone!

Friday night, we had a chance to go back in time and enjoy the roaring 20's, the Jazz Age!!!  A little time travel action, lots of Swing dancing, a live jazz band, Gatsby inspired outfits and makeup...  not bad of a lineup for a Friday night!

We donned our best 20's inspired dresses and head bands, did our best to copy 20's makeup (thanks Youtube tutorials!), got together with our 3-piece-suit-wearing men, and headed off to dance the night away! 

Well, after taking some photos of course  ;)

some selfies with my guy while waiting for Amulet to find her perfect shade of red lips..

oh, and look at these photos I found of our great grandparents waaaaay back in the 20's!  we look just like them, no?  =p  haha

please excuse the blurry quality of these photos...  Iphone camera doesn't do so well with time travelling I've found...   but the Jazz Band from Shepherd School of Music!!  they were definitely phenomenal even back then, mmmhhmmm.

some awesome lindy-ing and swing dancing!

It was a lot of fun, but the venue itself was a bit small for how many people showed up, so after a couple of hours, we said goodbye to the roaring 20's and came back to the present.  

All that time travelling left all of us famished, so we hit up the only place that we could think of that would be open at 1 in the morning; 59 Diner. I had never been there before, but I think diners have this quaint charm about them, so I had no objections.  =)

We ordered some milkshakes (which were awesome, btw!  I think Chris finished his in less than a minute!  haha), a healthy platter of hamburger, some chicken-fried steak, and I tried my very first chicken and waffles!  I know, I know,, I thought it was a weird mix at first too, but it's a southern thing, and I was feeling very adventurous  ;)    and you know what?  it was actually really good!  the sweetness of the waffles and the syrup mixes quite well with the saltiness of the chicken, and the honey mustard added just the right amount of zing to the mix.   A very satisfying 1 A.M breakfast indeed!

It was such a fun night, and a wonderful start to the weekend!
I hope you are all enjoying the weekend as well, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Wonderful Weekend =)

Hello everyone,

Happy Columbus Day and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

We had a really great weekend (funny how much you enjoy everything more when you're less stressed! haha)  Though we still worked some throughout the weekend, having today and tomorrow off really took a lot of pressure off of my shoulders, and man. this weekend was such a relaxing and happy one  =)

We started off the weened by watching Gravity in 3D.  We tried to go to.. 9:30 pm showing I think? but when we got there, it was all sold out!  Thankfully, we were a little late (per usual) so we only had 25 minutes or so until the next show, which ended up being only about half way full!  And since we were the first ones there, (a phenomenon we have never experienced before.. we usually get there right as the movie starts and we miss most of the previews) we got to pick the best seats in the house!  

And guys, if you haven't seen Gravity, you totally should!  Apparently IMAX 3D is the way to go, but even just watching it in 3D was such a visual feast!  They did an amazing job of creating the piece.  The story line was not something we talked about over and over after the movie, but the visual effects? Man, the visuals were beautiful.  and really quite amazing how they managed to capture outer space and incorporate the CG and the camera work so flawlessly.

Next day, we made our (almost) weekly run to H Mart to get some lunch and groceries.  I was strangely craving the Korean fried chicken, Tong Dak, which is soo sooo good.. well, not very good for you, but such a comfort food for me, so that's what we ended up having for lunch!  =)  I'm obviously so excited haha

And then, as we were shopping, an announcement came over the intercom saying that there's a traditional rice cake making exhibition happening at the prepared-foods corner!  so of course, we had to check it out!

This is how they used to make rice cakes folks!

And then, they asked if anyone in the audience wanted to try, so naturally, I stepped up to the plate to try my hand at swinging the hammer looking contraption.  How hard could it be? right?

well,,, let's just say that the hammer thing was much much heavier than I had anticipated.

me struggling.  especially in the last photo because the about-to-be-rice-cake mixture is super sticky!
but then we got to try the freshly made rice cakes, and that made everything all worth it.  so. good.  yum!

Later that night, we attended Houston chapter of USA Dance's social dance party, Second Saturday dance.  The theme of the night was the Masquerade, so I happily got my hands 'gluey' getting some crafts on  =p

David didn't want any bling on his mask for some reason, so I had to be content with just glueing some decorations on mine  haha

For a $2 and 5 minute project, I was pretty happy with how they turned out  =)

about to dance the night away~

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny