Monthly Archives: November 2013

Self Portrait: ‘Crystal Clear’

Self Portrait: ‘Crystal Clear’ by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk
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DO YOU LOVE SELF PORTRAITS?
I try to do one every week and post on a Saturday. 
If you would like to link up with me, add this button to your blog.
I would love to see your photography!
Get out those tripods, remote controls, and set your self timer!

How It Works: It must be a ‘self portrait’ and does not need to be an image you took this Saturday. Feel free to link up to past Self Portrait posts in your blog. This link up will be every Saturday so feel free to use that as your motivation to learn more about your camera, hone in on your photography skills, try out new post processing techniques, and let your creative spirit come alive. Join the Self Portrait Saturday challenge!

*Self Portrait: ‘Crystal Clear’ by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

Changes.

As you can see there have been some changes
on A Compass Rose.
I am in the process of figuring out
how to make the switch from Blogger to WordPress
and playing with the design on Blogger until it gets resolved.
I know what I like and what I want it to look like
and the limitations of Blogger has continued to challenge the process.
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I am also looking at whether I will continue to blog every day.
It was a really fun challenge and even more so
I love that I found consistency through blogging.
In the end with all these changes
I hope to further clarify what ACR blog is
and what I write as the author.
Thank you for your patience!
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Q: Do you have any links or tips for making the switch?  
I currently own my domain through GoDaddy and 
want to make the move from Blogger to WordPress.


* Update: I am in the process of waiting 24-48 hours for a different issue with my hosting to take place so that I can move from Blogger to WordPress. Until then my ‘Disqus’ comments is down. You can still comment with blogger and I will reply that way. Thank you for your patience! x

* Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk



Advice to My Pre-Expat Self

Q I: What advice would you give to your pre-expat self? 

The advice that I would give to my pre-expat self would be to above all else keep positive.  Life is about how we tackled the challenges in our life and it will not always be easy.  Since becoming an expat I have had to deal with finding employment, getting approved to rent from a leasing agent without credit in England and not having a guarantor,  and cultural issues with co-workers  The most stressful being this time last year when my husband and I were both without jobs, a lease ending soon, not knowing  how we would afford to live two months down the line, and our kids were all the way back in the US with grandparents.  It was a stressful time.  However in the end my husband got the perfect job in just the nick of time, we found a new place to live, and we moved to Bath with our sons that joined us just a couple of days before Christmas. Of course life is always easiest to view in hindsight. However, things work out the way they are meant to be and it is better to remain really positive than to let the negative affect you.

Q II: How do you reconcile what you thought life would be like in your new home and what it is in actuality?

I thought we would be able to have done a lot more traveling than we have now.  Granted, between my husband and I we have traveled to four different countries outside of the UK.  However I thought my sons would have seen several countries in Europe by now and so far they have only been to England and Wales. Traveling is just a lot more expensive when you have a family of four.  While my passports are not collecting stamps we are taking advantage of the area we live in with  country walks and visits to see nearby towns.  Technically we will not be able to travel out of the UK for about six months anyways since our passports are with Ryan’s current ILR visa application.  I am looking forward to finally traveling with my boys outside of the UK and reliving the childhood my parents chose for my sister and I.  

This was a link up for the Expat to Expat: 
Q&A with Bailie and Belinda
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RECOMMENDED

P O S T S  BY  K I M

M A K E   F R I E N D S   &   F O L L O W   K I M !



*photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

London Bloggers Tea, Nov 2013

I mentioned that the London Bloggers Tea was a success and today I share with you the photographs to prove it! I have met other bloggers before with the Bristol Fashion Week and have been on a couple of ‘blates’, but this was my first time meeting a group of bloggers of which I had already been following along online.  To say I was a little excited would be quite an understatement as I had been talking and tweeting about it online in the days that led up to our London Blogger Tea.  Before I even say another word I have to say a big thank you to Selena for putting this all together and organizing this event.  Without her hard work none of this would have been possible.  
I took the National Express coach from Bath Spa that morning getting me to London Victoria station that afternoon.  The underground was quite crowded that day with various events going on in London, but I ended up making it to Covenant Garden with ten minutes to spare. It was in the Mercer Hotel lobby where I ran into Melanie (my lovely sponsor this month) and had my first ‘omg I know you’ moment. The rest all happened rather quickly when I entered the room and heard Selena say, ‘Bonnie’s here!’
It was such an unreal moment for the first twenty minutes as I looked around the table and was able to put faces to names and blogs that I follow. Someone said it best when they stated how surreal it was to know so much about someone from their blog and finally meet them for the first time in person. To finally beat the distance, meet your ‘friends’, and give them a hug was quite a blessing for me.  It only made me feel a bit bittersweet that I do not live in London like most of the ladies so this could happen more often.
The whole event went by quite quickly. A third of the bloggers I have had the opportunity to get to know in the blogging world and through social media and had a blast getting to connect face to face.  Another third were bloggers I had only just heard about through the organization of the blogging meet up and enjoyed getting to know them and their journey with blogging.  Sadly with the time allowances and all the in depth conversations going on there was another third I did not get to talk to very much at all. It left me wanting another blogger event to look forward to so we could all talk even more. 
I did not think I was that nervous but I must have been because the first bite I had to eat all day was one of the scones when I got to the blogger tea.  I ate a little bit but my appetite was still missing when I finally made it home that night.  It was just a lot happening at once and so much excitement.  Then some of us went out for drinks at a pub afterwards and the conversations continued.  If you have read My Night in An Italian Jail, you know I had my phone stolen. I still have not gotten that replaced and so I was a bit anxious about getting home safely to Bath that night. I really want to also thank Selena and Sarah for helping make sure I got back to the coach station safely. 
It was an awesome meet up with talks about it happening quarterly.  I also look forward to any future trips to London to reconnect and invite anyone down to Bath to come visit when you have the time.  I think my next Blate will be with Kate next month, and I cannot wait! Again thank you to everyone who came, you all made my day. I understand the importance of friendships in your current city with ‘locals’ but as a TCK, I really appreciate all my expat friends. Thank you also to all of you who read my blog and those who talk with me over social media. Though we have not met, I appreciate each and every one of you. 

