Well, hello there, beautiful people! The end of the semester is FINALLY around the corner and I am super excited about that (I think I have about 3 weeks of school left). However, seeing as how the school year is coming to a close and I'm most likely going to be moving from a dorm room into an apartment next year (fingers crossed!), I figured I'd do a college dorm room tour. I love watching videos or reading blog posts of dorm room tours or apartment tours, so I thought it'd be a good idea to post one of my own while I'm still in the dorms.
               The type of dorm room that I'm living in is a little weird. Instead of living with a ton of people on one floor, I'm only living with a few people in what's known as a cluster. The cluster in my dorm consists of 12 people. All 12 of us have to share the living room area, the washer/dryer, the study area, and the kitchenette area. There are 6 mini-suites within the cluster, so each mini-suite houses two people, which is awesome, because you only have to share a bathroom with your suitemate. Each mini-suite comes with two sinks/vanities, two individual bedrooms, and one shared bathroom (as well as a mini-fridge and a pantry cabinet). I really like living here because it's pretty private and it has an apartment feel to it, even though it's a residence hall. With that being said, let's get started with the room tour!


                    This is what you see when you first walk into the mini-suite. My suitemate bought that zebra print rug last year when we were roommates in a different dorm. The door to my bedroom is on the left, and my suitemate's is on the right. I didn't tell her I was doing this post, so I'll be sure to respect her privacy and not include any of her personal belongings in this post. We share a cabinet and a mini-fridge... both are pretty empty... The only thing we actually use is the Keurig.


               This is my sink/vanity area. This is where I keep almost all of my hygiene products, such as: paper towels, toothpaste, my toothbrush, mouth wash, soap, and hand lotion. The little green mason jar on the left is actually filled with homemade laundry detergent! My suite-mate's mom made it for me and it's awesome. My very small, but still growing makeup collection is towards the right (I have makeup brushes on top of my makeup shelves, but they got cropped out of the picture). On the right side of my sink, I keep two mason jars that I use to hold cotton balls and Q-tips.





               This is the bathroom that my suitemate and I share. It's pretty basic, but I love the shower curtain we chose. Our shower mat is memory foam, so it feels amazing!

               If you're into DIY projects, then I'm pretty sure you've seen this one before. I originally found this idea on Pinterest, but I've seen many YouTubers do it. Almost all of these photos are from a Tumblr blog called Lavished In Lush (Caught In Your Hipster). The rest I just got off of Google Images.


               This is, by far, my favorite part of my room because it's where I get to do my favorite thing, which is sleep. The big brown... thing above my bed (I'm sorry; I honestly don't know what that thing is called) is from my aunt's house. It's seriously older than I am; it's been in her house since before I was born. But I really liked it and she didn't want it anymore, so I brought it to college with me. My bed set is entirely from Walmart (online). I also keep a couple of old throw blankets on my bed, as well as my stuffed animals from The Lion King: Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa. I'm aware I'm a bit old to have stuffed animals, but they're awesome decorations.


               This dresser came with the room, as most bedroom furniture on a college campus does. In my first drawer, I keep mostly underwear and T-shirts. The second drawer, I use for my jeans, sweatpants, leggings, and shorts. The bottom drawer, I use for random dishes (mostly mason jars). I bought the ottoman from Walmart (online) and I think it was around $20. I have two 5 pound dumbbells inside of it.


               On my windowsill next to my bed, I keep a random glass dish that I stole from home and on  that dish, I keep my perfumes and bracelets. The heart-shaped dish next to that is where I keep my earrings. I keep my cosmetic mirror on top of a mini 3-drawer-shelf that holds my nail polish/supplies. I always, ALWAYS keep a bottle of water next to my bed and next to that, I keep my tablet, headphones, glasses, and whatever book I'm reading. I'm currently reading Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? 



