Favorite Photos of 2012

Every year I like to post my favorite photos that I've taken throughout the year. This year instead of doing 10 photos, I'm doing 12. Simply because I couldn't decide what two photos to leave out.  This year it was a bit harder to choose, because I don't have as many travel photos as I normally do.  This year, instead of twelve months of travel photos to look through, I only had six.  Just another downfall of not living in Europe anymore!  Also, I apologize for the large watermark across the photos, but this past week I found out more people were stealing my photos and I believe some of them were obtained on my blog. So I'll be watermarking my photos on here from now on.

 

1.  This is one of my very faves and Sean's too. He actually has it hanging up in his office. It's from our trip to Dublin this spring. To me, nothing says Dublin like a photo of a pint in a pub.

2. I took photos at a small wedding of a friend of a friend last February. I ended up borrowing a camera and flash, as my camera and equipment weren't enough for a dark, inside wedding, but I got some good shots and this is one of my favorites.

3.  I took a second trip to Paris this May with a friend and her husband (which I still haven't blogged about) and I love this photo of cafe chairs. Paris has cafes all over. It's like that IS Paris. So, I love this shot very much because it does remind me so much of Paris. Plus, I love the bright colors of the chairs.

4. This is another Paris photo,although you'd never know just by looking at it. I love Vespas and try to get photos of them as much as I can. This yellow Vespa was so cute and cheery that I had to photograph it. I love this print so much, that it's actually hanging in my guest bedroom.

5.  This photo was taken at my parents' house last January, when I'd come home for Christmas.  I love silhouette shots and I wanted to get a shot of something that made me think of Oklahoma. It was just a bonus that the stars were so bright when I was taking this photo.

6. Poppies in the spring in Italy make for a great background. Unfortunately I never got my own photo taken in the poppies, but I did get to photograph a friend and her daughter in them.

7.  This is a photo from our trip to Seville last February. Seville was my favorite city in Spain. So beautiful and photogenic. I could not stop taking photos while we were there.  These oranges were all over Seville and to find a fountain full of them was a nice surprise.

8.  I've been to Carnevale for three of the four times I could have gone while we were in Italy. My favorite part was taking photos of all the costumes. In fact, I didn't do much else but take pictures of costumes. Well, except for eat, but that's to be expected anywhere I go.  This is one of my favorite costumes that I've photographed. Probably because I love the colors so much!

9.  I love peacocks. In fact, I'm kind of obsessed with them. The colors are gorgeous and the feathers are to die for. I don't even like the idea of getting a tattoo, but I would get some kind of peacock feather tattoo. They are that pretty!  This peacock was in Seville at the Real Alcazar. You could say I stalked this poor peacock to get a bunch of photos of him.

10.  When I went home for a visit this summer, after we'd moved back to Oklahoma, I took this photo near my parents' pond. It was someplace I used to walk to a lot when I was younger and I always find it very peaceful.

11.  This is a fountain in the Plaza de Americas in Seville. If you ever in Seville, go here! It's gorgeous at night, but even better by day when you can see all the different tiles and the canals.

12. Last, but not least, this photo is from my last trip to Venice before we moved. I've taken photos of the Rialto Bridge before, but this is by far my favorite. I timed the gondolier moving underneath it perfectly and to me it says "quintessential Venice".

Happy New Year's Eve to all! Here's hoping 2013 is even better than 2012!

Christmas Wrap-Up

I'm happy to say that the first Christmas in four years that Sean and I have spent together in the States was fantastic. I had such a great time with my family and although certain things about spending Christmas in Europe is fun, like different traditions and Christmas markets, I am all about Christmas in the States. Plus, it's ten times easier for me to shop for gifts living here. The Saturday before Christmas was my Mom's side of the families get-together. I always look forward to this so much, because this side of the family is much bigger and the more the merrier is what I always say! Here are a few photos from that night.

 

One of my favorite parts of our gathering is the fact we now do Dirty Santa/White Elephant Gift exchange instead of drawing names. Last year I got this huge pair of panties, so I re-gifted it. My cousin got it and was a great sport about wearing them.

I got a Camo hat as my present, this was after I stole a gift and then got it stolen from me.

My Dad ALWAYS hangs out under the mistletoe. I don't think it's intentional, it's just where he always is. This year, we put my cousin up to surprising him with a kiss. It was hilarious!

Our next big night was Christmas Eve. My immediate family has a snack night and we watch Christmas movies while we snack. Christmas Vacation is always one of the movies, but we also watched Elf and some claymation Christmas movies as well. We also open up one present, which is always our Christmas Pj's. This year, I got Sean and I matching shirts.

Snack night goodies. Bacon wrapped water chestnuts, Lil Smokies, Spinach dip, Mozzarella dip, Jalapeno Popper dip, shrimp cocktails and all sorts of other goodies.

This year for gift tags for Sean, I addressed them to correspond to what was inside the gift. For example: This was a Pulp Fiction print, so I addressed it to Vincent Vega, From Mia Wallace.

