November through Instagram

So December is here, and has been for a week already. Goodness me. Christmas is now right around the corner. Have you got your Christmas gifts sorted yet? I'll be posting some online shopping ideas in the next few weeks, as well as some fun DIY ideas to get you in the festive mood. Have you been opening an advent calendar to count down the days? Have a look at this fun DIY I got up to a few weeks ago.

AND it's nearly all systems go for my new website and store! Feels like I have been talking about it for months (well, I really have) but not the day is nearly here...I am so excited to share with you a whole new level of pretty-ness. 

Watch this space!

x

Here is a little look back at some Instagram snaps from November...our trip to see the Autumn leaves, I wrote all about blogging and where to begin in our {Creative Business} series started by my fellow blogger friend Caitlyn, and of course stationery, stationery and more pretty stationery...

Autumn in South Korea {Naejang Mountain, Jeungeup, Korea}

Here are some photographs from our trip to one of the most famous mountains to see the Autumn leaves here in Korea; Naejang Mountain. We were told that the weekend we had decided to go was THE weekend to see the leaves, and although you can't really tell from the photographs (I am a bit of an artist at concealing unwanted elements!) the WHOLE of Korea seemed to be with us to see the colourful show of nature.

It was spectacular, we simply have nothing like this back home in South Africa, and I literally had to be dragged away from each and every tree (you can only have so many photographs of leaves I was told).

{Naejang Mountain is in the small town of Jeungeup, and you have to catch a local bus from the main Bus Terminal in the town}

A weekend in Pohang, South Korea

This past weekend Farmboy and I headed to the city of Pohang which is on the eastern side of South Korea. We met up with some new friends, Laura and Richard (who are just the nicest and coolest people ever...they both lived and worked in Hollywood...and have loads of stories about all the celebrities that ate in the restaurants they worked at. How cool is that?!). I am going to be sharing some gorgeous photographs I took of them soon! Laura also writes a hilarious blog about life here in Korea...click here to visit her blog.

Here are a few Instagram snaps of our whirlwind weekend (it was a 5 hour bus journey to get to them from us here in little ol' Buan, and so many a nap was taken, and the evidence is below. I became a cushion for Farmboy, I'm sure that should have been the other way around?). We ate lots of delicious (that does not include the bug larvae!) food and had a wonderful weekend away. We also spent our first night in a Love Motel (but thats a post for another day).

Enjoy!
x

{Trust}

Most of the time life is just peachy here in Korea for the Huttons. I often get lovely emails from readers who tell me that they really love reading my blog, and that it looks as though we live the perfect lives. I am always thrilled to get such lovely messages from strangers, and most of the time, the reason everything seems to be so peachy is because I consider myself an incredibly positive person, who tries her best to make the most of every situation. And I believe this is really important. Life isn't perfect for us, its really, really good and we have lots to be thankful for, but at the same time, we try our absolute best to make the most of each and every difficult situation we find ourselves in. Like the time we booked an incredible trip to Mongolia (flights and all), and were told a week before that we had to cancel it due to our leave not being approved. Or the time that Farmboy was stranded on an Island for the best part of 2 days because of a storm. Or the fact that we miss our families a lot of the time and are scared that we may not see some of them ever again.

Though all of this, and the crazy situations we find ourselves in daily here in Korea, I try to think about how God is using the situation for his good. Often, I'm left feeling frustrated, and crying out about the unfairness of it all (one of the reasons that made leaving South Africa easy this year was that I was unable to find a job. Even with my degree, even with my postgraduate degrees, even with my skills in photography and design and social media, I was unable to find a job). But then God reminds me just how much I have to be thankful for. Despite my inner turmoil and feelings of inadequacy, He reminds me just how much I have accomplished, and how much I am still going to do. 

The past few days have been incredibly stressful in our little household. My computer has been freaking out, and as I use my computer for just about EVERYTHING I do, this has been a pretty bad thing. I have a Macbook Pro, an awesomely powerful machine which has been excellent for all of the design and photography I have been up to lately, but, being such a powerful machine, it's going to be extremely expensive to repair. Apple don't ever repair faults, they replace. So, even if it's a small part that has given up the ghost, they will be replacing my mainboard. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, and I will be finding out later this week.

In the meantime, I have loads of projects I am working on, client photographs to edit, my new website and online store to finalise and launch, and I have no computer. Needless to say I have been very grouchy and feeling a bit like the world is going to end. I have been taking on too much, and something as small as my computer going on the brink should not be having such a devastating effect on me. 

BUT, after the tears and the shouting (my poor husband has had to deal with a bit of a monster the last week) I have finally got the point of it all. I know that God is trying to teach me something (I am not 100% of what it is yet) but I know that I have been spending far too much time caught up in the online world, and my blog, and I have been missing out on a lot of 'real' life. I have been missing out on small moments that I should be enjoying with my husband. Instead I have been huddled up in bed, intensely focused on my blog and Facebook and twitter and Instagram and and and. Looking up only vaguely to grunt a thank you for the copious cups of tea being handed to me.

And just when I thought I might hit breaking point yesterday, I saw the above quote. It has helped put things into perspective for me, and I hope it does the same for you. 

Here's to a new week, seven new days full of promise and hope, and life and laughter. And chocolate, there's always chocolate!

x

Photography Styling Challenge {Morning}

I have joined a  wonderful new photography challenge held by Redesigned by M. The challenge is designed around styling your own workspace for your photoshoot and was created with two main outcomes: learning how to use your camera in its fullest capacity, and learning how to be your own stylist for a shoot.

I absolutely loved this challenge, as for me, the best part of any shoot is the styling element, where I have to move around objects to create the 'perfect' shot. Personally, when I take photographs, what I love most is the small details, the tiny bits that make up the whole. This is exactly what I get to do with this challenge. 

No editing may be done to the photographs, apart from edge cropping, and all photographs have to have been taken since the start of this challenge in June this year.

If you'd like to know more or if you want to join the challenge, pop on over to Redesigned by M.

This months theme was {Morning}

I spent a lot of time thinking about this theme, how to make it unique, trying to get all artsy farsty with it.  I really wanted to use the beautiful natural light that comes in through our bedroom window here in Korea and brainstormed how to style my shoot around that.

Here are the results. Hubby had to be very patient with me, but I quite like how the photographs came out.

What do you think?

Make sure to check out the following other bloggers and their entries for this challenge:

Redesigned By M

redlovinpixie

At The Corner Of Happy And Harried

My Food Tapestry
Inge Kathleen Photography

Pies And Puggles

A Woven Life

The Delicious World Of Chefette Spicy 

Our {Love Story}

Farmboy and I have been married for just over a year now, so I thought I'd take a little time to tell you how we met and how our love story began. It's quite a long post, so grab a cup of tea before settling in.

I was in my third and final year of University, having decided that I was going to make the most of the short time I had left, I joined a campus based NGO called Galela Amanzi (which means 'pour the water' in one of South Africa's many languages). Galela Amanzi had been voted the Campus project for the year, and was aimed at setting up water tanks to collect rainfall for the local townships. So here I was; the epitome of a city girl, sparkling earrings, nail polish that matched my scarf, and perfectly done makeup...all ready and eager to get involved in something meaningful. And there he was, unshaven, barefoot, plaid wearing...ready to make the world a better place. 

Here are a few photographs to help you set the scene:

One Friday evening, after a long meeting about how we were going to manage to secure funding for our next water tank, it was time for the committee set up for the fundraiser we were having the next day. It just so happened that Dale and I were the only two available to make the t-shirts needed for the boerie roll (a South African take on the American hot dog) sale. I had no problem meeting Dale alone at his house, I did have a boyfriend at the time of nearly five years, and thought it would be absolutely fine to hang out with a rugged but all too intriguing (don't forget the barefoot part!) farm boy.

Something happened that evening, something that I could not even begin to explain. Maybe it was listening to a young man open up about the huge part that God played in his life, or listening to tales of real farm life, or maybe it was just the intensity of hearing someone not afraid to speak their mind and being open about their faith that did it, I'm not sure. Having been brought up Catholic, having a Jewish Dad, not really ever being interested in going to church, and having gone through the disintegration of my parents marriage, something happened to me that evening. I realised that I was far too attracted to Dale to spend any more time with him while having a boyfriend, and I flew home that Sunday (two days after making t-shirts) to do one of the hardest things imaginable... break up with my boyfriend. It was not an easy decision to make, I hod to break someones heart, to break something that was over five years in the making. But, although it was difficulty and there are a million different ways it could have been done, it was the right thing to do. 

