Monthly Archives: December 2013

A Look Back at Our 2013

Bonnie Rose Photography © 2012 All Rights Reserved

It is the last day of 2013 and time to take a look back over the year.
I have prepared some highlight posts through out the last twelve months
as well as a slideshow of photographs through out.

January | We had just moved to Bath, England and into our new house during the week of Christmas.  January was busy with getting all unpacked and getting the kids set up with schools.  Our new area is walking distance to the town of Bath as well as to the countryside.  We initiated our move with the first of many country walks in 2013.

February | This became my first month of blogging every day which became a fun challenge I enjoyed up through to December. I started sharing posts about life as an expat, our travels, and photography.

March | I found like I was finally finding my niche in the Expat and Travel Blog community and my voice for what to share on the subjects.  THese are some of my most favourite posts from the month.

April | As a Third Culture Kid who only found out about the term during her sophomore year at Uni, I really wanted to have a TCK blog presence to reach out to others. This month I wrote about being TCK issues with having to move on and the friendships you leave behind.

May | I participated in a blog every day in May challenge which I found both refreshing and fun as a daily blogger.  While the whole month was filled with prompts I really wanted to share some of the most favourites from May.

June | This month I got really honest and truthful in sharing myself and experiences as an expat.  It was a really refreshing month to be able to just talk to my readers and connect with people I had never met. I had so many correspondence this month with people who felt uplifted and no longer alone. This solidified my reason for blogging.

July | July was a busy month as we were preparing for our vacation to Wales.  There were lot of self portraits and travel stories shared but the following posts were some of the most popular.

August | This month my husband and I renewed our vows on our 10th Wedding Anniversary. To celebrate I had many guest bloggers sharing with posts for Love Week. These were wonderfully written and my favourites to share. I also enjoyed these posts:

September | This was another blog every day month challenge with prompts which helped get my posts out there about not using Shampoo and when I spent time in an Italian Jail. The weekends I focused on a new series entitled the War on Girls.

October | I continued my War on Girls series on the weekends which became quite popular and did a lot of reflection and looking back as a TCK and as an expat.

November | November is a busy month for us with two birthdays, Bonfire Night, and Thanksgiving.  There was a lot going on at ACR and here are some of the posts to prove it.

December | With the Holidays the blogging every day slowed down as I focused on my family. There were still some top highlights to end out the year.

CHECK OUT OUR 2013 IN SLIDESHOW!

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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 after 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!



Check back next week for the next edition of #TravelTuesday and the first one in 2014!

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

Our Tiffany’s Inspired Christmas Tree

Tiffany's Christmas Tree

This is our third Christmas in England (read about last Christmas here) and third year we have gone with my Tiffany’s inspired Christmas tree.  I had used this once before back when we were living in Hawaii.  Sadly as a person of high mobility I know the experience of losing things through out the years as you move. We lost a whole box of our Christmas decorations somewhere from Hawaii to England. So much of what I have on the tree we have acquired since living in the UK.  With a smaller budget and less Christmas holiday resources (lets be honest the USA really goes big when it comes to any holiday) I have been able to keep up the theme.

Tiffanys Inspired Christmas Tree

Aside from some of the token blue ornaments that did arrive I also had a few of the plastic diamonds that I had bought at a chain craft store in the US.  It originally was a huge tub of these plastic clear diamonds in three different sizes with holes perfect for ornament hooks.  I also had my Tiffany’s boxes, pouches, and bags that I have also graced my tree with this year. For hanging up the original boxes I pierced the box with a hand sewing needle twice and then threaded through a piece of white thread to make a loop from which I could hang it like an ornament. The two inch wide ribbon you see on the top of the tree has wire on either side which makes it easy to curl.  I suggest either using the roll of wrapping paper or for a looser curl a one pint size beer can. The mask at the top was a prop I had used on a photo shoot in Hawaii which I have used to put a little bit of my years growing up in Italia into our holiday.

Tiffanys Inspired Christmas Tree Tiffanys Inspired Christmas Tree

We have bought the rest of our ornaments at various pound shops (think dollar store).  Pound shops are great places to find Christmas decorations!  We have three different types of garlands on our tree and I found a matching tinsel garland this year which is across our tree on our mirror.  The big foam snowflakes, the silver ornaments, the silver bell ornaments, and the silver gift tags (yes they work great as ornaments) also came from the pound shop.

