Sophomore Year Dorm Room Tour

I am so excited to be sharing today's post with y'all...drumroll please...my sophomore year dorm room tour! My freshman year dorm tour was one of my favorite posts from my freshman year and I am so excited to be sharing this year's version!

I reused a lot of the pieces from last year's room as it is a bit impractical to throw things out after only a year of use but since my roommate Rachel and I's colors were a bit different (her dorm room last year was navy blue while mine was a light blue), we purchased some new pieces to tie everything together and we love the way it turned out!

I am a Kappa Alpha Theta here at Clemson University and since we do not have sorority houses here at Clemson, I am living on my sorority hall, which has been so fun as it's fun living under the same roof as most of the girls in my pledge class. Rach and I lucked out as our room has pretty high ceilings compared to the rest of the hall and we have good natural lighting, which definitely makes things feel a bit more homey!

We are actually living in my big's old room, which is so fun as I spent a-lot of time hanging out here last year and I now I live here!

bed: headboard ⎢bedding ⎢lilly pillow (c/o) ⎢theta pillow ⎢bedskirt

gallery wall: similar clemson print ⎢floral Evelyn Henson print ⎢brunch Evelyn Henson print (no longer available) ⎢"work hard so you can shop harder" (c/o)

desk: desk hutch ⎢"all in good taste" ⎢"grace, not perfection" ⎢"a simplified life" ⎢"chictionary" ⎢ jewelry holder ⎢makeup organizer ⎢lilly banner (c/o)

futon area: futon ⎢navy cubes ⎢light blue pillow ⎢navy pillows ⎢basket

keurig area: similar organizer ⎢keurig

Thanks for reading!

My Chic Week: October 5-11

Happy Saturday y'all! I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend so far- Clemson has a bye week in football so I'm planning on using this weekend to get ahead in some homework and be productive!

Last weekend, we had an away football game so I decided to go home, which wound up being a great decision as I was totally in need of a chill weekend! Our Fall Break is later this year due to Election Day so it was nice to spend time at home since it had been nearly two months since my last visit!

I drove home after my last class and thankfully my drive was pretty uneventful. My family and I had pizza on the grill for dinner and then hung out our back porch for a while before watching tv and going to bed relatively early!

The next morning, I slept in and had breakfast before going to a Pure Reform class at my Pure Barre studio. If you've been reading CiC for a while, you know that I'm a bit PB obsessed and love going to class as often as I can while I'm home. They introduced the new Reform class after I left for the semester so I was excited to try it and it was such an amazing workout.

leggings

After my class, I grabbed a juice from the juice bar next door (another place I miss while I'm in Clemson!) and then my mom and I ran a few quick errands before the Clemson game! A Clemson win always makes for a great day and then my family and I wound up watching a few of the Hunger Games movies as they were having a marathon of them on TV.

similar tank ⎢leggings ⎢sandals

The rest of the day was pretty chill as we had burgers for dinner and then had a little early birthday celebration for my younger brother. His birthday is this coming week but we decided to celebrate with cake a little early as I was home!

I was up pretty early on Sunday morning as my family and I went to 7 AM Mass. We had breakfast afterwards and then I organized my closet as I brought some of my more summery clothes home and wanted to bring some fall clothes back with me.

My sister and I watched the end of the last Hunger Games movie and then I went to the grocery store with my mom before the Steelers game. I wound up leaving around 3:45 so I could get back to Clemson in time for my sorority's chapter! Once I got back to Clemson, I unloaded my car and then went to chapter, followed by an officers meeting.

my ootd for chapter: similar lilly shift ⎢sandals ⎢earrings ⎢fitbit ⎢bracelet

Monday was getting back into the swing of things after a weekend away from campus. I had my one Monday class and then caught up on some homework in the afternoon!

Monday's ootd for class: tee ⎢sports bra ⎢shorts ⎢sneakers (on sale!) ⎢fitbit ⎢bracelet

I shared a glimpse into my Tuesday schedule in Tuesday's blog post and it pretty much sums up the day. I had class and then a lab. A few of my Elementary Ed friends and I grabbed lunch and worked on some homework before our afternoon classes. After class, I had a sorority event to go to for my officer position and then I worked on homework and Rachel and I ordered a pizza for dinner!