               Though my bed is my favorite part of my room, my desk is the most productive part of my room. I've got my TV, DVD player (with the only two movies I own, The Hangover and The Hangover Part II), my printer, my clock, my desk lamp, and a few other random things for decoration. The blue mason jar in front of the printer is where I put little notes of all of my highlights of my day. I got the idea from a YouTube channel called AprilJustinTV. At the end of all of their videos, they reflect on their "highlights" of the day, and I think that's such a cool thing to do, so I started writing down my "highlights" of the day and putting them in my mason jar. I also keep office supplies, my laptop, a few magazines, my planner, and my blog book on my desk. I also have a couple library books and a random mug on my desk in this picture, but I promise you, they're not always there.


               Under my desk, I have a drawer where I keep all of my mail and other important documents. I also keep my textbooks in the space under my dresser.


             
               My closet is made up of two full-length mirrors, which I really appreciate about this room. I used a dry-erase marker to write quotes on my mirrors (Don't worry; they'll come off) that say, "Smile darling" and "Do you. Be you. Stay true. Be shameless." The latter quote is from one of my favorite YouTubers, Shameless Maya. I used Command hooks to hang my necklaces on the right side of my closet.


               My closet isn't the prettiest, but it's what I'm working with in a dorm room. I keep boots on the top shelf of my closet. In the two black bins that are also sitting on that top shelf, I keep extra towels and extra iron (in the left one) as well as extra printer ink, extra headphones and chargers, etc. (in the right one). I have a shoe organizer hanging in my closet, which in my opinion, isn't the prettiest way to organize shoes, but it gets the job done. I also have a hanger for my scarves. The 3-drawer shelf, I got from Walmart and I use that to organize all of my hair products and hair tools, as well as hygiene products. On top of that 3-drawer shelf is a bag where I keep my yoga mat and zaffu. I also keep a random ironing board and umbrella in the back of my closet as well.


               Finally, we come to the other half of my closet. The two bins at the top of my shelf are from Big Lots and I use them to organize my bags/purses and my hats, belts, gloves, etc. As you can see, I didn't bring too many clothes to school with me (also a lot of my clothes are folded up in drawers). I keep my laundry basket on this side of my closet as well. Also, I know it's kind of hard to see in this picture, but if you look hard enough, you'll see another pair of boots on the right side of my laundry basket.

               So that is basically everything that I brought to college with me. I really hope you guys appreciated this post; I had a lot of fun making it. Comment down below and let me know 1) if you guys like these type of posts because I'll definitely make more of them and 2) how you guys organize your dorm rooms and what you brought to college!

With love from your girl, 

               Well, hello there, beautiful people! It's no secret that I've seriously been slacking on posting content consistently on this blog, and for that, I apologize. If I'm going to be completely honest, I've been having a really hard time staying motivated with everything that's been going on with school lately and I just needed some time to take a small break from blogging. I've come to the realization that, when it comes to blogging, QUALITY is much more important than quantity. I realized that I would start writing a blog post, knowing that I just needed to publish something by a certain date, but my post would pretty much be complete BS, and I don't want to post any content that I wouldn't want to read myself.
               I've been really tired of being in a motivational plateau, so I decided to do something about it. After realizing that I've been so busy that I haven't really had the time to relax and do the things that I normally like to do, I decided to spend the better part of this weekend doing just that. With that being said, I'd like to share with you guys everything I'm doing to stay inspired.


Inspiring Quotes, Daily Mantras, etc. 
On my desk, I have a 2x4 wooden frame, and the picture inside of the frame is a quote that says, "Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear." I've seen that quote all over Pinterest, and I believe the quote is from George Addair. I'm a very visual person, so seeing that quote in front of me everyday is a great reminder that I can never give up on my dreams or aspirations.

Blogs
I definitely consider myself to be an amateur blogger, so when it comes to finding advice on how to blog, I turn to the bloggers that inspire me. I'm starting to understand that blogging can be such a great community to be a part of, and talking to other bloggers really inspires me to be the best blogger I can be.

