Agenda Love

I always had a clear idea of what college would be like and how everything would pan out. and for the most part, I was tragically wrong.  I thought I would move out, for one. I thought my style would change drastically. I thought I'd have a large social circle and maybe meet interesting boys. I thought I'd become a "scholar," I thought I wouldn't cry much, I thought I would stick to nursing, and most frivolous of all, I knew I would have a Lilly Pulitzer agenda. I don't even know where that idea stemmed from. I don't know when I first chanced upon a Lilly planner and decided I needed it, but for the last two or three years, it was on the list.  It's funny how out of all the things I thought would happen, the latter is the only one that actually did, and as ceremoniously as I had imagined. Just picture 18-year old me sitting at a computer, ordering my agenda the first day of pre-orders. And you can just imagine my glee when it arrived.

Even though I've heard Erin Condren planners are better,  I think I'll stick with Lilly forever because they're so darn beautiful and they suit my affinity for floral patterns and little animals prints, both of which are very present in the agenda. And the issue with Erin Condren planners is that I can't find a way to justify paying $50 for a 12-month planner (that doesn't even have floral prints and little animals on it). Granted, $28 might be a tiny bit expensive, but you should consider that it's a 15-month agenda. In fact, I think what I'll do is use my Lilly agenda for the 15 months and then fill in that one planner-less period with a little agenda from May Books because I know they always have an agenda sale for New Years and then it would just be about $8, which sounds decent to me. Plus those ones are cute too. Granted, they're tiny and a tiny bit flimsy, but they're cute. You know, I don't think I could ever go back to having a black and white planner after having had a pretty one.

I wanted to make a post about my agenda, because when I was first deciding how I could organize it, I had a hard time finding really good information in one place. It was all scattered and different and frankly, it took me a good month to actually feel like I knew what I was doing. I figured it would be nice to make a post for students to be able to refer to when they first start using a planner.  And I mean if I'm going to touch the subject, I might as well be thorough. So keep in mind, there will be lots of pictures and it's a bit of a lengthy post.

Continue reading after the jump,

Thursday Thoughts

Okay so before I even begin telling you about my weekend plans, I just have to say, wasn't last night's episode of Modern Family so insanely hilarious? Oh god, I never stopped laughing. This week has actually been really stressful for me, so it was so lovely to just sit there and laugh for a good half hour. The next couple days won't be too exciting either, I mean I have a big English paper I need to write, then next week I have midterms and then the week after that I'm off to New York. I did pick up a copy of Vogue yesterday though and I was reading it at 5am today, cause if I want actual free time I have to sacrifice sleep haha. Tonight, though, there's Grey's and the Victoria's Secret Swim Show so I'll definietly make time to watch those shows! Well anyway, I just wanted to let you know why I haven't been blogging too consistently lately, but this should just be an issue until mid-March and then I'll be on as usual. Anyway, here are the links for the week:

 - these couples took on the challenge and stared into each others eyes for four minutes.
 -  Useful tips to navigate life and find yourself.
 -  Speaking of the VS Swim Show, Karlie Kloss has given up her angel wings to attend NYU in the Fall!
 -  When opposites attract, the rich marry the poor.
 -  A brief history of birth control.
 -  Bobbi Brown products are so beautiful, but did you know, she loves wrinkles.
 -  Apparently, just being in the presence of a wax figure establishes an actual human connection, as if you were with the actual person. So weird.

Have a lovely evening!

Pretty Little Things // 04

1.  //  2.  //  3.  //  4.  //  5.

Happy Monday! It's the start of a way busy week for me since I have exactly two weeks to finish all my homework for the next three and a half weeks. For whatever reason, my humanities teacher decided to assign a movie as homework every single day that I'm gone and I just so happen to have a big midterm paper due the Monday before I leave as well. Life is so hard. Anyway, I made a little masterpost of things I found pretty, as I always do on Mondays.

