Christmas House Tour!

Well, we aren't too far from Christmas now...and I think we are finally all ready for the big day!

Normally, we have all of our Christmas decor up the day after thanksgiving, but due to celebrating Thanksgiving late and having to acquire/make all new decorations we are done a bit late this year. But, here is how we decorated as expats, keeping true to our traditions.

Our Tree

Per usual I bought a fake tree. I figure I can leave it in the storage unit for the next tenants if they celebrate Christmas, if not they can leave it for the next people after that-or figure out a way to take it back to the US because it is a really full, really nice fake tree and wasn't horribly expensive.

I started the three with 300 multi-colored lights. I think I will switch back to white lights next year though because it is a little difficult to see the ornaments and just makes the tree appear really busy I feel. But still cute none-the-less.

I bought one set of red bulbs and one set of silver bulbs.

Each pack of ornament had plain, glittery, reflective (as you'll see later a lot of unintentional selfies haha), and the silver even had some with designs on them.

Then filled the tree out with these great paper dolls I found in the latest Flow for Paper Lovers book. Here are a few of my faves:

I love this one because it reminds me of our trip to Hawaii back in March.

This one I love just because I love Little Red Riding Hood.

When I bought the Flow book, the woman at Bruna gave me these adorable little chipboard ornaments to put together as well. They add some nice flair.

For our 2014 Ornament we purchased this adorable little owl because we couldn't pass it up...we still need a keepsake ornament. I am having a hard time deciding between an Amsterdam ornament and Cinderella set to commemorate our trip to the ballet this year. Heck, maybe I will cave and get both! haha

For the tree topper I wanted something fairly ridiculous, but couldn't find anything that really stood out to me at our local store so I made this really easy star topper.

Tinsel Tree Topper

Flair and sparkle, just the way I like it!

Finally, our tree skirt was another simple one. I didn't see one at our local store and all the ones I saw at garden centers were too old fashioned for me, so I bought a vinyl tablecloth and just wrapped it around the base of the tree. Simple yet adorable.

(See, #unintentionalselfie ha!)

Living Room
I've always loved Christmas Villages and saw this idea on Pinterest for a recycled Christmas Village. I had a bunch of boxes and miscellaneous paper lying around so I created this fun little village.

Sort of reminds you of canal houses right?!

To add some extra flair I used some euro wire from Flying Tiger to make these really simple Christmas Trees.

Then, I used a box top from a Sinterklaas gift my daughter got at school to create an ice skating rink:

Just above the village I put some Christmas lights:

I hung some lights above the window and covered the tape up with these easy and adorbale Washi Tape Christmas Trees.

Dining Room
My tablescape is super simple.

My runner is an end of the roll piece of wall paper.

In the center I used this great little candle holder a friend brought us as a hostess gift for Thanksgiving. Then I just put some ornaments inside two wine glasses and inverted them to hold my bigger candles!

I still felt like our living room was lacking so I added this adorable chain made out of Christmas scrapbooking paper I bought from Flying Tiger.

Entry Way
In the entry way I put this fun glass vase full of white branches and threw some red bulbs on them to make it stand out!

I also did this pinterest inspired art on our door to turn it into a snowman!

Teenager's Room

In the kiddo's room we put a small Christmas Tree and decorated it with her Cheer Bows.

She added some lights to her door with Christmas pictures cut out from a magazine.

She of course had to have a scented candle.

That is how we are decorating for Christmas, come on over to the Facebook page and share your Christmas/Holiday decorations with us!

Tassel Keepsake Ornament

Folks, we are into November!!! Can you even believe that?! I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. I want some of it back!

What do you mean I can't get it back?! That is so not fair!

Anyway, seriously, I can't believe we are heading down that Christmas path! For many of y'all you are still trying to get through Thanksgiving, but we don't have Thanksgiving where we live so we are sailing right in to Christmas...so therefore I am bringing you a Tassel Keepsake Ornament!

I came across a picture of one one day on Pinterest and thought it would be a great way to get some of our keepsakes out of the boxes!

This is how I did it:

Supplies:

• One large glass or plastic ornament
• One tassel
• Scissors
• Glue

Procedure:

• Take lid off ornament. 
• Put tassel in and cut the strings apart.
• Take the medal part out of the top of the ornament and thread the strings through the two holes. 
• Line the lid with a small bit of glue and fit back over the top of the ornament and let dry.
• Tie the strings together and hang on your Christmas tree or find an ornament hanger to display it year round!

This gives you an idea of how to thread the strings through and tie them off.

Makes for an excellent hanger without having to add any extra ribbon!

I wrote my husbands name on the front and the university he Graduated from.

This makes for such a wonderful keepsake and brings back great memories every time we take it out of the box and put it on the tree!

Linking up at A Pinch of Joy! 

Valentine's Heart Garland!

Hello! Happy Friday!

So, I was supposed to have this blog post up yesterday, but then life happened and I spent some good quality time with the hubster so ya know, it had to wait. But, it was well worth it! I have a super fun and easy post today!!! This will take at max 90 minutes of your time!

I thought I originally saw this on Pinterest, but I can't find it now. I have been reading so many craft books lately though that it is very well possible I saw it in one of those. Who knows...it sure is fun and cute though, so read on!

Valentine's Heart Garland

That is half of the finished product-mountains not included ;)

Here is what you need:

-3 sheets of 12X12 paper: one red, one white, and one pink

-paper trimmer

-stapler & staples

First cut all of the sheets so they are about a 1/2 inch wide. I honestly didn't measure mine..I just cut one and then used that as a template & marked off all the other ones using that. Then I cut them using my straight edge trimmer. Once you have all of those cut fold them in half and cut again. That way for each 12" X 1/2" piece you can make one total heart.

Next, lay those two pieces on top of each other.

Using the top two knuckles of your thumb which equal about one inch, measure up...

Then mark it and staple it!

Then separate the two pieces and bring them around so they form a heart like above. But, do not staple them yet...

Put your next two pieces around the bottom and then staple!

So now it looks like this...it is an excited heart! Bring those two white pieces around and then attach your next two pieces and staple again. After awhile your garland will start to look like this...

Then, when it is all done you will have a lot of it so it will look like this....

Pretty fun, right?!

Then, using ribbon-I chose red sparkly ribbon-attach it to each end and hang where you want it to be displayed if need be add a piece in the middle like this:

Then, you will have a nice pretty garland like I do! 

Only it is super hard to see in the picture because it was such a gorgeous day when I took these! Can't complain about that!

Here are a couple more close up's of the finished product:

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?