Dorm Room Decorating!

So, I have been the epitome of a bad blogger. I haven't posted one single thing since May and I am not proud of it- but I have had one of the best summers of my life! I would make a summer recap post, but oh my I don't want to torture you with about 5,000,001 pictures. However, it was one for the books (I love some clichés.)

I gave you all a peek of what my summer would look like in May and it was even better than I thought it would be! I began working two new jobs, a CIS Group Leader and a barista at my favorite coffee shop at home, they both turned out to be incredible. I can definitely tell that I learned so many different lessons about teaching through my CIS job and I know it will help me in the future with my degree! Working with three of my very best friends at the coffee shop was not something that I had expected to be doing at the beginning of summer, but I was so excited for the opportunity! It's so hard not seeing their faces everyday now that I am back at school. Summer went by so fast this year, as it does every year!

Speaking of school, I have officially started my Junior year of college at UNCC! I'm all moved in and settled. Last year, one of my most viewed posts was Dorm Room DIY's, this year, however, we were able to upgrade into a little better building so Laura (roomie) and I didn't have to put in as much effort to give the place a face-lift. We did do a few DIY projects that I will share with y'all and we decorated a ton!

I'll start with the living room. It's the room you first see when you walk into our apartment and I have to say that it makes the place feel so homey. We put a lot of effort into making it look nice this year and it paid off! One of our goals was to make everything flow together, mainly in the kitchen and living room.

Laura gets basically all of the credit for this space. She bought all of the decorations and I was just there to help put the space together. I think it turned out so beautifully! We were able to reuse the coffee table, side table, table lamp, and place mats from our apartment last year.

Laura scored this awesome chair at Habitat for $10! It fits so well in the space. The throw pillows, throw blanket, curtains, and standing lamp came from Target.

After I took the pictures above, we made initials of all the roommates to hang over the couch. They were created to match the place mats and one of the walls I will talk about below!

One of our first DIY projects in the new place was on the wall right as you come into the apartment. It was this plain white wall that was really drab and we turned it into something fabulous! Electrical tape is not just used for wires- it can also be used as faux paint stripes if you're really creative! This whole wall was done with 1 roll of tape for about $5.

We did a little decorating in the kitchen next. Our kitchen was not decorated in any special way last year, except for a rug that just collected crumbs mostly. This year, we wanted it to flow right into the living space. Laura found these precious prints on Pinterest and picked up a few frames. I think it creates almost a window-like area!

Naturally, my favorite print! All of them flow into the colors of the living room space. I love looking at these when I wash dishes. They're so fun!

Now, onto my favorite room (and that may be a biased statement.) Over the summer, I put a lot of thought into what I wanted my room to look like this year. I know that may sound silly because it's just a college dorm, but if you know me (and my mom) then you know we were both born to decorate. I feel like I need to be comfy in the place I'm staying or I won't be happy. Your environment reflects your personality and I think this room is a spitting image of me and all of my favorite things: gold decals, pictures, and navy blue. Okay, well maybe not all of my favorite things, but you get the point!

I reused my ruched bedspread from freshman year and my stool and a few decorations from last year. I saw these triangle wall decals online one day, but they were really expensive. I found the ones on this wall from Etsy for about $15 and there were 40 in a pack. I still have some leftover!

These throw pillow covers are from Groopdealz, if you haven't heard of the website, then you need to go there right now! I mean it, come back to this post later and finish it if you have to. Anyway, they were all about or under $10. The 'hello' pillow is from Hobby Lobby, my own tangible Pinterest.

I just love, love, love everything about this room! It is by far my best dorm room yet. Not that the others have been bad, I've just gotten better at decorating and planning! I couldn't have finished this room by myself, my mom was a HUGE help in the whole decorating process. I'm so thankful for her and her ideas!

Laura brought some wooden rectangles with her to do some DIYing with and we both made key hangers with them. They turned out so cute! I had some little picture loop hooks, I have no idea what they're actually called, that I twisted into the top to hang it on the wall with. 

One of the last things we decorated was the sink area in the bathroom. We reused the blue 'wash' letters from the apartment last year. We added the loop hooks to the top of them this year for an extra touch. They turned out really cute in the space! We also reused the blue bathmats from last year as well.

