A Full Frame

When I was young, my mom bought a frame with 13 different slots for 13 different pictures.

Each picture would correspond to a year, a grade level. One for every year from kindergarten to 12th grade.

I've passed the frame every day for probably the last 10 years. I can remember looking at it with only 4 or 5 pictures in and thinking about how crazy it would be when all 13 pictures were in their spots. I thought the day would never come.

Because when you're living, sometimes the days seem to drag on, and you age so slowly that it doesn't even seem like your appearance is changing at all. But when you stop and compare the pictures, it's crazy how much your appearance changes even from one year to the next.

And it's crazy when you think back and realize that the days that seem to go so slow in the "here" really go fast.

Some days it seems like going to college, getting a real job, getting married, or having kids is just SO far off and that it will never come.

But then I think about how I never thought the day would come when the frame would be full and I would be graduating high school. It's just a reminder to me that different seasons of life go by so fast and that you have to live each day or one day you'll wake up and wonder where the last 20 years went.

This frame may just look like an ordinary one filled with 13 different pictures. But to me, it's a reminder of years gone by and memories I'll never forget.

And I can't believe the frame is already filled! Oh how I've changed so much over the past 12 years......

Makeup Monday {Christmas}

Yes.....I'm just now getting around to posting about some of my favorite makeup products I got for Christmas. I honestly kind of forgot about it, but I got some great products that I'm excited to tell you about.

Midnight Hour Eye Shadow Palette

This palette is a special line of products from Sephora, inspired by Disney's Cinderella. I really liked the idea behind the line in general because I love Disney. I saw it in the store, but wasn't too sure if the line was going to be high quality. I read some reviews, and they were all great, so I added it to my Christmas list. I'm SO glad I did. Not only is the packaging cute and timeless, the colors are great. It comes with 4 colors, and they are all kind of shimmery, but I love how velvety soft they are!

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There's also a quote on the mirror that says "it's the exit he'll remember" - so adorable!

Urban Decay's Naked Basics Palette

This palette was not something on my Christmas list (I think it came out after I made the list), but I'm so glad my aunt got it for me! This palette is definitely different from the Naked or Naked 2 palettes. It's much smaller for one (it comes with 6 shadows), and the entire palette is matte. The colors are very neutral too, so you could easily do a lot of every day looks with it. I like the smaller size of it too - it's a great palette for traveling.

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Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Exposed

I used a Sephora gift card I had to buy this one, and I am loving it! I had heard great things about the Amazonian Clay Blushes, and I had been dying to try them for myself. They come in a total of 15 different colors, and I choose Exposed. It's more of a nude pink, and is definitely not something I normally would have gravitated towards. I had read that Exposed was a very popular color, so I went for it anyway. And I really like it! I'd love to try some more colors one of these days.

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CO Bigelow Bare Mint Lipgloss

I have been a fan of the CO Bigelow lipglosses for years, and I love how this one is the classic mint, but it's tinted and has some shimmer in it!

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CO Bigelow Vanillamint Supreme Lipgloss

I like how this lipgloss is a spin off of their normal mint one because it has a hint of vanilla in it too.

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And those are a few of my new favorite makeup products I got for Christmas! Hope you all have a good day.

Father/Daughter Dance & Other Weekend Things

My weekend actually started early for me - I didn't go into school on Friday. So my weekend kicked off Thursday night by watching some of my friends play basketball against our biggest rivals.

We had school on Friday, but I didn't go because I had a big college interview. I think it went well, but I'm so glad it's over. I had been nervous about it for awhile because it was my first ever "professional" interview. I'm happy I don't have to think about it anymore, and now I just have to wait and see what the outcome is. I had to look business casual too - when I was getting ready Friday morning it hit me that I'm pretty much an adult now. Going on a business interview isn't something kids ever do :)

I was exhausted by the time I got home and did some snuggling with Coco.....

Friday night it was cold and I was tired, so I literally had my pajamas on by 6, ate grilled cheese and soup for dinner, and watched a movie. A perfect relaxing winter evening!

Saturday morning I was pinning some recipes and got the itch to bake (pretty much a feeling I always have - ha!), so I made these Oreo Cream Cheese Cookies. I'm a sucker for anything Oreo, so I loved these!

Then it was time for my very last Father/Daughter Dance. Kind of sad really!

My dad and I went to dinner at Buckhead's right on the river - I thought the view of the city was beautiful!

