d.i.y Journals

So since getting married, Monty and I have moved into the bellflower ward and after 1 month i received my first calling as a Young Woman Advisor! This past week i had to teach about personal records which was so perfect for me. I've been keeping a journal since i was about 10 years old, from simple entrys about days spent with mom to teardropping ex boyfriends breaking my heart! I was so thrilled to teach this lesson and I thought it would be such a good idea to get the girls some journals of their own. Well since being a newlywed with a new car and a new job and new bills to pay, it isn't that easy to just buy fun things anymore SO i resorted to the next best thing! I made these adorable lace trimmed cereal box journals that cost me no more that 1 dollar each and all the things i used were recyclable!

I started with an empty cereal box that we were just going to toss!

I cut down the sides splitting the box in half and tried my best to keep it even! 

                                                                 almost there!

                                               
                                      so now we have half a box and with this, i made 2 journals!

I traced my book of mormon :) and made a square and then used that

as my legend for the rest of the journals so they'd all be the same size!

I rounded the corners a bit to add a little bit of pretty! 

Then of course, follow the lines and cut straight!!

voalah! a perfectly cut little journal!!

After I cut it, I folded it straight down the center and used my ruler to make the fold as straight as possible! I did notice that cardboard is harder to flatten out so don't be afraid to use your scissors to press down the cardboard since you'll be covering it with lace! 

folded...

the inside!- i also want to add that i left the inside just like this so that the girls could glue some pass•a•long cards or favorite scriptures that mean something to them!

                                             i used the cardboard cutout and traced it on pink
                                          paper and then stapled it from the outside stapling ALL
                                                              of the papers together!

after doing so, i used glue dots to place the lace along the rim of the journal. I only glued on the outside and glued the lace trip onto both sides.So basically you just put the rim of the book in the middle of the with of the lace and each side gets equal amount of lace!  I purchased 1 1/2 yard of lace from joann's fabrics for $1.50! I also found a corner punch on sale for $5 dollars so if you feel more comfortable using a corner punch it would definitely work around the edges!

The girls absolutely loved their little journals and were so excited to write their adventures or scriptures! They loved the journals so I hope that if you ever use this tutorial your girls love their journals as much as mine did!!

xo

Mayra!

Soccer Mom!!

Today was quite an exciting day for my husband and I,well more for my husband but it was definitely great to see him so excited! Let me just explain that my husband loves sports. Most of the conversations he ever has with anyone is about sports or about basically anything, but mostly,Sports. He grew up playing rugby, soccer and criket in Australia but he loved soccer and followed Chelsea FC, a soccer club from London. To make a long story short, the underdogs that is Chelsea managed to win their way to the Championships league final agains Bayern Munich, a German Team,BLAh Blah Blah, a few penalties later and CHELSEA WINS!! My husband has been waiting 6 YEARS for this day so he was overjoyed with tears and such happy emotions. I was working all morning so he went with his friend Miguel to see the game at a restaurant in Long Beach! It makes me so happy to see him smile and be overjoyed. After I was off work we came home and got ready because we ended up going to a LA Galaxy game with our friends Shaun and Ava! They recently engaged and are planning on getting married in August! So Galaxy lost and if I may say so myself, the game was preeetty boring! The only excitement we got during this game was the fans fighting in front of us and watching David Beckham come in and out of the locker room. To be that close to such a handsome man, oh i'm so lucky;hahaha!

                                                         After getting home later that evening, we noticed that there was a pretty table sitting outside our door! We have been pretty good about paying our bills on time and trying to save some money but we havent been able to save up for a table to eat so when we saw this we were kind of assuming that maybe it was just something my mom had outside for one of my sisters to come pick up but boy was I wrong. I walked into my moms house, which is adjacent to ours, and asked about the table and my mommy had gotten it for us! We were so excited for it, but the excitement grew greater when we found out it only cost her $40! What a steal!I'm so excited to finally be able to sit here and write about my day,have my feet up on a chair after eating a bowl of cereal in my own table!

I swear my mother is such a life saver! I don't know if i'd ever be half of that woman, let alone a tenth! anywho, life is good! We've got church early in the morning so its time to say,Goodnight!!



•Mayra S•

New things are coming!

I figured that since the biggest change in life has already happened, I should just do something fun and change up my blog! It has been quite some time since I posted anything up here!! A lot of fun things have happened, Most importantly,  I MARRIED MY BEST FRIEND! No, not Alyssa Wall, he's almost as cool as her :) Here are a few pictures of our special day and a few from our super fun honeymoon in VEGAS!!

                                                       

                                                             

                                                               

 Everyone looked SO good, just like I dreamed my wedding would look like! A little bit of Romance and a little bit of European class. I really loved the way the colors worked together and the way the girls and the guys fit the look! I was so happy all day to have finally have that day happen! 

 

So There it is! The wedding post! I really want to update this blog as often as I can, I'm really looking forward to posting not just about my life but things I find that I think can help out others and finding blog friends with genious ideas about living a good and happy blog life! 

