December 31, 2012

MD & NYC

Over Christmas, the hubs and I went home to Maryland and managed to squeeze in a trip to NY before heading back down south.

We spent the week eating our weight in Asian food we have missed and walked our legs off exploring NY. Once again, here is the iPhone dump of photos taken from our trip!



(I made it to the top of Rockefeller, but my fear of heights overwhelmed me)
Hong Baos. If you can't recognize your Chinese name, you're screwed (i.e. my brosef stressing out)



Cousins night-out, a la The Strand


 2012, you have been fabulous. I'm ready for you 2013!

December 23, 2012

iPhone dump

Word of the month: busy.

Action of the month: taking iPhone photos.









May your days be merry, bright & filled with Jesus-loving spirit! Merry Christmas y'all!

December 1, 2012

Christmastime is here!

My husband said that I wasn't allowed to celebrate Christmas until December. Well guess what fools - today is December 1st! (24 more sleeps till Christmas!!)...but that really didn't stop me from Christmas celebrations at our house. I've been listening to Christmas music since...July...and I put up decorations the Monday after Thanksgiving.

As with decorating my house, I'm all about decorating within my means (aka not spending a lot of money) and doing a lot of DIY to make my home 'my home'. Christmastime is no different! I already posted about decorating in preparation for the holidays, but this time I have gone all out and put up Christmas-y things to usher in the Advent season!

I'm all about using what you have (or in my case -- using what you've hoarded) around the house...and things that are free. It also helps that I have a mother-in-law who is the craft/DIY queen and a Christmas decorator extraordinaire - I have inherited many of her old decorations and other fun DIY things. When my husband was living on his own, his mom came and Christmas-bombed his house, complete with a fat Santa cookie jar, wreaths and Christmas lights.


I didn't know I was obsessed with Nutcracker statues until I saw a bajillion of them at Marshalls during Black Friday shopping. Luckily for me, I resisted the urge of buying all of them and found this man hanging out in my mother-in-law's Christmas box in our attic. #score


I love this decoration. I've seen tons of DIY/craft ideas using branches to hang things, and decided that if I found the right branch, I would make it into an ornament tree. As you can see, I found said branch and I also found awesome little ornaments in the Christmas box. I made two yarn pom-pom ornaments to complete the look. Oh! Remember that time I channeled my inner squirrel and hoarded little acorns from my backyard as vase fillers? They appear again as an anchor for my branch...collected this time by my loving husband. He sat outside with a flashlight one night and collected every acorn in that vase #truestory #besthusbandever

*Reason #2356763 why I am a crazy lady: I saw this branch lying in my in-laws' backyard while we were over for Thanksgiving and I immediately knew it was the one. I asked my mother-in-law if I could take/keep this branch I found, and she looked at me like I was a crazy fool. (She was all like "Who asks if they can take a branch from someone's yard?")


I have never had a real tree in my life. My family lived overseas for a good part of my childhood and access to a classic Christmas tree was only made possible by loving relatives mailing us a plastic one. I also get headaches when I smell live Christmas trees, so plastic is the way to go! And this year, our 2-foot fake tree is the perfect fit for our little family and our little home.

And finally, my favorite decorated piece...



The breakdown:
Deck board sign made by my mother-in-law.
Pine cones collected from a nearby school yard and hot glue-gunned to twine.
Christmas lights were in the Christmas box.
Window is usually there year-round; came from old church building that got renovated.
Red wire Santa sleigh has been hoarded since high school; was given to me with chocolates in it.
Old Christmas card of two people wrapped up in scarves and hats in the snow #cutenessoverload

So that's what's going on at our house! What have you done to decorate this year? What things have you made? I would love to see what you've done!