Day 14 - Reunions with High-School Buddies

Well It's been getting easier and harder.  I feel kind of reluctant wearing the same clothes again, so I've been trying to come up with new outfits, which can be difficult at times.  So when I didn't have much time to choose an outfit for yesterday's reunion with my HS friends, I decided to go with one of my favorite outfits.  A nice long green shirt with a pair of skinny jeans boots and a cute lacey camisole underneath.   Believe it or not, I actually accidentally found this amazing shirt in the maternity section of Ross.  Two of my friends and I were searching in Ross for some longer shirts that could we worn like dresses with either leggings, jeggings, or skinny jeans.  We stumbled along this huge aisle full of them.  It wasn't till we reached the end that we saw the sign that said "maternity clothing"  but we decided to buy it anyway just cause it looked so pretty!  so if you're looking for a longer shirt to wear with leggings, but not one that's so form fitting, I found the maternity clothing to be a great place to search in.  :)

Outfit #14:

Day 13 - Wear Something From Your Mom's Closet

This fall I've learned that my favorite place to find clothes is my mom's closet!  Old sweaters that haven't been used in years are finally back in use, but by me. lol   Yeah, they might be a bit big, but they look great with leggings, skinny jeans, skirts, pretty much anything!  So today I easily fulfilled the fashion challenge of wearing something from my mom's closet.

Outfit #13:

Day 12 - Wearing Mixed Prints

So I think I finally dressed nice!  Although I've kinda decided to switch up my goal a bit.  Rather than just trying to dress up everyday, I wanna try to complete some of the fashion challenges I've found online on one of my favorite websites.  Today, I decided to be brave and try wearing mixed prints.  Yep, that meant I wore a striped scarf with a zebra print cardigan. Different, but not bad.  I felt quite accomplished. 

Outfit #12:  Zebra-Print Cardigan - ROSS,  Scarf - Dollar Tree,  Skinny Jeans - Goodwill

Day 8, 9, 10, & 11 - Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and The Two Days After

So I feel kind of like I've failed this fashion challenge.  The holidays have passed and I honestly haven't been doing too well at dressing up.  Christmas Eve was spent driving all the way to my relative's after our family vacation- yup, nine hours of driving...  Then Christmas was spent sleeping in after the big Christmas Eve dance party and watching a few movies.  The next day was spent sleeping some more, NARNIA! and one great lunch cooked by my abuelita.  :)  Then once again the long drive back home that evening. 

Since I had to pack for our trip, I didn't have many clothing options, but now that I'm home I do. Of course I was sooo excited to be back home, I spent all day finally unpacking all my college books, unpacking from our trip, and then organizing my room.  But what took up most of my day was trying to fix up my old little girl jewelry box.  I had planned to clean up and wear something nice afterwards, but by the time that happened it was already late evening and I was still wearing my work clothes..... Fail.   So I'm not sure exactly what to say to that.... but I felt bad about lying.  Yeah, I'm not the best when it comes to dressing up all the time.  My holiday attire was average and today was horrible.  But I will do my best tomorrow!    For now,  Sweet Dreams and Sleep Tight!

Day 7 - Hiking in the Cool Desert

So for today's vacation trip my family and I went hiking in the Colorado/Mojave Desert.  It was pretty fun, we got to see a lot of beautiful scenery.  Thankfully cause the weather was not so crazy today. I was able to enjoy wearing my hiking boots with some skinny jeans and a simple v-neck shirt.  To compliment my outfit, I'd also add my colorful poncho I bought in Tijuana.  This kept me nice and warm without being too hot.

Outfit #7:

Day 6 - Touring the Downtown

Well the weather lightened up today, so my family and I decided to go look at downtown Palm Springs.   Since it wasn't too cold and we were going to be walking around today in the puddles.  I decided to go for some nice dark jeans, hiking boots, a dark camisole with a really nice blouse on top, a black jacket, and a necklace to compliment the outfit.  Slightly more elegant, but still not too pricy. 

Outfit #6:  Blouse - $.50 (Clothing Exchange) Jeans - $8.49 (Goodwill)  Jacket - $25 (Ross)  Boots - (Sears)

Day 5 - Nothing much going on...

So we didn't do much yesterday, since it was raining all day. But unfortunately since I'm doing this fashion challenge, I had to wear something nice rather than do nothing all day lol.  So yesterday I decided to just go with some nice jeans, and wear it with a nice sweater.  Not anything too special, but nice.

Dream Room

So while living in the dorms, I've gained a lot of experience in rearranging furniture, decorating, and organizing....  This has really inspired me to redecorate my room back at home!  I know that I'll be moving back into the dorms in late January, but I'd like to have a super nice room when I go back home on vacations.  Now visiting Solvang yesterday really inspired me to how I want to decorate it.  Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted a really pretty white vintage-style dresser with a really big mirror on top, but I never got one.... and seeing all the amazingly beautiful vintage furniture and pretty decors, really made me want to create this look in my room. So I was thinking in maybe investing some time and money into making my room look sorta like this!  

Now buying furniture and decorations in Solvang would've been quite pricy, but it reminded me of when my wingmate Kayla and I went to the thrift store last Thursday and saw lot's of beautiful jewelry boxes and stuff for less than $10 each!  Plus I have somethings back home I could distress and paint to give a beautiful vintage look!  I'm soooo excited, I can't wait to get home to start.  But I don't think we'll be back until after Christmas, so I've just got a lot of time to get even more excited, brainstorm, and wait..... Any suggestions on how to complete this are welcome! 

Day 4 - Cold and Rainy

So today we got to visit a really cute town called Solvang.  The buildings made it look like we were in Switzerland, and there were a ton of really nice gift shops.  Some of my favorite things to look at were the beautiful music boxes, the vintage furniture, and the hats. lol   Some of these things even inspired me on how I want to redecorate my room at home.  Of course to do all this, it meant we had to walk in the rain.   Thus, I decide to wear for Day 4 of the fashion challenge, some skinny jeans, a camisole, a light sweater, boots, and a thick jacket on top. 

Well there are lot's of sweaters, we would have previously disregarded as unfashionable or looking like a granny's sweater, but if worn correctly it can look amazing!  one of the best ways to do this is by wearing one with some skinny jeans and boots.

Outfit #4:  Hey, remember that old looking sweater from my post "A Month Long Fashion Challenge,"  it's this same one! 

Day 3 - Going on vacation, when it's cold...

Well, yesterday my mom and I went shopping at the thrift store for some jeans and then to the mall for boots, since my old ones got ruined in the rain.  :(   So picking an outfit today was much easier, however since we left for a family vacation this morning, I had to choose clothes for an entire week.  So I decided to wear leggings again, but rather than a nice oversized T-shirt I went with a pretty sweater, since it was supposed to be colder.  This style is just as easy to work with too, sometimes even easier.

Outfit #4:

                                                                                   Creating one of these outfits is quite simple.  You can easily find sweaters at any thrift store, or even maybe find some in your mom's old closet.  (that's what I did).  Since this one has buttons for only part of the way I decided to wear a small dark camisole underneath.  Then I just added some leggings and boots, of course make sure that the sweater is an appropriate length or else I'd recommend some jeans underneath instead. 

Day 2 - It's too cold for shorts... but I don't have any jeans

Wow. I'm not sure if I really will be able to pull off this month long fashion challenge.  It is difficult.   Especially, when you cannot seem to find any pants that fit well, but it's too cold to wear shorts.   That's why I decided to go with a different style.   Like I mentioned in my previous post, leggings are another great style for the winter.

To pull off this style, all you need are some leggings, cute boots or flats, and a long shirt or an oversized T-shirt.   It creates a semi-casual look, that is still girly.  To dress it up a bit you can also add a nice jacket and some accesories: belt, scarf, jewelry, handbag, jacket...

   

Outfit #2:

Shirt and Boots - Free (Hand-me-down),  Leggings - $6.48 (Target),  Denim Jacket - Free (Hand-me-down)





Day 1 - What to Wear on Rainy Days

So, unfortunately my goal isn't starting off so easy.  I got to wake up this morning to the sound of rain.  Yes rain.  This will mean, I can't wear heels or shoes that will get ruined in the rain.  Second, if I was planning on using a short sleeve shirt with a small cardigan, think again.  Plus most of my clothes are already packed, leaving me with fewer options.   What to do?? 

For me I have come to the conclusion that on rainy days I will:
- Not wear bell bottoms or jeans that drag on the ground (cause the water will soak up the pant leg and make you even colder)
- Wear a fashionable jacket or sweater
- Add a scarf to add color and warmth to your outfit
- Wear water-proof shoes or rain boots
- Pants/leggings/tights/nylons

So I decided to look online to see what styles can easily be pulled off on rainy days.

 I pulled these pictures off of http://www.collegefashion.net/fashion-tips/what-to-wear-on-a-rainy-day/

In everyone of the outfits they added a cute umbrella.  Ones easily affordable at Target.  Apart from that they also had cute coats, boots, and either pants, leggings, or tights.

In this one, they took a cute summer dress and added black footless tights to it, with a nice warm jacket to keep the cute fashionable look going without losing the warmth to it.  Don't forget outfits like these could also be dressed up just a bit more by adding a hat, jewelry or even a handbag.

Not the best ever, but here's OUTFIT #1:

Not a super elegant outfit, but definately affordable. Jacket - $25.00 (TeenChallenge),  Purple blouse with lace at the bottom - $.50 (Clothing Exchange),  Shoes - Free!! (Hand-me-downs), Boot cut jeans - $5.99 (GOODWILL)

A Month Long Fashion Challenge!

Tomorrow's my last day at school before going back home.  So I'm packing up all my stuff and trying to enjoy my time here as best as possible.  Today one of my wingmates and I biked to the Goodwill nearby.  Amazing place to go shopping, cause you can find really good quality items for affordable prices!

While I was there, I found a really pretty sweater, which I absolutely adored.  At first it may look like an old grandma's sweater, but if you know how to wear it correctly; it can look classy and youthful.  Just to let you know I'm a big advocate of good bargains and thrift-store shopping.  GOODWILL - $4.99

So the saying goes if you do something for a month, it will become a habit, right?   Well, I've always been slightly jealous of girls who can pull off really cute dresses, skirts, and other outfits without looking overly-formal.  Therefore I've decided that starting tomorrow I'm going to either wear a skirt, a dress, or very feminine blouse until it becomes a habit.  If I do it long enough it will become more natural and it will look more casual!   Plus it will help me learn "how" to wear those articles of clothing that I may not have really liked.  Remember you can pull off anything, you just need to learn how, and then wear it like you own it, and you will  :)

So for 1 ENTIRE month,  I want to wear something Magnificent Every Day.  Keep posted to see how I learn to do so.

God Bless You All.

Who's Your Secret Santa??

Every year, I've gone to at least one white elephant with my friends, but this year my wing decided to do a secret santa instead.  We all filled out a quick survey (favorite color, candy, movie; hobbies; etc) and put our name on them.  Then we placed them all in a bag and we each drew one.  The only rule was you could not be your own secret santa, or your roommate's secret santa.  and then we placed a limit of $10 max.

This was by far one of the funnest Christmas gift exchanges I've ever done!  We all got gifts that we actually wanted, and it was fun to go shopping with each other and hiding the gifts throughout the dorms till the day we exchanged gifts.  This was a great way to enjoy the holidays and learn more about each other!

Acts 20:35b - Remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

How to make snowflakes...

Making snowflakes is a great way to decorate for the Christmas season! 

Plus you can leave them up all winter as well.

With just a few quick and easy steps you can have your home looking Christmasy and beautiful.

Step #1 - First cut your paper in a square. 

Step #2 - Then fold the paper in half into a triangle

 

Step #3 - Then take that triangle and fold in half into a smaller triangle. 

   

Step #4 - After that fold the triangle into thirds

Step #5 - Then take the scissors and cut diagonally from the place where the paper folds.  It's kind of hard to describe so pay close attention to the example below.  Make sure to cut all the way across, till it look like a triangle again.

