Other Christmas Decor

In addition to my mantle and it's coordinating accessories, we had a few other Christmas decorations around our little Asian apartment. 

We still have our little fake Ikea purchased and inherited Christmas Tree, with a random assortment of lights and ornaments. 

Including some that I made last year, 

like these....

And some new ones, like this froofy one that I bought at Wal-Mart here....

and this CUTE bird that Hannah brought back from America for me. Isn't it cute? 

Last year, our tree was topper-less. 

Not this year! 

I bought this plain red star tree topper at Ikea. 

source

Cute, but a little too plain for my happy little eclectic tree.

SO I got a little creative with some glitter, rhinestones, and sequins AND....

Ta-Da! 

My happy little tree topper! 

The perfect finishing touch. 

I've loved all of the ornament wreaths floating around out there, and we really have TONS of extra ornaments around here. Four years of different foreigners living in our apartment buying their Christmas decorations at Ikea has supplied LOTS of red, silver, and gold ornaments- way more than would ever fit on our tree. So I set aside some of the balls to make an ornament wreath. 

It was SO much easier than I thought it would be! I highly recommend using the hanger method instead of a wreath form. It's really simple, and looks quite nice! 

Our little plant stand needed something festive. I have this bottle wrapped in yarn, and wanted to add something different to it, so I made these pinwheels out of Christmas scrapbook paper. They're pretty cute. For the frame, I used the corner of a sheet of Christmas scrapbook paper with a fun little whimsical scene. 

Perhaps my favorite part of our decorations is this fun "Happy Holidays Y'all" Banner! 

My friend who sent the supplies for the cupcake liner tree, also sent me a pre-made Paula Dean banner. 

It comes looking like this:

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Super cute, but I wanted to spruce it up a bit. 

So I backed each letter with alternating red paper and brown wrapping paper. 

I added a little something different to each letter to give it a little pizzazz. 

Like sequins...

Beads...

and lots and lots of glitter!

It is quite festive. 

And we aren't trying to be PC with the "Happy Holidays".... 

It just came that way. 

Plus EA has LOTS of holidays all year round... not that this will stay up for that long.... but don't worry, Christmas is always of upmost importance. 

My favorite part is most definitely the "Y'all"

Makes me feel right at home. 

So happy and festive. 

Finally, we used a few locally purchased decorations. 

While we would never use these in the states, these foam cutouts bring lots of festiveness to our apt. here. 

Our "KongTiao" {free standing heater/ac} is adorned with Santa's head.... not creepy at all. 

And as Adam says....

"If they wondered if the foreigners lived there before, 

now they know for sure." 

When you come up the stairs to our door...

This cute bear and snowman are here to greet you! 

To make them even fancier, I added glitter to the stocking's stars...

and to the snow man's hat, mittens, and buttons. 

They might just stay up all winter. 

And that's about all for our Christmas decorations! 

We do what we can to make our home a long way from home feel a little more homey. 

Joyfully Homey & Decorated, 

Christmas Mantle

I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas! 

We had a great one over here. 

{Adam & I with my cute, very EA-ian Muff that I had just won during a White Elephant gift exchange at Adam's classes Christmas party we hosted}

I'll recap soon, but first I thought I'd post all of my decorations that I should have shared weeks ago. Trust me, I'm beating myself up for being such a slacker. After posting all things Christmas well into January last year I vowed to be more timely this year. But just pretend that it's 2 weeks ago and I'm sharing it then. 

So first, my "mantle"! I was going for a modern-ish "bold"/ "clean" look... if that makes any sense. 

On the shelf, I used a few different random things to bring some festive cheer. 

I filled this vase with left over Ikea ornaments that have collected here over the years. 

I found some fun little plates at the used furniture market a few months ago. I used these stickers {that I thought were rub-ons} to write "JOY to the WORLD" on a plate

I know everyone and their mom has used this printable, but I really love it. And it went well with my "look."

And of course we have lots of candles to use.  

I found these GIANT stockings at Ikea last month. 

I thought they were better than the funny EA-ian ones they sell at Wal-Mart here. 

