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

Playing with the new camera =)

Hello everyone!

I hope your week is going well so far!

In less than 2 months I'm going to be saying goodbye to Rice and Houston, and for some reason, it had never felt real.. until a couple of days ago.  but soon, we'll be moving out of our apartment, going through the graduation ceremony and 'walking through the front gates' thing that Rice does, and most likely leaving Houston to relocate to a different city and a different school....  I'm definitely getting a little bit sentimental over here...  sigh...

Anyway, a little while ago, we took the new camera David got for me for Valentine's Day (it's a Sony NEX 3N) and took a stroll around the neighborhood and our campus with Pucci.  It was a good chance to play around with the camera, and to take a few photos of our beautiful campus  =)

This camera is kind of a cross between a point and shoot and a DSLR in that it has all of the functions of the point and shoot, but you can change out the lens.  The lens that I have seems to work best for shooting scenery, or subjects that are farther away, and it also does a beautiful job with natural light.  It isn't so good with macro photos though, but that makes sense considering the type of lens I have.

So, a few outdoor photos around our neighborhood...

With Pucci!

and walking around Rice

with Mr. Sleepyhead...  haha

and my favorite photo from the day  (a photo of a coffee shop at Rice that David snapped while I went into the Rice library for a second)  =)

I did little to no editing on these photos, and I really love how great the quality is on the photos!  I mean, do have a Canon point and shoot, but most of the time I feel like the quality is comparable to my iphone5, so I never bother taking it out.  But now that the photo quality from the camera is significantly better than the phone, I think I'll take it out more often  ;)

Do you guys own a similar camera?  how do you like yours?

Thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

Wait... Where did spring break go?

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well!  It's been awhile since I've written last, but when you have a 25 page paper that you have to write reviewing music theory textbooks, writing some more is that LAST thing you want to be doing... 

So yeah, no updating for me, but now that the monster of a paper is finished, I can get back to blogging again! I think that is usually how I end up getting off track with keeping journals, but hey, this time, I'm here recording and documenting once more  =)

Last week was actually our spring break, and for the first time, I stayed and worked through the break. Usually, I go home or go on crazy adventures with my friends, (or last year, I went to California with my guy! you can check them out here.. I just looked through it and man... so many amazing memories!!), but yeah,,, that monster paper and competition preparation kept me in Houston this year.  So most of the break was spent in front of my computer typing, or in a practice room with my earplugs in, practicing.  If you guys are musicians, do you practice with ear plugs?  I usually don't do it, but when you're working on Sibelius Violin Concerto, and you just have to shred octaves for hours, you gotta protect those ears  ;)

Thankfully though, my break wasn't all work and no play!

One night, we had a cooking double date with our double date couple and Houdini!

We made 'blackened chicken', which is basically really heavily seasoned chicken, and if you ever plan on cooking chicken with cayenne pepper, we highly recommend turning on the fan.  We didn't do that  at first, and all of us (including Houdini) was hacking and sneezing until the air cleared.  Man,,, I guess it's kind of like a mild version of pepper spray?  but whatever the case, let me tell you what. it ain't pleasant.

We also baked some more... (Nutella roll-up cookies!)

cooked some more things,, and ate some more baked goods!  The cakes were from one my student's mom, and it was so sweet of her to bring me some!  And all of the pieces were so beautiful!  I am so blessed to have such wonderful students and parents =)

And one day, my guy surprised me with a cupcake! It was his way of congratulate me on getting admitted into my doctorate program, and I thought it was so sweet of him  =)  I applied to Boston University and University of Texas-Austin, and I got into both of the schools!  I was so excited, and that made my spring break much more exciting  haha.  I haven't decided where I want to go, but I will let you know when I finally decide! 

So that is about it for my spring break!  Not the crazy adventurous one like the one I had last year, and probably the most workaholic one ever, but still, a really great one.  I am so blessed to have all of the opportunities and to be surrounded by such wonderful people, especially this guy  ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

--Janny

Another game night!

Hello everyone!

Yes, yes, we have game nights all the time (like here and here), and yes, I am blogging yet another one.  haha  If you haven't tried game nights with a couple of your closest friends (and add the four legged friends too if you are so inclined) you are totally missing out!  so grab a couple of your favorite games, people, and animals, food and block off a couple of hours to hang out.  It's as easy as that!

For our game night, we picked our favorite double date couple, a couple of poochies, multiple games, and some pizza, and we were set!

Here is David with pup #1, Pucci.  We were dogsitting her for the weekend, and she is such a delight! we can't wait to get a pup of our own!

pup #2, our favorite/the most regular four legged addition, Houdini, nicknamed 'jammies'

and Amulet getting really into the game with the help of pup #3, Odi!

And some deliciously greasy pizza!  mmmmhmm.  We usually try to eat healthy, but a little bit of grease once in awhile never hurts, and this was just so good!  

We started off with a quick little game called For Sale, which was so quick I didn't really get a chance to snap many photos other than this one of Odi and David  haha

Then we moved onto our favorite game of the night!  

