My Summer Must Haves!

Now that summer is officially coming to an end, I've been trying super hard to think of my favorite fashion pieces for this season. I've gone through so many different items of clothing and accessories this summer, which makes it almost impossible for me to choose just one but I think I have a solid list together!

#1 summer must-have: day dresses

Charlotte Russe "Belted Chevron Striped Dress" - $24.99

Charlotte Russe "Belted Zip-Back A-Line Dress" - $32.99

Summer Sales!

The end of summer is the beginning of some great sales! I've been browsing the internet all weekend in search of the cutest items of clothing for the best prices possible! I know you're wondering, "Why would I want to buy summer clothes if fall is coming?" and I have the answer for you! Because most summer clothes can be transitioned into the fall season, since fall isn't as cold as winter. Fall serves as a medium between winter and summer and has a mild temperature; therefore, you can wear the new clothing you've purchased from the summer sales throughout fall. Also, why not stock up on some clothes for next spring/summer? It will be here before you know it! And imagine how exciting it would be to know you have a bunch of new clothes waiting to be worn! Definitely something to look forward to.

Let's start shopping!

Aeropostale "Sheer Cropped Crochet Tank" - $39.50 ON SALE $7.99

Inexpensive Ideas for Your Upcoming Party!

I recently read an article on Seventeen.com called "How to Throw a Kickass Party (and Pay Your Rent)" and I absolutely fell in love with the article. I felt like I HAD to share the ideas they came up with. The editors at Seventeen talked about 5 easy DIYS that will make your party stand out, all while saving money! 

Light-Bright Coasters

Apply vinyl stickers to a glass tile, then spray-paint the whole tile. Remove stickers after 30 minutes. Use a sponge to apply a thin layer of Mod Podge (prevents chipping).

What you'll need:

• Spray paint
• Painter's tape
• Vinyl stickers
• Mod Podge
• Square glass tiles

Glitter-Bomb Champagne Flutes

Using painter's tape, mark off the area you don't want to cover (start a few inches below the rim). Pour nail polish into a bowl, then blot it onto a glass with a sponge. Peel the tape once the polish has fully dried. TIP: A shimmery shade looks sleeker than chunky sequins.

What you'll need:

• Champagne flutes
• Sparkly nail polish (shown above is Essie Nail Color in Beyond Cozy)
• Painter's tape
• Small sponge

Earn-Your-Stripes Serving Tray

Stencil a design using a ruler and chalk (or eyeball it!), then cover lines with long strips of metallic tape. Using a box cutter, slice the tape so it lies flush against any edges. TIP: Rectangular trays work better than round ones.

What you'll need:

Beach Essentials! (On A Budget)

Happy Saturday! Thanks for stopping by! This morning when I woke up, I realized it's ALREADY August 10; which means summer is almost over. With summer coming to an end, most people make it a point to squeeze in as many beach days as they can. If you're thinking about hitting the beach soon, here are some essentials that you should bring along with you! 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - $17.99

Pick up a new book! Reading is one of the best forms of relaxation; combine that with the beach and it's a zen heaven! You could also bring school textbooks! Don't let your summer classes keep you inside; study on the beach!

Eos Lip Balm - $2.99

Keep your lips hydrated with some lip balm! One of the most important beach essentials. The sun can dry out your lips causing them to be serverely chapped. So, be smart and keep some lip balm on hand!

Back to School Bags! (On A Budget)

Good morning! It's been raining non-stop in New Jersey but it looks like it may clear up today! I hope it does because I really have to start squeezing in those beach days before school starts again! Although I love the summer and the beach, I really enjoy school, too. I love getting dressed for class, meeting new friends and professors and learning things that broaden your knowledge beyond belief. Think about it, each little thing, or topic, that you learn something about is one more thing that you know. If you pay very close attention in every class, you will be filled with so much knowledge that you won't know what to do with it! Every year before school starts, I go shopping for a "School Bag;" which is a bag I could use for some of the semester and one I can cram all of the stuff I need to use for class in. These days, most people just carry a handbag and call it quits because they think backpacks aren't the most stylish things; however I'm going to show you some greatly priced bags that can accommodate your love for fashion as well as those troublesome textbooks!

 Joyce Leslie "Into the Wild Fringe Tote" - Originally $19.99 ON SALE: $10.00

Fringe is great for the fall! As well as the black color with golden accents.

Joyce Leslie "Day in the City Spiked Mint Tote" - Originally $19.99 ON SALE: $10.00

Mint is the most popular color this season and so are the spiked appliques on this fashionable tote!

Wet Seal "Geek Canvas Tote" - $9.90

Steal Hayley Willams' style with this adorable geek tote bag!

FRI"DIY" - Make Your Own Nail Polish!

The weekend is finally here! I bet everyone is really excited for that.  Not only am I excited about the weekend, I'm excited for today's "DIY" blog post! Let me start by saying that in yesterday's post I accidentally wrote I was 250 views away from 2,000 in stead of 3,000, which I didn't notice until 5 hours after the blog was posted and it bummed me out. However, I reached over 3,000 views last night which definitely improved my mood! Anyway, today we are going to make our own nail polish! The only thing I love more than nail polish is DIYs, so being able to combine my love for the two started my day off on the right foot. It was one of the easiest projects I have done and it was very inexpensive! Let's get started!