YouTube & Pinterest
I'm absolutely addicted to these two websites, and anyone that knows me can attest to that. It's where all of my motivation comes from, specifically Pinterest when it comes to photography and fashion. I turn more to YouTube to get motivation for pretty much everything else in life. Seriously, everything I know how to do in my adult life, concerning makeup, hair, health/fitness, etc., I learned on YouTube.

Music
Whenever I'm blogging or studying or I'm just really in my "Get Sh*t Done" zone, I like to listen to a playlist on Spotify called Deep Focus. It's got these really cool atmospheric rock vibes that really bring me to a productive state of mind, and it's awesome.

Friends
You can be the most productive, organized, well put together person in the world, but if you don't have any type of support system, then it's easy to feel like whatever you're doing in life is a waste of time. I am so thankful for my friends for being there for me. When you're away at college, your friends really become your family and their love and support can be just what you need to get you through,well, anything.

             
               Those are just a few of the things I've been doing to keep myself inspired, but when you think about it, inspiration can come from anything, if you let it. These are the things that I let really affect me, and from that affection comes inspiration for me. Comment down below and let me know how you guys stay inspired.

With love from your girl,

               Well, hello there, beautiful people! Again, sorry for not posting any content last week. I honestly can't believe that it's only been a week since I came back from Spring Break. This past school week seemed to drag on forever! School has been crazy: I've got auditions for next semester's shows coming up soon, dealing with trying to find off-campus housing has been crazy, and that's just the beginning.
               Needless to say, I'm in the "screw everything" part of the semester. If you're in college, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. It's that time of the semester where you're just kind of over putting in too much effort in your classes. To be honest, I just want the summer to be here. I'm sure many of your are in the same boat I'm in. The weather is warming up and despite me being a couch potato who likes to lock herself in her room with Netflix, I actually want to enjoy it. However, I'm well aware that I can't just give up on school altogether, so here's what I'm doing to stay motivated to finish off this semester the same way I started it: hella motivated!

Prioritize
Yeah, I know. School sucks right now and at this point, your only objective is to not fail. But the reality is that there's still at least a month of school left for most of us. There's no need to not be excited about summer, but getting your priorities straight will help put things into perspective. School first. Then summer fun!

Stay Organized
Seriously, the only thing keeping me sane at this point in the semester is staying on top of things. If I let myself start procrastinating right now, there's no way I'm going to get anything done. With that being said, I'd recommend getting organized like it's your day job. A great way to do that is to get yourself a good planner, if you haven't already picked one up by now. But if writing things down isn't your thing and you like to electronically stay organized, there's an app called My Study Life that I just found out about this past weekend and I believe it's available for both iPhone and Android. It's actually a really cool app; it allows you to organize your classes, assignments, exams, etc. I just downloaded it and have only had a little bit of time to mess with it, but so far, I'm really loving it! It doesn't really matter what your methods of staying organized are, but just make sure you're doing it. You can't afford to start slipping up now!

By All Means, Do Enjoy The Outdoors When You Can
Of course, take advantage of this awesome weather! Go study outside (Yes, people actually do that, apparently) or go on a walk or invite your friends to play volleyball or something. These are all things that I see people doing all the time around my campus.

When School's Out, Celebrate!
After working your butt off for nine months out of the year, you deserve to celebrate your accomplishments. I don't live in a large city, but there are a few local festivals that I'm looking forward to going to. And since I'm finally 21 years old, I can finally have some real (responsible) fun. I'm also very excited about finally being able to dress nicely. During the school year, I always wear workout clothes because my classes are usually very physical classes, but now, I can wear whatever I want and I'm excited for that!

Speaking of summer and fashion, I'd like to share with you guys this awesome post I read from SRTrends.com about putting together the perfect outfit to wear to music festivals (for those of us that are lucky enough to go. Unfortunately, I'm not). I love the outfits pictured in this post and it makes me so excited and ready for the summer time!

               Comment down below and let me know how you're getting through the rest of the semester and what your summer plans are!

With love from your girl,