Last Post of 2015

Hello Everyone,

I’d like to say thank you for joining me this year on this journey, to my readers, followers and everyone. I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2016. I hope and wish for it to be everything you want it to be, May all your dreams and wishes come true.  I wish you health, prosperous and great days. I am going to keep this short today, but always know that I am here for everyone in the world. I will continue to strive to inspire, motivate and empower the world in 2016 and beyond.

This includes my family and friends and friends I met on Social Media

Thank you and best wishes to you all.

Love,

Talin Orfali – WordPress.

P.S Peace to all.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Dear All,

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas to all my family, friends, friends I met online/in person, my fans, my readers and everyone who celebrates Christmas. Although The Armenian Christmas is on January 6th, it is also great to celebrate on December 24/25th. Wishing everyone all the best. ❤ ❤ Hugs and Kisses to all.

I also celebrate on January 6th where its my Armenian Christmas too. This is an exciting time of the year.

Happy Holidays with great health, happiness, and great things. Best wishes always.

Cheers to you and your loved ones. 🙂

Love,

Talin Orfali

A Highlight,

This Christmas, It was my first time marinating and cooking my very first turkey…. The end result — SUCCESS!! 🙂
I usually cook chicken, and other meats, but it was my first for turkey. I am so proud of myself and I did it all on my own. 🙂 – I also cooked the whole Christmas dinner..

Is 2015 Really Almost Over? Can’t Believe it.

Yesterday, when I woke up, It was a brand new month in 2015. I can’t believe October is here already. To me, when October comes it means that the year is almost over. 3 Months to go until 2016. Where did this year go? It was an absolute busy year for me and so much more until December 31st. I already see Christmas merchandise in the stores, Halloween, Thanksgiving things. The only thing about these months until April is that it is the Fall, its cold, freezing and Winter that I absolutely despise.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas?

I am excited to go on my 13th trip to Cuba soon. I absolutely love Cuba a lot. I go all over the place. I don’t just go to one destination.

Was 2015 good to you? Mine was, and I ended up doing quite a bit of traveling to Los Angeles, California, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, and among many other places, but there were some unfortunate things that did happen in my year, but everything turned out well in the end. Well, lets see what the next 3 months of 2015 has in store for me.

I wish you all the best for the rest of 2015 and beyond.

Merry Christmas 2014! Best Wishes to You and Yours

Hello everyone, I would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous prosperous new year, 2015.
Christmas is a time for togetherness and being with our loved ones which one of the most important aspects during Christmas and it should not stop there. It should be everyday.

It is not about the presents, the food, the decorations, but its about Jesus and his birth.

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year 2015.
May 2015 create new beginnings, spread around goodness, being kind to one another and raising awareness on important issues of the world that we all have the power to make positive and happy changes if we all work together to empower, enrich our souls, minds and hearts with goodness all the time, everything will fall into place. God bless everyone.

2015 is about a week away, and I wish you all happiness, health, love, success and all the great things of life with a positive and optimistic attitude.

What are your expectations and what are you planning to accomplish?
Will you be attaining and achieving the goals you set out?
In what ways will you approach it?
How will you achieve them?

First Day of Winter – Days Are Going to get Longer

It is the First day of Winter. I know some complain of the snow, freezing temperatures and all the chaos from winter like me, and trust me when I say this, I despise winter a lot and have my very own Facebook page called “The I hate Winter Club”, however looking at the bigger picture in a different perspective, things can be worse. Look at it this way, It is just temporary until we see green grass, beautiful flowers blossoming, the warmth in the air, the sun and more brightness again. count our blessings, be grateful for the people in our lives and the things we have. As long as we are with the people we love, we have health, and were doing well, it is all that matters.

After today, the days start getting longer, the daylight increases by a couple of minutes per day and before we know it, it will be back to springtime. I know we have to deal with the freezing and the craziness of winter, but I am looking things into a new light.

