Top 5 Tuesday: Musical Ladies

The end of the semester has been showing no mercy on little old me, but I was determined to get a post up! It will be short but sweet, and hopefully is enough to hold you over until UConn decides to give me my life back. As the projects and papers continue to pile up, I've found myself taking frequent (maybe too frequent...) study breaks to keep myself from going over the edge. Nothing cures finals stress like a quick sing a long with your fave ladies. Here's who I've been rocking out to lately!

1) Ellie Goulding- Lights

Ellie Goulding has such a distinct voice that I can't get enough of. It's so funny because you think it's altered in the studio but she sounds exactly the same when she sings live and acoustic. I prefer the Lights because I haven't really listened to much of her recent stuff although I'm sure that's wonderful, too! But this album was used as my workout playlist (lolololol something that is currently completely unnecessary). My top 3 favorites from this are Guns & Horses, Animal, and Your Biggest Mistake.

2) ZZ Ward- 'Til the Casket Drops

This album is my latest obsession. I can't even handle myself when I'm listening to this. They were playing one of her songs in the dining hall this morning and I actually freaked out and fangirled a little bit. It reminds me a little of Rolling in the Deep by Adele which in my mind is perfect. I don't even think I could pick my top 3 favorites to be honest (listen to the whole thing for sure!!) but I'm going to go with Home, Blue Eyes Blind, Put the Gun Down.

3) Miley Cyrus- Bangerz

Okay, I know people love to hate on Miss Miley and I know she does have some problematic behaviors, but Bangerz is SO GOOD. Just give it a chance and don't watch the music videos because you know what you'll be getting yourself into. It's the perfect album to get you excited! It's also funny because some of (okay, most of) the songs are clearly about Liam. Miley is an angry girl these days but that makes for some crazy good music. My current favorites are Love Money Party, #GETITRIGHT, and Do My Thang.

4) Florence + The Machine- Lungs

This is kind of a throwback album, but I love me some Florence. I really don't even know how to describe her music other than it's almost whimsical? But either way it's so great and it's been 5 years since it came out and I'm still not sick of it yet. My top 3 favorites are Drumming Song, Girl With One Eye, and Hurricane Drunk.

5) Jasmine Thompson

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So this girl is the definition of FABULOUS. First off, she's like 13 but definitely sings well beyond her years. I don't know if she has any originals up but her covers are legit to die for. She does a lot of acoustic work and takes songs from lots of different genres to put together amazing covers. My favorites are Pompeii, I See Fire, and Ain't Nobody.

What have you been listening to lately? Let me know in the comments!

Surviving Finals Week: Study Tips

Update from UConn: these last weeks of class are kicking my butt at the moment. It seems like there is so much to do and just not enough time to get it all done! Finals week is quickly approaching, but this year all my classes have final projects and papers due before exams and it's been a struggle to keep up. Hopefully you guys are hanging in there, but I thought I'd post some of my favorite study tips so we can get through the end of the semester together!

Plan it all out.

(Source-- my planner is a hot mess and not nearly as cute as this one so I thought I'd spare your eyes)

There are so many different ways to keep track of your to-do lists. Personally, I need to hand write everything down in my planner, but I have friends who couldn't last a day without their iCal. Whatever style works for you, be sure to write down your assignments so you don't miss anything and try and break them up into less intimidating chunks. Up until yesterday I was playing that dangerous game where you convince yourself that if you don't acknowledge the fact that you have assignments, nothing will be due. Unfortunately, ignoring important deadlines won't make them go away so I decided to commit to a very detailed reading schedule that has been carefully outlined in my planner. Normally I just make a mental note of what I want to get done by the end of the week so my schedule can be a little more flexible. That way I don't feel discouraged if I need to shuffle things around, but at the moment I'm so behind that I need a lot more structure than normal.

Prioritize and keep your sanity. 