Wednesday mornings are always fun as I have my field placement in a local kindergarten classroom. I always wish I could stay longer than my one hour visit and this week was no exception. After my placement, I went to my English class and then wound up going to a professor's office hours to ask a question. My afternoon was pretty unproductive as I didn't get much done but I had the chance to unwind a bit, which is always nice! My sorority had our Bible Study that night and then I went to bed relatively early!

Wednesday's student teaching ootd: old loft dress ⎢similar flats ⎢fitbit ⎢bracelet ⎢hoops

Thursday was a fairly busy day as I had my 8 AM class and then came back to my room to get ready for my sorority's philanthropy event. We have our larger philanthropy event in the spring but had a bake sale this past week so I helped set up and table for that on Thursday.

Thursday's ootd: sorority pr shirt ⎢bralette ⎢similar jeans ⎢hunter boots ⎢fitbit ⎢bracelet

I then came back to my room for a bit before going to my afternoon classes. My 3:30 class wound up getting canceled, which was such a fun surprise not to have to go!

After class ended, I camped out in the Starbucks on campus to catch up on some work and to get some big assignments done. I was super productive, which is always an amazing feeling. I wound up heading back to the hall and ran into to my friend Olivia who was going to Starbucks so I wound up studying with her for a bit before we watched a movie back on the hall!

On the Blog:

My Chic Week: September 28- October 4 ⎢A Day in my Life: Fall 2018

A Day in my Life: Fall 2018

One of my favorite posts to both write and read on other blogs is daily routines. I think it's so fun to peek into other people's day to day lives so hopefully y'all love this peek into my day too!

Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be my busiest days of the week as I have 4 out of my 5 classes. The college of education for some reason decided to put all of our classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so on these two days I have class from 8 AM to 4:45 PM. It's definitely crazy and requires a lot of coffee!

My 8 AM lecture has a lab on Tuesday so I have a three hour chunk in the morning dedicated to that (9:30 AM- 12:20 PM). Thankfully, it usually never lasts the whole time so I'm able to get stuff done or maybe take a nap during that time!

One thing about college is two days are never the same! Each day after class ends, the day looks completely different as today, for example, I have a sorority event while some days I'll stay in the library later working on a project or studying for a big test!

What does a typical day in your life look like? Let me know in the comments!

My Chic Week: September 21- October 4

Long time, no My Chic Week post! My schedule has been all over the place lately and blogging unfortunately has been pushed to the back burner. I thankfully do not have any exams this week so I'm planning on using that extra time to get ahead in terms of blogging.

We last left off nearly two weeks ago so I decided it would be better to do more of a life update post than a MCW post where I go through each day of the week as that would take ages haha!

Classes

I have officially gotten through my first set of exams for all of my classes, which is such a relief as the first test for a class is always a bit intimidating as you're never quite sure what to expect. I'm pretty settled into my routine at this point in the semester and I'm really enjoying most of my classes as the majority are classes in my major.

Sorority Life

This month has been a busy one for sorority events from mixers (as pictured above!) to philanthropy events to initiation for our new members! I'm my chapter's Service Director so I've been busy planning our annual Day of Service, which is later this week!

Student Teaching

As many of y'all probably know, I am an Elementary Education major here at Clemson and I want to teach after graduation in a few years. One of the things I love about Clemson's education program is how early we get into the classroom. I had a field placement my very first semester at Clemson and have another one this semester to go along with my Child Development class. I am in kindergarten this semester and always look to my placement each week. I try to share my outfits each week over on my Instagram stories so be sure to follow along there and I will probably do a blog post with more outfit details soon!

Big/Little Reveal

As I talked about in this blog post, big/little reveal was a few weeks ago! It was such an exciting week and I shared a ton of pictures in that post and also explained a little more about what big/little is!

Clemson vs. Syracuse Game!

Two weekends ago, Clemson played Syracuse and even though the game nearly gave everyone in the stadium a heart attack, Clemson pulled through and won! It was such a fun game and rushing the field afterwards was so exciting! I wound up borrowing my roommate Rachel's jersey and I definitely think a Clemson jersey will be on my Christmas list as it is such a gameday essential.