On the table I used these FUN printables that I found on Pinterest. I bought the red frames at Ikea, and Hannah painted the other frame black for me. 

And finally, I made a cupcake liner tree. Last year my friend Sarah sent some craft supplies to me via a friend visiting. Shamefully, I never made use of them last year. But I did enjoy making this one this year. It's pretty simple too. 

And that's my mantle. I'm still enjoying it. And probably will until I come back from vacation in February. And then I'll probably create a new seasonal mantle that I will probably not share until 3 weeks after that season has past. Apparently that's how things go around here. MAYBE I won't go seasonal..... then it won't be "late". There's a thought. 

Joyfully always a little behind,

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my Sweet Daddy!

I've been so blessed to have such a wonderful Dad who loves me so well! I am so thankful that The BG has blessed me with an earthy Father whose love and acceptance has given me a greater understanding of His love for and acceptance of me. So, so blessed!

I love you Daddy! Thanks for being so wonderful!

Joyfully Celebrating My Daddy,

The Gifts that Keep on Giving

Now that you've seen the packaging, I am pretty pumped to share what was inside. 

Clearly there was a lot of excitement in the air! 

I have a hard enough time buying Adam Christmas presents in America.... never the less here. Buying him clothes that he doesn't want that I want to see him wear wasn't an option this year, so i really had to get a little creative. 

He said a few days before Christmas, "I can't wait to see what I get to play with on Christmas!" Well then you're gettin toys my friend! 

I found this fun helicopter that lights up, makes noise, and rolls all over the floor. He loved it. 

We also have a constant debate about what we want for Christmas- I'm just going to admit it- I'm materialistic and want stuff. So getting "experiences" doesn't really get me super excited. Adam hates stuff and would take an "experience" any day. He always says that he just wants plane tickets for Christmas and his birthday. Not so fun in my book. 

BUT when you live a long way from the familiar it's a little difficult. The one thing I KNOW that he'll want and will look for any excuse to HAVE to go to is any large sporting event. I know we'll go to Ohio in July at some point, so Adam got a $100 gift certificate for tickets to a Reds game. He loved it. 

I also found some good DVDs in English and fun games at Wal-Mart so he got a few of those too. 

Adam came home with this book one night and said, "Look what I bought us for Christmas!" 

So Santa brought all of the boys this book of model airplanes, spaceships, rockets and anything else that can fly to assemble together. 

We all used the EAsian "eBay" to buy each other presents..... but not too surprisingly, a lot of it didn't get here in time so we got to unwrap pictures of what we all got. 

I bought Janessa new Uggs boots. 

In addition to their awesome Snuggies, I bought both of them super soft Old Navy socks (that someone brought over with other stuff for me). 

Hannah got a lovely pot-holder...

and a coffee pot! 

The guys got each other some pretty fun stuff too....

Adam got an air soft gun from Ryan. 

Ryan got new guitar strings

AND some David Beckham playing cards..... His teacher told him his beard looked like David's.... what do you think?

Joseph bought Adam FIREWORKS! He loves them. 

and Joseph got new speakers! 

I got all sorts of fun new things!  

Isn't Hannah's homemade wrapping paper cute? 

She bought me ballet shoes!!!

(like my Santa socks I bought at the supermarket here?!)

Some other wonderful gifts I got..... 

Scrapbook paper ........

and this AMAZING bird necklace from EAsian eBay! 

Seriously- I am so obsessed with this necklace. I don't think I could love it anymore or have picked something I would love more! 

I am now learning to knit and making a lovely {albeit special} scarf with this yarn.

Ryan got me paint and special paper to be "creative" with. 

My super sweet husband got me this fun scarf....

little lantern.....

.... super helpful flash cards..... whenever I need some red bayberries, I'll know just what to say! 

And lastly...... A NEW SEWING MACHINE!

Yay! I can't wait to use it! 

Giving and getting gifts here was tons of fun, and just one more thing that made Christmas here so fantastic. So that's all for what Christmas looked like on this side of the world. I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and thus far, a very happy new year!

Joyfully gifting,