Yami

October 29, 2013 By Yami Leave a Comment

Another Spray Paint Fix for the Master

We have a rather large master bedroom (pictures coming soon) and I need to fill up my empty walls, so I have been sifting through the Hobby Lobby clearance aisles in search of some usable pieces of art and I came across these!

They measure about 12 x 12 inches and are made of resin so they aren’t heavy. They were on clearance for about $6 each (woot woot!). I love that they match well with my table top Fleur-de-Lis I fixed up last year. The pattern is raised so it has a lot of texture too.

Here is a close-up.

October 25, 2013 By Yami 2 Comments

Another year, another tutu!

Well what can I say? There is nothing more fun than creating absolutely girly stuff for my daughter, especially costumes. I figured, eventually she will be telling me what she wants to be so I took a stab at making her costume this year, something that mummy would like – see what I did there?

I had already bought pink fairy wings for $3.99 and a had princess tiara for the kiddo, so I went to Hobby Lobby and racked up on some tulle and ribbon (which was 50% off of course) and this is what I came up with…

Warning! My kid would not sit still during the costume fitting so I had to pick the best usable shots… and she wouldn’t remove her pacifier either…

Fairy Princess Tutu 680x1024 Another year, another tutu!

I can’t get over how adorable it turned out!

My supplies are above, but in the end, I only used one big flower, the 2 poofs, 3 spools of tulle and the headband elastic. The other stuff I returned. I did go back to get a pink onesie so that all that tulle wouldn’t itch so bad. The total tally came to about $20.00.

Since I already made her one last year (step by step instructions are found here), this one was super easy to make! I cut the headband elastic to fit her chest and started adding long strips of tulle. Here is the first row.. complete in less than 10 minutes….

I started with the white tulle at the bottom. Then I added the light pink, then the darker pink on top….

Then, when I was done adding tulle, I sewed the 2 ends together by hand, and then cut 2 smaller headband pieces so that I could make her some shoulder straps. I sewed those by hand as well.

The flowers and poofs were clip ons so those went on pretty easily. I chose not to glue them on because I could always use them for something else down the road.

Here are the onesie, tiara and wings… a perfect match!

And here is another shot of the kiddo with the costume, this time without the tiara, pacifier still on though!

She will also wear pink leggings (which we already own) when we go out trick-or-treating along with some cute pink light-up shoes. She also has a pink sweater in case it gets chilly. Her wand will be this really cool pink glow stick wand that I found at the dollar store, and yes you guessed it, for $1!

In the end, what I love about this, besides that it’s the cutest costume EVER, is that several parts of the costume we already had, and everything can be reused differently later on. I know I could have bought a costume for the same price, but it wouldn’t have been this unique and in the end, it would only be used one time. I can appreciate a costume with versatility.

Will you buy or purchase your kid’s costume this year?

Your Latina,

Yami

October 24, 2013 By Yami Leave a Comment

Decorating for Halloween on a Budget

Now that we are a family of 4 and in a new home that is twice the size of our last, we have had to scale back, WAAAAAAY back on spending. But I totally love the holidays and want to enjoy them as much as I can with my little ones, so I want to be sure to do a little something. Plus, our neighborhood is actually pretty into the Halloween decorating thing and we didn’t want to be the new party pooper neighbors. We already had orange string lights that we purchased a long time ago so saved money on that! We also already had an electric jack-o-lantern that I have had for years so we were able to save money on not carving pumpkins – plus frankly we just hadn’t had the time. We wanted to take advantage of the porch and bushes so we bought 2 packs of cotton webbing for $1.47 each and started pulling it and placing it everywhere – we went a little cray-cray. I think our front entrance looks pretty cool now, especially with my new Halloween wreath. Instructions on how to make it and the total cost can be found here.

We kinda like how it goes over the entrance. Some trick-or-treaters may have to duck to get through it, but we think it only adds to the spookiness.

