Monday, December 31, 2012

Goodbye 2012... Hello 2013!


My last day of 2012 has been a bit all over the place, but I'm an optimist at heart, so I look forward to a wonderful 2013!  I had planned to write a much more in depth year end post, but it was not to be. Still, this short and sweet post feels right after a bit of a wild day.
 
Right now I'm winding down, sitting here in my comfy chair and just letting it all go. The way that I see it, letting go is a good thing to put into action as we all say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year. So in essence, this day, in all its craziness turned into a spiritual lesson. That's a good way to end the year and to begin a new one! :-)

I hope that the new year brings lots of good to you and your loved ones! Here's to a wonderful 2013!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Praying

Photo credit: from Jody Watley's FB page

With the terrible tragedy of this past Friday weighing heavily on so many hearts, it is hard to write anything here today. The senselessness of the school shooting in Connecticut along with the violence that we witness on the news on a daily basis all over our planet just has me lost for words. I can't say anything different or better than what has already been said or that will be said. It all just breaks my heart.

Praying for our world...

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Lovely Bath

Today I'm finally sharing my photos that I took during our recent trip to beautiful Bath. It was a bit of an overcast day and near the end it rained, but that city is a gorgeous place to visit in mostly any weather. There are many things that I love about Bath...it's architecturally beautiful, it's just the right size, and I always feel a difference when I visit. I'll explain. I've been living here for a bit over six and a half years now, and even though it is great to live here, after a while I've gotten used to it because I'm living a normal life everyday. I know that it's a treat to get a chance to live outside one's homeland, but for me when I'm let's say, washing dishes, I could be anywhere as I get dishpan hands :-) I guess that what I'm trying to say is that after this while and simply getting on with life, I don't think daily about the fact that I live in another country. But from time to time, when I'm least expecting it, I have this realization that "hey, I'm in a totally different country". And in those moments I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to have this experience. I try to be grateful generally in my life, but I do get those moments when I stop in the middle in my life and take a look around. I guess you could say that momentarily I stop and smell the roses. When I have those moments I tell myself that I have to take notice more...I'm working on it...I'm a work in progress :-) Anyway, back to my story. So when I'm in Bath I have those moments of realization and I feel the difference, like "yeah, I'm somewhere else". Bath is probably my favorite place so far that I've visited in England.

We went to Bath that day to simply have a lovely day out and it was great! Brit Boy and I always enjoy having a stroll around the city and this is where Brit Boy attended university, so it holds a special place in his heart. Since I've been so wordy already, I'll just make the rest of this more of a photo post with very few words ;-)

Left: This is a rather blurry pic that I took from the car as we were waiting to get off at the exit. Bath is beautifully laid out within the rolling hills.

Right: The view as we drove along into town to get to the parking. I love the way the houses hug the curve of the road.

           

                 




        Left: The view driving into town and down the hill
Above: I love the shape of this building
Above: Street Scene...Bath is full of cozy little areas like this


Above: Pretty side street. I don't know the name of the church, but I love how it is nestled just right there
Above: A view of Bath Abbey and to the right are the Roman Baths

Above: Which way do we go???? LOL

Above: My delicious lunch...a spinach & cheese ravioli garnished with cheese and salad and the glorious bread. Yum!!!! Wish I had some now! It was SO good! We ate at a department store restaurant and were floored that the food was so nice and tasty and reasonably priced!

Above: Brit Boy's lasagna

Above: Last but not least, the sweet shop where I got my Nerds candy that I mentioned in my previous post. It was such a cute shop...old fashioned and just perfect!
And that's all folks! I have about a thousand more photos of Bath because every time we go I just can't help myself. It is that beautiful! I always feel at home there. And I LOVE getting the chance to share it with all of you. I will share some more photos in the future because I want everyone to get the chance to experience this interesting place. So I hope that you'll indulge any future photo posts that I do ;-)  These photos don't even scratch the surface. More to come...

If you'd like to know more about Bath, just let me know in the comments. I could talk about it forever and I'm not being paid by the city, I just love this beautiful place. LOL.