I flew back the following day and began a whirlwind of a romance with Dale. In the beginning nothing mattered, it was all butteries and fairytales. But slowly, reality hit when Dale had to fly to Botswana for a research assignment, and I was left in my small University town, all alone, to think about what the last few months had meant. Had I jumped into this relationship too soon? Was I missing my ex? What did the future hold for Dale and myself? Did I need to be single to find out more about myself? Was I crazy? The only thing I never questioned, was whether I has made the right decision in ending things with my ex. Even though I missed him terribly in the beginning, our relationship had become one of deep friendship rather than romance.. I had peace about that decision, even if it was the only thing I had peace about at that stage.

A few months later I started going to church with Dale, and my eyes and heart were opened to the wonders of a living God. A god who loves and cherishes his children no matter what. All the terrible things I had done had been forgiven, I was washed cleaned of all I had been, and I was finally excited for the future and what it held for me, and my relationship with Dale. Nine months into our relationship, and Dale and I decided to move to South Korea to teach English. What an adventure. Living in a foreign country, having to adjust to a completely different culture and way of life was made all the easier by having someone special to share it with. The adventures in Cambodia and the Philippines, while managing to still find a good church to keep us grounded, was just a glimpse into life as a Foreigner in Korea.

We touched back down on South African soil in March 2011,  to the reality of life in South Africa. Dale spent six long months looking for a job, I decided to return to studying my life long dream of becoming a a teacher and we both moved to Pietermaritzburg (Dale first to live with his Grandparents) and me following later on once my University year began.

Dale propsed a year later (you can read and see all the photographs of that very special day here) and we were married six months later on Dales family dairy farm in Kwazulu Natal (click here to see more wedding photographs).

At the beginning of this year, after much discussion, Dale left his job and we arrived in South Korea for our second adventure of teaching English here. We are in a very small town in the South West corner of Korea. Our plan is to spend the next few years here, traveling the world and saving enough money to buy a house back home. 

Adventures lie await for us, some disguised as difficult circumstances, others as interesting and new friends.   

Life is what you make of it, it's time to stop worrying about what the future will bring and whether all your ducks are in a row. Enjoy every moment of every day. If you don't like what you're doing, stop. Take a break. Go on holiday. Tell that special person how you really feel. Smile at everyone. Thank God for the small, as well as the big things in your life. 

And most importantly, take lots and lots of photographs as you go along. 

x

One year after saying {I do}

My dearest Farmboy made me the sweetest gift to celebrate our one-year anniversary. Click here to see the post he wrote and the video he put together after blog-napping this blog. I love him to bits for his creativity and thoughtfulness (and for a million other things that he does everyday). 

So here we are, 365 days after me walking down the aisle to meet my prince charming (click here to see more posts on our vintage farmyard wedding which took place of Farmboy's family dairy farm in South Africa).

In the past year we have moved into our first little home together, unpacked wonderful wedding prezzies and started getting used to a daily routine and house hold chores together. Then we packed up all those wedding presents and our lives in South Africa and moved to South Korea where we are now living and teaching English. We adventured in Malaysia and have furthered our love for Korean coffee shops. All of this in hat seems to be such a short time. 

Well my dear Farmboy, the best is yet to come and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life having adventures with you.

{Away in Seoul}

Farmboy and I are spending a few days in Seoul to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary {which is on Monday} and to see more of the sights and sounds of this fascinating city. The past 3 days have been public holidays here in Korea (Korea has a LOT of public holidays!). These holidays have been for Chuseok, Korean thanksgiving which is traditionally a time spent with family, making lots of traditional Korean dishes  and honoring ancestors. 

I won't be blogging for a little while, so if you'd like to follow along on Instagram (@roxypearce) you're sure to find lots of strange and interesting photos of our time here in Seoul.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

x

{South Korea} the Food

Lots of friends and readers have been asking us about the food here in Korea. There are a lot of noodles, a lot of rice and a lot of meat (in-between some rather strange veggies). So here are some snaps of food here, in between one or two home cooked meals and a yummy cheese burger.