Andie Ibanez: DIY

Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Hey babes! I'm so excited to share this post with you. Dates are super important in my book. I never want to stop dating my spouse! So I'm starting a new segment on my blog called Date Nights with Daniel. I will be sharing our favorite date activities with you! This will be a fun one because we absolutely love February for two main reasons. Our anniversary is 3 days before Valentine's day so we usually go big on our dates in February. This year we are going back to Europe because we're celebrating 5 years of marriage!! Last year we went to a yoga retreat in the middle of the mountains for a few days. It was a blast! Check out details here. But with Valentine's Day just around the corner, I wanted to share one of my other favorite date ideas with you!

We totally love cheap/free date night activities! That is what prompted this post. If you're looking for a fun, free Valentine's date activity keep reading! Also, if you're looking for some Valentine decor or treat ideas, check out my collab with local NC Bloggers from last year. Details here.

This is a fun one to do anytime! We went for a breakfast date so we could stay in our comfy clothes. You could easily do an indoor picnic for lunch or dinner as well!

You really don't need much to pull this off - just a little creativity. But don't worry, I got you covered!

Blankets and pillows for comfort and to set the mood! The more pillows the cozier. Bonus points if you turn it into a fort!

Cake stands and serving dishes for aesthetics and serving food, obvs.

Food for the main event! We just went for sweets this time around. There really isn't a wrong way to do this part!

And of course there were macarons!

Milo crashed the party because he can do that.

Yummy!!

Love this goof ball!

Cheers to love!

And to having this little pup in our lives!

Whatever you decide to do for Valentine's day we hope you have a blast!

Xo - The Ibanez-Swain Family

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareASong #CollectiveBias

Not much beats sweet tunes and a cold Coke, especially as the weather gets warmer! I was strolling through Target (what's new?) and Coca-Cola's new bottles totally caught my eye! There are over 70 song lyrics to choose from! Target is even giving you a chance to get exclusive Music Artist Content and a 25% off Cartwheel offer when you share your love of Coca-Cola and music with @ShareMoreMusic and #ShareASong!

Ok so check out how easy it is to receive your exclusive music content and Cartwheel offer:

Tweet @ShareMoreMusic with your 20oz Coca-Cola lyric, followed with the campaign hashtag: #ShareASong
@ShareMoreMusic will respond with a link to access exclusive Music Artist Content and a 25% hidden Cartwheel offer on Target.com.

Also, check out the infographic at the end of this post.

After looking at a few bottles, I was immediately attracted to this one. I mean how perfect are these lyrics?

Work hard, play hard.
This is pretty much my life motto.

It really means so much to me. No matter what stage in life you're in, it's important to keep this in mind.

When I think of "Work hard, play hard" this is one of the first picture that comes to mind.

College. Am I right?

Daniel and I both worked really hard in college and both graduated with honors! It wasn't easy and on top of that, we got married right in the middle of it all! But looking back, those were such fun times! After school was just as fun too. I went on to land an amazing job with an amazing company and Daniel went on to Duke and the #1 PA School in the country!

Which brings us to our most recent "work hard, play hard" memory.

The last few years at Duke have been tough for both me and Daniel in different ways. But we never forgot our motto and made time to play just as hard! From watching our Blue Devils take the National Championship in Basketball to traveling to 5 different countries.

Having fun is a priority in our lives. Whether its traveling to a new place or just staying in, playing Mario and eating (drinking?) slushies!

I love this quote so much that I decided to turn it into a craft project. So who is ready for a little DIY?

I love making fun little crafts. But I'm all about the simple and easy to complete projects. The first thing I thought of when I saw the new Coca-Cola bottles was that those lyrics belong on a print or cross stitch (or both!)

If you have the skill (and patience) to make a fancy cross stitch then go for it! As for me, I like DIYs that I can actually complete in a short time.

What you'll need:
1 Hoop/frame
A piece of white fabric or cloth
Colorful thread
A needle

Don't forget a bottle of Coke with lyrics for inspiration! Target for the win! You can find them in the drink isle.

Once you have your inspiration, you're ready to start! I like to draw out my design first. I wrote out the lyrics and just added a simple leaf border.

Attach the fabric to the hoop and start following your design with the colors of your choosing!

Pretty much a one-two punch.

I made this one for my mom.

See what I mean by simple?

Now its your turn to join the fun! Join us for a #ShareASong Twitter party on Tuesday May 24th from 1pm - 2pm ET

#ShareASong RSVP http://cbi.as/3kzxp

#ShareASong Rules http://cbi.as/3kzye

Also, don't forget to head over to Target, pick up one of Coca-Cola's new bottles and get inspired!

Xo - Andie

PS - Check out this infographic on how to grab a coke and #ShareASong!

If you're scrambling to get things ready for Easter, here are few pictures from our family Easter party last night! We love celebrating holidays all together so just being with each other was so much fun! We missed Daniel though!

