Sorority Picture Frame Craft

So I know for many sororities, it's getting close to big-little week, so I thought I'd share a craft with you that I made my Pearl last week.

This was such a simple, inexpensive project, and I absolutely love the way it came out. I bought the picture frame from Walmart (I think it was $5 or less). It already had all the frames connected.

I just painted each frame a different color, using the middle frame with one of those circle sponges to make polka dots (I was tempted to try chevron too, which would be super cute). Then once all the paint dried, I use puffy paint to write and tied a small bow out of ribbon and attached it to the top frame.

If you are giving it as a gift, I'd recommend either putting photos in it, or using scrapbook paper that matches the frames (like I did) to give it a complete, finished look.

Happy crafting!

My Newest Paddles

So pillow paddle came and went a few weeks ago with my sorority, and I’m so in love with my paddles. Once you see them, you’ll know why. They are me.

 

Aren't they so lovely? My littles did so awesome! The one on the left matches my room perfectly! And the little sparkles and the bow on it, just make me so happy to look at! The other, the Vera Bradley paddle in Island Blooms, took me by surprise. Because she didn't use a napkin! She found a picture of the print online, printed it cardstock, and used Modge Podge to put it on the paddle! So smart!

Like I've said in previous posts, it's always important to make a paddle that means a lot to your big (or anyone) with personal touches. Like the red and black one that matches my room and the Vera one that matches my obsession.

What would be your perfect paddle? Would it be a Vera Bradley? Lilly Pulitzer? Sports related? Pearls and glitter?

Cute Ways to Spoil Your Little

Wondering where I went last week? Well, it was big/little week here at my sorority, so I was busy crafting like one of Santa’s elves. I lucked out and got twins (two girls that I LOVE), so that meant I was busy crafting for over a week straight. I love crafting though, so even though it was slightly stressful (and my perfectionism was definitely kicking in), it was a lot of fun and so worth it to spoil my littles some.

Making and picking out cute gifts for littles can be super difficult and so expensive. Every sorority at every college has different traditions and expectations of amounts and money that should be spent, but I thought I would offer some cute ideas that I love (and some I even used!).

Matching T-Shirts!

Here at my sorority, we devote a day to giving our littles cute shirts, ones that generally match their future big’s, and sometimes even their future grandbigs!. I made my twins matching ones, that were just in different colors and with their names on the back! I’m currently loving bows, so I made sure to design a bow on the front and back! Hurting on cash a bit? Make them shirts! Whip out the puff paint, fabric, or use one of the t=shirt design programs for your computer! The thought is what counts!

Flowers!

I decorated cheap $3 vases from Walmart with nifty Marta Stewart class paint (using sponge polka dot brushes of course!). I personalized them with their names and our sorority. I then gave them each a dozen roses. If that’s a tad too expensive, use other cute flowers like daisies or carnations, in your sorority’s colors!

Bulletin Boards

This was my favorite thing to make my twins! See, my own big made me a board that I absolutely love. It was my favorite gift I received from her, and I wanted to follow the same design. I just customized them to my littles’ preferences. It was so much fun and really inexpensive too!

 

Favorite Snacks/Candy/Food

This is such a simple, cute idea to spoil your little! If you sorority doesn’t give out information sheets on your new little, have a sister sneakily ask her what her favorite foods, candy, and restaurants are. In my gift bag and boxes I included all of their favorite candy. And another day I added little $5 Starbucks gift cards (in clean Starbucks cups I decorated with ladybugs and ribbon!).

Rainboots or Shoes

Many girls in my sorority decorated rainboots with polka dots and monograms for their littles. Whether it was Toms look-alikes or just tennis-shoes, these came out so adorable! Bonus points for matching ones!

Pinbox

Making a cute little box for your little to store her pin in is a sweet gift for either big/little week or initiation. My Ruby when I first joined my sorority made me a pin box, that was also large enough to hold my bid card and some other important items from my membership.

Slippers/Stuffed Animals

Having a soft, stuffed animal or some fuzzy slippers in your sorority mascot are always fun things to receive. Pillow Pets are always popular as gifts too.

