My Chic Week: September 8-14

Happy Friday! This week was felt super long and short at the same time (which totally makes sense...) as we had two days off because of the hurricane. Thankfully, Clemson wasn't impacted as much as other areas of the country (praying for those it did affect!).

Fridays are usually a busy day for me as I have class from 9 to 2:15 (with breaks in between). After class ended, I wound up hanging out with a bunch of the girls on my hall and then my roomie and I went out to dinner in downtown Clemson for a low-key Friday night.

Saturday was another home football game but the game wasn't till 7 PM so I was able to sleep in and get breakfast with my roomie before tailgating and going to the game.

The National Championship Trophy and I!

We played Auburn and it was such a fun game. I wound up sitting next to one of my sorority sisters (who was in my Pi Chi group too!) and then one of the girls on my hall!

Sunday morning, I went to Church with my roommate and a friend and then we went to Publix afterwards. We have our new member meetings and then chapter for Theta on Sundays so that took up a good chunk of my afternoon.

After chapter, I went to dinner with a friend and then sat on the porch of my residence hall to call my family, which is always a good part of my day!

They let us know Sunday night that we weren't going to have class on Monday so a bunch of the girls on my floor hung out in my next-door neighbor's dorm, which was so much fun.

This was the sunset from my friend's room on Sunday- I mean how gorgeous is that?

We didn't have class on Monday for the hurricane so I was able to sleep in super late, which I will never complain about. I cleaned my room, did some homework, and then did some work for the blog as well- nothing too crazy.

I got up earlier than usual on Tuesday to do my laundry and then they emailed us saying class was canceled again. Two of the girls on my hall and I went to Walmart to get costumes for a few sorority functions we have coming up as well as other random items. We then went to the mail room only to realize they weren't open for packages due to campus being closed so we grabbed lunch before heading back to our dorms.

I had a math test on Wednesday so I spent some time studying for that Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday was getting back into the swing of things after a 4-day weekend. My lab was canceled for Wednesday afternoon, which was nice as my classes for the day ended at 12:15. I did have a math test  but thankfully that's done haha!

After my math class, I grabbed lunch with a few girls in my math class and then went to get my mail and then wound up getting some work done in the Starbucks on campus.

Thursday morning got off to a productive start as I was able to accomplish a few errands around campus before my first class of the day. After class, I grabbed a quick lunch at the dining hall before getting my mail. I dropped my mail off at my room and then went to the library before my second class of the day.

After class on Thursday, I had a PAL date for Theta (basically hanging out with an older girl in Theta who potentially could be my big!) at Moe's, which was a lot of fun. I had a test in my World Religions test today so I then spent a good chunk of time studying in the library for that before showering and getting some sleep.

I also decided to do a Weekend Reading post tomorrow instead of an On my Radar as I had two MCW posts go up this week so be sure to check the blog again tomorrow!

This Week on the Blog:

My Chic Week: September 1-7 ⎢What I Wore for Sorority Recruitment at Clemson ⎢How I Got Back into Shape this Summer

Happy Friday!

How I Got Back Into Shape This Summer

A while ago, I shared a poll on Twitter asking y'all if you would be interested in a blog post sharing how I got back into shape over the summer and the response was an overwhelmingly yes.

For a bit of background, I've always been fairly in shape and eat somewhat healthy. Of course, I'm human and don't eat perfectly all of the time but I would say my diet is balanced. But senior year, I wound up gaining a bit of weight and my clothes weren't fitting me the way I wanted them to. Definitely do not take this post as how to loose weight or anything like that as it's more important to have a well-balanced diet and lifestyle and focus on health.

So as I said I was working out regularly (I would go to around 4 barre classes a week at home) and eating fairly healthy so I was confused on how my clothes weren't fitting if I was "doing everything right". It took me really being honest with myself to realize what changes I need to make.

