So do any of you know washi tape, and washi sheets are? Basically very thin see-through paper tape that comes in a ton of different designs. Or at least washi tape comes in many designs… and washi sheets… well there's about 50 designs maybe? But they're all very similar!
My brilliant business idea was to make something similar like washi sheets…. and cut out squares to fit in my planner. So for my first one i decided to do a spring theme, and I came up with this:
Aren't these designs perfect for spring?
And I cut them to fit my planner so I can decorate my planner.. Can't tell you how I made them because well that's a secret :) and I don't want anyone else stealing my idea!
I got some water on this one… which is what that dark spot is...
I love this one!! The colorful flowers, definitely look like spring to me!
And I got some water on the chevron design too, but covered some up with my tv show post it :D
And this is the layout so far of my next week. i'm so in love with those squares and i'm so happy with how they came out. I can't wait to make more for other holidays and seasons. I want to do fourth of july next!
If any of you have an Erin Condren planner or any other planner, and love to decorate, maybe you can get some decorating ideas for me, and please share your pictures on this post so I can get some decorating ideas from you!
And if you're interested in wanting some spring themed squares or other washi squares, check out my easy shop ! https://www.etsy.com/shop/linamariax3
You're probably wondering what does it mean that i've been RAK'd!
RAK stands for Random Act of Kindness.
One of the planner facebook groups i'm part of does this RAK things, and basically you put together some of your planner supplies, some stickers, some stickers, some washi tape, and you send it to someone and you "wake up their mailbox"!. It's so much fun because you feel like you're doing something great and giving back! Point of RAK is to make someone else happy, it's not about getting one back. Sometimes you will, sometimes you won't. But it's about giving!
Anyways so today I received this amazing RAK from one of my new friends in the Facebook group, and this is all the stuff she sent me!
32 samples of washi tape… and out of all that i only have 2 of the rolls! So 30 new tapes for me to try! She also sent me some martha stewart tear drop stickers! And i love those in my planner! And some super cute stickers, as well as a to-do list set of post-its, and the other super cute stickers… the cloud and speech bubbles! By the way… i've been told the cloud and speech bubble stickies are from hobby lobby… however they do not have them online… and there's no hobby lobby near me. Soo if you're feeling generous and happen to see it… please buy me some and mail them to me! You'd make me very happy!
I'm so thankful for all the stuff my friend sent me. She definitely went above & beyond, and I love everything she gave me! Some already has made it's way into my planner!
Earlier, I also went to staples looking for a paper cutter. Then I saw these and had to buy them. These are also pretty hard for me to find since not all staples has them… or they're out of stock. So i was happy I found these two AND they were on sale! DOUBLE WIN!
This is the paper cutter I decided to buy. I was originally looking into buying an electronic paper cutter til I saw the price tag those come with. And they're anywhere from $300-$1,000! So that quickly went out the window! So i saw this one at staples, i liked it because it was small and portable, but not TOO small…. because it'll fit a piece of printer paper, which is awesome! And the best part is that it was only $10!
Then later… instead of doing homework… I decided I'd make a dashboard on the inside cover over my planner with all my stickies and I absolutely LOVE it! I use the full-adhesive post-its, the flag post-its, some other flags, the long stickers are from Smash.. i bought those online… and the cloud and speech bubble stickies as you read I received in my RAK.
I've been having SO MUCH fun with my planner! I follow my to-do lists… and If i don't get to something one day.. i'll do it the next day and go back to cross it off. I'm organized with my schedule and my shows… and i'm doing PRETTY good with trying to drink 8 glasses of water per day.
I was babysitting the other night, 2 girls ages 5 and 9, and a almost 12 year old boy. The 9 year old I only have for a couple of hours before she was off to a sleepover.
So while the boy was playing video games, I was painting the 5 year old's nails, and the 9 year old was doing my hair. And I have to say I was VERY impressed, she did pigtails, and then 2 fishtail braids.
