First Post in Six Years

Hello Blogspot!

It’s been a while, 6 years to be exact.  What can I say, life took a different turn, & I needed to focus my attention on other things.  I’m really glad to be back!  .

As usual, this will be a blog about my random musings.  It will be a mixture of things I love, places I want to see, tutorials, hobbies, etc.

Today, I’d like to share that I have some new hobbies that I acquired since January of this year, & that is my love of aquascaping & fish keeping.  I started in this hobby because my kids really wanted a pet.  We started off with a frail betta named, Gloop-Gloop, who was a mustard gas betta.  He has since passed, but here is our favourite photo of him (months after being in our tank):

Wasn’t he gorgeous?  He passed away due to stress.  We housed a golden algae eater with him who started to chase him around quite a bit, most likely sucking on his slime coat.  Due to my lack of experience, I didn’t realize how aggressive & territorial algae eaters can get.  We separated him from the algae eater, but Gloop-Gloop’s immune system was compromised, & eventually he stopped eating.  Although, I placed him in a hospital tank, he succumbed to his condition.  

This is a story of one fish & one tank, but can you believe that we have 6 fish tanks running at the moment?  We have a myriad of aquatic life, from the smallest pond, nerite, & ramshorn snails, emperor tetras, panda corydoras, cherry shrimp, crystal red shrimp, & bettas!  All our tanks are filled with aquatic plants too, like amazon sword, Madagascar lace, javafern, pellia moss, Christmas moss, filamentous algae, anubias nana petite, hygrophylia, cabomba, & water lettuce.  

I’ll introduce you to each tank on a separate post.  

It will be a long weekend for us, so no Monday blues tomorrow for me!

Have a wonderful Sunday,

Carla XO

Revisiting...

Hello everyone!

I'm sneaking sometime to post one of my recent works.  I don't know if you remember my sketchbook diary entries, but I finally took the time to rework one of the sketches I made back in 2010!  Wow!  Three years in the making, not really, but it did take me that long to finally ink this piece.  

I hope you like it!

Have a beautiful weekend & stay classy - ha ha ha!

Xoxo, 

Carla

DIY: Vintage Rose Key

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while.  If you are following me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably know that I love participating in Fat Mum Slim's Photo-a-day Challenge.  I wanted to share with you one of my recent posts.  It is for day 3, Key!  I own a lot of nail polish, so I always try to find new ways to use them.  If you own a lot of keys, this may be a good way to help you find certain ones from the bunch.  Especially, if you own a lot of copied keys that tend to be the same color and shape.

I've been color-coding my brushes, pens, keys, etc. with my old nail polish for a while now.  I would like to share this tutorial with you.  Plus, it's another reason to paint, and that's always a lot of fun!

Materials you are going to need are:

Old or new nail polish:  I used red, pink, green, white, & a pale turquoise
A clear sealer or a top coat
Brushes
A key
Fine grit or medium grit sand paper

Step 1:
Roughen the surface where paint will be applied.

Step 2:
Place two coats of polish, or until the surface is even.

Step 3:
Place a dot of pink and a dot of red beside each other and swirl the paint together.  Make sure you create a pattern by not completely blending the two colors.

Step 4:
Take some white and lightly swirl it on top.  Then, place some green leaves as an accent.

Step 5:
Let the polish dry for 15 minutes.  Then, apply a layer or two of a clear sealer or a top coat.

You may apply a coat of sealer every few months or so, to keep the polish from chipping.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Here are some of my keys:

Have a lovely day!

XOXO, Carla

2013

A lot has happened the past year, with that said, I just wanted to wish all of you a wonderful year ahead! Here is a compilation of some of my favorite photos from 2012. Lucky for you, they are all of my little family! LOL!

Here is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, that I'd like to live by. I hope that it inspires you to do the same...

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

Happy 2013!!!

Xoxo,
Carla

Been gone, for sooo long!

Hello everyone!

I missed you all! I hope you are doing well. I haven't posted anything in a while, for that I apologize. A lot of things happened since. Dom is in kindergarten, & Solana is running! I got myself an iPhone and joined the millions of Instagrammers & tadaa enthusiasts - if you have an Instagram or tadaa account, please let me know. So feel free to follow me there too, @carlasdeleon!

I'll be posting from where I left off (April 2012), so I'll be busy updating my blog & catching up on my google reader. Have a wonderful week, my friends!!!

Xo,
Carla