Christmas Tour of Homes!

Welcome! I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner for the Christmas Tour of Homes. I have a lot of decorations to share!

I'm excited to post pictures of Christmas decorations from my apartment at school and my home (that my Mom decorated :)

Lets start off by taking a look at my apartment last year. Now it was a holly jolly wonderland!!

 We went together and cut down a real tree. That really made the entire apartment feel homey and cheerful :)

Of course, nothing nice or fancy. I'm pretty sure all of these decorations came from the dollar store or Walmart but we wanted to take the extra time to make our place feel festive and fun. It most definitely did :)

Now, my apartment this year was not nearly as flashy and fun. My roommates and I didn't have nearly as much time to decorate as I did with my roommates last year. However, we still had some festive touches here and there. 

I just love this wreath. It is my roommate's and I think it looks like the holidays, but it could be used any time of year!

I also love the tree in my room. My room is decorated in pink and green and it matches perfectly. I leave it there and decorate it for Valentines day (with red ribbon) when I return after Christmas :)

Finally, a look inside my home. I just got home for Christmas break last night and snapped some pictures of all our decorations. We have a much more traditional feel to our decor than a lot of the homes I'm seeing today. I really like a mixture of both! 

I love the way the front door looks lit up at night. Its hard to tell but those are angels by the door.

Our main Christmas tree is filled with sentimental ornaments that we've all collected through the years. I love the way the white lights highlight all the colorful, meaningful ornaments. 

Some touches in the kitchen:

Our dining table set up:

 This advent calendar is falling apart, sadly. I love it though. My brother and I used to fight over who got odd days and who got even days. We always wanted even so we could be the one to put baby Jesus in his manger on Christmas eve ;)

I love that my mom sets out Christmas frames and pictures from past Christmas cards and Santa pictures.

The living room: 

I love Christmas mantles!

I remember being so excited when this nativity was set up each year. I'd play with it every day. Funny how there are so many toy nativities around these days. 

We keep our Christmas cards in a basket by the fire place. I love to sit by the fire and look at all our cards. I've seen so many neat ways to display cards, I'm not sure how I'll do it in my own house some day!

Perhaps one of my favorite decorations; we added this tree to our landing last year and I decorated it using the ornaments from my apartment's big tree last year. I love how you can see both trees lit up when you walk in our front door!

Thanks for touring! If you have any questions about where anything came from, ask in the comments and I'll be happy to answer :)

& one piece of advice- if you are in an apartment for school or whatever the reason may be; take the time to buy a few decorations (its even easy on a college budget!) to make it cheery and homey. I just love the way my apartments feel when they are decorated for the holidays.

Blog World

The blog world is a funny thing.

I joined bloglovin' today. I decided to finally consolidate a list of all the blogs I follow and make my life easier, instead of having to type in the URLs of blogs when I want to read them.

I feel so funny following people's blogs who have no idea who I am but for whatever reason what they write inspires me or interests me. It's also probably weird to some people that I love following many "mom blogs" when I'm not even married, let alone have kids. But because I'm a nanny I feel like I can totally relate! & I also can't wait to be married with my own family so theres that too.

I have no idea how certain bloggers connect & become friends; but for now I'll just continue to follow them and feel like a creeper while writing on my own little blog that no one reads. ha!

Im blank because...

Inspired by Little Miss Momma 

I'm ______ because…

Along with pictures from my short trip to Asheville with the fam this past weekend

I'm weird because…
I rarely wear my hair down although I like the way it looks down
I have to set out my clothes the night before each day
I don't ever eat food past the expiration date, or even close to it. ever.
I already enjoy looking at baby clothes & things I want for my future baby
I like scalding hot baths but only luke-warm showers
I love planning elaborate vacations but at home I'd rather be lazy & relax

I'm a bad friend because…
I'm horrible at initiating plans
I'm also horrible at deciding on plans if I'm given options
Sometimes, no matter how much I love a person, I feel like canceling plans last minute just because I'm such a homebody

I'm a good friend because…
I'm a good listener & a good talker
I'm very empathetic
I realize how important friendships are
I'm loyal & will most likely be your friend for life if we can stay in touch

I'm sad because…
I'm finished with all my work this semester but I can't go home until Friday
I haven't seen Andy in a month
I've let my panic get to me the past couple of nights
I don't currently have any vacations planned
I don't have much money to buy Christmas gifts this year

I'm happy because…
It's the holiday season!
I've successfully finished my first semester of graduate school
I have an entire month off from school
I get to spend time with my best friends over this break
I will find out my clients for next semester soon

I'm excited for…
Seeing Andy soon!
Seeing family at Christmas time
Snow that I hope we'll get this winter ha!
Some of the Christmas gifts I'll be getting… just being honest! ;)

We spent Friday night in Asheville at the Biltmore Park Town Square and visited the Biltmore House on Saturday. It was a nice little getaway to see my family and celebrate being done with all my work! How are you blank because?

Finally, I'm going to participate :)

I've updated my layout and I'm happy with the new look. I'm in a new stage of life now and I figured I'd update my blog and maybe start writing again? We'll see. ;)

I graduated from ASU back in May and I got the shock of a lifetime the night before graduation when I was offered admission to graduate school at ASU after I had previously been denied. Only God can do that kind of thing!

Now that I'm practically finished with my first semester of graduate school, I'm still so thankful to be here! I was heartbroken, to say the least, when I didn't get into WVU where Andy is in law school. However, being back at App has probably been the best thing for me. I've been able to keep in touch with friends still in undergrad and get closer to girls I knew in my program before, added to also meeting new girls in my cohort and it's been great so far. Here are some snap shots of my first semester in graduate school :)

Thankfully I've been able to see Andy three times this semester too, but we've gotten really bad at taking pictures together so here are a few that we did take :)

I can't believe its almost time to go home for a month and relax! I've got a few projects I'm hoping to work on but I'll probably end up doing a lot of reading, hanging out with my friends and little sidekicks, and laying around. But if I finish any sewing or scrapbooking projects, i'll share them ;)

I'd really like to join in on fun posts in the blog world more often now "mid-week randoms," "five on friday" and "SUYL Fridays"

Heres to maybe writing some more! :)