“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to”--John Ed Pearce

Michael Buble said it best:


I'm finally home! Sung-as-a-bug-in-a-rug! (Did anyone else say that when they were little?) Anyway, all my exams are finished up and I'm back in my real house! I'm posting as I sit on MY bed in MY room in my little town and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to get my bake on since I'm back for real! Keep your eyes open for my Christmas and Holiday treats. That Sandra Lee on the FoodNetwork had a Holiday Special recently that I had a recipe for sugar cookies I cannot wait to copy! She showed how to make the most divine looking royal icing and decorations!

Finally school is over and I have a wonderfully long break until AFTER my birthday in early January. It kind of hasn't hit me that I'm home for a really long time! I've been SO ridiculously busy between winterizing the room, packing, studying and getting ready to come back that I have literally had zero extra time. I'm exams were balanced out by one another- Organic Chemistry for Nursing was one of the toughest exams I've ever taken and Statistics wasn't bad at all, thankfully. I can't wait to have a relaxing night and watch Glee on time for the first time in awhile! Special thanks to Gracie Beth for adding me to her exam prayer circle--she's so thoughtful!

I hope everyone had good days while I was so MIA! I can't wait to catch up with my reading and commenting. I tried to comment a little last night and work on my following new bloggers, yay!

As I relax a little more I'll have some fuller posts but I just wanted to tell everyone that I was back! I know I've missed you guys!

xxKatie

Holiday Treats!

So the T-Giving Holiday break escaped as fast as usual and I can't wait to be back home. This week I have to study my BUTT off for finals so I won't be posting...yikes. I have 2 finals--one Monday and one Tuesday and then I head home ASAP Wednesday since no flights corresponded with when my Tuesday exam ended. I came back today, tears included, even though I'm going back in 9 days. There are always tears involved since I'm so far away, just departing from the fam as usual!

Enough about school (I find that I tell myself a lot when I write posts, haha!) but back onto my holiday treats! We ended up making the M&M Pretzels, Onion dip, and P's in B's, and then I made some Funfetti cookies to round out Gameday. I didn't have too too much time Saturday so I decided not to cook the other goodies, but all the ingredients are still chilling in my refridge.

While we were shopping for all the ingredients, my mom found some cool breast cancer M&M's which were all pink. Some were dark pink and some were light pink so we decided to go with those instead of the traditional M&M's. Here's how they turned out:

The Funfetti cookies also were another hit! I am a HUGE gigantic cupcake fan, but if you're pressed for time, need a lot of cookies/gifts/etc, or just like cookies, these are a wonderful recipe! My mom even said that these were the best thing I ever made. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 1 Box of Funfetti Cake Mix (buy the Pillsbury Funfetti)

2. 1/3 cup of oil (I use canola all the time)

3. 2 eggs

4. Frosting of choice (I use a whipped frosting from Pillsbury with the Vanilla flavor, its super duper light and not too sweet. I dyed 2 frostings, a pink one with 4 drops of neon pink coloring and a green one with 1 drop of green frosting and 5 drops of neon green coloring. You can buy a "neon" pack of food dye from McCormick and that's what I had.)

Preparation:

From the Pillsbury Website, but you can find this recipe on the side of every Funfetti Box

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With bottom of glass dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness. For this I recommend using a melon baller, whatever size that is, and forming the dough into that small circle. That way they're all similar in shape and have a good size for decorating.

2. Bake at 375°F. for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets

3. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy bits from frosting. Let frosting set before storing. Store in tightly covered container. I piped my frosting during this step. I made 24 cookies and that was only half of the dough. I had to throw the rest out because it was too late to keep cooking! I probably could have put it in the refridge, but I decided not to.

This is how they turned out:

Here are a few of my favorites zoomed in:

My house was quite the baking haven this weekend because I don't have a kitched readily available in my dorm, so I take advantage of cooking whenever I can!

Sorry about not posting for awhile, but look for a huge update Wednesday! Good luck to my fellow college bloggers taking exams!

xxKatie

New Hair

Hi all! I've had such a busy weekend that I've hardly had time to post. This week I have 5 papers due! I attempted 3 of them over the weekend accompanied by a GREAT football game, party and course registration! Among all this, I've had horrible hair trouble. I told you all that I was going to catch up on my highlights with a box color. When I was at the store, I figured I'd just go all out and color my whole head, I mean I'm generally all over blond anyway, why not? Boy-oh-boy was I wrong. I box colored my hair two Thursdays ago and it was disgusting. I am not even going to post pictures of that color. It was a brassy, yellow-orange with golden highlights. My roots ended up being too dark for the color that I had chosen. I saw all the rules and compared my beginning color to the colors on the boxes, thinking if worst came to worst I'd be ok. Well, I was not by any means ok. I used a L'Oreal product, which I found out when I went to get the color fixed is the worst for your hair.

