Top 10 of 2009!

It may be a little early for this post, but I don't know how much time I'll have within the next few days since I'm working a bunch! Here mine go:

Katie's Top 10 of 2009

In no particular order:

1.         Biggest Overall Moment of 2009: Going to college: In this year, I’ve managed to graduate high school, apply and choose a college, attend said college, and go through the up’s and down’s always associated with first semester. Plus, I can sit here and say that although the beginning may have been rough, I’m sticking around to be a proud Carolina Gamecock!

           Internet Moment of 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0. On many blog lists of the “Top ___ of 2009” people seem to always include a youtube video. This one takes the cake in my opinion. You know you’re doing something right when The Office copies your wedding.

3.          TV Moment of 2009: Debut of Glee: This show crushes my TV quota for the year. I don’t download TV shoes from iTunes ever, and yet, I found myself downloading “Sectionals” (the episode) in order that it might hold me over until next season. Sorry Degrassi, Glee is just too good—I’m sure my dad would never think I’d like a show more than Degrassi since it’s on literally 24/7 in my house if I’m home!

4.          School Moment of 2009: Becoming an Ambassador: At school I’m now one of the tour guides who work at the Visitor Center. It is a pretty big deal at USC and so I’m super proud. This organization has played a major role in my decision to stay at school.

5.          Most Type-A Moment of 2009: H4H trip: I singlehandedly organized and carried out a Habitat for Humanity trip to Cary, NC. I was so proud of the 20 other classmates that joined me on the trip. It has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, and I would love to do one again. I can say on behalf of every member of the group that we had a great time and would go back in a heartbeat!

6.          Sports Moment of 2009: USC over Ole’ Miss: What a game it was! Ole’ Miss was ranked 4^th when USC played and beat them. It was the highest ranked team that USC ever beat. (Meeting Eric Norwood in person takes a close second place as far as best sports moments go in 2009)

7.          Personal Moment of 2009: Au Natural: I’ve taken my hair from bleach blonde “highlighted” to basically my natural color. And as my aunt Jeanne said, “Welcome back to the club”. It feels good, I must say!

8.          Occupational Moment of 2009: Working at the Naval Academy: This summer I worked at the Naval Academy during the first few days of Plebe Summer and I couldn’t be more thankful. Aside from working for Lilly, this has been the best job I ever had. Those new plebes were some of the most anxious, nervous, apprehensive, excited people I’ve ever met, and I cannot wait to go back next summer to be a friendly, smiling face to try to make them a little happier and their day a little brighter!

9.           Family Moment of 2009: Getting to know my sister: During the two years my sister and I overlapped in high school, we really got to know one another. I am so thankful that we did because I realize that it’s getting tougher and tougher now that I’m in college. The first night that I came home for Thanksgiving break she sat in my room for 2 hours and we talked about everything. I’m so proud of her and I’m so happy that she’s my sister. (My mom’s probably awww-ing right now, but I needed a family moment of 2009!)

10      Funniest Moment of 2009: The infamous Skype video: My roommate Kathleen was skypeing with a mutual friend of ours silently while I just happened to be dancing—just like nobody’s watching—to “Sexy B---h” thinking she would expect it. Well the joke was on me when I turned around to see the friend and his roommate watching. And laughing. A lot. Needless to say I turned PURPLE, and the friend and I never addressed it. (Kathleen, I hope you enjoy being included in this.)

         What were your top 2009 moments?! My 2009 was great, and I can't wait to see what the new year has to bring along with its arrival!

          xxKatie

Southern Marsh

Hey everyone! I just found this company the other day: Southern Marsh. All my Southern bloggers are going to love them, as will everyone else! They have such a fabulous website, and have great clothes! It is so bright and sunny on their website it reminds me way too much of the beautiful weather at school and NOT here in MD! I am totally realizing how much I took the South Carolina weather for granted! They call themselves "The Original Southern Clothier", so you know their stuff has got to be good. As an added bonus, they sell all these preppy clothes for both men and women.

Check out this shirt, the Southern Marsh Southern Classics Embroidered Pocket Tee. I am in love with pocket T's! They are all over the college scene, and it seems like everyone has great pocket T's. I'd love to add this little baby to my own collection, since it's nicer than just throwing on a regular t-shirt that you'd workout in. How cute would this top be with dark jeans? Love it!