And let me tell you something….
I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DO A FISHTAIL BRAID!
is that sad? The 9 year old said she would teach me the next time i'm babysitting over there again. I'll be learning how to do my hair from a 9 year old. Like I said i was impressed because it looked great! This was my hair…
She first tied the two braids together when she was done… but then decided she wanted the blue scrunchy haha. and ends dup taking it out… but doesn't my hair look amazing?
And this is my hair from the from view and the fishtail braids at my sides!
I kept that hair for the rest of the night and half of the next day! I even went to CVS looking like that! I wanted to sleep in the braids so my hair could be wavy the next morning :D
Then when the 9 year old went to her sleepover, and after the 5 year old girl, and the almost 12 year old boy played basketball outside… then we did some origami!
And i made this pretty star :D
Yes, that takes some skill! Haha not really… it was just folding and cutting paper…. and reading directions!
Anyways that was my babysitting night. Hope you liked this post!
So this is my Erin Condren Planner and it's PERFECT! I actually thought the planner would be bigger and more like the size of a 3-subject notebook! But it's definitely smaller which makes me happy, because it even fits in my small shoulder bag, which is super exciting!
So my planner has my name on it, and under my name it says "Dare to be different". I kinda wish it was centered under my name, but i didn't specify so that's my fault. Everything else is perfect, no pages missing, no pages falling out, no missing dates, it's really PERFECT!
I already started decorating my planner too. I decided to use the top section that would normally say "morning" and cover the morning part, and use the top section for when i have school, work (the little babysitting work i do now), and appointments… and of course my dinner date with my babe. And the middle section i'm using as a to-do list, minus the homework i need to do. That's on a separate bigger post-it.
This picture is just a full picture of one side of my planner. In the bottom section I added my shows that are playing and a little to-do of shows i need to look up online for when they're playing next, so i can organize my next week and put in the shows playing!
And on the bottom, I printed some rainbow water drop hydrate stickers so i remember to drink as much water as possible. Its 8 glasses a day 8oz each. So the first day I got my planner you could see I only drank one glass, but the second day )which was yesterday), i drank 6 glasses! The filled in drops is how many i drank :D
I already decorated my planner for 2 weeks later! And this is the first week of april pictured below. All the pretty tape you see is wsahi tape (I'll have a more in depth video on my planner supplies and how I organize it). I also color code everything, green is work, orange is school, purple is tv shows.
Here is my monthly at a glance for the month of april.Those blue tabs are my bills due on that day. Purple is movies coming out in theaters, the blue is my anniversary, orange is a school bill i have to pay, and the flower tape is my spring break! Though i'll probably be making that a little longer :D
And that's all about my planner for now. I'm still working on a system that really works for me and something I really really like, but it'll take time to figure out!
This weekend I decided I wanted a paper planner. Back to the old days… haha well I haven't had my iPad planner for THAT long, maybe like 6 months? It was convenient and handy because I always had it with me, it didn't add any extra bulk to my iPad because it was IN my iPad so it was awesome.
But then I saw Elle Fowler's picture on IG of her new Erin Condren Life Planner! And she made me want to go back to a paper planner. SO I did a TON of research on planners, I needed to know what the inside is like to see if i'd like it, and compare other planners BECAUSE the erin condren planner is quite expensive so I did want to find a cheaper option.
Long story short, the Erin Condren Life Planner turned out to be everything I wanted and after TWO days of research I decided to order one. And hopefully it'll get here much sooner then expected because the expected delivery date isn't til March 17, so I got lots of waiting.
I really really really wanted this planner, the gold edition. It's BEAUTIFUL… but it's also $75. So I didn't buy this one. But I would have like to! And the bookmark inside this planner is CHEVRON!
But i decided for my first paper planner in a while, I should go with the cheaper one… which still isn't cheap. It was $50! And I only have months March or really end of March til December 2015. So there should have been a discount but there wasn't. I got my name on the front (just my first name) and a quote.
