PICNIC.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles and I decided to take advantage of my free time (while Victor was at work), and plan a surprise picnic in our beautiful apartment courtyard! The courtyard is so peaceful with a water fountain, and surrounding greenery. I picked up a few ingredients from the grocery store and whipped up a "DIY Burrito Bowl" with lemon pepper chicken, salad, tortilla chips, rice and beans, and black pepper/Caesar dressing (my take on a 'Chipotle' burrito bowl). Victor was very surprised to find a note on our dining table and even more surprised to find out that we would be having dinner outdoors. My surprise picnic was a total success!

CHEERS TO THE WEEKEND

KNICK | KNACKS.

A mutual friend of ours made us these 

amazing collages:

This week I wanted to make a post about cute favorite 'knick knacks' that we have in our apartment. I've had this post in mind for a while but kept putting it off. I finally took photos of some of my favorite pieces. Our apartment is still not fully done (decoration wise) but the small stuff we do have we make it work. I give most of the credit to Victor. He pretty much puts things together and it totally works. We have a lot of pop of color, lots of orange, green and pink. I remember going to Victors old studio when we first started dating and loving the decor so I trust his decorating ideas. I love the 'Life is beautiful' piece, it's Victors beautiful writing and that actually hangs right above our bed. I think it's a great reminder to enjoy life and appreciate what we have. The collages were a Christmas gift to us from a mutual friend. Side story regarding this mutual friend, I actually met her at work and when I started talking to Victor and his mom about her we found out that they knew each other but had lost contact. Weird how life works out and how small the world is. She picked some of her favorite photos of us, made these two collages and framed them. We were so surprised when we saw them, a lot of these photos we both had forgotten about. It was a very thoughtful gift and we appreciate it so much. I am planning on making a video of our apartment soon so keep an eye out for that! Now I have to work on a small project for Victors birthday that is coming up!

DIN-DIN.

Another day, another dinner party! Tuesday night Victor and I went over to my friend Koko's apartment at 'The Embassy' for dinner. The three of us took a walk to the local Ralph's to pick up some last minute ingredients. She whipped up a delicious baked parmesan chicken with fettuccine alfredo pasta, garlic bread and a simple salad. We had wine, chatted a bit, and even ended up doing some karaoke with Victors iPad. Please excuse the last not so great photo of our dinner. I was so excited to eat that I totally forgot to take a nice photograph before I started chomping down on it. This was a fun night and I love the chalkboard decal in her dining room! Filled with hashtags - OFCOURSE I wrote one of my own!

GOOD FRIDAY.

Cute journal at Cotton On in Santa Monica.

Being inspired by 'Good Friday' and being super hungry, I decided to cook up a good meal for Victor and I. I got off work a couple hours before him so I had enough time to run to the grocery store and buy a few ingredients. I'm not the best cook, but I actually took the time to make this happen. I thought of the recipe in my head. I bought chicken breast and stuffed them with diced 'Italian style' tomatoes (they were seasoned with garlic, basil and oregano). I let the chicken breast marinate in the tomato sauce, and added a bit more garlic salt and basil with a few crushed red peppers. I grilled it all together along with fresh garlic and BOOM! I had two flavorful chicken breasts! I paired this with a light salad, some wheat pasta and garlic Texas toast. After dinner we headed down to Santa Monica and walked around the 3rd Street Promenade. We finally made it to Santa Monica, for the past 3 weeks I've been bugging Victor about going haha. We ended up leaving after about an hour and a half and stopped by Victor's favorite doughnut shop: Krispy Kremes.

HERE'S A VINE ROUND UP OF OUR 

GOOD FRIDAY:

(if you have vine follow us, @J_Hdez//@Victor_Go)

PORTRAITS.

Earlier this week Victor and I enjoyed our day off shopping for old movies at Amoeba and eating a feast at Red Robin in the Glendale Galleria. Before taking off for our adventure I set up my camera and took some photographs of us two. I think these turned out great, I love black and white photography especially when there is harsh lighting. Opposite of Victor I am a scruffy mess, I haven't shaved in a while. I'm cooking tonight so I should probably get started on that! 

Below is a  candid shot, the self timer went off too soon:

T. G. I. F.

The Embassy.

 

 

 

 

 

 Earlier this week Victor and I were invited to a dinner party that my friend/ex coworker Koko was hosting. We have been getting really close lately, and I just love spending time with her. She is such a fun person to be around and is always in a great mood. There's definitely a positive vibe about her that I love. I can be myself with her and she will just let it be (occasionally will poke fun at my bad english BUT that's ok with me!). She just moved into this beautiful apartment in Koreatown with her friend Jackie (whom both Victor and I LOVE!). I really love her apartment, I just describe it as a house. It is huge, especially huge when compared to our small studio! They have an amazing view and everything about their apartment is super cute! The menu for the night was salad for starters, and sweet sausage with steamed rice. This was my first time ever trying this kind of sausage ;) I mean I've only had the breakfast kind but this kind was delicious. She glazed it with brown sugar and it was so yummy I kind of wish I could have taken some home but the recipe is pretty easy, I will probably cook this soon. Her friends Anthony and Ser Antonio were invited to the dinner as well and we all had a good time. It was so much fun, we all talked and laughed together and it wasn't one bit awkward. I sometimes feel shy when meeting new people even though those who know me say that I am not shy at all. We were having such a good time that we even got a noise complaint from the land lord *whoops*. I hope Victor and I get to hang out with them soon, it would be great to have new friends close to our apartment.

Here's a choreo/dance video that Anthony showed us and I am currently obsessed with:

* CHEERS TO NEW FRIENDS *

BAKED.

Someone in our building was going to discard this amazing poster, makes for a great addition to our apartment!

Victor got these basil/cilantro grow kits at Target, such a great buy!

FINALLY! I have time to post a quick blog post! These past few weeks have been a bit crazy, even with my hours being cut at work, I still have other things keeping me busy. This past Sunday Victor whipped up a delicious dinner in less than 30 minutes! I love pasta it's so quick to make, and it fills you up pretty good! He's really good at mixing things we have in our kitchen and coming up with a great tasting dish. The highlight of the night however was me baking some 'Cupcake Brownies'! Sure it's from the box but it was still exciting to finally use my oven to bake something! I really want to get more into baking but have yet to stock up on baking utensils. We had a very relaxing Sunday evening: dinner, read our books, and finished it off with brownies for dessert.