This Father/Daughter Dance was really different from all of my previous ones. Not in a bad way - just in a different way. For one, I didn't go out to eat with a group of friends. It was kind of nice though just going out with my dad. After dinner we stopped at Starbucks, and it was funny because their coffee machine was broken. Talk about ironic!

I guess I felt like the dance was different this year too because I don't feel like I have a big group of friends anymore. I went into high school with a big group of probably 10 grade school friends, but over the years our group has gone off in different directions. I guess in the last year we've really split apart even further. And it was never a fight or disagreeable differences that drove us apart, we've all just changed and become different people. And not that I still don't consider them friends anymore, they just aren't the people I do things with on the weekends.

So although I don't have a big group of friends anymore, I feel like I know more people from different groups of friends if that makes any sense. And for probably for the first dance in my life, I floated around to whoever I saw that I knew. If I saw a friend, I'd go up and talk to them - it was kind of nice because I got to see and talk to more people than I normally would have.

So it's kind of interesting to read my accounts of the Father/Daughter Dances through the years and see how things have changed. From a big group of us Freshman year, to dinner with just one of my friends Sophomore year, and then dinner with a few of my grade school friends Junior year. It's weird how a few short years can change so much!

Today I've been taking it easy again. I love having the weekends to kind of recharge before another busy week. Coco's been sleeping in her Snuggie all day - ha!

Tonight my family went out to dinner at Walt's Barbecue - one of my favorites!

Then I finished off the weekend with The Notebook. I'm pretty sure I watch a movie every Sunday night, but it's one of my favorite things to do :)

DIY: Baby Shower Banner

Last week I was asked by one of my mom's coworkers to make a baby shower banner for her daughter's friend's baby shower. Kind of an odd request, but I agreed because I love to do stuff like that! I also heard that they had the baby shower and the lady liked it so much that she took the banner home and hung it up in the baby's nursery. Success!

And I was super proud of myself because I designed the banner 100% myself, and I loved the way it turned out. I think I deserve some kind of Pinterest award for it - ha!

But it was SO easy to do that I thought I'd pass along the instructions of how I did it in case any of you ever need to make a super cute banner for a party. So keep reading if you want to know exactly how I did it.....

1. Design banner on Microsoft Word

I find that Word is generally an easy software to use, so that's what I designed it on - nothing fancy or complicated like Photoshop.

If you go up to Shapes under the Insert Toolbar, you can enter pretty much any shape you want. The theme of the baby shower was owls, so on the first page I inserted a large oval, and on the second page I inserted a large triangle. Then I copied the triangle and pasted it on the subsequent pages until I had enough triangles for the numbers of letters I was making.

(You can click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to see.)

Then you can go (still under the Insert Toolbar) to the Text Box icon, and add a large text box over the triangle on the second page.

I then typed in my first letter (B), and formatted it. I made the letter size 250 and used the font Pea Ellie Bellie (which you can download for FREE here).

Since the colors were teal and gray, I formatted the letter to be teal. I then moved the text box to the place I wanted it to be, and then copied the entire text box.

You can then paste the text box on each subsequent page. Just paste, move (if necessary), and type the next letter needed. I also alternated between teal and gray letters, so you can recolor the letters if you want too.

I was spelling out Baby Heim, and the Pea Ellie Bellie font I used even came with some cute extra characters, so I used a heart (shift +) to separate the words.

After all of your letters are formatted properly, you can go ahead and print them out!

2. Cutting

Next, just cut out all your oval and all of the triangles.

3. Backing

I backed the triangles on construction paper to make the paper thicker, and also to add some color. The teal letters I backed on gray paper, and the gray letters on teal paper. I set one of the triangles on the construction paper, used a ruler to make an outline of a triangle slightly larger than the triangle with the letter on it, and then cut that out and used it as a "guide". I traced that construction paper triangle on my other pieces of construction paper and cut them all out. Then I knew they would all be equal!

Using a glue stick, I glued the letter triangles onto the construction paper triangles and set them aside to dry.

4. Owls

I decided to make 2 owls - 1 for each side of the banner. I totally just designed this myself. I cut out the oval I had printed out and traced that on 2 pieces of gray construction paper and cut those out.

Then I drew a line on my printed out oval so that it formed the shape of a small football that was less then half the size of the oval (if that makes sense?). I cut that shape out and traced it 4 times on a teal piece of construction paper, then cut those 4 pieces out. These pieces will form the sides of the owl.