I also love long sleeve t's. They are cozy and warm and always good for SC autumns and even winters--we're too too lucky! I love the back of this shirt:

                                    

Green and Navy is such a good color combo and I love the tagline: "The Gentlemen's Foxhunt". You just never see those anymore, that's for sure! Not only do they have T's, but they have all kinds of dress shirts, polo dresses, croakies (a big college accessory) and coozies (I don't even think I need to add that coozies are also big college accessories)!!

Plus, this company has some of the cutest cutest cutest photos advertising their products. They are so sweet that I can't get enough, nothing like the complete trash you find in some teen stores (you all know what I'm talking about, you can hardly call them advertisements since they aren't wearing clothes!!) Look at these:

                                    

I just think this picture is so sweet! It's so spur of the moment and the black and white is adorable.

I think this company is too cute and I can't wait to order something! They describe the south too well:

"Known for it’s unique culture, beautiful people and timeless dress–The South is an area of the country that still finds time to escape the hustle and bustle of big city life. We do our best to package up a piece of that charm and give a snapshot into life with a little authentic southern class."

Go check the website out, I feel a little behind the curve since I know some bloggers already know about these fab people! This is yet another great pocket T, AND it's long sleeved--best of both worlds! I'm considering making this photo my computer background!

                                     

And as they say, Merry Christmas from the South (even though I'm home)! I hope everyone had wonderful, warm, safe Christmases! I'll be working many days this week and lusting after the entire Resort 2010 collection...yikes!!

xxKatie

Alumni Dinner Success!

So last night was the dinner that I've been planning for about a month and a half. About 25 people showed up, so it was slightly less than I anticipated, but I was super excited that these 25 people were just as pumped to go as I was!
Fuddrucker's was so nice to all of us and I think they appreciated the business! Here are a few photos:

The Boys!

Some of the early arriving girls!

                                       

I loved all these cute reuniting moments!! Everyone caught up on schools and stories and fab things like that!!

More attendees!

All the tall girls from my graduating class--we're all 6'0'' or above! This was the best skirt photo too! I got so many compliments on it! Go forever21!

A few girls around the AWESOME cake my mom designed, check it out:

A bunch of schools that my classmates are attending!! Everyone loved this! Maroon was one of my high school's colors so we used it as the base. One local grocery store specializes in cakes and they are awesome!

Can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve Eve? I always feel like Eloise from Eloise and Christmastime when I say that. I love that book and the movie in New York. What a great Christmas spirit movie! I hope you all are enjoying the pre-Christmas days, and I hope you're all staying safe if you've got as much snow as I do. Avoid the roads and the malls if AT ALL possible!

xxKatie

Huge Change

Wow! So, I've told everyone about my major hair woes...yikes! (Sorry if you hate reading about it, this will be my last one, I promise!!) I've had SO many different hair colors in the past 2 months alone, that I needed to take a break. I've been highlighting my hair since I turned 15. That's almost 4 years without a natural hair color...yikes again! I talked about my recent hair problems in this post. Well yesterday I went to my real hair stylist to see what we could to about my chameleon color hair. I told her that I wanted to go back to a shade close to my original color, and since she's been doing my hair since I've started caring about it truly, I knew she'd have good input, be able to take care of moi, and remember what the color was. She also does my mom's hair, my sister's hair and a few of the other women in town. She comes highly recommended around!

This has been my hair situation over the past few years, basically since my Junior year winter--that's how far my photos date back! (this is a very narcissistic post...sorry about that. I've had a few friends want to see photos but I'm not going to facebook them because I want it to be a surprise at a big high school alumni function on Monday night!!):

Junior Year-Winter (this is a Natalie Franke Senior Shoot photo): hair is dirty blonde from highlights with roots, short length

Senior Year-Winter: hair is very light, from highlights and very long (~growth 1 year)

Freshman Year of College-Summer before I left: hair is the lightest ever, with dark under layer, short again

Freshman Year-Fall: hair is browny-gold (after being fixed from orange. That color was so awful I refuse to post photos, although they do exist on good ol' FB), short still. The color got to this horrible auburny-goldy-orange color that got progressively worse every time I showered that I needed to do something ASAP. It didn't help that my dark dark dark roots were showing up fast. My hair and nails grow extremely fast.

Freshman Year-Winter: This is the current look (although not the nicest photo). Its 1/2 a shade darker than my original color so that it can fade and the colors will resemble one another. I got this done yesterday and I like it SO much! I wake up and forget that I have dark hair, but it's so much healthier and much more shiny! (Shout out to Audrey M., I hope you like it!)

