Wedding Windows

Man, April has just gone by in a flash. The semester ending and papers and proposals due... ugh, don't even want to think about that for a moment. Why did I want to go back to school, again?

But, at least I'm in a cute little town that's pulling out all the stops for the weekend. See, there's this small matter of a second bank holiday this Friday celebrating some two crazy kids getting married or something.

With the Royal Wedding on Friday, the town is basking in its role as part of the love story. And as any small town can attest, you don't let an opportunity to be on the national stage go to waste -- no no, you gussy up to put on your freshest face.

The merchants' association in town decided to have a little window competition, so most of the store fronts in St Andrews are decorated with their best wedding celebration decorations. You can't walk ten feet without running into Union Jack bunting, or a cut out of the happy couple, or Wills and Kate cupcakes. Which I just think is kind of fun.




Clinton Cards, for if you want your own Wills and Kate bunting.

Wills and Kate cupcake, anyone? Yes... I'm probably going to buy one. Cause it'll be delicious.


Faremore Interiors, for a more tasteful explosion of Brittania.


Sue Ryder Care charity shop, with its second hand unique celebration pieces.


Waterstones, with all of your Wills and Kate books, including but not limited to paper dolls of the happy couple.


Bonkers, for... well, anything with a Union Jack on it.


Simply Scotland, putting up its best wedding dress flair.


Even the optician is looking forward to the wedding 'spectacle'. I love a pun!

O Christmas Tree (3 of 3)

We've seen family, we've seen snow, and now it's time for...

Christmas Tree 3 aka The Santa Tree



My mom has collected Santas for as long as I can remember. You knew it was Christmas time when the Santas started coming out. So, when selecting themes for the skinny trees we wanted to theme decorate, there was no question that one of them would need to be a Santa tree.



Skinny tree with red glass balls, glass Santas in antique designs, and assorted other fun Santas we had. All wrapped up with candy cane ribbon.



I was bummed that I didn't get the chance to put up a Christmas tree in St Andrews this year, but I just didn't have the cash lying around to bother getting a tree and all the ornaments to make it as epic as the ones I've done before. But I was bummed because for me, the tree is the holiday. I love my tree. I love the gaudy ornaments, I love the fakeness of it so I don't have to worry about a dead tree rotting, and I love that when I set a Christmas tree up, it automatically feels like the holidays. Christmas trees also remind me of my mom, since that's our thing over the holidays. And it's nice to have something of family at the holidays.

Next year my epic tree is going up no matter what country I'm in.

O Christmas Tree (2 of 3)

Now, we go into the decorative trees. These are my favorites. One of the big fundraisers in my hometown is the Festival of Trees -- different people/groups decorate Christmas trees to be auctioned off to the community to raise money for Hospice. It's always fun to walk through the tree display before they go to their homes in offices and businesses and homes. They're always decorated in a theme and I just thought that looked like fun.

A few years ago, my mother, who digs a good Christmas decoration with the best of them, decided the house could use a big more festivity. And so we pulled out a few smaller, theme decorated trees.

Christmas Tree 2 aka The Snowman Tree



Ah, the Snowman tree. The one I suspect is my mom's favorite. And, if I'm honest, mine too. (But only because I didn't get to put up the tree I've slowly collected for a decorated for the past few years in my townhouse down south when I was, you know, employed -- that thing has feathers on it. You can't beat a Christmas tree with peacock feathers. It's epic.)



But the Snowman tree is a favorite, decked out with a few sets of glass snowmen, individual snowman ornaments we've collected, sparkly snowflakes, sparkly... curly cue... thingies... that are awesome and I don't know the technical name of, and bows made out of snowflake ribbon.



It's a pretty safe bet that a new snowman ornament would always be an appreciated gift.

O Christmas Tree (1 of 3)

With essays turned in I can finally relax for the last little bit of my stop at home. Which probably means that I should do some cleaning up in my room because there's still the tell tale explosion of Christmas around. Although it makes me feel better that it's not the only sign of Christmas still around.

In true family tradition, the Christmas tree is still up. Oh, we've taken the ornaments down and packed them away, but the tree itself it still sitting proudly in the middle of the room because it hasn't made it back up to the attic. When will it get up there? Well... maybe before I head back to Scotland. Or maybe not. I'm taking bets on 50/50 at the moment.