Get Creative!  I wanted to really punch the theme so I found those little white boxes in a wedding section of the store that you would use for reception gifts for guests.  I put them together, taped them up, covered them in the blue coloured tissue paper, and added white ribbon to get little Tiffanys inspired boxes for the tree.  I put in the ornament hook at the corner of the box so that it hangs at an appealing angle on the tree.

Tiffanys Inspired Christmas Tree

Tiffanys Inspired Christmas Tree

Tiffany's Christmas Tree

Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree

Tiffany's Christmas Tree

Tiffany's Christmas Tree

We also have a small (near enough to) three foot tall tree.  It was our main tree our first year here in England before a client at the salon gave me her big tree before moving out of the country.  The boys are using this one as their ‘free for all’ decorating.  I grew up with a mum who did similar.  We had a main tree that was decorated to a colour scheme and a smaller one we could decorate with all the other ornaments you collect through the years as a child. It is a beloved tradition we have carried on with our family and my boys had fun decorating their tree last night. It included our egg blown ornaments we made this week as a family as seen on Amanda’s blog in Making Your Own Christmas Egg Ornaments.  I decorate mine with a map on the bottom half (a keepsake from Wales) and a night sky on top.  The boys and my husband use tissue paper to collage their eggs with glue and I ended up joining in and making one more too. It is a fun idea for making DIY ornaments at home.

Tiffanys Inspired Christmas TreeTiffanys Inspired Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree Tiffany's Christmas Tree

This year my kids opted to not use the star or angel on the top but our golden snitch ornament that we made with my sister, their Zia Zoe, last Christmas.  Want your own Harry Potter Snitch for your tree? Find an ornament in a gold shade and grab some paper, scissors, and glue.  I picked up our ornament for not very much at a charity shop and had my sister make the wings for the boys.  It is our favourite (non blue/silver) ornament for sure! Anyone else have a Harry Potter inspired ornament on their tree? I would love to hear about it!
HP Snitch Ornament HP Snitch Ornament Q: If you put up a tree this year, what was your theme if you had one? Or tell me what your tree looks like! 

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Looking for Travel Tuesday?  As it is Christmas Eve we have taken a week off to celebrate with family.  Check back next week on New Years Eve for the next edition of #TravelTuesday!

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

 

1 Year Anniversary in Bath, England

1 Year Anniversary in Bath, England

A year ago today we moved up from the area of Brighton to Bath in Somerset, England.  Two days before Christmas and we were already to start celebrating the holidays properly. It had been a long end of the year as our family had been separated by distance of continents and seas since July.

My husband and I had been job searching for months.  In the beginning of December 2012 my husband with his new masters degree got job offers in London and Bath.  A two day trip to Bath and my husband knew London had been pushed out of the equation.  He had fallen in love with the beautiful historic city with is close proximity to picturesque countrysides and storybook canals. We could now finally live in a much bigger place (a two story with stairs!) than the normal tiny UK flats.  We basically had two weeks between the acceptance of the job to find a place to live, get moved out of our current location, and organize my family in the US to get their plane tickets.

On the 22nd of December my mum flew with my sons to London, who had been staying with family stateside since July.  Although we were schedule to move out that day, we ran into a snag with our less than organized moving company.  With plans to now move out the next day we camped out in our boxed up flat in Brighton while my husband (already in Bath, having signed the new lease) camped out in our new place with out us and our stuff.

On  the 23rd of December we finally managed to get moved out of our flat. Long story short not all of our belongings made it due to the worst moving company experience I have had in my 30 years of life that includes not living in one place for longer than three years at a time.  While some of it was able to be acquired day later with an additional car trip, we had to part with many belongings and furniture that just did not make the cut (RIP my beloved US sewing machine). That evening after traveling by train and taxi my mum, sons, and I arrived at our new place in Batheaston just as the last of our stuff was being uploaded by the moving company. While we had unopened boxes in just about every room, we searched for the ones I had labeled with christmas trees. These contained all our holiday decorations and gifts needed for Christmas.  These were the first boxes we opened in our new place as we were excited to celebrate Christmas together.

