7 Days of Clean! {Day 5}

How to make your home smell like the holidays!

By simply simmering a few ingredients that you may already have at your pantry during this time of the year and your home will smell amazing!

Here's what I used:

- Cranberry

- Orange peel

- Orange

- Apple (sliced)

- Cinnamon sticks

- Clover

- Couple of my Christmas tree branches

Simmer and that's it! You can keep it and re-simmer later. Or you can even put it in a mason jar and re-simmer the next day!

Hope you like this 'recipe'!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

7 Days of Clean!

Day 1

How to clean your bathroom in 5 easy steps:

1. Give a quick clean to toilet, shower, sink and shine everything with #allpurposecleaner

2. Clean mirror. No smudges are allowed here! 

3. Clean floors, shake bath mats

4. Replace everyday accessories such as toothbrush, toothpaste, etc for festive ones! A candle or a bowl of ornaments are great! (The everyday items can go in the medicine cabinet or drawers these days)

5. Spray a #diy air refreshener (distill water and organic essential oils) or lite a candle

And voila! Your bathroom now looks AND feels festive!! 

Stay tuned for the next 7 days of clean tomorrow! 

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

Ornaments

Hello everyone!

Every year I make something new for our Christmas tree and I have adopted this tradition to give something to my friends so they can add a new ornament to their tree each year as well. 

This time I loved the idea of doing something with the clear ornaments they have at Michael's. I poured faux snow and a piece of three, just like I did last year, but this time I added gold dots to it and I think they look great!

I first tried with craft paint and didn't work, then I tried with a gold sharpie, but didn't like how the strokes of paint would show.  So I finally tried with a craft pen and I love how they look!  Then I put each ornament in a red box with green grass and added a lipgloss for my friends. They all loved it and I think they looked so cute! And some of these pretty boxes flew all the way to South America for the girls in my family.

You'll need:

- Clear ornaments

- Faux snow

- Gold Craft Pen

- Faux tree branches

- Ribbon

- Cardboard box (optional)

- Faux grass (optional)

Step 1: Make dots with craft pen on random places 

Step 2: Add faux snow

Or viceversa :)

Step 3: Add a piece of faux tree branch

Step 4: Add colorful ribbon

Step 5: Place some grass in the cardboard box, the ornament and a lipgloss

Hang it on your tree

Enjoy the view

And there you go, a super easy ornament that will make a great gift for friends, colleges, and every girl you know.  

Do you like to make new ornaments to your tree or do you prefer the ones that are ready to hang?  I'd love to hear what your ideas are!!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

{very} Easy Halloween Project…

When my daughter was younger we used to DIY something together during the holidays and bring it to school so she would give it to her friends.  So every year during Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, etc it meant craft time!  But since she is no longer a little girl and as she point it out she's now almost a tween that means no more craft to bring to school.

I love crafting/diy so much that I asked her if she would help me to make some Halloween candy boxes and give it to my team, so they can bring it to their kids this Friday! So we headed it to Michael's and grabbed a few items.

They had this pre-cut boxes, they were even pre-folded!

It was a very easy project, just assemble the pre-cut/pre-folded boxes, wrap the the pre-cut/pre-folded black paper and add the pictures and that's it. Then just fill it with candies!!

I think they look really cute and I'm hoping the kids will be happy when they receive this little boxes full of yummy candies.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!!!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

Household products you should avoid… And how to replace them naturally {Part I}

Hello everyone! Hope you all are having a great week!  

People ask me all the time if the traditional cleaning and household products are really dangerous. The answer is definitely: Yes!  There are some items we use at home and don't realized how bad they are for our health. So here we go with the first one:

Air Refreshener

Let me start with a story, this is what happened to me… Many years ago I went to my friend's house and her home smelled really nice so I asked her what she used. She showed me a plug-in air refresher, so I got one immediately. BIG mistake! After a couple of weeks I couldn't understand why my daughter was just fine outside, at school, at the park, even in allergy season. But as soon as we got home she would start sneezing and got congested. I was like "this is so weird". Then it clicked me that this symptoms started just when I got the plug-in refresher so I checked what was inside this product and got rid of it as soon as I could.

According the EPA (Evironmental Protection Agency) the main ingredients in air refreshers are: formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, p-dicholrobenzene and aerosol propellants.

Formaldehyde:  exposure to this chemical may cause respiratory symptoms and eye, nose and throat irritation. 

Petroleum distillates: The exposure to this chemical may also cause eye, nose, throat irritation and also dizziness, drowsiness, headache, nausea, dry skin, 

p-Dicholrobenzene: Exposure to this chemical may cause irritation to the eyes, skin and throat. Chronic exposure may be more harmful as it may result in effects in the liver.

Aerosol propellants: This is a type of dispensing system. Basically the liquid is under pressure allowing to get out only in small amount or mist. If it's near fire or high temperature it could exploit.

Now the good news… You can replace it with an all natural air refresher using only TWO ingredients: Water and essential oil.

You will need:

Distill water

Essential oil

A spray bottle

1. Mix distill water with 15 to 20 drop of your favorite essential oil

2. Shake

3. You already have your Natural Air Refresher

Yes, it is that easy :)

Do you have an idea to make your own air refresher?  Please share it with us, we all would love to learn from you!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

Pumpkins…

Hello everyone! Hope you all are having a great week so far!

I can't believe the holidays are just around the corner! And even though I do not like the cold weather (I'm a summer kind of girl :)  I do love the holiday round during this time of the year. Starting with Halloween! It is my daughter's favorite and she starts planning on her custom the same day, Oct 31st… for the following year!!

She and I did a little project with pumpkins this week and we both love how it turned out!

First we washed them (I read on the internet it preserves the pumpkin life)

And a quick trip to Michaels to get some paint and decoration. Although, trips to Michaels are never 'quick' with her, ha!

We painted one of each color and decorated them with the studs making different patterns…

It was a very simple project and we had so much fun doing it together! I especially love the white and light gray… Which one is your favorite?

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela