Dorm room DIY's!

Hello fabulous people!

Because College is back up and running from the Summer Series! I hope you guys like the new background. I thought simpler was better! My summer is officially over. I moved into my new dorm/apartment on the 7th and classes start on Monday, the 18th. I'm really, really excited to show you guys around the new place! Right now, my room is not where I would like it to be. I left a lot of decorations at home thinking I had already packed way too many- long story short, I didn't pack enough. Now I'll be suffering with partially bland walls for about a month until I go home and pick up the rest of the wall décor. I will however show you the bed! I love the comforter, throw blankets, and throw pillows together! Ah!

I purchased my comforter from Wal-Mart, both of my throw blankets were fantastic scores from Goodwill, previously sold from Target, and my throw pillow covers came from this awesome website called Groop Dealz! If you haven't been to the website before, definitely check it out!

For now, I will show you all some awesome DIY's my roommate, Laura, and I have been doing around the not-so-beautiful parts of the apartment. We have really put some personal touches on the place that make it feel like a home!

First, we tackled the dining room. When I moved in last week, it looked like we had a brand new dining room table, or the people last year just didn't use it, either way it is spotless! My mom and I moved in my bedroom things and then took off to IKEA. I found some really cute placemats and salt and pepper shakers that gave the table a whole new look.

Laura came over and we went shopping again, my favorite thing to do. I had an idea to cut out the word 'eat' and put it on the wall above the table. I didn't realize how much I would actually love it! The whole project cost $4! I got 3 black poster boards and cut out a giant letter on each. I used poster puddy to tack it on the wall and voilà! An easy DIY anyone can make!



The next thing we tackled was the bathroom area. The way the apartment is set up, there is a toilet room, a shower room, and a vanity area. Everything is separate, so that is three separate spaces to work decorating magic! The shower room was the first to be transformed, well as transformed as we can get right now.

Before. Ew, right?

After! We added a shower curtain, caddy, and a bath mat.

Such a transformation from what it was.

Next was the vanity area. This was such a fun DIY! I feel like I need to show y'all the before picture before I explain anything. This was the most transformed space to me! Ah, too exciting!



So boring!

We knew we definitely wanted to cover up the ugly plumbing under the sink. This called for some curtains! For this project, I used 2 yards of fabric, two tension rods, and a roll of hem tape. We purchased the fabric from Hobby Lobby to match the shower curtain. We wanted a consistent theme in the two rooms. I cut the fabric to match the length from the sink to the floor, then folded the edges and "hemmed" them with the hem tape. Such and easy and cheap project!



Love it!



The curtains turned out to be really useful in hiding storage under the sink as well. It's a great way to cover up the ugly things in the bathroom you don't want everyone to see!

I also think "words" are a theme in the apartment as well. This was unintentional, but a really cute way to decorate. We put 'wash' in the vanity area. Laura had leftover paint from redoing her room at home and it was the perfect color for the bathroom. She painted the letters and hung them up perfectly!

This space is just so much more livable to me now!

The last thing we have done so far is add some super cute throw pillows to the couch and spruced up the balcony. Laura's parents were so generous in giving us a precious patio set. I love it! Laura strung some white lights on the balcony railings and it is so nice to just sit out there now.



 Couch pillows!

Love, love, love.

That's all that we've accomplished so far, but all of it has made such a difference! I can't wait to go home and get the rest of my wall decorations. Move-in is this weekend and I get to meet my roommates that I do not know! I'm really excited to kick this year off. My desk receptionist job is going really well so far. It's nice to literally walk down my building stairs and be at work! I hope everyone's summer was fantastic. My college blogging year has started!

Starting off my Summer!

In honor of my 100 day summer vacation, I have decided to do a Summer 2014 series of posts! You can find them to the right, under the 'Pages' subtitle. Head on over and check out what my summer will consist of! I'm excited to share!

**Recently, I have been trying to increase my foot traffic for this blog. If you like what you are reading, click the 'We're on the Fence' image that is below my Instagram box to the right. The vote is anonymous. It is a simple way to help increase who views my blog. You can vote once per day. Thank you for the support! Y'all are the best!

