Weekend Snapshot 4

Yesterday we went to a trade fair called, IMT- GT International Fair. It exhibited different products from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Their displays and goods were beautiful.

The 'wyeing' statue, little girl with palms together. This is how Thai people greet each other.

This wind 'chime" caught my attention, it's nicely made.

Here they are all together. Nice to bring them all home.heheh!!

Everybody loves weekend, it is the time for leisure, recreation and other religious activities. And when everyone is having a grand time, you want to capture it and share it with others. That’s why Weekend Snapshot is here for you. Come and join the fun here.

Christmas Decorating Galore!!!

I just blogged last night ( or very early this morning) on how I'm just so excited that it's already December. So, I told my HUbby about it when we woke up and he suggested that why don't we put up our christmas tree . Yes, we have a small christmas tree. Immediately, he told our little girl that the activity of the day for her will be helping Amma and Appa in decorating the tree. As usual, she was so happy and couldn't wait until the afternoon.

See our cute, little tree!

It turned out that the whole afternoon was spent not just putting up the Christmas tree as we originally planned but decorating the whole house. And wow, we're just so satisfied with the result even if we didn't have to buy anything except for christmas lights. We just used whatever Christmas decorations we had in the past. I think this is the only year that we 'really' decorated our house since we will be spending our Christmas and New Year here. For the past years, we just simply put up the Christmas tree and hang some stuff here and there and we're done. But thinking about it now, maybe we just didn't have much motivation to really decorate our house for the last 4 years because we're normally in Malaysia for the holidays.

Christmas tree. The finished product

* Note: We're sorry to inform you that the model ( Tricia) we're using for this blog has a distracting mark on her forehead because she hurt herself a few days back. hehehe!

Below are some pictures of our "Christmassy" House. And for those who are interested, I'll be giving some decorating reminders/ tips too on how to do Christmas decoration on a very, very small budget.heheheh!! I'm not a pro but I hope I can motivate you to dress up your house with the Christmassy feel.

Tip # 1 : Choose a color scheme.

For Christmas, the easiest color scheme to use to achieve the Christmas feel is the red, green and gold scheme. So gather all your cloths, scarves, ribbons and etc with these colors and see where you can use them. And you can take out (temporarily) all your shocking orange figurines or whatsoever that would most likely 'destroy' the color scheme.

This low japanese table only costs 150 baht and looked very dull and boring. So, I placed my red scarf as a table runner. See that black and gold cloth at the back? That's a cloth meant to be for a dress but I never had a chance to have it sewn. So , there it goes...on the wall.

2) Tip #2 . Use whatever material you have and improvise. (Be creative)

This center piece is not originally meant to be a center piece. It's a wreath which is meant to be hung on the door/wall. But since we already have 2 wreaths. I chose the bigger one to be placed on our door and the smaller one (below) to become the centerpiece.

See the colorful christmas balls? They're meant to be hung in the tree but since the tree is already overflowing with the hanging things , I just placed them on the wooden plate to add life and color on the centerpiece.

The bear used is actually a toy but it added interest on the piece. You can also add colors which are not in your color scheme too but on a minimal scale. On this case, I added yellow and white balls. Too much of your color motif can also be boring. Add some other colors here and there but remember balance is the key.

Tip # 3 Decorate the whole house.

Don't just limit your decoration in the living room. Extend your Christmas motif in the dining room, on the stairs, in the garage and even in the toilet/kitchen. This will create the total 'feel'.

Wrapped the stair rails with lights, ribbons and 'wreath'

From the dining area

Tip #4 Work on the details as this will add interest.

I wanted to make use of the small santa clause ( meant to be for the tree again) so, I put the on top of our frames. This was a treat for our little girl,who was so amused to see them there. This also added color on the 'browns' of our living room.

I added a green wrap around string with stars on the lamp. It's not so clear in the picture but this changed the look of our plain white lamp. With the lights on, the string shines and looks nice as if it belonged there. If you can see, I also put another small Santa at the end of the string. I think it's cute :)

I also wrapped my brown vases with gold beads (not in the picture) used for the Chrismas tree. So, you can turn your old vases, frames, lamps, pillows and etc into new pieces by adding some details like gold ribbon, beads and etc.