Until next time...

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Nerd Love

This is just a quick post to share something that I love! A little treat that I remember from when I was growing up!

I LOVE NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been enjoying the last few that I have and it has been nostalgic and fun! I hadn't had these in years and then I found some in a sweet shop in London when we were there for the Olympics. Then fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when we were in Bath and yet again I went into an old-fashioned sweet shop and found some. I know that they are nothing but sugar, but who cares...I like them ;-) I don't get treats like this often so when I can I'm very happy. The biggest part of it I think is the nostalgia :-)

As I mentioned, I got these when we were in Bath and I promised to share some photos of Bath here from that trip, so my next post will be about our little trip to Bath...one of my favorite places in all of England!

I hope that you'll come back to check out my photos and my story about what we were up to there. Until next time...

Monday, November 26, 2012

Thankful Days


And so Thanksgiving weekend has come to an end! It was great indeed. Brit Boy and I had a lovely dinner and were grateful to spend some quality time together. As you can see, this is a snapshot of the after dinner table. Empty glasses...crumpled napkins...a last bit of candlelight...it was a lovely day! So much to be grateful for.

Hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend too! And for everyone who doesn't celebrate, I hope you had a great weekend also! :-)

Upcoming Concert

Brit Boy and I had a great holiday weekend! It was a good time! Over the weekend, Brit Boy was looking around on the internet as he likes to do, and discovered that The Jacksons (Jermaine, Tito, Jackie, and Marlon) are bringing their tour to various venues around the UK in the new year. I have read about their touring back home in the USA over this past summer, so I was glad to hear that they were coming over here. Like many people, I would love it if the full original Jackson 5 were able to be out there touring together again, but sadly that is not to be. As you may know, Brit Boy and I were planning to see Michael Jackson at long last when he was to have his shows in London in 2009. But as we all know, those shows weren't to be.

Both Brit Boy and I have been fans of the whole Jackson family's music for a long time like so many others. Their music has been a huge part of the collective culture for decades and even though the full group won't be there, it will still be great to see the ones who remain because they are talented too. So we got our tickets and will be seeing them in the spring! It should be a fun time! It will be a great night of nostalgia and it will be good to finally see them performing together.

I'll share my experience when the time comes and hopefully I can get some photos :-)

In the meantime, you can find here some useful information about possible venues for your future events.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving






This year Brit Boy is taking the actual day off so we won't have to celebrate it before or after the day. That makes me very happy! I am grateful everyday, but it's just really nice to celebrate collectively along with others back home :-)

I'm looking forward to Skyping with my family and having some good laughs together! That's always fun!

I wish a wonderful holiday to all who are celebrating!!!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Lovely Croissants

Earlier this week, I had to go to the dentist to have a filling repaired. Ouch...Big Ouch!!!! I took the bus into the larger town nearby and all the way there I had thoughts of turning around and going back home. LOL. I hated to go, but I hated it more to be in pain any longer. So I got it repaired and walked out of the dentist's office relieved for it to be over.

As you know, after something like that you have to be careful about what you eat or drink for a certain amount of time. By the time I took the bus back to our little town, I was famished! I was limited in what I could eat, so I bought some of these lovely mini croissants in the grocery store. Here they are waiting patiently on my saucer.



They were just the thing...soft on my sore mouth and yummy like you wouldn't believe! :) I bought a pack of four and these are the last two that I had for breakfast this morning. These are small so I wasn't being a glutton ;-) And after all, it's Friday!!!

You know how I love taking photos of food, even when I don't cook it, so here it is! It's getting to that time of the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas being around the corner, so brace yourself for my foodie love. I believe in the motto of 'everything in moderation' so I love to share my love of this or that from the foodie world :)

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Oops!

I deleted my congratulations Mr. President post by mistake because I was fiddling with my layout this morning. I can't believe I did that. Anyway, I want to repost my congratulations right now!

Congratulations Mr. President!