This is the view from further away (you can barely see the jack-o-lantern to the left of the door so I may be moving it to another location).

The weekend after Halloween, we plan on going out to see the leftover clearance decorations and hopefully we could have more on hand for next year. We plan on adding ghosts, maybe tombstones or even big bugs. But I just thought I would share how much a $3.00 addition can impact the overall look, since a lot of people would rather spend the bigger dollars on Christmas decorations for example. In this case, the phrase “less is more” definitley applies. We’ll be adding more spider webbing next year for sure – we might even do the glow-in-the-dark kind!

Your Latina,

Yami

October 22, 2013 By Yami Leave a Comment

Initiating the “Pin it to me!” series…

Let’s face it….Pinterest is as popular as Facebook nowadays and I am just as addicted to it as you are, yes YOU. There are always so many inventive things on there, I just can’t keep my eyes away – it’s a sad but oh so satisfying addiction.

So, I thought it would be fun to start trying some of these things out to see if they actually work. I will say that one of my first attempts was a complete SUCCESS! I saw a picture of a little boy in a cardboard box deeply lost in a coloring frenzy… the post read something like “How to keep a 2 year old busy”. I thought CLEARLY that would NEVER work with my 20 month old daughter who likes nothing but to be free as a butterfly all over the house. And when I say all over, I mean she truly likes to use every square inch of it.

Well, in one of those I need to cook, do laundry while feeding the 3 month old baby brother, but big sister just wants to be held by mommy moments, I thought what the heck, it’s worth a try. Since we still have some unpacking to do I still have boxes around, so I got the first one I saw, brought it to the kitchen, threw some crayons in it and something magical happened.

Look at that little hand go! I couldn’t take a still shot for the life of me!

My 5 year old niece came down this past weekend and loved it too! Now I need a new box!

Who knew right? A box and some crayons! It’s all good with this mommy! What keeps your little ones busy? I would love to know!

Yami

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October 21, 2013 By Yami Leave a Comment

10 Minute Halloween Wreath

I wanted to make a cute Halloween wreath for our front door, but I wanted something cute, easy, and most of all affordable…. and this is what I came up with.

All I needed was the following:

1. Wreath

2. Spiders

3. Wire Mesh Ribbon

4. Something that said “Happy Halloween”

5. Glue gun

I glued one end of the ribbon on the back of the wreath and started wrapping it around until it looked like this. Yeah that ribbon was 40% off, gotta love Hobby Lobby!

Then I centered this “Happy Halloween” door hanger that I bought at Wal Mart for $1.97. I removed the wire and hot glued it to the bottom of the wreath.

Then I added some spiders from Hobby Lobby that were originally $2.99 but were already 40% off. I hot glued those babies too!

And viola! Instant Halloween Wreath! And it all cost me less than $12 and it took only 10 minutes to make! Gotta love that!

Here it is again on my front door. Ignore the poopy brown color. That is another project down the road. Can’t wait to paint my front door, but I will most likely do that in the Spring.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Yami

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October 10, 2013 By Yami 1 Comment

3 Years Baby!

Today is 10.10.13 and marks our 3 year wedding anniversary! I must say it has been an eventful time together with my hubby, Nelson, ever since we met 5 years ago. We got engaged October 2009 in the small town of Mazatlan, Mexico.

This was actually before our engagement…. I HAD NO IDEA!

Here is the pool area where they served the BEST Pico de Gallo ever!

Here is the view of the ocean. So nice to wake up to this view!

Then, since we loved Mexico so much we decided to have a destination wedding on 10.10.10 YEP, we did it on THAT DAY!

This time we went to the Riviera Maya…. it was heaven. We had such a great time – the resort was beautiful, the service was Class A, and we actually met some pretty cool people from Chicago who we still stay in touch with! People staying at the resort stopped to watch the ceremony and we felt like celebrities when random people would come up to congratulate us on our nuptials.