I promise that this is the LAST hair post! To qualify it as preppy, I read The Updated Preppy Handbook the other day, and realized that I majorly broke the hair rule:

Hair

Preppy hair is, for the most part, left the way God and nature intended it. Blunt cuts of chin length, shoulder length and mid-back length are acceptable. Ponytails and headbands are the most common variations from the unadorned, side-parted look. The luckiest Preps (many of them) are born with thick, straight, shiny hair in a blonde or dark brown shade. Preps that are curly, frizzy, or limp in texture usually favor ponytails. Preppy hair should not be colored (before age forty, that is).

...oops.

Can't wait for the holidays to kick up a notch in the next week! Almost 1 week until Christmas!! Merry Holidays! Tonight was the "11th Hour" shopping for the store!

xxKatie

P.S.: I was explaining this little blogging community to a fab new co-worker today and I realized how much I like it, so thank you fellow preppy bloggers!

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

Pink Friday

I hope everyone had fabulous PINK FRIDAYS! I did a little shopping today, but nothing major at all! I had to make today's post about how spoiled I am, considering that I had to wear a real winter coat for the first time this season today!! I couldn't believe it, but my Denali North Face fleece wouldn't cut it.

It was super windy today so I needed some protection from that especially. I can't believe how much I've seemingly taken the weather for granted! I know once I get back to school--for all of 9 days--I'll really appreciate how nice it is! Can you get over that, I mean I go back for a week and then I take 2 exams and come home. I also just realized that I'll be home for the Army/Navy game too! It's basically a holiday in my house!

We're BIG HUGE Navy fans in my house since it's my dad's alma mater. Plus, "Go A--Y" (you know what I'm trying to say) just doesn't roll off the tongue like "GO NAVY" does!

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and that you managed to stay safe and sound! Now onto the Christmas music and decorating!

xxKatie

P.S. EVERYONE BETTER BE CHEERING THE COCKS ONTO VICTORY TOMORROW! U-S-C GOOOOO COCKS!

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Today I've been super duper productive! The farther I get into college, the more I realize how much I like to plan things. Today alone, I've worked on planning two huge events! I'm organizing a big dinner for the class of 2009 since we're high school alumni! I'm trying to figure out a venue that will support a large group but no catering or things like that. Ideally, I'd like a restaurant that is semi-suffering from the economy so that they'll be happy to take a group of college kids between 30-50 in number. I have 3 spots in mind secretly. Facebook has been extremely useful since everyone checks it and it makes RSVP-ing super easy! I've also made my Facebook group for my Lilly collegiate representing and in 5 hours my membership is steadily increasing so I'm very proud! I got my official advertising package with order forms, personalizing forms, samples, etc, etc, etc. I couldn't be more excited to throw a Lemonade party next semester! I emailed the sorority presidents today hoping that they'd pass on my email to the sisters! YAY! I can't wait to see what happens with that! Not to mention, Emma came today and we had such a good visit! Her grandparents came too and made the day very interesting. She was surprised at how much she liked the University, so I was excited. From her high school and my high school, she knew of so many people who had applied to USC which is awesome! Its really becoming popular in MD! Here we are back in the summer:

Tomorrow I have a busy day studying for a test that I have on Monday as well as a party tomorrow night and an important meeting that will take most of Sunday I believe! Then, next thing I know, I'm flying home on Tuesday! I'm so excited!

The more busy I become, the less I think about being home which is definitely good because I am certainly ready for a break. I can't believe that I will be back home in 4 days!!! My closest girlfriends are meeting at a friend's house on Wednesday night to have a HUGE catch-up sesh since it will be the first time we've seen each other since we said our weepy goodbyes! I have so much to look forward to in the next few days that I know I can make it through to Tuesday and then to Thanksgiving and then to the CLEMSON game!!

xxKatie

Visitors!

These are some of the lovely ladies that work with me in the Lilly store! This was near the end of the summer and we snuck in a photo shoot with my mom to get pictures of a lot of the people who work a bunch! In the long dress is Amanda C. Bee, a fellow blogger who's currently studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh and I'm now at college so we had to get this photo shoot in ASAP! The girl with the strapless patchwork dress is Emma and she's a senior in high school right now. She lives a few houses down from me and she's visiting USC tomorrow! I couldn't be more excited to show her around and give her the "unofficial tour". I just get so excited when I hear about friends of mine who are applying this year because I love showcasing the school! This photo is actually printed out and sitting on my desk, so you know its a big deal! We always had a great time working together since we're so close in age and obviously share a lot of interests!!

