We Three Kings

Decorating for Christmas and wrapping presents are probably my favorite parts of Christmas. This a really great decorative piece and is an easy DIY present for anyone. I made it for my dad last year, and standing up vertically, everyone kind of joked that it was probably a Red Rider bee-bee gun from A Christmas Story.

Basically I took a board of cedar, sawed it to the appropriate size and painted it red. Then I used a gold acryllic paint to do the words and figures... really you could do any words from a Christmas song. Then to finish it off, I put some holly clusters in the corners.

Merry Christmas!

Blah... Finals....

Studying for finals is such a drag. For my creative math final, we have a take home final full of proofs which all require a lot of thought. So in boredom, while I think about how to do these proofs I've been making snowflakes. Yes I'm a child. But some of them have gotten quite intricate and I've made a ton. I might be going crazy.

Paddle Exchange

For the last chapter of the semester today, all the littles have our bigs the paddles we had made during the semester at the local sorority store, Paddle Tramps. I think my big really liked it.

Mom's Weekend: Day 1

So this weekend, our Alpha Chi chapter hosted a Mom's weekend. So yesterday my mom flew in and we got to hang out basically all day. Then last night we all went up to the lodge for a Pajama Party. Everyone got matching Mom and Me pajamas and we had several team games we played.

My favorite game was decorating a pair of cupcakes so they had the same theme (years of watching my dad decorate cakes probably explains why it was my favorite). This is what my mom and I came up with.

Can't Catch Me...

I went to a Christmas party at a Cru staff members house last night. Of all the fun activities they had planned for us, I think decorating gingerbread men had to be my favorite. I even made a whole family. And the only supplies needed are the gingerbread people (obviously), a couple tubes of icing in different colors (I just used red and green in the holiday spirit) and some sprinkles (preferably Christmas as well).

Love me some home cooking

The best thing of coming home for Thanksgiving is the home cooked food made to my liking because I've been away all semester. And I'm not talking about the Thanksgiving dinner, because frankly I don't like Thanksgiving type foods including turkey. No for breakfast this morning my dad made a cinnamon roll ring. Absolutely delicious.

Best Big Ever

Big-Little Reveal took place tonight, and I could not have been blessed with a better big sis! Love her so much!
Basically what happened was, we were all at the lodge for an Alpha Chi workshop, and after it was over they kept the new member class up in the chapter room while they put boxes with our names on it and then the bigs hid outside in our front yard to surprise us, since all that was in the box was a  t-shirt and instructions on what to do. Mine also had an old school kodak disposable camera. Super cute!
I put on my shirt and went out and even though I was pretty sure about who my big was (and I was exactly right) I was still shocked and super excited to see her in a matching t-shirt. Legit didn't even care about the basket, I was just more excited about my new family. Although the basket didn't hurt :) And my big spend a lot of time and effort on it. Take a look.

Lap Desk Complete

This is a project I have been working on since before I left for college, but now that I have my letters, I was finally able to complete my lap desk. I bought the actual thing at Michael's along with the ribbon you see. When I got it home I hot glued the ribbon on and ruffled it, so to speak. Then with sharpie I wrote my name and decorated a little. I had the Double -T sticker all ready, and I got the Alpha Chi Omega sticker in my welcome bag at Bid Day.

All the Best Girls Wear Lyres and Pearls

I had sooooo much fun at Bid Day yesterday! I opened my bid card and was literally soooo excited, because there's only one way to go and that's A Chi O!! When we got to the house, we got our Bid Day tees and a bunch of other AXO goodies.

Dorm sweet dorm

Well it's been a week since I arrived in Lubbock and almost a week since moving in. I've been so busy with rush that I haven't had time for much else. Today is bid day so I am sitting in my dorm room waiting with so much excitement to go get my bid and go to the house. But now I have time to upload pictures of my dorm room.

I Found the Dress! Now to Find the Man...

