Surprise For a Another Birthday Girl

My daughter (no.3) celebrates her birthday on December 27 (she turns 12) but every time we hold a party at home, only a few comes over. Of course, it's the holidays and everyone is busy. I came up with the idea of celebrating it in her class on the last day of school before winter break. It was a secret between me and her teacher.
Oh boy, was she surprised! I never (I mean never!) see her smile in photos, except today!

She's on the right, another birthday girl on her left.

Our future leaders

These are the cupcakes I made. Looks like they were store bought but no, I worked all night long! I bought the cupcake boxes from our local grocery store. I didn't know I could do that. I paid $1.00 for five 12 slot cupcake boxes. Awesome!


I ran out of cupcake liners so I ended up using little cups which I cut using vintage zigzag metal scissors. They ended up using spoons to eat these little babies.

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I have two days left to turn this house into a Holiday getaway (meaning super clean and super pretty), my sister and her family (who I haven't seen in four years) are coming over for the Holidays. So excited and kind of scared of all the projects, cleaning and organizing I have to face! Wish me luck.

On a Serious Note...

Making these paper snowflakes were so therapeutic. It actually made me feel better about everything in life. Things were not so rosy lately. I'm going through some things that I wish I wasn't, specially on this Holiday season. Heartbreaking, really. I have no words for it.

Seeing the house so cheery like this, it makes me smile and it gives me hope, that somewhere down the road, things will be better for me.

There are things in life that we have no control of and this is one of them.

It is indeed a sad Christmas for me but it only makes me look forward to the next Christmas because I know it will be so much better than this one.

Eventually, I will have to accept things as they happen but I'm really glad for this blog, I can run away, even just for a minute...And breathe.

Christmas Cottage

I am finally done decorating outside our home. It kind of reminds me of Hansel and Gretel's house. I wanted to put more but I stopped myself.


I used fake snow but I don't know if it turned out looking like snow. My kids came home from school and said "Mom, why did you spray paint our windows?"

Here's the garland I made. I think it turned out so pretty. What do you think?
I did red and green for our outside decors and pretty pinks and purples inside. I wanted red and green so it would look more like Christmas and not a girl's birthday party. Can you imagine if all these were in pink?

So festive right?
I also installed these little cute plastic white fence. I should buy more to surround the front of the house.

Total cost for all the decors you see:
approx. $13.00

Tinsel garland -$2 for 2 colored tinsels. The bead strings I used were from my own supplies.
Red bow-$.99 cents from the 99cents store.
Wooden candy canes-$4.00 for four from the 99cents store.
$2-white fencing, a dollar each for 5 panels.
$3.99- for a bottle of fake snow.
The Happiness it gave my kids... PRICELESS.

Paperchase Overload

Last night at my mr. and I's usual coffee date at Borders Bookstore (where they have Seattle's Coffee and a Paperchase inside the bookstore), we went crazy over the mini Christmas decors they had. He loved the black mini tree and I loved everything! We ended up skipping coffee because we spent so much buying these little pretty things! So worth it, I must say!

These tiny stars are just too cute!

Super cute Christmas Lights

Super tiny Christmas balls in an even cuter box

Perfect for little hands

This will be unforgettable!

Our dog, Story looks on, jealous maybe.

Priceless

Tada!

And that's what I call photo overload.
Such a happy day today!
Merry Christmas to you all!

Our tree

This has been our Christmas tree for 3 years now. We are not really fans of having a real tree. It's quite messy and it's also sad that it ends up in the dumpster after the Holidays. This one is kitschy and we can use it over and over! What can be bad about that? And it fits the style of our home.
White faux tree-available where faux trees are sold.
Plum Christmas balls, Black Christmas lights and black garland- From IKEA a few years ago.



I know it's not the typical Christmas colors- green and red. Well, we are not your typical/traditional family so these colors just fit who we are perfectly. Not that we are dark... We're just, well... different.


Years ago, I would struggle finding the perfect tree, finding the perfect decorations. Every year, I would change everything and start all over and yet none of them gave me the satisfaction that this tree gives me. Until I dig deeper inside me and tried to know who I really am. And this is the tree I came up with and I am happy that my family loves it and every November (uh yeah we start quite early) we set it up with such excitement... It feels like we have a new tree every year! And we love it so much that if only we can keep it the rest of the year, we would!

What does your tree say about who you are and your family? I suggest you try to dig deeper inside you and try to get to know that little girl (or boy) hiding inside you.
If you surround yourself with things that you love and things that represents who you are (and not of things that it's acceptable or beautiful to most) then guess what... Your heart will thank you for it!

Even if your tree looks like this... As long as it makes you happy right?
(but I guess this was an accident and not intentional so I decided to rescue this little guy)