Getting Back into a Workout Routine

I'm pretty good about working out regularly when I'm at home as I go to barre but I definitely slack off while I'm at school. I went for a run around campus last week and then did barre over the weekend while I was home so I definitely want to start getting more into the routine of working out regularly!

On the Blog last Week:

How to be a Good Long Distance Friend ⎢How I Organize my Agenda ⎢Meet my Little! + What I Gave my Sorority Little

Happy Friday!

Meet my Little! + What I Gave My Sorority Little

I am so excited to be sharing today's blog post as I'm sharing a bunch of pictures from my sorority's big little reveal, which was last Friday. For all of you who may not know, I am a Kappa Alpha Theta here at Clemson and am currently a sophomore. During our new member period, each new member receives a big sister (or just big for short!) who will help guide them through being a sorority member. I am super close to my big Mackenzie (I shared pictures from reveal last year in this post) so I was so excited to take a little this semester!

In Theta, we do pal dates starting the week after Bid Day (which you can read about here) so each new member has the chance to meet a bunch of the older girls. They are super fun and I loved doing them both last year and this year. We found out who our littles are two Sundays ago and then that whole week was Big/Little week leading up to reveal.

Each sorority at Clemson does big/little reveal but this year, all of the bigs painted a sheet and then hid behind the sheet. Each little finds the sheet with her name on it and then we do a big countdown before the sheet drops!

My little is Nora and I was secretly hoping she would be my little all throughout the pal date process- the way we do it is that both the potential bigs and potential littles write down their top choices for who they want as their big/little. I was so excited when I got the call saying she would be my little!

It's pretty popular to do a theme for reveal so I decided to do a Mean Girls theme and make shirts based off of this picture and then wear mouse ears. One of Mackenzie's roommates has a Cricut machine so we used that (thanks Sarah!) to add the words to comfort colors t-shirts I got on Amazon Prime. It turned out super cute and I love that it was somewhat unique compared to the more common sorority reveal themes!

Throughout Big/Little Week, we (the bigs) give the littles a present each day along with a clue about our identities. The first day was canvases so I gave her a canvas I made over the summer, the second day was candy so I gave her a mason jar that I jazzed up with some paint pens full of her favorite candy, and then the third day was t-shirts so I gave her the t-shirt she wore for reveal. The clues are always fun as most people give fake clues so reveal is more of a surprise! I had a feeling she would know it was me so I tried tricking her a little bit by having the first two be about her and by doing two lies and a truth on the last day but they were all about my roommate Rachel haha!

Then after reveal, we give our littles a big crate full of Theta goodies. I may have gone a little over the top and decorated a crate for her along with a step stool that I spray painted and then modge-podged a Lilly print onto (let me know if y'all want to see a DIY on that). I also gave her a zillion Theta t-shirts as well as a bunch of canvases and other crafts, like a pin box, a picture frame, and letters, that I made over the summer!

the two sides of her crate!

the entire spread!

I hope this post was a fun one for y'all to read and that y'all have a great Wednesday!

How I Organize My Agenda

I think over the years here on Chic in Carolina, we have really established the fact that I love my agenda. I've talked about it before, I'm talking about it now, and I will probably talk about it again haha! My friends joke that it's like my bible (which y'all can see in this post) and I feel lost at times without as it truly keeps my life together as has all the details of my day.

In high school, I was a big fan of the Lilly Pulitzer agenda but have since to the Day Designer since starting college. I love both but feel like the Day Designer is better suited for college students as it has a line for each hour, which is great as my schedule changes all the time in college since no two days look the same! The Day Designer is a bit pricier but I feel like it is worth the splurge as I use it so often!

The Day Designer has a pretty spacious monthly view, which I always find convenient as I love looking at my month at a glance as seeing what weeks will be busier with assignments, tests, and other time commitments. I use the same color coding as my daily pages, which y'all can probably tell from the pages haha!