Freshman Year is coming to an End

Well everyone, I officially have 6 days left of my freshman year of college. WHAT. I can't believe how fast time has flown in these past 5 months. It seems as if 'fast forward' was pressed on an ancient VCR and here we are at May 2nd.

**For upcoming college freshman: after Christmas break (when you're home for like a whole month with no worries at all and when you finally get used to living back at home, it's time to go back to school - yeah, that break) everything goes into a whirlwind and before you know it, it's 5 months later and you're sitting in your dorm room thinking about the last 9 months of your life.

My roommate, Katie, and I always joke that we have lived together "long enough to make a baby." Don't worry, no babies have been made, but it's true- you share your room with someone for 9 whole months and they become your best friend, at least that's how it has been in my case. It's bittersweet thinking about packing everything up and leaving the room like we were never here at all. Wow, that took a depressing turn.

Thinking about these past two semesters, I have experienced some really great things that I will always remember. Luckily, I have this blog to document my whole college career on! I have met some amazing people (including my future roomie, Laura!), explored the city, took an epic camping trip, and learned some fantastic things I never expected college to teach me. There has been so much more, but I would be highlighting everything in the blog with links- do check out the highlights!

**For upcoming college freshman: Really cherish those moments that you have never experienced. Before coming to UNCC, I had never been to Charlotte, with the exception of touring the campus. It has been so good to me. You're only young and in college once, so take A TON of pictures!

I am so ready to see what my sophomore year has in store for me. I can't wait to share it with y'all- new dorm room, new roommates, new classes, new friends, new experiences. I'm looking forward to all of it! I'm hoping for an on-campus job for the upcoming year- keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well. I am also excited to announce that I will have a kitchen in my dorm room! So stoked about that. I never realized how much I liked making my own food until I didn't have a kitchen to use. Don't worry, I already have Pinterest recipes to try.

Next Friday, I will be hauling this part of my life back home for the summer! Before any of this happens, my roomies and I have some pretty fun things planned to celebrate our last few days together. Movie nights and breakfasts at IHOP are in the very near future. It's going to be so weird not having someone to carry on 2 o'clock in the morning conversations with, because as we all know, 2 o'clock in the morning conversations are the best conversations to have.

Thanks for reading and basically going through my freshman year with me. Going into this blog, I never realized how special it would be to me. I'm so happy I get to share my experiences with you guys. I'm looking forward to updating you all very soon about move-out and summertime! To all of my college friends: kick finals week in the butt!

**Recently, I have been trying to increase my foot traffic for this blog. If you like what you are reading, click the 'We're on the Fence' image that is below my Instagram box to the right. The vote is anonymous. It is a simple way to help increase who views my blog. You can vote once per day. Thank you for the support! Y'all are the best!

5 Things I Can't Stand

1. Rudeness. There is absolutely no reason you can't hold a door open for someone or simply say "excuse me" or "thank you." I understand that you might be in a hurry to get somewhere, but people remember the negatives more than the positives. An "excuse me" will go a long way. Oh yeah, and smile back at someone when they smile at you. It's just nice.

2. The incessant use of the 'F' word. I get that you might stump your toe and say it really loudly, but replacing every other word in a sentence with it is a little ridiculous- when I say a little, I mean a lot.

3. People who talk while the professor is talking. We're all guilty of this, I mean who doesn't love a good conversation? But please, if you're going to talk literally the whole time during a lecture, why did you even come? Take it outside.

4. I can't really fix this one, it's just nasty. When you're walking and a stranger sneezes in front of you, then you have to walk through their "sneeze cloud." It makes me want to throw up. I know I'm going to be sick next week.

5. Loud neighbors. Oh my gosh y'all, I have the WORST hall neighbors in the history of worst hall neighbors. They would completely be in the 'Worst Hall Neighbors in the World' hall of fame. I think being loud and rude and annoying and hateful and, well you get it, is their specialty.

Bonus!

