CHRISTMAS CRAFTS

Happy Holidays and Merry almost Christmas!

Since I don't live with my two wonderful college roommates anymore who spoiled me with Christmas decoration, it was about time that I started my official collection. I was inspired by this pin to create those Christmas trees and inspired by all those mason jar crafts to create my version of a mason jar centerpiece. I didn't make nearly as many crafts as I have planned, but my pinterest boards will definitely keep me inspired for next season :)

I hope everyone has a fun-filled, relaxing and sentimental holiday season. I'm filling mine up with relaxing, hot chocolate, annual Gingerbread House Making competition with high school best friends, funky Christmas hats and just all around good cheer.

Any crafts that you recommend? I'd love to hear and pin them for next year! :)

DIY: Pencil Holder

Inspired by this pin, I borrowed a drill from a guy friend of mine and attempted to create my own pencil holder a few weeks ago (in the midst of finals). At first, I stared at the drill for about a good 10 minutes trying to figuring out how it worked. I even made a phone call to another guy friend of mine, but really, how could he help over the phone? Then I proceeded to give it a shot (by putting a lot of pressure) and broke a 9/64 drill bit (it's one of the tiniest ones). Why did I try to drill this into this big block of wood? Don't ask and don't worry, I replaced it :]

After getting the hang of putting the right amount of pressure and angling the drill the right way, I finally was able to drill some holes using the 3/32 drill bit. After the wood chips all over my living room floor, I decided to move my project OUTside and thus, success! It was time consuming and my hand cramped up a bit, but overall, it was a successful DIY! I found the piece of wood while shooting my friend's save the date photos and therefore (without the cost of replacing the drill bit, which was $1.94), the project would've cost nothing!

I plan on using the pencil holder for some new art pens I've had my eyes on :)
Did you do any DIY projects recently?

a little project or two

Ah, it feels nice to finally breathe air that is not full of Sociology of Work & Organization terms + concepts! My roommate + I have spent the last few hours making up acronyms to remember these ENDLESS terms.

Anyway, here's a glimpse into a few projects I've been working on.
Since I've moved away from home, my mom likes to "dump" all my belongings from her apartment so that I can now take full custody of my "junk." Among those things, I found this frame that I decorated when I was probably 14. (My room used to be pink + I tried to draw a tree...) WELL, before completely tossing it, I realized that I could TOTALLY redo this and make it more [21 year old] Melissa friendly.

Here are the results:


Another wonderful project I'm a part of is The Small World Project, hosted by Bree over at The Art of Being Cool. It's week three so I've sent my third letter to Katie! I'm still awaiting my letter from Sasha this week. I've had such a great experience anticipating snail mail, learning about my fellow blogger friends + writing letters! Here's the two letters I received yesterday! One from the cute + creative Katie from Kitty Snooks and another from another sweet Katie :] Thank you both!

 

Aren't they so creative and cool? I knew Katie from Kitty Snooks would have a fabulously artsy letter...being in art school and all. I LOVE the way she wrote my name. I wish she could create a font so I could use that on everything! She was so sweet to try and send me a pin in the mail from Canada (since I collect them), but it got lost :( I am so touched though! She drew me a cute little Halloween-inspired illustration too! I loved how the other Katie made her envelope out of a math page! So creative. You two rocked my world yesterday!

Have a blessed Thursday :]

Ps. I've totally a-ddicted to Friday Night Lights. I can't wait to blog about it! I have 12 more episodes left! Yippee! Off to bed! I do need to have a functioning brain for my exam tomorrow.

Also! Got some new content up on Her Campus Appalachian State you need to check out -
+ Upcoming Movies You Don't Want To Miss [written by yours truly!]
+ Campus Celebrity: Aaron Simpson from New River Boys
+ 6 Fall Recipes Everyone Should Try [written by Laura]
+ Anxiety Answers for the Collegiette

Go on, read along!

Preview of my Quote Book

      A few years ago, some of my good friends bought me that "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself" book pictured to the left. Ever since they bought me it, I have created it into my official "quote book." A little place to find some inspiration or to inspire others. I have been currently working on it every now and then updating it with quotes, poems or any other such nonsense that I found appropriate.
         On my bucket list, one of my goals is to finish my first quote book. Who knows, I'll hopefully continue to make them, but let me finish one first :) Anyway, I'm about 75% done. This has been one of my favorite ongoing projects. I like some pages more than others, and some I just want to rip out forever! But that's the fun of it all I guess. To the right is a little preview of my quote book. Every now and then I'll post more pages and quotes. This isn't one of my favorite pages, but for some reason I scanned it on computer a couple years ago and I'm too lazy to scan another page...so you all get this page. If no one caught the reference, it's from "Perks of Being a Wallflower." On the right page, it got cut off but it was the beginning of one my favorite Andy Warhol quotes, "I think everybody should like everybody." I'll be sure to continually scan some more quotes from the book that I think all of you should enjoy.
        In other parts of my life, I have of course stayed pretty busy. I currently am helping my friends start a band. Well, they already created the band, but I've been dubbed as "Band Manager" which entails a lot of work and responsibility, but I have thoroughly been enjoying it. It's definitely a new kind of industry I am not used to, but I am ready to challenge myself. We are truly working hard to make this as successful as possible and I am in with all hands and feet. When we get more settled with recordings, our website and social media, don't worry, you'll get a blog post about it :) For now, just look out for us! We're coming and we're going to change the industry. I get to live my "dream" of being in a band, by just being their manager ;)

Ps. I am planning on updating the banner soon and add more aesthetically pleasing things to the blog soon.

If you all have some favorite quotes, let me know! I would gladly love to add them to my collection!