Hi, I'm Amanda and I've had the same hair since my sophomore year in college. To put a date on it, I guess that would make it almost 7 years (is that terrible?). I've never been much for change, and have always been somewhat of a 'plain jane' when it comes to hair, but hey-it works for me. After writing a few posts on here about my hair and the fact that I don't use shampoo, I've had (strangely enough) multiple people ask me how I style it. Here's the thing. I hate spending time on my hair. I make it a point to take less than 20 minutes on my locks each and every day. To me, styling my hair and putting on tons of makeup is just a waste of time. I have plenty of other important things to do then spend hours getting ready in the bathroom. ... Read More
Archives for November 2013
Thanksgiving: Through the Eyes of an Expat
I've always loved Thanksgiving. It's a time to get together with loved ones and reflect on all the blessings the year has given. Last Thanksgiving I wrote this post about the things I DIDN'T like about the holiday (the gluttony, selfishness, and inconsideration), and although I still firmly stand by what I wrote, I can't help but feel a little more homesick/sentimental about Thanksgiving this year. I only wish I could hand out with my family and friends; forget the turkey, shopping, and football. Derik and I spend another year as an expat couple abroad, learning to live independently, leaning on each other and God to get us through the silly (and more serious) struggles we face each day. Although we won't be participating in a ... Read More
Blogging 101: Time Management
Time: I swear there is never enough of it. Blogging: There is never enough time to do it. Maybe it's your first week blogging, or your 252nd, but sooner or later you'll realize that serious blogging takes a lot of time and hard work. Not only do you have to write posts, you have to maintain comments, promote sponsors, tweet things, pin things, like things…rinse and repeat. I never knew there would be so much work poured into my little ol' blog. Why do we do it exactly? To get our blogs well on their way towards success? I'll get back to you when I find an answer to that question. After figuring out how to defeat 'the time monster', we decided to completely wreak havoc on our perfectly laid out schedule by adding something called ... Read More
Sandakan: River Adventure
There are some remote places in the world we have the opportunity to visit maybe once or twice in our lives (if we're lucky). These places are special because they they are 'untamed' or 'untouched' by human influence. Being able to experience a natural habitat to simply observe is one of the coolest things I've ever done. Borneo, Malaysia is such a place. Sure there's lots of culture and city development, but give it a good hour or two drive, and you're out experiencing the wild. A wild where animals aren't afraid of you. A wild where you could literally get lost and not be able to make it back (it's probably a good thing we had a guide eh?) We took our first river adventure cruise when we were up north in Kota Kinabalu. When we told our ... Read More
Things I’ve Learned From Travel Bloggers
Today I have miss Helene from Helene in Between taking over the blog! This lady is pretty awesome, and never ceases to post some pretty amazing stuff that makes me laugh like none other. You'll be hearing a little more from me about Helene later this month, but you should know that she's a real gem, and if you haven't you should probably head over and go say hi. ---------------------------------------------------- I would love to consider myself a travel blogger. Sure, I've visited some pretty neat places around the world. Once a year I even manage to spend 10 days in Europe. But it's not near enough as I would like to. Especially when I follow travel bloggers like this girl here and envy her trips to places I've never even heard of ... Read More
How to Photograph Fireworks
A few weeks ago I posted about the gigantic International Fireworks Festival in Busan, and had a lot of interest in a tutorial about how to shoot fireworks. So here I am today, delivering on promised goods! We're going to have a short and sweet lesson on how to get the most out of your firework pictures. Let's face it. We've all been to that amazing fireworks show, just to come home, take a look at our camera roll, and realize we shot jack squat for pictures. Well I'm here today to teach you how to capture those fireworks in a way that makes them look just as amazing (or better) than they did at the show! What you need: -A camera that has a manual mode (fully adjustable aperture, iso, and shutter speed) If you have no idea what I'm ... Read More
A Recent Blog Design
It's not every day that I write about my designs. I like to keep my design business (The Suitcase Designs) separate from my blog, due to the fact that the topics of 'travel' and 'blog design' have nothing to do with each other. However, once in a blue moon I make an exception. It's also pretty rare that a blogger will give a designer free rein to do as they please for a design. When that happens, and all the cards fall in place just so (meaning the client is pretty much ridiculously awesome and not only listens to advice, but bounces amazing ideas back to you), magic happens. Elicia from Life's a Journee is this client. She sought me out a few weeks ago to do a wordpress.com-.org transfer and a design, and I can't tell you how glad I ... Read More
Chuo Ward, Japan
Over Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) my husband and I took a rather impromptu trip to Japan. We booked tickets the day of, which turned out to be one of the best decisions ever as a round trip ticket to Osaka and back was only $150 bucks. I can't even fly across one US State for that. We spent our first two days in Osaka, and found fantastic accommodations within Chuo Ward. If you're unfamiliar with this part of Japan, it's basically where all the magic happens, aka the Vegas of Osaka, aka the part of the city that never sleeps. It was clean, stylish, and fun (yes fun)! The cool thing about this part of the city was Shinsaibashi, a covered shopping district filled with restaurants, shops, casinos, arcades, etc, etc. A person could lose the ... Read More
Search Terms for the Win
You guys. I'm finally crawling out of the deep dark pit of sickness, and was able to sleep for the first time last night in three nights! Go me. I'll be spending this weekend catching up on basically everything: house cleaning, blogging, designing, emails, and getting a manicure (has it really been 4 months since my last one?). Yep. Even expats live 'normal' lives sometimes. What's not normal is going to the bakery, buying a sausage, cheese, and egg roll only to discover the 'sausage' is actually a hotdog made of some unknown substance. I wish I could say I threw it away, especially after the fact that it had been (most likely) sitting out in room temperature for 5+ hours. But nope, I ate that sucker. Here's to hoping sickness round two ... Read More