Since I don't have budget to buy new (green, red or gold) pillows for the cushion, I plan to just buy cloth ribbons and tie / sew on them.

The living room wall.

I didn't realize until I downloaded this picture that Tricia's stuff toys ( eeyore and doggie) are sitting on the backrest of the couch. She was the one who put them there..hhehehe!

Tip # 5 Warm lights, lights, lights

If you need to 'invest' on anything then buy some warm ( yellow) lights. The lights used for the Christmas tree will do. We bought ours here for only 11 baht ( with 35 small lights) and 29 baht ( with 100 small lights) !! So, now we have a total of 5 pcs of Christmas lights not place on the tree but in different areas; window frames, garage, stair rail and etc.

Ok..that's all for now. I hope that you were able to get some ideas from the tips shared above..hehehe! Come on and let's decorate!!

Tricia's Corner

Finally, after months of thinking and planning to set up Tricia's room, we've done it! It's quite an accomplishment for me and Jesu especially when we don't have much time ( and not to mention: budget..heehe) to spare to work on it.

So, came Thursday, when we didn't have any classes at the Center, so Jesu started to paint her room pink (yes, as most girls, her favorite color is pink and specially requested to have a pink room). We managed to borrow a special roller brush too that makes star, moon patterns when you roll it. Months earlier, we already found some sale items like a small pink rug, piglet lamp,pink sheets and etc. We actually bought all these things slowly, like 1-2 items a month to suit our budget.hehehehe! The highlight of the things we bought was a cute pink dressing table which was 80% discounted sale at Carrefourre! I think it was originally 1,000 baht something, then lowered to 700 baht then finally for 200 plus baht. Oh, we how we had trouble hiding all these items coz we wanted her "finished" room to be a surprise for her.

So, today was the opening day for her room. Words couldn't express the joy on our little girl's face. Of course, the stage parents were also so happy to see such excitement. I realized how funny stage parents like us can be , because we deliberately planned everything ; the day and the timing (plus prepared all the documentation hahahah!) for such opening day.

Click on the link to see video:

http://leonettelalaine.multiply.com/video/item/7/Tricias_New_Room

Still have to put up a sign "Tricia's Corner" as requested by the room owner.

The small pink room..

Her favorite part of the room...her dressing table.

ngdinalaga na si Ate Tricia!

So, after the 'opening ceremony'. Our little girl thanked us so much and even prayed and thanked God for her new room

puzzle fun, scribbles and etc.

I think I have really become a certified stage-mom now. I'm just so proud of my little 3 year old darling..We continually thank God for her giftings and abilities.

Just about a month ago, an uncle gave her a set of jigsaw puzzles..it ranges from a 6 pc puzzle to a 24 pc. Pooh Bear puzzles. It especially indicated in the box that it is meant for 6 years plus. So, anyways, I just tried to help her solve the 6 pc. puzzle first, and gradually helped her with the bigger puzzles as well. Then, as time went on by our little Tricia learn to love it and can solve the puzzles by herself. She started to solve the 6 pc first, then immediately the 12 pcs..and then the 24 pcs. Wow! we were just amazed as how fast she does it. It's also so amusing to watch her do her puzzles and singing or humming at the same time. Like a pro!

Well, thanks to the Uncle who gave that as a gift for her. If not, I would never have discovered her love for this activity. It also gives me some time to rest or read the newspaper or anything interesting as she's busy concentrating on the puzzle work. Yes, indeed it's a good break for me.

Other than that, our little daughter is starting to love to draw too. Finally, her drawings are clearer now other than just plain scribbles and googles. :) Even though her people look more like aliens than humans but at least there is already a visible image of what she wants to draw. She can now draw me with a big tummy or her Appa carrying a lot of balloons...she also draws herself with her 'messy' hair and even her rabbit that died a few weeks ago. She would be usually be 'sad' everytime she draws her rabbits. poor her!

OK..I think that's all for now. It must be boring for you to read about a Mom continually babbling about her child's ' accomplishments'. Well, if you have one, i'm sure you could relate with me.. If you don't have any yet...wait till you get one...heheheh!