That following Saturday I went to the Paul Mitchell School here in Columbia. My hairdresser was a student which I had zero problems with because the prices were good. I had a 1:15 appointment for "color correction"...yikes! Long story short, that day my hair didn't turn out like I had imagined because I still had yucky roots AND they ended up charging me twice as much as I thought I was paying. As I'm typing, I'm realizing my root color was close to the shade of the "PUBLISH POST" button...oops!! Needless to say, I called my mom in tears as I walked back to campus. I had scheduled another appointment for the following Saturday with the same girl. Now while you all gawk at why I would do that, I figured she'd know exactly what we did, with exactly the same colors, you know.

So I went back this Saturday and she did in fact remember everything. She told me that she had even consulted her fellow students--in the store they call them "future professionals"--about what to do with me. The first time we tried highlighting the bottom hair so it could catch up with the color of the top layer of hair and then treating the top layer to get the orange out...which obviously didn't work. The next time I went, we tried 2 rounds of toner that apparently my hair wasn't light enough for. Finally, we just did an all-over demi-permanent color (who knows what that is?!) so now I have hair close to my original color.

Here's the final product:

I think its a nice color for the winter. I've recently been wondering what it would be like for me to go back to my original color. As you can see, its still a little light where I originally had my real blond highlights (not overall box color). Since its demi-permanent, it will "fade" which I think means will "wash out eventually" but they had to sell me that statement in the store. Either way, I think I'll be working my way back to my original hair color for now. Maybe come spring I'll see what happens. There's also a good chance that I will go back to my very first hairdresser at home and explain this whole ordeal to her so she can fix it all and get it back to the highlights that I had. We shall see but I'll keep you posted on my hair!

xxKatie

P.S. Don't you love that scarf? Target...$12 and it is super soft and one-tone leopard print!

Ta-DA!

Well, after much thought, I decided to go with a name change! I agree with Meg (from...your blog is private, I'd love an invite!!) that I can always change it back, so here it goes! If I'm on your blogroll and my name doesn't change automatically, I'd really appreciate it if you could do a quick name swap! This week is also Homecoming week at USC and everyone is super busy! The Homecoming King candidate from my organization WON! It was huge! We have a real chance at winning the whole thing now. I worked super hard on the banner this weekend, over 16 hours! It will be judged soon and I can't wait to see the results! It looks great stacked up against the competition!



Now I've got to go study for 3 tests this week...yikes! Hope everyone has a great week and BEAT VANDY! Thanks for all the new name support!

xxKatie

Advice from...

Will Smith! 

Don't ask me why I thought of this song, BUT I've been all over it since last night! It is such a sweet song between Will Smith (and I'm assuming) his son!

My sister and I used to have (actually we probably have it in our house somewhere now...) one of the Radio Disney CD's (90's children's throwback anyone? Anyone??) and this was on it and I can remember rocking out to it very clearly. Anyway, part of the song says, "throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad--let God deal with the things they do, 'cause hate in your heart will consume you too, always tell the truth, say your prayers, hold doors, pull out chairs, easy on the swears" and I think it is such good advice! What a good message to tell your kids (and even keep in mind for us big kids!), and it has been on my mind since I heard it last night. 

I've had a very stressful week this week because of tests and everything--oh no!--so I'm sorry about the not so good posting! Since I was listening to this while studying, I thought I'd share so I could combine blogging and last night's mega studying!!

xxKatie

Outfit of the Day: Rain Gear

February 22 by letsbepreppy featuring Longchamp tote bags

Today was a weird weather day! It started out pouring pouring pouring rain and around 8:30am there was such a big thunder crack it sounded like an earthquake. This huge cracking noise was what really woke me up before my first class today. The rain always makes my days a bit lazier, but I have a HUGE test in my anatomy and physiology class tomorrow. Check out some of my other recent Polyvores! I can't say enough how much I'm loving my new pink Target boots!!

I'm basically taking two separate A&P courses right now between my lab and lecture (which really DO NOT coincide) and for the past 2 weeks and now this week, I've had a test each week. I'm so tired and just need a break. Spring break really could not come at a better time! As of this morning, I had 36 hours of class, but not that is a little reduced. I have to keep in mind that I'll be done soon and next week will be great since I don't have any tests or big looming assignments (yet).