• Snacking- Snacks don't seem like a lot but they really add up. As embarrassing as this sounds, I would eat a snack when I got home from school, eat a few crackers while I was running out the door to go to work, and then eat another snack with the kids I nanny.
• Stressing Out Too Much/Getting too little Sleep- I'm pretty Type A so I've always been one to stress out about school. Combine that stress with a lot of homework and not enough sleep, it wasn't the best combination.
• Sweets- I've always had such a sweet tooth. Dessert has always been my favorite but I definitely would overdo it. I don't need a treat every night after dinner, which was not something I kept in mind senior year.

I honestly sat down over the summer and made a checklist of healthy habits that I wanted to include in my day-to-day life. I've honestly relaxed a bit in these since coming to Clemson but writing this post for y'all reminded me how much better I feel when I prioritize these habits so I am going to re-emphasize these going forward.

• 10,000 Fitbit steps every single day- This was more to ensure I was up and moving every single day. I've been a Fitbit fan for a few years now as they make it so easy to keep track of all of your stats.
• At least 7 hours of sleep- Sleep is easy to overlook as you often think of health as food and fitness but sleep is so important. I had to wake up at 5:30 every morning for work over the summer so I made sure that I was in bed by 9:30 every night to get my 7 hours in (I know that's 8 hours- but it always takes me forever to fall asleep!). Now that I'm in college, I don't have to wake up quite as early but it's still so important to get a good amount of sleep each night.
• No Sweets- I was fairly strict over the summer with this and it helped me so much. I tried to focus on no sweets at home but if I went out to dinner with friends, having something sweet after was totally fine. Now that I'm at school, I'm going to try to do one "sweet" a day (the ice cream in the dining hall is a killer).
• No Snacking- This totally stunk the first few days but it definitely helped with the mindless eating and is such a good habit to get into as well.
• Workout at least 4 times a week- My Pure Barre studio has a cardio class called Empower so I would do that once a week and regular class three times a week at the least. I found that this was a great way to be active and see results but my routine has switched up a bit since coming to Clemson.
• 100 fl. oz. of water a day- I haven't had soda since my freshman year of high school so I pretty much drink water, coffee, sweet tea, and La Croix (haha!). Getting enough water is so important and even though they recommend half your body weight, I found 100 fluid ounces was a good amount for me (which is definitely way more than half my body weight haha!).

Thanks for reading!

What I Wore for Sorority Recruitment at Clemson

After sharing all about Bid Day on the blog last week, I thought it would be fun to share with y'all what I wore for each day of sorority recruitment here on Chic in Carolina. I shared my outfits on my Instagram Stories each day of recruitment but figured this would be a fun post to write as y'all would be able to shop each day's outfit, see what each round was, as well as serve as a guide for girls going through recruitment next year.

Here at Clemson, sorority recruitment was the first two weekends that we are on campus and we have 13 sororities with over 1,000 girls rushing (Potential New Members or PNMs for short). The process can get pretty stressful and emotional at times but I loved picking out outfits for each round of recruitment.

Round 1: Open House Round

Left: similar shorts ⎢similar bracelet ⎢sandals

Right: skort ⎢sandals

The first round of recruitment here at Clemson is Open House Round where each potential new member visits all 13 chapters. Panhellenic gives us all t-shirts to wear for both days of Round 1 but you can choose whatever bottoms or shoes to wear. I wound up wearing Lilly bottoms for both days- my shorts that I wore for Day 1 are old but I'm obsessed with the skort I wore for Day 2. I also wore my go-to Tory Burch sandals as they were so comfortable for all the walking you do during the first round.

Round 2: Philantropy

Left: shorts ⎢sandals

Right: skort ⎢sandals

Round 2 of recruitment is also two days long and Panhellenic gave us a shirt for this day as well. Round 2 is focused on Philanthropy so each sorority shares a bit more about their national and local philanthropies. Most share a video as well.

Round 2 is a bit fancier than Round 1 but nothing crazy. I switched my Tory Burch sandals for Jack Rogers but stuck to shorts or a skort for each day of Round 2.

