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Archives for November 2013

A Post About My Hair

Written by: Amanda // Category: Beauty

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

Thanksgiving: Through the Eyes of an Expat

Written by: Amanda // Category: Holidays, Sponsors

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

Written by: Amanda // Category: Blogging

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

Written by: Amanda // Category: Borneo, Malaysia, Travel

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

Written by: Amanda // Category: Guest Post

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

An absolute beginner's guide on firework photography! The #4thofJuly is coming up soon! #fourthofjuly #fireworks #photography #tutorial

How to Photograph Fireworks

Written by: Amanda // Category: Photography, Photography Tutorial

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

Written by: Amanda // Category: 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

Written by: Amanda // Category: 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

Written by: Amanda // Category: Blogging

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

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Currently on Instagram

Our adventures may be few and far between nowadays Our adventures may be few and far between nowadays, but the ones we get to take are oh so sweet. 

My daughters are now 2.5 years and 6 months old. Life never slows down, but only gets faster with each day we’re blessed to live. Social media may not be a part of my life how it used to be, and instead I’m working on living life intentionally each day as we raise our girls during these crazy times. 💕
2020 has been a year has it not? As much as I love 2020 has been a year has it not? As much as I love social media, I found myself taking a break as the things we were all going through made social media so insignificant to me. 

In January/February I had a miscarriage. It was a horrible way to start the year, and little did I know it was just the beginning of it all. 

Even with the loss, hardship of moving back to the US in the middle of a global pandemic, and navigating our new lives here, we were given many blessings. The greatest of those was finding out I was pregnant again in March.

It’s a scary time to be pregnant right now, especially after a miscarriage, because doctors visits are very minimal. Also, Derik was never able to come to a single visit. I was terrified something would happen and I would be told bad news and have to face that alone. But God was gracious to us. 

We kept our special little secret to ourselves, and it wasn’t until our third trimester before we told immediate family and close friends. My pregnancy was very private for me, and a special time to bond closely with the babe growing inside me.

Our sweet little girl arrived November 30, and yes I had to deliver with a mask on, but she is perfect and I truly feel our family is complete. 💕🌈
 
“When a rainbow appears, it doesn’t mean the storm never happened or that we are not still dealing with its aftermath. It means something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy, and hope.”
I am in love. As I’m sure every other plant/mons I am in love. As I’m sure every other plant/monstera collector is when you get to behold such a beauty in real life. If there were ever #plantgoals, this is it. 

Since moving from Germany, it has been a long and slow process getting our life back to normal. All of our belongings have yet to arrive so we’ve literally been camping in our house on an air bed and camping chairs for two months. 😂 All that to say, having to start my plant collection over again here stateside has been so much fun! I will miss the plant prices if Germany, but the selection here blows my mind. Anyone else obsessed? We’ve lived here for almost 8 weeks now and I already have 11 plants 😂😬😬😬. I don’t have a bed or a couch, but by golly I have greenery. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️🌱
Oh my heart. I’ve been trying to figure out the Oh my heart.

I’ve been trying to figure out the words to say about our time in Germany, but my fingers can’t seem to type out how to express my love, gratefulness, thankfulness, sadness, and heartbreak I feel about leaving. Every country we’ve lived in has taught us something and has given us so many beautiful memories, as well as opened our eyes a little more to different cultures and ways of living.

But Germany was special. The first time we stepped foot into Germany was in 2015, and we loved it so much we stayed the extent of our travel visa (3 months). I was able to visit again in 2016, and then we officially packed everything and moved in 2017. Germany has always had my heart: the people, the festivals, the food, wine and beer, the immaculate home landscaping, and even all the rules that every resident is just expected to follow to a tee (like recycling every tiny scrap of trash). Our family grew from two to three while in Germany. Bringing our daughter into the world, and raising her for a year and a half in a different culture, will be one of the most beautiful memories of my life.

Our move was impacted by the COVID pandemic, and it took three long months of delays, red tape, and countless phone calls to get everything together so we could actually get on a plane and have our stuff packed and shipped to our new home. 
I am breathing a sigh of relief to know all the stress of everything is over and our new adventure can begin. I am mourning the loss of leaving Germany. I am in a weird transition right now trying to grasp it all, but here we are jumping into new things head first! We are back in the US for a while, in the beautiful state of Tennessee, and look forward to many new memories, travels, friends, and being able to spend time with family! 
Photos from my sweet and talented friend @juliejayphotos
I feel like I failed hard this year at Christmas m I feel like I failed hard this year at Christmas markets. We went to a total of ONE market, which is exactly 19 less than I told myself I would go to this year to make up for not going to any the year before 🤦🏼‍♀️(I was 40 weeks pregnant and not feeling crowds). I will say, it was a great one and the weather was so nice, we stayed out until the market shut down.

If there’s one thing I will miss most about Germany when it is our time to move, will be the sheer enthusiasm this country has for Christmas, and I’m not talking about consumerism. Food, laughter, friends, family, music, dancing: celebration. Also, Germany shuts down for not only one day, but THREE. Stores are closed, mail is not delivered, people aren’t out and about. Everyone is home enjoying time with family, and I love it. However, I may have gone into full blown panic mode Christmas Eve when I realized I had a total of 8 diapers to get us through until the 27th. 👀
We spent Thanksgiving back in North America: Whist We spent Thanksgiving back in North America: Whistler, Canada! A 10 hour flight from Germany , and I can’t say this one was better than the one we took over the summer on our trip to Alaska, but we survived! Entertaining a 11 month old for that long is much harder than a 6 month old, especially when they aren’t into sleeping on the plane AT ALL. 🤪

Whistler was beautiful despite the lack of snow, and we enjoyed our time with family, the delicious food, and as much sightseeing as one could do with a jet-lagged baby. 
This was actually my first trip to Canada ever, (unless you want to count the move my parents took up to Alaska from Arkansas when I was two. 😂🤷‍♀️ ) and I loved it! We would really like to take a big Canadian road trip someday and explore more of the country! 😍😍🇨🇦
Being a mama may mean I don’t always have time t Being a mama may mean I don’t always have time to put myself together, but I would rather spend the extra moments making special memories with our daughter that she can cherish forever. I doubt that she will look at this picture and see a tired, messy haired mama that’s barely had time to wash her face nevermind carefully apply makeup, but am hoping she will see a mama that never tires of carrying and cuddling her, or sharing new experiences with her. 💕
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