Well, hello there, beautiful people! The holiday season is coming to a close as we welcome the new year and it's really a bittersweet feeling. I'm kind of happy that the holidays are pretty much over because I am so over the stress of holiday shopping. But it kind of sucks because school is going to be starting back up again soon and I am loving my vacation so far. Saying goodbye to the holidays also means saying goodbye to the family members that you only get to see a few times a year. It also means that you probably have way too much leftover food and you probably have no idea what to do with it. Did I mention that school is starting up again? Yeah...

               Christmas is by far, my favorite holiday! I love being around my family and Christmas is usually the only time that I get to see a lot of them. I'm not going to pretend that getting a couple of holiday gifts isn't pretty great, either. But the best part of the holidays is, hands down, the FOOD!
My family has a pretty random tradition when it comes to what we eat on Christmas Day: we eat tons and tons of Mexican food at my aunt's house. Every. Single. Year. I don't know why we do because I don't think anyone in our family is remotely Hispanic, but we love Mexican food. I don't remember a single Christmas where we didn't eat it. And who could blame us? Look at this nutritious plate of Mexican goodness!

That cheese dip though...

               After eating way too much food, I usually join my family in my aunt's basement for games (and to take advantage of the mini bar). This year, we played Hedband, Taboo, and the Logo Game. Playing games like these always reminds me how competitive I can be, but we had a great time!



              A few years ago, two of my cousins and I added a new event to our family Christmas tradition: going to the movies! It's so much fun for me! There are so many films that are released on Christmas Day and I love going to see them. There's always a positive holiday atmosphere at the movie theater during the holidays, so it's a great time to go see a movie with the family. However, this year, we didn't go to the movies on Christmas Day (we went the next day). Instead, we went bowling at QC Family Entertainment, which is a really cool bowling alley/arcade/bar & grill.

Left: Those socks though... Top Right: My "curtain call" after FINALLY getting a strike Bottom Right: My gorgeous cousin focusing rather intensely on her bowling ball

                The next day, my family and I went to the movies and saw the amazingly talented Mark Wahlberg in The Gambler. I'll admit, when I heard about the plot of the movie, I had pretty mediocre expectations on how well I thought the movie would turn out to be, but it was a great film!

                 Spending time with the people you love is always a great way to end the year, and an even better way to kick off the new year. Speaking of which...

Special New Year's Announcement!!!
I've decided that I want to start 2015 off with a challenge. I'm super excited to see where this blog goes next year and as a way to get serious about blogging, I've come to the conclusion that I am going to do the 30 Days of Blogging Challenge for the month of January! I figured that putting up a post every day for a month would be a great way to kick off the new year on the blog. I found out about the 30 Days of Blogging challenge on Pinterest and got super jazzed to try it out!

               Comment down below and let me know what your holiday traditions are and what you have planned for New Year's.

With love from your girl,
Shatece

               Well, hello there, beautiful people! Last week was the start my first official week of Winter Break from school so I spent the week doing absolutely nothing with simple, carefree bliss. It felt great to have no obligations for a week, but I'm not a person who can sit at home for an entire month and do nothing. Though the idea of bumming it for a month does seem inviting after a long semester, it's actually quite boring. As I've learned from past years, if I'm not productive over break, I'm going to end up staying at home, not doing my hair, eating all the food in the house and then sulking in the fact that I'm gaining weight because of all the unnecessary food I've been eating. I refuse to let that happen again this year and for that reason, I'm here to give you guys a few tips on how to stay productive during the "chill & lazy" times of the year.

Wake up earlier. 
I don't mean to wake up as early as you would if you were in school because there's no way I'm waking up before 7AM (which is about the time I woke up to go to classes this past semester). I'm not saying that you have to wake up early every single day, either. The point of having such a long break during the year is to rest up for next semester, so catching up on sleep isn't a bad thing at all. However, waking up just a little bit earlier, in my opinion, is the first step in becoming more productive. Even if you don't have much planned for the day, waking up earlier is incredibly beneficial. You'll be surprised what you can do with the extra time. Need time to finally do one of those DIY projects you saw on Pinterest? Now's the time to get started.