So excited for this planner to arrive. I was so excited I needed to do some shopping for it. Yes this means i'll be decorating my planner and making it look all pretty. That was a negative in the iPad planner, it wasn't very customizable or pretty, even though everything was color coded.
So this is what I ended up buying for my planner…. another $80 later…
My planner is going to be so beautiful! Can't wait to do an unboxing video with you all! And then a review, and how i organize my planner!!
Super super excited!!!
& i love being organized. Let me know if you guys are like that too. Do you have a planner?
I've been having quite a bit of no makeup days lately. Since I only go to school twice a week… those two days are when I would normally wear makeup. I don't have an actually job anymore so the rest of the week are all no makeup days! And i've actually been pretty bad with putting makeup on even for school! Ao if my skin is looking pretty good, I won't even wear makeup to school.
But now here's my problem. People say not wearing makeup is good for your skin, helps your skin breathe and you don't get as many breakouts. People say makeup is oily and clogs pores etc and that causes breakouts.
So for me… I haven't been wearing makeup whatsoever or very rarely and i'm breaking out more than when I wore makeup every day! Any thoughts on this?
I'm thinking it's because of stress, because i'm back home in a very stressful environment.. very stressful to me at least. And stress causes breakouts, and breakouts cause me to pick at my face causing more breakouts. That's what I think. MAYBE if I wore more makeup, I wouldn't be tempted to pick at my face cause I won't want makeup all over my fingers!
So these are some pictures from my no makeup days the last few days… And as you can see even with the too much light being in the pictures, my skin isn't so clear. I mean it never was really clear but I was at the point where I just had acne scars and not really any breakouts.. Now I have breakouts.
Okay maybe in this picture you can't see much but I swear my skin was not looking so good!
And this picture you can see a red breakout on my cheek under my eye…
But I have been getting a lot of breakouts near my eye are, and on my jawline.
Let me know if you guys have any suggestions on how to get rid of these breakouts !!
So i have had this addiction to milk foam for like the month now. I guess we could say cappuccino's? Because i add lots of milk foam to my coffee…. but then again.. it tastes good with tea too.
So i discovered this way of making milk foam, without a machine, no milk brother or anything. I'm not going to tell you how because I want to make a video on it ! And it's the coolest thing ever!
My boo is currently not in the USA to make me milk foam…. and i'm still learning how to do it properly.. so there won't be a video until I master that skill!
But here's a couple of pictures of my milk foam in my awesome mugs!
This milk foam wasn't the best… but as you see the pictures, it gets better!
Now this milk foam is something ! My boo worked hard on this one!
And this is what my milk foam look like after I add in sugar and mix everything together… slightly foamy… but it loses a lot of foam when you mix stuff in!
And don't you all love my mug addiction too? 3 milk foam pictures with 3 different mugs! I have a problem, I know. I'm going to need a whole cabinet dedicated to my mugs soon.
Do any of you really like milk foam? I'd love to know… and you'll make me feel like i'm not the only weirdo HA HA.
And if any of my loveycakes missed last wee's new videos, here they are for you !
DIY sleepy time pillow spray, to help you sleep at night. ALL NATURAL!
And a tongue piercing guide video that was requested!
Hey loveycakes! Some of you may or may not have seen one of my latest videos on how to make your own chemical free deodorant. Making my own things, and being more natural is the route my boyfriend and I have been trying to take.
Most people in this day in age will not leave their house without putting on some deodorant, because we all want to smell good! STORE BOUGHT DEODORANTS tend to have aluminum as an ingredient. Studies show that aluminum is linked to alzheimer's, brain disorders, and brain cancer to name a few.
You may think that since you're not eating deodorant then it's not bad for you, but deodorant has been made to be absorbed by your skin to prevent you from being smelly from the inside out, so it does have an effect on your body.