I am blessed for all the people I have in my life. I love you all very much. I am excited to create more incredible memories with them all, no matter what season, no matter what day and time it is. Each moment we have with our loved ones is something that is important more than anything else in this world. Not material growth.

I believe that materialism is not something that I value. To me, togetherness with my loved ones is all that counts in life. Some people are just so materialistic that they get so angry if they do not receive a gift or they do not get what they want from other people. Should not work that way. It is the thought that counts. Time and energy was put in to buy that gift and people should learn to appreciate what they receive, and what they have. People in this world do not have anything. We must count our blessings and appreciate all we have. Some people have a hard time to make ends meet and can barely keep up, while some others are so materialistic and want want want, but they do not give back and they don’t acknowledge anything else.

It is not about the food, the decorations, and everything, It is about people coming together to enjoy each other and keep that bond going strong as it should be year-round.

What are your traditions? What is it about Winter you like?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. May 2015 be a year filled with love, health, happiness, new beginnings, and all the great things of life.

Welcome 2014! Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, Now that 2013 is behind us, looking forward to brand new year, a fresh start, another 365 days. I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year 2014. I wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, prosperous, successful year. Wishing you the best, and may 2014 be full of love, great and happy surprises, great memories and so much more. What are your plans for 2014? What are your resolutions? Do you keep up with your resolutions? What changes do you want to see? We can all make a difference in the world if we all pitch in and do our best to make this world a better place.

Are you planning to travel in 2014? lets see what 2014 has in store for all of us. I hope that everything will go well and we will go through another year. I know every year, we have our ups and downs and things always change in a year, but I hope that everything will be ups for everyone. I cannot believe 2013 is over. It went by so quickly. It seems just like yesterday we were celebrating 2013, but now onto another year. It seems like every passing year, time and the days are going by quicker and quicker.

This year I plan to attain, and accomplish many goals I have already set out. I do a lot of reflection the last week of the year thinking about what to do for the year ahead. Well, Goodbye 2013. Welcome 2014!

Wrapping up 2013 – Highlights of My Year

Wow, what a year it has been. Today is the last day of 2013, and there have been ups and downs, but mostly ups, and I have been so blessed in the past year with such incredible and beautiful Highlights, that I will never forget and I usually jot down all of my highlights in a note so that I can look back to see what I have accomplished, where I traveled, and other important days to remember. Here are the highlights of my year:

Did a Bit of Traveling by air and on the road — traveled to Dominican Republic, Boston, Massachusetts, (Had a Layover at the airport in Newark, New Jersey when I was landing I saw New York City — Yes I consider that A place I went to and saw this year), Visited Michigan, Cambridge, Ontario, and Niagara Falls.

When I visited Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo, went to the Be Live Hamaca Resort where I met incredible and lovely people and we became friends. It was a great gathering.

I had always wanted to go and eat and drink at “CHEERS” Bar in Boston, Massachusetts, It was an iconic TV Show from back in the day in the 80’s and 90’s, and I scratched that off my bucket list. Thank you to my kouyrigs/sisters in Boston for making that possible and for making that happen. Had Nachos and Beer there. Its a must to have The Cheers beer.

I visited the iconic and popular University of Harvard, touched John Harvard’s Shoe. toured Harvard Square and its vicinity, and ended up Graduating (lol)

Mastered the Boston Accent — MASTAHD THAH BAHSTAN ACCENT

Tried Sushi for the first time ever in the summer and I loved it. Now cannot get enough of it. Thank you to someone who is very dear to me, who introduced sushi, sashimi, maki rolls and so much more in the Japanese Cuisine.

Had the best lobster ever at the Lobster Pool in Massachusetts. I also dined at the Cheesecake factory

Went to a few parties here and there.

Attended Bible Studies and Conferences

Went to the Armenian Toronto Summer fest with my great friend, but I call her my sister from Montreal that I did not see for a while. It was a great reunion.

