What I Wear to Class

This is my uniform of sorts lately. I will not lie to you, I bought out Target's clearance v-necks in black at the end of the season. But here goes nothing!

-Black V-Neck (similar): This could be any colored t-shirt, but I own about eight or nine black t-shirts, so you could say they are my favorite.

-Rolled Jeans (similar): I found a pair of jeans at a consignment store a month or so ago, they are New York and Co. and I am obsessed with them

-Grey Toms: My mom got these for me on clearance at the end of Summer! I love them so much (mine are a little dirty, I went apple-picking in them!)

-Fossil Watch: This was my gift from Chris last Christmas and I love it! I wear it every day, it goes with everything, and it is reasonably priced (perfect for anyone's Christmas wish list!)

-Cat Earrings (similar): I am OBSESSED with my cat earrings. I wear them multiple times a week. What can I say? I love cats!

Bulletin Boards

My wing bulletin board for the month of October was inspired by this Infograph that I found on Pinterest over the summer and I thought it would make an impactful bulletin board. I originally had nineteen of the facts drawn, colored, cut out, and typed up. Sadly I was only able to fit eleven on my board! If this happens to you a good idea would be to stretch the bulletin board throughout your hallway and just put the remaining facts on construction paper and post them up everywhere.

My floor buddy and I decided on an adaptation to a bulletin board I found on Pinterest (and cannot find the picture!). The board is "Do You Give A Ripppppppppp?" We found a bunch of ad type papers that you are able to rip a portion of the bottom off to get the information. I found the majority of mine on the internet but my floor buddy made all of hers.

This month my floor buddy and I made a "Goal Ball Machine" where residents could write their goals on circles. I thought for the most part it has been successful and we have only had a couple residents that took advantage of the interactive board by writing inappropriate messages.

How to Be A Successful Student Bulletin Board

When I got back to the residence halls for RA Training I realized that my staff meant business and that everyone was going to have exceptional bulletin boards. I love making my bulletin boards so the fact that I was going to have the pleasure of living in a building surrounded by fantastic boards was music to my ears. I was inspired by this picture/chart/thing I found on Pinterest and I took the idea and ran with it.

My board is broken up into the following categories:

-Living Somewhere New

-Living With a Roommate

-Managing Your Time (my personal favorite)

-Getting the most out of college

And in case I had residents that did not want to read the whole board (because those residents are everywhere, right?)

-Surviving the Year Cheat Sheet

I love this board because it allowed me to freehand and trace a ton of pictures and make the board super colorful and eye-grabbing. But if you are looking for your back-to-school bulletin board I hope mine inspires your's!

Sailboat Door Decs!

Hello hello! It is back to school again, and I want to share with all of the RAs that follow my blog my door decs for the semester! I made 45 of these things and it took weeks to complete them. I will warn you that each door dec cost me a little less than $1 so if you are interested in recreating this idea and not spend as much I will be sure to include a cheaper supplies list at the end!

What I used to make the Door Decs:

This Template

Colored Cardstock (one piece for each door dec)

Brown Cardstock (bottom piece of boat)

Lighter Brown Cardstock (main boat frame)

Flat craft sticks

Fabric for the sales

Cotton Balls for clouds

I printed the template out onto cardstock and used it to trace out the different parts of the boat and sails. You would think that would be the most tedious part of the whole thing, the tracing and cutting out of all the pieces. Nope! Gluing definitely took the longest, I would glue 15 together and be done fore the night! But once I had them all finished they looked fantastic. To make the clouds you just have to gently pull at a cotton ball until it looks like a cloud and glue it on! I think the template made this so much easier than it would have been if I was just working from scratch.

Here are some more pictures!:

 This was the first one I completed, I was super proud.

 These are the different designs I made for my residents.

My finished works of art taking over the dining room table.

Because I did not want to include a Resident's name or room number on my blog I will show you the personalized door dec I made for myself!

I used two different fonts, one to write the name of the resident and the other to do the room number.

I even included cats!

I know that not many RAs are interested in spending $1 per door dec so here are some different ways that you can make this door dec with cheaper supplies:

Instead of Cardstock, use construction paper! It is much cheaper and you get a lot more for the price.

Instead of fabric, also use construction paper, or possibly tissue paper, get creative!

Hand write your resident's names instead of using computer paper and ink to print them out.

Couple's Bucket List Update!

47. Go to the Zoo

 So in case you did not read my blog post on my Couple's Bucket List you should definitely do that, but a little while back Chris and I went to the Sacramento Zoo! This date was actually part of his anniversary present (which I still need to do a blog post on...a few months late!) but to give you an idea I made up 12 envelopes that each had a date prepared and planned for each month for a year. June's date was to go to the zoo! We had a nice time looking at all of the animals and having a delicious snack of Soft Serve Ice Cream! I do love a nice trip to the Zoo, and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to another zoo with my job! Definitely not as fun as a date at the zoo.