So, I thought that I'd share a few pictures of one of my favorite parts of the holidays -- my trees -- since I didn't during the ACTUAL holiday season.

Christmas Tree 1 aka The Family Tree



The main event. Ole Faithful. The tree cluttered with family memories, handmade candycane ornaments, and year after year collectables. The one that sits there and says hello as we gather round and open presents on Christmas morning.



It's less cluttered this year as my sister has taken her box of ornaments to her house to put on her Christmas tree, and I wasn't here to put my entire box of ornaments on as I didn't get into town until a few days before Christmas. But homey all the same.



The pile of reindeer under the tree. The pile of awesome reindeer that we got from Burger King back in the late 80s/early 90s and have made Christmas appearances ever since. They are a favorite of both the niece and the cat for obvious reasons.

Next time: Decorative Trees

(Not So) Wasted Weekend

Some people would consider it a wasted weekend to spend the vast majority of it in pajamas and watching old and new tv shows on the laptop between research for papers.

Some people would not include me.

It was still cold, but I don't think any new snow fell. I say I don't think because yesterday I realized that I'd completely missed all of the daylight hours between sleeping in late (after a surprisingly fantastic night out with the IPT crowd) and relaxing with the blinds closed in my room. Not that missing all of the daylight hours is particularly hard when the sun is completely set before 4pm, but still. I didn't have anywhere to go, so watching all of the 1st season of Glee over yesterday and today was a particularly appealing choice.

Sometimes it's nice to do a whole lot of nothing.

So while that's not the most interesting thing to have a picture of, I leave you instead with a shot from Holy Trinity in the centre of town. Look -- snow and lit Christmas trees. Tis the season, after all.


Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews

A Calendar Made of Chocolate?

Oh yes indeed, a calendar made of chocolate!

My Advent calendar -- complete with festive Santa and other arctic livestock.

In the States, the candy Advent calendar isn't nearly as popular as it is here in the UK.  To be honest, I'd never had one growing up.  We have a felt doorhanging calendar -- two, actually.  One with a cute little mouse that you move each morning (we would fight to get to be the one to move the mouse when we were little - what a breakfast/early morning conversation that was) and we had a newer one that had an ornament in each of the day pockets that we decorated the felt tree with until the star in the pocket of the 24th to top the tree.  Always a family thing, always in the kitchen, and always part of the decoration.

My flatmates were talking eagerly about which Advent calendars were the best (don't get one at Tesco because they're child sized, so the chocolate is child sized as well -- go for the Lindt ones because they're adult sized, even if they don't have Santa Claus or Doctor Who on the front) and I piped up that I'd never had a chocolate Advent calendar growing up.

They looked at me in sheer horror.

So, when in Rome, do as the Romans.  The chocolate shop in town was out of Lindt calendars, but they had these festive ones, which are obviously made for children, but the chocolates are good sized, so they pass muster.

When I brought it to the till to pay, the lady asked what name I wanted on the bar.  I replied 'Oh, I don't need any... Rebecca.  Put Rebecca on there."  Which makes me feel like I'm eight, but you know what?  I could use some good old fashioned child-like Christmas cheer at the moment.  Class is hard, my papers are a bit soul-crushing, so if getting my name in icing on my Advent calendar is going to put a smile on my face, gosh darn it I'm gonna do it.

And you know what?  It does put a smile on my face.  Simple things.  And the best part?  I get another chocolate tomorrow morning.

Craft Time

It is cold. There's no two ways about it. It is cold here. The cold, the dark, and the silence. Well... not so much silence with everyone milling about in the cold and the dark, but lists are always better in threes.

I rarely check the weather here. I can tell you already what the weather is going to be in St Andrews -- cold, windy, drizzly at points during the day. No need for me to bother with checking the weather.

But my flatmate informs me yesterday that the weather map calls for snow chances all week. Now, this doesn't shock me too much as, like I said before, it's cold.

I don't think too much of it until I'm coming back with laundry and what does it look like outside?




Snow. Snow really coming down. Huge snowflakes really coming down.

Which then makes me want to do this.



I don't care if that makes me eight -- paper snowflakes! For the windows! What better cheap winter decoration is there? And for broke postgrads, there's nothing better than cheap. Or free, as the case may be, since the previous tenant left an entire ream of printer paper.

I know I jumped the gun putting things up before Thanksgiving but... they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, so I'm going to conveniently ignore that rule!