Friday, November 02, 2012

Afternoon Snack


I just had a snack and wanted to share my joy!!!! I didn't bake it, but it was really tasty.

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend! :-)

Friday, October 26, 2012

Love


This is another one of my posts about my life or about something around the house. This is the view in my kitchen window today. It's a grey, windy, cold day here and these beautiful roses are on the drab and dead side now too...or so it seems. I say or so it seems because to me they are still as beautiful and alive as the day that my husband gave them to me. Several days ago now, he was outside cutting the grass for one last time this year and trimming things back. I was inside doing something else and I heard a tap on the back window...and there he was with this little bunch of roses for me :-) I've often shared photos of these beautiful roses at their height of blooming and these were the very last ones for the year.
 
These faded roses will probably sit in the kitchen window in some form or fashion for all of the fall and winter and into the spring...probably always. I think that I'll pluck off the deadest bit right in the center and keep the buds for a very long time and let them dry out. I always want to remember the beauty of them in full bloom on the day he gave them to me and I want to remember the love that surrounded the giving in the first place, so faded or not...I love them! :-)
 
Have a great weekend everyone!


The Sonic Keyfinder

Let's face it, we've all lost our keys at one time or another...and it usually happens when we just don't have the time to look for them. It gets annoying, doesn't it? Well, I think I know just the thing to help...this nifty little gadget called the Sonic Keyfinder! It could be the best keyfinder keyring around!

 
The Sonic Keyfinder is a fun tool that can help you locate your keys and uses the science of sonics to do this. You just attach it to your keys and it is there to help you when you need it...all you have to do is whistle! When you whistle, it will give off a beeping sound and it also has a flashing red light so this makes it easy to locate your keys. I really like that you have both the sound and the flashing red light to rely upon. This gives you two ways to find your keys and the flashing light would be very helpful if for example your lights were out. It's a very handy gadget.

Here's a short  video that Brit Boy and I made to show you how it looks and sounds...

 
Yellow House video skills...yeah baby ;-) LOL

Anyway, the Sonic Keyfinder is very helpful  and it's great fun too! One thing that I will share is that other sounds such as music, television, or background noise may activate it if they are comparable to your whistle. So don't worry if it goes off like that...it's normal and hey, you always know where your keys are :-)  This has only happened to me twice and it was funnily enough set off by our laughter. I don't know what that says about my laugh or Brit Boy's laugh...I guess we'll chalk it up to both of us having "interesting" laughs ;-)  We found this out when we were trying to make the above video.  Never fear though...nothing else has set it off besides our whistles since then, so it's all good!

The Sonic Keyfinder comes with two extra batteries included and it's very easy to change the batteries. You just pop it open with a small screwdriver and slide the new batteries into the clips. Then you just snap it closed again. It's simple!

Christmas is coming soon, as you know, so if you're looking for a fun gift, this is one of the best stocking fillers out there for the very reasonable price of £2.99 (approximately $4.80 US).

Here's another video to show you some of the other cool things that you can find at Paramount Zone! Have fun looking around their site!

 
 
Disclaimer: Paramount Zone sent the keyring to me free of charge. Opinions are all mine.


Monday, October 22, 2012

Dreaming of Future Vacations

Ever feel like you need a vacation? I know I do right now, and Brit Boy and I were talking about just that over the weekend. Not that we are actually going anywhere, but it’s nice to dream once in a while, don’t you think?

One destination that came up during our conversation was Canada. I have visited our neighbors to the north once before, but Brit Boy has never been. I don’t suppose that we will be visiting there anytime soon since flights to Canada from UK cities are about the same price as flights back home to Georgia, and if we are going to spend that kind of money then I think I would prefer a trip home right about now  :)
Anyway, as I said, I have visited Canada once before, about 10 years ago now. I went with my sister and niece; driving up from Georgia through half a dozen other states on our way to Toronto. It was an amazing trip, watching the various landscapes, both rural and urban, pass us by on the way. We went up there to see a concert, and drove all the way back again the very next day, so you could say it was a fleeting visit! It was the ultimate road trip!

