Let Me Tell You About My Best Friend!

Hey everyone! I recently went to Minnesota to visit my best friend and I made her this cute frame!!! 

I'd seen this on Pinterest and did my own version of it! Hope you like it!! 

I used a 5 by 7 wooden frame from Hobby Lobby and just acrylic paints! 

Back to School & My Fall Favorites!

School's been back in session for a few weeks now, and we're all finally getting into the swing of things. This year I've made it my mission to be more organized and I've finally devised a system that works for me! 

The first step to my organization is my Lilly Pulitzer agenda, which I love and adore (as we all do). I used a Lilly agenda last year and it worked really well for me, so I decided to stick with it this year. Mine is a large. 

I created a color coordinated system for my class/activities with my favorite Pentel EnerGel pens. These are all I use. Each class has a color and I write all my assignments in that color, it makes it much easier to spot what I need to do before each class because I'm just looking for one color versus looking in a mess of black ink and possibly missing something crucial.

This is the way I organize my agenda, each day I write my classes for that day and any other obligations or activities I have for the day, in their particular color.

Since I don't have Friday classes, I use the Friday section of my week to write my To Do list of things I need to get done before the week ends. 

Another organization thing I've tried this semester is a folder. Ground breaking, I know! I split the folder into a Monday/Wednesday class side and Tuesday/Thursday side. It keeps me so well organized, I have my syllabus's and any other papers I need in those pockets and it makes me life sooo much easier!

I also have notebook in the corresponding color for each class. Maybe a little over the top, but it keeps me organized and these 1 subject notebooks were 17 cents each so it wasn't an investment at all.

Some more of my Back to School/Fall favorites include:

PaperMate Mechanical Pencils:

These are THE only type of pencil I will write with, ever since high school, I can't use anything else.

My NorthFace Jester II Backpack:

I am, have been, and probably always will be a backpack girl. I've brought totes to class before and it's just not for me. I love organization and with my backpack I have a place for everything I need and it's always exactly in it's place! 

My pencil pouch! 

I love this thing. One it's shiny and sparkly and two it's a nice neat way for me to keep all my pens, pencils, sharpies, and highlighters. I love it!

My monogrammed headband!

I love this headband! It's so cute, it goes with everything, it makes wearing my hair down look even better. I got it on Etsy, it was a good investment. The only issue is the first few times you wear it it's a little tight behind your ears, but it becomes more comfortable as you wear it! I have it in navy with white monogram!

Vests!

I feel like I keep saying how much I love things, but I LOVE vests! This is my newest vest. I got it at Old Navy. I love vests so much because you can dress them up or dress them down. Most of my favorite outfits include vests. I love a nice leggings/big cozy sweatshirt/vest combo. And I love the color of this vest because I wear a lot of navy & white stripes which goes really well with this burgundy!

Lilly Pulitzer Call Or ID Crossbody Phone Case!

This is another item I absolutely loveeee! Mine is in Multi Hot Spot, but this is the perfect crossbody! It is perfect because I can put my student ID in the card slot, my debit and other import cards as well as some cash, in the zipper part, and my phone in the back. It's awesome when I go out or go to the store because I don't have to hold anything and no one's going to take my bag if I put it down because I don't have to put anything down!

Shake It Off by Taylor Swift

I don't care what anybody says, this song is a jam. 

I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers

This is another song I'm loving this semester. I love when it comes on during my walk to class, it puts me in such a good mood!

Heartbreak Dream by Betty Who

I really really like this song too! I love how Spotify introduces me to new music! 

My new running shoes! 

I know not everyone in this world enjoys running the same way I do. But man do I love these shoes, I wear them to class almost everyday, they're so comfortable even just for walking and I love how lightweight they are! These are the Saucony Kinvara 5 and they come in yellow, peach, and blue.

Baked by Melissa!