Laura, Kirsten, and Dominique's rooms are all so cute as well! I'm so excited for this year and our little apartment. It really does feel like home away from home. I hope everyone's first day of class went well and I will post again soon(er rather than later)!

Summer Updates + Plans!

To say that I have been a bad, pretty inconsistent blogger would be very accurate. There has been so many things going on since my last post, but let's be real- I just haven't wanted to pick up my computer and invest some time into a new post. But today, that changes!

A quick summary since my last post:

We added a new member to the Hatcher family! Everyone say "hi" to (the highly spoiled, not quite potty-trained) Harley! My dad had recently gotten a Harley Davidson motorcycle, so mom said she wanted a 'Harley' too, but she put a different twist on it! Harley was my mom's 25th anniversary present from daddy. She's an adorably cute (which helps her get away with a lot) 4 month old Chihuahua! 

My big brother graduated from NC State! I'm so, so proud of him! He has moved from Raleigh to Wilmington and has started his big boy job there. You go big bro!

I have moved out of my dorm in Charlotte and can officially call myself a Junior in college! I was in the middle of taking an 'after' picture of my dorm room all cleaned and moved out when my phone died. I was a little salty about it, but I was also very ready to come home so I didn't stick around and wait for my phone to charge to snap a new picture. I did however have to leave my best friend and roomie, Laura. That was so tough, but I know we will be making road trips to see each other this summer!

Laura's last visit to the beach!

I had an interview for a summer camp group leader position for the CIS program in my hometown and I received the job! I'm so excited about it. I officially start in June and can't wait to get to know all of my little summer camp go-ers! 

One very exciting thing that has happened is that I was asked to be a BRIDESMAID in Sam's wedding! I am too, too excited for it! Sam is going to be the most beautiful bride with an awesome bridal party, but I may be a little biased. We're all planning a Charleston trip in August that I'm already mentally packing for- so. much. excitement!

These were a couple of screenshots from a video that was taken by ML! I love, love, love both of them so much and can't wait to partake in all of the bridal party festivities!

We also took advantage of the beach while Sam and MaryLou were off of work over the weekend. The perfect opportunity for a #bridalparty selfie! 

That pretty much catches you all up on the most important things that have happened since March (even though I'm positive I have forgotten some things). Oh yeah, there is one more thing!

Today, I was informed that I received a second summer job at Surf & Java in OIB! I'm too excited to be working with the two beauts in the picture above. I can't wait to start this week!

I hope everyone's summer is going so well so far, at least for everyone who is already out of school!

Spring Break: Part Two!

So, I left off with Laura and I beginning to travel to Washington, DC.

Let me tell you, it was a struggle from the very start. It had snowed the night before in NY, so the snowplow truck had packed snow all around my car when it was scraping the roads. We were staring at my car trying to figure out how we were going to get out of the mess. It was Laura's turn to drive in the city (my nerves were shot from driving before!) and it was up to her to get us out of the parking spot! A nice man stopped by my car and told her to back up onto the little hill of snow behind her, so that it would give her momentum when she put it in drive. It worked! Y'all, I had to chase her down the street to get back in the car! That was about the only humorous thing that happened that day.

We made it out of the city and were slowly, but surely making our way down to Washington, DC. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there and the sky was so gloomy. We were both so exhausted and the weather was making it hard to be excited about our visit. It started to sprinkle once we got parked, so we cut our trip a little short by only seeing the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, and a glimpse of the White House.

Everything was beautiful to see again, but we were so ready to get back on the road to Haymarket, Virginia. Laura knew someone we could stay with there and that would be our halfway point before heading back to North Carolina. However, since we were moving southward, we both starting craving some sweet tea that we weren't able to get all week! We treated ourselves to Outback before continuing our drive, it was delicious and much needed.

We made it to Virginia only to find out that the weather was supposed to be horrible the next day. Sure enough, we woke up to a winter wonderland. It was gorgeous and crappy all at the same time. It was pouring down snow and we still had another 6 hours to go before we made it home. We were frustrated to say the least. It turned out that we didn't even know what frustrated was yet....