I would love to go there again someday with Brit Boy and have a proper visit. It would be great to see some more of the glorious scenery and sights that such a huge country like Canada has to offer.
I have never been skiing before, though Brit Boy has, so maybe a winter sports vacation would be in order. I’m told it is good fun!  I do believe that it could be a great place for us to visit together!  I look forward to visiting again one day  :)

Thursday, October 11, 2012

A Bit of Heather



Hello! :-)

Here is my slightly fuzzy photo of our pot of heather in the kitchen window. I love having the heather there when I'm looking out the window as I wash dishes. I hate washing dishes, but this cute little heather plan cheers things up a bit. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm in the mood to share more of the numerous photos that I take regularly. I really enjoyed sharing my pics in the past, so I'm going to return to that. I really enjoy looking at other people's pictures on their blogs, so I hope that you enjoy seeing a bit of my life and my surroundings here. I'm getting back to my original purpose for writing this blog...to share my experience of living here with anyone who wants to take a peek! :-) I will still be sharing reviews of different products from time to time and I think that this reset of sorts will hopefully be a good mix. So I hope that you enjoy visiting me!

I have some photos from our recent trip to Bath that I will share in a few days. I didn't get a huge amount of photos, but I got a few. One day I will have to share some of the older photos of Bath that I have in my archives, because I have better representations of that beautiful place. I LOVE going to Bath! It is one of my two favorite places that I've visited in England. It is just gorgeous. If you haven't ever had the chance to visit, you should definitely put it on your list to visit one day :-)

Until next time...

Dori ~ From a Yellow House


Monday, October 08, 2012

Beautiful Food

Hello! :-)
 
I hope that everyone had a great weekend. As I mentioned in a previous post, I want to start sharing some photos again like I used to. I still love taking photos, but I've been falling way behind on sharing them here. Like I said the other day, my photos aren't groundbreaking...they're simply snapshots from my life here. I know that when I go to other blogs I always love looking at the photos that people post of just the simplest things. It's a very human thing...you know? :-) So I'm going to do my best to share some pics here. As Brit Boy will tell you, I'm ALWAYS snapping photos, so I have loads to share!
 
Today's photo is a food shot as you can see. I love photographing food and it's getting around to the time of the year when I do a lot of baking and special cooking for the holidays, so I'll be a picture-taking fool. LOL.
 
Anyway, this is a little snack that I had over the weekend. I love kiwifruit!!! They look too pretty to eat, but I did ;-) When I see kiwifruit it just reminds me of the beautiful things that nature can produce.
 
 
Have a great day everyone!
 
Dori ~ From a Yellow House


Thursday, October 04, 2012

Misplaced Wires

Hello!

I wanted to stop by to say hi. I've been studying quite a bit over the last few days, but I wanted to take a moment to check in here. As I said in my previous post, I'm feeling rather chatty lately, so I want to get here to my blog. I've been taking some photos that I wanted to share too, but guess what...I've misplaced my camera wire. Ugh! As I typed that I just thought of where I had it last, so once I finish this short post, I'm gonna go look for it where I think it might be hiding. This is quite out of character for me to misplace things like that since I'm kinda particular about putting things back where I got them. Maybe I'm slipping. LOL.

Anyway, in my next post, I'll share some photos that I've taken...nothing spectacular, but I like sharing photos of everyday life. I used to do that a lot in the past here, so I want to get back to doing that :-)

Talk to you later!

Dori ~ From a Yellow House

Friday, September 21, 2012

Final Roses






As I mentioned yesterday, we have a few roses finishing off the season around the Yellow House. I've shared some photos of these lovely roses before, but they are always so exquisite that I just love sharing them here :-) I've been playing with Photoshop as you can tell ;-) I decided to present our pretty roses in another light for a change of pace. I think that this one is the last of all of them. I took this photo the other day and this lovely flower has already started its fading as I type this. The leaves are starting to fall away, but that is the way of life as the seasons change as you know. So as we head into autumn/fall, I hope you can smell the sweetness of this beautiful rose and I hope that it reminds you of the joys and memories of your summer!