Here are a couple of wedding photos…. those are my adorable parents.

Here’s my hubby!

And this is our favorite shot! Yep, it’s not photoshopped people, we were actually there!!!!!

Then a few months later we found out we were expecting our first bundle of joy! We did the whole preggo picture session (the hubby was growing out his hair)…

And then our princess arrived! Meet Natalia!

Yes, I made that tutu and the headband… DUH!

She loves the outdoors and has mommy’s fashion sense….

But she loves to eat just like daddy!

And now she into princesses, fairies and tiaras oh my!!!!

Well, not too long after we had Natalia, we found out we were preggo again… OOPS! But this time mommy didn’t look as hot while preggers. Plus were transitioning between homes and before we knew it, it was time to meet our little boy!

This is our newest bundle, Achilles… yes, his name kicks A$$!

My hubby loves superman (and soccer)… so there will be more to come with his nursery…..

He is only 3 months old, but he’s huge… yeah, he will be playing sports…

And these are the 2 munchkins together… 2 UNDER 2! Naty loves her little brother and we try to coordinate them whenever possible, cause I’m corny like that…

It has been a whirlwind of 5 years, 3 of which we have spent married. I am truly blessed to have a beautiful and healthy family and look forward to a lifetime of excitement with these 3 individuals… More babies, you ask? Not for right now, but you never know what might come our way!

I love you honey! Thank you for all you have done for us! Happy 3 year anniversary!

Yami

October 5, 2013 By Yami Leave a Comment

Big Girl Room

So after moving while 9 months preggo with baby #2, giving birth to that beautiful baby boy and moving into what I like to call, “Leave it to Beaverville” I can finally start working on making our house a home. Our 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath on a full finished basement home is dying for some character, since the people who had been living in the house for the last 2 years were renters. The first thing we had to do was Natalia’s room. Our beautiful baby girl is now 20 months old and instead of buying whole new baby furniture for our son, we decided to give him her old set and buy her a new “big girl room”. This time, I wanted white on white on white! Before we had the furniture delivered we just had to get her bedroom painted. Just check out the before pictures… BLEH!

The door to the far right is the upstairs bath – we figured she would eventually want dibs on that. As you can see those were no colors for a princess!

I decided to go with a light green, Sage Tint by Behr, only I asked the paint mixer person to make it 25% lighter to get this! Tadahh!!!! What difference paint makes!!

We decided to get her a trundle bed. Since she is little and can fall off, we have her sleeping on the pullout bed. Then when she gets older she can move to the top and if her cousin comes over, Daniella can sleep on the bottom. We thought it was the better solution than getting her a toddler bed or another convertible crib. So far she likes it and it seems to work! We think she could give this furniture some good use and could work well into her teens.

Then it was off to add some linens and accessories. Since I had the trundle I had to get double of everything – I mean of course they had to match! I found some white cotton sheets at JCPenney and then headed to Ikea in search for some plush down comforters. I LOVE DOWN!!!!

But before that, I went ahead and applied a really cool tree to her wall (I had had it FOR-EV-A and I finally found a home for it). It was like paint by numbers only with stickers!! This is what it started as:

And this is how it progressed…

I had to make sure I did this when she was not around, because if she knew these were stickers, half the tree would be missing by now….

Here is the bed made with the new linens and the trundle hidden underneath…

And here it is with the trundle out and ready for Naty!

There is still a ton of stuff to do, like touch up the ceiling, add art and some really cute baby pictures, organize her closet, add curtains, decide what to do with the light fixture…. Whew! But at least for now she has a really cute princess bedroom in the making…. Hope you like!

Yami

October 25, 2012 By Yami 11 Comments

TuTu Cute for Halloween!

Ever since I knew I was having a little girl, all I wanted to do was make her tutus! I think they are SO adorable and maybe, just maybe, I am living a little vicariously through her. All I know is that one day she will either thank me for always making her wear them or resent me for it…. for my heart’s sake, I hope it’s the first one.