On Christmas Day morning, my immediate family always opens gifts. Sean and I were quite spoiled by my parents and brother.  A few things I got were:

A new office chair, Hungry Girl cookbook, Hallmark ornaments, Clarisonic Mia, Poster Art of the Disney Parks book, 2 season of Sex and the City, sander, blender and food dehydrator.

At noon, we go over to my Dad's side of the family to eat lunch and open presents with them. Although I had a good time with that side of the family and got more awesome presents, my favorite part of the day is when I stumbled upon an old photo of a group of soldiers. When I asked my grandma about it, she mentioned it had been her aunt's second husband's unit in WWII. Then she said, "Oh, I have his uniform as well hanging in the closet."  Sean and I had our mouths open. I've never heard about an uncle of my grandma's being in WWII and the fact she had his uniform was even more amazing. Turns out, his daughter had tried to throw it away after he died, so my grandma rescued it from that fate. She ended up giving the uniform (and photo) to Sean and I and refused to take money for it.  So far, we've determined he was in the 357th Infantry, attached to the 90th Infantry, which was part of the Third Army, which Patton was head of.  From the info about the 90th Infantry, he should have been at Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, etc..there was only one service ribbon on the uniform and I know there had to have been more at some point. I'm sending off a request for info from the National Archives, so I'm hoping we'll get some good info from that. We plan on putting the uniform in a shadow box to preserve it and it will end up hanging in Sean's office with the rest of his military items.

Although the original forecast for Christmas, was for us to get a couple inches of snow, it never happened. However, once we got back to Lawton a few days after Christmas, we were greeted with leftover snow. 

How was your Christmas? I'd love to hear about what you got and what you did.

Christmas Cinema

In my love of all things Christmas, I have to mention my love for Christmas movies.  Over the last few years, I've been collecting my favorite Christmas movies (and Sean's too) off of Amazon during the off parts of the year.  I have a decent collection right now, but I still have quite a few movies on my list to get.

So, here are a few of my favorite movies!

1. White Christmas- I LOVE this movie so much. I finally bought the soundtrack this year and play it around the house. The costumes, the songs, the storyline....I love everything about it.


2.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas- I am a sucker for the Grinch. In fact, one day I want a tree with just Grinch ornaments. I love that he's this prickly bad guy, who changes and comes to love Christmas. However, I do not like the version with Jim Carey. I'm a purist, who only loves the original animated version.


3. Miracle on 34th Street (the original)- This is actually one of Sean's favorite movies too. Although he refuses to watch anything but the black and white version. The story of Susan, the Santa Claus skeptic is wonderful. I love that she is won over in the end (as is the rest of the adults in the film) that Santa does exist!


4. It's a Wonderful Life- Watching the story of George Bailey gets me everytime. Donna Reed is divine in this movie and I'd be lying if I said I didn't find Jimmy Stewart to be all sorts of 1940's tasty. However, watching George Bailey find out just exactly how much he means to the town and his family makes this one of THE best Christmas movies.
5. Christmas Vacation- this movie is by far, my very favorite Christmas movie of all time. I've watched it so many times that I can quote about every line. I have t-shirts of the movie, as well as ringtones on my phone from some of my favorite lines. Clark Griswold and family are hilariously inept when it comes to Christmas and watching their dysfunction (especially Cousin Eddie) makes me laugh everytime.
br />
What are some of your holiday movie favorites?

My Christmas Decorations

I was so excited to decorate for Christmas this year! In anticipation I pinned a gazillion pins on Pinterest and I don't think I did any of them...but in my defense it got to the point where I could either buy Christmas decorations or buy Christmas gifts, so we all know which I decided to do.

Even though my decorations aren't where I hope they'd be, I'm still pretty pleased with what I was able to come up with this year.

Let's start first with my front door. I considered making a wreath, but after my Halloween wreath fail, I decided to just put up the wreath I got on sale at Michael's last year.

In the entryway I have a few little stand-alone decorations set-up and one of three Christmas signs.

My little entry table with my basket of Christmas cards and my Christmas bokeh photo.

Next up:  My shelves and their decorations. Plus I have my hatbox I picked up at Goodwill to hold my Christmas books and magazines. On the shelves I have various printables I found on Pinterest, as well as my own photos that I've framed.

A close-up

My two other shelves: Mostly more Christmas photos, figurines

My Christmas trees are on top. The one on the left is from Poland, the one on the right from Italy and the middle on is just from Wal-Mart with some of my ornaments inside.

A few close-ups of some of my fave photos I put out.

 

 

I put up some garland, both on the bar area of our dining room/kitchen and above one section of our cabinets. I got the two green vases at Goodwill for 99 cents each. Score!

The dining area: I did it in a retro vibe. I framed a couple of older records, did a white tree complete with pink, silver and white ornaments to complement my Barbie ornaments I put on there. My tablescape is pink, blue and green. I got silver chargers, put white plates I found at Goodwill and bought some cheap pink and blue ornaments from Hobby Lobby as decorations on the plate.