Step #6 - Now here comes the fun part, just cut different designs into the sides of the triangle, but be careful to not cut all the way down the side or you may accidentally ruin the snowflakes.  When you're done just unfold and that's how you make a snowflake!  If you want to cut out more designs you can just refold it and continue cutting away.  :)

This is just one example of a snowflake.   But you can make countless different snowflakes by just changing the angles, the designs, etc.

                            HAVE FUN!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well, Christmas is coming up very soon, and even though we won't be living in the dorms during this amazing time, my wingmates and I started decorating!   Since Thanksgiving passed our wing has been filled with Christmas Carols, cookies, snowflakes, and one BIG family tree!   I've never had sisters  (only brothers) but to me these girls have definately become my family, and I love celebrating with them.

This winter season during one of our wing meetings, our RA's roommate taught all of us how to make snowflakes. It was sooo much fun!  Now in our living room we have snowflakes dangling from the ceiling, our tree (one we have on our wall) has now lots all its leaves, which have been replaced with mini-snowflakes, and our Christmas tree is up!

FUN & PRODUCTIVE THINGS TO DO FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON

-Ride your bike to the store
-Go thrift store shopping with your friends
-Make snowflakes
-Read about the first Christmas: The Birth of Christ
-Listen to Christmas Music
-Have a white-elephant party or a secret santa gift exchange
-Go Caroling
-Watch movies with your family (in my case, wingmates)
-Start a new habit!


PSALMS 98:4  - Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth;  Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.

College Dorm Life

Studying with my RA and several wingmates

So before moving into the dorms, I attended a community college for 3 years.  AMAZING experience!  I got good grades, made friends, and stayed pretty healthy.  However I've come to find out that this is a little more difficult when living on my own.  Without my parents around to be setting a curfew, feeding me healthy foods, or even waking me up if I accidentally sleep in; this gets a lot harder.  Some of the main pitfalls I've dealt with this semester as opposed to my past experiences are:  staying up late, avoiding the veggies in the cafeteria, procrastinating, and not exercising.

Believe it or not, these are all connected to each other, why grades tend to drop and the weight go up during the "freshmen" year.   I'm still in the process of fixing these newly developed habits, but this is how I'm starting to do so.

Eating Healthy, when all your meals come from the cafeteria... and you no longer have a kitchen

At first I thought the cafeteria was so delicious, and would try to grab everything, cause I wanted to taste it ALL!  Seriously, all-you-can-eat buffet!  This is the start to a bad habit.  If you're living on-campus, most likely you'll be eating these meals everyday for the next 4 years.  So you don't have to eat every single thing they have there in your first month.  Spread it out. enjoy it.

Second, if you don't eat vegetables you're either gonna gain weight or get sick.  So you don't like brocolli or zuchinni, head on over to the salad bar.  There are plently of options, you can either eat it by itself or add some ranch.  For me, I like to buy limes and mix the lime juice with some salt on spinach, tomatoes, and cucumbers to to make a super delicious and healthy salad!

Lastly, you don't have to stop eating the sweets, just limit them.  Rather than having a cookie at every meal, only have one during dinner or every other day or once a week.   Trade out the soda or juice for a cup of milk or water.  Plus don't think that eating "healthy" means going vegan or turning into a vegetarian, meat is good for you.  Just don't over eat, stop when you're full, and drink lot's of water.  That's the main way to stay healthy.

Procrastinating

So I thought I had a problem with procrastinating while I lived at home... well good luck at college!  Now I have 2 roommates and a wing full of girls ready to do something fun.  Almost anywhere I go there's someone who wants to talk or something to be distracted by.  Though it's important to make friends and not focus solely on hw, procrastinating too much can lead to bad grades or bad sleep habits. 

A good solution to this problem is to find a quiet place where you can study, if this means talking with your roommates about times of the day to dedicate to hw, going to the library, finding a place off-campus to study, or even making study groups; do this.  It will help so much.