The London Tea Attendees
Gina from Sweet Serenity
Mandy from Emm in London
Bonnie from A Compass Rose
Jacintha from Urban Pixxels
Anna from Eat, See, Do 
Shobha from NYLon Living
Annie at Sew Graceful
Melanie from Melanie Fontaine
Samantha from To the Days Like This
A Big Thank You Goes Out To:
* Photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 



Horrible Histories Spies – Imperial War Museum, London

It is Tuesday and so you know what that means: Travel Tuesday! I have really enjoyed looking through all the links up this past week.  I was homesick by by Louisa with her P is for the Perfect Pacentro, learning about how Kate’s Dad Lives in Kenya, and having my wanderlust fueled further by Lindsey’s travels to Thailand.  I cannot wait to see where you are all sharing travels and stories of wanderlust from this week!  You all make this link up so much fun and inspiring! 
For Travel Tuesday I take you to the Imperial War Museum in London, England.  We had the opportunity to visit this summer with my family.  The reason for our going was to visit the limited time Horrible Histories Spies exhibit that was going on at the museum.  My boys love the Horrible Histories television programme and so we left it as a surprise until we arrived at the IWM. 

Horrible Histories is a British children’s television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. It aims to provide entertainment while also informing its audience about history, thereby making a stereotypically boring topic fun – Wikipedia 

The exhibit was very hands on and geared towards kids and the child in all of us.  In fact I am not sure who had more fun: my sons or all of the adults.  The boys got a special new Horrible Histories book and a special stamp sheet that they could use through out their experience at the museum.  In different stations they could get an embossed stamp to signify they had completed that part of the journey. 
In typical Horrible Histories fashion they were able to provide the truth of spies with real artifacts coupled with gruesome tales and sometimes disgusting things you as an adult would not really want to know.  They had pictures and videos and many interactive areas where they could engage with computers to learn more about spies through out history. 
Of course at the gifts shop they had every gag spy item imaginable as well as their book series for purchase.  They even had quite a bit of books and films for the adults in the fiction and non fiction genres of war and spies.  
One of the most fun activities we enjoyed was becoming spies and making our own faux passports to fit our secret cover identity.  We then had to memorize our cover story and get questioned by the passport control to see if we could stay in the country.  It was all quite fun and the whole family was entertained. 
The Imperial War Museum is a great museum to visit when you are in London, England.  After we visited the Horrible Histories Spies exhibit (and had a break for tea, of course) we went to see other areas of the museum.  They have a pretty impressive area about war and spies geared more for adults though my children had almost as much fun as before.  Even if you have young children like mine I would recommend taking them because we found it to be a great home education resource.  It opened up dialog for more conversations about history, war, and spies.  My boys were most impressed with all the artifacts they had that spies really used in this part of the museum.
Here were some favourite captures taken from the day:
More on Horrible Histories
Want to know a little more about what Horrible Histories is all about? I definitely recommend checking out their website below and you can find plenty skits and songs on youtube as well. My family’s favourite is the RAF song as we have history with the USAF and the RAF. It definitely brings in a lot of memories of my dad and I think he would have thought this song was so hilarious. I think you will too so I have shared it below. 

horriblehistories.co.uk/
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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:
1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!
2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link! 😉 
3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 9 am GMT.
4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!
5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!
6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!

Veterans Day & My Heroes

Today is Veterans Day, an official United States holiday which honors people who have served in armed service, also known as veterans. I have many veterans in my family including my husband and father who served in the USAF and my grandfather who fought in Italy and France in WWII with the US Army. While I do not live in the US and today is not a day off for my husband, I took a moment today to think about my father.  My dad was laid to rest at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs in 2008. I was able to visit his grave site a year later but I do not know when I will have that opportunity again.  For me I do not have a specific place I call home.  Memories of my dad instead tied to the many places we lived and traveled together as a military family.  It is because of him and his service that I was born in England, that I have dual nationality, and how we are now able to live our expat life abroad in Europe.  While I wish my dad was alive today to enjoy this time of my life with my sons, I know he is looking down on us from Heaven.  I love you Daddy and you are never far from our hearts. 


While today is a US holiday I still would like to
thank you to all those who serve for your country.


*photo belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 


The War on Girls: Beauty

I love people. As a photographer I love photographing people because of how we are all different.  I like that we do not all look a like.  That we each carry our own personal armoire of stories, scars, and triumphs.  To me a person is not really beautiful because of their skin, their body type, or what clothes they wear. I love finding the beauty in people.  I love hearing what makes a person happy, what drives their passions, and hearing about their hopes and dreams.  That moment where a person opens their mouth to speak fueled by the ignite of life behind their eyes.  Eyes really are the windows to a person’s soul and why I love to photograph people.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I believe everyone should be able to see and realise their own beauty and worth. 

We can be our own worst critics, seeing the faults in ourselves that no one else can see.  To find things unworthy of beauty that are our personal characteristics. To dislike things about ourselves that others in fact love about us.  Since we need our reflection we spend more time seeing others than seeing ourselves. Yet some of us spend more time scrutinizing and critiquing ourselves. 

This week remind yourself of how beautiful you are and how precious is your life. Then make sure to encourage the girls and women in your life.  We are made beautiful. We have the power to live beautiful lives.  It just takes the belief in yourself.  See the world as a beautiful place and life will look beautiful to you.
* photography by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk