5 on Friday

Hey y'all,

This week has been really crazy at work and through out the rest of my life so I am glad that it is (almost) the weekend. I was going to do a What I'm loving Wednesday post but why not make a 5 things I'm loving this Friday!


one. Stephanie of The Midwest Prep posted this blogpost the other day and it was like she had read my mind. I have been talking to a few of my blog friends and this is exactly what we have been feeling about the change in blogging over the past few years.

two. bid day! Today my chapter will welcome home a great group of girls! I am so proud of them and can't wait to get to know and advise other members. Spring is informal recruitment at Carolina but our girls put on an amazing week and we are welcoming home one great pledge class! Also, one of our Associate Members from last semester wrote this great blog post on recruitment! GREAT JOB CASSIDY!

The Recruitment Theme has bee "Spring into Sisterhood where Life is Good"

three. The new She Reads Truth devotional started this week. The series is on 1 John-3 John and is called Abide. Today was only the third day if you wanted to jump in and get started but I have learned so much already and a lot of it has just spoken to my heart when I read it in the morning along with my Jesus Calling devotional. This morning what shattered me was the discussion that our peers are not our measuring sticks but rather ours is our advocate and propitiation, Christ. I struggle a lot with comparison to others and it hurts our hearts since we all fall short in comparison to the worldly things but we need to shape our lives to his example and abide in Him as he fills us so we are justified before God. ISN"T THAT THE AMAZING THING! We are short but are able to be in the light of God. 

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Also, on the spiritual topic, I'm loving my small group ladies as usual and can't wait for our Secret Valentine exchange in 10 days! My church's young professional ministry is having a weekly dinner series and last night's talk was on anxiety through Philippians 4:4-9 and it was another topic I think young professionals struggle with especially in comparison to our peers. We become anxious that we are not doing enough or as accomplished, or even anxious in our relationships when compared to those around us. Remember, anxiety results from our need in an idol and a collapse of faith in God. We all struggle but we must be steadfast and not moved through the suffering.

four. the Olympics have begun! I am so excited! Did y'all watch the moguls or team ice skating yesterday? I have already decided that I need to be up by 9am Saturday for more ice skating! I also might have been talking to friends last night about going to learn curling at the Triangle Curling Club. Yep, the Olympics are great and the Opening Ceremony is tonight! Hopefully I will be able to catch some of it after bid day celebrations!

five. Caroline G Shop necklace club. I first found Caroline G Shop thanks to Molly and I am so impressed! I mean, who wouldn't be when you find out Carrie has one fantastic store, a great blog and a huge heart for the Lord. Carrie actually attend the same church as I and we have a few friends in common. Maybe one of these days we will even meet but for now I will revel in my birthday present to myself. Carrie created a necklace club. After signing up you receive a new necklace at the end of every month. It averages to under $13 per necklace and each is valued between $30-$50! I know she no longer has any spots available but follow along and she might have a new CGClub soon! My first necklace is this beauty and you can find it in Carrie's store in many colors here.

Honorable Mentions: This post on what not to tell single girls. I am content in my singledom since it has been my entire life and I am happy for my friends in their various stages of relationships but these phrases get to me as well.

What are you loving this weekend?

Weekend Shenanigans x2

Hey y'all,

The past two weekends I have been super busy and that is typically the time that I spend organizing and figuring out my blog. So let's get started updating my past two weekends, beginning with last weekend. 

So Friday, Sept 6th I took the day off since my best guy friend was flying in. He ended up getting a later flight so I slept in, hung out with my roomie, baked some chocolate chip cookies for the Pre-Recruitment event and then went out to lunch with eCs. We went to Carrboro Pizza Oven, and if you are familiar with UNC its the same as Franklin Pizza and Pasta so you know I had Penne in a Pink Basil sauce.

via

After a nice lunch I went off to the PBX house to help set up for recruitment that weekend/the following week which included making cute lamb door decs for the new members after bid day. 