Egg dye and bunny chairs on point!

Also, the more treats the merrier! My mom made a bunch of sweets, my favorite being crema chantilly!

And these bad boys...

Everyone had a different vision for their Easter eggs. I decided to go silly with mine! Who doesn't love emojis? All you need is strong yellow dye (Hint: use more vinegar) and a black marker. You can get more creative if you have different colors of markers as well.

Here are all of our eggs! I spy a cute green M&M and a Minion! Nice job, Natalia!

No matter what your beliefs are, Easter is a fun time to be silly and creative with people you love!

Happy Easter Weekend!

Xo - Andie

The 90s were so dope. Besides the music and TV shows, my sister and I were both born in the 90s.

This is Natalia.
I love Natalia. We're so much and love hanging out with each other. She has actually stopped by the blog before! You can check out her guest post here.

We were shopping one weekend and saw these 90s shirts at H&M. We knew we had to have them.

We also made these fun flower crowns. Each one cost $1 to make. DIY for the win!

All we did was hot glue big flowers to twine. SO easy and totally cute!

Natalia is the Converse queen so we coordinated our high tops. Add skinny jeans and boom you got a simple mod-throwback look.

Outfit details:

Top: H&M

Jeans: Andie - J.Crew | Natalia - Forever 21

Flower crowns: DIY. Similar styles below

Shoes: Converse All-Star Converse

I love being her big sister.

Life is so much better when your sisters are also some of your best friends!

Xo - Andie

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #LimpiaTotal #CollectiveBias

As a Latina, I was raised in a household where everyone helps with the cleaning. It isn't just mom's job. So growing up, Saturday mornings pretty much looked like this:

8:00AM - Mami wakes up

8:15AM - Mami blasts her latin hits playlist think: Shakira, Thalia, Selena, Marc Anthony, etc.

8:20AM - "Despiertense, Enter made up name here!" Examples include: "Despiertense, Ratas de dos patas!" and "Despiertense, Pollitos!"... You get the picture. (Translation: Wake up!!)

8:30AM - Cleaning begins whether the kids like it or not. Mami leads by example while singing and dancing at the same time.

Sleeping in just isn't allowed in most Hispanic households.

Now that I have my own little family, I see myself doing almost exactly what my mami did. Well, that is with the exception of sleeping in. It is so hard to get out of bed when you're snuggled next to the World's best husband and puppy. But as far as cleaning goes, I've adopted my mami's style, her singing and her dance moves...

When it comes to cleaning, my mami taught me to just do it right the first time. That's why its worth getting the good stuff. So let's take a quick trip to Walmart!

Our neighborhood Walmart is so close and convenient! They always have what I'm looking for and the prices are unbeatable! Milo and Daniel love when I go to Walmart because I always bring them home a treat.

Here is what we're using today:

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes

Clorox Liquid Bleach

Pine-Sol Lavender

I wanted to focus on the following: Clean. Disinfect. Aromatize.

Here are some tips, tricks and hacks that my mami taught me!

#1 - Mami taught me to start early and never forget the music. Today we're listening to Juanes!

#2 - Mami taught me to wipe things down first. It makes a big improvement and makes you feel accomplished right from the start.

#3 - Mami taught me that a house that smells like lavender is a clean house.

#4 - Mami taught me that the best way to get kids involved was to make cleaning fun. Include incentives like sticker charts! I had my little siblings help out by promising ice cream afterwards.

#5 - Mami taught me to wipe down doorknobs as often as possible. Its one easy way to stop the spread of germs.

#6 - Mami taught me to always use an apron. A cute apron, of course.

#7 - Mami taught me to always use bleach to keep my whites looking their best. Clorox for the win!

#8 - Mami taught me that cleaning was a family affair. Milo is helping by looking adorable...

#9 - Mami taught me the concept of cleaning in layers for the best results. Clorox helped me with this one too ;)

#10 - Mami taught me to always wear flip flops while cleaning to avoid leaving marks on the ground.

#11 - Mami taught me that a clean home was a happy home.

#12 - But mami also taught me that more important that a clean house, is a close family! Well actually, Ann Voskamp said that but mami decided to borrow it.

All done!

I can always count on Clorox to be on my team for a total clean! These products kill 99.9% of household bacteria in your home and work together to clean, disinfect and aromatize! Learn more at http://cbi.as/2464c

Xo - Andie

Cookies and Milk are so my jam. I'm also a lover of parties... and friends. Oh and birthdays.

I'm also totally cool with throwing myself a birthday party... because why not? For 25 I decided to throw a Cookies and Milk party with my favorite girls.

It is such an fun and easy idea to work with. You can do so much with it!

Naturally, we had lots of different cookies to choose from. Including some of my favorites: Chocolate chip, Oreos and Swig sugar cookies. Cookie Bar for the win!