Have yourself a merry…

“ It’s not always the gifts that are wrapped
which are the best,
but simply those that are shared.
Gifts of time, love, and laughter…
Happy memories that warm the heart
at Christmas time and always.”

May the holiday season bring You joyful memories,
snug moments and may the coming year abound
in good luck and happiness!

Thoughts from places…

… because those Vlogbrothers video titles are awesome and they are always my favorite of their videos.

Here are my thoughts from places, while on hiatus these past few weeks. ( Missed you guys! <3 )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am completely fine with having to reorganize my suitcase several times before leaving, both home and the places I visited, because I packed too many books.

~~~~~

Everywhere I go, I see hearts. And everywhere I go, I see something I can turn into art.

~~~~~

People who disagree with you and correct you every step of the way, even if they are actually adding to the conversation, are so tiring.

~~~~~

Life and death are so intertwined; just like each and every moment in between.

Death has a way of catching up with you when you’d rather try and recover from a loss… But if there is such a thing as a beautiful death, it must be that of simply falling asleep and dying of old age.

Funerals are for the living. And when you miss a burial, you can’t help but feel that loss just a bit more painfully every single time the subject comes up.

~~~

Thinking of Connie’s Sky, I took pictures that day. And though I’m so many miles away, and was very far even from an internet connection – I felt so very human and so connected to Connie Hozvicka, to Jill and to Judy. I think it’s within human nature to forget this sometimes, but we do hold each other’s hearts in our hands.

~~~~~

Annie Q. Syed said in one of her Still Sundays posts, which I managed to read while on hiatus, that: “in stillness I am reminded life changes course in the small plans that may appear magnified because there is no map.”

I fully understand that. And would like to add, that, sometimes even with a map it’s possible to lose track of our journey and spend too much time in paper towns.

~~~~~

I left behind a love letter in one of the passenger cars of the steam train we rode in. Because there is magic in everything.

~~~~~

Balance. Not easily found. Not easily kept. I’m still searching for it. For just the right balance that I need. I finally feel like I’m on the right track.

Let’s hit the “Pause” button

In her awe-inspiring way, j has, without prompting, given me some of the best reminders for as long as I’ve been reading her blog. Like she recently has in her post about pauses.

I’m not that great with pauses either.
However, in the past year I’ve been trying to notice and let the pauses be pauses. This is one of the reasons why I want to try a year-long photo challenge in 2012. Because I can’t not pause while taking a picture, or even while thinking of what I’ll be taking pictures of.

The Estrella’s ~Seasonal Photo Challenge~ page is now updated with January’s theme and photo suggestions. Please drop by and leave me a comment there this time around.

And while you’re there, feel free to join in and snap some pictures. It will be a lot of fun!

May you have a wonderful *fill in celebrated holiday name*

“ It’s not always the gifts that are wrapped
which are the best,
but simply those that are shared.
Gifts of time, love, and laughter…
Happy memories that warm the heart
at Christmas time and always.”

I hope every one of you who celebrates it has a wonderful, love, light and laughter filled
Christmas/Yule/Hanukkah/Hogswatch/Kwanzaa/Samhain/Festivus/etc.
May you have a lovely and especially relaxing time and find your desired amount of books/bookish/writerly/foodie/crafty goodies under your tree.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Ever wondered what Christmastime looks like in other countries? Like in Romania maybe? Like in Kolozsvár, to be more specific?

Milliver’s Travels has gone all out this holiday season and has prepared quite a number of lovely Christmas-y articles for your viewing pleasure.

Here is my very seasonally festive article, about Christmastime in Kolozsvár, complete with lovely photos and music!

Go read it. Listen to it. I’ll wait

Estrella’s ~ Seasonal Photo Challenge ~

This post is pretty much the transcript of my thoughts (only, you know, in a slightly more orderly fashion by now) regarding something that is very new to me, but also something I feel compelled to try.

I liked the Positively Present’s 30 day photo challenge so much in November 2011, that even as I snapped pics of different things on Dani’s list, I kept thinking of starting a photo challenge of my own. So… here it goes:

To make it more manageable because I found that in some cases I needed more time to take the desired photo, and because taking daily photos of one certain thing is, well, a little bit too challenging, I’ve decided on:
a 10 day monthly challenge which will add up to a 30 day seasonal challenge.
Each season will he divided into its pertaining months which will have in turn one theme and ten suggestions.

For now, let’s focus on the month ahead and I’ll update you by the end of December with a more elaborated plan for the rest of Winter, and then the rest of the seasons.
On this page right here, you’ll be able to check for the upcoming themes/suggestions, updates and more information at any given time in the future.

Now let’s leap into:

Winter: “In the Holiday Spirit” December

Holidays, they remind us of the way we should act each day, but don’t. Let’s get into the holiday spirit and appreciate more the beauty all around us throughout December.

• Christmas tree
• Santa’s workshop and/or gifts
• Carols, bells, angels
• Home decorations
• Love
• Christmas tree ornaments
• Favorite holiday food and/or drink; festive dinner table
• City decorations
• Walk photo (go for a walk and take a picture of what ever catches your attention most: the view, the path, a leaf, shop window, etc.)
• Fireworks (even if New Years is technically a new month)

If you’re in need of extra suggestions:

• Santa, Sleigh, Season’s motif dishes, Ribbon, Candles, Children playing/unwrapping gifts/etc.

To start things off, I’ve added this month’s logo to this Estrella’s Seasonal Photo Challenge Facebook album which I will update at the beginning of January before blogging about what my photo challenge in December looked like.

Hope you’ll be interested in this quest of capturing the world on camera, the seasons around you, appreciating the little things we might miss. Hope you’ll be eager to sometimes be or at least act fearless and snap photos when you wouldn’t, to embrace present-ness.
And I hope you’ll enjoy the challenge as much as I enjoyed the one I did this past month.

I suppose I’m getting better at leaping and trusting that the net will appear. Will you jump (and take photos) with me?

 

Attractions that attracted me in Paris

First off, I’d like to officially share with you my exciting news of becoming a staff writer at Milliver’s Travels. At any time, you’ll be able to browse through all my articles right here.
It’s wonderful to be able to share on a regular basis some of the places I visited/will visit and fell in love with – and I feel privileged to be in such awe-inspiring company. Go check out everyone’s articles, they’re all lovely!

And now for the second part of today’s news

After I wrote and sent in my first article on Paris to Milli Thornton, we quickly noticed that I had way too much to say. We divided the article into two parts, which then grew up to become a three part series.

So go ahead, click through if you’re wondering which ones are “My Three Most Favorite Attractions in Paris”.