Gallery Walls Galore!

It's been a good month since I've been home and I came for a visit this weekend. My mom has done so much more to the new house and I'm excited share! One of mom's signature go-to decorations is a gallery wall. She's awesome at it! Here are a few throughout the house:

This one is right outside of my room. It's our baby picture - grandma wall. It looks so vintage-y and I love it. Mom's going to add some baby pictures of Drew and I to finish it off!

This wall is outside of Mom and Dad's room. It's our family wall. The '4' and the 'H' are from Hobby Lobby, my papa David gave Mom 'The Hatcher Family' cross, and Mom made 'The Hatchers' sign in the middle! So crafty.

This cute little number is in Mom and Dad's closet! We are a family that loves monograms, so of course they're everywhere. The 'Rise & Shine' sign is from Target. I got it on sale for about $7! I thought it looked so fun. The adorable 'Hello Darling!' sign is from TJ Maxx. I love it because Dad says that all the time to Mom.

This last one is upstairs in Dad's man cave. The mechanic sign and 'M' are from Hobby Lobby. Mom is so good about putting pictures and objects together to make them work!

Here are a few of my other favorite decorations!

This is on Dad's man cave door! Thank you, Hobby Lobby.

These presh letters are outside of the laundry room! I painted them for mom over

Christmas break. Love, love, love.

The blue table collection. Dad found the vintage power line insulators at a

couple of different yard sales. I think they're pretty cool!



I know this post was quick, but I hope it gave you a little inspiration for your homes! I love a good gallery wall- there's even a couple in my dorm room! I hope you're all having an awesome Super Bowl weekend. Be safe!

20 Tips from a College Sophomore

Hello wonderful people!

I have been excited about doing this post since the beginning of the school year. My 20 Tips from a College Freshman post is one of my most viewed posts I have done since starting this blog. I hope this one is enjoyed just as much! This is also my 50th blog post!

1. Living in an on-campus apartment style dorm room is heavenly. I have loved my living situation this year so much! I have my own room and my roommates and I share the kitchen, bathroom, dining area, and living room. There is a lot of space to work with! It's a little outdated, but when you decorate, it makes everything better!

2. At UNCC, there are several apartment style dorms to choose from. I'm thinking that other campuses have similar housing options. When choosing your dorm, I would definitely suggest living on a hall. That is the only thing I do not like about my dorm- we just have stairwells that lead to our apartments. It doesn't really give you a chance to meet new people or interact with your neighbors. Luckily, there are a few more housing options that are apartments and are on halls for next year!

3. Coffee is still an important part of your life! Which leads me to my next tip...

4. If you're wanting a cup of coffee before class (and let's face it- none of us really like to put in the effort to make it ourselves before an 8 a.m.) go to Starbucks! I know, such a common white girl thing. There will probably be a line, but just order a tall Pike Place. You'll get it at the register and you don't have to wait for your name to be called at the counter. Spice it up with some half and half, vanilla powder, and sugar. You will be all set for your class! Plus, it's only a dollar and some change.

5. Classes become so much more important this year. You actually dive into your Major classes and start to pick up some of your Minor classes as well. Go to class. You're one more year closer to graduation! Plus, when you put in the effort it, it feels great to make the Dean's List!

6. I changed my Minor this year and it scared me to death! I thought I would be put so far behind, but it didn't. That was a relief. It may not be the same way for everyone, but if you're not happy with what your doing, change it. However, be careful with changing your Major! That's what will set you back the most.

7. Speaking of classes, they should be easier this year in the sense that they are in the same area or building. I only have to go to two different building this semester, compared to the four or five from previous semesters. That's the beauty of getting into your Major classes!

8. Wait to order your textbooks. Last semester, I ordered every single "required" textbook that was listed. Required is for the birds. I only opened maybe two of the textbooks for my classes. What a waste of money! Wait to order them until you go to class and the professor explicitly says, "You need the textbook."

9. Get used to seeing the same faces this year. Not that it's a bad thing! Since your classes are focused on your Major, you will most likely be in classes with the same people. That will give you a chance to know them! Especially with Education majors!

10. Netflix is still a great way to waste time and probably always will be.

11. Get a job this year! Freshman year is for getting situated and knowing the area. Sophomore year is about growing up a little more. Jobs on campus are really great because they work with your school schedule and they offer flexible hours.

12. Use the gym. I know, I know- the most unphysical person telling you to actually work out. But, it's free and it's good for you. Take advantage of it!