I am proud to say that this year one of my friends became a Contestant on Jeopardy and I can finally say I know someone who was a contestant on Jeopardy.

Met some of my Online Facebook friends in person, whom are like family to me now.

My Blog and Social Media and marketing success went through a roof, where I got an offer to write recipes in the Food and Drink Magazine, I have Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary, Arlene Dickensen, and Jim Treliving subscribed to my blog. They are from Dragons, Den, I have reached close to 400,000 blog hits, Famous chefs such as Massimo Capra, Jamie Oliver, and Jacques Pepin and more have followed me as well. My LinkedIn Profile has been seen and followed by Arlene Dickensen. Plus so many people around the Globe have viewed and followed my blog from places I had never even heard about. Many people have added my blog site to their websites. So many more highlights that I cannot even remember them all. Thank you all for the support, and I will continue doing my work in 2014 and beyond.

I have written over 700 Articles.

Accomplished many personal goals and achieved excellence

All My cousins and I reunited for the first time since 1999, the summer I came back from Armenia.

Here is to 2014, with many more highlights to come.
Have a lovely New Year and best wishes, Health and happiness.

The Boxing Day Rush – No Thank You

Well, it is that time again where Christmas is behind us, and today is boxing day. Many people will go or have already gone out for Boxing day shopping to get their hands on great sales and deals in the retail world, where people get discounted products and everything. I am one of those people who has never gone out to shopping centers, malls, and plazas to go shopping on a crazy day like today, and it just gets me stressed out. I really do not feel like getting trampled on, and attacked by other people. I would rather go shopping at a later time and not battle through big and long line ups, and I would rather shop being sane, then insane. It’s winter time, its cold, snow on the ground, what am I going to do? I would rather stay warm at home and relax, then having to venture out. The time I do go to Malls is Mid January, where things have calmed down, and where I can shop in peace.

Do you like to go shopping on Boxing day, or are you like me and stay home or stay far away from anywhere that requires shopping? If I really do not need something, I do not purchase it. Even if its on sale. When I do need something stores will always have something, so I am not in that rush to get something if I am not going to be using it. How about you?

Well, new years is a few days away. Cannot believe 2013 will be over and gone in less than a week. This year went by so quickly. It is unbelievable. How was 2013 for you? Did you do anything exciting? what were some of your highlights? Have a blessed new year, all the best to 2014.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year – Love Talin Orfali

It is that time of year again. I cannot believe how quickly 2013 flew by. Just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas and New Years for 2012/2013, and now as 2013 is coming to a close, were doing it all over again with putting up the lights, the decorations, finding that perfect tree, or putting up a tree that has been in storage. I love Christmas time when everywhere is decorated with beautiful colours, beautiful Christmas lights on homes, wrapped presents, ornaments, tinsel, snow globes, candles, manger, stables, the nativity scene, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, the Elves, Snowman, Mistletoe, Cookies and Milk, candy canes, the food, the celebrations, and of course and especially celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ with Mary and Joseph and the Three Wise Men and how Mary was chosen to give Birth to a King.

What are your Christmas traditions in your family? What exciting things do you do? Some families put on Christmas Sweaters, some families play games, and so on and so forth. What do you like to cook and serve to your loved ones? Christmas for me every year is always different, either we have a lot of people come over, some Christmases are spent going to other peoples homes, or going out to a party, so I cannot really say what is tradition with my loved ones, but every year is always different, but we do manage to always find a way to get together. When we do, we love cooking turkey, ham, rice, vegetables, gravy, and other things. I love baking my signature cinnamon cake which people I know love it, so they want more and more of it. It has been such a long time I have not decorated a Gingerbread house, but I think I will do that this year.