So whether you have been dating your man (or lady) for days, weeks, months, or years, the zoo is a wonderfully simple date that is a great way to bring out the animal lover in everyone!

 The tiger was literally on the other side of the glass. 

 When he stood up!

 Taking a break on a bench, it was almost 100 degrees!

 Trying on a hat to beat the heat!

Looking awesome!

Summer Cleaning... Under the Bathroom Sink

So when I am back home I have to compete for space in the bathroom with my sister. Love her to death but this time when I got home it was like there was absolutely no room for anything I brought! So I talked to my mom and I told her I would put in new Contact paper under the sink and clean out the stuff so that my sister and I could share the space nicely!

What you will need to achieve an organized bathroom sink:

-Containers (preferably the kind with handles so you can easily remove it from under the sink), get enough so that each person using the bathroom will have their own space.

-Roll of Contact paper--your's is probably dated anyway so just buy a new roll

-Box cutter to trim the new contact paper to size

-Garbage bags--you will be throwing stuff out!

How I cleaned out under the bathroom sink:
1) Take EVERYTHING out. I mean everything, do not leave a single bottle or roll of toilet paper in there.
2) If you have old, dated contact paper under the sink, rip that stuff out!
3) Put in the new Contact paper!
4) Organize your beauty products and bathroom supplies by category (bathroom supplies, face stuff, hair stuff, nail stuff, etc.).
5) Throw away anything that has less than 1/4 of product in the bottle (unless you use it every single day).
6) Throw away anything you haven't used in a month.
7) Throw away any products you did not like or know you will not use again.
8) Put remaining items into your bathroom container.
9) Put your bathroom supplies in their own spot under the sink.
10) Put away bathroom containers under sink.

I wish I could show you a Before and After picture, but it did not occur to me to do a blog post until I was in the middle of the mess. The first "During" picture I took is the title picture and as you can tell it was quite the mess... Here is the second "During" picture:

At this point I have separated my sister's things by face, hair, and nail supplies and she just had to toss whatever she did not want to keep anymore!

And the end result... Drumroll Please!

Ta Da! It looks so much better, once again wishing I had that "Before" picture. But my sister and I each have a container (mine is blue!) and we were able to  still have enough space so that the cupbord does not look too cluttered.

So You are Graduating High School Today...Eight Pictures to Take!

So here is Part Two of my High School to College Series that I am writing this summer! If you read Part One I wrote about a Top Ten List of things you should do before graduating high school. But today or in the next few days you will be graduating from high school (or college... these picture ideas will apply to anyone graduating!) and I have eight pictures that you need to have before you take off your cap and gown and start on your next life adventure.

Before/During the Ceremony

The "This is How I Decorated My Cap" Picture: So technically my high school did not allow us to decorate our caps, but I had already finished when they announced the day of graduation that we were not allowed to. This bad boy took me two days of spending three hours a day gluing sequins. Not an exciting job, but the end result was worth it.

The "Walking to Your Seat" Picture: this is where your parents use that zoom on the camera and try and find you in a line of people that look exactly the same. Try and wave to them (if you know where they are sitting) so they know where you are in a sea of caps and gowns!

The "I Got My Diploma!" Picture: I would also suggest if you can to get a picture of you walking to get your diploma and exiting the stage, because of terrible lighting none of my pictures turned out well when I was on the stage. You can also buy a copy if your school has a photographer taking pictures right when you receive your diploma, but I did not buy mine. Also, do not hold your diploma upside down like I did...

The "We Did It!" Picture: This is the most stereotypical picture you can take at a graduation, but I am so happy I have it! There is nothing like capturing the excitement of the end of a graduation.

After the Ceremony

The "Family" Picture: Take a picture with the people who came to show their support! They came to watch you accept your diploma and finish off high school!

The "Sister" Picture: Be sure to take a picture with your sister! I did not take a picture with my brother, which is weird because he was definitely there. Think ahead and plan time to take a picture with each of your siblings.

The "Daddy's Girl" Picture: This could be modified for one parent or both, but I just love this picture of my dad and me!

The "Best Friend" Picture: I know this picture is blurry and that is such a bummer, but I absolutely love how candid it is. We also took the staged side-by-side picture but I chose not to include that one.

So there you have it! Eight pictures you should definitely look into having on your camera before you leave the graduation! There are thousands more I hope you plan on taking, but these are the ones you will always look back on!