Blanket

Some sororities have traditions of making their littles fleece tie blankets, and they are very cute things to get and hold onto. Plus, they are very easy to make! There are wide varieties of fleece out there, and places always have sales on their fleece.

I hope this list of ideas make shopping and crafting for your littles easier and more fun! Enjoy each and every second of big/little week, and remember that the relationship with your sister is the most important part!

High Five For Friday

1.    The perfect fall weather! I love the gray skies, the falling leaves, the Caramel Pumpkin Spice Lattes, riding boots, and scarves. I wish fall would never end!

2.  Red nails! So perfect for fall, bold, classic, and just plain beautiful! Revlon’s Red Carpet is the perfect red shade for me!

Revlon’s Red Carpet and a Carmel Pumpkin Spice Latte <3

3.  Riding boots! I’ve been searching for a pair that would actually fit my calves (I’m abnormal, I have the calves the of a size 8 shoe and feet the size of a girls’ 3!). So much fun to participate in this pretty fall trend!

 

4.   Bath and Body Work’s Sweet on Paris shower gel! Not at all fall scented, but a new obsession! How did I not notice this amazing scent earlier?!

Sweet on Paris

5.  New block letters for my sorority! Nothing is better than Vera Bradley letters!

 

 

Any highlights this week for you? I'd love to hear!

 



What's in My PB Teen Boxes??

Hey everyone! Remember seeing these from my post on Friday?

I thought I would share the few things that I ordered from Pottery Barn Teen for my dorm room! I have less than a month (!!) until I move in, and I can't believe it. As you've probably already guessed, I loved PB Teen, especially when it comes to dorm decor. They are timeless, classy, fun, and have items that I consider to be extremely high quality.

These items may be pretty familiar, as I have talked about them quite a bit.

The first box that came brought this little cute guy:

While he may look slightly brown in the picture, he's actually black, and he has ASPIRE written across him. Which, is absolutely PERFECT for my Alpha Sigma Alpha themed room in my sorority house. Why, you may ask? Well, because our motto is "Aspire, Seek, Attain." So it's quite the catch (and luck) to find a pillow that reads aspire (they also had words like SMILE, LAUGH, LOVE) in a color that goes perfectly with my room theme.

Since aspire isn't exactly the most popular option among their pillow, it was on sale. And I consider it to have been on a major sale, since it was only $13.99. With free shipping. If you are at all familiar with PB Teen, a cross-stitched pillow for less than $20 is unheard of. Plus free shipping, which is both extremely rare and a god send, since they're shipping can be absolutely ridiculous! Originally, the pillow was $35, which I feel is extremely over-priced. Not because it isn't made well or not perfect. It's actually because is more of lumbar pillow (measures 7x15). But everything, size, shape, word, color, and most definitely price, were perfect for me. I love it. (If you wanna check it out, or it's lovely sisters that are all the original $35 price, go here!)

Here's what the next box that came carried:



Look familiar? Well, they should because I blogged about them (and have been drooling about them ever since) a little while back.

On the right is the zebra sheets that I have been dying to get for months, and on the right is my new greatest love, the dottie bin. I actually bought two dottie bins, even though one is just pictured.

Here is a closer look at the Funky Zebra Organic Sheet set. They are actually a brand new item to PB Teen, as they used to have a zebra sheet set that was a smaller print. They are usually $59 for the Twin/Twin XL size, but I bought them for $49. I'm honestly been lusting for some PB Teen sheets, especially the organic kind, for a long time. This past school year I actually used the zebra sheets from Target. While they were soft and comfy, I disliked how much they faded and grew fuzzy (hopefully you know what I'm talking about. The nubby feeling fabric gets?) after only a wash or two.

Another thing I particularly liked about these sheets, is that it is a good, classy zebra print. I know that may sound strange, but not all zebra prints are created equally.

I also splurged with those cute dottie bins:

I couldn't resist. I love PB Teen and I love dots. And I love bins. Put all those three things together, and it was a match made in heaven. I bought two for medium sized bins for $45 (on sale from $50, plus free shipping!!). I was very worried that they would discontinue them, not that I have word they will, but I always have that fear.