I love watching Christmas movies at this time of year like Miracle on 34th street, Home Alone 1 and 2, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Jack Frost, Four Christmases, Santa Clause, Santa Clause 2, I also love watching the Santa Claus Parade on television. I must have watched Home Alone 1 and 2 8 or 9 times this year alone on TV and I just love that movie especially. There is something about Home Alone 1 and 2, that make you get pulled into it and its so hard to flip the channel. After that Home alone 3-5 was all downhill and I did not enjoy them as much because when you change Characters, when you change the setting, it won’t be the same as the first 2. I know Home Alone 1 and 2 by heart, and if you put the movie on mute, I can say the whole script.

Anyway, lastly, I also want to acknowledge those people who are not so lucky during the Christmas and New Year Holidays, that are alone, but not really alone because there are people in this world that are thinking of them and one of them is me, people who do not have a warm home to go to, those who are less fortunate, those who cannot afford or who do not have enough to provide for their families and I’d like to reach out to all of those people around the world and tell them that I am thinking of them and they are in my heart, mind and soul and my thoughts and prayers are with them all and I wish them the best for 2014 and I hope that they too can have a nice and lovely Christmas. I want them to know that they are not alone and that I am with them all. The presents and Materialism shouldn’t matter, but all that matters is togetherness and creating memories.  I wish everyone peace, harmony, happiness, health, success, and all the great things of life. I wish everyone a prosperous, great, and lovely new year. Many blessings to all and wishing everyone all the best. With love always, Talin Orfali

Just Checking In To See How Everyone Is Doing

Hello everyone,

Hope all is going well. Today I am back to check and see how everyone is doing and I miss you all and I miss writing for you all in the last few days. I haven’t been blogging for the past few days. Been so incredibly busy with family and other tasks I must fulfill and I have been doing a lot of work to present to everyone different blog topics, working on several other things and attaining my goals in my life. I am super excited to share with you all once I am on the road to success with everything. In the next couple of weeks, I will be writing more on my blog, but I just need to get work done and get myself back into the swing of things and then I will be resuming back to my regular blogging everyday and I have many new topics coming up and so much more. Stay tuned!

All the best to everyone! May your dreams and wishes come true.

Love Always,

Talin Orfali

WordPress.com

Did You Smile Today?

In life one of the most incredible and beautiful feelings are the ones that we can see and that is smiling. In life I have learned to be positive and take things as it comes by. In the morning when I wake up, I look in the mirror and smile. When I smile I feel like my day is going to go well and it does. I know some people smile physically, but they are hurting on the inside and they try to hide their true feelings with smiling on the outside. I know sometimes smiling can be painful and nobody would know the hurt they are enduring. Trust me, it is normal and we all go through phases in life and things happen in our lives that we least expect, but nothing is as great as a smile. It is contagious and felt by many. It makes the public atmosphere a lot more better. When I see someone smiling, and laughing it is something that I really enjoy. It makes the world beautiful, it makes everyone beautiful. A smile is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

Now in this fast paced world we live in with so much changed in the last 10-15 years sometimes people forget to smile and laugh because there is so much stress, work, school, cost of living is increasing, so many unfortunate things are happening in this world and there is a lot less time now for family and friends, leisure, outdoor, and activities and learning how to keep the balance and managing time and there aren’t enough hours in the day, but never forget to smile and spread good cheer to everyone around you. It is a beautiful thing to see. A smile is something that I really love to see. Do you smile everyday? Do you encourage others to smile when they are down ? What measures do you take to make someone elses day? I barely see people smiling anymore when I am out and about in the public. When I go to a shopping mall, when I am out walking somewhere.

What positive thing do you do? What is your key to happiness, and to show positive emotions? Would love to hear from you. All the best to all and remember Keep smiling always. It’s a great thing. Make it part of your lifestyle and make it a habit.

