Real life friends do real life things

Baby bloggers unite! Also real life friends who blog unite! I am so excited to share with you guys my girl Jenny. Jenny from the block, obvi. We are real life friends! We went to camp together one year and have had maaaany mutual friends and stayed in touch!

Look this is us even:

Bad picture but ya get it.

Now go read her fun posts on DIY and check out her blog, too!

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Hi I'm Jenny from Sprinkles & Sundresses and I am so happy to be guest posting for Rachel! She has been like my blog big sister since I'm very new at this and she's teaching me the ropes! She also gave my design a fancy new makeover- basically she rocks.

Rachel and I both love DIY crafts and we're both starting our sophomore years of college so I thought I would show you some decorations I made for my dorm room!

1. Initial Collage

This one is super easy. I purchased the wooden letter at A.C. Moore as well as some Mod Podge (which if you aren't familiar with, its basically magic collage glue). First, I cut out pretty patterns, words, and symbols from magazines I had lying around. I glued them down with a glue stick and then coated it with Mod Podge. It dries clear and keeps the edges down- like I said, magic. And it comes out super cute!

2. Design-Your-Own Poster

This one is only sort-of DIY. I saw the quote on pinterest and I loved it. It's super fitting for me right now since I'm transferring to a new school and while it's very exciting it can also be nerve-wracking. I used the website Zazzle to put that quote on my own poster! I used a picture that I took myself in St. Thomas. It's a great website and I definitely recommend it! I also got it laminated once it arrived in the mail. It will make it last longer and protect it while I move in and out of dorm rooms over the years. I also make collages with my pictures of family and friends and get those laminated as well. It's relatively inexpensive and it creates really long-lasting decorations. 

3. Brightly Colored Bulletin Board

This project was way easier than I thought it would be! You can buy cork squares at any office supply store and I picked up some pretty colored fabric at my local craft store. Then I stapled around the sides like this:

Repeat with your remaining squares and voila! You have beautiful bulletin boards in all of your favorite colors that you can arrange however you want!

Want to see how all of my crafts look in my actual dorm room? Check out my blog to hear about my transfer experience and see pics of my dorm! 

And if you would like to see more from me feel free to check me out on pinterest or twitter or bloglovin! I would LOVE to hear from you. 

Gummy bears+Chocolate=Genius

I'm sure you've seen my tweets or shoutouts to chocolate covered gummy bears before. Being that I was craving them and I can barely find them ANYWHERE, I decided to make my own after googling some recipes!  Here's the one I went off of!

It was a really easy recipe to follow, but I thought to myself what the hell is shortening. I am no cook or baker at all so this was a pretty difficult task for me. Heck I can't even make eggs. Waffles is where its at!!!!!!!

                  

I put a batch in the freezer and a batch in the fridge to see which would come out better. I also had the fam taste it and my mom couldn't get enough........and ate my whole fridge batch (mostly) that I was going to bring to school with me.

If you've never had it, I'd check out your local candy store before you make it. Unless you are cheap (which I completely understand), or have no access to a candy store, bake away! Except its not so much baking. Ya know what I mean. It was reaaally easy to make in the end, and I can't wait to make some more when I come home next!

What are some of your favorite candies you just simply cannot get enough of?

To speed up your wednesday

Bored at work? Have day off? At the doctors office? Just want to surf the blogworld and waste time? 

Stay for a while!

Today I am in DC with Lauren, my blog bestie and our wonderful boyfriends. (As if you haven't seen a variation of this line anywhere in my blog before...)

Go 'head, log into instagram and stalk/like some pictures I've posted! 

To keep you entertained...go blog stalking. Mine to be exact. 

Here are some of my personal favorite posts I've written!

About pageants: Miss USA 2013 | Alyssa Campanella

About B: 11 Months | Story of Us | Boyfriend-Shmoyfriend (Favorite post I've ever written)

DIY: Polka Dot Sneakers | Monogram Beach Tote

Random: Mindy Kaling | Candy Crush

If this doesn't entertain you....feel free to hit up my pinterest!

