Pretzel Bite Snack/Dessert

Happy December 1st! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday, so I definitely did. I wanted to make a quick dessert to bring to my Thanksgiving dinner. I found these two recipes for these pretzel bites on Pinterest, which helped me to make my pretzel bites.

1. Hug M&M Pretzel Bites
2. Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bites

And this is what I made!

What you need:

• 1 bag of pretzels (I got one bag of gluten free pretzels for me and 1 bag of regular pretzels for those who don't eat gluten free.)
• 1 bag of Hershey's kisses
• 1 bag of Reese's pieces

Preheat the oven for 200 degrees. Lay the pretzels on parchment paper on a baking sheet. Place one Hershey kiss of each pretzel. Put in the oven for 6 minutes, take the baking sheet out and press one Reese's piece into each Hershey kiss (it should look similar to the picture above).

I made about 4 batches of these in 1 hour. It's super quick and easy to make and seriously tastes so good! Enjoy!

Another Year Older and A Day in Philly

Last week was my 23rd birthday. Yes 23. I still can't believe it. About a week or two before, I stumbled across this article: The Brain On 23. What timing!

Make sure to watch the video posted in the article too. It's an interview with the author of the article.

I went out to Philly for a day trip and it was so much fun! A little chilly, but an otherwise beautiful day. I first stopped in Reading Terminal Market for lunch (hello cheesesteak!). Then went to see the Liberty Bell. I've never seen it before!

Here are some pictures from my trip.

On My List: Books To Read

Now that I've finished my daunting 10 page research paper for the semester, I'm hoping I'll have some time to leisure read.

I started reading Wild a few months ago, but stopped a few pages in. I'm hoping to pick that book up again soon. Aren't they making it into a movie?! How cool would that be! I'm into hiking which is why I bought this book to begin with.

 

And I've kept Commencement in the back of my car just waiting for some time to be able to read it. Maybe it's because I'm graduating from college in May (whattttt?!?!), but I've really been wanting to read this book.

Now I don't know which one to start reading first! What books are on your list to read?

Lovely Links 10.27.14 | Branding

Currently, my graphic design class started a branding project where we come up with a company product (i.e.: tangible item, store) and brand it. Though we just started, I'm looking forward to diving into this project. Branding and business development has always been an interesting topic for me, whether it's branding a company, a product or yourself and coming up with a business plan.

Honestly, I find a lot of interesting articles to read from blogs of other graphic designers and Pinterest. I thought I'd share some of those links with you:

1. Creating A Defined By

2. Crafting Your Branding

3. Five Tips For Evaluating A Business Idea

4. How To Build A Brand Narrative

Feel free to share any branding/business articles (or books!) you read recently!

Art Class: Digital Collage (and portfolio update!)

Happy Monday!

I haven't shared what I've been doing in class in a while, so I thought I'd post an update on that.

I just finished up these digital collages for one class. We were to decide on a topic and create two digital collages. I focused on women stereotypes in the 1950s and displayed that through different textures and objects in my collages. But I wanted to show the progression women have made since they and included type that reflected some current feminist/women power movements (Ban Bossy and Lean In).

 

Check out my portfolio for some of my other work!

It's That Time Of Year... Pumpin Picking!

Two words. Pumpkin picking.
More words. It's one of my favorite family traditions of all time.

First, we went through the corn maze. Usually we can never get through the maze from start to finish. Some how we always end up back at the beginning. Not this year though; we made it all the way through!

We saw some farm animals. I got to feed these cows some hay!

Our last stop was the pumpkin patch. I can't wait to decorate and carve my pumpkin, but we wait until it gets closer to Halloween to do that.

What are some of your fall/autumn family traditions?

Fall Bucket List

After reading To Do: Create A Bucket List on the Free People Blog, I was inspired to make my own fall bucket list. Summer's definitely my favorite season (I don't like the cold!), but nothing makes me happier than watching the leaves change, Pumpkin Spice lattes and a good pair of boots!

1. Pumpkin picking!
My family and I go pumpkin picking every year. It's tradition! Before Halloween, we also carve our pumpkins. I'm thinking of adding glitter to mine this year after seeing this on Pinterest.

2. More time outside.
I love hiking, but don't always have the time to do it, especially with school now. I'm hoping to make more time to spend outdoors. The days are going to be getting shorter and colder so I want to make the most of it now.

3. Make homemade chai teas.
In Rachel Talbott's recent YouTube video "Getting Ready for Fall/Autumn (Bold Fall Makeup)," Rachel made homemade chai teas and put the recipes on her blog. I'm big into tea and can't wait to try out her recipes!

What's on your fall bucket list?

Lovely Links | 09.29.14

Happy Monday!

I have a love/hate relationship with Mondays. The weekend always seems to go by too fast, but I love the start of a new week

What a better way to kick off the week than some lovely links:

Kory Woodard tweeted about The Hive created by Femme & Fortune and I'm so interested in learning more about this adventure. I already signed up for their newsletter.

When I have some down time (and some patience) I'm definitely going to attempt this nail art. Because who doesn't love cats right?!