Now since you know all that, go make your own deodorant! It does require quite a bit of ingredients that you may not have lying around your house. So if you don't want to go out and buy all the ingredients, you can just buy a deodorant on my etsy shop here .
If you do want to buy all the ingredients, then follow my video on how to make your own 100% natural. chemical-free deodorant!!
Hope you all enjoy these types of video! I'm definitely working on more DIY videos for you all, and am trying to be as natural and chemical free as possible!
So the other day, my boo and I took a stroll around NYC. Well we really needed to go to a hardware store to pick up some lightbulbs, and I wanted to stop by Staples.
Long story short, we saw a Teavana while running errands and OF COURSE i needed to go in. My babe also wanted Starbucks but i wasn't in the mood for coffee, so a cup of tea I thought i'd buy at teavana. And then my boo decided he'd have a cup of tea as well.
So I bought a cold (kinda) cup of tea flared Blueberry Bliss and Pineapple Kona Pop. I like it kind cold. Though i didn't want it iced because i don't like ice :) i'm weird like that. And my babe got the Maharaja chai oolong (his favorite)
While we were in teavana we saw a box of tea that we would both really like….. and my babe ended up buying it for us. I wanted it.. but it was pricey and i wan't going to buy it especially since I don't exactly work right now. So my boo bought it for both of us! How nice and sweet of him!
So inside the box of tea is all of teavana's "display" teas. It's all the ones you'd walk into the store to try.
Blueberry Bliss & Pineapple Kona pop
Youthberry & wild orange blossom
Maharaja chai oolong
Strawberry rose with some other flavor.
It's their "Opening the Doors" set. And it comes with rock sugar , which I love! AND tins for each one of those teas, with the names on each tin.
The only thing it didn't come with was a label telling me how much of tea to put in for 8oz. water and how long to steep it for! So i ended up calling teavana, and they have all that info on their computers and told me. I wrote it all down and taped post its to the bottom of each tin :)
S the second thing the set doesn't come with is an infuser. I'm sure you all have seen my teapot before… but that has a home at my boyfriend's house. At my other house with my family I have this tea infuser, also from teavana that i bought years and years ago. Only downside is that it's not glass, it's plastic. But it's still very cool!
You put your tea leaves in and your water. Steep it for however long you need to...
Then when it's done steeping, you place it over your mug and it pours itself into your mug! It is a very cool invention!
And that's all for today's post. I needed to share more of my love for tea with you all ( and my boyfriend's new "like" for tea)!
First, I hope everyone had an amazing Valentine's Day! Whether you were with your significant other, family or friends, I hope you had a great time. See, Valentine's Day isn't just about spending time with you boyfriend/girlfriend especially if you don't have one, it's about spending time with your loved ones!
And last night when I went to the movies to see Endless Love, there were a lot of girls there with their girlfriends just hanging out !
Anyways, so my Valentine's Day started off with me waking up to this precious face. Isn't Kuba just so adorable?! He's such a baby!
Then I was getting ready to see my boyfriend later, So I took a quick shower, then painted my nails. I was originally only going to paint them with the dark base color, but then I got carried away and decided I wanted my nails to look super pretty for my boo. So nail art it was and that's what my nails turned out to look like. I didn't know they were going to come out that good, and now I wish I would have filmed a video ! Well, I was thinking of just recreating these nails for a video for next year for Valentine's Day!
So then when I got to my boo's house, he surprised me with these LAVENDER roses. He bought me red ones last year ( for some reason he doesn't like red roses, but bought them for out first Valentine's Day", and then decided on Lavender ones for this year. I know they look pink in the picture, but my babe told me that they're "lavender" not pink! They smelled absolutely wonderful ! And they were super fancy too not those cheap roses you buy. But very fancy with a dozen roses, big giant leaves folded over to make a pretty design as well as some small leaves, and then some idk circle things that I originally thought were rose buds but they weren't Cranberries or something?! who knows.
