1890's Weekend

In some towns they hold huge celebrations for the fourth of July, or Christmas, or Thanksgiving... well my town dedicates an entire weekend to celebrating the 1890's! It's so big someone even created an entire website for it! For music student's 1890's weekend means Marching Band and Prism Concert. My mom and sister came up for the concert to hear me sing a duet with my friend Derek, and in the concert choir's performance of The Laughing Song! I had them get here early enough to experience some of the magic of 1890's weekend... that way the next time they make fun of me for talking about it, they will have experienced it first hand.

Mom and Gabby got into town right before the Parade!

 Our Mascot: the Mansfield Mountie

 The Band!

 The nice part about small towns is knowing everyone 

well enough to scream "sing something" at a group of guys 

and have them come over during a parade and serenade you!

 Thank you my Phi Mu Alpha Boys!

 I melt every single time!

 Littlest cowboy ever? I vote yes!

 After the parade was the fair. 

I don't have many pictures from it aside from the face-painting ones.

SAI did face-painting as our fundraiser!

 I painted vines on Mom!

 A Butterfly for Gabby!

 A tiger on Josh!

 And Gabby painted a girl tiger on me!

 After my painting shift we splurged on a Bloomin' Onion!

 Tigers like bloomin' onions!

 After the fair portion we went to the football game, 

but only to hear the Marching Band play at half time!

 

When we got there, 

we had the most awkward thing happen. 

We realized the Mansfield Mounties 

were playing the Princeton Tigers.... 

Oops!

 Despite our appearance of support for the other team- 

we cheered our band on during the show!

After the show we explored the Allen Hall Building, got some Night and Day, went to the Cider Mill, stopped briefly at the library sale, went to the Prism Concert(I performed!), and grabbed some dinner after while watching the fireworks out the window. It was a wonderful day spent with family and friends. I can't wait to go home to visit all of my family for Fall Break! 

The Powers of a Sock!

You know how every time you do laundry your washer seems to eat one of the socks of each pair? Well here is an idea for what to do with your left over non-matching socks: Curl your hair! Yes that is right, use one sock to curl your hair! This method is called the sock bun method. It requires one hair tie, and one sock with the toes snipped off.

Check out this great DIY video for steps to do this method!

For skeptics- trust me I was one too... Until I tried it! 

What it looks like at night:

What it looks like in the Morning:

Right before I took it out:

 Video of me taking out the sock bun:

What the Results Look Like: (Front)

 (Back)

(With a headband)

If you have medium/long hair you should definitely try this look! I was so happy with it, and can't wait to try it again! One thing to note is that the curls do fall out a bit towards the end of the day- but you can save the look by pulling it into a pony tail or loose bun. :)

Happy no heat curling!

Floral Week

 

Last week I celebrated "Floral Week!" I really love floral prints, and with fall rapidly approaching you will see these spring-like patterns less and less, so in order to celebrate I decided to display flowers all week long proudly. From Sunday all the way to Saturday I wore at least one item with flower print on it each day. By the end of the week I even got some other classmates at my school participating!

Sunday: 

OK, so you probably recognize this picture from my post about making a skirt.

Well surprise... this skirt started my floral week! 

I wore it to dinner after work one night, then took some pictures. 

Cited: Skirt (homemade),Shirt (Old Navy), 

Pearl Bracelet (Primark), Shoes ( Thrifted)

Monday: 

The rain started on Monday- and didn't stop.

I decided the best way to rock my floral was on my feet! 

Cited: Rain Boots (Target)

Tuesday: 

This day felt like fall! 

I bundled up with a scarf and rocked my primary colors.

Cited: Skirt (Handmade), Turtle Neck Shirt (Old Navy), 

Belt and Scarf (Primark), Bag (Forever21), Flats (Payless)

Wednesday: 

Another really rainy day (most of the surrounding areas flooded).

It was so rainy I couldn't take a picture outside this day. 

Cited: Pants (Urban Outfitters), Top (too old- don't remember),

Flats (Payless), Ring (Antique)

Thursday: 

We had the first half of our day cancelled for flood warnings- it ended up being sunny. 

I decided to wear a skirt :)

 (which was actually a dress folded down to look like a skirt)

Cited: Skirt/Dress (Thrifted), Top (Urban Outfitters),

Bracelet and Flats (Primark), Hat (Vintage)

Friday: 

I actually had an entirely different outfit planned for this day

-but it was much warmer than I anticipated!

Cited: Sweater (Thrifted), Dress (Thrifted), 

Locket (Grandma's old locket), Sandals (Payless).

Saturday: 

This day was jam-packed full of things like choir retreat, walmart trips, 

and an epic night of scrapbooking (I did 15 pages in one sitting). 

I apologize for the tired state I am in for this next shot!

Cited: Top (Express), Shorts (Forever21)

*By the end of the week I was getting lots of people around me involved- Thursday and Friday I had a lot of people participate with me at school! (My sister even did at home)

Pictured above: (Top Left) Beth, Sara, Katie, Abby, Liana, Erika, Kim

(Top Right) Sarah Dennis

(Bottom Left) Beth Bentley 

(Bottom Right) Sarah, Katie, Erika, Me, Sara, Lindsay

Thanks everyone for your awesome support of floral week! 

I encourage you all to plan one for yourself with your favorite pattern or accessory! (It's pretty fun!) 

Couch Surfing

As I have discussed before one of my goals was to visit all 50 states- or at least "be in all 50 states at least once"... Since my past excursion of couch-surfing experience to Maine I added a few more states almost entirely finishing the East Coast. Here is where I have been:


visited 17 states (34%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

And the exciting news is that this year my choir is going to Rhode Island! Which will totally complete the East Coast for me! Hooray!

