Nicole, Author at Life's Tidbits

13Sep 2015

Life Lately

We’ve lived in Bangkok for over month now. That just sounds weird out loud! Seriously, how does the time go by so quickly? Overall we are still getting adjusted and slowly finding a new routine for the whole family. Jet leg was killer and I reverted back to when Jellybean was just a wee one and ‘slept when the baby slept’ for the first week or so.

After only about a week here a bomb went off in downtown Bangkok. It gave the hubby and I a moment of pause. Did we do the right thing moving here? And if I’m being totally honest I had the ‘OH $H!T’ moment and seriously considered aborting this whole living abroad thing for a few minutes (or hours … whateves!). Things are scary at home and abroad. It’s the world we live in, unfortunately.

Being a stay-at-home-mom has been even busier than I imagined it would be. Between exploring the city (indoor playground, outdoor playgrounds, museums, swim lessons and playgroups), running errands and keeping up with the general housework I am totally pooped at the end of the day. The hubby thinks his job is tiring, but I’ve got him beat. :)

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately …

Jellybean and I hit up Ocean World on our first day out just the two of us. It was a total success – not only did we both love the museum, but I managed to get there on the BTS without getting lost! Let’s just keep it between us, but I spent 5 plus minutes trying to figure out which BTS exit to take, hahaha.

I don’t have any pictures, but we’ve gone to a few playgroups and Jellybean takes swim lessons once a week. The swim lessons are amazing. A vast improvement over the classes we took when she was little. We took a little break from playgroups due to Jellybean getting a cold, but I hope to get back into the swing of them soon. I’ve located a few new ones I think will be a good fit for Jellybean and me.

Indoor playgrounds are all the rage here. They are super fun and honestly as I already mentioned, we should adopt this kind of play area in the States. Jellybean and I had a blast at Molly Fantasy. We plan to try out a new indoor playground called Funarium soon.

If you are okay with sweating (seriously you are in Bangkok, just OWN the sweating) then Benchasiri park / playground and Benjaritti park are both fabulous places to take the little ones. I would also mention here both parks have workout areas, which kind of reminds me of Rock Creek Parkway. At some point I will have to go to the parks on my own so I can take advantage of the workout stuff.

And, last, but certainly not least … we’ve had some DELICIOUS food!

What have you been up to lately?

For more on our adventures in Bangkok, please click here or follow along on Instagram (#BitsOfBangkok).

09Sep 2015

Bits of Bangkok

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

Saw-dee-cha from Bangkok! We are having a great time here and slowly getting adjusted to the Expat life. Despite it being rainy season it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I had feared. I’m sure now that I’ve thrown that out there the monsoons will get their game face on and show me who’s boss. Hahaha.

Saw-dee-cha means hello!
The Thai drive on the wrong LEFT side of the road
Speaking of driving the traffic is insane. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. A drive that took 10 minutes one day can take 35 minutes another. It’s miserable to sit in the traffic … not to mention as someone who’s clearly not from here we’ve been ‘taken for a ride’ out of our way on more than one occasion.
And before we move away from motor vehicles, let me just add it’s like playing double dutch when trying to cross the street. There is NO yield to pedestrians like the States!
Thai food is fantastic and actually closer to the Thai food we have in American than I thought it would be, but obviously there’s a lot more variety.
Sidewalks are virtually nonexistent. I was told by many people who have visited or lived in Bangkok we should leave our stroller behind … and they were right. The sidewalks are extremely arrow if they exist at all. While I’m glad we put our big stroller into storage our little umbrella stroller has come in quite handy {when you have a child who won’t hold your hand and is on the move constantly, it’s important to have a way to, shall we say contain them!}.
With blonde hair and blue eyes, my daughter attracts the attention of many most of the Thai people it seems. They smile, wave, stare and often try to touch or pick her up. Jellybean isn’t a fan of this unsolicited attention and often say “no, no, no” very loudly. I have had to ask people not to touch her, which has been a bit interesting.
Pretty much anything you can buy in the States your can buy in Bangkok. The grocery store closest to us has Jiffy peanut butter, McCormick’s onion gray as well as Sorrento cheese. I was almost disappointed {for lack of a better word} to find everything so similar to home, but not to worry I quickly stocked up on all our go-to brands/foods. :)
The heat isn’t what get to me … it’s the HUMIDITY! Everyone I spoke to and everything I read mentioned how HOT Thailand is. Don’t get me wrong it is hot, but the humidity makes the heat less bearable. Just standing outside for 10 minutes caused me to break a sweat {attractive – I know!}.
Mall Life … or at least that’s what I’m calling it. The malls in Thailand are huge, beautiful and clean. They have everything you could ever possibly want to purchase and hanging out in malls is kind of the thing to do, which makes sense since it’s insanely hot outside. The indoor playgrounds are amazing. Seriously, I think it could be a huge money maker in the States, and if it was in my wheelhouse I would totally put together a business plan and open one of these play-areas as we move home.