We then had dinner reservations at 6pm. We totally did not plan that out ahead of time, we were just going down the list of places we want to eat at but haven't gotten the chance to yet, and this French restaurant we wanted to try. We always go to this one French restaurant called "French Roast" and we LOVE it there, and their escargots are DELICIOUS. But we wanted to try this one called "Citron Bistro". Well the snails weren't that good here and I gave the rest to my boyfriend to eat. And they didn't have sweet wine, no Riesling or anything. So a cappuccino it was! and it was so yummy, I ended up having TWO!
This was the food we got. It was a cappuccino on the top left, then next to that was Duck breast, duck liver, and asparagus. (The duck great was so tender and delicious!), under the duck was a chocolate rose they gave us at the end of dinner. Bottom right was my boo's dinner and he had steak and potato fries. His steak wasn't that tasty though. Then bottom left was our dessert that was delicious! Cream puffs with vanilla gelato , covered in chocolate, and mint on top! YUMMY!
I actually ate the chocolate rose today, on 2/15/14, and boy it was so tasty. It was all white chocolate just dyed with foo coloring. And boy do I love me some white chocolate! So sweet and the worst kind of chocolate for you, but so delicious!
And that was my Valentine's Day!!!
Also for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day I made him a couple of things.
I made him the countdown calendar that he loved opening every day in february until Valentine's Day!
And I also made him this 52 reasons I love you book that' he's already read about 5 times, he just loved it so much !
And if you want to know what I made him last year was this pop up card that I attempted:
and this alphabet of love book I made as well!
Well now that you guys have all these great DIY ideas, go and make some! Doesn't have to be for just Valentine's Day, it could be for a birthday, or an anniversary, just any special occasion!
I love you all so much, thanks for not giving up on this blog and still reading!!
So for all of January i'm been addicted to Bakery Story on my iPad, if any of you play add "hotbuns91" as your neighbor and then yay we'll be neighbors! I've just been so addicted that it's the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do before bed!
This isn't my bakery, but it looks pretty cool! I have no idea how to design mine and I never like it so i'm always changing things around in my bakery.
And then last night i found out my sister is playing Candy Crush on her iPad. And let me tell you, it took me like 6 months to get to level 40. There were 2 levels I was stuck on for the longest time that I played about 30times each before I passed that round. So now i've been addicted to cant crush because well my sister is on level 39, and i'm trying to make sure she doesn't get to my level!
And that's all for this week, besides me starting grad school i've pretty much been playing games. Haven't even started my homework yet, but I have til Monday !! I'm not procrastinating just yet…. right?
Today I wanted to show you how to make your own cute envelopes. Fancy envelopes can be pretty expensive in the store, so now you can make your own with either card stock or scrapbooking paper, and arts and crafts stores have many different varieties of patterns so i'm sure you'll find one you like!
These are what the envelopes I made look like! I also made mini ones for a Valentine's Day git, tutorial on that will be coming in a week or two! So that's also why this envelope tutorial is being posted first !
The envelopes I made:
And then these are the mini ones I made for a DIY Valentine's Day gift idea :)
Here is the tutorial video on how to make these envelopes:
And then here is the template I used in case you guys want the same envelope template. Download that image, then open it and click print & to make bigger or smaller envelopes just change the size when you're about the print your template!
Hope you guys enjoyed this post and video on these super cute envelopes!
So I was thinking of starting a tea series on my channel. Since i'm such a tea addict, I thought i'd pick a tea to review every first Tuesday of the month, tell you what's in it, where I bought it, how to steep it, and the benefits of that tea in particular. What do you think? Would you be interested in watching?
Originally I wanted to call it tea time.. But then I saw this.... so now I'm not so sure it's a good idea to call it that.
I do have another name in mind though, but I don't want to soil the beans just yet.
Right now i'd like to know if you'd be interested in watching a series like that? If once a month is okay or if I should do it more often?