Round 3: Sisterhood

similar shift dress ⎢wedges

Round 3 is even more dressy than Round 2 and you aren't required to wear the same t-shirt as everyone else for this round. Most PNMs wear a cute dress or a romper of some sorts but it's a good way to show a bit more of your personality.

I wore one of my favorite Lilly dresses for this round as it made me feel confident and comfortable, which is super important for your outfits throughout rush.

Round 4: Preference

dress ⎢pearls ⎢heels

Round 4 is the last day of recruitment and is the most serious as well. I wore a fun pink Kate Spade dress that I actually wore for Baccalaureate as well. One thing to note is that a lot of the sorority members will be wearing solid colors and a lot wear either black or navy or white. Not to say that you can't wear these colors but it's just something to keep in mind!

Have you gone through sorority recruitment before? If so, what did you wear? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week: September 1-7

Happy Tuesday y'all! I'm so sorry for the delay in this post- I meant to have it go up on Friday and then yesterday but life got in the way (more on that on Friday). We had the day off yesterday for the hurricane and I was able to get a lot done- cleaning my room, catching up on homework, and catching up on blog work too, which I'm so excited about!

I actually have the most amount of classes on Fridays but thankfully they're all 50 minute classes so they go by fairly quickly. Fridays at Clemson are Solid Orange Fridays meaning everyone on campus wears orange. I picked up this Anthropologie top on sale a few weeks ago and it was perfect to pair with a pair of white pants. They only had a few sizes left so I wound up purchasing a large (I'm typically a small) and it has such a cute oversized fit.

Friday was the last day of Fraternity rush so Friday night, there was a ton of parties going on. I went out for a little bit with a few girls in Theta but nothing too crazy as game day was the next morning!

Saturday was Clemson's first home game of the season, which was so exciting! The game was a noon one so after sleeping in a bit, we headed to the dining hall for some food before going to the game.

My roomie, our next-door-neighbors on our hall, and I lucked out with our seats, which were amazing! The game was so fun and definitely a good start to Clemson's season.

After the game, we were all pretty exhausted so we had a chill night of ordering pizza and then just hanging out on the hall.

My roomie and I went to Church Sunday morning and then ran an errand before quickly grabbing some food at the dining hall. I had a meeting for Theta in the afternoon and then I worked on some homework and called home.

Clemson actually had class on Labor Day, which was a bit of a bummer but it is what it is. I had class in the morning, grabbed lunch at the dining hall with a friend, and then had my roommate contract meeting with my roomie and RA.

Our gym has barre classes so I decided to try one of those Monday afternoon. I always did Pure Barre at home so I was a bit bummed to see how different it is than barre classes than I'm used to but it's always good to get a workout in.

Tuesday was a pretty normal day of classes and doing homework. After my afternoon class, I headed over to the Theta hall to meet up with a few girls to go out to a profit share dinner for one of our philanthropies.

My roommate is a Gamma Phi and I wound up going to her first mixer of the year with her. The theme was Galaxy, which wound up to be interesting as I don't own a lot of dark colored clothing. I wound up pairing an orange off-the-shoulder top with orange chinos to be the sun, which definitely stood out against everyone wearing galaxy print and black. Also, note that I made a headband out of two pairs of leftover eclipse glasses.

This week was the last Wednesday before my lab starts for my Bio class so I used the afternoon to be productive and actually get my laundry done. I had a small group for my Church after dinner, which I think will be a great way to meet new people and then I was able to get to bed relatively early too.

Thursday morning, I had my morning class and then I had one of my PAL dates for Theta. Basically a PAL date is a way for new members (aka me) to get to know some of the older girls who potentially could be my big (my big sister in Theta).

After my PAL date, I went back to the dorm, walked to get a package from the mail room, walked back to my room to drop off my package, and then went to my other class.

I had another PAL date after that class and I'm happy that both of them went well. I didn't have any plans for Thursday night, which was nice as I was able to finish up my homework and also catch up with Riley on the phone (and by catch up, I mean talk for nearly two hours).