This weekend is also a big weekend since I have to hit the books majorly! I only have school Monday and Tuesday next week but I seem to have two weeks worth of work squeezed in between now and then! Tuesday night, I'm jetting home until Monday which I'm super excited about! I've only been home once since I got to school and that was about a month ago! Thanksgiving will be too much fun and T-Giving Saturday is the big CLEMSON-CAROLINA football game! I won't be here, but I will have all of that Saturday devoted to watching it (and a little Navy/Hawaii)! I can't wait to see what that'll be like!


Hope everyone has a wonderful day and weekend!


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!

Workout Ideas

Basically up until college I've been super lucky with not having to pay attention to what I eat because I've been pretty active. I don't think I've necessarily gained the proverbial "freshman 15", but I know I've probably gained 5-6 lbs. I was talking to a friend of mine today and he said that "i have to make sure im not the fattest" during a text conversation we had. Now I know I'm not the fattest, but I do worry that I might have gained some noticeable weight, so I'm starting my pre-thanksgiving break workout regiment. If it sounds official, maybe I'll stick with it. I live in a building that is about as far away from the gym as you can get, but my parents say that's no excuse.

No joke this is our workout facility: The Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. "The Strom" is about a half-hour walk from my dorm so when I go I have to be extremely motivated. I've decided that I'm going to take advantage of living on the 14th floor of a 16 floor building by doing the stairs. I say doing because there is no way I'm in shape enough to run them. Today I did two sets of the stairs and I was able to jog up the first half both times which I'm pretty proud of. After the sets I did 100 calf raisers to see what that might do! I'm feeling pretty excited about this workout and to see what my maximum rep's of stair sets will be. My goal is to add a set every day, but that might be tough. I've downloaded a bunch of great workout music and did my sets for today. I wrote everything down and I'm going to try to stay with it!

What do you guys do to keep in shape? Any ideas or suggestions for me would be greatly appreciated!! I hope everyone is getting excited for Thanksgiving!!

Southern Songs

SO Gracie Beth at Preppy Southern Princess started this whole Southern Songs blog post, and I'm going to follow suit. I'm not a native Southerner, so my post my end up being a little different.

Sandstorm by Darude- This song is Carolina football (along with 2001, click the link to see what I mean. They play this song in the few seconds before the Carolina football team takes the field). Students chant for the football DJ to play Sandstorm. This video is the USC student section cheering at the Ole Miss game which is undoubtedly the most talked about Gamecock game this season.

Carolina Girls by General Johnson and The Chairman of the Board- I couldn't find this song for the longest time, but if people are shagging here, they are shagging to this song...Carolina Girls: Sweet Southern Pearls...Sweet Carolina Girls

Only Wanna Be With You by Hootie and the Blowfish- Hootie and his good old Blowfish graduated from the institution known as University of South Carolina. See the photos in the top right corner with the big columns and the teeny tiny one on the left in the middle? They're taken at Longstreet Theatre, which is ON campus. This is Hootie and the Blowfish's first album cover!

She's Country by Jason Aldean- No matter where you are, this song will get played and when he sings "She's a party all-nighter from South Carolina" every girl in the place will proudly be yelling these lyrics from the top of her lungs. I may be guilty for doing so at a tailgate or two!

Carolina by Corey Smith- (or any song by Corey Smith for that matter) The student paper here named Corey Smith as the "official musician of freshman" in their 50 Things I Learned my Freshman Year publication.

Hillbilly Deluxe by Brooks and Dunn- This song reminds me of when the state fair came to Columbia and all the times I see people riding in the beds of 4x4 trucks. I still don't know if its legal here or not!!

History in the Making by Darius Rucker- He (is or was) the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, so he's another Gamecock! Darius was heard for the first time singing in the shower of his dorm (which no longer is standing from what I've heard)

Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond- This is another stadium song. Our band will play it and everyone will sing along. Try to hear 80,250 people sing such a goofy song is a blast. My mom always says that she and her friends sang this is college and now its one my college songs, too cool!

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison- Generally any song that people know the majority of the lyrics to is a hit in college. This is such a good song especially for those girls who have Brown eyes! If this is every played, everyone sways back and forth and sings making it a fab time!

xxKatie

Parents' Weekend!