I'm going green. Well.... not really. I bought paper straws as you have probably already guessed from the title of this blog post, and I got a pack for $1 at target in the $1 section! I LOVE TARGET! Besides that, I thought i'd switch over to paper. I'm always buying plastic straws that are just not good for your health! So as much as i'd like to think i bought them because they are better for the environment, I didn't. I bought them for my health but that's equally as important right?
And they're just the cutest straws ever!
In the picture below you can see I have red striped, and pink striped paper straws. To the right in the picture I have a few stainless steel straws. I like those straws, and they're reusable, but not the best for cold drinks. The straw gets so much colder, making your lips feel so cold from your cold drink. Then in the back of the picture you can see I have two plastic straws. And i don't use those that much, I just have them because they came with my GIANT mason jars to drink from, and the other straws are kinda too small for the mason jars. So those tall plastic ones have to stay for now til i find extra long paper straws.
And this was my green smoothie drinking from my first ever paper straw! Yes, it looks adorable I know.
So i've pretty much tried to cut out as much plastic from my life as possible. I no longer drink water from bottles, so no poland spring for me. If I want to bring water with me, I use my Klean Kanteen. For coffee and tea on the go I use my $1 Starbacks reusable cups because they have a #5 recycle code, and that is SAFE for us to use. The plastic will not leech into your drink. Straws don't have plastic recycle codes, so just that tells us its bad. So I have cut out as much harmful plastic from my life that I can handle for now. I mean buying milk, to transfer into a glass container is such a pain in my butt. Because milk in glass containers leaves lines on the sides, and they're super hard to wash out. So I haven't quite done that yet. But I have been buying organic milk!
Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this post on paper straws. They're so pretty looking and healthy. Though they're more like of a one time use only straw. But still awesome because they're sold at the $1 section at Target :D
it is now the New Year, or it has been for a few days now, and I can't stop writing "2013" when I write the date. That's the hardest part of the new year, trying to remember to write down the new year ! Hahah. By the time I get the hang of it we'll be going into 2015 already!
To start the new year off right, I had to buy 2014 glasses, just for my boo and I to wear at home. We didn't go out, we both were happy and comfortable staying in at home and watching the ball drop on tv.
You like our glasses? My boyfriend's glasses light up red. Had to get him red because it's good luck to wear something red on the new year! and me? My glasses are pink... but I figured that's still in the red family. (right?)
Here is what my breakfast looks like approximately 3/4 days out of the week. When my boo doesn't have work in the morning, he goes all out to make me some breakfast! So I had french toast on croissant bread, breakfast burritos, bacon, and coffee! YUM!
So yesterday I had to go run some errands. My running around was for about 2 hours before I had to go to work. But I was running errands around my boyfriend's neighborhood where he works, and I ran into him! Made me so happy!
So anywyas, I ran out of calcium pills, so I had to go to the Vitamin Shoppe and buy some more. I buy the calcium pills with Vitamin D in them. But they also have calcium and magnesium together. But what is magnesium for? I have no idea.
Then I went to bed bath and beyond. I have these giant mason jars I bough for drinking, the lid has a hole to put in a straw. And i LOVE them. But they're a pain in my butt to clean cause I can't fit my hand in the jar to use the sponge to clean. Over time of using them and them apparently not getting properly cleaned, they started getting foggy. So i invested in a stainless steel long brush (I bought the round one with the bristles all around) and I paid $6 and something cents. You know I used my 20% off coupon!
Then at work later I was forced to go to mcdonalds. The little girl insisted on mcdonalds for dinner, so we went out in the is super cold weather in NYC right now, froze our fingers off but eventually got to mcdonalds and enjoyed some chicken nuggets. And i had some sweet tea.... that had NO lemons in it -_- because apparently they ran out and had no one to send downstairs to see if they had more in the back. Horrible customer service right there!
Well that was my day. We al have errand running days. And I have more to run today!
In the meantime if you're bored on this saturday, check out my new video I posted yesterday!
