out with the old

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Welcome to my new blog space!

I have to say a big thank you to Savannah over at oh so pretty for listening to my design ideas and really "getting" what I wanted to go for.

There are a a few tweaks and a adjustments yet to be made but this is generally it and I couldn't be happier with it.

Over the last year this space has increasingly become a little haven, a "happy place" for me to come and document my day to day. It's kept me motivated to keep crafting and taking pictures, to sit and reflect on a day that may have been tough and to pull out the good in it. To write, really write, to dance to the tune of what inspires me and to consider my situations and experiences and try to present them with clearer eyes and a more open heart.

If ever I've had my own private teepee to crawl into and set my imagination and creative juices free this blog has been it, and I think this design reflects this perfectly.

Thank you to my readers who have followed me along so far, hopefully now the place is a little less shabby you'll feel a lot more comfortable around here!

 ^.^

monday morning ear candy

The weekends here in Korea are slippier than fish and faster than elk. They just have this way of getting away from you!

Dallas and I had a swell time on Saturday evening, going out on the town and celebrating two birthday parties, bar-hopping and slipping around on frozen snow and drunken legs.

We ate delicious Korean BBQ, sneaked trays of tequila shots to the table at the bar, got up to all kinds of mischief and laughed at the realization that all of our gifts to the birthday boy in his mid-twenties were "old man gifts"~ thick socks, cologne, a puzzle,  warm gloves....though he didn't seem to mind one bit. Maybe we're all old souls on the inside!

When we got home Dallas and I carried on the party and stayed up till dawn listening to tunes. We drank rice wine, laughed and traded stories like a couple of old sailors. It was certainly my kind of a night.

This is my favorite tune of the moment. A pretty ditty by a great new band to get that heart rate bopping on this slow and frosty Monday morning.

Enjoy x

∆ old man winter ∆

The year is officially entering it's solstice, marked by the angel white dusting that began this week, leaving nothing but little green blades and gnarly brown stalks and stems peeking out of it.
It's like mother nature is wiping the slate clean for 2013, polishing the globe ready to start a brand new year on a clean blank canvas.

It's beautiful to look out the window and see the mountain tops capped with snowflakes, my eyes dazzled by the low winter sun, to go outside and catch falling white crystals in my hair and eyelashes. 
Clean clean smells and a red red nose and footprints leading in a million directions.
Glitter falling like a snow-globe that's been tipped upside down.

There's something about the freezing air after a snowfall that shocks the lungs and opens them wider and reminds you that you are alive.

We run by the moon these days, waking up with it smiling through the crack in the blinds and scuttling on our path home under it's bright, benevolent eye. 

Winter is the most mystical of the seasons, cloaked in darkness and frost, foggy breath and frozen earth.
Children believe in magical things, homes are ornamented with glitter and baubles...peace, thanks and love warm the lips and hearts of even the stiffest of souls.


Winter is the wizard who makes this wonderland.
Perhaps he's my new favorite,...but I say that about them all.

take a breath

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Tonsillitis for the second time this year has had this lady deer with a big slice of grump on her face.

I overindulged Friday night, layed low in bed all day Saturday and morosely reminisced on Sunday of starting the weekend over and filling it with all the productive things I had planned to tick off my massive Christmas preparation list.

Yesterday morning I woke up with tonsils the size of golf balls and at the realization of this forced slow down I just hit a wall and let it bring out the hidden hood-rat in me. I was ready to crack open some skulls~ just ask poor, poor Dallas :(

Today I've decided is a fresh slate,  I just need to take a big breath, take my meds till I'm better and learn that screaming at my spouse is not a solution to my problems!

I'm allowing myself to think ahead and take solace in the promise of many new and exciting things to come. 

There's gonna be some movin' and shakin' around this blog pretty soon and I am tickled pink to share the changes with you.

I read a lovely quote over the weekend that I think rounds off this update perfectly and I'll certainly be taking a little bit of this advice the next time my bottom lip threatens to pop out today:

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight"

~Phyllis Diller

Hope you're all smiling today friends

x

   

3 little things// sweet memories

Last night as I was clearing out our cluttered shelves I happened upon my old iPod and stopped a while to scroll through my old picture album as it was pretty much my only camera during the 6 months when I left Korea, travelled and came back (everything was sold off to fund the trip).

As I scrolled down through over 400 photos I picked off three that evoke some pretty sweet memories for me...

1. Bali Dream Catcher

I took this photo of the shadow of a dream catcher against a folding blind one night at a rickety old Balinese beach hut I stayed at during my first week travelling there. 

It was around midnight and all the other guests were asleep. I needed cash but the nearest ATM was a 30 minute walk away so the toothless, white-vested Balinese gentleman who worked for the hostel and also slept under it took me there and back on the back of his scooter. 

When he returned me back to the hut alive and in one piece I bought him a beer, listened to his life story and was taken by the sound of the waves outside and the shadow of the dream catcher jangling against the shuttered blinds by the night sea breeze...

2. Puddle reflections

Back in Korea now and caught in the late August rain showers. 

Splashing my way to school, trouser hems soaked up to the shins and wishing for a blue rubber dinghy and  bright yellow hat, raincoat and boots instead.

Then I looked down and started to notice the crystal blue, almost mirror-perfect reflections in the puddles and forgot my woes as I lost a few minutes snapping my polka-dot umbrella in the rain water instead.

3. Morose date night with Dallas

I can't but smile when I see this picture taken not long after we arrived back in Korea. 

We'd just spent three months apart back in our respective home countries and done nothing but talk and dream and scheme, write letters and talk on Skype about how wonderful it would be when we got back to Korea and were back together again.

Sometimes life has different plans and obstacles to throw in your chosen paths and the reality when we got here was we were working 40 minutes away from each other at extremely long houred and stressful jobs.