13. Be aware that the parking ticket monster is real. Don't park in a 24 hour faculty spot (even though it's in your parking lot and what kind of professor needs a spot at 10 p.m.- but that's beside the point). Just be cautious of where you park your car!

14. Keep in touch with the friends you made from Freshman year! I have a few friends that I love hanging out with now because I kept in touch with them over the summer.

15. It still isn't easy leaving home when you go and visit. Leaving home from Christmas break was difficult. Good thing I'm going home to visit soon! Just know it's okay to miss your parents.

16. Make super awesome spring break plans! Laura and I are going to New York and Washington DC for our spring break! Go somewhere incredible because your college years are prime travel years!

17. Go ahead and begin thinking of your Junior year plans. Where you want to live, what classes you need to take, etc.

18. Meet with your advisor regularly to help stay on track! I know I constantly get confused, but my advisor helps me understand exactly where I need to be. It's usually suggested to schedule an appointment with your advisor before signing up for classes- make sure you do! It helps tremendously.

Now to reiterate some Freshman tips that still apply!

19. Make a to-do list of assignments! It feels great to check them off when you're done!

20. Making your bed makes you feel better, trust me!

I hope these tips come in handy! Sophomore year is so important, so make it count. Don't sweat the little stuff.

January Favorites.

Hey y'all!

It's been a chilly January so far here in Crown Town, but I'm loving it! I love some cold weather, even though I complain about it. I mean hey, I complain about any weather. It's not even two weeks into the new year, but I already have some favorites to share with you all!

But first, I have a post coming soon that is an "edition" of an older post I've done in the past! I'm super excited to share it with you guys, but you'll have to wait on that one for now.

Let the favorites begin!

1. Starbucks Discoveries Iced Coffee

I don't know if I'm late to the game or what- I'm not even sure how long these things have been out, but I love them! At least I love the Vanilla Latte one. I picked up a carton last week at Target and I'm hooked! They're about $5, but that's how much I pay for one vanilla latte at Starbucks. I've already gotten four drinks out of one carton and there's still more in there! Try it out for yourself- I'm trying the macchiato next!

2.  2015 Planner

I'm loving my new planner for this year! I've already written homework assignments and work hours in it and I can't wait to use it some more. It has also put me in a planning mood! *cue the drum roll* My roommate Laura and I will be traveling to New York and Washington DC for our spring break in March! We are both so excited. I cannot wait to blog all about it! If you need some inspiration to plan your own NYC trip, we're using the picture below! Thank you, Pinterest.

3. Laptop Freebie!



I was browsing through the internet looking for a new laptop background and I found this cute little number! I love it, so optimistic and encouraging! You can have it (here.) It brightens up your desk space instantly. I found it on The Nectar Collective. I hope my blog is half as good as it one day!

These are just a few of my favorite things this month. I hope they inspire you too! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for future posts!

DIY End Table

I promised to share with you all how my brother and I built our mom's book end table for Christmas! Bear with me as I explain because I am not "tool savvy," but I will do my best to explain all of the directions very clearly. Here goes nothing!

Materials:

- About 12 hardback novels, varying in thickness

- One 3 foot rebar rod, you will have to cut off excess

- 2 wooden blocks for bottom of table, added for balance

- 1 bag of nuts

- 1 bag of washers

- Wrench

- Drill (w/ paddle bit)

- 4 screws

- Saw, to cut excess rebar

- Palm sander

Steps:

1. Gather all of your materials together. Stack your novels up to the height you want your table to be. You may have to add 1 or 2 books (at the end).

2. Drill holes through the centers of the books with your paddle drill. The holes should be the size that the rebar rod is round (1/2" I believe).

3. Put a nut and washer at the very bottom of the rebar rod, then slide the first novel onto the rod.

4. After each novel is added to the rod, put a nut and washer between each. Repeat this process until the last novel is added. Only put a washer on top of the last novel. This is to keep the book flat against the table top.

5. Cut the wood for the table top to the size you want it to be, then sand it with the palm sander for a smooth surface.

6. Drill a hole through the center of the table top and add it to the rebar on top of the books. Secure it with a nut and washer.

7. Screw the two wooden blocks to the bottom of the first novel. This will give your table extra support.

8. Tighten all nuts and washers with the wrench. This will lessen the height of your table, you may have to add 1 or 2 books now.

9. After everything has been adjusted and secured, cut the excess rebar off with the saw. Make sure the nut and washer that are on the table top are tightened as well. Voila, you have a table!

