Our East Asian Block Party

I really think that I have not seen the sun for one second since we returned to our city a couple of weeks ago. My eternally optimistic friend Hannah and I were walking down the stairwell of my apartment building a few days ago and she said, "Oh look the sky is blue!" When I walked through the door at the bottom of the stairs it was completely overcast with not an inch of sky to be seen. I replied, "No, it definitely is not...." and she said, "I mean, it kinda looks like a shade of blue!" If so, that was one ugly non desirable shade of blue. 

I lieu of the gloom of this time of year, I thought I'd share some pics from warmer, more pleasant days that I haven't posted yet. 

Our neighbor Julie is the MASTER chef. Not only do her skills make her food amazing, her years of living in Costa Rica bring a flare to her food that makes it mouth watering. 

We always say that if Julie invites you for dinner, you drop all other plans and don't say no! 

{The view from my apartment down to Julie's- very grateful that I look down into her very not typical for around here beautiful garden}

Last spring she got this new giant smoker and we have had the privilege of having a feast at her house a couple of times now. 

She spends hours preparing.... making different varieties of sauces and salsas...

marinating all sort of meat (in the most amazing homemade marinades)...

and stickin a whole lotta carefully prepared food  on sticks.

In September this year we had a little block party of sorts at Julie's. It felt a little like being at a block party in the states. The guys bbq-ing LOTS of meat... GOOD meat, chicken, pork, beef.... good yummy delicious made to perfection meat. 

The boys played together outside. 

And we had a feast.

 This only captures a little bit of the deliciousness. 

I'm not kidding when I say that we could feast for days. 

Good times in the neighborhood. 

Joyfully Block Partied,

Personalized Fold Up Car Carriers

I saw this idea for a little Fold Up Cary Caddy on Pinterest, and knew that I had to make them for Grady & Caed- the little boys of 2 of my friends here. 

source

They can fill the little pocket's with cars, fold the top half down, and then roll it into thirds to keep them all snug and together when they are out and about. 

Caed & Grady are best buds but have been known to squabble over what they think is or isn't their's, so I knew that adding their names was a must. 

I painted the numbers on the pockets and yellow stripes on the road instead of sewing them on. 

I hemmed all of the edges of each section of fabric (except the road). Then I sewed the the pocket to the inside layer, and added the seams between each number. 

Then I sewed the road on the top half. 

I appliquéd the little cars & their tires on the other side, painted their names above them, then attached the strap & velcro for easy attachment.  

Then I attached the outside and inside layers to each other, and voila. Really not too terribly difficult. 

I filled both of them with little cars before I gave them to them. 

It has already come in quite handy on the road for Grady! 

Joyfully Caddied,

I'm Linking Up Over At: {Blue Cricket Design}{Organize & Decorate Everything}{Sew Much Ado}{A Little Knick Knack}{Somewhat Simple}{Thrifty 101}{The Shabby Nest}{Tatertots & Jello}{Whipperberry}{LollyJane Boutique}{Craft-O-Maniac}{Sew Can Do}{So Very Creative}{Nifty Thrifty Things}{I Heart Nap Time}{Positively Splendid}

Life Lately.... Christmas & My birthday

Continuing on the life update via pictures....

Here are some pictures from Christmas & my birthday

Again, I'll try to keep my commentary to a minimum. I've decided that when you're this far behind on life updates, you have lost the privilege of good commentary and must let the pictures speak for themselves. Or something like that.

ANYWAY....

Christmas in public was amusing again this year.... 

{just like last year}

This hair salon sure knew how to do things real classy.... at least it's all spelled right. 

These littles were selling apples for PingAnYe (Christmas Eve here).

We hosted a little get together for all of Adam's classmates....

Where I won this fun little Muff in a friendly game of White Elephant. 

This little one LOVES her GeGe MingYu {older brother Adam's East Asian name}

And was really excited to see what he got her (Christmas window clings as she tried to convince us to give her all of ours a week earlier). 

For Christmas Eve we celebrated a little differently than last year. We got together with a lot of the foreigners here for a big potluck dinner...

and another stingy game of white elephant. Hannah won this sweet like emo girl piggy bank. 

And we all won with lots of time with this chubby little snuggly boy. 

Then we sang some carols by the fire....

with folks dressed up like eskimos. 

I made a quick stop by the fish restaurant to wish my little buddy "Little Fish" a Merry Christmas. 

Then it was to the roof for fireworks. Someone is frequently looking for any opportunity to shoot them off, and Christmas clearly makes the cut. 

While we were up there, we saw these lanterns floating off in the distance. 

I also took this from the roof- it is our friend's building where they live, but it kind of gives a good idea of what our apartment building looks like. 

Christmas Morning

Grady got a new super cool parking garage

We had a delicious lunch with imported Ham. So delicious. 

Nicole made this incredibly divine peppermint chocolate cake. 

I can't begin to tell you how delicious it was. I'll try to get the recipe and share it with you. 

So stinkin good. 

And finally, Santa stopped by. 

This kid couldn't get much cuter! 

You can see how we celebrated last year here. 

Then a few weeks later, we celebrated my 27th birthday before heading to Thailand. 

Hannah made some awesome posters for me. I love a "Tender Tennessee" anything... not just Christmas. So she created a Tender Tennessee Birthday for me. 

I requested that my birthday party be a "sweatpants" party.  

Ash made me her delicious glazed brownies, and as usual we used the exploding singing candles that we always do. 

Our friends went in together to get me this oh so handy camera lens cap clip. 

It slides on your camera strap and you just click your lens cap right on. So convenient. 

I felt very loved! 

So there's another little recent update for you. 

Joyfully Celebrated,