I purchased these binders about two weeks ago. I saved all of my birthday and holiday cards for the past few years. Up until now, they've been in boxes and I finally thought of a way to organize them all using these binders.

Lately I've been really into planners and was watching some videos on how people organize their planners and journals. I came across this YouTube video about Danny Gregory and I'm definitely going to look more into his work.

Have a great week everybody!

Art Class: Collage

As a graphic design major, I spend a lot of time on the computer, so it's nice to have an art class where I get to use more traditional art materials. Our assignment was to create a collage self portrait and we spend a majority of the class creating collages using whatever we wanted: paints, markers, magazine cut-outs...

I chose to use mostly paint and created different textures using things like tissue paper, packing peanuts, plastic wrap. It was so much!

 

My professor showed us artwork by J.T. Burke. He makes collages using old jewelry. I think he scans the jewelry pieces and then uses those scans to create collage compositions. While the class was working on our collages, I thought of Alisa Burke's work, more specifically this post about what materials she uses when she paints.

I'm really looking forward to this class and creating more collages!

Lovely Links | 09.02.2014

I can't believe summer is over and I'm starting my last year of college! It's bittersweet, that's for sure. I've been going through all the blog posts and articles that I've bookmarked and favorited and found a few links that pertained to the end-of-summer/going-back-to-school mood everybody is in around this time of year.

1. This was one I bookmarked a while ago: "From the Levo Mentors: 10 Skills to Develop During Your Senior of College." As a graphic design student going into my senior year, the part that interested me the most was about building your own brand.

2. Kory's post on "What I Wish I Knew Before Finishing College" is pretty relevant. It's interesting to read what recent graduates think about life after graduation.

3. On a lighter note, I read through some of these fashion risks posted by CollegeFashion and realized I've been doing some of these recently like the statement necklace, except I usually just wear one. Personally, I think it's about taking risks, but also feeling like yourself at the same time.

Sunday Funday | Hiking

By no means do I consider myself super outdoorsy, but I do love being outside. Especially in beautiful scenic areas like this one. These are just some pictures I took on my iPhone and edited some in Photoshop. And one from Instagram.

Happy Sunday!

My Word for 2014: Sophrosyne

In the beginning of the New Year, I saw quite a few posts by bloggers who selected a word for the year: something they either lived by already or something they hoped to live by. I thought this was a wonderful idea, but couldn't really find a word that suited me.

Then I found one on Pinterest (which also prompted me to make a whole board dedicated to words):

I think "sophrosyne" is the definition of me for 2014.  I'm coming more into my own, figuring out who I am and the kind of person I want to be everyday.  What's your word for this year?

Spring Semester 2014 Necessities

The first day of my spring semester was supposed to start yesterday, but thanks to an overwhelming amount of snow, it did not. And I was actually looking forward to the first day of classes.

That said, technically today is my first day of classes and this is what I'm going to be bringing:

1. My Longchamp Bag (in New Navy): This was a Christmas present that I desperately wanted! My bag I was using before started to tear on the inside. I really used that thing!

2. My MacBook and charger: I'm a Graphic Design student. I need this. NEED. **sidenote: I want to get one of those cool stickers to put on the cover of my MacBook**

3. My planner: I've had this for a while and worked out a new organization system for my planner over winter break. I actually have a Pinterest board that is mostly dedicated to planners. (Is that weird? I don't think so.)

4. Water and a snack: I have a water bottle with me at all times. This semester most of my classes are back to back with 15 minutes in between and I know I'll be hungry. My favorite snack to get at my school is the single serve hummus that comes with pretzel chips. So good!

5. Notebook, sketchbook, pens: I think this kind of goes without saying, but I'm going to need to sketch out my ideas and take notes during class. Still, I know there will be a day when I forget to bring a pen. It's inevitable.

What I Learned While Painting My Room

Now, I am by no means a professional painter, but that didn't stop me from painting my own room! At the top of my list of "Things I Want to Do Over Winter Break" (yes, there was a list) was to repaint my room.  To be honest, I started this process over the summer- I went to Lowes, picked out a few paint swatches and taped them on my wall. That's my process for picking paint, but that didn't really work. Up until about a week or two ago, I was still undecided. So back to Lowes I went. In the end I chose a Valspar paint called Sea Lily.

Best. Decision. Ever.

It took maybe about a week to fully complete this project- packing up my room and moving my furniture around to make painting easier, taping off the molding, priming, first coat and second coat of paint, moving everything back into my room.

And this is what I learned:

1. Give yourself plenty of time. Like I said, it took me about a week.

2. Have patience. I was happy to fill my days with rearranging my room and painting. I seriously made plans around my painting schedule.

3. Don't rush picking a color. Maybe this goes back to having patience, but it should still be said. Make sure you're happy with the color you pick- I don't know about you, but I really can't repaint my room every few months or so.

4. Play music! Have the TV on or a movie playing. Listen to some TED talks. Don't paint in silence.

5. Multi-task. I had to pack up my things and store them in another room in order to paint. I also rearranged my furniture. Use this time to really sort through what you have stored or displayed. Toss things you no longer need. Donate. Sell at a garage sale. Give to a friend. 


Hope this helps for when you start thinking about re-doing your room!