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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

TED Talk- 10 Item Wardrobe

Over the past few years my mom and I have started to collect Parisian "coffee table books".  Since taking french in high school, I have developed a minor obsession with anything related to the French culture.  About a year ago, my mom showed me a book that a blogger wrote about her study abroad experience in France.  Lessons From Madame Chic is about the french lifestyles she observed and adapted while abroad. You can catch up with The Daily Connoisseur on a daily basis. She has a ton of great fashion posts!

TED talks are commonly big ideas that are worth sharing with other people.  I had always hear about them, but I never watched them until recently.  I think they are very interesting and oftentimes provide a fresh perspective on such a wide range of topics.  This year, in my classes, several professors have shown them to supplement one of their lessons.

Recently The Daily Connoisseur was featured on a TED talk.  She talked about her concept of the 10 item wardrobe.  With the changing of the seasons, I thought the timing couldn't be more perfect to share this.
xoxo
-mQ-

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Let's Go Picking


Fall is one of the most beautiful seasons. It is one of my favorite seasons: the fashion, pumpkin spice everything, the beautiful colors that leaves change to, the food, field hockey, mums, pumpkins, and so much more.  September and October are also considered to be apple picking season.  One of the perks to living in the middle of nowhere is the mass amount of farmland that is near by.  30 minutes from my house in different directions are several apple orchards.  

On Sunday afternoon Todd and I went to a local orchard. While we were there we picked apples, walked around and looked at the fall decorations, and of course got apple cider doughnuts because what is a trip to an orchard without cider doughnuts.  It was a beautiful day, which made the orchard incredibly crowded.  


Going to an orchard is a great Fall date. It's cheap, you can spend as much time there as you want, it's something fun to do, and in the North East region there are tons of orchards so you don't have to travel very far. 

What to do with your hand picked apples?

I realized once I got home that I should have picked more apples because I didn't have enough to make pie or dumplings.  If I had more apples below are some things I would have made.


Xoxo
-mQs-

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Deep In My Heart, I Love My ADPi

As I mentioned yesterday I've been quite busy with sorority activities. In the past month my calendar has been jam packed with sorority events.  Chapters who have recruitment in the fall are really busy at the beginning of the school year. Recruitment takes a lot of hard work: memorizing songs and chants, learning about having quality conversations in just few minute increments, purchasing the perfect outfits, and just really getting back into the whole school and not being in summer mode anymore. 

A year ago, last month, I came home to Alpha Delta Pi and became a founding sister, of the ADPi chapter on my campus.  Over the past year my chapter has faced many ups and downs, it's like a roller coaster being a founding member.  I hold a leadership position, in my chapter, which has many pros and cons. It has definitely taught me a lot about my leadership styles, weaknesses and strengths I hold, how to communicate more effectively, and has taught me how to find balance in my life.  

Joining a sorority has truly given a place to call home at school.  I have met so many awesome people both inside and out of my chapter from becoming Greek. My organization has an incredible amount of alumnae involvement, which has brought some inspirational role models into my life. I've met women who I know will be my lifelong friends.

Open House Round

Several weeks ago we completed our very first formal recruitment. Recruitment is actually one of the most bizarre things ever, but yet we sorority women pretend like it is completely normal.  Let me tell you it is not normal. I would compare it to a sports tryout, but it is so far from that between the matching outfits, chanting and singing, ratings, spending hours in shoes that hurt your feet, "getting to know" a women in the matter of a 5 minute conversation, adorable PR videos, and just the insane amount of time it takes to get your new members.   I like to refer to recruitment as a cheerleading competition meets sports tryouts and a beauty pageant. As crazy as the process is, it all works out.  Somehow women end up finding their home away from home in a chapter that best suits them.  After all, it is because of this process that I have met the wonderful women I have.

Philanthropy Night

It was very neat being on the "other side" of recruitment.  It's so different being on the recruiting side of things as opposed to the potential new member side.  It's nice to have more control and have a better understanding of how the process works.  It was nice to see my chapter's weeks worth of hard work and recruitment practices pay off. I wouldn't say it was flawless, but we definitely did an awesome job for it being our first time through.  The whole process served as a nice bonding experience my sisters and myself.

Preference Night

We had our very first official Bid Day where we welcomed home 45 new members, Alphas.  Our chapter size almost doubled, which is very exciting.  





I got a Little Diamond Sister, otherwise known as a "little" in other sororities. 

We held our first chapter retreat. 

It is safe to say that I have just survived the busiest month of my life. I am very excited to see what the rest of the year brings for my chapter!

If you enjoyed these recruitment pictures, then be sure to checkout Instagram (@shorelifeofmqs) for more!
xoxo
-mQs-

Monday, October 6, 2014

Why, hello...


My one week hiatus turned into an almost three week break from blogging.  I feel bad for leaving my little blog empty the past few weeks, but writing posts was just about  impossible with my crazy hectic schedule. Sorority recruitment, Bid Day, Chapter Retreat, first round of exams for the semester,  coaching field hockey, and being sick all took up my time.

This past weekend and the next few days are what is considered to be my "Fall Break".  I'm incredibly grateful to be attending a university that gives their students time off mid semester, this year especially.  It has been great being able to sleep in the past few days and just take a small break from everything.  Over the course of my break I've been able to draft a few posts in order to get back on track with blogging again. I'm excited to be back to writing, it's something that I've really missed the past few weeks. 


I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!
xoxo
-mQs-