With love,

MRS Mayra Stevenson!

Autobiography of ME.

So, about a year ago, I started writing about my life. I began writing about the first year of my life and atleast of what I was told about myself, I guess I just wrote about my childhood stories that I heard of because of course, I can only remember running around houses with my cousins and the rest is a mystery to my mind. Here is my little preface for any of those interested or bored enough to read it. I guess I kind of want to write out the most memorable or important times of my life so someday when i'm old and can't remember sitting here typing this out, at least I have a blog to read back on to help me remember how my life was at one point! enjoy!!

Miss Mayra d.

Nueva Vida

I was born on Tuesday January 11th, 1987 at approximately 1AM.My mother from Michoacan, Mexico; my father from a pueblo outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. I was the fourth girl, the unplanned little swimmer who got to the egg first, I made it and because of that my parents life completely changed. You see, my mother had been married previous to the relationship she started with my father. They were only dating when the news of my conception spread like a storm of fires blazing through California, I was definitely unexpected and certainly unwanted by some. After being more than delighted to keep my, my parents moved in together, my maternal grandmother opposed, along with my older sisters.

The night of my birth, my father and grandmother got into an argument, ironically I was born on her birthday, and after taking one look the fighting stopped and love surrounded their hearts. Apparently, after my birth, my mom suffered from paralysis to her facial muscles up until I was 6 years old. It never clearly hit me how horrible that was until I realized that I didn’t have too many pictures with my mother.What a terrible birth present, how could such a loved baby do something like that to their nurturing mother whom i love so much, well, it wasn’t me, blame the anesthesia for that. For the longest time, I held myself responsible for my mothers suffering, but I was always reassured by everyone that it was not my fault.

I was pretty spoiled,my three older sisters seemed to resent me a bit because they just thought I took away all the attention away from them. My older sister Grace has told me how my oldest sister Veronica attempted to kill me at one point, how rude! If she had conquered that day she would never have know how much she means to me now. She is like my second mommy whom i love so much.

I was a brat, i never cleaned up after myself, I was always running around playing with something and to top it off, I was so annoying. I will never be able to tell you the extent of the annoyances I caused my sisters but apparently I was that little girl that wanted to know EVERYTHING about you. “Whats your name, where do you work? How old are you? Who's your mom? where are they from??” I guess I was just curious about everything, maybe that explains why I have such a fear of the unknown now a days, because back then I asked to know it all!

...To be continued...

<3

Wedding Bellsss!!

Let the count down begin!

I can literally start crying this very moment with excitement for everything. I cannot wait to go through the temple, I cannot wait to be Mrs. Stevenson, I cannot wait to finally call someone mine. I cannot wait to start a family. I cannot wait to start living. This past week has been so much better, the anxiety and panic has subsided and I am back to working on the wedding plans. I am so eager to just have it here already. Today I went to LA with my friend Bea and my sister Grace to get the materials we need for decorations. We got a few things for a realllyyy good price that will definitely enhance the look of our wedding reception. I am So excited to get things done and just be married and just be so in love. I already am, I just can't wait to take it to that next level, 'naw means ;) HA. anywho, Mona's family is teaching me a Samoan Taulunga that I will be dancing that day, i'm so nervous that I'll mess it up and insult culture so i'm trying so hard to learn and be patient on how to do things. His culture is so beautiful, so soft and so awesome. I love me my Samoans! :) Anywho, I have had so much fun doing a lot of things myself lately, I made my own garter today, which looks SO good! I made the necklaces for my bridesmaids, and I'm working on a few things to do on our own, I'm really diggin' this DIY stuff! Thank you Pinterest for all the wonderful ideas! :) Anywho, Only 3 weeks to go!!!! So excited!!!

Thanks for the love,

Miss Mayra D.

Feel free to check out some of my pictures!

http://lightbox.com/photos

wedding stress. work worries. anxiety scares. one week of misery.

I hate having an anxiety problem. I really don't like it what so ever. This past week and a half has been one of the most stressful scary weeks i've had since probably high school. I had some serious irrational anxiety provoken thoughts, I was acting like such a mental and honestly I don't know what in my rational mind made me feel semi sane because i was becoming insane. Its done. First off, i will never EVER watch a R rated movie, scary movie, ever again. I made a huge mistake of freaking my soul out after watching a movie that to this very second shakes my core just thinking of. NEVER AGAIN. I honestly spent a week of my lovely so excitiing time of life in a stressful inner mental state of shake and fear. I swear i feel so bad for Mona to have to deal with me last week, no wedding plans were put into progress due to my stressed out state of mind. I guess you can say that the stress and fear all combined and just broke me down completely and I was just a huge emotional mess. I'd say I probably had like 3 panic attacks a day, EVERYTHING and anything made me cry, I was just destroyed. The ONE AND ONLY thing i'm soooo extremely OMG THANKFUL for having in my life is my LOVELY SAVIOR and Heavenly Father. Honestly, he was there, silently, but he was there the entire time. At night, when it would be hard to sleep, i'd blast my hymns and just pray so hard for me to feel better. The last thing I want is to be an anxious freak during my first year of marriage, I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY! :) Mona is so great too, he was sooo supportive during all of my freak out moments, of course it is so hard for him but i'm so glad to know i'll be marrying a man that will support me in all aspects of me. I love him so much.