What you'll need for this DIY:

In no specific order:

1) 1-2 bottles of clear nail polish - 99 cents each.

2) Eyeshadow pallet of your choice (you could also use an old one of yours) - $4.99

3) Q-Tips - $1.50

4) A piece of paper!

I got all of the items I needed from CVS (besides the piece of paper) and spent around $10.00 in total; however you may have these items laying around your house and you can do this project without spending any money! The brands of nail polish and make up I used are NYC.

Time to start!

Open your eyeshadow and begin scraping at (using a butter knife or some sort of sharp object) the color of your choice. Don't scrape all of the color out at once because it will be harder to pour onto the sheet of paper.

Pour what you've scraped onto the paper.

And this is what your eyeshadow should look like: 

Keep on scraping until you've emptied out the entire eyeshadow section of your choice and pour the excess eyeshadow onto the paper!

Once the eye shadow container is completely empty, make sure you crush the eyeshadow color down into powder because big chunks will not fit into the nail polish bottle.

Next, open up one of your clear nail polish bottles and pour a little of the nail polish into your trash can to make room for the powder. DO NOT pour the nail polish into your sink, it will clog your drain.

 Time to start pouring! With the lid off of the nail polish remover, fold the paper in half (with the eye shadow in it) to make the pour 10x easier.

If you get a little eyeshadow on the table it's perfectly fine because it's easy to wipe up and you could always brush it right back onto the paper to pour back into the bottle!

This is what your nail polish should look like after the pour.

Pretty cool, right? Take your Q-Tips and pull the cotton off one of the ends to use as a mixing tool to mix the eye shadow and clear nail polish.

Once the cotton is ripped off either side, begin mixing!

Mix it for about two minutes and you will see your final product!

To ensure you're happy with the color, grab a piece of paper and test it out!

The color was definitely too light for my liking, so I followed the same steps as above and added some black eye shadow to darken it.

And here was my final product (in comparison to the first shade)! I was very very happy with it.

The most perfect purple color I could've asked for!

I also bought a second bottle of clear nail polish that could be used as a top coat or to make another color! You could always be bold and mix colors or choose very funky greens or blues. Adding darker colors will darken the shade as adding lighter ones will lighten it and possibly make it more transparent looking. This particular DIY only took me about 20 minutes and didn't require any heat or craft tools. Like I mentioned above, you could save yourself $10.00 and use eyeshadows and nail polishes you already have at home!

I really hope you enjoyed this weeks FRI"DIY" blog and I'm already looking forward to next weeks!

Links to the places/products mentioned above:

CVS: http://www.cvs.com

NYC Beauty: http://newyorkcolor.com

What do you think of this DIY? What colors are you planning on trying? If you do try this out, please send pictures!

My Day in Delaware (On A Budget)!

I am so excited to write this blog post about my day in Delaware yesterday! If you didn't read yesterdays blog post, Cody and I decided to go to Ocean City, MD because we finally had a day off together! Also, it was like an early anniversary date. I had so much fun and I've been looking forward to sharing what I did and how much we spent in total with you! So, lets get started!

We woke up around 9 am to catch the Cape May Ferry (located in Cape May, NJ) which was going to Lewes, DE. It took the jaws of life to get me out of bed because I was so tired but eventually I got out and got dressed! We stopped at WaWa to grab some morning coffee, or in my case a French Vanilla Cappuccino, and headed toward the ferry!

We intended on getting on the 10:30 am ferry so that we would make it to Ocean City, MD, with plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. However, when we got to the ticket booth to buy tickets for the ferry, the woman told us that the 10:30 ferry was full; which meant we had to take the 12:00 one! We were so upset but she told us that sometimes if there's room we may be able to fit on the 10:30 one! Annnnnnnnnnnd.. luckily, there was room! We were the last car in our lane able to fit onto the ferry!

If you haven't been on a ferry before, it's a HUGE boat that you drive your car onto! It drives through the water (obviously) from one location to another, cutting the travel time in half. It makes it really easy for commuters because it's a shorter distance and if they commute back and forth from work everyday, they don't have to worry about being exhausted and falling asleep behind the wheel! The round trip price for the ferry was $80; that included the car, Cody and me. The $80 is definitely worth it when you think of how much you would've spent in gas driving there. Each ferry is different but they're HUGE usually 2-3 floors and very spacious. There's a great view, mini food court, arcade, TVs and everything else you could possibly ask for during your mini travel period.

Here are some pictures of the view:

 Birds always seem to follow the boat and sometimes you can even see dolphins!

Cody was having a lot of fun! We were loving the breeze coming off the water and we were still a little tired so it was keeping us awake! The morning was over-cast which was making us worried about the possibility of rain during our mini vacation. After about an hour and fifteen-ish minutes, we finally got to Delaware! And there was absolutely no traffic getting off of the ferry; it was very well ran. We had a 45 minute drive to OC, MD but we were excited to see cool stuff along the way!

Like this bridge for example: