DIY: Christmas Card & Candy Cane Card Holder

Hi everyone! Today I'm guest posting over at {i love} My Disorganized Life, for Rachel's 25 Days of Christmas.

I got really excited when she invited me over! I met Rachel over a year ago when we attended an online blog conference. As you all know, I love DIY's! So today I'll be sharing an easy Christmas card, and a cute candy cane place card holder on her blog.

Visit Rachel's blog so you can see these two affordable DIY's!

You can find Rachel at
{i love} My Disorganized Life
Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Google+ | Instagram

I'm sure you will love her, and her blog! ;)

Merry Christmas!

Guess Who's Featured in All You Magazine?!

When All You asked me about my holiday traditions, I got really excited. I mean, I love Christmas! and I love December (my Birthday month). I told them about spending time with my family, the food that we make, and the thing I love the most--here in Puerto Rico we have the longest holidays!

All You just launched a special booklet called Celebraciones. All You Celebraciones is now exclusively available in the December issue of All You magazine, in select markets. I'm so honored to be part of the very first issue of All You Celebraciones! You can take a look at the article '6 Holiday Traditions from Bloggers' so you can get an idea of what's inside the magazine.

They also have other stories from the special issue, featuring bloggers on healthy living tips: '15 Healthy Holiday Eating Tips' and hosting family parties without spending a bundle: '9 New Ways to Save for a Family Get Together'. As you can see, All You is always sharing helpful tips!

And now, here's a special Twitter party invitation!

All You is having their first Twitter chat involving bloggers to discuss Celebraciones. And I want you to be there with me! I'll be taking part on the Twitter chat (@MarielyVP) along with other bloggers and, of course, All You magazine.

The Twitter party will take place Wednesday, December 11th, from NOON EST to 1:00 pm EST.

All You will be asking questions on their Twitter page with the hashtag #AllYouCelebraciones. You can participate in the chat by replying @allyou from your Twitter, with answers to their questions. Don't forget to use the hashtag #AllYouCelebraciones ;)

And guess what? All You will be giving away a chance to win gift cards, to those who participate in their Twitter party. Awesome, right? Remember, I'll be at the Twitter chat as @MarielyVP. Follow @allyou and don't forget to join us at the Twitter party!

The Ultimate Holiday Guide: Creating Christmas Memories One Idea at a Time (eBook)

Hey everyone! I'm back!!

It feels so good to be back from my blogging break! Just so you know, I will start getting busy with all the paperwork for grad school, so I'll be taking it slow with the blog. Hopefully, I will start grad school on August 2014. Wish me luck!!

And now, get excited...

My first eBook is here!! YAY!

The Ultimate Holiday Guide:

Creating Christmas Memories One Idea at a Time

In this eBook, you will find delicious recipes, fun and easy crafts, memorable gift ideas, inspiring new traditions, and even Holiday fashion tips!

This eBook is a collaboration with some of my blogger friends: Katie from Clarks Condensed, Heather from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks, Brenna from Life After Laundry, Cassie from Southeast by Midwest, Julie from Confessions of a Cooking Diva, and Katelyn from What's up Fagans?. Check out their blogs, I'm sure you'll love them!

The book is available in different formats for your convenience, at Smashwords. It is also available on Amazon! If you are following me on my Facebook page, you'll get a code to download it for FREE until December 2nd, 2013. So hurry! Get your free copy now!

Here's the introduction of the eBook, so you can get an idea on how this eBook started...

"In the beginning of 2013, Brenna Turner asked a group of different bloggers that had attended a blog conference together if they would like to create a small blogger support group. Quickly, several bloggers jumped on the opportunity, and within hours the group, Some Blogger Love, was created.

Most of these bloggers had blogs from totally different genres – beauty, health, food, and crafts, but together they found a great place to talk about blogging, life, family, and everything in between. Through those conversations, they became more than just a blogging support group, but friends. In early September, several of them decided to put together their different areas of expertise and create an eBook about something they all had in common – a love for Christmas.