Keep a routine or have something to look forward to every day. 
Even though you're not in school, try to come up with a routine for yourself to keep you from becoming the unproductive college student. Now is the time to start working on all those little side projects you've been wanting to do, but never had the time to (including that Pinterest DIY, which I keep bringing up because I've been putting one off). For example, one of my goals is to consistently find ways to improve my blog. I also plan on finally learning how to play the guitar I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I don't have a lot of time to do these things during the school year, but because I have nothing else to do over break, why wait?

Get out of the house. 
This one is really hard for me because I love my bed and the comfort of my own home, but it's fun to get out of your house every once in a while! Last week, my cousin and I went to go see Exodus: Gods  and Kings and the idea came completely out of nowhere. But I'm glad I went because I don't think I would have seen that movie if I hadn't already been out of the house and had been asked to go. And this week, I'm going to a family member's house to help put up Christmas decorations, which is something I normally wouldn't want to do because it sounds like work, but I'm actually excited to do it now. But don't get me wrong; I live in the Midwest, so I understand that sometimes, this weather makes the streets so bad that you can't even pull out your driveway. If this is the case, that's perfectly fine. The whole point of this tip is simple: just don't stay in bed all day every day.

               I know it's hard to keep yourself busy when it's so easy to fall back and do nothing, but I hope this helps. Comment below and let me know how you guys are staying productive!

Happy Holidays
With love from your girl,
Shatece 

             

               Well, hello there, beautiful people! By now, I'm pretty sure you guys are all done with finals (at least I hope so) and that's definitely something to celebrate. So a quick disclaimer: I want to apologize for putting up this blog post up so late in the day; it has been a crazy few days. For starters, I TURNED 21 LAST THURSDAY!!! Needless to say, I've been celebrating my birthday for a few days. I've also been spending time with family, doing some Christmas shopping, and running a ton of errands, but now that things have been winding down, I can finally get back to business.
               I got done with finals less than a week ago, so I decided to treat myself to countless hours of catching up on TV shows and videos from my favorite YouTubers before I actually have to start being productive over winter break; and so I thought I'd share with you guys what I've been binge watching so far.


Tyler Oakley
Let me just say that Tyler Oakley gives me so much life. He's a hilarious vlogger who does probably the best collaboration videos I've seen. I subscribed to his YouTube channel about a year and a half ago and I can finally say that I've seen every video on his channel thus far. I pride myself on that.

The Office
I never watched The Office while it was still on TV, but I randomly started watching it on Netflix about a month ago and I have no idea why I never watched it before; it's hilarious!

The Nive Nulls
The Nive Nulls' channel was the first YouTube channel of family vloggers that I subscribed to and I'm so glad I did. They're this awesome, funny family that's just living their everyday lives and sharing a little bit of their lives on YouTube. Seeing how loving their family is makes me so hopeful for the family that I'll have one day.

Chuck
Does anybody remember Chuck? I feel like nobody watched it because every time I ask someone about it, they tell me that they've never seen it. It was one of the best shows ever! Zachary Levi playing your average nerd turned CIA/NSA confident... that's all I need to say about that show. Pure comedy! I rewatch this entire series at least once a year for no reason whatsoever, so I think this is that time of the year that I'll revisit the show.

Savvy Sexy Social
Savvy Sexy Social is the name of a YouTube channel created by Amy Schmittauer, founder of the popular blog with the same name (SavvySexySocial.com). If there's anything you need to know about creating great content for or promoting your brand or business, this is the channel/blog that I would highly recommend. Not only is her content incredibly useful for an amateur blogger like myself, she also has a really chill, comedic personality. I could watch her videos for hours... and I do.

Sherlock
Okay, so I don't have enough time to explain every reason why Sherlock is a great show because we'd be here all day, quite literally. All I can say is that if you love Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as much as I do and you have an entire day to do absolutely nothing (and you don't mind the occasional mindf***), watch a couple episodes of Sherlock and you'll be hooked. I've seen all of the episodes so far, but I can't get enough. It's that good.