I'm blogging on the tail end of USC's Parents' Weekend! I had SUCH a good time! My mom and her sister Patricia (my godmother) came down to visit! My dad stayed home for a big Navy football game--oh how I miss it--and his brother and a friend were houseguests. PW had so many activities for parents and their baby gamecocks. My guests were introduced to their first SEC football game, a real treat! They sampled southern foods and and heard many "y'all"'s.

My mom and Aunt Patricia arrived Friday afternoon. It was the first time I saw my family in person since I moved it! As one of my friends put it "I'd be about to pee my pants if I hadn't seen my parents since move-in!" and she was right. I was SO incredibly excited to see them that the more I thought about it, I found myself getting choked up. They came here Friday and we all went to a fab place for dinner called California Dreamin'. They have these croissants with honey drizzled over them and I can't get enough! Then we went shopping. I haven't been to a mall since I before I had moved in, so I picked up a cute "Carolina Girl" T-shirt and browsed.

I fell in love with these little puppies! I found them while we were in the mall and I'm going to snag a pair when I go home! After shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for a parents' weekend welcome pool party and I stayed with them at the hotel. The pool party was so much fun! My aunt won't say the name of the mascot (GO GAMECOCKS!) so our mission was to get a photo of her with Cocky! Mission accomplished! It was so nice to stay in a real bed, not a dorm room. The hotel room must have been twice the size of our room.

Here she is with the man of the hour, himself--Cocky the Carolina gamecock!

Here I am with Cocky again, in my fabulous Lilly Florida Shift and Odin Cardigan! Representing LP on campus!

Saturday came around and we got up early. During the morning we hit of Mickey Dee's for breakfast since I love their pancakes. After that we scooted up to the Target close to USC and got a few necessities that I needed to restock from the time I moved in. Not having a car is problematic for trips like that but we had a rental so it was easy! We then headed on over to Devine Street which is an eclectic gathering of stores, including Pink Sorbet, a Lilly store! They were having an ADORABLE print giveaway. If you spent $200 you got a hand painted watercolor print. We went to a few more stores and then came back to the room to drop things off. Then we went back to the hotel to get dressed for the game and then went over to the Parents' tailgate. This was one of the parents' programs they had going on! The food was delish and my mom even tried a gross disgusting boiled peanut. I don't get that southern tradition! We then made the trek over to the stadium and we were in hugely high seats. I gave up my student section to sit in section 502, but I had such a good time with my guests!

At first I didn't love this photo, because I thought I looked like a deer in headlights, but I decided that its great since its all of us on a very fun weekend! I think that both my mom and Aunt Patricia had a great time with me (or hopefully they did...) seeing Columbia and experiencing the South!

xxKatie

Gameday!

Our first homegame was last night! GO COCKS! Williams-Brice Stadium was jam-packed and the student section was awesome! USC crushed FAU thankfully to rocking the 2nd half. I had a great time for my first Gamecocks game!

Me and the roomie on our way there.

Our tailgate crew- O-Phi's, KKG's and ∆T∆ boys!

Jerry the gamecock and two of my favorite Kappas!

Delta Tau Delta pledges who were cooking all day! They made DEEElish burgers.

U-S-C GOOOOO COCKS!

Williams-Brice section from 32 baby!

WOOO MORE STUDENTS!

GOOOO COCKS!

What a fun beginning to our home season! This Thursday is the Ole Miss game and I've got a ticket! Can't wait!

xxKatie

LBD

I have this LBD from forever 21. You MUST BUY IT! I LOVE IT! It is the perfect cut and length to be appropriate for a span of situations. I've worn it for birthday dinners, formal meetings and I plan to rock it for a gameday! At USC, all the girls wear LBD's with garnet (NOT maroon, I've been corrected of that probably 4 times) costume jewelry. I've seen some photos and they look adorable.

I got this dress several months ago, and I've been searching for it on forever 21's website. Now, I know some of you are like "forever 21? Really?" and I totally understand because usually its hit or miss. This is a definite hit...hit and sunk (just like battleship!!). You must must must go out and buy this dress or get it online. Online ordering from forever 21 is sometimes a little shady with sizes and things, but it runs true to size. I can go between a small or medium from there, and mine is a small. I'm sure I could have gone with either one, but I got the small, so don't hesitate with sizing.