The next day on the 24th of December my sister arrived from D.C. just in time for Christmas Eve.  My dad, up in heaven, was with us in spirit. It was time to officially start our family Chrismukkah!  We celebrated our reunion with our kids, my husband’s new job, and our new place with a Christmas ‘at home’ with our visiting family. Our first Christmas in Brighton had been very special with our sons as it was our first English Christmas together.  This year in 2012 it was a holiday filled with thankfulness and blessings for all we had in our lives, including the people we cherished most.

My favourite memories from last year were with my entire family playing bananagrams in the dining room, eating my family’s traditional christmas cookie ‘carmelitas’ that my mum had made, drinking wine my sister (a level II sommelier) had chosen, and with the view from our window of Solsbury Hill (in reference to the Peter Gabriel song) with the many white sheep that dotted the green quilt work fields around us.  This was pure bliss.

I am so thankful for the past year and for spending a full year with my family all together these last 356 days.  After being a military family, I am thankful for this amazing lifestyle of being able to be constantly around each other through out the months of the year.  It has been a really wonderful first year in Bath, England. With Christmas just two days away it is hard to think of anything I could want from Father Christmas. Aside from more time with my father or having my sister and mum here of course.  Life is about family for me and so from my family to yours, have a happy Holidays!

*photography to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved

Traveling with your Kids

Traveling with Kids

When it comes to traveling with my children, I like to say that I have it down to a science.  But really there is an art to traveling with your kids.  With so many preparing to travel with their families for the holidays I have prepared a list of tips for traveling with your kids.

1. Be Prepared | This does not mean to start preparing the night before you travel.  While I can pack my own suitcase in this fashion, when it comes to traveling with your kids you want to begin much sooner than hours before.  Also make sure to talk to your children up to the day of your departure. When your kids know what to expect and can be prepared they will be easier to travel with during your trip. Keep things light and exciting.

2. Create a To Do List | Lists help you to get the ball rolling, to make sure you do not forget anything, and to even help get your kids excited about the adventure of travel! You can even get them involved with packing their bags.

3. Suitcase Ready | Have their suitcase ready to go first. Make sure it is going to be easy enough to travel with alongside your other bags.  Is your child old enough to carry their own suitcase?  Will they have trouble rolling it through the airport? The last thing you want to do, is to be stressed out because you are having to drag or carry more suitcases than you had planned. Give it a test go in the house. Also make sure to have everything labeled and ready to go.  You can put a name and address card inside the suitcase as well as the luggage tag.

4. In Case of Emergencies, Carry On | The carry on bag for your child/ren is just as important as their luggage.  You need to plan in case their suitcase becomes lost and for emergencies that could happen in transit to your final destination.  I also suggest getting your child a rolling backpack or a portable luggage cart that they can attach their bag too.  This makes it easy to transport and one less bag you will have to carry. Things to think about having on the carry on are:

  • Contact details. Both for members within the traveling party and for your final destination. In case someone gets lost it is always good to have this information with your child.
  • Change of clothes. In case of an accident, a mess, or having a missing suitcase.  Better to be safe than sorry.
  • Prescriptions and bandaids.  Anything you can think of that your child might need, make sure to keep it in ziplock bag easily to be found in the bag.
  • Reusable water bottle.  Easily to be refilled and to help keep your child hydrated.
  • Busy Items. Things to keep your child preoccupied. Books, notebook, pencils, game, etc. If they will need spare batteries or a charger, keep it near by.

5. Snacks | Never rely on food being available when you travel.  Always bring your own provisions and think about what kind of food will be best suited for your children and for the journey.  Empty water bottles can be filled up once inside the airport.

7. Important documents | Make sure you have all the important documents you will need and have them in one secure but easy to get to place.  Have a determined location for where to put the boarding passes and passports when you do not need  at hand.

8. Plan for Fun | Traveling can be stressful but it can also be a fun adventure.  When you plan for fun you can ease of the stress and tension of different situations that can arise.  You never know if there will be a delay, so plan for one just in case.  I recommend making up a ‘Travel Hunt’ of things they can find in an airport, even from the waiting area at the gate. Better yet make it a fun bingo game that can be played more than once.  Bring along special goodies like books or games that the kids have not seen prior to the trip. The added bonus of having a new item to enjoy will help kids see traveling as fun.  In preparation look up your travel areas to see if the are kids play areas they will have access too.