This is another one of my favorites but not just for fall, for all the time! Next time you're in New York City you need to look up this little place and stop by! Or if you know you're not going to the city soon check out their website www.bakedbymelissa.com/ and order some and have them sent to you because they're amazing! I am lucky enough to have an amazing mother and an amazing best friend who each sent me some of these amazing mini cupcakes that I love so much for my birthday this week!

And my final favorite are hair related. I love love love my hair. I recently cut it extremely short, well for me. I really miss my long hair, but I'm working on growing it back super healthy! 

Hydrate-Me from Kevin Murphy!

This is my favorite shampoo/conditioner combination I've ever used! I love the way it smells! I love how soft and luscious my hair is after I use it! It's amazing, absolutely amazing!

GHD Gold Professional 1" Styler

I've been using a GHD straightener since I was in middle school and when it finally died on me, after 7 years (!!) I chose to stick with ghd because I love it and it works really well for my hair. It's great for straightening and for nice loose, easy curls. I love love love my straightener and I would never use anything else. It's absolutely amazing. 

As for new favorite things in my life, this is about as far as it goes! I hope you all are having a great semester and fall! 

Door Decorations

Hi everyone! 

This weekend I was feeling particularly crafty and I decided to make door decorations for my roommate and I! 

What you need:
Collegiate Letters (wood) - $4.99 each
Acrylic paint ( I used pink, purple, yellow, white, and green) - $.34 each
Mod Podge Chevron stencil - $3.99
Black Sponge Paint brushes - $.07 each

Wooden animals and Mod Podge (optional)
Wooden crown (optional)

How to do it:

I started by painting the G, T, and crown with a coat of white acrylic paint. After a few minutes they were dry and I painted each their base color.

I painted the G pink, the T purple, and the crown yellow. They dried in a few minutes and they I began to stencil on the chevron.

Once I finished stenciling the G and the T, I painted pink and purple details on to the crown.

And to finish it off, I used Mod Podge to add the Elephant and the Cat to the letter because those are my roommate and I's favorite animals!

All together this craft cost $20 and took about 30, maybe 40, minutes. My roommate and I enjoy these so much! I hope y'all do too!

Happy Crafting!
gMe

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all had a lovely holiday season filled with family and joy!

I wanted to take a moment to share with you some presents I made for friends this year!

The first being some canvas paintings!

For this project you need:

• A canvas (or two) 
• Letter stickers (I used big letter stickers from mambiSTICKS)
• Paint brushes
• Paint
• ModPodge
• Satin finishing spray paint
• Glitter/fine tinsel

What to do:

I started by cutting out all of the letters I needed and placing them where I wanted to put them. Once I made sure everything would fit right I started sticking them on. I started with the first and last letters of the word and worked my way in so that I would make sure the whole word would fit.

Then I started to paint the canvas the base color. I made sure to stroke down the letter stickers so that no paint would get underneath the sticker. After a few minutes the letters began to curl so I started to peel them off. I let the base coat dry over night.

The next day I painted the letter in (I only painted the letters on "DULL YOUR SPARKLE"). I painted all of the letters pink and let that dry for a few hours.

Later that day I painted over SPARKLE with ModPodge and put tinsel/glitter on top of the ModPodge and let it dry. I dusted off all of the extra tinsel and then sprayed over SPARKLE with finishing spray. I let it dry and then I did some touch ups on the black and painted the sides of both canvases. Once they were dry I spray them with the finishing spray and set them to dry.

And voila!

The second project I did for friends and myself this year are "Good Things" Jars.

This is a great present to make for friends, the premise of the jar is that for the new year whenever anything good or memorable happens you write it down and put it in the jar! Then at the end of the year you get together and look back on all the good things that happened!

You can decorate the jar how ever you decide! Last year I painted mine all blue and did a white detail! This year I took a different route!

