Gossip Girl

I absolutely love Gossip Girl. It is my favorite show.  During Fall Semester the last season was on TV. I convinced my friends to watch it with me every Monday night.  At first they didn't understand the show but the more they watched the more it made sense.  When I went home for winter break sQs and I watched an episode just about every other day (we managed to get through the first season and a half).  Yesterday when I came back from class, I walked in my room and found jHg watching it on Netflix. She said I've finished the first nine episodes in the first season... all today. YES! Last night I decided that I had gotten a decent amount of my work accomplished so I was going to watch a few episodes.  JH decided to join me, we watched the last two episodes on disc 6 in Season 2.  Good thing it was the last two episodes on the DVD because I'm pretty sure we would have kept watching if we didn't have to change the DVD. 

The Blair Waldorf Look:

In every episode Blair wears some sort of headband. It's a preppy look and her signature.

All this Gossip Girl talk has inspired me to start wearing my headbands again. 

Yesterday's Look

Today's look

xoxo

-mQs-

Birthday shout out

Happy Birthday to tDn who turns twenty today.

xoxo

-mQs-

My Weekend

Friday night out: 

Catching up with friends, our first weekend of second semester.

Saturday Night In:

I stayed in and made posters for Relay For Life since I am on the committee at my school. JH and I spent some quality time doing absolutely nothing. It was much needed because I was able to sleep for eleven hours.

Sunday Funday:

Homework time

Xoxo

-mQs-

Keeping Up With Life

As a college student, things can get pretty hectic.  In order to manage everything I have to do I try to stay really organized. 

To Do Lists:

 I am a huge list maker. Every morning I spend about 5- 10 minutes making a list of what I have to each day, and as the day goes on I usually have things to add.  Last semester I started using a notebook for my To Do lists rather than having random pieces of paper all over my desk.

This is the notebook that I write my lists in I got it at Target.

 This is what today's to do list looks like:

I write the date at the top of my list, random things I need to get done on the left side, and then school related things on the right side.  

Calendars

This is another thing that helps keep me organized.  I hang this up on the side of my desk.  Here I write the dates and times of things like work, class, practice, meetings, birthdays, etc.  I find it is best to color code events so that the calendar maintains organization: work is always written in purple, class is written in orange, and meetings are written in green. 

I have a printout that looks like this one for each month in 2013. 

Click here to get your own Calendar print out: 2013 Calendar

xoxo

-mQs-

Pilates.

My New Favorite Thing...

Yesterday I had my first pilates class and I absolutely loved it!  I have it twice a week for the first half of this semester. It's great I get college credits for working out, can't get much better than that.  The class size is incredibly small, twelve people, which allows the instructor to give you individualized attention.

Benefits of Pilates:

1. Refreshing mind body workout

2. Learn how to move more efficiently

3. Develop a strong core.

4. It is gentle but challenging

5. Gain long, lean muscles and flexibility

6. Create an evenly conditioned body to help enhance sports performance

xoxo

-mQs-

Three Events in One Day

Happy MLK Day! 

Happy Presidential Inauguration Day!

 Happy First Day of Spring Semester!

Today was our first day of classes for Spring Semester 2013.  It's great catching up with my friends I really missed them a lot, but I still feel like there is really no place like home.  My Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are going to be quite busy this semester since I have back to back to back classes starting at 10:30.

First Day Fashion

To start the semester off on the right note I thought it was fitting to dress for success- cute and comfortable!

Black vintage sweater

Gray shirt from Express

Gray Leggings from American Eagle

Pink Scarf

Tan Boots from Clarks

Supplies for Second Semester

1.

 These Colorful Pens are great for taking notes.  I try to color code my notes to make it easier for studying. The more appealing your notes look, the more likely you are to study.

2.

I find that using index cards really helps me to study. They are an essential to my school supplies.

I really like the colorful ones because they make studying look more appealing and like I mentioned before color coding really helps.

3.

Colorful one and three subject Notebooks

I prefer to use notebooks rather than binders. I just find that they get less beat up than binders do. Just like everything else I color code my notebooks too.

4.

This is the most important of all my school supplies.  I absolutely love my Lilly Agenda!  I would be lost without it.  After my first day of class I go through my syllabus for each of my classes and write down important dates, such as when assignments are due and days of exams.  This helps keep me organized.

Well I'm off to dinner!

xoxo

-mQs-

Creativity

Paint Your Own Pottery

A week ago my boyfriend and I went to a paint your own pottery. We each made travel mugs. It was so much fun I can't wait to go to back this summer and create something else!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

This is what my cookies looked like once baked.

 Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

3 oz. cream cheese

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips

10 crushed Oreo cookies

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper
3. Crush oreos
4. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese until well combined
5. Add the sugar and vanilla extract. Then mix.
6. Pour flour and chocolate chips into the batter.
7. Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop the dough out into balls. Roll each ball in the Oreo crumbs until it is completely covered.
8. Place on cookie sheet
9. Bake 15-17 minutes
10. Let cool for five minutes before placing on a cookie sheet.

Crayon Art 

My Final form of creativity in the past week is crayon art.  I made the piece of art below with the quote.

Supplies:

five crayons

Canvas

Blow dryer

I thought this quote was so cute.

This one was made by tDn.

xoxo
-mQs-

Mother Daughter Date

Since I go back to school this Sunday sQs decided to take the day off of work yesterday, Thursday, so that she could spend the day with me.  We are extremely close, she is pretty much my best friend. She is my rock through everything.  I'm glad my college is less than an hour an a half from home because it allows her to come down and visit me frequently, which I love. 

So... what better mother daughter date than eating in a french cafe, vintage shopping, and browsing at the outlets. 

Brunch

We started out our day with brunch at Rachel's Creperie.  My mom had been here before with her sorority sister who lives in downtown Lancaster.  She knew I would love the cafe so, for once in our life,  deciding where to eat was a no brainer.

Fact: I'm a foodie.

I absolutely love food. No I am not picky, I just like to eat quality food and delicious tasting food.

Supposedly the head chef was trained in France, so cool!

For my main meal, pictured above, I had the Turkey Cordon Bleu.

 (Turkey, Ham, Brie Cheese, and Honey Dijon Dressing) 

For desert we split just a simple Crepe with nutella

Fact: I am obsessed with France especially Paris.

I took three years of french in high school. Since then I just have had this fascination with the country: the fashion, the food, the language, the houses, the museums, the Eiffel tower, & so much more.

 

The entire cafe was painted a golden color with black and white photographs taken in France. The tables were small bistro tables. On each table top was a mod podged collage of something French. On our table was things related to the story Madeline.  As a little girl this was one of my favorite stories, see even as a child was infatuated with France. 

I know this lamp is random for this post but I just got it last week and felt the need to share it.  sQs and I picked it up at target.  It's the newest edition to my dorm decor at WAC.

Vintage Shopping

After brunch we headed across the street to some neat vintage shops.  My favorite was called Building Character.  It was this big warehouse filled with mini shops.  

According to their website "It's a place that has used fashionable clothing and accessories, handmade jewelry and metal craft, antiques and collectibles, custom greeting cards and handcrafted ornaments by local craftspeople, most of whom employ green practices and recycling methods to create their inventory"

Outlets

Our final stop of the day was at the tanger outlets.

xoxo

-mQs-

Perfectly Polished

The weather this week has been rather dreary, so why not brighten up your day by painting your nails!

My Current Color: Chinchilly by Essie

Other Fun Colors:

Mint by GAP

Topless and Barefoot by ESSIE

Pirouette My Whistle by OPI over My Pointe Exactly by OPI

xoxo

-mQs-

Thank You Notes

Thank You Notes!

Since Christmas was almost a month ago I am obviously a little behind on getting my thank you notes out but better late than never, right.  With all the technology we have today it is so tempting to just send somebody a quick thank you email. However, I think it is more personal to send and receive an actual hand written card. I mean everyone likes to receive something in the mail that isn't a bill or an advertisement.  Just write a short note expressing your gratitude for their kind gesture, it doesn't have to be super long like a college essay.

Tips to Thank You Notes:

1. Write the note by hand

2. Keep it short and sweet

3. Make it fun

4. Use colorful pens

5. Design the note yourself or pick up a cute card at the store

I got these at target. I thought they were simple but cute. 

xoxo

-mQs-

Making the Days Count

Enjoying Life

Today I spent my morning at Starbucks sipping on a green iced tea while catching up with my Aunt from Virginia.  She was up for a birthday party for one of our relatives who turned 90. She told me that lately she has been making more time for "fun" in her life because you never know if tomorrow will come. I thought this quote below was fitting to our conversation.

Source: Making Things Happen via Carly on Pinterest

Take the time out of your day to do something that makes you happy...

Source: Starbucks

Source: Starbucks

Source: nicole via Pinterest

even if it is just getting your favorite drink from Starbucks.

xoxo

-mQs-