About an hour down the road, I was ready to make a pit-stop and stretch. The weather was stressing us out because we had never really experienced those kind of conditions before. We had just saw a van spin-out in front of us, so the next gas station was our next stop. As soon as I said, "I think I'm going to stop at the next rest station," my driver's side windshield wiper went limp and stopped working! Y'all, words cannot describe how I felt in that moment. Furious, because we were on our way home. Scared, because I couldn't see out of the windshield. Tired, angry, annoyed....blah, blah, blah. It was awful. I pulled over on the side of the highway to see if there was anything we could see or do about it.

I called my dad and told him was was going on. Thankfully, we were directly across from a gas station. I waited until no traffic was coming and pulled through into the parking lot. We got out and ran inside to plan our next step. That moment was such a God thing because we walked in to the most friendly and caring environment! The three ladies behind the counter were such blessings to us. They gave us coffee and were calling local auto parts stores to see if they stocked my type of wiper. It felt like we had knew these ladies our whole lives! We ended up calling Triple A (I know what you're thinking, for a windshield wiper?). Y'all, we were in the middle of nowhere and we had no idea what we were going to do. Both sets of parents were hours away and it was pouring snow. We were completely stuck.The Triple A guy towed us to the next service station. Big surprise, they were closed due to the weather. 

The ladies from the gas station before got in touch with us and sent their husbands to the service station! What an amazing and selfless thing. We were complete strangers to them and they were so generous and kind to us. Mr. Lee and Mr. Todd took my wiper off and discovered it was entirely stripped on the inside. Mr. Lee took the passenger side wiper and switched it over to the driver's side. This let us get to the next town over to grab a hotel room. Our trip was extended another stinking day. We were SO over the snow by this time!

The next morning we were up and ready to get out of Virginia, we were still a good ways from home. It was smooth sailing from Madison, Virginia to home. We made it back safely and I am still one wiper short. Luckily, I'm going home this weekend to get it fixed! The trip was one for the books, at least the book of half fun, half completely outrageous events. At the end of the day, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! Well...maybe minus the snow. 

Windshield, featuring my ratch one wiper that doesn't even lay down straight.

I hope everyone's spring break was just as eventful and awesome. Hopefully, y'all had a little better luck than we did. But, we made some amazing new friends that even checked on us when we got back home! If you're ever in Madison, Virginia, know that you're in a good place!

Spring Break, Part 1: NYC!

This post has been basically two months in the making. I'm sorry for my hiatus in February, but nothing extravagant was going on and Laura (roomie) and I were planning our New York/Washington, DC spring break trip! Which brings me to this post. I'm about to give you a compact two day itinerary to the city that never sleeps...ever, New York!

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Our original spring break plans consisted of skiing and playing in the snow in the mountains. Well, it turned out that neither of us really wanted to ski and we didn't really want to go to the mountains all that much either. One night in January, Laura and I were sitting on the couch in our little dorm and got to thinking about alternative spring break ideas. Nothing was set in stone yet and we started to brainstorm. All of a sudden, the idea of New York hit us like a ton of bricks! *Let me point out here that in that moment, it was the beginning of January, a full two months before our actual spring break, and we didn't really think it was possible for us to go to New York.* Everything happened so quickly after that! We booked our hotel within the next few days, after many conversations with our parents, and all that was left to do was plan our two days in the city and our one day in Washington, DC!

I think planning the trip itself was so much fun! We printed out a map of New York and marked where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. We even bought a little chalkboard and kept a countdown in the kitchen! We were winging our Washington plans because everything we wanted to do there was around the same area. Here's the final itinerary we came up with for NYC:

Monday, March 2nd - Day One:

• Museum of Natural History ($22)
• Central Park
• LOVE Statue (1359 Ave. of the Americas)
• Rockefeller Center ($29)
• Grand Central Station
• Times Square

* We did not end up going to the Museum of Natural History because of personal preference, but I know it would have been amazing! We just had a lot of things planned that day and wanted to get to them!

Tuesday, March 3rd - Day Two:

• Empire State Building
• Flat Iron Building
• F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Apartment (90 Bedford St.)
• Chinatown/Little Italy
• Brooklyn Bridge
• 9/11 Memorial
• Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty

* We did not go to the Empire State Building because we saw it from the top of the Rockefeller Center! The pictures and views we got from the Top of the Rock were awesome. We also did not go to the Flat Iron Building. We decided to bypass it and go to Greenwich Village first.

