DIY Coffee Filter Garland

This coffee filter garland has got to be one of my favorite crafts ever! I was able to use the garland for my baby shower and I kept it as decor for my daughter's room decor. I hope you enjoy this DIY project as much as I did! 

*Video instructions at the end*

You'll need:

• Coffee filters (100)
• food coloring
• glass bowl (glass to prevent staining)
• gloves (to prevent staining your fingers)

Fill the bowl with warm water about one third of the way and add your food coloring of choice. I used the same food coloring for 75 of the filters. You can make the color more intense by adding more food coloring or by double dipping your filters. 

For 25 of the filters I wanted more of a light brown color so I used black coffee to stain those.

Once you have the color you like in your water, add about 10 filters at a time making sure they are fully submerged.

The longer you leave the filters in the more intense the color will be. If you want extra intensity, or a different variation of the color, take out the filters, squeeze the water out and re-insert them in the water once more. 

separate the filters and lay flat to dry or you can also toss them in the dryer for about 7-10 minutes to dry them quickly. I chose to lay them flat to dry because well, I just didn't want to warm up the house with having the dryer running since I am in SoCal :)

For this next part you are going to need:

• A needle
• Thread, string or ribbon

For this small sample, I used thread but on the original garland I used ribbon. Stack the fully dried filters in order that you want them on the garland, make sure to interchange the different shades you dyed.

Place the needle with the string through the filters and scrunch in small sections, separate and adjust according to your liking.

All done! My garland with 100 filters was about 10 feet long. I hung it for my baby shower all the way across and use it for room decor for my baby now. 

(I lightened the color of the garland to match decor by leaving it out in the sun a couple hours.

DIY: Simple Painted Pumpkins

For several years, I've been meaning to give this a try. I used to love carving the pumpkins but as time has gone by, I've been dreading the clean up more and more. In addition I also get irritated on how short the lifespan of the pumpkin is once it's opened.

I wanted to create something that I could display in my home as part of the fall decor through November so I gave these a shot.

Note this is my first time trying it so go easy on me.


Besides the pumpkin (duh), heres what you'll need:

1. Your choice in glitter
2. Acrylic paint, or any other craft paint you have lying around
3. Mod Podge

I took a cup a loosely traced a circle on my pumpkin. I then proceeded to draw lines all around the pumpkin to add a little something extra. You can add your own design if you'd like! Once all your tracing is there, fill this in with your base paint, mine is white. Let the first coat dry and add a second coat

Once my second coat was dry, I painted on my design. I chose the letter A (for my daughter's name). Additionally I outlined my white design with paint color #2 (black). 

Once these coats dried, I not added the mod podge with a paintbrush to completely fill the letter "A". Once I had a sufficient coating on there, I sprinkled the glitter on to fill the area. After the are was covered, I carefully dabbed a bit more mod podge on top of the glitter to help it stay in place. 

I tried several methods of applying the glitter and this is the one I felt gave the best result.

And there you have your final product. Even with the drying time, this took me less than an hour! Happy Crafting :)

*Tip* to add a gloss to the rest of your painted area, coat with a light layer of mod podge.

Wedding Day

Follow my blog with Bloglovin My wedding was held on September 28, 2014 on a warm fall (summer in CA) day!

We got married at Strathearn Historical Park in Simi Valley, CA.

The day was perfect!- maybe because I didn't take anything too seriously. I just enjoyed every moment and didn't worry about the little things. Oh my, there we're things that I now look back on and think, "How did I not pull out this person's hair?"

It was the perfect day for me and all-in-all, I married my best friend. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Details:

Dress was purchased at David's Bridal-Melissa Sweet

DIY- easy and budget friendly way to show the order of events. Hubby helped me paint it on. It was a 10 minute project on a wood pallet! 

Another DIY inexpensive way to do your seating arrangement while simmulating the look of a chalkboard. Used black foam core board, silver sharpie markers and ran a piece of chalk (flat) through it to achieve the look of a chalkboard.

DIY cloth material and burlap flowers.

Getting ready:

Ceremony:

Flower girls all wore lace dresses with cowboy boots =)

Walked down they aisle with my brother

First Look:

I added a picture of my brother (in heaven) onto my bouquet as a way to have him close to me during this special day.

Hope you enjoyed the few images from my wedding day! We had a blast and I loved how all the images came out. Photography is by Lindsey Lane Photography 

Mucho amor, Susana

Simple Side-swept Messy Fishtail Braid

Hey There!

Up next on my Youtube Channel is a simple look and tutorial on the sometimes feared fishtail braid. There is also a very special appearance by my Yorkie.

Hope you enjoy and let me know if there is anything you would like to know!

And here is a full image of the final look

Messy Fishtail Braid

Cute Hairstyle in Under 5 Minutes

Hey there!

Check out my first YouTube video.

It is one of my go-to hairstyles now that I'm a mommy because it literally takes about 3 minutes.

I also really loved wearing my hair like this during pregnancy because having my hair in my face got on my nerves and made me really hot!


Hope you enjoy it and let me know if there is anything you are interested in me showing you!

Just like the rest of this journey, I hope to continue growing not only as a mommy, blogger, person and YouTuber but also in the quality that I bring to you =)

3rd Trimester & Pre-Eclampsia

Ok so the 3rd trimester was deffinately the toughest! First I had to take the gestational diabetes test again and failed. This meant that I had to take a longer 3 hour test which consisted of me drinking a heavily sugary drink and having my blood drawn 4 times in those 3 hours. Thankfully I passed this time which meant I did not have diabetes.

I continued to pack on the pounds and heavily! Because I was at risk for pre-eclampsia, I began to see many signs that this was coming true. I would gain about 8 pounds a week of water weight. My legs became so huge it was hard to walk. Although I had a very lovely baby shower, that was about all the fun I had this close to my due date. My blood pressure started going through the roof and I began having contractions at week 30. Baby was positioned as well and I was dilated to 1cm for the majority of my last trimester. I will share the last couple of weeks of my pregnancy on an upcoming post. For now, I'll share a couple of nice shots from the baby shower.

Most of the baby shower was DIY

Burlap banner with baby's name is DIY as well as the ruffle garland in the back!

Drinking from Mason jars

Baby shower favors are candy filled painted baby food jars. Super easy and inexpensive!