6. People who walk around blaring music from their phones- like everyone wants to hear that. Get some headphones.

This was just a little Sunday-Funday post. I hope it was relatable!

***Recently, I have been trying to increase my foot traffic for this blog. If you like what you're reading, click the 'We're on the Fence' image under my Instagram box to the right. It will just give me a vote on http://picketfenceblogs.com/vote/10847 and help increase who views this blog. I believe it's an anonymous vote. Thank you!

Easter Weekend, plus more!

Oh my goodness y'all! I feel like I haven't posted in forever. So much has been going on as this semester is coming to a close- and fast. Easter weekend was wonderful with my family, but before I get into that re-cap, I want to go back a little further to before Easter.

Capital Cities came to UNCC to play a concert a few weekends ago. I didn't really know what to expect, since the only song I know by them is "Safe and Sound," but they were awesome! I have a couple of videos (crossing my fingers that they upload correctly) to show you guys. I went with Katie and Kelsey, my current roomies, and the best part was- it was for free!

Concert ready!

Capital Cities!

They were so good!

The concert was toward the end of the week, so the anticipation for Easter weekend was steady rising! I was so excited to get home.

On Thursday, Kels and I hit the road and headed back to the 910. I can't reiterate enough how ready I was to go home. I couldn't wait to see my family, plus my brother was home. That's pretty rare nowadays since we're both busy with school and in two different cities. It was a weekend FULL of family selfies, food, of course a little shopping, and fun.

Friday, we went to Myrtle Beach (oh boy, has the tourist season started) and hit the NASCAR Speedpark. Brother and dad raced cars all day, while mom and I played video games. It was fun watching them race each other and to hear their excuses  on why they lost, typical boys.

Family car selfie!

Mama and I

Brother and Mom casually attacked my camera.

On Saturday, I finally got back into the swing of things at work. Summer can't come fast enough- I need some shopping money, probably money for insurance, my phone, and gas, but definitely shopping! I stopped by MaryLou's house that night on the way home from work. I have missed her so much!

Us lookin' ratch Saturday night.

Naturally.

Easter Sunday, we all got up and went to church. Brother had to leave to go back to school that morning. Luckily, I didn't have to leave until Monday morning! My 12:30 class was cancelled, so it gave me an extra day home.

Easter morning family selfie!

Sweet Nana and Mama!

The rest of Sunday was pretty steady. Grandma made a wonderful Easter lunch and we munched on that the rest of the day. I had to pack everything up to come back to school- my least favorite part.

Monday morning was my Mom and Dad's 24th wedding Anniversary! That's so great. I think love like that is so uncommon these days, especially high school sweethearts. They are the best people I know and I can't wait for them to have 24 more years!

Kels and I got back to school on Monday afternoon and went to math class (barf). Tuesday was pretty slow. Yesterday (Wednesday) Katie, Charlotte, Kels, and I went to Southpark Mall and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum! We've had a couple of roomie nights this week and that's not very often, so it was nice to hangout with all three of them! It's definitely going to be weird not seeing them everyday next year. Change will be welcomed though, I think we're all ready for something new!

Tuesday night roomie dinner at the Bistro!

I had dinner tonight with Laura (future roomie) at Crown and we were talking about next year! We are so excited about decorating and living closer to our classes. I made a board on Pinterest y'all! I'm already planning decorations for my room! I'm sure there will be a post about it when it all comes together in, ya know, 3 or so months.

This weekend is going to be filled with playing catch-up with homework, papers, and getting ready for final exams. There's exactly two weeks from today that I will be home for summer break! I can't wait. I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter weekend! To all of my college friends: just two more weeks guys, we got this!



Lake Norman Camping Adventure!

As promised...it's the camping post!

Over the weekend of April 4th-6th, a few of us went camping at Lake Norman State Park. It was a bunch of fun! I have not been camping in years and it was nice to experience it again. 