And with a looming deadline of free shipping on both the bins and the sheets, I felt like I needed to buy them before they could sell out. Or I'd have to pay shipping (have I mentioned how ridiculous their shipping costs are?!). These are bigger than I thought (even though I knew the measurements before buying). They are definitely going to come in handy in my tiny little room this fall. I'm planning on one holding all my DVDS and the other all my lotions, body sprays, perfumes, and makeup brush cleaner.

Here's an example showing that they are quite large. It's currently holding my MAC brush cleanser and my Vera Bradley small notebook.

 I love them so much.

So that's the goodies that I recieved this past week. Like I said, I love all of PB Teen's products, and when they are on sale, like all three of these items, it's really hard to resist.

What dorm room decor items are you lusting over? Anything you've ordered lately?

Thanks for reading!

It's Never Too Early...

It may be merely June, but to me, deciding/planning/obsessing about my dorm room is in full swing. See, I love interior design. I have for as long as I can remember. And going off to college was the perfect excuse to think of a different room design every year. There is nothing more fun (and I mean NOTHING) than scouring the web, driving store to store, trying to find the look for my next home in college.

For instance, my freshman year I desperately wanted to include yellow! My two favorite colors are red and  yellow, but combining them reminds me of McDonald's, which isn't exactly stylish. So I went with yellow (drab 30+ dorm room, popcorn ceiling, and dingy white walls needed that bright color to cheer it up). So it ended up looking really good in my humble opinion (sorry that the pictures aren't even remotely good. I took them with my old cheap cell phone. Sorry for the small size too).

If you're squinting, trying to figure out what you're looking at, that is in fact my bed and desk, with existing shelves above them. I found a pretty damask comforter at Target that totally contrasted with my pops of yellow in the most beautiful way. Even looking at it now it makes me happy.

Hopefully this picture illustrates a little bit more the look I went for. That pillow from Target still makes me fluttery on the inside (in a good way...btw). Definitely my favorite view of my room.

And here was my desk! This study space was really awesome. I loved those dollar bin pencil cups (Target), yellow lamp (Target! again), and damask ribbon board (Tuesday Morning). It was truly fun to sit at my desk.

My sophomore year I wanted a different look. A drastically different one. In all that time spent with yellow the year previously, I was really missing red. There's just something about red that is just so...perfect to me. I was on the other side of campus, and I just wanted a different feel. I wanted it to feel less...stuffy I guess.

This was how it all started. I wanted to use my awesome red dottie comforter (Walmart) and after that, I just went by idea of whatever I like. So that hopefully explains the random mix of things you see. The shelf above the bed provided fantastic storage. And I loved it's brightness.

So that's what my room was like about 75% of the school year. But something was just...wrong. I didn't know what. It bothered me to no end. My roommate, boyfriend, friends, and family all thought I was crazy, but you just know when it doesn't feel right. So I bought a yellow comforter from Target, wanting a more fresh look. It wasn't right. So I returned it. I bought a plain red quilt and zebra sheets. Loved the zebra, but froze to death under the quilt. But then finding a little inspiration in PB Teen, I opted for black and white dots.

Finally, something felt right. Maybe it was the zebra, the pops of red (instead of all over red), moving that shelf to over my desk, or the Vera Bradley Deco Daisy pillow my mom made (out of napkins!), but it felt right.

That's how I ended the year. Still was nowhere near perfect to my eye, but a lot more perfect at least.

So now I'm thinking all about my junior year, which will be spent living in my sorority's house. Our VP of Recruitment asked every bedroom in the house to have a "theme" for a more put together look for recruitment (a great idea I think). My roommate and I opted to go with a slight ladybug theme, black, white, and red focusing on Alpha Sigma Alpha. So I was planning on using all the same bedding (just upgrading my Target zebra sheets to some nice, PB teen ones), using my red KEEP CALM CARRY ON poster (not pictured, but it was there--because it's red, awesome, and has a crown --one of our symbols), and a few other touches here and there of my wonderful sisterhood.

 Like this awesome bulletin board my big made for me (perfect for our theme!). So hopefully more inspiration will strike. I still have such a long time to think about it, but I don't want it to be a copy of my sophomore room either.

So if anyone has some suggestions or anything I'd love to hear!