HK Home | Sneek Peak!

The past few weeks has been surprisingly a lot of fun spent decorating and cleaning our new apartment! With the help of some lovely family and friends, we got the place looking really cozy and great to stay. I wanted to share some pictures of our home.
These are not pictures of our home. This was the inspiration board I put together to get some creative juices flowing on how we wanted our place to look.

It ended up looking not much like anything in the pictures above at all! But that’s okay because this is a place we can truly call our own.

Left: A chalkboard clock kills two birds with one stone! Right: I love our white Ikea table — so good for reading the bible, writing, going online, eating, and drinking!

My hole-in-the-wall bedroom. The whole smaller space, more happiness thingis totally working!

My favorite detail in my room is my window, which I got to add some favorite personal touches to. I’ve always wanted some warmer colors to my rooms back at home but due to financial/parental restraints, never was able to. Now I finally get to! Yippy-Yai-Ay!

This picture of my mom, sister, and I made me laugh so hard I snorted milk out of my nose when I first saw it. Obviously frame-worthy.

Flowers are such an awesome touch to the house (these lovely buds thanks to Joel).  Other personal touches I love — quirky household items like a trashcan who winks and a sunlamp jar.

And the best part of the house? My sister as my roommate. It’s been too long since I’ve lived with this girl. So grateful every day I get this chance to right now. I LOVE YOU SISTERRRRRR!!!

 

Girlfriend Marries The Goat

My best gal pal Helena married her love, Alex earlier this month. I served as the Media Maid of Honor for the wedding which a BEAUTIFUL AFFAIR.

Because I was busy running around doing Media Maid of Honor-ish duties, I failed to take a SINGLE picture of the wedding! As we wait for the pictures to come in, here is the lovely wedding video. Enjoy!

Alex + Helen: Christ | Vintage | Love from Cakeflix Wedding Films on Vimeo.

 

Motivational Monday: So There is Hope In the Future Generation

People are always saying how fearful they are of how the future generation will turn out to be — lazy, entitled, morally corrupt, lack of motivation, lack of empathy, ADD, money/power/fame-driven…

BULLSHIT.

Watch this video and you’ll agree with me that the future will do just fine.

Freakin’ ingenious use of multimedia, politics, propaganda, branding, advertisement, and heart.

 

Get Her Flowers

I’m a practical girl.

I enjoy shopping at flea markets and vintage shops because it helps the environment and my budget. I would rather spend my money on food and unforgettable experiences than material goods. My favorite gift this past Christmas was an electric toothbrush (oh my goodness, once you go there, you won’t be able to come back).

However, there is something I am not ashamed of admitting.

I looooove receiving flowers. I love giving them as well. Even though plucking those poor beautiful things and giving them to someone could be very wasteful because flowers die, I still love love love fresh flowers. I love the smell of them, I love smiling when I get to see them first thing in the morning, I love the thought of someone taking the time to purchase or pick me some.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, it seems a no-brainer to give your loved ones a bouquet of beauties but I say, why not give flowers at random times of the year? Studies have shown that flower heighten happy emotions and life satisfaction. People get happy just looking at ‘em.

Red roses may be the standard to romance but frankly, I find them a little bit too moody and way too expensive. My friend Joyce told me that red roses actually cost the MOST around February and not just because for Valentine’s Day but because of the season it blooms. Um, no thanks!

I’d rather receive some gorgeous peonies. The pale blush pinks, purples, corals, and whites they come in is absolutely swoon-worthy for the girl that’s young at heart and free-spirited.

And fellas, not all girls need the packaging or the expensive store-bought bouquets. Many girlfriends actually prefer wildflowers that look like you just walked past nature, saw some pretty buds, thought of your special lady, and took the time to pick it for them. That’s definitely way more romantic and thoughtful than getting your secretary to order a bouquet of standard reds online, dontcha think?

Regardless of what you do on Valentine’s Day, whether it’s dining at a 5-star restaurant or just a cozy movie night at home, I hope that you’ll take the time to treat your loved ones to some pretty flowers! This includes mothers, sisters, aunts, and friendlies. Flower power!