Last week i turned 25 :( oh man. I AM OLD! But that whole night i was full of anxiety so it wasn't the 25th birthday I envisioned. My mom threw me a Bridal shower on saturday and all of her friends came over and we had a good time. It was in all spanish so don't be mad if you had no idea but it was family and friends mostly.

Anywho, the wedding plans are going great, only one month to go! WOOT WOOT! so stoaked and just ready to finally have a HUSBAND, an eternal companion! :) YAY for never being alone any more! :) i cannot wait to be his wife! I was just reading back on blogs from last year and man, last year was SOOO though on me! I will never forget the trial that 2011 was, no wonder i had anxiety so bad to kick off this year, lol. Anywho, hopefully life will be full of blessings once we walk through those temple doors. I cannot wait to be sealed FOR TIME AND ALL ETERNITY. I just cannot wait to walk through those doors! Man, I'm going to cry some great tears! :)

I cannot believe how my life just fell into place so well, I am so trully blessed for everything I have in my life. Such a supportive and loving family, a strong family I will be joining ( i really hope Mona and I build a family structure like his family bc they are SO close) and just life is going to be great! Anywho, life is better now, I'd say my anxiety isn't so persistant, life isnt cloudy and scary like it was last week but i'm still in process onto full recovery! Nothing I cannot overcome with the help of the most amazing and loving HF ever. He gives me the strength i need to get by day by day!

With love,

Mayra D.

2012!

Can you believe it is here? I honestly don't know where 2011 went but boy was it A YEAR!! so much happened in 2011, the good, the bad the ugly and the UNBELIEVABLE! :) Last year i made a top ten fashion list or something like that of 2010, but this year I want to do the most memorable things of 2011. There were a few good, a few bad but definitely a year I will be thankful for for the rest of my life! So without further a do...

January

I turned 24, had the last ever Mayra D. Hau5 Party for my Birthday with my two best DJ Friends in all of the universe. I can definitely say that night was CRAZY, I'd never EVER had so many people at my house and in all honesty I didn't have the BEST time because I was too busy freaking out about the crowd, but defeinitely never will forget it!

February

My mom being in the hospital was definitely something that I didn't like at all but thankfully all of the fears that this month brought were strength builders. My mom is great now, she hasn't been back in the hospital since, her heart is healthier, she's loosing weight and is more aware of what she eats than ever before. I love this woman with ALL of my heart!

March

This month was fun, well, kind of! I had to make a pretty tough decision about something and ended up kind of loosing a close friend of mine. We threw miss Hannah a birthday party for her 21st this month, it was fun, we had a very good turn out and it was a successful night! March was one of those months you need to have to get you ready for what is to come next, its the Storm I guess you could call it.

APRIL

MOST IMPORTANTLY:LOVE HAPPENED

04.17.2011

I finally made it up for EDP

Went to my FIRST Fashion show

evita.hannah.meeeeeeeeee.gary.

MAY

Talked about the future with someone

This month was a little difficult though, I remember having

a lot of anxiety this month. I had just got sent to a different

store at work and it was all too much for me. I wasn't happy

with where I was working and I wanted out very soon!

JUNE

LA GALAXY

This month was very work based, Mona got

a job at puma, life started to get crazy with school

coming to an end and summer coming in! We headed

down to san diego for a fun day in la jolla. It was quite

the adventure!

July

August

We were both in the tahitian group in our wards dance show, It was so much fun learning all of the movement and doing a dance that is similar to Monas culture. I'm definitely hoping on joining in on a dance group this year!

September

Alyssa turned 21!! YAY! My sister Veronica let us

throw a party in her back yard, thank you! It was good times!

October

I was la Llorrona for halloween, it was definitely a good time!

November

ENGAGED!!!!!!!

FEBRUARY 18th 2012!!!!

So EXCITING to be engaged to amazing

Solomona Stevenson, we may not be perfect,

but our love is! :) I cannot wait to be married

to this man!

December

This month came and went so quickly, we did a lot of wedding planning and got a lot of things done this month. To this day there are still a few things that need to be situated but most of them should be fine. We took some engagements with one of our amazing friends Anna and Tegyn who both did such a good job on our photos and we loved how they turned out. This month I also tried to do a few different things with my style choices and hair do's. I started reading more fashion blogs and I really love going on Pinterest. We had a great Christmas with both of our families and then spent the 26th at Disneyland. New Years was okay at Dave n Busters, it was extremely crowded so we didn't have the BEST time that we would have had if it weren't so crowded. Life is going great, only 47 more days until the wedding, Only 47 more days until marriage; I cannot wait!

Live with a smile,

and shine like the sun.

Enjoy life always!

<3

Mayra d.