I would recommend this plan to anyone! The first day is completely walkable. We left the hotel around 10:30am and we were done by 3:30pm. Our hotel was one block away from Central Park, we stayed at the Comfort Inn on 71st Street. It was great to be so close to the park! There were several subway stations around and lots of little local restaurants. The second day we rode the subway most of the time, but that was an experience in itself. So fun!

Now, let's talk about our time in the city! Driving to NY was interesting to say the least. We took turns driving and we stopped a little over halfway in Woodstock, Virginia to grab a hotel room and recharge for the second half of the drive the next day. The weather got pretty bad the second day. The roads were completely covered in slushy snow and we fish-tailed a couple of times. That was scary, but thankfully we did not wreck or spinout. We saw probably 10 or 12 cars that had smashed into walls or were in ditches. We took our time and made it to the city! I drove into New York- it was so nerve-wracking! Laura and I were yelling at each other for directions, which we laughed about later, but we couldn't see the road lines because of all of the snow and that was stressing us out!

We found our hotel pretty easily, we were thanking sweet baby Jesus that it was on a one-way street. Now it was time to find parking and that process sucked. The parking garage that our hotel was affiliated with wasn't taking overnight cars! We stopped by 3 different parking garages and they wouldn't let us in! That was a blessing in disguise because we were able to find parking on the street for free the whole time we were there. That saved us a chunk of money!

We met the sweetest lady and she explained the parking rules to us. We were so grateful that it was snowing because parking was suspended that Monday. The streets have Tuesday/Wednesday parking and Monday-Thursday parking. Since it was suspended Monday, we got to park all three days! Laura backed Ferg down a one-way street and parallel parked her in the spot!

After we got settled into our hotel, we went to grab a bite to eat. The manager at the front desk (who was so nice and answered our many, many questions) told us about Big Nick's pizza right across the street. Laura and I both got cheese slices and they were delicious! Homemade NY pizza is amazing. After eating, we walked to Times Square. It was magical, just like in the movies. It was also snowing! I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. When I think of New York, I think of snow and cold weather anyway, so it was perfect.

We were apprehensive about the people we would meet because everyone was warning us about different things before we left. I can honestly say we did not meet one rude soul the whole time we were there. Everyone was so incredibly helpful! They gave directions and answered all of our questions. I know this may be stereotypical, but being down South, you always hear about how "rude" people up North can be. But, let's be real- anyone, anywhere can be rude or unfriendly. We were thrilled to meet everyone that we did!

Day one recap!

We started off the day walking through Central Park. This is really the only time I had wished the weather was warm, so everything could've been green and lively. It was still beautiful, but I would definitely want to see it again in the spring or summer!

It was around lunchtime when we finished walking through the park, so we asked around about spots to grab a good sandwich. A man told us about Bill's Bar and Burger. We decided to try it and it did not disappoint! I ordered a burger and Laura got a chicken sandwich. Both were so yummy! It's right off of 5th Avenue on 51st Street. Definitely try it if you're ever in the city!

Next we walked to the LOVE statue and that was so neat to see. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger, but it was awesome to be able to stand in front of it and snap a picture! The statue is located at 1359 Avenue of the Americas and it's very easy to spot once you're on the avenue. On a side note, we're pretty positive we saw Dylan/Cole Sprouse walking around. Y'all remember the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, right?

My favorite thing about the first day was visiting the Rockefeller Center, which is what we did next. We were packed into an elevator like sardines and ascended 70 floors to the top of the building. It was like a Disney ride! The elevator went dark and then a video began to play as you went up and up past all of the floors. The weather was crystal clear and beautiful that day, so it made the views even better!

Empire State Building

Central Park's towards the back left

The last big thing on our list that day was to see Grand Central Station. It was magnificent! When you're in there, it's really like you're in a movie. Everything is so fast moving and times and places are being called out over the intercom. It definitely gives off the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan rom-com vibe. It was cool to stand in there and take it all in. 

We wanted some real New York style cheesecake while we were visiting. Our waitress at Bill's told us about Junior's in Times Square, so we swung by there and grabbed a couple of slices. It was heavenly and probably the best cheesecake I have ever tasted! 