Have a great weekend! :-)

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Fall and Arms

Hello there! :-) Sorry that I've been away from here, but I've been nursing a bit of arm pain so it's been hard to type. My arm is much better now. I had a Wii injury. I got a little bit overzealous and came away with a sore arm. I've learned my lesson though. When I play Wii now, I go at it with a bit less gusto, but I still have fun. LOL.

I can't believe that autumn/fall is officially only a few days away. This is definitely my favorite season by far. I mean, what's not to love with all of the different colors to enjoy and it brings sweater weather also. Yippee!! I love my cardigan sweaters and wraps! I'm not a real fan of winter, but I love the fall...just enough cool weather to pull out the sweaters, but not cold enough for me to have freezing toes ;-)

I was going to share a pic of one of our last roses around here, but something is up with the blog right now and I can't add a photo. I'll post it tomorrow. It's nice to have a few roses still showing up as we slide into a new season.

I'll be back tomorrow with another post because I'm inspired to blog again. I haven't posted here as much as I used to because I've felt that I don't have anything to say. Well I still don't know if I have anything to say ;-)  , however, blogging has been very therapeutic to me in the past so perhaps it can work that magic again. And I hope that you'll keep visiting me because I'm entering a chatty phase again.

Have a great day and I'll talk to you tomorrow! Thank you for stopping by!

~ Dori - From a Yellow House

Monday, September 10, 2012

Serena's US Open Win

Today I wanted to take a moment to highlight a true champion and her name is Serena Williams! She is extraordinary and I admire the true tenacity, athleticism, hard work, and dedication that Serena and her sister Venus have displayed to the world time and time again! Like everyone else, I've read about the tough road that they've had to travel in order to be two of the best tennis players ever and so every time they win I take a moment to contemplate what got them there. Often we only see people when they get to the finish line, but as we all know, there is so much that goes into succeeding before the world ever knows about it.
 
As I have watched the Williams sisters over the years all that I can think of is how lucky we all are to see not one, but two women from the same genes delight us with their amazing athleticism. We all come to the world with gifts and these ladies are sharing theirs each time they pick up a racket.
 
Sometimes when I'm reading or hearing about someone who was great at what they did throughout history in any field, I sometimes think how cool it would have been to be alive to witness their greatness firsthand. That's why I'm so grateful to have been able to see both Serena and her sister Venus play at Wimbledon in years past. When I saw Venus play, she won her match and she was amazing! Even though Venus has her challenges with her disease nowadays, she still has the heart of a champion. When we saw Serena play a couple of years back, she didn't win the match that we saw, but still, I felt so grateful to be there. In the future when they have both retired, I won't have any regrets because I saw both of them in their prime. To see someone do what they are meant to do and as an extra to see them do it well, is such a treat!
 
With her win in the US Open last night, Serena won her fourth US Open title and her fifteen Grand Slam title. She played against Victoria Azarenka and they both were incredible! Hats off to them both.
 
Over the last ten weeks or so, Serena has won Wimbledon, an Olympic gold medal in singles and doubles with her sister Venus (third Olympic doubles gold), and now she has won this US Open title once more. The statistics for Serena and Venus are astounding. Here are some photos from last night... 
 

 
 
 Above: Victoria Azarenka alongside Serena Williams
 

All photos courtesy of Getty Images
 
So there it is...my little tribute to Serena, her sister Venus, and indeed to Ms. Azarenka. Well done ladies!


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Our Olympic Adventure - Post #4

Today I'm once again sharing some of my experiences at the Olympics in London. This is post #4 and if you've missed any of my previous posts, you can find them here, here, and here.

I'm going to pick up my story on this past Monday, when we had our final day of attending Olympic events. We had the good fortune to attend the athletics and see lots of track and field action. The vibe of the Olympic Stadium was extraordinary! All of the events that we saw were great, but seeing the events in the stadium felt extra Olympic-esque :-) It was a fitting end to our time as Olympic spectators.