We are learning a lot and trying new things. I started taking Thai classes today and well, I am TERRIBLE at languages in general and this is, unfortunately, no different! Despite my lack of natural talent for picking up new languages, I am going to stick with it and hope to learn enough Thai to carry on a simple conversation. Got to start somewhere, right??

I will share more tidbits about living in Bangkok soon, but if you have any specific question, please do hesitate to leave a comment below!!

19Aug 2015

Jellybean’s Shabby Chic Nursery!

by Nicole ⋅ 5 Comments

Seriously, my daughter is a toddler (where does the time go?!?! Jellybean, please stop growing up so fast) and I have yet to share her adorable shabby chic nursery! While a few things have changed since she was born, like lowering the height of the mattress and the addition of toys, her shabby chic nursery is finally making its debut.

Brainstorming ideas for Jellybean’s nursery began before I even knew if we were having a boy or a girl. I settled on a nautical theme for a boy and shabby chic theme for a girl. You can check out the Pinterest board here. Despite my favorite color being purple I was drawn to pale pink accents for the nursery. The hubby was pretty much on board with whatever made me happy. His one request once we found out Jellybean was a girl was to keep the pink to a minimum … fair enough, fair enough my love.

Picking out the wall color was a huge undertaking. I’m fairly obsessed with gray walls and finding the perfect gray is, well, challenging. It couldn’t be too blue or purple or tan … I had to have (what I consider) a true gray. My sister and (soon to be) brother-in-law came into town for a weekend and spent at least an hour at Benjamin Moore with me looking at samples, pontificating and eventually settling on the Harbor Gray sample. If they weren’t there to assist it is possible the nursery would still have sampled gray colors all over the walls hehehe. I was worried the Harbor Gray would be too dark for the room so the sales associate suggested I get it at 75% or 50%. I am fairly certain we went with the 75% …. and it was total perfection.

I love how the room came out. It’s absolutely what I envisioned!! I ran out of time and energy before JB was born and didn’t fill the frames. I’m ashamed Jellybean is almost 20 months old and I am yet to fill the picture frames, but at the same time I kind of like them empty.

Bookshelves – Ikea
Frames – Hobby Lobby {painted the same white color as the trim}
Crib – Bratt Decor
Dresser & Nightstand – Consignment Store
Rug – Pottery Barn Kids {no longer in stock – similar}
ABC’s – Etsy {painted pink}
Elephant Hamper – Home Decorators
Sheet/Bed Skirt – RH Baby&Child
Curtains – Pottery Barn Kids
Light Switch Plates – eBay {painted the same white color as the trim}
Shade – The Shade Store
Vanity Tray – Hobby Lobby
Glider – Storytime Series
Barrette Frame – DIY {gift from a friend}

If you enjoyed this post, please add your tidbit by commenting below. Don’t forget you can follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

16Aug 2015

Bangkok

by Nicole ⋅ 7 Comments

I can’t believe we have been living in Bangkok for an entire week! There is so much to tell and yet at the same time we haven’t really ‘done’ all that much. But maybe, I should back up a little bit here and start closer to the beginning … in late July I left a job I loved and prepared for the big move to Southeast-Asia with my family! One of the biggest perks of this big move is I will be taking a 2 year sabbatical {as I’m calling it} from working. Stay-at-home-mom is my new ‘full-time’ gig. I still can’t believe how fortunate I am to have this amazing opportunity to live abroad as well as get more time with my daughter!!

Am I a world travel? Umm no, but I’ve done a good amount of vacationing in Mexico, Canada, and Europe. Asia, and Thailand specifically, is brand new to me. Making the decision to move abroad is WAY outside my comfort zone, but here’s the thing ….

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
— Wayne Gretzky

And in this case I take shots to mean opportunities. I’m the person who follows the rules, colors inside the lines, and has generally followed a ‘typical path’ in life. Taking big risks and making big changes aren’t things I haven’t actively sought out. But, that is what made the decision to move to Thailand so exciting. It’s something new, it challenges me and most importantly I wanted to do something new, not ‘on the path’ and unexpected.

Once we made the decision to move, I fluctuated between super excited and incredibly nervous with bits of sadness sprinkled in. It’s hard knowing we are going to miss birthdays, weddings, births, holidays, and more with our family and friends. Thank goodness there is Skype and FaceTime so we can at least be there virtually! The last week before our move was so busy I little time to focus on my nerves. There was so much to do like packing, closing of accounts (bye bye Comcast!) and hanging out with friends.