After the steps above are completed, your table should look like ours in the picture above! Please note that the two books on the table top are decoration, not apart of the books that the rebar runs through. I hope these instructions are clear enough and are helpful if you want to make a table of your own!

*The only thing I didn't like about this table project is that you can see the nut and washer on top of the table. Fortunately, it's easy to cover up in the end!

Christmas in the New House!

For starters, Happy New Year everyone! I am so excited to see what 2015 has in store!

Christmas break has went by so fast and it is almost time for me to head back to Charlotte. I am actually really excited to begin my new classes for the semester! I am starting classes this semester that are specifically for my major and I'm anxious to see how they turn out. This Christmas was a DIY (Do It Yourself) fest! My brother and I made my mom a book end table, my dad a bottle opener, and we took sibling pictures for both of them. I will be blogging a 'how to' for the end table, but for now, I will show you pictures because everything turned out so great!

We took this picture around Thanksgiving break. It is in the Japanese Gardens at UNCC. It was so hard to keep it a secret from mom and dad! We surprised them with sibling pictures in 2012, but we wanted some updated ones for their offices!

Mom's book end table. I thank Pinterest for the idea, but Drew and I made it a reality! It looks so great in Mom's new office!

Dad's bottle opener for the man cave! Pinterest is also to thank for the idea. This one was a quick project, but it turned out awesome! It is also Daddy's 45th birthday this coming week!

These past few weeks have been so nice at home. I am so happy we were able to celebrate Christmas in the new house this year! I loved it and all of the decorations. Speaking of the new house, I have some updated pictures to show y'all of the decorating mom and I have done over the last couple of weeks. Everything has turned out so nicely and it is coming together!

My room is up first! Click on the image to make it larger. Since I've been home, we've added the octopus above the bed, the curtains, a few throw pillows, and my nightstand and TV stand. I'm not quite done with the walls yet, but it's looking good.

This nightstand is one of my favorite DIY's. It was a pale blue color before. I used a palm sander and sanded the blue down in spots to show the original wood. Then I went back and painted it turquoise, then sanded it one more time. Easy as pie!

I'm all about accessorizing a nightstand. The seashell lamp is from my Nana, my mom made the 'to the beach' picture and framed it, then I added a picture of my mom on her wedding day, plus a few books.

I did the TV stand in the same way I painted and sanded the nightstand. I'm in awe of the way they both turned out! I didn't expect them to come out so well. Mom added the rectangular knobs to them to give it that extra touch!

This is a temporary decoration. I wanted a basket overflowing with throw blankets, but that's hard to do when you only have about 2 of them. So I put a throw pillow, blanket, and a couple of canvas paintings in there as a place holder for the moment. I love the anchor against the basket!

Next is the dining room! If y'all remember in the last post, we did not have a dining room table yet. Mom and dad looked everywhere for a farm table, but they were too expensive or not quite right. Dad ended up building one for mom and it is perfect for the space! Mom made a basket wall behind it and it really ties the space together. Now she's looking for two Captain's chairs for the ends of the table to finish the look.

Mom's office/library is one of my favorite rooms in the house. She really decorated this space well and if you know her, this space screams her name when you walk in! Click the image to make it larger.

The living room is another awesome area. Dad put built-in shelves in there and they are decorated awesomely. One of my favorite parts is the senior picture wall to the very right. I love it! Click on the image to make it larger.

Last is mom and dad's bedroom. Mom did a great job with this room as well. I love the 'His and Hers' pillow on the bed and the white ginger jar lamps! Click on the image to make it larger.

We still have a lot of wall decorations to hang, but everything is looking great! I'm excited to come home and see what else mom and dad have done. It is feeling more and more like home everyday!

On a side note, I do have a New Year's resolution! I want to use a planner this year and semester. I went to the store yesterday and picked out a super cute planner that will hopefully keep me motivated to use it! I already put my work schedule in it and ordered a monogram to go on the front- yes, I did!

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and New Year! Thanks for reading!

New House! New House!

It's December y'all!

This has to be my most favorite month of the year! It holds the most wonderful time of the year and it's best time for decorating a girl can ask for! I went home over the weekend and my parents had moved into the new house- at least partially. There are plenty of boxes left to be unpacked, but we got the most important ones unpacked first: THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!