Have you heard of Dixit? It's kind of like Pictionary and Apples to Apples got together and had a baby.. and it is so much fun!!

and the illustrations on the cards are really wonderful too.

So the gist of the game is that you pick a card and a saying that goes along with it, and the others choose a card from their hand that they think matches what you said.  Then, you lay it all down on the table and the other players try to guess which one was yours.  The tricky part is that you don't want to be too vague that no one guesses it (because then you don't get any points) but you also don't want to be too obvious because then everyone will guess yours and again, you won't get any points.  It's quite tricky to walk the line between the two, and the scientists in the group (the boys) had the hardest time coming up with a not too obvious description of the card  haha.  

Pictures below shows our last round, and we're dying because David, the obvious-king of the night put, down his last card, and without him even having to say anything, we all correctly guessed which one was his!    XD

The last game we played was Munchkin, and while it was fun, I think we were a bit too tired to be playing the game.. It has a pretty steep learning curve at first, but it would be fun to play it again =)

super focused David  =p

Overall, it was such a fun night with wonderful company (both the 2 legged and the 4 legged kind), and we can't wait to do it again soon!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

Valentine's Night In!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Unlike last year, we actually got to celebrate it on the actual day!
I did end up having to be at school until 7, but we celebrated afterwards with a homemade dinner and a spa night!  For our dinner, we decided to do an Italian themed dinner with some bruschetta and spaghetti, all made from scratch.  We tend to have a bit of difficulty going out to eat if it's something that we can easily make at home, and since we were craving Italian cuisine, we knew making it ourselves would be much more fun and romantic for two kitchen nerds like us  ;)

so a couple of days before, we prepared the bread for the bruschetta!

mmmmm  jalapeno cheddar bread made from scratch and baked in our dutch oven!!  recipe here.

and in the process of being turned into the most amazing bruschetta!

and TADA!!!!

 It tasted soo amazing.  and I love how it looks all colorful and happy as well  =D

and we made the spaghetti sauce from scratch as well!

nothing too terribly exciting; just adding different ingredients and simmering for a whole day...  but it tasted incredible!  much better than any restaurant spaghetti sauces we've tried  ;)

and dinner is served!!

and then, of course, we had to have dessert.  so we made some cookies!  some aged chocolate chip cookies (I'll elaborate later in another post  haha!)   and it tasted amazing!  we are total fans of aging cookies.  mm hmm.

and we made a heart shaped one too because if you can't be cheesy like that on Valentine's Day, then when can you, eh?  but as you can see,,, it didn't turn out quite as we expected  haha

Before we started the movie, we decided to open our gifts, and!!!!!  this was in the bag David got me!!!  A new spiffy camera!!!   he knows me so well  =D  all of my blog photos have been being taken with the iphone 5, and while it has been ok, it is definitely not the best.  I've been meaning to invest in a better camera for awhile now, and he got it for me!  Such a thoughtful guy, and I am so blessed to have him in my life  =)

I got him a robe because he's always wearing a parka in his apartment when it gets a bit chilly (warm? yes.  comfy? no.), and also because we wanted to do a spa night, and you can't do a spa night without a fluffy robe!

so here he is modeling the robe and showing how he feels about putting green substance on his face  haha

and the transformation!!

yes, it may look weird, but it feels sooo nice when you wash it all off!

Then, we watched the movie Before Sunset to wrap off the night.  We really enjoyed Before Sunrise (the first of that trilogy) but we weren't as enamored with the second installment... we'll have to see how we like Before Midnight!  have you guys watched this series?  Did you enjoy it?

Anyway, we had a wonderful Valentine's Day, and we hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

 Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful 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

Birthday Surprise for Mr. Lin!

Hello everyone,

Today is Mr. Lin's birthday!!!  Last year, we planned a pretty elaborate surprise for him (elaborate because there were more people in the studio and required more coordinating), and I think we about gave him a heart attack!  We didn't get to do the whole shebang of decorating the door and inside of his studio this time around (but there are still some decorations left over from last year that he keeps around year around haha), but we did get most of our studio together and surprise him when he got to school  =)  

He was definitely surprised, hopefully pleasantly so, and this is what we had waiting for him!

It was a baseball themed 'party' this year because he's always talking about baseball during our lessons, so we assumed he really enjoys it  ;)  haha  we had a baseball card, a baseball cupcake, a pencil sharpener that says 'Mr. Lin's' written on it, and a jar of pencils that has 'Stolen from Cho Liang Lin' engraved on them.  

It was really fun to get the whole studio together to surprise him on his birthday, and though he says he's not going to schedule lessons on his birthday from now on, we think he enjoyed it  ;)

Happy Birthday Mr. Lin!  

Thank you so much for always pushing us to be our best, and expecting us to do what we at first think to be impossible.  It's been tough at times trying to live up to his expectations, and also trying learn to have the same kind of expectations for myself, but I really feel like I've grown a lot during these two-ish years  =)

If you see him today, please wish him the happiest of birthdays!

--Janny