The journal, I believe would make the cutest little present to a friend who loves to write. I'd love to give it to one of of my songwriter friends. I feel like they'd appreciate it. As for the owl vase, don't tell me you don't want it. It's beautiful and whimsical and adorable with it's little ruffled collar. I think the collar makes it look sophisticated too, plus I mean it's white and gold so it would go nicely in any room. It's on sale, you know. The nail polish, on the other hand, is quite expensive. Dior's Nail Glow. I've been eyeing it for exactly one year. It's all because I saw a blog post about it last year, and she had it on and and it made her nails look such a subtle, perfect pink, so clean and classy. It's the ultimate nail polish for the spring and summer. I just have to convince myself it's worth the $27. And the shirt? It's a turtleneck. I love turtlenecks. I love that you can just tuck your hair into the neck and go on like that, looking like a supermodel. And who doesn't love black and white stripes? If I had that shirt, I'd tuck it into a pretty skirt, like the mustard one featured here, or a lovely pair of high-waisted shorts and wear it around in the spring, when it's not quite warm enough but not quite cold enough either. The lovely little skirt is a favorite of mine, mostly because I've been obsessed with shopping for floral skirts and dresses this past week. I'm just so ready for Spring, and this one caught my eye because of it's bright, bold color.

Have a wonderful day!

Thursday Thoughts

I can't believe it's been three months since the epic, incredibly exciting day in which a wonderful fedex box was dropped off at my house. I've been thinking about it all day, and yesterday too. You know, it's the single most unprecedented event that has ever taken place in my life and honestly, I still can't even believe that it happened to me, among other lucky girls. I mean GUYS Taylor Swift knows my name. She knows who I am. She read that dumb post about how I couldn't afford that fox sweater at Soel Boutique. She knows I like caramel lattes. She thinks i'm elegant, and "truly beautiful," as she wrote in the card. It's still surreal, the stuff of my most fantastical dreams, except it actually happened. And you know, now that we're on the subject of this, I'm incredibly grateful for all the friends I've made who also got packages like this one. I stayed up late talking to them last night about life and love and it was so comfortable and, beautiful.

Anyway, this weekend will be anything by relaxing. I have papers I need to write and things I need to do, pictures I need to edit, and it's not like there's a reason to not do anything. Maybe, if I'm quick, I'll end up with free time on Sunday. Tonight, however, I'm probably going to a concert, but maybe I won't. The plans aren't completely set in stone. Either way, I'll end up watching Grey's tonight, even if it's at midnight. Anyway, here are this week's links:

 -   we should speak kinder of each other.
 -   I made these for dinner yesterday and I LOVED them.
 -   a review on some thought-provoking short stories
 -   I just really want to learn how to capsule my wardrobe and get rid of things, and this is a good start.
 -   Thin Mints were extra popular this year, so now there's a delay and we have to wait for our cookies.
 -   A woman is using street art to search for love.
 -   On the true meaning of Fashion Week and why it's important to our society.

Well, I hope your weekend is lovely. I won't be posting tomorrow because of the paper I need to write, but let me know if you have any cool plans for the weekend! I'd love to hear about it.

What I'm Making: Archer progress

Over the weekend, I had quite a bit of extra time to work on the Archer Shirt. I actually didn't spend that much time working on it, but I did sew a whole lot. I was able to put together the whole bodice and now the only thing I still have left to do is sew the sleeves and the collar, etc. And hemming, obviously. I love how it looks so far though, especially the back:

I can already tell what it's gonna be like when I'm done with it and I'm so excited! I already know I'm gonna get a lot of wear out of it this Spring.  Well, I'll be keeping you updated on the progress. As for my diet, it's definitely working, but it's not any easier. I'm excited for tomorrow though! I've been craving sweets so bad, especially since I have a bag of Ghirardelli dark chocolate in my desk drawer tempting me, but since tomorrow is bananas and milk/yogurt day I'll finally be able to have something sweet that I love almost as much as chocolate. And then it's gets easier from then on. I'll keep telling you how it goes!

Have a lovely Wednesday!

Healthiness

On Sunday, after devouring several of the pink sugar cookies I made on Valentine's Day, I decided I need to turn my eating habits around. This isn't even a new development for me. I mean this happens all the time, and I always do really well for a couple weeks before giving up, except for that one summer I only ever ate healthy food and that year and a half I didn't drink soda. It's just hard to stick to these sorts of plans, you know. I feel like if I found one I really love, it wouldn't have to be hard, and I have found those before but they're always expensive. Like I could follow the Food Lovers Cleanse or try the Tone It Up meal plan, except I can't because I'm a poor college kid and neither of those are in my budget right now. So instead, I looked on pinterest and I settled on a diet I tried two years ago, which actually worked back then. It's called the Sacred Heart Diet, or the Eat Your Heart Out diet. 

The last time I did it, I lost eight pounds and my favorite thing about it was the fact that it sort of got me used to not eating junk food. I mean that was how I kicked off the summer I ate real, whole food all the time. Yesterday was actually my first day, fruit day, and it was a struggle, but I'm determined. Today is vegetable day, which is significantly easier, but still hard. You know what's funny is that my original idea for today's post had been to write about pasta. So it's a total turn-around. Anyway, I'll keep you updated.

Have a lovely Tuesday!  If you have any healthy recipes, I'd love to hear them!

picture credit goes to Glen Carrie

Happy (Almost) Valentine's Day!

Today was a thrill to say the least. Actually, last night combined with this morning was a thrill of the best kind possible. I mean last night, Taylor Swift's new music video was released at midnight, well 2am EST and I stayed up for another two hours fangirling and then this morning I was up at 4:45am, bright and early, to watch the official release on Good Morning America at the east coast time because you know I can't wait two hours for these sorts of things and then beyond that, Vogue released their March cover with Karlie and Taylor on it and this sweet little video to go along and my heart melted into a puddle of feelings because those two are just TOO cute, and I love it. And when that was happening, I was in the midst of sewing my Archer shirt, which is almost completely done.

All in all, it was an epic 15 hours, and tonight is my annual pre-valentine's day baking night, which is incredibly exciting! I'm going to be making Lavender Earl Grey cupcakes and pink frosted sugar cookies with red heart sprinkles because it's better to be festive. I might also fill raspberries with dark chocolate. Actually, I wasn't planning on that but now that I thought of it it's going to happen.

Anyway, I wanted to show you my outfit for tomorrow! Every year I dress up festively for Valentine's Day. I know in past years, I wore my diy heart sweatshirt, but it's actually not very comfortable because I made it when I was 16 and horrible at making things. Well, I didn't think I was horrible, but I was. I'm sure of that. I wore that sweatshirt two years, in 2012 and 2013. Last year, I know I dressed up festively but I don't remember exactly what I wore because I was unfortunately sick and I had my party, so the last thing on my mind was taking pictures of my outfit.

This year, since the weather is so perfect, I'm going to be wearing my short lace skirt with my lovely "My heart belongs to Mere and Olivia" sweatshirt, because if we're being honest here, my heart really does belong to Taylor Swift's cats. And I love being ironic about Valentine's Day, e.g. the cats I put on my Galentine's Day invitation last year alluding to the fact that I'm probably going to become a cat lady. And I just really love the contrast between the casual, sporty sweatshirt and the pretty, feminine little skirt and the shoes + frilly socks. I actually love those red shoes so much, I wear them year round and as I mentioned before, I love the combination of socks and heels.

You see, every year I make my plan to go to the movies the Friday before Valentine's Day and I wear my outfit that night as well, but this year I'm not doing that because I don't have an desire to go see 50 Shades of Grey, so really I don't know where I'll be wearing this outfit. I don't know if you know, but I'm a Girl Scouts troop leader on Saturday mornings, so I'm definitely going to go to that tomorrow, but I know for a fact I won't be wearing a short skirt, but I'll probably still wear everything else, but with black pants probably, or a longer skirt. Maybe I'll just go to the grocery store just to have somewhere to wear this to. I feel like I can't not. Other than that, my plans are just to stay home and watch a movie. I don't know what I'll watch either, but it'll be fun.

What I Wore: sweatshirt (Taylor Swift) // ivory lace skirt (Willow and Clay) // white lace socks (TopShop) // red heels (Kimichi Blue at UO) // NARS Luxembourg lip pencil (Sephora) // Los Angeles necklace (Kris Nations) (similar) // Better Than Sex mascara (Sephora) // Clinique 'Even Better' Makeup (Nordstrom)

Anyway, I hope you're having a lovely day and I hope tomorrow is absolutely perfect for you! Happy Love Day!