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:

source

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, 

Yarn Wreath with Winter Attachment

Okay I promise I'm back on the blogging bandwagon.

A couple of weeks ago I made a winter attachment for my "interchangeable attachment" wreath- my collection is growing with the Spring & Fall attachments. 

In case you missed those 2, I made this yarn wreath last year with snaps for interchangeable attachments with each season. 

I wanted to make a winter one instead of Christmas so I could just use it until it's time for the spring one to go back on, so I went with blues and grays.  

For this one, I went with a Peacock theme.  

To make the "feathers" I cut 3 pieces of felt for each one. I pinched the tips together at the end, stitched through all 6 pieces, and tied each one off. Then I started arranging them on white felt with the largest ones on the bottom, hot gluing them on. 

I hot glued the snaps on the back {the other side was already on the wreath}

....and there you have it. 

I added four wooden beads to bring it to a point. 

It might be my favorite thus far. 

Okay seriously, more Christmas decor coming! 

Promise! 

Joyfully attached for the winter, 

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A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {December Edition}

It's Been a While since I've done this.... So I thought I'd just give some of my favorite things for the whole month of December (and 7 days of January). 

 Lots of faves....

#1 .....SNOW!!!

It RARELY snows here, and clearly when it does.... it's not so pretty but still.... it's SNOW!

it didn't stick to much..... the ground still looked like this outside our apartment

So as not so magical as it was..... it was wonderful none the less. Hannah & Janessa ran through the streets of our village yelling, "SNOW!!!! SNOW!!!!"

and speaking of snow.......

Fave #2- What consumes a significant part of my thought life right now......

STAYING WARM! 

It got REAL cold all of a sudden..... yes,yes I know that it has been brutally cold across the southeast & midwest US for the last month or so. But I never realized how much I took central heating for granted until I moved here. 

This is how we live in America- We live in homes that have vents that run through them heating every inch of our houses at the touch of a button- it can be as warm as you want it to be. THEN when we do need to venture out, we walk a few dozen feet to our cars or better yet, to our garages and get into our cars that heat up REAL quick. Then we arrive at our destination, and 9 times out of 10, get out, endure 30 seconds of cold and then dash into another centrally heated location. We don't have to endure much cold if we really don't want to. 

Now take away the central heat, the cars with heat, the cars period and you have a COLD house and a COLD means of transportation (on foot), and a COLD non-heated destination. Basically you are COLD! 

Poor Hannah got an indoor/outdoor thermometer from home for Christmas.... and yesterday when she woke up, it was a whopping 43 degrees in her room. Our houses stay somewhere in the 50's during the day. You just really don't get warm unless you are in the bed..... with.....

Your beloved bed warmer. 

This thing is so incredibly essential. It's like an electric blanket but under your sheets. It's rather stylish too huh? Good thing you can't see it. You turn it on before you get into bed and when it is time to head that way, it is nice and toasty. 

and we have dual controls, which is glorious since Adam can't sleep with his on. I usually wake up after a while and turn it off though. 

And then EVERYONE has a warmie.....

This is mine that I got for Christmas. It's a little plush-ish winking bear. 

They are just bags of water, with a little socket that you plug a cord into, that plugs into an outlet. In 10 minutes you have a little hot water bag that you can take everywhere with you. You can even buy warmie carriers- usually a stuff animal with a pouch that you put the warmie into and it can hang around your neck and stick your hands into. Pretty awesome. 

We really are willing to go to great lengths to stay warm.....

.......like filling up buckets of hot water, soaking our feet in them and then when it started to get tepid, we'd dump cup fulls of REALLY hot water into it. 

My next fave..... 

#3- getting pictures of my sweet, sweet puppy Lucy from far, far away (hint, hint, keep em comin!)...

How precious is she?!

I seriously miss this dog more than anything! Adam keeps saying I should change the name of my blog to the joys of life withOUT Lucy. horrible. I'm real thankful for my bestest and her boo welcoming her into their family. Thankkkssss Matt & Jamie!

Fave #4...... Skype Convos with great friends

The holidays provided more opportunities to talk to people at home, which just made me that much more so incredibly thankful for skype. 

I made Betsy promise that Trey wouldn't forget me while we were gone, so I loved that for most of this conversation he kept his face an inch from the camera saying, "I see you Hay-ee!!" and would shush his parents every time they tried to talk.... not so cute to them though. 

THEN a day or 2 later, we got to skype into the Vandy Christmas Party with such fun friends! 

They even sang Christmas carols to us.....

and Catherine & Ashley got into a large dress together for us. 

It was so wonderful to see so many wonderful faces together at the same time. I am SO thankful for skype! 

Fave #5.......Peter's

Peter's is a western restaurant in the really nice large city we often visit, and every time we go I make it my goal in a weekend to eat there no less than 3 times. I have yet to fail at reaching my goal. 

This was one of our first trips with some friends way back in August. 

SO DELISH. Those waffle fries are amazing. 

My faves there: Chicken Chimechangas, Cheeseburger with Waffle Fries, Chicken Fingers with amazing honey mustard, and French Toast. 

AND they have Dr. Pepper. WITH ICE in a mason jar. love. 

I most definitely can't get enough. 

Fave #6.... The "Turkey Bowl"

Every year, a bunch of Americans get together in one city the weekend after Thanksgiving to play in the Turkey Bowl. I'm pretty sure it is the highlight of many-a-guy's fall here. 

It gets a little intense.... full contact on the line... and someone always gets hurt, but they love it. Adam was excited for weeks beforehand. 

And all the girls love coming to watch and cheer them on. Here I am with some of my favorite girls.... most of whom are intense. One not so much. She's real cute though. 

Fave #7.... Fun out of town weekends with friends

I lovelovelove any time we get to go to other cities to hang out with friends, and have so loved getting to know a lot of these girls over the last few months AND look forward to spending a month with many of them very shortly in a very tropical place that I can not get to soon enough! 

Fave #8..... a LEGIT western restaurant. 

You seriously can't fathom the excitement. Seriously. There is a Grandma's kitchen is some really big cities in this country, but I almost had a stroke when I saw this. We still don't even have McDonalds here! (seriously remarkable for a city of 2-3 million people in this country)... the only good western food to be found is at Papa John's (if that says anything), so you can imagine our astonishment

We went to the mall to grab Ice Cream one night in early December and while we were standing around talking I looked up and saw this sign- and screamed out loud. 

It has since opened; Adam & a friend went day before yesterday and had burgers. Yes please. Can't wait to go soon! 

Fave #9..... FUN teachers! 

This is our Reading teacher- He (like huh!) LaoShi. She is so much fun, such a riot at times, and I just love her. I don't mind spending 6 hours a week with her at all.

This was at a banquet for the international department recently. 

AND last and the MOST not least..... Fave #10....

Christmas Of Course. 

We seriously had such a fun Christmas here.... As I've already shared in several posts. Christmas has always been and will always be my favorite. 

That's all for now! Come back next week before I jump on a plane to a tropical {not so} far away land! 

Joyfully Faved Out,