Happy Birthday Andrew!

I love birthdays. Anyone that knows me at all knows this about me. My parents say that I treat my birthday like it is a national holiday. But I don't just love my birthday, I love other people's birthdays too. Last week it was my boyfriend's birthday, and I am pretty sure I was more excited about than he was. When he was giving me gift ideas he gave me some boring ideas like a soccer jersey, PS3 controllers, iPod adapter for his car, or clothes. Then he told me maybe I could get him some "paraphernalia" for his room. I don't know why he chose to use the word "paraphernalia" or why he decided he wanted that, but he had me sold on the idea the minute it came out of his mouth. The other gift ideas didn't stand a chance. Here is what his room looked like before...

I wish you could see the other pictures, but I took them on my phone and can't figure out how to get them to my blog. There was a (very unorganized) bookshelf in the other corner of his room. He bought this huge bookshelf at the beginning on the year and didn't really have anything to put on it, so he turned into a "filing cabinet" for all the notes for his classes. His "filing cabinet" consisted of small stacks of paper scattered among the shelves. Also please notice the jersey decorations he made. He loves soccer jerseys, which is what I got him last year for Christmas. He loves them so much he decided to display them on his wall by putting a nail in the wall and hanging them up on a wire hanger. Oh Andrew, this is why I like you :)

So I decided I would help him with his room a little. I obviously couldn't decorate it to the extent that I wanted to 1) he would hate it and say that I went overboard, and 2) I didn't have the budget to do everything I would have liked to. I had to still keep it simple and manly for him. This is what I came up with...

Found this comforter at Kohl's for 80% off and decided it was manly enough to get. Also got some Clemson pictures to post on the wall, annnnd added a throw pillow. Andrew HATES excessive throw pillows. We had an ugly couch in my apartment last year, so we covered it with throw pillows to make it look pretty. Also had lots of throw pillows on my futon freshman year. Andrew hated them, he always threw them on the ground when he came over. Needless to say, I knew I couldn't get away with getting him more than one, and one was pushing it. 

I also reorganized his desk area and framed this Zlatan poster and hung it up. I had to add Zlatan in there somewhere because he is Andrew's favorite soccer player. Remember the jersey I said I got him last year? It was Zlatan. When I first started asking him what he wanted for his birthday he would just say "Zlatan! Zlatan! Zlatan!" What does that even mean??? 

Here is the bookshelf when I finished with it! I wish you could have seen it before. It actually looks full now. Plus, all the sport stuff that was scattered on the floor of his room now has a spot. Seeing a theme with sports? We are a little bit opposite if you couldn't tell :)

Another shot of the bookshelf +the beautiful picture his mom painted for him. 

He was very surprised when he came in his room. I think he liked it, at least he said he did. Maybe for Christmas I will do a more boring fun gift for him :)

Calling All Online Shoppers

Online shopping has changed the way some people shop. Some choose not to fight the crowds at the mall and instead buy everything online. If you are one of those people, you need to know about free shipping day. On December 17th, more than 1,000 merchants will offer free shipping on orders purchased that day. Apparently they promise to get your order delivered by Christmas Eve if you live in continental US. Go ahead and check out the list of merchants to see if any of your favorites are participating!

Happy Shopping!

Deal of the Day

Gift cards are always a popular gift to give at Christmas. Especially for that person that is really hard to buy for because they have everything. Gift cards that you can buy for half of what they are worth makes the present even better. And the gift recipient will never know. Introducing Groupon.

Every morning when I check my email I have a little something like this waiting for me...

$15 for $30 Worth of Sushi, Japanese Cuisine, and Drinks at Sushi Hana
$15 worth: discount: savings: $30 50% $15 Company Information: Sushi Hana Authentic Japanese and Sushi Bar website Locations: 765 Haywood Rd. Greenville, South Carolina 29607

Groupon sends you deals everyday based on the best things to do, see, eat, or buy in a certain city. Much to my delight, Greenville was just recently added to the Groupon family.  Being the bargain hunter I am, I like to hear about the deals even if they are for things I would never do. If you want to sign up click here. Also, if you email your friends and ask them to sign up, you get a $10 gift certificate for Groupon when they make their first purchase. 