I’ve never tried giving guys flowers. Do you guys like them? Let me know in the comments below!

 

A Shower Of Love

The end of December is kind of a shaky time to throw an outdoors party. You gotta worry about the weather, for one thing.

But sunshine was on our side on December 31st where Helen and Alex’s wedding party came together and tossed out one big festivity for the lovely bride and groom-to-be’s.

Now, we have a ton of really really crafty and creative people in our wedding party so I wasn’t worried that things weren’t going to turn out fabulous.

Who knew cereals in paper bags would look so gorgeous?

A pancake station!

Despite it being one of the busiest days of the year, many loved ones came to celebrate with Helen and Alex. Thank you all for coming!

The wedding party, led by the ever-theatrical Julian, held a skit for the man and woman of the hour. As you can see, it was very well-received.

Less than 40 days left before my dear Helena gets married! Still have to:
1) Get my dress hemmed
2) Buy heels
3) Throw a bachelorette party
4) Plan 10 minutes of sumthin’ sumthin’ for the wedding reception
5) Cling onto Helen at her last days of singledom! Gahh!! (Jk, jk, I’m so not the clingy type…)

 

How The Janns Do Christmas

The thought of cooking food sometimes gives me the hives.

The thought of the hours spent selecting the menu, the thought of the trips to the grocery store to get every ingredient just right, the thought of the cutting, the thought of the boiling, the thought of the dishes getting cleaned up…

*shudder

But nonetheless, I offered to prepare some dishes for our family’s Christmas Eve dinner (which, next to Thanksgiving and Chinese New Year, is only the most important family meal of the year). How hard could it be? A salad, a potato side dish, a dessert. Easy as pie.

Well, when you’re me, it can be pretty hard. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to set a more fancier menu for those dishes. Meaning I wasn’t just gonna toss some iceberg lettuce in with some carrots and call it a day. I wasn’t just gonna buy the boxed mashed potato flakes.

I decided to spice up the plain ol’ mashed potatoes dish by making a variation of this recipe of mashed potatoes with spinach, ricotta, and bacon.

These here are all the brave soldiers that served for duty that night.

First, I diced the potatoes while the water was boiling. Saving time baby!

Then, while the potatoes were boiling, I diced up some onions and mixed them in a pan with spinach and ricotta cheese.

Turkey bacon also got sizzled and diced. I used turkey because it’s healthier. This is the reason why I will never be able to become a vegetarian.

My grandma started helping me mix it all together. You gotta have a grandma mixing to make this recipe filled with love.

Voila! What do ya think? Looks pretty scrumptious, no? It tasted even better the day after.

So unfortunately for me, I took too long making the potatoes that I ran out of time when I got to my fancy salad recipe (which was going to feature fancy stuff like kale. And couscous. And quinoa which is so fancy the man at Trader Joe’s had to correct me and say, “it’s not pronounced ‘kinoa,’ it’s pronoounced ‘keenua,’ you blundering ball of idiot” (ok, so he didn’t add the last part but he sure was thinkin’ it).

I did whip up a freakin’ tasty pumpkin bread but it was so yummy I forgot to take pictures of it. Here are the rest of the dishes served at the dinner…

‘Twas so nice getting my sister and cousins back for the holidays. As you can see, us Janns are more than a little enamored with the Lius.

Sisters!

Hope y’alls had a great Christmas!

 

“How Was Your Winter Break?”

I took an actual break this winter.

Like, an actual one — not a fake one where I still answered emails on my phone under the covers at night or took some business meetings and interviews (okay, so I did do that one day of the break but c’mon, you know what they say — “you can take the tiger out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the tiger!”

I’ve had a fairly rough December (nothing compared to last year’s but still). One that consisted of guns and holdups, traffic tickets, oil spills, and cars crashing within inches of me (I knowww!!)

So it was nice to receive this fortune cookie.

