Girl’s Trip Must-Haves

Hey Cats!

Apologies for getting this up a day late! As per usual, my procrastination got the best of me, and Sunday night I was so exhausted and went to sleep at 10 pm instead of blogging. But! I’m planning on posting my regular three posts this week, so stay tuned!

Last week in my vacation recap, I promised a post detailing my Girl’s Trip Must-Haves. Miami was probably my favorite three days of the year, and going with my besties made it even better. After this, I am a firm believer in girl’s trips and am already saving for next year’s trip (or trips!). And I’m basically a girl’s trip professional. After 72 hours. Because of this, I’m going to tell you everything you need to have a fun, easy, and smooth vacation.

1. Friends

Okay, I mean obviously, but at least read the whole paragraph before you decide this is a stupid list. Truth is, the right friends are paramount to a good girl’s trip. I have a rule: never take trips with anyone you do not love. A couple of terrible weekends in college led me to this discovery, so since then I’ve been wary to just pack my bags and go. Make sure you’re not going to have to hold people’s hair back every night. Make sure you’re all on the same page about how much money you want to spend. Make sure you’re all okay with either having a plan or not having a plan for the trip. And most of all, make sure you’re able to stand the people for extended periods of time- because once you’re there, you’re stuck!

2. A Selfie Stick

I used to make fun of selfie sticks, but we brought one on our trip and they are SO FUN. Plus, everyone can be in every picture! We used it at the beach, on our balcony, and yes, even on the airboat tour. Like true millennials. HASHTAG SELFIE.

3. Groupon

Full disclosure: we were on a budget. A tight one. But! That definitely didn’t stop us from having an awesome time. We did everything we wanted to, and spent a reasonable amount of money. For every activity, we searched high and low for the best prices, using Groupon and other coupons to find the best deals. I probably spent a little over $500 for the whole trip (not including clothes HAHA), which is so great for a trip to Miami!

4. Cluster

Thanks to the selfie stick, we took an abundance of photos. Then we all liked each other’s photos better than our own, but sending mass amounts of pictures is annoying and takes so long. My friend Catherine told us about an app called Cluster, where you can just upload your photos to a private group, and everyone can have access to them! Now, we each have all of the photos from the trip to frame or ‘Gram at our discretion. Everyone wins!

5. Your sense of adventure! 

You may get lost in your rent car on the way to the Everglades. You may have to rearrange all of your plans at the last minute. You may get to do everything you want to do, and you may not! You may have to run through the Atlanta airport with moments to spare and eat box sandwiches at 10 pm. But it’s all part of the fun! I will always have wonderful memories from this trip, and it’s mostly because we went with the flow and kept our sense of adventure about us!

These are just a few things I’m glad we had on our trip! What are your girl’s trip must-haves? Let me know!

That’s all for meow!

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DIY-Collage Frame Update

Hey Cats!

About .03 seconds after I signed my lease for my big-girl apartment, I started to think about how I was going to decorate each room. Mostly, I was considering how I would re-use what I already had, partly because I liked it all, but mostly because I didn’t have enough money to completely re-furnish an entire apartment. I was able to use most of my furniture as it was and then (have my dad) re-paint the rest of it, so all I had to buy was a couch! I also had a lot of art to hang on my walls that I had collected over the years, and it all fit pretty well into my color scheme. However, I had this collage frame that I bought for my dorm that I had glued buttons onto to “customize” it when I was in my hot glue phase (everyone has one). As a matter of fact, that was one of my first blog posts on Sweet Cats! (please read it, I love it). As wonderful as that was for my college room, I had definitely outgrown the buttons. So I peeled them off and spray painted it! Which, by the way, was not an easy task. Getting the buttons off, I mean. I had to use a butter knife, a flathead screw driver, and finally my dad’s pocket knife. Crafting can be dangerous.

I would make this a tutorial, but I presume you all know how to spray paint, so I’ll just show you how it turned out!

 

1. Sorry for the glare and 2. If you’re my friend and pictured in this collection of best moments from senior year, I hope it’s okay I posted you without consent. Just a few coats of gold spray paint and this frame was taken from girlish to glamorous! Also, I need to address the giant blemish near the top. One button didn’t really want to come off, and so it left a tiny hole. It’s just the angle in this photo that makes it so obvious, but when you look at it in real life it’s not as visible! I’m so glad I got to re-use this frame, because it has so many spaces for photos of my friends, which is something I love to have in my house. I also think it’s cool that I’ve been able to use it throughout college and now after! This just goes to show that if you’re on a tight decorating budget, tweaking the things you already have can make a big difference!

That’s all for meow!

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TJMaxx Tweak- Lilly Pulitzer Maxi

Hey Cats!

For some reason, I am exhausted this week! I’m not sure if it’s because I had a busy weekend, if my regular 6-hour sleep schedule isn’t going to cut it any more, or if it’s because I haven’t been going to the gym regularly anymore. But I should probably start going to the gym again, for a variety of reasons. I’ve been wanting to join a gym, but I can’t find one with an indoor track, and I’m just going to have to convince myself to start running on the treadmill, which could take some time. The treadmill is just so boring, though. I feel like you run forever, but you never get anywhere!  The rec center at school kind of became my second home, and I’m going to have a hard time finding a place that I love as much as I did. Nevertheless, I need to go somewhere, so I’m just going to have to suck it up and start paying for a membership. Ugh. But I digress.

For the longest time, I knew that I wanted to get a Lilly Pulitzer shift dress for graduation. I wanted something classic, Southern, and grown-up, and a Lilly shift had all of those qualities. In November when I started looking, I had my heart set on the Janice shift dress in Shorely Blue.

It was perfect, and I was so excited about it. But, it was definitely expensive, and I wasn’t doing a great job at saving my money. Around spring break, I realized that I probably wasn’t going to be able to afford it. While I was at home for spring break, I went shopping with my mom and sister for Easter dresses, and though I wasn’t happy about it, I started looking for graduation dresses, too. I couldn’t find anything I loved (for graduation…I found about 5 I wanted for Easter…I had two different looks I was going for, okay?) at the first few places we went, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. The next day, my mom and I went to TJMaxx to look for a new top to go under my suit, and I thought I would browse the dress section while I was there, just in case.

AND THAT’S WHEN I FOUND IT. I saw the recognizable, bright-colored, juice-stand print peeking out of the rack, and I literally ran to it. They had my size, but there was one problem…it was a maxi dress. My mom was like “I don’t think this is going to work,” but I dragged her into the dressing room anyways-you can’t get what you want if you don’t even try.

I tried it on, and just as I expected it was WAY too long for me. But it fit perfectly everywhere else, and it was beyond gorgeous. I loved it, my mom loved it, and I had to have it. I twirled around in it for a while, and then I had an epiphany. “What if I cut it off and make it a shift dress?”, I asked my mom. She thought it was a wonderful idea, and we spent the next fifteen minutes in the dressing room deciding where we could cut it off, if the alteration place could actually do it, what to do with all the extra fabric, and of course, what shoes I was going to wear. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. Not really, but graduation has come and gone and I’m still just really excited about it.

Here’s what the dress looked like when I bought it:

Please disregard the HUGE MESS that is my closet at my parent’s house. I was going to take a better picture of it, but I forgot until I was at the alteration shop and the lady held her scissors up to it and said “there’s no going back now!”. So this is the best I’ve got. Anyways, don’t you love it? I will admit that it made me a little sad to cut off all that extra fabric, especially since it had that beautiful lace trim on it. But my mom and I salvaged the fabric and I’m thinking about making a skirt out of it! Also, since this was at TJMaxx, I’m pretty sure it’s out of season. I don’t recognize this print, but I still really love it!

And here’s what it looked like after alterations:

 

I’m obsessed. Still. I will seriously wear this thing as long as it fits, because we all know that Lilly is timeless. I was so happy to find it, especially since my dreams of a Lilly dress were crushed by my financial irresponsibility. Speaking of, you’re probably wondering how much I paid to make my graduation dreams come true. The dress itself was $80, and alterations were $20, so $100 total. Still not cheap, but significantly less than buying my first choice! I’ve never been one to tweak clothes to my liking, because most of the time, alterations are kind of a hassle, and it seems easier to me to just find something else that fits how I want it to. But do you remember Monday’s talk about not settling? Yeah, this was about the time in my life that I decided not to settle for anything I didn’t really want, and I decided that yes, that even applied to my clothes. Also, I really like the idea that probably no one else has this exact dress. I’m definitely going to start searching for more bargain pieces that I can tweak to my tastes. This is a great way for those of us who are extremely picky to customize our wardrobes without spending a fortune!

That’s all for meow!

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Single Girl Closet on a College Girl Budget-Baroque Sunglasses

Hey Cats!

A while back I spotted Kourtney Kardashian wearing these fabulous Prada sunglasses and I immediately fell in love with them! (and also her turban-where can I find one of those?)

I did a little research, and discovered they were $290- way out of my college girl budget. Disappointed, I decided they weren’t meant to be and settled for a Target pair that had the big, round frames, but not the baroque detailing (which was my favorite part). However, one afternoon while catching up on my Bloglovin’ feed, I came across Amber from FACE IT Catalog wearing what I thought were the Prada sunnies I had been coveting. (Also, how fab is she? Her outfit posts are truly the best, and I have serious closet envy. This is probably a good time to also mention that this photo is used with permission from Amber!)

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However, I scrolled down to view the outfit details, and discovered that she purchased her eyewear from Framework. I was overjoyed, especially when I reached the site and they were on sale for $3.94. Yes, less than $5. THEY WERE SO MEANT TO BE. I immediately typed in my credit card number and made them mine, and with shipping, the total was under $7. They were waiting for me when I arrived home from vacation Thursday night, which was just the best, and I am very pleased with them!

They are very chic, and add just the right amount of whimsy to your outfit. Also, I just feel absolutely fab when I wear them. Steals like this are the perfect way to build your Single Girl Closet on your College Girl Budget!

That’s all for Meow!

In My Closet- Leopard Print Flats

Hey Cats!

I’ve decided to start a new blog  series called “In My Closet”! As of right now, I’m planning on featuring a piece from my wardrobe that I believe is a staple of the fashion-forward young woman. I’m not sure how often it will be, but stay tuned!

Today I chose leopard print flats. I commented to a reader recently that leopard print was my favorite neutral, and it’s really the truth. The print includes both brown and black, so it goes with literally everything! I bought these a couple of years ago, and I still love them so much!

I fell in love with the Steve Madden version, but they were way out of my price range. Fortunately, I was able to find a cheaper pair at Kohl’s from Candie’s that was much better for my college-girl budget! As you know, I am obsessed with the smoking slipper style, but you could totally do regular ballet flats, or the trendy pointy-toe flat! I wear these with jeans and just about any top, colored jeans, leggings, and even shorts. They seem like they would be a trendy addition, but I firmly believe every woman should have a pair of leopard flats. They are the perfect way  to add a little interest to any ensemble without being too flashy, and I don’t think they’re going out of style anytime soon! So if you don’t have any, you should go pick up some fierce footwear!

Stay tuned to see what else is in my closet & on my plate!

That’s all for meow!