This eBook was created using all the different talents of the women from Some Blogger Love to hopefully bring people around the world new and fun ways to celebrate Christmas. Throughout this eBook, delicious recipes, festive crafts, memorable traditions, creative gift ideas, and even holiday beauty tips can be found. Each of the ideas in this book shares a little bit behind the blogger who wrote it. As such, each entry has a different twist on them, but hopefully will help anyone who reads this book find a new way to make their holiday season a little brighter."

Working with these ladies has been amazing! and, who knows? Maybe we'll make another eBook :)

Be sure to come back to tell me what you think about the book! Oh, and be sure to share this with your friends so they can get a free copy too.

Enjoy!

Less Laundry, More Linking #12 {and I'm taking a blogging break}

Today is my last day co-hosting the Less Laundry, More Linking party. But don't worry! The party goes on :) This is a temporary thing because I'm taking a blogging break. Be sure to follow my friend Brenna so you can continue on linking up to this great party ;)

Brenna and I are so glad to have you here with us today! We love seeing all the links and are always so inspired. We would love to have your help spread the word about this link party. You can grab the button below. (Don’t worry it isn't mandatory).

<center> <a href="http://www.lifeafterlaundry.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg617/lifeafterlaundry/LessLaundryMoreLinkingButton_zps182604dc.png"></a></center>

Don’t forget to follow our Pinterest Board, where a lot of your work will be pinned throughout the week.

Ready to be inspired by our wonderful features? Be sure to check back next week to see if it was you that were featured.

DIY: Washi Tape Photo Frame

Since Gustavo started grad school, I wanted to give him something he could take with him... something special. So when the time came, I gave him a wallet picture of us from 2007- a year after we started dating. Honestly, even though it's a meaningful picture, I wanted to give him something else. So, that's why I decided to make a Washi Tape Photo Frame! I really liked how it turn out so I even made one for myself :) Here's the tutorial...

Materials

Wood frame (or plastic)

Washi tape

X-acto knife (or scissors)

and, your favorite picture ;)

Photo Tutorial

Step by Step

Step 1: you need a wood frame or a plastic one; any of those will work.

Step 2: start covering the photo frame with the washi tape.

Step 3: you can use as many washi tapes as you want! For this frame, I use two designs.

Step 4: alternate the washi tapes until you cover the entire frame.

Step 5: turn the frame around, and use an X-acto knife (or scissors) to cut the excess of the washi tape.

Step 6: here's how your photo frame will look with two washi tape designs.

Remember: you can make a photo frame using just 1 washi tape, or even 4 if you want to.

The Results

This one is mine...

Here's the one I gave to Gustavo...

Since I only use one washi tape design, I decided to add a wooden heart ;)

I also made one for my mom! with a photo of my sisters and I.

I decorated a crystal vase to go with the photo frame :)

and here's the another Washi Tape Photo Frame! with my friends...

This could be a great gift! And you know what? I spent less than $3.00 on each Washi Tape Photo Frame. Awesome, right?! I bought the washi tape at Office Max for $1.00 each, the wood photo frame for $1.14 at Walmart, and the wooden heart for $0.68 at Walmart.

What do you think? Do you like it? I will definitely make more of these!

In case you miss it, here are 30+ Washi Tape Ideas {round-up}.

Less Laundry, More Linking #11

It's time to link up your projects! I can't wait to see what you have been working on!

I've been looking forward to this week because I'll be attending Online BlogCon- the best online blog conference! This is my second time attending :) Last year was amazing! And thanks to this conference, I met my good friend Brenna! So yeah, we are basically celebrating our first year as friends :)

Let's start the party! Brenna and I are so glad to have you here with us today! We love seeing all the links and are always so inspired.

We are a fairly new party and would love to have your help spread the word. You can grab the button below. (Don’t worry it isn't mandatory).