Another website similar to Groupon is LivingSocial.com. I also receive daily emails from LivingSocial that offer me some great bargains for things to do in Greenville. If you buy the daily deal and then get three of your friends to buy it too, the deal is free for you. Most of the discounts on LivingSocial are at least 50% the normal price. For example, the other week there was a deal for a hour-long massage for $30, originally priced at $65. Not bad huh? Here's todays deal for LivingSocial...

David Michael Salon & Day Spa

Keratin Hair Treatment

$130

buy now!

• 57%
  savings
• 7
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• 2 Days
  remaining

If a keratin treatment existed in Rapunzel's day, she would have been all over it (after escaping that dad-blasted tower, of course). Years and years of having her hair being used as a rope definitely did a number on her locks. While your tresses don't have that much stress, you... (show more)

Get yours free! Buy, share, and if three friends buy, yours is free.

• Share0

Happy shopping! 

Design Like a Diva

The holidays are here. Thanksgiving has come and gone. Black Friday is over. It's finally "legal" to play Christmas music. Let the Christmas decorating begin.

At my apartment we get lots of magazines. We never actually ordered these magazines, but my roommate Lindsay went through this phase where she entered a ton of sweepstakes. Shortly after, we started receiving various magazines in the mail, so sometime during that phase she forgot to uncheck the boxes that say "Sign me up for...." However, I enjoy flipping through magazines so I am definitely not complaining. Thanks Lindsay. One of the magazines we get is Martha Stewart Living, and we recently received the holiday edition which inspired me to do a little project...

I decided to make my first wreath this weekend. After hitting up all three craft stores in Greenville on Black Friday (middle-aged much?), I finally had all my supplies to begin my project. This is the link to a picture on the cover of Martha Stewart Living which inspired me to make my wreath. Here are the supplies I bought:

• Foam 12 inch wreath ring
• Silver tinsel
• Metallic Bows (here are examples of what I used, but I found them at Hobby Lobby)
• Different colored jingle bells
• Floral pins
• Wide ribbon for the bow 

Here is a picture of the supplies to give you a visual

The first thing I did was wrap the wreath completely in tinsel while using the floral pins to hold the tinsel in place. The wreath in the magazine did not have this, but I didn't have to buy as many bows by doing this. It also helps the wreath look fuller by covering every part. If you don't want to add bows, you could definitely decorate the wreath with this as your base. 

Next I went through and pinned the metallic bows around the wreath. Like I said, you don't have to use the bows, but I think it gives the wreath more depth and detail. After pinning the bows, I started pinning jingle bells randomly around the wreath. Below is a close-up of the wreath after I pinned the bows and jingle bells.  By the way, you don't have to use jingle bells, go to your craft store and pick out whatever decorations you want to put on your wreath!

 The last step is adding the bow at the bottom. My mom helped me some with this part because I don't have much experience making bows, but you don't  even have to add a bow if you don't want to.

 

 Here is the finished product!

I did my project a little different than the directions in the book. They used a wooden wreath ring and hot glued everything on. I didn't use any hot glue but instead used the floral pins. The foam wreath ring is definitely a lot less sturdy than the wooden one. Like I mentioned earlier, you can add different details to your wreath. I had a certain color scheme in mind, and jingle bells were the only details I could find that went along with that color scheme. The more creative the details, the better! Have fun designing your wreath!

How to decorate your Thanksgiving table

Thanksgiving is here! Well technically it's not here for two more days, but I have one more class until break so it feels like it's here for me. Some of you may be having family over and scrambling around for ways to try to make your house look "thanksgiving-y" (yes I just made up that word). Here are a few simple ideas that you could try. My cousin got married last weekend and my mom decorated the table for the rehearsal dinner. Here is what it looked like....

This look is really not hard to achieve. Here is what you need:

• Vases varying in height and size (most of us have a few random vases sitting around somewhere-now is the time to use them!)
• Fall-colored flowers-we used orange roses and reddish-orange gerber daisies. You don't have to go all out here-just go look at the grocery store!
• Greenery- go look out in your backyard! You made have some pretty trees that you can just cut a few leaves off of. If you don't have good trees, then just look for flower arrangements with greenery interspersed throughout when you are buying your flowers.
• Leaves and twigs-just walk outside-they are EVERYWHERE.