Now back to couch-surfing. Most of you probably have seen photos on my facebook of my recent trip to Maine. It all started with my friend Ryan suggesting we try out couch-surfing: (basically this online organization that lets you connect with other people who offer to host you in their homes for free). Now I know this sounds totally unsafe and a little bit insane to stay with total strangers but there are checks and balances to the whole system to help keep the users of the site honest, and safe! Either way, I thought Ryan was crazy when he was telling me about the site- but once I looked at it, I totally agreed- this sounds like an adventure!

Long story short, we both joined couchsurfing.org and started the search for a place we could visit over a long weekend we both had off of work. We figured driving would be our cheapest option so that narrowed out places like California or Florida! So I started considering my life goals- all 50 states- which ones hadn't I been to? Then it hit me- Maine, Vermont, or New Hampshire! Why not all three? We set out our search for hosts that lived in these areas and ended up setting our first destination in Bar Harbor, ME with Anne. We decided we should stick to one or two states and ended up finding great hosts in ME and MA! So after Bar Harbor we planned on visiting Meara in Camden, ME then Jennie and Bart in Somerville, MA. (We took a senic route to get to Bar Harbor via Vermont and New Hampshire!)

The whole experience was amazing we left on a Thursday and returned Sunday night drove 24 hours total and traveled more than 1000 miles! All the people we met were amazing and we were lucky enough to make really great connections with some of our hosts!

Check out some of my awesome trip pictures!

Highlights of the trip were:
Watching the earliest sunrise on the East Coast! 
Amateur rock climbing on sand beach
Watching a local toughcats concert in Camden
Playing Ultimate Frisbee for the first time ever
Seeing Walden Pond
Speed Sightseeing in Boston
Epic Ikea trip!
And of course countless hours in the car with Ryan :)

I would certainly recommend couch surfing to anyone who wants to travel for really cheap- the site is free and all the people I met were really wonderful! Check out my couchsurfing profile to see what the site is like- and I can try to answer any questions you might have!

Sol- a needle pulling thread

In my last post I mentioned a few fall goals of mine, playing the Ukulele, creating some artwork, making my own clothing. Well this past labor day weekend I decided to finally tackle my goal of making a skirt! All summer I bought fabrics and patterns and materials for dresses or skirts, but was too chicken to just sit down and try it- the patterns seemed like they had so many parts to them- I was freaking out about being in too deep. So amidst my blog reading a particular skirt caught my eye on What Would a Nerd Wear. I checked where the skirt was from and saw "homemade" listed... and lucky me- Tania provided the link to a diy tutorial! It was sort of funny because I remember noticing this skirt in previous pictures on her blog- and even being directed to the tutorial before- so I decided I was just gonna try it. I had some fabric that I purchased for $1 at a thrift store this summer- (it was actually a curtain)- and decided to make it into this skirt! Not gonna lie I sorta felt like Maria from the sound of music turning curtains into clothes--- anyhow...Here is my finished product below!

(I even made pockets!)

Special thanks to Josh for taking the pictures for me! :)

If you are wanting to tackle making your own clothes I totally recommend this DIY skirt! All you need is a sewing machine and some common sense!

Back to School

Welcome back to school everyone! 

Fall is my absolute favorite season, and part of that is because of the back to school hype. As a child one of my favorite pastimes was back-to-school shopping with my mom. Now, in my last year of undergrad I still participate in the back-to-school shopping, but find myself buying housewares and textbooks! I still do buy a few notebooks or folders for old times sake- this year I even bought ones with cute designs. 

In honor of my favorite time of year I wanted to share the joy with some wonderful fall/back to school ideas! 

#1 challenge of my year- eating. Healthy- cheap- yummy- food seems to not exist! But I found an article this morning with 40 healthy school lunch ideas! 

(Sure they are meant for children- but I certainly am still a child at heart!)

Although food and meal planning is important nothing is quite as nice as some back to school shopping for my favorite items! 

My biggest-most thought out-researched buy is always my planner. Generally I go to at least 5 stores before I find anything that could be deemed as suitable. This year I started in the place I ended last year- Barnes and Noble. :) My planner is great- one week in and I am totally loving the nifty layout and convenient stickers that came with it!

Once the planner is purchased it is always a good idea to beef up your desk and office supplies! I would look around online for some inspiring ideas- and then find it cheaper or make it yourself!

Now with every change of the season I like to redo/reorganize/ and rethink my space, life, wardrobe, etc. 

Storage space is always an issue and I have just recently reorganized a lot of my room! 

1 nifty idea I came up with** I had a hanging shoe rack that clips to a bar of a closet- holds about 11 pairs or so, it took up too much space that I needed to hang dresses/coats etc. The width of the cloth rack I found fit exactly under the side of my bed between the poles of the bed frame... TADA! lift up the bed skirt and you have 11 pairs of organized shoes... already at foot level! 

I found an article on book storage under the stairs and thought the idea was wonderful! Check it out and be inspired!

After reorganize- why not be inspired with some fall fashions/essentials? Check out Ruche <3 one of my favorite online stores! They even have a cute Chalkboard Basics section!

Reorganize/Redo/Rethink! 

Rethinking your lifestyle is a good thing to do every now and then! I found a cool site with tons of green back to school ideas- everything from practical/material changes to theoretical changes! They even have a whole section of ideas for college students and professors- and if you happen to be a teacher there is a section for that too!

Last but not least I think with every season you should strive to create, to try something new, and do something you love. For me my fall goals are to create a piece of art, sew myself a skirt, and learn how to play the Ukulele!

 

A great idea for some new art work with a back to school feel...

 Find out how easy this project is here!

Happy fall everyone I hope I have inspired some of you and at least made you smile!