Naptural85
If you have natural hair and you frequently turn to YouTube to learn how to care for and style natural hair like I do, then you probably know who Naptural85 is. She's a genius when it comes to natural hair and now that I'm home and have time to actually do my hair, I can start applying some of her styling techniques.

Scandal
I am so behind on Scandal! I haven't seen any episodes from the current season because I've been so busy this semester, but I'm glad to be home now so that I can catch up on Scandal and deal with all of emotional trauma that comes with that show. Seriously, Shonda Rhimes knows how to hit you right in the feels!

Superfruit
Superfruit is a channel created by Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi, two of the members of the a capella group, Pentatonix. They are incredibly talented and hilarious. With that being said, I'm warning you now that if you start watching their videos, you won't do anything else for the rest of the day.

Lost
I've actually never seen Lost, but I have a friend who swears up and down that Lost will change my life and I'm not going to argue with her about that. Over break, I'm going to start watching Lost and see how I like it, although I already know I'll like the show because of Ian Somerhalder... Enough said.

               So that's what I'm going to be watching over break. I promise that I won't be bumming it for the entire month of winter break; I will eventually start being more productive... just not at the moment. Comment below and let me know what you guys are doing over break. It's probably going to be more productive than anything I'm doing, but if not, let me know what y'all are binge watching because I'm always looking for suggestions!

With love from your girl,
Shatece

               Well, hello there, beautiful people! It has been a crazy week, but I am finally done with classes! However, this week is finals week, so I can't sit around and do nothing just yet (but almost). So last week I blogged about some study tips I had to help you guys kill your final exams. I had a pretty big list and I didn't want to make one huge blog post that was the length of a Harry Potter book last week, so I decided to split my list up into two parts. So here it is y'all: part two of how to totally ace your final exams!

Get comfy!
When you're doing some hard core studying, you don't want to be distracted by your clothing. How uncomfortable you are should be the last thing on your mind (if that's even an existing thought). I recommend wearing something that allows you to sit in literally any position and still feel comfortable. I usually wear a pair of leggings, an over-sized hoodie, and big fuzzy socks (or boots if I'm not at home) and call it a day.

Drink all the coffee.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of pulling all-nighters and staying up super late when I have things to do the next day because I love to sleep. But life happens, and people get distracted (at least I do), so sometimes, you have to pull a couple all-nighters to get through the semester and the only way I get through this is by drinking coffee. Luckily, there are a ton of coffee shops on campus, so coffee is readily available pretty much anywhere I decide to study. But if I don't feel like spending money, I'll make my own. I'm not telling you to completely overdose on caffeine, but Starbucks has never done me wrong during a study session. Just saying...

Listen to music.
When I'm studying, Pandora and Spotify are my best friends. Though lately, Spotify has been the better friend. There is a station for everything! They have a playlist for literally any genre you want to listen to or any mood you're in. When I'm having an intense study session, I like to listen to instrumental music or anything without words. I recommend the Deep Focus and Nature Noise playlists. But for light work, such as simple review or blogging, I recommend the Smart is the New Sexy playlist and the Creativity Boost playlist (which is what I'm currently listening to while writing this). Another cool thing about Spotify is that if you're a college student, you can get Spotify Premium for only $4.99 per month instead of the regular price of $9.99 per month. Even though it really seems like it right now, I promise you that Spotify isn't paying me to say this. I just think it's that awesome.

Put your phone in Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb Mode.
This is usually the first thing I do when I'm about to study. I prefer to put my phone in Do Not Disturb Mode instead of Airplane Mode just in case there's an emergency of some kind and I need to be contacted. Either way, the less distractions you have while studying, the better. If you're constantly getting notifications on your phone and you're constantly checking those notifications, not a lot of work is getting done and you'll easily increase your study time drastically. When you're studying, make sure that's what you're actually devoting your time and energy to.