Laura (future roomie), Kels (current roomie), and I left campus at about 2pm on Friday and hit the road! We were meeting the boys (Kels' boyfriend and some of his friends) at the campground and we were anxious to get there and get everything set up. Us girls arrived about an hour or so before the boys, so we decided to put up our own tent all by ourselves! I know, right? After a lot of instruction contemplation, we finally had that bad boy put up and ready for the weekend.

Baby Ferg has never been so FULL! We three barely had room for our bodies in the seats. Maybe a little bit of over-packing occurred?

Hitting the road selfie!

We arrived!

So happy to have finally gotten there!

Before...

After! We were so proud of ourselves - taking the tent down was a different story.

Thanks, boys!

Y'all, we were so proud of it!

After we finished unpacking everything and the boys got there, we decided to get ready for dinner. We had hotdogs, chips, and beans for dinner. Classic camping cuisine. We roasted marshmallows over the fire and Robbie (Kels' boyfriend) played his guitar some. It was getting late, so we cleaned everything up before it was completely dark and thought we had tied our trash up high enough...key word there: thought.

We were completely wrong.

We had some lovely little raccoon visitors at about 3 in the morning. The trash bag was by our tent and we were so freaked out! We had to yell the boys' names so they would come and chase the raccoons away. Anyway, that was quite an experience. The park "host" was so hateful to us because we were making "too much noise" while cleaning everything up - whatever lady, you would be making noise too.

The next day was fantastic! It was exactly what I wanted it to be, SUNNY AND 70 DEGREES! So beautiful and perfect for the little "beach" they have there. We made these precious little eggs in muffin pans with turkey bacon for breakfast, then it was off to the lake! We stayed out there for about 5 hours and we got pretty crispy, as in sunburnt! I'm still paying for it...aloe, aloe, aloe. The water was too cold for us, but the boys had a fun racing and swimming in it.

BEAUTIFUL forecast!

Lake pictures!

After we got back to our campsite from being at the lake all day, Robbie made dinner for everyone. They were called 'hobo meals' and they were good! It was hamburger meat, carrots, cheese, onions, and potatoes all mixed together - kind of like a stew, but not soupy.Then marshmallows were roasted and apple cider was heated up on the fire. Delish! We packed all the trash up that night and took it straight to the dump, we didn't want anymore visitors in the middle of the night.

The sunset was pretty through the trees!

Sunday morning group shot (L to R): Kels, Robbie, Sawyer, Craig, Michael, me, Laura

I'm not going to lie, I was ready to get back in a regular bed after the second night. It was so fun, but I do like my heat, a bathroom that's in the same building I am, and mattresses. Sunday morning, we packed everything up, grabbed a pop tart, and got on the road. We were back on campus before lunch time.

It was a great time and I had a lot of fun making some "college freshman memories." I will definitely do it again! It was great to meet you guys, Craig, Michael, and Sawyer!

If you're a bargain shopper...

If you're my friend on Facebook, then you have probably had one of my thredUP links pop up on your news feed. It's no joke! This website is amazing.

Whenever and wherever I shop, I always look for the sale or clearance section first. It's a rule. I can do just that on thredUP. The best part is - it's ALL on sale! It's a gently used clothing website, just like Plato's Closet (in website form). You can buy things or send your things in for cash! I ordered two packages last week and they both arrived today in THE CUTEST packaging!

How precious is that? Enjoy!

The website is so organized and there is a category for just about anything you're looking for - even clothes new-with-tags! I ordered a tank from H&M that was new-with-tags and it only cost me $3 on thredUP, when it would've been about $8 in the store. It's like a tunic and it's going to be perfect for a beach cover-up this summer!



I also ordered a dress by Express and a shirt by Forever 21. They have a ton of name brand items to choose from and I already want to order more! 

They put these cute little tags on everything!

If you're feeling thrifty, definitely check thredUP out! The link is below and you get $10 OFF your first order! Go ahead, try something new!

http://www.thredup.com/collages/912360?referral_code=1110973utm_medium%3Dinvites&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=invites_facebook_order_confirmation_page&utm_content=order_confirmation_page

I hope everyone's week started off great on this Monday!