Last Week on Chic in Carolina:

Bid Day + Life Update ⎢My Chic Week: August 25-31 ⎢August Favorites

Happy Tuesday!

August Favorites

I definitely say this every month but I cannot believe we are already in September. It feels like yesterday that it was the start of the summer and now we only have 3 more months left in 2017 (???).

If you're new to Chic in Carolina, I share my favorites from the month before at the start of each month (as you probably guessed by the title of this post...) and it's a fun way to share with y'all what I have been loving lately. I always love reading these on other blogs so I hope y'all feel the same way.

August was definitely a big month for me as it was my last few weeks working as a nanny for the summer and being at home, moving into college, going through sorority recruitment and joining Theta, as well as getting adjusted to college life. I have a lot more favorites than usual because of that and I'm already excited to see what September's favorites will be, especially with the temperatures starting to cool down a bit.

Tory Burch Crossbody Bag (similar)- My siblings gave me this purse for my birthday this year and I've been using it so often here at Clemson. I'm typically a big purse type of a girl (I shared my purse collection in this blog post) but it's nice to have a smaller bag for going out to dinner or when I don't need a lot with me. Plus, it's small enough to bring in the stadium for game day!

Lime La Croix- I went to Publix a few weeks back to stock up on some essentials and this Lime La Croix is definitely a favorite. I know I'm definitely not sharing anything new here but this is such a good essential to keep in the dorm, especially if you're like me and don't drink soda!

Lululemon Running Shorts- I bought these shorts on a whim while shopping with one of my friends before we left for school and I can't tell y'all how often I wear them. They're so comfortable and are great for switching it up from my usual norts. They run a bit short so I wound up buying them in a tall to get a little more length (I'm 5'7).

My Pink & Green Garden Monogram Pillow (c/o)- Irene of My Pink & Green Garden sent me a few goodies for my dorm and I am obsessed with this pillow especially. I'm planning on sharing a dorm tour soon but I love the pop of print it adds to my dorm!

Ray Ban Aviators (similar)- These aren't exactly a new favorite but I have been loving them this month so I figured I would share. These were actually my mom's but she has uses other sunglasses so she gave them to me. They got super stretched out so I couldn't wear them but I finally got them fixed at the mall before heading to Clemson and I now wear them all the time. Definitely a staple in a preppy girl's wardrobe!

Donut Shop K Cups- My roommate got a Keurig for our dorm for Christmas last year so I stocked up on K Cups to use. I picked up these ones from Costco (I literally have 100 of them) and they are so good. Plus, you can't beat the convenience of a Keurig!

Victoria Secret Lotion- One of my friends actually gave me this for graduation (along with the coziest blanket) and I've gotten so much use out of it. The consistency is really thick and it makes your skin feel so soft.

Lilly Pulitzer Robe- This may be one of the most silly things I've spent money on but it makes me feel so glamorous. I needed a robe for college and decided to splurge on the Lilly robe as I have loved it since they were released last year. My roommate loves to (jokingly) make fun of me for it but it makes sitting around in your pajamas or getting ready for the day feel more fabulous and who wouldn't want that?

What were your August Favorites? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week: August 25-31

After sharing a bit of a life update on the blog yesterday, I figured it would be good to catch y'all up even more with a My Chic Week post. If you're a regular CiC reader (if not, hello!), you know that I typically like for these to go up on Fridays for y'all but I didn't want Friday's post to be crazy long and I also wanted to get my blog posts back on their usual schedule. So I will be recapping as usual and the "On my Radar" section will be in Friday's blog post.

It's been a bit of an adjustment balancing the blog with college and being social but hopefully I can figure things out as I have so many ideas for fun, new content that I cannot wait to share with y'all! As always, if you have any ideas on what you would love to see on Chic in Carolina, email me at chicincarolina@gmail.com, tweet me, leave a comment on this post, or DM me on Instagram!

Now let's get back into what I've been up to!

My first class on Friday is a 9:05 and after waking up super early for high school, my 7:30 alarm feels like sleeping in. I'm not sure that I'll still be thinking that in a few months but so far it's great! After my first class, I went to the library for a bit and then had my second class.