Our condo took 2 full days to be packed up and placed in crates. It was strange seeing our place empty again. So many memories in our condo! We lived there for 3+ years … it’s our first home and the place we brought Jellybean home from hospital to. But, it will be there when we get back and there are many new memories to make in Bangkok!

So yeah, 16+ hours of watching people pack and move our stuff into in a huge moving truck we were left with 6 big bags, carry-ons and a dog crate. Oh, I guess to this point I didn’t mention our dog, Sophi, also moved with us to Bangkok! More on our experiences shipping a dog overseas I will include in a later post … assuming ya’ll are interested.

The items in these bags, plus a little extra that’s already at our new place – think minimal dishes and cookware – are going to tide us over until our stuff arrives. We’ve gone from a VERY full 2 bedroom condo to 6 bags of stuff for the next 4-6 weeks … hopefully. :) Makes me think I should have read this book prior to the move {wink, wink}.

We left for Dulles Airport at 6am on Wednesday, August 5th and after 3 flights, 2 layovers and a cab ride we arrived at our apartment in Bangkok on Friday, August 7th at about 1:30am-ish!! Filled with excitement and exhaustion we toured our new diggs, cooked some eggs and toast and then headed to bed.

iPad plus blueberries = quiet and happy toddler! At least for a little while *wink, wink*

This is what REAL jetlag looks like

The past week has been spent acclimating ourselves and Jellybean to the time change, getting familiar with our neighborhood, food shopping, eating a lot of AMAZING Thai food {we had 2 lunches and a mango smoothie for under $5 – can’t get much better than that}, hanging out poolside and general life things. We have yet to do anything touristy and while I have some guilt we haven’t really toured the city I also realize we will be here for a few years. Getting situated is what was most important for our first week living as expats.

I think someone is happy to be hanging out by the pool!

It would be a lie to say the adjustment to living in Thailand and being a SAHM is going seamlessly or that I’m 100% loving it after only a week … just keepin’ it real(!). But, I’m so excited. Excited to meet new people, try new things and spend my days exploring with Jellybean.

And I will leave you with ‘my’ final thought on this big adventure the hubby, Jellybean and I have begun …

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by
the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
– Mark Twain

I would love to hear your recommendations on places we should visit or things you loved doing while living or visiting Thailand {or near by area}!

PS – For pictures of our adventures in Thailand, please follow me on Instagram. Pictures will be tagged with #BitsOfBangkok as well :)

31Jul 2015

Friday Favs!

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

TGIF! It has been a great week; jam packed with seeing friends, shopping, running errand and generally just getting stuff done. It feels so good to check things off the to-do list! I’m looking forward to some quality time with the hubby, Jellybean and pup this weekend. Hopefully the heat stays under control so we can spend sometime outside. Over the past couple of weeks the heat/humidity in DC has been very intense!

I went to Co Co Sala for the first time this week. While dinner was delicious the portion size was a little on the small size, for me. The dessert on the other hand was huge and totally decadent! I think it would make such a fun date night to go out for dinner and then go to Co Co Sala for dessert. YUM … I can still taste the chocolate.

Here’s what I’m loving this week …

I finally found the perfect t-shirt, thank you Madewell! I’ve been searching for them for a few months now for t-shirts I like. More than a few were return because they weren’t soft enough, too sheer or just not a good fit. A close second would be these from The Loft.

While shopping the Nordstrom’s anniversary sale for a second pair of the live in leggings the sale associate showed me a few cute tops to go with my new pants. She had some good picks, one of which is my new favorite workout tank top. And, seriously … why does the Nordstrom’s anniversary sale just suck me in and make me want to buy the whole store!

Gap was having an insane sale and I was able to buy Jellybean a bunch of bathing suites and clothing she can grow into. It’s always nice to have bigger sized clothes on hand for the day the current size no longer fits! =) I also noticed they have my favorite booties {similar, but just as cute} back in stock! I got SO many compliments on these booties when Jellybean wore them last winter.

I’m always on the hunt for a new chapstick. I like this one, however this lip conditioner is far more affordable and I actually like it better. I feel like the fresh sugar has to be reapplied more often than the Caudalie.

Last, but not least … I made this super delicious balsamic glazed chicken. I use chicken thighs instead of breasts since we were out of chicken breasts. I also didn’t use a slow cooker. Just threw it into the dutch oven and let it cook (stirring occasionally) for about an hour and a half. Winning … another recipe to add to the rotation!!

I hope you have a great weekend! What are you favorite items lately?

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