Working Out

Well the gym here was only open to athletes, making us regular students have to find a gym or suffer the consequences.  Thankfully they opened it on TTh for regular students from 11:00am-12:00pm.  one hour.  Unfortunately, that's not enough, 2 hrs a week is nothing.  You can't really depend on a gym.  So my suggestion would be, find a workout buddy.  Someone who will truly motivate you to get up and do something.  With hardly any chores, and just hw, it's so easy to just end up lying around all day or just chillaxing with friends. 

Even though taking the 1 flight of stairs to get to my wing is better than riding the elevator.  This cannot be my only exercise. I realized this after I gained the dreaded "freshmen 15", and my first semester is not even over yet!  Since I have 8am classes every morning, I don't feel like running around outside at 6am when it's freezing.  Maybe this means, going down the hall to the study lounge to do some yoga or something, or riding my bike to the store! Remember maintaining physical fitness is so important.  It makes you more productive and your sleep more restful.

Pulling Off All-Nighters, Partying till the Sun Rises, Staying Up Late, and how this affects you...

Though the bragging rights that come with saying you partied all weekend, stayed up till 3 watching movies, pulled an all-nighter to finish your big term paper, are kind of fun to have; this eventually ends up not being so fun.  When you're tired and have to be in class at 8am and interacting, it's hard.   I tried doing this thinking it would not affect me.  However it did. I had lot's of difficulty bonding with my roommates cause I never really saw them.  I spent all morning in classes, afternoon sleeping, evening studying, and night hanging out with my apartment friends and then getting back at like 1-3am, and feeling exhausted in the morning.  Though I didn't go to the apartments every night, I did stay up late. Why?  cause I didn't finish my hw for the next day, cause I was too busy napping.  and why was I napping? cause I stayed up late doing hw.   So how exactly do you fix this sort of problem?  Easy. stop napping.  Simple solution.  Difficult to actually pull-off however.  Rather than napping do whatever you can to stay awake and do your hw during the daytime.  Then by nighttime you'll be absolutely exhausted and have no difficulty going to bed early.  :)  I tried this and it worked. Not only did my sleep improve, but so did my social life.   I got my hw done early so I didn't have to stress out at night, and in the evening I could spend some bonding time with my roommates and wingmates. 

Making Close Friends

My first few weeks at college were soo much fun.  Hardly any hw, so many people, and a lot of time on my hands.  However spending my time playing pool, watching movies, making small chit chat with people did not help too much in the long run.  I hardly spent anytime with my wingmates thinking "I'll just hang out with them later."  A month and a half later in the semester, the more and more I realized people were starting to find out who their "true" friends were and were not wasting so much time in artificial relationships.   I knew mostly everyone one on campus, but they were all aquaintances.  I had no close friends, and I was lonely. 

Coming from a family where we were all really close to each other, this was hard.  On those days I really just needed encouragement I had no where to turn to.  I had dismissed those around me for others who didn't really care what was going on.   Now I came witht the assumption in mind, that I would be BEST FRIENDS with my roomies.  But that didn't happen.  Our first few weeks were a pain.  As roommates we got along, they weren't messy or bothersome, but as friends not as much.  We hardly had anything in common, and I felt left out.   The two of them had already become best friends and I hardly knew them.   After several big roommate arguments, I finally came to the realization, that they didn't have to be my best friends, just friends.  and that it was okay to make close friends with someone else.   Once this happened I was able to make close friends and all of a sudden, living at college was so much easier. 

So anyhow, sleep (at good times), study (during the day), eat healthy foods, exercise, and make close friends :)  and that will pretty much help you a lot.

Hey Everone!

So this is my first blog entry ever, and I'm really excited!  I've never done one of these before.... so my posts might seem a little strange at first, but hopefully you'll enjoy them anyway.

Well, I'll start out with a little bit about me.  First of all I'm a Christian.  I was homeschooled all the way up until college, which I started at age 14, then I transfered at age 16 to a Christian University, which is where I'm at now.  I'm a music major with business as my concentration.  My passions in life include: dancing, singing, and songwriting.  I love living in the dorms, although I miss my family back home.  And, I aspire to one day be a solo artist, using music as my ministry to change the lives of today's youth  :)   That's me!