The biggest difference between the Day Designer and the Lilly agenda is that the Day Designer has one page per day while the Lilly agenda has two pages per week. I really like the one page per day as it features a hourly section for the day as well as a to-do list where I keep track of all of my assignments as well as other to-dos. This has helped me stay more organized as I can have my agenda and my to-do list in the same place rather than having a separate to do list. I typically write down all of my classes at the start of the semester in the hourly section then add in meetings and other things like that and it's helpful as I can see when I'm free to do stuff with friends or study with friends. I also add assignments from the syllabus into the to-do list a few days before they are actually due so I don't miss anything!

It also features a top 3 section, which is helpful for prioritizing, and then a notes section where I usually write down the blog post of the day as well as any additional notes for the day!

This year, they added a little bookmark to help keep your place, which I definitely think is useful as it saves you from flipping through your agenda all the time!

For the weekends, Saturday and Sunday share a page with a week ahead feature, which I find handy as it makes Sunday planning a bit easier as I know where to prioritize my time!

What agenda do you use? Let me know in the comments!

How to Be A Good Long Distance Friend

As we officially enter October (?!?!), we get further into the semester and are started to feel a bit more settled into the new school year. This is a time of big adjustment for many college freshmen as you are away from home for the first time in a new environment. I think a pretty common fear amongst freshman is not making friends in college (I talked about making friends in college in this blog post) but it is also weird to think about how your high school friendships will change now that y'all are in college.

I know that college was the first time my high school friends and I were really apart for an extended period of time and even though your friendship will change, they can also grow while you are in college (even if you go to different schools!).

Remember Birthdays & Other Important Days

I know I always feel so loved whenever friends send me a quick text to wish me a happy birthday or good luck on an important day. Especially for long distance friends, this is a great way to stay involved without necessarily being physically there. Send a text, Facebook post on their wall, or send them a fun gift to celebrate birthdays and be sure to keep in mind important events (whether a big job interview, congratulating them on a leadership position, or even remembering family events) as it will help y'all's friendship going no matter how far apart you are!

Utilize Social Media

Even if you're not in constant contact with your friends, social media is such a fun way to keep up with some of the big things going on in each other's lives. I always love seeing pictures from my high school friends's sorority events, football game, and other fun events to keep up with them as it makes catching up so much easier!

Like a lot of people my age, I love snap chatting to stay in touch with long distance friends as it is a fun way to get to see the small moments of your friend's day!

Accept Your Friendship May Change
Making friends in college is so weird because your friendships grow so much faster as you literally spend all of your time with them. In high school, you may be in the same classes as your friends and hang out after school but you still don't spend nearly as much time with your friends as you do in college. Considering how quickly you make friends in college, it's ok for your friendships from home to change or to make new friends. You may not text your high school bff as much as you used to but you'll have more to catch up on over breaks!

Never Underestimate Small Gestures

Whether it's tagging them in a meme on Instagram or texting them randomly, you never know how far that small gesture will go. One of my favorite things to do is when I know I have a friend who is having a crazy exam week is to vemno them money for coffee as it makes you remember your friends have your back even when they can't physically be there to treat you to a coffee!

Set up FaceTime Dates

I am not a huge FaceTime gal but I love it on occasion to catch up with friends at other schools or my siblings (and see my puppies haha!). I always love when one of my friends spontaneously facetimes me as it truly brightens up your day and I know it helps you feel a little less homesick as it's the next best thing to having your bff right next to you! My friend Meredith (who is in the picture above and y'all met in this post) and I wound up Facetiming for like 2 hours while I was in the library (in the lobby no worries!) and I loved catching up on things going on in our lives to make due before we could actually have a coffee catch up!

Send Snail Mail
I can't tell y'all the last time I actually mailed a letter other than a thank you note but they are such a fun way to stay in touch with friends as I feel like it's a bit more personal than a text and it's always a fun surprise to get an email from the mailroom saying you have mail to pick up!

Make plans for visit each other
Visiting friends at their colleges is so fun and such a great way to peek into their life at their school. Whether it's a gameday or just a random weekend, it's always a fun time to see your friend in person and it gives you a fun weekend away to look forward to!

Any other tips for long distance friendships? Let me know in the comments!