We have a beach themed Christmas this year and everything turned out so beautifully! We went to Callahan's and bought a bunch of starfish and sand dollars to put all over the tree and living room. We also stocked up on 75% off beachy ornaments last year during the after Christmas sales and put them to good use this year!

We also decorated the mantel with burlap stockings, garland, starfish, ornaments, and lights. It was so cozy in there with the fire going! We glammed-up the stockings later with some cute little gold bows!

The blue jeweled starfish is one of my favorite ornaments on the tree! My mom walked the beach last year and collected seashells, she put little hooks in them to hang on the tree. We also added turquoise and gold ornaments for a sea and sand feel.

We have seashell garland wrapped all around the tree and sand dollars hanging on some branches. Mom DIY'd some starfish and glued some twine in a loop on them to hang on the tree!

I found a box of Christmas decorations in the garage and it consisted of our Christmas pictures we put out every year. Mom found some trays and we put the pictures and a mini tree on the trays on the island in the kitchen! It turned out so cute.

One of my favorites!

We ended the holiday decorating on the porch with garland wrapped banisters and a wreath on the front door! But, that's not where all of the decorating stopped.

Dad put together the new bar stools for mom! They look so good. The island is so big and spacious too! I'm loving the bead board. Ahh, the wonders of a new house.

Mom scored some really cute curtains at Kirkland's on a great sale! This is the dining room- well eventually it will be. We're waiting to come across a farm table to put in the space. The curtains are throughout the living room, office space, and dining room!

After almost a year of selling a house and building a new one, a pretty good collection of throw pillows has been gathered. It's a good thing because:

1. Mom and dad purchased a new couch on Black Friday and we had the pillows to match!

2. We will never have to worry about buying throw pillows ever, ever again.

A throw pillow closet has been assembled. Now, to unpack the rest of the them.

Lastly, we decorated the bathrooms! All thanks to TJ Maxx! They have the fluffiest rugs and I got an adorable fabric shower curtain on sale for $10!

Obviously, a matching hamper was a must!

Rugs for mom and dad's bathroom were purchased as well! A matching one was put in the guest bathroom and I love the pattern.



I can't wait to see what else mom does with the place. No decorations have been put on the walls yet, but it's only a matter of time before mama gets a hammer in her hand! I hope you all are just as excited about the impending holidays as I am. I can't wait to wrap some presents and put them under the tree!

#TheStruggleBus

If anyone is unfamiliar with what the "struggle bus" is....it's a real thing. It's in the family of "procrastination station" and "hot mess express." You could be struggling with your class work load, getting out of bed on a Monday morning, or even just doing one productive thing a day. Yes- it's that real and it takes you captive when it hits!

I am an avid passenger of the struggle bus. I have a hard time giving myself enough time to do my school work- granted, I always get it finished, but usually in a rush. I believe a lot of us board the bus towards the end of the semester, so I've come up with some tips to give up your seat!

1.  Plan

This sounds easy enough, but I am no more a planner than the next hot mess. Most of the time, I find myself looking at my classes Moodle page and wondering OMG, when did that assignment get posted?! Anywho- make sure you're checking your syllabi frequently and your class homepages. Some professors don't email regularly- so cover all of your bases!

Here are a few of really cute printable planning sheets to try:
- Project Planner
- Weekly Planner
- To-Do List

2.  Self-Motivation

I'm usually more of a Grande girl

If you're not in a time-crunch, motivate yourself with that next episode on Netflix or a nice hot cup of coffee (that always works for me). Get an assignment or two finished, then take a quick break. You can't stare at your computer screen or textbook for too long because it drains you. I can physically feel my soul die a little bit when I have to read 12 chapters from a book and then write a research paper on it. Give yourself a little reward for some progress made on that to-do list!

3. Go Home

The 'rents

I know what you're thinking...why? Do you remember when you were in high school and you had to complete your senior project? Where did you work on it at? Who helped motivate you? Where were you when you had it completely finished and had to practice it for an audience? Home! Or at least somewhere near there. Sometimes you just need to go home and be with your family. You might just need to sprawl out in your room with your laptop and textbooks and just be in your own zone. I did a lot of my homework at our dining room table where I could just sit at whatever seat I wanted and get my work done. It was my little space. Sometimes you need that familiarity to help check things off of your list!

I know everyone is so ready for the first semester to be over, I am for sure! We're moving in to the new house this weekend and I couldn't be more excited to come home to a brand new bedroom! I'm going to be blogging about the new house and decorating for Christmas over Thanksgiving break- be on the look out for a post. I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!