What you need:

• A mason jar (or any jar) 
• Paint (glass or multi-purpose)
• Paint brushes
• Glitter spray paint
• Painters tape 
• Finishing spray
• Rubbing alcohol
• Plastic cups

What to do:

The first thing to do is to clean your jar with rubbing alcohol. This will get all the guck off and make sure that the paint goes on smoothly.

The next this to do is take the lid off and turn the jar upside down. I used plastic cups to hold my jars while I painted so that I wouldn't be getting finger prints all of the jar and to avoid making a mess. 

I painted the entire outside of the jar black and then let that dry over night.

The next day I came pack and took painters tape and created a design for each of the jars. For one I did stripes and for the other I did color block.

I took them outside and spray painted them with silver glitter spray paint.

After about an hour of sitting I went back and I sprayed them with finishing spray to keep the glitter in place. One they sat for about another 30 minutes I went back and carefully took the tape off.

I sprayed them with finishing spray one more time and let them sit until they were done drying. And ta-da! I was really happy with the way they came out and I am giving them to my two best friends for their Christmas presents! 

I hope you guys have had a great break from school and a terrific holiday season! 

Happy Crafting,

gMe

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all had a lovely day with family, friends, and good food!

Thanksgiving always emphasizes to me how blessed I truly am. I’m so grateful for the people in my life and all that I get to experience. I’m thankful for my family and my friends, I’m thankful that I get to attend college and be a student athlete, and I’m thankful for all the material things I am blessed with in this life.

Some of my favorite foods today were definitely mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with a brown sugar, pecan crumble topping, and stuffing. Carbs galore! And desserts of course! Pecan pie is a must! Apple pie as well.

My family had dinner with my best friends family and it was so much fun to celebrate thanks with one another. We had a great dinner and wonderful desserts. We watched football and Big Bang Theory, and we played the new game Heads Up! If you haven’t heard of it go to the App Store immediately and purchase it because it was well worth the dollar that it costs! It’s so much fun, especially with a good group of people! You all need to try it! We had so much fun playing!

My Thanksgiving was so great! I was with good friends and family! I saw all my high school friends! My high school football team beat our rival in the annual Thanksgiving game! And I ate a ton of delicious Thanksgiving food!

I hope you all had a lovely day! Happy Thanksgiving!

gMe

Let's Get Crafty - Canvas Paintings

Hello darlings,

Over this past holiday weekend I got to spend some time at home. And of course I spent that time crafting!

Here's how to make your own!

What you need (Pink cheetah print one):

- Canvas (I used 12x12)

- Paint Brush

- Acrylic Paint

- Stencil

- Stencil Paint Brush

- Finishing Spray

For the "M": 

-Card stock 

-Printer

-X-acto Knife

How to:

Step 1: I started off by laying down a cut up brown paper bag so I wouldn't get any paint on the table.

Step 2: I used a small bottle of pink acrylic paint (water based) to paint the first coat on the canvas.

Step 3: After the first coat dried, I use a tube of hot pink acrylic paint (from the painters section in Michael's) to paint the top coat.

Step 4: As the paint was drying, I used an X-acto Knife to cut the "M" stencil. I had printed the "M" from Word onto a piece of card stock (because it is thicker that regular paper). After cutting the "M" out I used the piece of paper with the missing "M" to stencil the letter onto the canvas. 

*I used black Martha Stewart acrylic paint for the M*

Step 5: I used the cheetah print stencil to add the cheetah print to the sides of the "M" with the stencil brushes. I used silver glitter Martha Stewart paint. After each use of the stencil I rinsed it off and dried it before placing it back on the canvas to add more print. 

Step 6: I used a clear finishing spray paint to seal everything in once the painting had dried over night. 

And ta-da! I made this for one of my friends, I'm going to give it to her as part of her Christmas present. 

*When painting the canvas the base color, make sure that you paint the sides of the canvas too. 