Between group projects, tests, giving tours, working, and helping out some friends, I have been swamped ever since the semester started. I can't believe that February is almost over! I feel like I was just saying that January was over!! Soon enough it'll be spring break and then we'll be back in school for about a month-and-a-half and then it's finals before I know it!! Wow, that's insane! Unfortunately I think I'm getting sick :( :( :( because I've had a sore throat for the past few days and today is seemed to get a lot worse. As I study here in the library, I'm sitting here with some tea so I think that should help. I better get back to work since this is the home stretch! Soon it will be warm weather here and I'll be in a warm weather destination!! Wooo Hoooo!

xxKatie

Shagging: The Official Dance of the Carolinas

One of my goals this semester is to learn how to shag. Shagging is the state dance of the Carolinas and it looks like fun. At first I thought it looked silly, but as I've seen it more at school functions, it seems pretty tough. From what I've heard, it's just a few steps that are repeated. In the dance, you never move the same foot twice, and that's (I think) the most fundamental idea of the dance. Shag lessons are offered everywhere here, and there's even a 1 credit class you can take through school at our workout facility, just for fun! Every Thursday a local Jillian's offers a shag night where they have college students and professionals teaching shag to all the newbies. Another great thing about shagging (at least for me) is that you are encouraged to wear flat shoes since there's so much shuffling-like movements. I like a dance where you don't have to be all proper and stuff and wear heels like ballroom and all the stuff you see on Dancing with the Stars. One website even says, "Your feet should nearly shuffle when you move them across the floor, as if your shoes were magnets and the floor was made out of metal", which is a neat thought. Take a look at the 2009 Shag nationals:



I also love this video. These are kids from the Junior national Shag competition, and I feel like if they can do it as awkward teens (really they are absolutely anything BUT awkward, that preteen boy is smooth actually) I could do it as an awkward college student. Look at these two:



I will definitely let you know how the lofty goal of mine goes. For now at least, I'm going to stick to watching the professionals on YouTube!!

Please let me know if any of you know how to shag!!! Any tips are appreciated!

PS. I think we've finally hit the nice weather for real. The rest of the week has high's in the mid-to-upper 50's so I'm thinking it will be full blown WARM weather by the time Spring Break finishes!! Yes!!

xxKatie

"Mama I'm a Big Girl Now!"

I just love that song from Hairspray (and the whole soundtrack for that matter!) but today I did something that made me feel like an adult. I entered into my first real binding contract...a lease for an apartment! For next year I'm moving off campus into a townhouse apartment with a good friend of mine that I met this year, Megan and a super sweet friend of hers that I met a few days ago, Catherine. We have a few friends who live in the area of apartment already so we're so excited and the complex has a great reputation! Megan doesn't love the housing situation she's in right now for a few reasons, but mostly the price. Where she lives now seems to "nickel and dime" her as she said.


I had to share with everyone here because I feel like it's a pretty big milestone!! It makes me very excited for next year because I'll have a place of my own, and I'm most excited about--having a kitchen!!! I can't wait to be able to bake whenever I want with my own utensils and then go sit in my very own bedroom...not having to share a 250 sq. ft. dorm room WITH a roommate! I'm sure this is an experience everyone has had in the past, but I'm SO excited about it!! Yay!


xxKatie

Victoria's Secret

So in preparation for spring, and summer and warm weather in general, I very "logically" decided to buy a swim suit, coverup, and then some actually logical items like jeans and a cute white top. I bought this coverup that I'm in love with:

And it just arrived today! As I was thinking about writing a post about my purchases it hit me like a ton of bricks! Since the top of this coverup is cinch-y, why not take the white ribbon out of it (everything slides through cleanly since it's not sewn into the top) with a preppy grosgrain one?! A fun pink and green polkadot or pink stripe? All the possibilities!!  If you're looking for a coverup, this one is AWESOME, its SO soft since part of it is silk and the rest is stretch spandex and soft modal cotton! Snatch one of these up soon and they come in black, pink, white, and a bluish/greenish color! Very beachy!!

I think I've got a problem with thinking about the warm weather. Spring fever (or I should call it Spring [semester] fever since it is still January after all) has hit me for the first time in my life!! It's very exciting though! Also, Target has tons of Valentine's day decorations out, and they have WONDERFUL pink and green wiggly frames that I have on my desk too! They are so adorable and the perfect addition to a pink and green office!

On another note, I redid my little desk nook! I hung up a bunch of photos in 3x3 white frames that I picked up for $2.50 (for a pack of 3) at Target! I also got this poster:

for my desk! There's a huge poster sale going on in our student union so I thought this was good since I'm both a student nurse AND a Navy fan! That's now hanging up on the side of my desk wall.

I hope everyone else is enjoying this springy weather as much as I am, especially my South Carolina blogging gals!

xxKatie