<center> <a href="http://www.lifeafterlaundry.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg617/lifeafterlaundry/LessLaundryMoreLinkingButton_zps182604dc.png"></a></center>

Don’t forget to follow our Pinterest Board, where a lot of your work will be pinned throughout the week.

Ready to be inspired by our wonderful features? Be sure to check back next week to see if it was you that were featured.

Less Laundry, More Linking #10

That's right! It's time lo link up :) Brenna and I are so glad to have you here with us today! We love seeing all your cute projects.

We would love to have your help spread the word about our party. You can grab the button below. (Don’t worry it isn't mandatory).

<center> <a href="http://www.lifeafterlaundry.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg617/lifeafterlaundry/LessLaundryMoreLinkingButton_zps182604dc.png"></a></center>

Don’t forget to follow our Pinterest Board, where a lot of your work will be pinned throughout the week.

Ready to be inspired by our wonderful features? Be sure to check back next week to see if it was you that were featured.

The Mrs Carter Show {Beyonce's Concert!}

Oh. Em. Gee...

I couldn't believe it when Beyonce announced she was bringing The Mrs Carter Show to Puerto Rico! As soon as we knew the concert's date, we got ready to buy the tickets. It was the first concert from Beyonce here--so we couldn't miss it :) I can honestly say we couldn't sleep the night before. Lol.

I wanted to share some photos from the concert so, here they are!

 Full house!!

Beyonce was AMAZING! I screamed, sang, and dance like crazy!

Beyonce with Puerto Rico's flag-- love this photo!

Gustavo and I had a great time. It was an awesome weekend!

Remember when I wrote about Tommy Torres Concert? Yeah, I love attending concerts! What about you? Do you love concerts?

Less Laundry, More Linking #9

Guess what? It's time to take a laundry break :) Come on over and link up with us! We can't wait to see what you have been working on! Brenna and I are so glad to have you here with us today! We love seeing all the links and are always so inspired.

We are a fairly new party and would love to have your help spread the word. You can grab the button below. (Don’t worry it isn't mandatory).

<center> <a href="http://www.lifeafterlaundry.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg617/lifeafterlaundry/LessLaundryMoreLinkingButton_zps182604dc.png"></a></center>

Don’t forget to follow our Pinterest Board, where a lot of your work will be pinned throughout the week.

Ready to be inspired by our wonderful features? Be sure to check back next week to see if it was you that were featured.

Less Laundry, More Linking #8

It's time to link up again! :) Thank you so much for linking up every week. I can't wait to see what you have been working on! Brenna and I are so glad to have you here with us today! We love seeing all your projects and are always so inspired.

As you know, we are a fairly new party and would love to have your help spread the word. You can grab the button below. (Don’t worry it isn't mandatory).

<center> <a href="http://www.lifeafterlaundry.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg617/lifeafterlaundry/LessLaundryMoreLinkingButton_zps182604dc.png"></a></center>

Don’t forget to follow our Pinterest Board, where a lot of your work will be pinned throughout the week.

Are you ready to see our features? Last weeks party was our biggest yet, and picking a feature was hard. If we get much bigger, maybe we will have to add more features.

Porta Coeli Museum {Puerto Rico}

Last week, I made a quick (and unexpected) visit to one of my hometown's museum. I was just passing by with my mom, and we decided to go in. I haven't shared many pictures from Puerto Rico here on the blog, so I guess this is the perfect excuse. The museum is named Porta Coeli (in Italian) which means Heaven's Doors. This is not an usual museum-- it's really simple and small. It's a religious art museum which was originally a church.

We had a great time and we learned a lot about our history. Visiting the museum was not part of our plan for the day so, I wasn't prepared with my camera... but I'm going to share with you some of the photos I took with my phone.

I want to thank our museum guide Mr. Guido Barletta, who besides answering all of our questions, emailed me some photos from 1930-1950. Here's one of them!

I love visiting museums! How about you?