Today was the final day of immersion for my Masters program! We did presentations so I dressed it up a little bit.
This top is actually a crop top (worked perfectly with the high waisted skirt) that I got from TJMaxx. The skirt is a typical black pencil skirt from Charlotte Russe. Heels were from Charlotte Russe as well.
This dress has been in my closet for ages - I honestly have no idea where I got it. The necklace is from Charlotte Russe and the shoes are Target.
This is probably my favorite trick and I can't believe I hadn't thought of it... If you're anything like me, you have spent a lot of time searching for perfect high waisted belts to add to your already large collection of belts. Well a friend pointed this out to me - simply use a regular belt and tie it in a knot! Since this belt is woven I can actually still buckle it because there aren't actual notches and then I tie it but I'm sure it would work just tying. And there are tons of knots you could do - check out this post!
Check out these tutorials for some more ways to tie your belt from FashionRolla by clicking THIS LINK!
School has officially started! (Okay, so this post is a little late but it is still true!) I wanted to surprise Kevin with a little back to school gift so I came up with this idea. It initially was mainly going to be be just miniature bottles of Jack Daniels (his fav) but the cashier at the liquor store quickly pointed that was a stupid idea - aka an expensive idea. So instead I decided to buy a variety of mini bottles and then just a separate more economical purchase of Jack & Coke.
Anyways... This project was SUPER cheap (besides the actual items for the 'bouquet' everything was from the dollar store.
Items that I included: An assortment of alcohol - let's be honest, the wine was for me..., m&ms (his favorite candy), a play dart gun, and some noise makers.
(You can obviously tailor this to the individuals' tastes.)
The 'vases' are beer mugs from the Dollar Store.
I then bought one of the green styrofoam blocks from the artificial flower section of the Dollar Store and since I needed two I simply cut it in half...
Of course I quickly realized that this square item would not fit into the round mug so I rounded the sides.
What a mess!
I put the tissue paper in the mug (Red for IU of course) and simply popped the styrofoam in on top of it. I originally attempted to cover the green with more tissue paper but quickly realized that this wasn't necessary.... with al of the stuff that I put in it you couldn't see the green.
These little dowel rods were actually not from the Dollar Store but I already had them so I'm not sure how much they were. I'm sure they can't be more than a couple of dollars. (Use the 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby!)
Now to attach the items to the dowel rods: I had a couple of issues with this step... Of course, I was using very cheap tape and traveled two hours with it but it did not hold up very well. Maybe try some heavy duty tape?
I have so
much that I want to post but I unfortunately am currently working on a paper
and other items for my intensive immersion course. Instead, here is a quick post with a couple
of pictures that brought a smile to my face.
My new mint jeans that I dyed myself! Check out my post about them RIGHT HERE! Necklace from Charlott Russe and the sheer shirt (one of my favs!) is from Wet Seal.
This craft is so simple it's unbelievable. I just used dollar store frames that I had lying around and used a staple gun to attach this wire fencing (Sorry! I'm not exactly sure what kind it is... definitely smaller than chicken wire). It just happened to be lying around so I nabbed it.
(I have so many earrings that I have two 8x10 frames for my earrings)
It was super simple but is not very fancy. Eventually I'm going to find a fancier frame but this certainly works for now!
Below is a version that a friend of mine created with a much more intricate frame. Once I decide to stop being so cheap I will definitely be updating mine!
I am slowly getting settled into my new apartment and will be posting pictures of my area designated for jewelry as soon as it's organized.
Wowza! It's been a loooooooong time since I have posted anything! I have so many ideas rolling around that I need to post and a few crafty items I recently created - I'll get to them eventually! I have been so out of touch lately because I have been trying to get my life together for the beginning of grad school!
I spent the better part of last week in Bloomington with my boyfriend. Basically just watching him unpack and pretending to work on my paper that was due today. (I also made him a couple of goodies as a welcome back to school type thing that I will be posting soon).
After I finally said goodbye and came back home last night I decided to pack up everything and got super excited for the beginning of this new chapter. Who knew I needed TWO lunches ehh?
Unfortunately I woke up this morning and the unpacking fairy hadn't come... Damn. Hopefully I will get it all settled in soon and can post some fun pics!
I was awake this morning from the excitement TWO hours earlier than I expected.... obviously super eager to start!
And left for class about an hour before my classes started. Traffic was much better than I had expected BUT parking was a nightmare!
After seemingly endless trips down aisle after aisle and parking lot after parking lot I had a minor meltdown and ended up parking here:
Horrible way to start my day! But it got MUCH better as the day progressed. I'm excited for this program and everything that is going to come from it.
After my roller coaster day I got home and was ready to relax. I picked up the mail and my mom (who keep in mind, runs a day care) had sent me a book. As I flipped through the pages describing how I could be anything I wanted to be, one caught my eye:
I can already tell that the next two years (at least) are going to be a roller coaster. There are going to be a lot of things that I don't want to face in my coursework and in my fieldwork as a social worker. But I cannot wait to begin this journey. Without those trying times and bits of feeling uncomfortable I wouldn't be able to help those that I want to help. I learned today about shifting paradigms and how you can feel so vulnerable sometimes. But you need to accept that vulnerability. Because without vulnerability you can't have joy, or gratitude, or happiness. Check out this amazing snippet of a speech by Brené Brown. I found it truly inspiring.
I have seen these crayon creations all over the
web. Working at a daycare center I had access to many tiny barely usable pieces
of crayons. With a bunch of help from tiny hands I sorted out the smaller,
undesirable crayons. We peeled off any paper pieces that remained, although
many did not have paper at this point.
Next, I decided to chop up the crayons into the smallest pieces possible. (I
simply used a pair of scissors but I’m sure you could use a knife). If you decide to not cut them or cut them into slightly larger pieces, it will still work, you will just have larger swirls of that specific color.
Then we combined the colors we wanted, keeping with the
general color family. After the first batch we began mixing colors a
little more for a wider variety. I added white to almost every color
combination simply because I like the look of the white swirls in the new
crayons.
I purchased a baking pan from the dollar store and placed
the desired amount of crayons in the tins. I filled them less than halfway so
that they wouldn’t be too large.
If you search online you will see many different
recommendations for the temperature and the length of time. I had time to kill
so I simply set the oven at 300 and set the timer for 15 minutes.
I highly suggest filling each individual tin with roughly the same amount of
crayon shavings so that they will ‘cook’ evenly.
*Once they have melted they will NOT look like that pretty
swirl, it will look like one melted color. (As the picture above looks). This is because the oils separate.
The swirl will be on the bottom of these new crayons. This will also be the
side that you should color with.*
After a few uses, these have been a hit but have
been somewhat hard to use with precision. The older children tend to just
scribble with them so that they can see the variety of the colors. The shape is
somewhat awkward for them to hold but they truly enjoy their new crayons and
definitely use them more than they had used the tiny pieces!