 

Last, but not least, my trees! The green one is in our living room and the white one (as mentioned) is hanging out in our dining room.  It's the first year I've been able to put up the green tree, as it's been at my parents' house the last few years.  I actually have another tree, but didn't put it up this year. In the future it will probably become a travel tree.

 



There you have it, my Christmas decorations! I still have a lot of work to do before I have the amount of decorations I want in my house at Christmas time, but I feel like it's a nice start.

Picking the Perfect Gift

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is picking out gifts for people. To be honest, I have more fun giving people gifts than receiving them. It's always a great feeling when someone opens your gift and you can tell they absolutely love it.  So, I thought I'd share some of my tips for finding the perfect gift.

1. One easy way is to ask if they have an Amazon Wish List. Sean and I both have lists and throughout the year I add items to it and then let my Mom know so she can have a large number of items to look through and choose from.

2. Check out their boards on Pinterest (if they have one). A lot of people, like myself, have a board titled something like "Want to Buy". Or just browse some of their other boards, I also have a board that has all items I like on Etsy. Another added bonus is you can get a better idea of what things they like just by looking at their boards.

3. Speaking of Etsy, it's a great place for gifts. They have a whole page dedicated to gift ideas for anyone and everyone.

4. Really think about who you are buying for and what their interests, hobbies and obsessions are. Do they love their home/current state? Maybe a cute t-shirt or vintage map of their state would be appreciated.  Are they obsessed with all things 80's or vintage toys? Browse Ebay and buy them the Lite Brite they never got as a child.

As a example for #4: My Dad has always lamented the fact that my Grandmother gave away his pedal car (which was a yellow dump-truck) when he was a child. Since vintage pedal cars are ridiculously expensive, I went a cheaper route. In the past, Hallmark dedicated a series to these pedal cars and had the exact car that my Dad had as a child.

When my Dad unwrapped his gift, he teared up. My Dad is not the crying type, so his reaction was unexpected, but I loved the fact that a gift brought back such great memories and emotions for him.

5. Holiday magazines always have tons of gift suggestions. It's one of my favorite parts of the holiday issues.  In fact, just this year, I got two gift suggestions for people out of these magazines.  In my opinion, Real Simple, Martha Stewart and  Food Network Magazine are the best when it comes to these suggestions.

6. Make it personal with a photo gift. Over the years, I've made more than my share of photo gifts. I've made photo puzzles for my brother who loves puzzles, photo books about family trips for my mother, photo collage posters for friends and calendars for my grandmothers.

7. Maybe some kind of experience is more up their alley. This year for Christmas, I got my Mom and I tickets to go see the Nutcracker ballet. It's something we've talked about seeing for several years, so this year I thought it would be fun to do something together and would be a nice memory for us.

Do you have any suggestions or stories about finding the perfect gift?

Christmas Items of Interest

I put together a list of things that are Christmas related, that I felt like are worth sharing with you guys.

1.  I love doing Christmas cards every year, but Sean is a pain when it comes to trying to get him to take a photo for our cards. So, this year I gave him a break by ordering customized portrait Christmas cards from BrookeLynnDesign on Etsy.  She did a fabulous job on ours, was super easy to work with and we got our cards really quickly. I highly recommend her! I'd show you what our cards look like, but I'm waiting until I get them sent out before I ruin the surprise.

2. Hickory Farms contacted to let me know that they are offering free shipping to APO and FPO boxes, as well as a section of military gifts on their website. The link is here.

3. Every year I like to buy Christmas t-shirts. Most years I buy Christmas Vacation shirts, as that movie is my favorite. However, this year, I ordered these Home Alone shirts for both Sean and I because I think they are hilarious.

4. Of course, I can't forget my Christmas Vacation shirts, so here's a few of those as well.

5. My own Etsy shop, Around the World in 80 Frames, has various Christmas prints for sale, as well as other photos from my travels around the US and Europe. My blog readers always get 15% off anything in the shop, just use the code blogfriends.  Also, in the next week or so I'll be having a giveaway for items in my shop, with two winners, so check back for that soon!

6. Every year I add to my Christmas CD collection.  This year on iTunes I put the White Christmas soundtrack on my wish list, as well as a few others. Imagine my disappointment when I went back to buy the soundtrack a couple of days ago and it's no longer on iTunes. So, after some searching, I found out that I could download it on Amazon for the same price that it had been listed on iTunes. Problem solved!

A few other albums I liked this year are:

Jack Livingston's Big Band Christmas

A Most Excellent Jazz Christmas

I  mentioned the following albums within the last few years, but they're worth mentioning again.

Diana Krall- Christmas Songs
A Very She & Him Christmas
Michael Buble- Christmas
Christmas Cocktails- There are 4 albums now, I just have the first two. I highly recommend them.

There you have it! My list of things you should know about Christmas!