I think this picture of our date night perfectly depicts our sagging spirits during that first, difficult month back.

But, dear readers, as they say  yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery~ little that we thought so at the time we did bounce back and pull the experience around so we are living a much happier life here right now. 

Wallowing never helped anything and this picture is a perfect reminder of that!

my first thanksgiving

Saturday night Dallas and I hosted our very first Thanksgiving Pot Luck Feast in our wee tiny apartment.

 It was my first Thanksgiving Feast period and  it suited me to a tee that it was a ram-shambled and Tupperware tabled, beer in mug cups kind of affair! I didn't take a single shot of these photos from the night; my camera ended up floating around the room and into the hands of anyone who cared to take a snap of what was going on around them. I kind of love that they are a little, soft-focused and blurry and skewed~ a fine representation of the party itself!

All our guests brought over a medley of delicious dishes and I fell in love with the Southern-style cooking our sweet friends from Tennessee brought to the table: corn bread and green bean casserole. Delightful!

There was also mac and cheese and bread rolls, roisterer chickens and stuffing and gravy, oh my!

And a random pineapple on the table. Because, why not?

Holiday dinner never looked or tasted better, proven by the quiet hush that descended over the group as everyone piled into their plates.

There was lots of "mmm" and "ahhhs" and "can I get the recipe's?", second and third helpings and re-filling of glasses.

We sipped delicious citrus and spiced mulled wine and were sedated by White Supremacist cocktails (a tongue in cheek concoction created by our friend Angelo), got dizzy with beer and spangled with white wine.

There was bundles of friendship and bonding and love going on under our roof that night that lasted until way after dawn and that was a happy and thankful thing.

Three cheers for Thanksgiving, my new adopted holiday! ^^

monday morning ear candy

This morning was for finding unexpected symmetry with the late season's color palette~ nutty browns and persimmon reds.

It was for hot chocolate and cold fingers and washing red lipstick from teacups after our Saturday night Thanksgiving party.
I'll post the photos tomorrow, it was really a roaring success. Full bellies, full glasses and talking till dawn.  
Yesterday's duvet day just wasn't enough to come down from it all!
This is my monday morning slow down.
Time to clear my head and notice the leaves and listen to sad, sweet music in my earphones.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

^^

thankful

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Thanksgiving Day is a jewel,

to set in the hearts of honest men;

but be careful that you do not take the day,

and leave out the gratitude.

~ E.P Powell

Technically Thanksgiving is not my holiday as I am British but seeing as I have been dating an American for 3 years and 85% of my friends here in Korea are citizens of the US I feel like I can stake a small claim on their holiday traditions~ especially ones as pure hearted as Thanksgiving.

Counting our blessings is such an important part of life, I was taught this from a child and I will teach my own children this too. The heart can lay heavy if you don't open your eyes and take simple pleasures from your surroundings and the good fortune in your life.

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Like today I am thankful for the falling leaves and the way the cold weather clears the cobwebs from my head. I'm thankful for my family of friends here in Korea and what a tightly knit group we have formed. How when we are all together each one of us fits neatly like the pieces of a puzzle.

I'm thankful for my guy.... the corner piece of that puzzle, the most important kind ~.^

I'm thankful for my childhood in a war-free country and a peaceful home.

Thankful for my healthy body and adventurous spirit.

Thankful for a universe that always provides; nature and spirit and beauty and music and love and art.

Our freedom to move within the world and do as we will.

Our freedom of choice; to love, to forgive, to travel and explore, to share knowledge and friendship and bless others with kindness.

Thankful.

Heart full.

Every day.

Happy Thanksgiving~ xx

in a pinch christmas card DIY

Last night was dedicated to all things christmas card making and I have the white scissor marks on my fingers and tiny scraps of colored paper over the floor to prove it!

It finally clicked in my brain that November is somehow inexplicably halfway over and the season to be jolly is almost upon us.

This quick and easy card and envelope DIY is perfect for those in a penny pinch (like me) who also want to create a more personalized card for their loved ones.

The supplies are minimial:

~ card stock

~ scissors

~ gold star stickers

~ decorative masking tape (you can also use ribbon or cut up bits of wrapping/magazine paper)

First step is to fold your card stock in half to make the card template.

Cut a trunk shape out of light brown paper and glue to the front of your card.

Start cutting and sticking your decorative tape in a diagonal shape and taper them upward to the top of  your tree trunk.

Sip on hot cocoa and marshmallows all the while to really set the tone ~.^

Finally, top your christmas tree with a festive gold star.

I also made little hand-sewn envelopes to place my cards in ^^

These are so simple to make~ Cut two equal sized squares of brown paper and stitch around three corners of them using brown thread, leaving the fourth corner open to create a pocket to slip your card inside.

Easy!

There you have it! Charming little homemade Christmas cards on the fly for a gal in a pinch.

Now, to the shopping!

monday morning ear candy

When I left the apartment to run some errands early yesterday evening I couldn't stop my eyes from travelling upward and admiring the naked tree branches... so artful and pretty against the changing colors of the twilight sky. 
Yellow gingko leaves and brown korean maple are raining down like tawny confetti on the daily and soon they will leave their mothers completely bare until spring arrives in March.
There's something about nude tree branches, stark and naked, brown and twisted and gothic looking.

We're in for a long winter~ I hated the winter last year in Korea but I was living alone and 3 hours away from Dallas then. This year will be different. We're hosting my very first Thanksgiving dinner this weekend which I'm far more excited about than I should be.

This saturday was Dallas's birthday party and it was a hoot. lot's of catching up with dear friends and belly laughing and sore heads the next day.
I woke up with a touch of the Monday's this morning.
Perhaps this track-list will cheer up those of you who are also wishing it was friday again ~.^