It seems like common sense to work on the things with the closest due dates first, but what if you have a really time consuming assignment due shortly after? Don't forget to consider how long each assignment is going to take. You might need to work on two assignments simultaneously (gross) in order to make sure you aren't trying to crank out a 10 page paper the night before it's due. Even though it sucks, you might have to take a break from some of your favorite distractions. I've been blogging a little less than usual lately since as much as I hate to admit it, school work is probably more important (is it really though?) But you can treat yourself to SOME study breaks. If you lock yourself in your room for the next 3 weeks and only interact with your text books than your going to go crazy. You might even try and sleep in the library because apparently that was an issue that needed to be addressed at one point in time. So take a TV break, meet your friends for dinner, and take some "me" time when you need it. A 5-minute dance break can go a long way!

Know what works for you.

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I hate flash cards. I literally can't stand them. It's kind of strange though since they seem to be such a studying staple. They really don't work for me so instead I focus on ways that do work. For example, I always hand write my notes once or twice instead. It works great for me! I also avoid studying with friends because I know the last thing we'll be doing is quietly reviewing our text books. Having company can be okay, but it usually only works out for me if we aren't in the same class. Otherwise an innocent question on the material can turn into a 20 minute gossipfest about the teacher's shoes. Are they cute? Are they terrible? These are the questions I'll actually know the answer to, but unfortunately those will probably not be on the test.

Switch up your study spot.

(Source-- my favorite study spot on campus!)

The best part about the spring semester is that you can study outside! As long as I don't need my computer I love to study outside. Obviously studying sucks, but being outside while you do it can make it a little more enjoyable. I avoid the library like the plague all year, but especially during finals. The stress just radiates from everyone and it kills my vibe. I am however a huge fan of coffee shop studying. I'm the queen of thinking my $2 chai latte earns me a spot on the outdoor patio for at least the next three hours. I like to switch up where I'm studying every few hours because I find it keeps me alert. Even if I'm not going to be studying for too long, I still like to pick somewhere to go that's not my room. My bed is just too comfy to be productive! Plus I find I'm more efficient if I get to go back to my room once I'm done. Nothing encourages some quality speed reading like knowing my pillow-top mattress pad is awaiting my return. 

Take care of yourself.

(MichaelaNoelleDesigns)

Believe it or not personal hygiene is still important during finals week. I know it seems blasphemous to suggest that anything besides sweatpants and cotton headbands is appropriate finals week apparel, but I've always felt taking a little time to get ready in the morning with a quick shower and even putting on a little make up makes me feel like a real person who is ready to take on the day. I think it's important to stick to your typical routine. You're already stressed out, so don't add to it by shocking your body with crazy all-nighters and twinkies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Good luck on finals to everyone! Are there any study tips that you think I should try? Let me know in the comments!

Friday's Fashion Finds: Messy Up 'Dos

So I was watching The Fabulist a few weeks ago, and they featured a trend that I absolutely loved! If you haven't seen The Fabulist (I would consider yourself lucky to be honest...) it's a show on E! that rates top trends each week. It sounds promising, but I assure you if I can't even appreciate it then that says something about just how awkward it is. The panel seems a little stiff so the show can be a bit hard to get through, BUT they did teach me how to do this messy bun look that I'm currently obsessed with. 

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The look that they did on Kristin Cavalari is super simple! It starts with a pony tail on wavy hair, then they split the pony in half and twist the two pieces together, then you just wrap it around the base and pin it. They have a picture tutorial and a video tutorial so their instructions will be way better than mine!

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And I couldn't do a messy up 'do post without giving my girl LC a shout out. Sorry if you're sick of seeing her show up on my blog (just kidding, not sorry at all!) Clearly growing up in the real Orange County means having perfectly luscious locks since both Laguna Beach leading ladies are killing their hair game. By the look of this it's just a loose dutch braid on the left side that ends at the nape of her neck and then she adds it to the rest of her hair in a messy bun. 

If you want to learn some cool braiding techniques I highly recommend Cute Girl Hairstyles on YouTube. I used them to learn lots of basics as well as some fancy tricks!

Let me know if you have any hair tutorials you think I should see!

Top 5 Tuesday: Sick Day Essentials

Unfortunately today is not my day. We had our first really warm day in CT yesterday so I thought I might have let myself get a bit dehydrated, but lo and behold I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a headache. Despite my deepest desires to quarantine myself within the walls of my dorm room, I have 2 classes to attend and an event to run tonight. If I did have the option to stay in bed all day, this is a list of all the things I would need.

1) TV on DVD

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If you've been following my blog for awhile then it's probably no surprise to you that for me, there is no problem watching the entire series of Laguna Beach in one sitting can't solve. Being under the weather is definitely no exception. So break out the box set of your favorite show, pop in the DVD and hopefully it will be at least 3 hours until you have to get up again.

2) All of your comfiest things

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Your favorite PJs, a cozy blanket, mountains of pillows. Grab it all. If you can manage to stay comfortable it just might soften the blow of otherwise feeling like death.

3) Sick day food of your choice

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Sick day food can be a challenge, especially if you have no appetite. But I'm a firm believer that an a completely empty stomach will make you feel worse. If you're stomach is the problem go for the classic chicken noodle soup or maybe some saltines and gingerale (I personally prefer water to soda when I'm not feeling well but do what works for you!). For a sore throat load up on the cold stuff. You now have an excuse to eat ice cream for every meal (as if you really needed an excuse...)

4) Medicine

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Now I don't get sick very often, so when I do, I feel comfortable using over the counter meds. A few Ibuprofen in the morning is usually enough to get me through the day so personally I'm not anti-medicine. If I know something can help me start to feel like an actual human being again, then I'm all for it. But if you're not as drug-store friendly as I am, I'm sure there are plenty of all natural remedies that you could try like Vitamin C or certain teas!

5) Cats

I actually don't have a cat anymore, but when I did he was always my favorite sick day snuggle buddy (who are we kidding, he was my favorite every day snuggle buddy). There's nothing like a pet to cuddle up with and keep you company, especially when you're contagious to other humans. Also, your cat won't care that you haven't combed your hair or changed your clothes in 3 days and if that isn't a sick day essential I don't know what is.

Hope you're all staying healthy! Do you have any sick day go to's that you could send my way? Let me know in the comments!

Friday's Fashion Finds: Scalloped Hems

Well this has been quite the busy week! Both basketball teams at UConn won the NCAA Championship which means we are the only school to have both teams win in the same year, and we did it twice! Campus has been quite the exciting place to be this week and add that to the crazy amounts of homework I've been working on and you get 7 days that I have absolutely no idea where they went!

This week has flown by and I am now one week closer to being a college graduate! I've started looking for a dress for the ceremony and it's caused me to start a love affair with scalloped hemlines. 

Look #1

(Paper Crown)

This dress is from Lauren Conrad's new line Paper Crown which is a lot more expensive than her line for Kohls. Me being the wishful thinker that I am thought it might be worth it to splurge on something nice since it's my college graduation. BUT there is no way I'm dishing out $200+ on this dress. I will however, continue to stare at it and wish to the fashion gods that it could be mine.

Look #2

(ASOS)

Even though I'm only actively looking for a dress, I really like the scalloped hemline for shorts. I've mentioned it before, but my style has been shifting into very feminine and romantic lately. A scalloped hem just seems like the perfect way to soften up a pair of shorts! I'm a little nervous to try something like this though, only because I feel like it would be really important to find the right fit in order to really show off the hem. However, I'm quite the lazy shopper and have a strong preference for instant gratification so needing to shop around for the perfect pair for my body type might not be ideal.

Look #3

(PacSun)

Apparently PacSun is the place to go if you want anything scalloped. They seem to have lots of options for shorts and tops. They have this specific top in a few different solids. My personal favorite is this pale green! I personally like to keep the fabric simple and skip out on the crazy patterns so you can actually see that the hem is cut.

What do you think of the scalloped hemline? Any spring trends catch your eye lately? Let me know!

School Spirit

In case you're not familiar with this concept, College Basketball is a really big deal in the United States. How big you ask? Well when you're going to school in the Northeast it's pretty effing big.

And it got even bigger last night when the UConn Huskies (my school!) beat the Florida Gators in a huge upset in the Final Four. So UConn is playing for the National Championship tomorrow! And to make it even better, if our Women's team wins tonight, we will have both of our basketball teams playing in the National Championship. THIS IS SUCH GREAT NEWS.

So while everyone might not be into sports, I think we can all get behind some awesome school spirit. I mean what is better than sitting in a room with 8,000 of your classmates (and instant best friends) and watching your team win a victory whether you understand the rules of the game they're playing or not? Probably nothing.

We are currently the only school to have our Men's and Women's teams simultaneously win the NCAA National Championship titles in the same year and we are looking to do it again this year. So sorry if you don't hear from me for a few days. I'll be over here showing off my Husky pride all week, because here at UConn we #BLEEDBLUE

(Tardy) Top 5 Tuesday: BBW Fragrances

So obviously I know today is Wednesday, but time got away from me yesterday and I never got a chance to do a post. I could have chosen something else, but I'm not feeling particularly inspired to do anything other than a list. I guess I could have went with a different title, but I just decided to call it what it is-- a Top 5 Tuesday (on Wednesday). Oops!

But let's get down to business. You may not know this about me, but I did a brief stint working for Bath and Body Works over winter break this year. Just throwing it out there that I no longer work there and in no way shape or form am I getting any compensation for this post. In fact, I think I probably spent more money on their products while I was working there than I actually brought home in my pay checks. Working retail is dangerous when you have limited self control like I do. So now here I am, a girl with too much lotion and too little time. And because I now consider myself a fragrance expert (2 months of working there totally qualifies me as an expert...) I figured I could let you guys in on some of my favorites.

1) Country Chic

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I honestly forgot how much I love the Country Chic products. This is probably one of the only things I owned before this December when I went a little crazy with my purchases. The scent is citrus and wild flowers and it's literally perfect for spring! It's on the lighter/cleaner side when it comes to scents because of the citrus so it's definitely something that is totally appropriate for day time. I stumbled upon it in my secret stash a few weeks ago and I've been wearing it every day since.

2) Twilight Woods

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Twilight Woods is probably my favorite scent in the whole store. It's definitely one of the heavier scents from BBW but that's why I love it! It makes me feel like I'm wearing a fancy-schmancy perfume because it has such a deep tone. It's probably more of a "winter scent" but I will still wear it all year round. I looked up the description on the website (normally I don't care what they "really" smell like as long as they smell good to me!) and it says it is "apricot nectar, mimosa petals, and Tuscan cypress." Not too sure what mimosa petals smell like, but if it's a part of Twilight Woods then I probably love it.

3) Forever Red

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I am obsessed with Forever Red, but it's a luxury fragrance so unfortunately that means my wallet can't really support that at the moment. I scored the fragrance mist on a super discount during the Semi- Annual Sale (it comes up again in June and let me tell you, if there was ever a time to stock up on body care products, that would be it). This is a sweeter and fruitier fragrance because it smells like pomegranate and vanilla rum. It's pretty great if I do say so.

4) Oahu Coconut Sunset

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Okay so this fragrance made it into my favorites more because of the exclusive products that got released. When I was home on Spring Break I was bored out of my mind so I popped into visit some of my co-workers and I saw they had fun new things to try! So I tried the Pink Sand Body Scrub which is my new favorite thing and is next on my wish list. But as the palest person I know, I also really loved the Beach Glow Lotion because I'm always down for a good fake tan. I don't believe it's a permanent self-tanner, I'm pretty sure it's more like a tinted moisturizer. But hey, it's one step closer to helping me look like my skin has actually seen the light of day. I'm always embracing my inner Snooki and I would encourage you all to do the same.

5) Dark Kiss

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I was literally so angry when I found out that they were discontinuing Dark Kiss. This was another one that I used a few years ago. It is blackberry mixed with vanilla and I actually heard it's pretty similar to one of the Taylor Swift Perfumes but for like 1/4 of the price!! So you can imagine my excitement when they kept it around as an online exclusive. I haven't used up my stock pile (I may or may not have bought about 4 bottles of lotion when I thought it was getting pulled forever), but when it finally comes time to buy more I can rest easy knowing it will still be there.

Do you have a favorite fragrance for spring? Let me know which fragrances are splurge-worthy and what I should be checking out!