I was watching Randy to the Rescue last night on TLC, and one thing led to another, and I found my self wedding dress shopping in no time. This is actually quite a dangerous habit as it seems because I found the perfect dress, and yet I'm not even dating (flirting a little, but still...). This dress has absolutely everything I was looking for. Now everything could change by the time I'm actually engaged, but currently I want:
- a lace dress
-sweetheart neckline
-button down back
-diamond cut out on the back
-little to no ribbon or crystal embellishment
I'm a bit picky, but I also know what I would be comfortable with and what would look good on my body type. So, my dress is the Bernadette by Maggie Sottero.

The Lunch of Aliens

As college approaches, my days as a nanny wind down, so I'm making every bit count. I started introducing the kids to new food, and by that I mean mayonnaise and mustard. They were excited to try mustard when I made hot dogs, but they didn't want it on their hot dogs in case they didn't like it. So, I pulled out one of the oldest tricks I know - Alien Food! My uncle used to do this with us when we were little to make dinner time more fun, and I remembered how much I use to love that so I tried it out on these kiddos. Expected Response Achieved! I started out with a regular old hot dog (actually four, but hey...) and then cut them into rounds like you might do for a baby. Arrange the rounds into a smiley face with the ends of the hot dogs for the eyes and you have the basis for this creation.

Next, I knew the kids all liked ketchup, so I was safe to use that for pupils on the eyes. This is the only time the condiment ever touched the food.

Here's the really fun part - decorating the rest of the alien. Because the kids had never tried mustard before and I had no idea if they would like it, I opted for mustard to be the least used condiment. Thus I used it for the lines of the antennas.

I capped off each antennas with a blob of ketchup, and there you have it. Alien hot dogs.

Happy Friday!!

Dorm Decor

I was at Target, looking for dorm stuff and I happened across a cute white board to hang on our dorm door that matched our color scheme. I bought it and took it home, and instead of putting pictures in it, I used blue and green stickers I found in the dollar section at Target to spell our names and accessorized with cute little bows. My roomie loves it and so do I!

Girls Night In

I was nannying all four kids today, but their aunt picked up the boys for a sleepover at her house. So left, with the girls, we decided to have a little girls night in. First we went on a scavenger hunt, which they had never done before.

Then we started doing manicures and pedicures. I brought a ton of nail polish they could pick from, so we got some crazy combinations.

Finally, we watched Disney's Tangled, which I had never seen before. ADORABLE! A must see for all ages.

After dinner and bath it was time for bed. Successful girls night in with four year olds!

Watermelon Nails

My favorite food in the summer has got to be watermelon. And why not have my favorite summer food on my nails. I started with the Sally Hansen Insta-dry Mint Sprint polish on all of my nails. Then on my ring fingers I used the Presto Pink (same brand), but I didn't go all the way across or down to my cuticle. When that was dry I used a black nail pen to create the seeds. A coat of clear polish and there we have it.

And Suddenly, Salad

I'm not quite a genie, but with a little help from Betty Crocker, I can make a good pasta salad in a jiffy. Start with her Classic Suddenly Salad Mix. There are instructions on the box, but just so you realize how fast it really is, heres a brief tutorial.

1. Boil water in a pot about 2/3 full.
2. Add noodles and cook for 12 minutes.

3. In a small bowl mix the prescribed amounts of cold water and oil to the seasoning packet and stir.

4.Once noodles are done cooking, drain, wash in cold water and drain again.
5. Combine noodles and sauce stirring well and refrigerate until you serve.
Again, super easy and no one has to know that it's from a mix.

Sally Hansen Summer Nails

I have discovered a new brand of nail polish I am absolutely obsessed with. Sally Hansen Insta-Dry. The brush is flat but thick, making it easy to paint both hands. It drys in five minutes or less which ideal for someone like me who can't sit still for very long. Try it out for yourself!
Colors pictured are Lightening, Lively Lilac, Night Flight, and Flashy Fuchsia.