Take breaks. You'll need them. 
This is crucial because a lot of people (including myself at times) just want to get through the material and be done with it. But once you get to the point where you're reading something and have no idea what you're reading, it's way past time for a break. Your brain needs time to process the material you've just gone over, so when you're taking a break, do something that takes your mind off of the subject. Get on your phone, eat a snack, or call your mom or something; it really doesn't matter, but it's important to clear your mind for a few minutes. I recently watched a video by Thomas Frank of CollegeInfoGeek.com about how to actively read your textbooks and it was incredibly helpful for me and I think it'd be incredibly helpful for you guys as well. You can watch that video here.

Try to get as much sleep as you can. 
I know that all-nighters are a thing and sometimes, you can't avoid them. But if you can, try to get some sleep. Being well-rested on the day of your exam is really beneficial. You'll wake up ready to take on the day and you'll thank yourself for it later.

Eat a good breakfast. 
I don't think I need to emphasize how important of a meal breakfast is. We've been hearing since grade school that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Taking an exam on an empty stomach will not work in your favor. If you can wake up a little earlier than you normally do so that you can eat a hot breakfast, that's great. But if all you have time for is a granola bar and a water bottle, it's better than not eating at all.

Reward yourself!
Yay! You've finally finished your final exams! Now you can rest up for next semester. I always love the feeling I get once I finish my last final exam because then I have about a month to do absolutely nothing until next semester. So reward yourself for the hard work you put in this semester; you deserve it. Stalk your favorite pinners on Pinterest, find a YouTube channel to obsess over and watch every video on that channel, or binge watch everything you can on Netflix. I do all of these things and it's great because I don't have to leave my bed to do any of it. I mean, you could be an actual human and get out of bed and socialize with your friends and family, too, but no pressure :-D

               That's about it for the rest of my study tips. I hope you guys found these tips helpful. And once again, good luck on your final exams!

With love from your girl,
Shatece

Well hello there, beautiful people!

QUICK NOTE: I'm currently listening to Pentatonix on Spotify while writing this post and they're giving me so much life right now! I just needed to share that...

               So I know that I've been gone for a while now (about two months, to be exact). I know, I know! That's terrible. Please don't judge me (though after two months, you have every right to). I promise you that I did NOT forget about this blog; I've actually been thinking about it quite a bit. This semester has been crazy busy for me, which I know is not an excuse, but it's true. In addition to the fact that my professors this semester are trying to kill me with homework and papers and projects and such, I've kind of been at a loss with this blog and I realized that this was because I was feeling uninspired. When I decided to start this blog, I jumped right into it, which was great, but I didn't think about what content I would publish or when I would publish anything... and then two months went by.

               Recently, my friend bought me Robin Houghton's book, Blogging for Creatives, which seemed to be just what I needed (seriously, I HIGHLY recommend this book). I became so inspired to continue blogging and to continue learning about this community that I just sort of threw myself into. I was making blogging way more complicated than it needed to be. I was freaking out over coming up with the best ideas, things that people hadn't read much of before and all I really needed to do was be myself. That was literally the point of me creating this blog- to express myself. I also realized that organizing a blog, in a way, ties into organizing other aspects of my life. I need to plan out creating blog content in the same way that I plan out completing my school work. With that being said, I am setting a goal to publish a blog post EVERY Monday. There. I said it. I've put it out there in the blogosphere, so now, I have to stick to it! This means that procrastinating blog posts won't cut it (which is a little difficult because I've procrastinated everything that I've ever done in life, like ever).

               Nonetheless, I am pushing forward with this blog and I am beyond excited to start creating completely new content and publishing it for you guys! I figured that if I can fully run a blog and maintain my GPA as a full-time college student, that would make me kind of awesome, right? No? Okay, then. So what is the point of this blog post exactly? I have absolutely no idea. I just wanted to share my excitement of the future of this blog with you guys and I can't wait to continue this journey with you all!

With love from your girl,
Shatece

P.S.  I just realized that this is this is the last post that I'll be publishing before Thanksgiving, so I'm going to take the time now to ask you all what your Thanksgiving plans are. Tweet me or comment down below to let me know what you guys are doing. I know I'll be eating my body weight in food, which is actually pretty impressive; I pride myself on that. Anyways, I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving and that you're spending it with the people you're thankful for! :-)