Above: The Olympic Stadium

Above: A view of the stadium from the green space of the park

Above: Inside the stadium before the competition started
 
Above: A view of the Olympic flame and below another view of the flame

 
Above: Looking to the sky inside the stadium


Above: The countdown right before competition started

Above: We were so grateful to be sitting this close

Above: The women running one of the heats

Above and below: The men running their heats



Above: The women warming up for the shot put


Above: One last photo of the women competing

I came away from these days at the Olympics with a sense of inspiration. It was truly great to see all of these amazing athletes and I was struck by how much they have had to go through to get onto the Olympic stage. The years of training and dedication all come together to bring them to this moment in their lives. They are all incredible!

This is the last of my posts about our attendance of the Olympic events. I hope that you've enjoyed the photos. Thanks for taking this journey with me! :-)

Until next time...

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Our Olympic Adventure - Post #3

Today I'm continuing my posts about our Olympic experience and if you've missed the other two posts, they are here and here. So on we go! On the next day, Saturday, we had a day off from Olympic things. We went to have lunch, walked around Covent Garden, and then we visited the National Portrait Gallery. We've been to Covent Garden several times and it's one of my favorite places because it's so varied. There are all kinds of places to shop, eat, and people watch. This was our first trip to the National Portrait Gallery and it was very interesting to have an artsy buffer in the middle of all of the sporty things. Brit Boy and I have visited a lot of the other museums in London, but this is one we have always missed. So it was fun to finally visit. Loved it!

Then on Sunday, we went to see the women's basketball and it was fabulous! As I mentioned in my previous post, the basketball arena is a temporary structure, but inside you would never know. I used to be a big basketball fan back in the day, but I don't follow it nearly as much nowadays. However, watching the ladies play has rekindled my interest in basketball again :-)

We saw two games on this day: Australia vs Canada and USA vs China. Both games were great! It was so great to see women doing their very best and being great on all of the teams. This Olympic Games was historic because for the first time there were women participating for every Olympic team and another interesting fact is that the USA team had more women in it than men for the first time. Progess indeed! :-) The second game between USA and China was very fast-paced and it seemed to be over before we knew it. Those ladies can really play! And as I'm finishing this post, the USA have just won the gold medal. Well done ladies! I feel privileged to have seen the eventual gold medalists and bronze medalists play. Here are some photos below of some of the basketball action.

Above: Canada and Australia during their warm-up

 Above and below: China and the USA warming up



 Above: China and USA playing


 Above: USA and China at the end of the game

I really enjoyed the basketball! All of these ladies on all four teams are great athletes and I was so pleased to get to see my home team do so well! They were awesome!

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that we also saw some familiar faces from back home. For anyone from elsewhere who isn't familiar with the Today Show, it's one of the morning television shows in the USA. They have a studio set up in the Olympic Park and we were able to stand there and watch them broadcast live to the folks back home. We were there on Friday a week ago and this past Monday. It was really interesting to see how they go about making the show. They move from one set up to another and in between the cast comes over and talks with everyone along the barrier. They also take the time to have photos taken with the people. They were very accessible.
 Above: The production in full swing and in the center of the photo, in the navy jacket and the light colored pants is one of the hosts, Matt Lauer


Above: This was from the day after Gabby Douglas on the far left won her all-around gold medal. They had the gymnasts on and they were joined by the gold medal Olympic gymnast from the 1984 games, Mary Lou Retton, far right.

 Above: The US Women's Eights Olympic Rowing Team with their gold medals. They came over and let us all have a close up look at their medals.


 Above: This is the closest I'll ever be to a gold medal in my life. LOL.

Above: from left to right - Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, and Matt Lauer - hosts of The Today Show

I loved every minute of the basketball and watching the filming of The Today Show. What a time we had! :-)

Tomorrow I'll share my final post about the Olympics. I'll be covering what we saw at the Olympic Stadium. It was amazing!

Until next time...