Now you get to be creative. Just start putting different flowers in different vases. It doesn't have to be this huge bouquet or have a pattern, just start creatively placing things. If you look at the pictures, you can see we just placed various flowers throughout the vases. Some of the vases have one sole flower in them, and some have a  mini-bouquet of flowers. Add some small candles, mini-pumpkins, or scattered leaves around the vases to complete the look.  These decorations are different from your typical cornucopia, and they also are cheaper and easier if you are trying to pull something together last minute. Good luck!

Type A and Faith

Lately I have been reading this book in my spare time...

Crazy Love is a book by Francis Chan. I have had this book since my freshman year of college, but somehow have never gotten around to reading it despite all the great reviews I hear. Anyways I just finished chapter 4 which talked about lukewarm Christians. On page 78 he says...

" Lukewarm people do not live by faith, their lives are structured so they never have to. They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens-they have their savings account. They don't need God to help them-they have their retirement plan in place. They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live-they have life figured and mapped out. They don't depend on God on a daily basis-their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing God."

Wow. This was so convicting to me. I am the type of person that likes to have everything planned out, definitely a type A personality. When I plan out everything that I need to do, whether it be my day or my future, there is no room for faith. I can go through my day knowing exactly what's coming (at least I think I do) and not have to rely on God very much. This is not how I am called to live as a Christian. It's not wrong to plan ahead, but I need to make sure I am making those plans with complete reliance on Christ.

"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." Proverbs 19:21

Last night as I was praying, I prayed that God would shake up the structure in my life, make things not go the way I had planned them. Little did I know how quickly He would answer that one. This morning my boyfriend and I were supposed to go get breakfast at Panera. We had planned to leave at 9:30, but when I called him at 9:35 to see where he was, he informed me that he had slept through his alarm and was getting ready as quickly as possible. I was not a happy camper. The internal battle began-"I know I should get over it and continue our little breakfast date like it never happened, but I really don't want to do that...it's a lot easier to give him the cold shoulder for a few minutes." God definitely was testing me and showing me that He does indeed answer prayer, even when I ask for things that are not necessarily "fun" for me to learn. This morning I did not respond like I needed to, I got over it yes, but I could have been nicer and gotten it over it quicker than I did. Thankfully, I have a God that is patient with me and is willing to forgive me and give me grace even when I sin against him again and again. Even the situation this morning was not a big deal, it still showed me how I need to rely on God everyday no matter what the situation is, little or small, I am called to live a life of faith.

 

First Trader Joe's Experience

For the last day of fall break, my mom and I decided to make a trip to Trader Joe's. It opened in Greenville a few weeks ago, and we hadn't had the chance to go yet. I had been told it was the best of the Fresh Market and Whole Foods, but way cheaper. We love good prices, Fresh Market, and Whole Foods so it seemed as if Trader Joe's would be the perfect place for us. However, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I did like it, I will get that out there for all you lovers of TJ's. However, when someone told me it was like Fresh Market, I expected to walk in and it look like this...

One of my favorite things about the Fresh Market is the relaxing atmosphere. I love the barrels of snack mixes, the jars of jelly beans, the classical music playing, the little free cups of coffee (which Trader Joe's did have might I add), the seasonal displays, the lack of fluorescent lights, and the fact that it doesn't feel like a typical grocery story. 

However, Trader Joe's had a tropical vacation theme going on throughout the store. I liked the theme, but it wasn't what I was expecting. The store was also very crowded today. The store has stayed pretty crowded since it opened, but today was election day and all the schools were out so I think it was more crowded than usual. I couldn't browse all the different kinds of food like I would have liked to because I felt like I was constantly running into people. Nevertheless, I decided that I needed to branch out and buy some stuff to try. I got some of these vacuum-friend banana chips...

I had no idea what to expect, but I like bananas and banana-flavored food. They were good-very crispy with a strong banana flavor. They could be compared to dried bananas, but they are much lighter and crispier.

Because I love everything pumpkin and was excited about the fall weather today,  I bought a box of this...

and some of this to go along with it...

I made the muffins right when I got home and they were so yummy! Definitely will be going back for more.

Although the atmosphere in Trader Joe's wasn't my favorite, their prices were great! Some of the prices were even lower than a typical grocery store, such as Bi-Lo or Publix. TJ's gives you quality food for quality prices.

This is where I need your help. What are some of your TJ favorites? I had no idea what to shop for, so when I go back, I want to have some ideas of what's good.