Well, this is the first Halloween since we had our little munchkin and besides getting her pictures taken in the “Pumpkin” outfit, I knew I also wanted her in a tutu. There are so many options and color combinations out there! But, for the sake of not being too girly, and also not doing the generic black and orange tutu, I opted for a Peacock version in beautiful blues, greens and black!

October 21, 2012 By Yami Leave a Comment

A Sentimental Transformation

My grandfather is very ill, and the last time he came out to visit us from Puerto Rico, he bought my dad these outdoor chairs. It was the last thing he bought my father before he became too ill to travel back out of the island. My father’s work travels took him away from home and after a couple of years the chairs took a bit of wear from constant exposure to the cold winters and the hot summers, but since the chairs were of so much sentimental value to my father, he never wanted to get rid of them…. So, I had a bright idea.

This past Father’s Day, I wanted to make sure my dad got something really cool, so I thought I would fix the chairs up for him. Originally they were a set of 4, but one was broken and too hard to fix, so I dedicated myself to the remaining 3. This is what I had to work with.

I took out my primer and started spraying away. The chairs took a TON of primer and paint since they were so dry. I ended up using 6 cans and one clear top coat, but it was so worth it.

Here they are while I was priming them…

Here is one of the chairs with only one coat of paint. I painted it Jellyfish Gloss by Valspar outdoor paint. Here is what the can looks like.

Below is the chair with the first coat of paint.

Don’t mind my big head in the picture. Ha!

Here is the chair with the final coat of paint and top coat…

Here is a close-up of the color…

I was happy with the work, but I still thought it still needed a lil somethin’. I thought some cushions would be a perfect finish! So AGAIN, I went to my local Garden Ridge and found 3 striped cushions with blues and greens to keep that masculine touch…

And here you have it!

He was totally stoked when he got them! He keeps them in his garage when they are not in use and he makes sure to take very good care of them. The best thing about it is that he can still enjoy his father’s last gift to him for many years to come, so the gift is priceless…

When was the last time you actually made something for someone instead of buying them something… Or brought something back to life? The satisfaction is immeasurable!

Your Latina,

Yami

October 17, 2012 By Yami Leave a Comment

Fleur-de-lis

Isn’t it frustrating when you go to your local crafts/home decor store and you find something you like, but it’s the wrong finish or the wrong color, so you opt not to buy it???? Well, my friends not anymore! 2 things I am always stocked up on are primer spray cans and spray paint. DUH right!?!?

Lately, I have been getting a lot of inspiration from the French Provincial style and I found this really cute fleur-de-lis at my local Hobby Lobby marked down from $19.99 to $6.80…..SCORE! But the color was horrible and it had several scratches here and there, obviously from constant rejection and finally being throw into the clearance pile.

Please meet Exhibit A (ahem…..ignore the dirty garage floor)

Luckily I had my trusty Krylon multi-surface spray primer “in stock” so I couldn’t wait to get home and prime my little heart out! It works on EVERYTHING!

I wanted this to go on my dresser in the master bedroom. My bedroom set is an off white color so I looked around my Lowes and I found the perfect match! American Accents Heirloom White (I’m in love). I have used this on a couple of other things as you will get to see. You will also see that I have a fascination with the color white…. YES, I KNOW! I am a parent with a little one, but she will just have to learn not to put her dirty little fingers on mommy’s nice white furniture, and white towels, and white fabrics……. Baby-proofing is going to be a @#$%^&!

After letting it dry here is the finished product!

And here it is on my dresser. I must say, it helps keep my jewelry looking nice and not just thrown there when I get home from work.

I like how it just dresses up the corner of my dresser. So ladies, here is your take-away…. just because it is not the right color, doesn’t mean you can’t buy it!

