twentyeighteen

Recent

I wish I have more time to write this regularly, but recently I am literally racing with time. Came back home after graduation and now in Singapore doing a violin festival - It's more like an excuse for me to escape home and travel but I actually learned a lot here and lucky to have so many lessons with different professors. Being here also forces myself to get back in the habit of practicing everyday - my recital in Taiwan is in 2 weeks (ahhhh!) These roses were shot when I was still in my comfortable little corner in nyc. I was just so in love with the colors - hope you guys like them too. 

I received this super cute bracelet as my graduation gift, and I am loving it. And plus you all know I am obsessed with bears hehe. It's from a spanish brand Tous. I really like the simple design and how it literally goes with everything. Normally I don't like to wear accessories on my wrists because I have to take it down when I play violin, but this one doesn't bother me at all, very light and comfortable to wear. You can find it here.

across the lake

In the beginning of the month, few days after my Florida trip, CW and I booked a trip to Toronto. Mainly is to check out the Niagara Falls form the prettier side. But instead, I think we both enjoyed the city part more. I didn't know the flight is this short from New York, haha not even enough for a proper nap. We spent three days there and pretty much walked/ ubered/ street cared around the whole city - at least the touristy parts. I enjoyed the city vibe a lot and how people are so friendly there. The food were yummy and the coffee shops were very hip - where I got my colorful latte :p I just wish the weather could be a bit warmer. Now that I have a great impression for Canada, I can't wait to explore more places in the future. Hope you enjoy the photos, and thanks for stopping by

Places above :
Distillery District 
Versus Coffee
Lady Marmalade
Neo Coffee Bar

wanderlust - Florida Keys

I can't believe it's already half way through may - I wonder why this year flies by so fast, do you feel the same? I want to share this trip to Florida Keys that I did with my best friend J two weeks ago, more like sharing my photos (hah) We planned this trip as a little graduation gift for ourselves - you probably wonder why Keys not Miami? um, we wanted to go somewhere that's less crowded, less touristy, and plus Keys just straight up sounds cooler :p  We flew in to Fort Lauderdale and took a shuttle down to the Keys, so this time we only get to explore the northern part of the islands - Key Largo and Islamorada (took me forever to pronounce this right) BUT because we enjoyed the time there so much, we will definitely come back again for the other parts of the island aka Key West. I think it would be really fun if we can do a roadtrip driving all the way through and stop by different parts - but let's save this idea for next time...  

We stayed at the Key Largo Bay Marriott Beach Resort, and it was awesome, we have two queen beds and a bay side view. As you can see our bunnies also enjoyed it very musch :p

A great breakfast is always very important to me, since there wasn't walking distance restaurant around, we decided to order room service - breakfast in the bed is like a must when you stay at a good hotel right? The hotel itself has a private tiny beach with a pool, so after our satisfying breakfast, we basically spent the whole day in the sun and salt water. The water was really clear and you can just tell by when there are fish swimming around you. My favorite part was the sunset - it was beautiful and magical, I can stare at it all day long. 

sweater tank / cover up shorts

Sorry for spamming so many sunset photos, I was just so in love with the sky and water combination. This photo on the right was taken on the little island in the middle of the water, there was a lot of seaweed in the water but we survived ;) I love this shot so much -

Isn't it pretty? I love how the colors of the sky kept changing. I think this pretty much wraps up what we did the first and second day there.

The next highlight of the trip was when we took an uber down to Islamorada - Cheeca Lodge and Spa. Fun fact, when we were planning this trip, we were gonna book this hotel because it looked beautiful and luxurious but because of our budget we didn't. But at the end, the snorkeling trip we booked online was still located in this resort - so I guess we were meant to be there :p

I mean I don't think I need to explain how pretty it is, white sands, turquoise water and palm trees, that was all I need for a vacation. They took us on a boat for snorkeling, we drove for about 3 miles into the ocean close to a lighthouse - Alligator Reef. Apparently, it is the best spot for snorkeling and scuba diving. It didn't disappoint me at all, lots of fish around me and the water was THAT blue and clear, seriously it was magical and not filter needed. I just wish I brought my own goggles instead of wearing those snorkel masks, so I could go deeper and get closer to the fish.    

If you have a closer look into the photos above, the tiny dots are the fishies - I got super sea sick on the way back to the beach but it was worth it.  

                

In case you are curious about where to find my bikini - 

After snorkeling, we decided to go parasailing to get even better view from the sky. I have never done anything like this, it was fun and exciting except I got super sea sick again lol We got three captains on the boat this time - yup only two of us but we got THREE captains, feeling special haha

We were in the sky for about 10 minutes - very special experience, I am glad we did it :) After all that we went to the pool and enjoy all the facility they had in the lodge as if we stayed in the hotel. It was amazing haha 

Woah I just realized I didn't really talk anything about food there yet - tbh I like the food there but they are more or less very similar in all the restaurants. I ended up craving for asian food so much (no shame) I think our favorite brunch place was at The Green Turtle Inn, the service was amzing super friendly, the food was also on point. We got a blueberry waffle, and the tutle breakfast for share. The size was HUGE - Florida size. Our favorite dinner place was at the Morada Bay, it also has it's own beach right next to the restaurant - who can say no to great food with an awesome view. We got salad topped with seared Ahi tuna and a pan seared snapper to share, ended the meal with a Key Lime pie. 