I had a few meetings on Friday after my last class on Friday so I grabbed Starbucks in between. We had a meeting for the College of Ed regarding field placements, which made me so excited for the semester. A few girls in my Pi Chi group (aka my sorority recruitment group) and I hung out and had dinner at the dining hall, which was a great way to kill some time before receiving our schedules later that night.

I didn't have recruitment until later in the afternoon on Saturday so I took the morning to run to Publix to grab a few necessities and then also do my laundry.

I then got ready for recruitment and had my parties for the day. Once I got home from rush, I realized that one of the girls on my hall and I both got out "early" so we went out to dinner (and by out to dinner, I mean we went to the dining hall haha!).

I'm planning on sharing a post all about what I wore for each round but for now, I'll just post the links to each piece of my outfit!

similar shift dress ⎢wedges

Sunday morning, we had an early meeting with our Pi Chis to view our schedule for the day and then I went back to my dorm to get ready.

dress ⎢pearls ⎢heels

After recruitment, I wound up going to Church as well, which was a great way to end a busy weekend.

Monday morning, I was up earlier than usual to shop the Lilly sale. As I mentioned in the post where I shared about all my favorites from the sale, I was able to find a bunch of cute pieces for my mom and I and I'm so excited for them to come in the mail.

The rest of my morning and afternoon was pretty normal- I went to class, did some work at the library, you get the idea haha!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Monday afternoon was Bid Day so I found out I was invited to join Theta and then we celebrated afterwards!

Throwing what we somewhat know?

My first class on Tuesday and Thursday isn't until 11 so it's really nice to be able to sleep in and get caught up on various things on those days. One of the girls in my bio class and I grabbed Chick-fil-a after class and then I worked on some homework until my other class later in the afternoon.

My lab on Wednesday hasn't started yet so I was done with classes by 12:30 last Wednesday. I grabbed lunch in the dining hall and then caught up on some chores in the afternoon (including going to the mail room to pick up my vacuum haha!). I also hung out with one of the girls on my hall for a while.

That night, I had a meeting to go to- nothing too exciting!

Thursday was another day of classes and then all the new members from each sorority here at Clemson had a presentation to go to, which was a lot more entertaining than I was expecting!

Last Week on Chic in Carolina:

Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale Favorites ⎢Navy Ruffles + My Favorite Lilly Skort ⎢Gameday Ready

Happy Wednesday!

Bid Day + Life Update

Hey y'all! So with college starting up, I feel like my blogging schedule has been all over the place (so sorry about that!). I pre-scheduled a bunch of posts to go up for my first week and a half here at Clemson for a bit of a smoother transition but it's still been kind of crazy here on Chic in Carolina.

Since I did pre-schedule most of the content y'all have been seeing lately, I feel like I haven't sat down and written a post for y'all in such a long time so I figured I should probably give y'all a life update.

For context, I am a freshman in Clemson University in South Carolina and we moved in a little over two weeks ago (August 18). I participated in sorority recruitment, which was crazy to say the least so most of my time was spent doing that.

But it was all worth it because I got to run to Kappa Alpha Theta on Bid Day at little over a week ago! Here at Clemson, we all go to the Greek Quad to meet our Pi Chi groups and then we all open our bids today (the level of excitement is unreal). Then we went and ran down the hill (a picture for reference) to meet our sororities before going off to our individual bid day parties! My sorority went to one of the restaurants downtown, which was so fun!

Ashley of A Little Ashley was a Pi Chi (recruitment counselor) here at Clemson this year so it was super exciting to run down the hill with her! Elizabeth of Life of Me, Queen B is a Sigma Kappa here and coincidentally SK and Theta were next to each other on Bid Day so we had to snap a picture!

One of the girls in my Pi Chi group went Theta with me, which was such a fun surprise!

I know this is just a little update on what I've been up to but I will be sharing a new My Chic Week post tomorrow to hopefully get back on track with blogging!