We were done early in the day, so we decided to visit the TKTS booth in Times Square to see what Broadway show we could see for half-off. We ended up being convinced by the booth boy that the off-Broadway show Newsical the Musical was spectacular. It was supposed to have a Saturday Night Live feel to it, and I do love SNL, but I did not enjoy this show. It made me laugh a few times, but I don't think it lived up to it's reputation. I know others like it, but it just wasn't for me. We ended our night walking around Times Square and into a couple of stores. We were ready to get day two started!

Day two recap!

This day was definitely my favorite of the two, although they were both pretty spectacular. We started out with a subway ride to Greenwich Village to spot the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. apartment building. This is something that I have always wanted to do! In January, to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, Central Perk was re-opened for a week. If you've never seen the show, that was the groups go-to hangout coffee shop. I wish I could have gone, but seeing the apartment building was great!

Laura and I still hadn't bought anything to commemorate the trip. We decided that new Alex and Ani bracelets would be the perfect things! There was an Alex and Ani store in Greenwich Village, so we stopped by it and got our souvenirs! 

We walked through Chinatown and Little Italy next. They both weren't what I was expecting. Laura and I were talking after we left and we think they're a couple of places that are probably better in the summer season. I've seen pictures of the umbrellas and lanterns hanging over the streets in Chinatown during the warmer months and they are so pretty. It was mainly little booths on the sides of the roads while we were there with not much of a variety. We walked through both places until we found a subway station that would get us closer to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was next on our list!

We took the subway to City Hall from Greenwich Village. We got off and walked to the bridge. It's massive and beautiful in person. We walked all the way to the middle where we could see a good view of the city and water. 

As we were walking off the bridge, it began to pour snow! We ran to the subway and rode it as close as we could get to the 9/11 Memorial fountains. As soon as I spotted them, they were breathtaking. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. The snow was coming down hard by this time and there was a steady stream of workers brushing off the fountains so you could see the names of the ones who had lost their lives. While we were there, we learned that the treeline around the fountains are how big the actual bases of the buildings were.

By this time it was basically blizzarding, at least that's how we felt. We decided that since we saved money with parking we would go to the 9/11 Museum. It turned out to be free-admission Tuesday! We were in the museum for almost 2 hours. We completely lost track of time because we were so consumed by everything in there. If you ever get to spend one day in New York, you have to go to the 9/11 Museum. I was so young when the attack happened, I never really realized how much they salvaged and saved from the two towers. It's was amazing to see it all.

The museum itself is built around the foundation of the World Trade Center. The wall to the left in the photo below is the slurry wall of the WTC. There was one built around each tower to prevent flooding from the Hudson River. The column to the right of the photo is the "Last Column" removed during the closing of the recovery effort. It is signed by all of the volunteer organizations, fire departments, and rescue workers that contributed that day and throughout the recovery process. 

The beams you see in the photo below blew my mind. Those are the beams from the North Tower that the plane hit when it crashed into the building. I was amazed that the recovery workers found these and could know that they were the exact beams that were struck. They also found the set of beams from the South Tower as well. Every beam that went into both towers had to be labeled and numbered by what floor they were on when the towers were being built in the 1960's and 70's,

The museum was definitely an emotional experience. There couldn't have been a dry eye after walking through the whole thing. We also learned that during the recovery process, workers found colonial remnants of a ship from the 1770's. Skeleton keys and knobs were displayed in the museum. I thought that was so interesting.

Once we were out, the snow turned into a down pour of rain. This really sucked because we didn't have umbrellas. We ran to the subway station to make it to the last destination on our list, The Staten Island Ferry. We wanted to use the ferry so we could see the Statue of Liberty! If I could do it all over again, I would go on the ferry during the daytime and while it was not raining. We didn't really have control over either because we spread our time in other places, but seeing the statue was on our list and we were going to do it!

After we got back on land, we took the subway back up to Central Park to get back to our hotel. We both knew the next day was going to be a long one. We would be traveling to Washington, DC for the second half of our spring break! It's the how long part we had no clue about.

Things we noticed in New York:

• Houston Street is pronounced like 'house-ton'
• Separating checks is a rare thing, at least at the places we ate at
• We were saying Greenwich all wrong, forget the 'w' is even in the word
• Don't buy the $9 subway metro card, it won't get you very far

Stay tuned for the second-half of spring break mishaps and adventures!