Hope you guys enjoy the photos and some thoughts of mine - I don't to go into too much crazy details but feel free to ask my or comment below if you have any questions. The photos were shot by a combinations of iphone, gopro and dslr. Thanks for stopping by until next time:)

getaway - the cloisters

 Need a break from crazy Manhattan? This little adventure was from a few weeks ago but I thought I should really share the experience and photos to you guys, since i liked it so much. keep reading if you are interested -
I first saw the cloisters on one of my friends' instagram and thought "dude we have this in manhattan?" So i did some research on it and asked my friend Ashley to come with / be my model / I am scared to go by myself. We took the 1 train up to 191th street and couldn't find the entrance...(usually i am good at google map) but instead we walked into this cool tunnel which led us to the A train and also brought us to the entrance of Fort Tryon Park. Tada!! told you I am good at directions😎. But yeah, if you are going to this park/ the cloisters take the A train, it's just less confusing.

I still remember it was windy and cold that day, but the beautiful view and quietness up there was worth it. I love how there weren't a lot of people comparing to central park and you get to enjoy the whole space and scenery by yourself - I love having my own moments. You get to see the Hudson river from a higher angle with the George Washington Bridge above it. It's really nice. I would def want to come back when the weather is even warmer.

The cloister is located at the northern part of the Fort Tryon Park. It is a museum specializing in European medieval architecture, sculpture and decorative arts. It is also a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I actually did't know all these until we got there, all I knew was there are good lighting and cool arches (hah)

   

I am not always a museum person but I love the feeling of being surrounded by arts. idk, it's hard to explain, I guess I really enjoy watching them even though sometimes I don't understand them 100 percent... but just by imaging the time and effort the artists put in, I appreciate them a lot. PLUS, I can get some "artsy" photos, why not check it out? 

I feel like I talked too much, but last thing about the museum, these windows thoooo!! Besides the garden with lots of arches and poles you saw in the previous pictures, this might be my favorite thing in the museum. It reminds me so much of the churches in Europe, pretty colors and super delicate, and it's perfect for backlit photos...(even though I am still not very good at editing them)

Afterwards, we took an uber down to ROKC, it's a cute Japanese ramen restaurant with very nice cocktail menu and delicious oysters at happy hour! Love the ambiance so much that I almost thought I was somewhere in east village. I didn't take any photos for our ramens because the lighting weren't that great, but they were delicious, broth was light and had lots of flavors in it! We both really enjoyed their cocktails as well plus the look made the experience even better -  all about that pretty looking food. I would totally stop by again when I am around the area.

hope you guys enjoy the photos, lemme know your thought below, otherwise see you next time :)
p.s Happy Birthday to my model Ashley!!!!

👆all content © Cindy Lin unless noted

green stuff aka it's healthy

wow, this is like my first post in 2017, can't believe 1/3 of the year has already past. time is crazy, how it changes people, thinking and just in general how we work aka aging. this past month lots of things happened, i look back to my old photos, posts, life. there are actually lots of ideas floating around my mind but i just didn't have time - that's totally an excuse, i believe people will always make time for the things / people they have feelings for. so here i am, i decided to bring this blog/page/ platform back (whatever you want to call it) because this is where I can spam my photos, thoughts and perhaps organize them AND maybe some of you would like to see what i am up to, maybe? i don't know how long this will last, but i want to experiment or more like just go for it? (hah)

... but since it's confusing and directionless, there is nothing to lose right? 

something i am very sure about is the passion for food and photography, oh and music (almost forget about it) i love to eat, that't like a never fail method to cheer me up (shhh!) and i like my food to be pretty. well not always, but delicious plus photogenic food make an A+ in my heart. i love trying new things, checking out if the new hype restaurant if really that yummy, photographing boring things and try to maybe make it interestinger (still very new to this but)...  

enough of me talking about the recent me, lets talk about these avocado beauties. avocado is like my new addiction, they are easy to make, creamy and healthy (its green!) it has a good source of pantothenic acid, dietary fiber, vitamin K, copper, folate, vitamin B6, potassium, vitamin E, and vitamin C...(thanks to google) and it's a fruit. i usually just season it however i like it, with salt, lime juice (prevents it from turning brown also lightens up the creaminess), red pepper flakes (lots), and sometimes honey. after mixing them up, spread on any kind bread you like, i use sourdough from dean & deluca here. usually i like to top it with smoked salmon, eggs, tomatoes or bacon (rarely). just whatever i found in my fridge basically. i roasted my tomatoes with salt and olive oil while toasting up my bread, also made an avocado rose for fun and a 6 minutes soft boiled egg for that runny yolk goodness :p 

                        

that's a wrap, in case you are curious, i got my coffee table from ikea, dinnerware from cb2 and flatware from westelm. i shot my food with nikon d610 with 50mm and natural light from my window. hope you enjoy reading a bit more about me. until next time :)