Then the rest is mainly just decorations! I traced 2 poker chips to form the yellow ring around the owl's eyes. Then I traced a quarter to form the eyes, and a dime for the pupils. I free-handed the triangle beak, triangle ears, and feet. Then I glued all the pieces together, and added a few sequins on the teal part of the owl just to give it something more.

5. Assembling

After all the individual pieces are done, all you have to do is assemble them! I used a hole punch to punch 2 holes in each of the owls and triangles, and then threaded a long piece of string through them to form the banner. Literally SO easy!

Then you're done - and you have a completed banner masterpiece :)

Ignore the fact that this picture looks kind of weird - I had to do a panoramic to get the whole thing in.

You could easily customize this for any occasion or theme! I just think it turned out so cute, and it was actually pretty easy to do.

I can totally see myself making more of these in the future for other parties :)

4 Months.

In a little more than 4 months I'll be graduating from high school.

Wow is just about all I can say.

Last night I worked my school's Night of Distinction. It's a nice little ceremony they have every year to commemorate the 8th graders who got scholarships and who will be attending Seton next year.

My friend Erin and I sat in the back of the ceremony, and all I could picture was me sitting up there exactly 4 years ago.

I got a scholarship. I went to my Evening of Distinction. I sat there nervous thinking about how I didn't know very many of the other girls. I was unsure about what lay ahead for me.

I stood, surrounded by a group of girls I barely knew, and smiled for this picture. Unknown to me at the time that I would later call a lot of these girls friends and that I would get to know every single one.

Four years ago, I only knew the girls I went to grade school with.

Four years ago, I didn't know all the good things that lay ahead. Four years ago, I didn't know that I would one day yearn to be able to do it all over again.

One of my friends gave a talk to the 8th graders, giving them advice, and sharing her high school experience. And it honestly brought tears to my eyes.

I get emotional when a new phase of life comes to a close. And her speech reminded me of all the good things I don't want to leave in four months.

All of the green weeks, Founder's Days, friendships formed, laughter, inside jokes, impossible tests, and amazing moments. I'm afraid to leave it all behind me.

I really thought it was interesting when she told the 8th graders that although they may not know the girls around them, they will spend countless hours and classes together over their next 4 years. And she is totally right. The girls at my Evening of Distinction are the ones I've had the most classes with. The most fun with. The most laughter with. And most of all, the most lifelong memories with.

The 8th graders are nervous and scared of what lies ahead for them in high school, but having almost finished it myself, I'm a little jealous of them. I wish I had another 4 years to laugh with the friends I've made. But I only have 4 months, which isn't a lot of time.

I hear about some of my friends and classmates talking about how they've been accepted to fancy, far-away colleges, and it makes me sad. I know they'll all have excellent times in college, and I know they all have bright futures ahead of them. But a little selfish part of me wishes that we could all just stay together and remain friends forever. So cliche - I know!

There have been days when I have been angry about a bad grade, mad about all the homework I have, or stressed about everything going on. There have been days when I have cried because I feel like the pressure is just too much.

But those days are few and far between. It is much more often that I leave school happy to have shared another day with sweet friends and classmates. That I have been excited about a good test grade, or simply thankful for a fun school day.

So although I may go to bed sad tonight (to be honest, I'm getting emotional just writing this post - ha!), I'll also be thankful for all the good times I've had over the past 4 years. Because if high school hadn't treated me well, I wouldn't be so sad to see it leave.

Slumber Party

Ahhh, the last few days have been great! I have a lot of pictures to go along with this post too that I think will make you laugh :)

On Sunday afternoon I did some relaxing while drinking some hot chocolate, listening to summer songs, and researching some Senior Trip stuff. Lots of fun!

Then my cousins Maddie and Sydney spent the night. We had lots of fun chilling with Coco.....

....playing air hockey....

....taking LOTS of silly iPhone pictures....

....baking cookies....

....playing Wii.....

....and watching movies!

Coco even snuggled up with Sas this morning (I don't think Coco realized she was under the blankets!).

This afternoon my mom and I enjoyed our day of no school and work by heading out to the mall.

I'm super excited about a Lilly Pulitzer store going in soon!

And I was SO happy to see that Bath & Body Works has a lot of summer scents out now, and they are really good! It made me happy to smell some summery scents in the midst of an unbearably cold day.

I hope you all had a great day off school or work!