that time of the month.

It is that time of the month again, that almost every college student dreads….

FINALS TIME!

I don’t know about anyone else, but when finals time rolls around I begin to get antsy and unable to focus because Christmas is on the mind.  And this year is even worse than normal.  Taking 19 credit hours is now coming to bite me in the butt and make me realize how important it is to stay on top of school work, even over Thanksgiving Break.  A that whole being focused and studying over Thanksgiving Break was definitely something I chose to not partake in this year, which unfortunately was not the brightest idea I have ever had.  Despite my big hatred of finals, I have found a way to keep my cool and remain focused while I find myself up until the wee hours of the morning and pounding coffee as if it were going out of style.

The one thing that I wish I could be doing everyday is looking for Christmas gifts for family members and friends with a large cup of coffee in hand, all while watching FaLaLaLa Christmas on Lifetime.  Yes, I will openly admit that I am a fan of the Christmas movies that are played everyday for 25 days up until Christmas on the Hallmark and Lifetime channels.  They are corny, full of cheese, and make you laugh, sometimes even until a single tear falls, because the plots are 100% unrealistic.  My sister and I look forward to them every year because with every new Christmas season, Lifetime will air a new tacky Christmas movie about a girl and a boy who happen to meet by accident and fall completely in love just in time for the holidays.  If only things like that actually happened in life, and finding your soul mate was as easy as picking up a letter on the street asking Santa to find her dad a new mom for Christmas as happens in Dear Santa.

Unfortunately though, I have found myself locked in the computer and apparel production lab for hours upon hours sewing final projects, preparing presentations and making study guides for finals.  Yes, it really is as awful as it sounds too, not to seem overly dramatic or anything.  However, despite the suckiness of my new daily routine for the next two weeks, I have found something very small that brings a smile to my face and it happens every time my phone rings.  This holiday season with my new iPhone I got this year, I have made the theme song from the movie Elf my ringtone.  It is something small and a little ridiculous, however, every time I hear that little tone it makes me think of Christmas, going back home, being with my family, sitting by the fire, all of the fun winter activities, and of course all the Christmas movies especially Elf.

So whether or not you are a college student stressed out by the approaching finals and presentations, maybe you can take my little suggestion to help brighten your day and get you through the next few weeks.  It can be as little as a ringtone or changing your background to something Christmasy or holiday related.  You would be amazed at how much this change can lift your spirits when all you can focus and think about is anything but studying and sitting in a library all day and night.

my newest form of procrastination.

So last week my roommate, Kyndall, decided to fill me on a little hidden gem of a website called….Pinterest.  Being a senior I knew that I would be busy this year, and since I studied abroad for a full semester, I knew that I would have to take extra hours to make sure that I graduated in the Spring of 2012.  However, these past couple of weeks have been so extremely stressful and all school related.  I have been lacking in proper nutrients, sleep, personal care, and a life.  So last week when she introduced me to Pinterest, and at first it was like this blog and Twitter, I had absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing or what people would think when I would pin something weird, etc.  But caring about what people think about me isn’t that high on my list of things to worry about currently, so I continued to pin away.  And now it has become my latest obsession.

I have also become the world’s biggest dork.  I have only been on Pinterest for 2 weeks and I already have 13 boards and 256 pins!!  But I just can’t stop.  There are so many cool things on this website, and to be able to categorize them makes me feel like I am organizing clutter on my desk.  I have a board for food, fashion, foods I would eat, things I would make, art, places I have and want to go, funny things, and of course like your typical romantic girl… a board for my dream wedding and future house. On Pinterest they have the most interesting pictures ranging from people and hairstyles to quotes and workout plans.  And everyday they are adding more and more pictures.  The concept behind Pinterest is so interesting and being on the website itself makes you want to know and look at it all more and more. http://blog.pinterest.com/

Besides being simply obsessed with Pinterest, the things that I love to pin on my boards would definitely have to be for my future house!  They have some of the most amazing pictures of bookshelves and reading rooms that I have ever seen! I would have so many of my books on these shelves and would love the feeling of almost being in a library, yet I could never be kicked out and I could be as loud or quiet as I pleased with no one shhsshhing me from behind a desk.   I could literally spend all afternoon just reading through books and fashion magazines in this large room with the windows open and listen to some soft soothing music.  The only thing I would alter would be to put way more comfy couches and a fluffy rug on the floor so that it was not as harsh and modern as it looks now with the out of place furniture.

They also had these amazing craft rooms!  Growing up I used to scrapbook and do other miscellaneous arts and crafts with my mom and two sisters.  However, we just had all of our supplies literally everywhere, in the basement, our rooms and the laundry room.  Nothing was ever organized and when I finally am old enough, make a decent amount of money, and can afford to create my own personalized craft room, I would hope that it would look a little something like this…..

 Being a girl I obviously have wayyy too many clothes for my own good, especially shoes and bags.  But I mean really, what girl doesn’t have enough room in her closet?  On Pinterest they have some of the most amazing closets for clothes that are walk in closets, have counters in them, decorative lighting, and in some pictures they even have a huge case especially for your shoes like Sex and the City.  Basically my ideal closet situation, now if only I could find my Big and have him build the most amazing closet and shoe case for me…hmmmm

And last but not least, Pinterest had one of the best pictures of what I really want for my future house…..a wrap around wide white porch.  It may sound a little familiar, like the house from The Notebook.  However, I knew this girl in grade school and she had a half-wrap around porch and it was absolutely beautiful and so nice during the Spring, Summer, and Fall.  I thoroughly enjoy sitting outside, reading, and just relaxing on the porch, and I think that having a wrap around porch on my entire house would be the most unique thing to separate my house from every other house in the area that I will one day live.  I just hope that my future husband understands that the wrap around porch is definitely a necessity and an permanent feature I want on my house.

So tonight instead of continuing to work on my capstone project I am joining the rest those college procrastinators out there who are either on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest and I am going to continue to pin and find other amazing ideas to steal and keep in my back pocket for when it comes time to decorate and create my real dream home.  Look at the site with the web address listed above, and let me know what things you have begun to pin on your boards!!

*All of the pictures used in this post were from Pinterest.com

drive by

Picture 1.

This picture was taken in 2007 while I was in the car with a bunch of friends driving through St. Charles, MO.  We were driving to a Taylor Swift concert, (insert your laugh here), I know TSwift! I was young and naive, give me a break.  While we were driving the sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful.  I didn’t imagine that I would be able to catch anything remotely decent on my camera that I stuck out the window because we were driving on a twisty, turny road and going fast.  However, when I looked at my camera, this was the result from sticking my hand out of the car with just the hope of capturing something decent.

blog uno.

Day 1 of blogging.

I have only once in my life made a blog and it was a blog mostly for my parents and family while I studied abroad last year in Spain.  However, my diligent blogging ended because I got too wrapped up in exploring, traveling, and playing in Spain to continue the constant blogging about my current locations.  I am going to give blogging another go and actually try to be better with posting things and try to keep up with it.  I still think that it is sort of weird to just say anything and let it go out into the unknown world and wait to hear what people have to say or think, or maybe even have the possibility of no one ever looking at it!  So give me a break as I try to get the hang of what I actually want my blog to be like and the sort of blog it will be.  Like Michael Scott from “The Office”, I may put things on here that may seem random or out of order, but eventually like his constant rambling, I will figure out what I am going for with this blog.