Yami

October 10, 2012 By Yami 1 Comment

Nursery Lamp

I wanted this really cute lamp for my baby girl’s nursery, but I wanted it to be either glass or crystal and right now those are just too over-priced! I was looking online for inspiration and I saw something that caught my eye. It was a makeover of a crystal lamp! I knew I wanted something semi-traditonal, with a little bit of contemporary and a girly twist of course. So, I headed out to an antique store about 30 minutes away from home in search of the perfect find! And this is what I found for only $8.00 (please note: always make sure they test any electrical items at an antique store before buying – you don’t want to take it home and it not work!).

I thought it was adorable, but the brass had to go. So I took the thing apart…

I could have sworn I took photos of when I taped it up! But I searched and I can’t find them anywhere! So, anyways, I taped the cord and the glass and only left the metal portions of the lamp exposed. I primed with Rust-O-Leum’s metal primer and then I spray painted it with Rust-O-Leum’s gloss white. Then I went to my local Garden Ridge in search of a new lamp shade. And I found a white one with a hot pink detail for only…. $6.00!

I screwed all of the pieces back together, put the new lampshade on and viola!!!!! A new one-of-a-kind lamp for my baby’s room for only $14.00!!!!! I absolutely love it!!!

Totally cute! What do you think????

Yami

September 30, 2012 By Yami 30 Comments

Cork Wreath

***Some of the links below are affiliate links for your convenience. For full disclosure please click here.***

Alright wine drinkers, every year we open up a ton of wine bottles and throw away the corks, I say NO MAS! There are so many things you can do with the leftover corks – the possibilities are endless and I had so many accumulated….

See I told ya I had a ton…. 😉

Anyways, when it came to deciding what to do I already had something in mind…. A friggin’ wreath people!!! Could there be anything more awesome than a cork wreath?…(swoon) [Read more…] about Cork Wreath

September 21, 2012 By Yami Leave a Comment

First Craigslist Makeover!

Okay, so I have become a major Craigslist JUNKIE! There is no 12-Step program for this addiction yet, so in the mean time I will enjoy basking in the delightful high that you can only get from buying furniture a-la cheap!

So, please meet sad dresser #1 that I scored for only $30!!!! The owner wanted it no mas and I was glad to take it to a loving home. The look on my hubby’s face was priceless when I said I wanted to buy it! But deep down inside I knew he had FAITH. I apologize for not having a picture with the hardware on it, but I did get a close-up of those tarnished old things.

You can see all the scratches on the surface of the dresser.

First thing’s first – I removed all of the hardware and sanded it. It had received a little wear and tear over the years and even though I was not able to take all of the scratches out, I made it look MUCH better.

After a TON of research on the web and bombarding my local Home Depot paint sales clerk I primed it using the best primer out on the market: Zinsser Cover Stain Oil Based Primer. Note: You can prime a piece of furniture with oil-based primer and then paint over with latex paint, but you CANNOT prime with latex primer and then paint with oil-based paint. Comprendes????

This is what the can looks like. I gave the piece 2 coats and gave it a light sand once it was dry.

I will also add that the products I list here are products I have read about, tried out and have come to like. I am not being paid to advertise – I am just sharing with you the products that I have used and have come to prefer.

Back to business… Okay so I am really into grays, blues and light greens and I found the perfect shade of grayish blue: Antique Silver Premium Interior Paint by Glidden. I chose a semi-gloss because I wanted a smooth easy-to-wipe surface with a little bit of shine. I did 3 coats of this just because I really wanted a thick and smooth surface.

One tip: I use this product called Floetrol – it is a paint conditioner and it comes in an orange bottle. This can only be added to latex base paint. It is supposed to make the paint much smoother and reduce brush marks. It also allows the paint to dry in a much slower time (in case you are painting in your garage in the middle of summer!).

This helps when the paint is really thick too, which is usually the case with enamel paint. If you want a good paint job, then use this with your paint – TRUST ME. See inventory below!