P.S Do you live in the North East of the U.S? Join North East Bloggers Network!

beachin' it

Friday: Beached it. Ate icky fried beach food (always good at the moment, not so much after...). Ran into B on the beach. Yes, ran into. You'd think we'd be in touch but I went on a 6 mile walk and he saw me on the beach. (*screams YESSSSSS on the inside*)

Saturday: Put my DIY tote into good use. I love it! Also it totally matched my nails. and bathing suit. definitely feeling teal to be my summer color. Ended the night with Chinese food and photo shooting with the baby bro.

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In other news...

I got my monogram pullover! 

I am reuniting with my 'birthday twin' from NY for a night at the shore. A little party never killed nobody

My bestie, is driving with her boyfriend from Boston to stay with me for the night and bought me tickets to Dave Matthews Band on saturday. SO excited.

Monogram Beach Tote (DIY)

So I want this.

But don't want to spend the money sooooo I made my own. 

Thank gosh for crafty people in the 21st century. 

What I used:

-Beach Tote Bag (bought at dollar store for literally like $1.50)

-Felt Marker/Sharpie

-Paint (Any craft store)

-Computer

-Paper & Pencil

-Font

1. So I started out making sure I found the perfect font. At first I wanted a loopy font but then as I searched through fonts I found my match. Mongolian Baiti (A preinstalled font on my computer). For me though, it did the job. I made sure the middle initial (for my last name) was in the center. and Bigger. I made the R and D size 400, while the G was 600. 

2. Then I took a pen and paper and traced it on my computer. I mean thats probably not the brightest idea right there but I do it all the time and have yet to see a problem. After, I went over it with sharpie and was ready to get to work!

3. I found the color I wanted (teal), and painted using a smaller brush. The tote I bought is not high quality made so I had to do a few coats of paint to get it to darken. 

Voila! A beach tote. Check my instagram this weekend to see when I put it into good use!

Happy weekend!

Preppy on a Budget

As I had about 12-15 tabs open of items I wanted from Marley Lilly, I narrowed it down to these. See, as I was looking through the prices I was thinking, "ooh! I just got a paycheck I can spend it all on Marley Lilly!!!" WRONG RACHEL. You. Are. Wrong. Luckily, I was smart enough to put my debit card down and proceed on with my day.

I went back on my computer, too soon and came across the idea of searching for these items on Etsy.  Guess what? Well, not a good idea for my debit card but I found all the items I wanted, FOR MUCH CHEAPER! The greatest part about Etsy, in my opinion, is that there are different 'shops' to choose from, that price things different. I put on my thinking cap and searched far and wide to find my cheapest options. 

1. Iphone Monogram Home Button

If you are looking for one, I highly reccomend MEEsDesigns. I placed my order and received it within 5 days. But want to know the best part? $2.90, including shipping. WOO. Count me in. It's been on my phone for a little under a week now and I've received so many compliments. Even my dad thinks it's the bee's knees.

Best picture I could take, sorry! ...But it fits perfectly!

2. Circle Monogram Window Decal 

Ever want to monogram your car? Because I sure did. I was SO excited when I received this in the mail! I knew I would love it from the start. I got it within a week and as soon as I picked it up from my mailbox, it went onto my car. No hesitations. Only $5.95, too!

Other items I ordered but have not received yet!

-Monogram Pullover & WindBreaker. Currently on their way but I luckily was able to save a few bucks here and there by not buying from Marley Lilly. There is nothing wrong with their products, but being on a budget makes it harder to buy from them!

What are your favorite monogram items?

Look out for a DIY post on friday!

You were right

I cannot thank you enough for all of your comment telling me how amazing of a concert Luke Bryan & Florida Georgia Line were. You were right! I danced the night away, stomped my feet in the Georgia (jk) mud, and rolled my windows down and cruised! FGL & Luke were both amazing performers. Check out my time at Dirt Road Diaries tour:

(Being on the lawn means you get terrible pictures but a solid view)

(My DIY bow I made from a flag&hair tie!)