Good things did happen for much of break. For one thing, an unparalleled  amount of joy.

Look at that smile on my grandma’s face! JOY!

Good things happen when you’re not looking. Can you spot that in the picture above? I do like surprises and I’m hoping this year, I take steps closer to making my dreams come true!

 

Christmas Thoughts

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is such a fabulous time for me. It’s wonderful because as a Christian, I can celebrate and revel in the peace of knowing that Christ had been born to save us. It’s wonderful because as a workaholic, I can take a little time to relax. It’s wonderful because as a human, I use the holidays as an reason to spend time with my family and loved ones.

I really do love spending good quality time with my family. It makes me remember how kind God was to create other people in our lives so that we won’t have to spend our time on earth alone.

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’”
~ Genesis 2:18

Perhaps this is a naive way of thinking but I’m curious — when did life start to develop this whole “me against them” way of thinking? When did everyone start to feel the need to protect their assets, protect their gains as though there are not enough to go around in the world? When did the privileged just want to keep what they have just to themselves and not share? When did pushing others down to make your way to the top become an envied trait? When did caring about other people become not cool? When did sharing get lost, people? We learned this in kindergarten so I know some people somewhere still felt it was important but somehow on the road to growing up, we lost some of it. When did material goods become replacements for quality relationships? When did quantity replace quality?

I don’t really care to know when any of these happen but I do wish to know why it happened. I may be lost on a lot of other things but I am not lost on this and it’s that we were made on this earth to love. Christ showed us that during his time here. When we love, miracles happens. I know this because when I heard of Christ’s love, when I felt His love around my arms, my world turned upside down but suddenly made sense. This here is a man who loved those who betrayed Him, who loved us before we loved Him. By all this world’s standards, he’s a fool. But to me, it’s someone finally worthy enough to worship.

This article on how some of our country’s richest think about the Occupy movement really irritated me when I first read it. And these details of the Sandusky case literally made me sick to my stomach. I just couldn’t believe the nerves of some people, how they can be so trapped in their own world and produce this really twisted view of life. And then I realized I am no better if I just put them off that way because the truth is, I have never been in their world so I have no idea what it’s really like. I can just guess and say things like, “oh, if I were in there position, I would NEVER think this way, I would never act that way.”

But would I really?

It just comes down to me living my life and the things I’ve seen and the things I know and the people and actions that have touched my heart. With all those things I have come to know that:

• *Happiness does not equal joy.
• *Money does not equal happiness.
• *There are so many things I can’t change in my life already so with the things I’m granted free will to change, I need to make wise decisions on.
• *I can’t change other people so I can only change myself.
• *I may only be one person and I may not be able to make all the difference in the world but I can make a difference and that in it of itself makes all the difference in the world.
• *Each person does not have the same path set for them.
• *All things are possible through Christ.

 

Bringing Christmas Back Pt. 2

Once you start, you just can’t stop.

So since I decided to do my little part in reviving some of the Christmas spirit in our household, I suddenly was on a roll to do all I can to bring more Christmas cheer back.

I went to the 99cents Only store and bought a couple of boxes of lights to hang all over our house. My stupidity did not warn me that the number “20″ on the box means just that– 20 lightbulbs. That meant I had a whole bunch of really short strings of lights and couldn’t really do much with it except to toss around the fireplace and hang on the stairs.

Our family threw away our beloved fake Christmas tree the last time we moved (along with all the ornaments) so instead of going out to buy a new one, I decided to just decorate a regular ol’ fake tree that’s been standing in our living room. Bought a couple of fake snowflakes from Target and viola! Not a bad impostor, eh?

Oh yea, and I also baked snicker-doodles for the first time. The soggy dough threw me off for a bit but they came out of the oven nice enough.

And also for the first time ever, I ended up buying everyone in my family gifts that I actually think they will really like! No more last-minute JCPenney tie for dad or that lame plate set that I picked up from a white elephant exchange that I decide to regift to my cousin. Is this what growing up means? If so, I dig it.

 

I Do!

She said yes!