Blogging Is Something Therapeutic For Me – You Don’t Need To Be An Expert Writer

In this life now, social media, blogging and tweeting are on the rise. A lot of us out there blog, tweet, and are on so many social media websites, and I find blogging to be therapeutic for me. I feel like this is one of the only ways I get to express myself, my feelings and the way I see things in the world. I know and admit that I am not an expert in writing, and I know that I need to fix where punctuation goes and stuff, but I am working on it, but to have a blog, you don’t need to be an expert writer. A blog is a place where people of course express how they feel about a situation, having to share with the world what happens, sharing opinions, suggestions, advice, and among so many things. I feel the need to express myself in my blogs and the only way I know how to sometimes. I like knowing that I blog everyday about everything. I like writing about so many topics, recipes, current events, social, social media, social networking, and among so many things. I am not perfect and I do make mistakes, I’ve done things I haven’t been proud of, but I am sure a lot of us have been through that road and that path at one point or another. I find blogging to be a whole new interface of expressing opinions and ones feelings and I feel great doing it. I just wish everyone understood my point of view. I feel proud of my accomplishments with blogging, I feel good about achieving my goals to strive to make this world a better place, with more happier people and for people to smile, have this incredible positivity and to get people to feel great about themselves. It is very important to me and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I want the best for everyone. Blogging is something that is very important to me in my life. It is something I feel that I am great at doing.

A Social networking guru and a person who is a social media expert once said to me at a Seminar I attended about Social media, is that everyone should have a blog. It doesn’t matter what it is about, it is very nice to have a blog and to write. He said you do not have to be an expert and professional at writing. It is something that each and everyone of us should do. He said you could write everyday, once a week or couple of times a week, but he said have a blog, and make it whatever you want it to be and go with it. I feel the same way. I will never forget the way I felt when I first started to blog. It was pretty nerve wracking at first and I was pretty nervous to start one because I would be sharing myself with the world, and I do admit I was scared at first, but then after my first week, it wasn’t so bad, and I kept writing and writing. It was something I couldn’t stop and I actually enjoyed my writing, I actually enjoyed interacting with so many people on the internet and sharing point of views. I remember how nervous I was, but then now I am not anymore. It is such a beautiful thing. Even though I am not a perfect writer, but I feel like I get my points across the way I see fit and the way I want to portray my blog and myself. I feel great blogging. I never like to keep things bottled up inside and when I blog it is a totally new twist among everything. I have worked so hard and come this far. Some people ask how I do it everyday and how I commit to blogging everyday with daily life, I answer it simply by saying it is therapeutic for me and I look at it like Its my life and a big part of my life. I have received a lot of opportunities doing this and it feels great. A lot of professors, doctors, priests, and so many other people have come to my blog.

Blogging is an interesting world. When people search for keywords a blog shows up automatically on search engine websites. It depends on how you want to be searched and it depends on how comfortable you are sharing your blog with the world. I mean why not? Its an amazing world and I enjoy blogging. I love it.

What about you? What does blogging mean for you? What has it done for you? How does it impact your life? Would love to hear from you.

All the best in everything.

2012 Is Almost Over – Came and Went So Fast – Time Is Flying By Quickly

Can you believe how fast 2012 went by? It was like yesterday we celebrated 2012, and now were back toward the end of the year and ready to welcome 2013. Can you believe how fast it went? I can’t believe it. Well, It has been an up and down year for me, but I learned a lot of new things this year. I learned a lot about how people are in society, myself, my strengths, new experiences, about blogging, about social media, about different things that I had never experienced before. You name it. This year was an interesting year for me. Unfortunately, I lost loved ones, God rest their souls, I had the pleasure of traveling to different destinations, I met new friends, let go of people who weren’t really my friends, let go of those people who were true to me, above all, I kept a very positive attitude, and I didn’t let negativity overpower me. I sometimes had mixed emotions about certain things, but that is normal and we all have days where we are down and days where we feel sad, but This year taught me the importance of not taking things to heart and not being attached to things so quickly. 2012 taught me so much. I remember by detail what happened this year for me. I got closer to my great friends, and family, I got to see my cousins after 13 years, I had the pleasure of meeting family I never met before. It was quite an interesting year, mostly ups and that really puts a new perspective on things. I got to see a live filming of CSI Las Vegas and I was a few feet away from Actor Ted Danson, George Eads, and Jorja Fox, I got do a lot of things which are incredible, and I look forward to accomplishing a lot more in 2013. I feel like 2013 will be my year to shine, and will be my year to do more than I did in 2012. I believe each year that passes, we learn valuable lessons of life and I believe that with whatever and however we approach it, it teaches us things of life and I like to prepare myself in advanced. Sometimes you can’t prepare for things that happen out of the blue, but I truly believe that things work out in the end and that things will be better and fine. Lets see what 2013 has in store for all of us and what will occur. We don’t know, but we will see.