9. Patience | Be ready to teach a lesson in patience.  More than likely there will be time spent waiting, whether that be in a queue (line) or at the gate.  Use this time to teach your children the value of patience and things they can look forward to when the waiting is over.  Do not go through all your fun goodies and food in first hour.  Block things out and use the power of anticipation and talking about things to come to help the time pass.

10. Take a Moment | It might happen. Someone might get really stressed out. Someone else may have a melt down because they are tired. A situation might arise that will make you all scream ‘are we there yet?’.  Know before hand that this will happen and be ready to take a moment to regroup and refocus with your family. You might even decide to have a special key word that you guys can say to let the other family members know when things are becoming a little too much.

Q: These are my ten tips for traveling with your kids. What tips do you have for traveling with your family?

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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 after 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!



Bristol in my Pocket

Bristol in my Pocket

Hi everyone! It’s Sara from Bristol in my Pocket! I was born and raised a Texas girl, but  about three months ago I packed my bags and moved to England! Moving to a country where you know absolutely no one is terrifying, but that’s the exciting part, isn’t it?

Bristol in my Pocket

Where would your dream destination be for the holidays?

Bristol in my Pocket

I’m a huge sucker for Christmas. I absolutely love traveling to different places around this time to see how other people celebrate the holiday season. I have been blessed with the opportunity to see New Orleans, London, Mexico and so many other wonderful places all decorated for the holidays. However, I have not had the opportunity to travel somewhere unique and completely out of my comfort zone during Christmas.

Bristol in my Pocket

Germany has always been a top destination on my ‘place’s to go’ list. Whether it’s the middle of summer or the middle of winter, I will make it to Germany one day. However, seeing Germany covered in snow is a fantasy of mine. As a single twenty-something girl, my holiday season priority this year was to go home and see my family back in Texas. One day though, I will experience a true German Christmas.

Here are a few things I’m looking forward to doing in Germany during the holiday season (one day):

1. Go to a REAL German Market | In England, German market’s have become a favorite of mine. They are cute and fun, and most importantly, can get anyone into the holiday spirit. However, going to an authentic German market just seems divine.

2. Listen to German Christmas Carols | There’s something about listening to Christmas Carol’s in another language that I absolutely love. On Christmas Eve in Texas, we sing carols in English in Spanish. I can’t eve imagine how wonderful Christmas carols in German must sound!

3. Drink Mulled Wine | To be fair, I haven’t tried mulled wine at all yet. It’s a very European tradition that I had not been introduced to until this year. Mulled wine in cold Germany? Now that sounds fantastic!

 

Q: What amazing places have you been to during the holiday season?

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Dream Holiday Destinations

Holiday Dream Destinations

Now that the holidays are upon us, many are getting ready to pack and up and travel to different destinations across the globe.  Some of us are staying put but have our own lists of wanderlust locations we would love to visit.  For me I am looking forward to a future Christmas holiday where I can take my family to a place that my heart has never left.  Austria.  A place my father used to take us to for skiing and snowboarding trips.  Oh how I miss those snowy mountain tops, the folk music that would play over the sound system, and the sweet taste of germknödel.  One day soon!

piste-map-olympia-skiworld-innsbruck-a222decsponsors_dreamdest

 

Q: Where would be your dream destination during the holidays? Answer in the comments below!

* Images original to A Compass Rose by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk
** Ski map sourced from here

An Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

Welcome to Travel Tuesday with Bonnie here at A Compass Rose.  As we have just under two weeks left of Autumn I wanted to take you on a trip to England with me to view some of the picturesque views outside of the city of Bath.  While it may be getting much colder, we donned our coats, hats, and scarves and wellies too.  What could be more perfect than stopping halfway on top of the hillside to enjoy a warm mug of tea while looking down on the towns below? It was a beautiful weekend and I have prepared a lovely picture journey, so that you can join us vicariously through this post. Do not forget to link up with your travel, expat, and wanderlust posts below!

Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

Autumn Country Walk

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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 after 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!



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