Go out and grab one for yourself A-SAP!

xxKatie

Big College Tests

Ahh! I have my first big college test tomorrow! Its an "Evolution of Nursing Science" test, blahhh. I wrote down all the answers to the questions on our studyguide and scanned them so I have them in my files. I'm a little nervous, but our teacher gave us a great studyguide! I've been at the library all morning since my class got out today. Roomie and have been studying separately but we'll probably collaborate tonight. I went to the library for the first time today (oops!) and it was awesome. The library here has 7 floors I think. I must have looked so silly walking in and not knowing where to go!

On another note, I began following about 10 more blogs today! Yay! Maybe it was more, I always lose track. Its been awhile since I've commented on stuff, but forgive me. When I get a free minute I'll be back to blogging!

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

xxKatie

Preppy vs. "Preppy"

Since I've been at college, I've really started to notice what people are wearing. I went to a private school, so we had uniforms. They were more like dress codes, but for the most part we either wore khaki skorts and a polo or khakis or a navy blue skirt with a polo and tights in the winter. We looked VERY preppy as uniforms go. On assembly dress days I especially loved the way everyone looked with blue blazers and wool plaid skirts. Although this is a VERY silly photo, its like one of the only ones I have wearing my uniform.

When I decided to go to USC, everyone was like "OH! They're SO PREPPY down there! You'll fit right in." It seems like people are confusing truly preppy with trendy. Yes, girls wear dresses to class, but you're way more likely to find the very popular two-tone dresses that are usually black and white than you are to find anything Lilly or Madras. I think that people are confusing the preppy as we know it with a more "trendy" style. Or some people are even considering girls who wear dresses at all as "preppy". I consider myself very preppy, and I'm happy to wear a Lilly to class or a printed skirt and crew neck shirt, however I question what preppy is viewed as on campus these days. Certainly Lilly isn't the only preppy brand out there and I think that some people believe that it is the only way to be preppy. Whatever happened to the rules from the Preppy Handbook? Why don't people wear khakis anymore?

Even during rush, girls would be like "I'm SO PREPPY, sororities are perfect for me!" and the flipside too, "I HATE Lilly, so this house is immediately wrong for me." I think people aren't getting quite the right ideas. Maybe its just South Carolina's wrong impression or maybe its schools everywhere, I just don't know!

What are your campus attires like? What do you consider acceptable for class? For walking around? What is preppy to you?

xxKatie

Lilly-fy Your Computer!

Hi all, I'm obviously posting from school!!! I just downloaded Mozilla so that I could have my Lilly theme! Check it out:How cute it is? Check the Lilly facebook page for it! Adorable, this one is Beach Bum and there's the Hollywood Squares patch too that I love, but I had to go with the strictly pink and green!!

While we're on the subject of technology, I really want a laptop monogram sticker. College Prep showed a photo of one and I think I'm going to order one! Probably a bright pink one for the front left corner of my laptop! Everyone seems to have the same aluminum MacBook, so I'm gonna make mine look a little different! They're cute little additions that will set you apart from the crowd!

Not to mention, my school bookstore just started selling Lilly stationary! They also have kate spade and some other more "upscale" stationary brands. Very cute! I have awesome stationary from Michael's that I adore from "The Preppy Collection". They're in the 10/$10 section so go stock up!

And, my Kenwood Lane pushpins arrived! They're already being used on my bulletin board! See them along the side? And my note from Sarah's up there too. She included a handwritten note, what a sweet businesswoman! You can see my DZ turtle in the corner too!
Hope everyone's doing well!

xxKatie

Ace of Cakes

How many people watch "Ace of Cakes" from the Food Network? Well I do, and its one of my favorite shows since I love cakes and cupcakes and Duff Goldman, THE Ace of Cakes, is from Baltimore. His bakery is called "Charm City Cakes" and some of the most eclectic characters work for him. Today, at USC there's a cake decorating contest going on and Duff is the head judge. Well, I MET HIM!!!

(And I was wearing my FAVORITE Lilly sweater as an added benefit! I'm thinking its now good luck!)

He was checking out the cakes that the students were making. Some students were amateurs while some were seniors in the culinary school. One team was even a freshman and her sophomore RM!

Here he's checking out the design plans for this team's cake. Their cake was 4 tiers of BRIGHT colors that they were beginning to apply fondant designs to.

This group's cake was Chesapeake Bay themed, playing to a definite MD favorite. Right after I took this photo, they began painting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Tonight is the final judging that Duff is doing and it starts at 8, but I have a floor meeting with our residence life coordinator. I think I may have to miss it, but thanks to some tactful stalking...I'd say Mission Accomplished.

xxKatie