Tools: I used a 4” foam roller. You don’t need a big one since drawers aren’t really wide. They cover well and they apply paint better than a paintbrush since they don’t leave streaks. For the corners and crevices I use the small foam brushes that are CHEAPO (both shown below).

Always remember to allow at LEAST 24 hours for your paint to cure. NEVER rush or you will spend twice the time fixing what you did wrong. It can get very tempting to rush, but DON’T DO IT. The end result will be so worth it if you just wait!

The final step for the dresser paint was to add a sealer. I used Minwax Water-Based Polycrylic Projective Finish in Clear Semi-Gloss (also shown above). I wasn’t sure how much “traffic” this piece was going to receive, but I did want to make sure it would take a lot of wear and tear so I did 2 coats of the sealer.

NEXT came the hardware. I REALLY wanted to restore the brass knobs, but after over 20 hours of backbreaking buffing and several failed attempts to strip the tarnish with chemicals, I learned I was getting nowhere fast… so I said FORGET THIS!

I raided my spray paint stash and pulled out some Minwax Water-Based Polycrylic Projective Finish in Clear Semi-Glossand spray painted the crap out of them! Then AFTER letting them dry for 24 hours I used Krylon Short Cuts Gold Leaf Spray Paint. I ended up using about 3 cans, but it was worth it. Check it out!!!!

Here is a close-up of the hardware….

I currently have this in my dining room and it doesn’t go with the wall art, but here is what it looks like from afar (I am also learning how to take better pictures with my Nikon, so bear with me!).

I just can’t help myself! Here is another angle! I love the Modernized French Provincial Style -totally me!

I am very proud of this piece. Hope you enjoyed! I have about 14 other pieces in my garage waiting for a face-lift and I can’t wait to share the transformations with you.

Wanna see this post translated?

September 6, 2012 By Yami Leave a Comment

First Sneak Peak

So, I am working on my first furniture transformation post and I want to make sure it doesn’t look like a child put it together so it is taking me longer than I thought. However, I wanted to show you a little sneak peak of what I did. Can you guess what it is???

I am totally proud of this and cannot wait to do another. Post coming soon!

September 5, 2012 By Yami 1 Comment

Celebrity Encounter

Okay, this is my first post and I am really excited! First, I want to start by saying that the reason I started this blog is because a lot of people (parents, family and friends) have come to love this things I do for my home. In the past few months, I have gotten a TON of inspiration from well-known DIY blogger www.Centsationalgirl.com. She has played a major role in removing my fear of painting furniture – something I rather love doing now as you will see.

However, my DIY nature has been long in the making as I am and always will be an avid HGTVer. Some of my favorite shows are Get It Sold and The High Low Project, both hosted by fellow Latina Sabrina Soto. She is so charismatic on TV and so thrifty with her budgets, and NOT to mention her taste is friggin’ AWESOME! So it wouldn’t surprise you that I JUMPED at the chance to meet her when I found out she would be in Atlanta just a couple of blocks from where I work to do a book signing! Ahhh!

Okay, so I have never done a book signing and can you believe I was nervous????? Sweating. Teardrop. Nervous. There I was with my copy of Home Design and I was next. Let me tell you that she is as awesome in person as she is on TV and she is teeny tiny! We talked for what it seemed like FOREVER!! I told her about my blog and she thought it was the cutest idea EVER! So that’s when I knew I had to put my big girl panties pants on and JUST DO IT. Sabrina has 2 hit TV shows, 1 book, and she is Target’s Style Expert for Home – among other things! I don’t think I will EVER be as big as her, but you have to start somewhere, no!?!?

So, just in case you don’t believe me when I say I met her, BAM! Here is your proof…. Please ignore my highly fanatically cheerful grin.

We can totally be BFF’s! We look like we could almost be kin! Ok, I’ll stop now. But I must say this was the PERFECT start to my new adventure.

Yami

Yami

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