(During Muckalee Creek Water I went on my friends cousin's shoulders and it was the coolest thing ever. I had THE perfect view)

I even vined: vine.co/v/b3Wag3xUDYP  | vine.co/v/b3ZaaFghabr 

I was so upset that Thompson Square wasn't able to make it but hands down the best concert I've ever been to. Luke pulled a 5 year old boy on stage during Country Girl and it was the sweetest thing. He also saw the crowd holding signs for an 18 year old boy leaving in a month for the marines and he pulled him on stage and there was a huugeeee U.S.A chant. I had the chills!

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Off to celebrate my one year! I figured out what we were doing early since his original plan was to take me to Hershey Park but it's supposed to rain around there so were checking out the Phillies game today...SO excited!

DIY Sneakers via CP/Kate Spade

I took College Prepster's awesome tutorial on how to DIY polka dot sneakers instead of paying 75 dollars, I paid in total about 20-25!

Some snapshots I took of my DIY project:

What DIY projects you've seen that you've seen from blogs and have actually recreated it?

  

mission possible: MDW.

For lack of a better explanation, MDW is here and I am off to the shore!

Mother nature, why must you give us bad weather out of ALL weekends? Grrrrrr....

Last years MDW = disaster. Oh boy to think how things have change so so much since then and I couldn't be happier. 

Here's a picture from the weekend from utter and complete hell:

My exciting week leading up to today has been as follows:

Working with kiddies, B, working again, watching greek, eating (a lot), taking B to the mall, go to roomies for the night and see her beautiful sister at prom pictures, ICE CREAM, bother B, etc. 

So crazy right?

Not trying to bore you either so here's pictures!...because it proves how lame my life can be.

Mall trip: B is against yellow pants, while I'm 100% for them. I made him try them on. He whined about how silly he looked. (You cray, boy.)

Tuesday's OOTD: Hooray for preppy 'errythang

This picture deserves to be as small as possible because it is, well, icky. B looks like a creeper and I don't even look like myself buuuuuut its proof we hung out this week! and got some yummy cherry-vanilla gelati!! Story time: last year we used to go to this ice cream shop all the time and just sit there til we were the last people in the parking lot and talked for hours and hours, thus the start of our relationshippy! (Yeahhhhhh, I did just say relationshippy. Judge me.)

countdown: 9 days til our one year! 8 days til my surprise from B! 

7 days until LUKE BRYAN!!!

stay up to date on my adventurous life via twitter!

 

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In other news, next week I will share some....fun stories about B, a DIY project I did (and love), prom recaps, MDW recaps, what I can't believe, and whatever else I feel like sharing with ya'll! Happy MDW. Let's go celebrate!

DIY simple picture frame

Hands down, I love love love crafting. It's so relaxing to just paint or draw, even if the artistic level is subpar.. I was feeling crafty on a long drive, explained in fridays post, so I thought I'd make the boyf a little surprise gift to receive in the mail. Granted its more so for my pleasure to see when I visit than his, but bottom line I think it's cute!

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I picked up a simple less than 5 dollar 4x6 wooden frame, so I could decorate! I decided to paint in black and I bought letters because I was debating using them or risking my shaky handwriting...Read on to see what I ended up doing!

(materials used: Wooden 4x6 frame | bought at local A.C Moore |, Paintbrushes, lettering, basic paint, modge podge and medium matte (I had from projects before, but it came it handy...also bought at local Michaels Craft Store), and your desired picture printed). I was shocked to see how fast it dried so I was able to finish this project in less than 24 hours!

Once black paint was dry, I added some red details! (heart, writing, etc)

I also used both medium matte and mod podge just to see what would happen and I loved the results! It gave it a clean and smooth finish!

                                           

I also decided to just put the writing on the back because as I've stated before I am such a simple person when it comes to designs of all sorts........Its such a simple craft to do and regardless of the outcome, its always the thought that matters (right?..)

Enjoy your mondays lovelies!