I just have this feeling that it will be my year. I don’t know, but when I get this gut feeling, it always happens. Lets see what happens. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous, Happy, Healthy new year 2013.

Loving The Outdoors…

It is that time of year again, where people get out from the winter hibernation and go out to explore nature and go outside to enjoy the weather and everything else. I cannot wait to go to my first lake front relaxation with my friends. Its going to be an incredible night I feel it. I will still dress a little warmly, but I just love the outdoors and everything. Once May Hits, I am usually out and about and traveling, driving more, and enjoying the much needed warm weather we need. Living in Canada is great though. I cannot complain, but I love the weather when it becomes April, May all the way to October. I have been an outdoors person since I was a kid and I couldn’t wait for picnics, camping, fishing, Yes I love to fish and haven’t in such a long time. I know some people are probably wondering, a girl liking to fish? Yes I love to catch fish. Its relaxing, yet fun and also among going to the beach, lake front, just chilling and walking around. I am now doing exercise and when the weather is warmer now, I plan not to do it on my treadmill, I plan on going outside to do my workouts. I will feel it more because the inclines and the levels on the street is a lot different than on the treadmill. You will feel the burn pain a lot more than the treadmill too. I get so excited this time of year after my birthday which passed on Monday and summer and spring makes me feel more cheery and happy.

Winter not so much. I am excited for my first official outdoor outing! yay!

New Years Eve & Last Post of 2011!

So we have come to the last day of 2011. I must say this year went by super quickly for me. I guess from traveling so much to Montreal 32 times just this year, Going to Ottawa twice, Visiting Niagara Falls USA and CANADA, being so busy with writing, day to day life, I just didn’t realize how quick it truly went. This year I learned so much about life, learning from fellow bloggers, readers, commenters on my blog, hearing different perspectives on issues in life, so on and so forth. I thank everyone for giving me all the love, support, courage and 2011 was a year that I finally found my passion and that is to write and blog which hopefully someday with my words that come from my heart will change the world and people can be more kinder to one another, to respect one another and start 2012 with greatness instead of bad that we always hear on the news. So much has happened this year and I just cannot even begin to explain it all, but all in all, I have had a pretty great year and you know how they say, things happen for a reason.

Some friends have come and gone and some of them have stayed and I know who my true friends are. I’ve learned a valuable lesson this year to know who is fake and who is not, and also learning about so many things about life. There is so much I need to be thankful for, getting through another year, etc… What have you learned in 2011? What were some of your highlights this year? What were some of the memorable moments that you went through?

Unfortunately there were some people who past away this year and didnt live past another year, I’d like to send out my condolences and sympathies to those who have lost loved ones in their lives.

Finally, I’d like to end off 2011 with saying thank you to my readers of my blog, followers, supporters, to my family, friends, you all hold a special place in my heart and I will continue to write in 2012. Have a great happy new year 2012, all the best, May all your dreams and wishes come true and hopefully 2012 will be a beautiful year for all.

See you all next year in 2012!

Do not Drink and Drive tonight – Be safe!

LOVE ALWAYS, TALIN ORFALI