What you need (Blue/Silver Chevron): 

-Canvas (12x12)

-Silver Glitter Spray Paint

-Blue Acrylic paint

-Masking Tape

-Cardboard 

-Scissors

-Ruler

-Brown Paper Bag

-Finishing Spary

How to: 

Step 1: I started by measuring and cutting a piece of cardboard using a rule in the Chevron pattern. Since my canvas was 12x12, I had the points every 1.5 inches. 

Step 2: I used the making take to transfer the Chevron pattern on to the canvas, carefully lining us the corners to make perfect intersections. 

Step 3: I cut pieces of a brown paper bag and taped them down over the sections of the chevron that I wanted to painted blue. 

Step 4: I took the canvas outside and used the Silver Glitter Spray Paint and sprayed the canvas, including the sides. 

Step 5: After letting the spray paint dry over night, I took the piece of paper bag off the canvas. And I painted these spaces with the blue paint. 

Step 6: Once the blue paint was dry, I took the tape off the canvas. Then I took the canvas outside and sprayed it with the clear finishing spray. 

*With this the finished spray is very important because the glitter falls and rubs off if you don't spray a finishing spray on top.*

And bam! Chevron beauty!

I made this one for myself to add to my collection of crafts hanging in my dorm room! I love it!

I hope you enjoy! Happy Crafting! 

gMe

Happy November

 Morning darlings!

Hope you’re all having a lovely start to the month. Here’s to hoping it’ll be a good one!

November brings colder weather, hot chocolate and more and more football games, as well as a busy schedule as the semester’s end nears. And there are very important things you need to stay adorable and organized throughout November!

Some of my must-haves for November include:

1. First and foremost, boots!

Boots are a must-have staple in every girl’s wardrobe. Now I’m not just talking Uggs here, I mean riding boots. Riding boots have become more and more apparent over the past few years, as they should because they’re gorgeous and go with everything.

A girl can never go wrong with a tall brown leather boot. Especially with cute tall socks!

In terms of a warm outdoor boot, you can’t go wrong with Uggs but if you’re looking to mix it up a little you can always go for the Hunter’s with a liner or Bean boots. Warm and water proof!

Personally I have pair of two-toned Bandolino boots and Hunters that I love!

2. Scarvesss!

I absolutely loveee scarves! Scarves are perfect for a brisk day, you can wear a quarter zip with a scarf and you’ll be perfectly warm when its too chilly for just a sweatshirt but too warm for a jacket. Also, light scarves can complete an outfit and give you a little extra warmth for colder days.

You can find great scarves for a few bucks at stores like Love Culture, I scored this exact scarf for $8.

3. Basic shirts and dark jeans!

I love basic long-sleeve from Gap and J. Crew, they’re super cute and they look great with a pair of dark blue jeans and a scarf! I love my American Eagle jeans (skinny, clean rinse). These are my all time favorite jeans and I have two pairs of the exact same jean in the exact same wash.

4. Rugby shirts!

These are great for the fall, they’re heavier and look great with jeans for a casual but put together look or great with leggings for a cozy look!  I love the monogrammed Rugby shirts as well!

5. Totes!

I’m in love with these little monogrammed Longchamp style bags! I love having my monogram on the bag because I feel like it’s less likely that someone is going to grab it while I’m not looking and my roommate won’t ask to borrow it cause that’d just be silly! And knowing that it’s not a $150 bag takes a lot of the pressure off about not having a pen explode on the inside or spilling some coffee on it. I got mine from Marley Lilly but they no longer have the bag. I have however found similar ones on Etsy.

6. Planner!

And as far as organization goes every girl should have a planner. A Lilly planner! I love my Lilly planner; it has room to write all my assignments and all the events I have going on.

Before I say goodbye I need to inform you all of my latest discovery thanks to some of my hometown loves: Red Velvet Iced Coffee!! Next time you're at Dunkin' Donuts you must try it! It's amazing! 

I hope your November starts off lovely and that you all have wonderful days!

Happy November, may the next thirty days be filled with loveliness!!

gMe