One of the sweet new member signs

The rest of Friday was picking up Ty at the airport and we made perfect timing. I mean I entered the terminal as he was coming out so we met halfway. I haven't seen him in a year and a half and it was perfect. We immediately headed to B*Skis (it's a wrap place) and then had drinks at Topo (or Top of the Hill). We might have FaceTimed my Big for her birthday while at the bar. Then a quick walk around campus and a night cap at my place ended Friday.

Saturday meant pancakes before heading to Chapel Hill again for the UNC vs. Middle Tennessee State football game. 

We left the game a little early since the security folks were not doing the best job policing and some international students found their way in front of us and were chatting about inappropriate actions with male cheerleaders in order to determine their sexual orientation and there was a small child right next to us. We got back to my place and I hurried up to get ready for the wedding of Ty's friends Paige and Hugh. The wedding attire was very confusing for me since their 5pm indoor wedding had a "casual semi-formal" note. I went with this dress  (in teal) from Vestique with this necklace and some nude pumps (we totally were too busy having fun all weekend to take any photos).

Congrats guys!

After the wedding we went to Rum Runners, a dueling piano bar with the wedding party and the guys might have gotten up on stage for Copperhead road.

We then grabbed milkshakes and hushpuppies at Cookout since Ty now lives in the North East and was missing the beauty of cookout and sweet tea. We stayed up until 3am chatting like old times and playing 20 questions as was our tradition whenever we went on midnight cookout runs back in college.

SUNDAY. 

So we got up at 9am to attend Summit and then went to Buns for lunch with some old co-workers. It was a great day of relaxing around UNC and the pit and then we took a trip to South campus to visit our old stomping grounds. We ended our Chapel Hill adventures with Sweet Frog and then hung out at my place until it was time for his flight. 

The week between was crazy filled with catching up on sleep from the weekend along with long nights of recruitment/crafting signs for the new members on bid day.

Sisterhood/House Tours

My Fam on Pref night.
great-grandlittle, myself, grandlittle

THIS WEEKEND.

Friday. It was BID DAY! I am blessed to be one of the advisors this year for my alum chapter and we welcomed home 37 beautiful new members! The evening included some a capella, cupcakes, smores, and other festivities.

Reading their bids

Running Home!

All the new members have a hand on the tree.

Saturday. With all of the fun of bid day past, Saturday meant sleeping in, catching up on DCC: Making the Team 8, Suits and ANTM. I spent the afternoon at the house for the Induction ceremony where we welcomed our new members as Associate Members. It was crazy to think that five year ago, I was in the same shoes and had no idea how PBX would shape and change my time at Carolina and my life.

With my glittle

The rest of the night included hanging out with the roommate watching Easy A, grocery shopping and having a night relaxing night.

Sunday. I wish I could have made it to Church at the Ballpark to witness all of God's work but I was babysitting for a sweet family at a different church. After that I baked some cupcakes, cleaned my apartment, watched episodes of Scandal season two in time for the premiere in October and then it was time for Miss America. I had a small gathering of friends: co-workers and sorority sisters over to watch the event and found some ballots from pinterest to compliment the poster-board I had which we kept the official results/notes from the competition.

Now you might understand while I neglected this little piece of the internet for a while. 

How was your weekend?

New Little Lambs!

Hey y'all,

Yesterday Phi Beta Chi Kappa Chapter welcomed their new Alpha Gamma class! I am so excited to meet the new members during the alumni event later this month. While I doubt any of these members will become part of my family, some of the girls I am still close to in the sorority are on the search for their future littles! (All photos from the wonderful book of faces)

My Sorority Fam at Pref Night Wednesday

Bid Day Activities

Big/Little at Bid Day!
cFm's first recruitment from the other side!

The Alpha Gamma Class with the current membership director AW!

I hope all of you that went through recruitment this spring found your home! I can honestly say that Phi Beta Chi shaped me for the better and some of my closest friends are also individuals I can call my sisters. While the media portrays greek life as organizations for bored college students to party they don't see the powerful friendships forged, the wonderful philanthropic activities, the statistics that greek life members have higher GPAs or the fact that greek life connects individuals to amazing networking opportunities. Greek life is about family and connections not alcohol and parties. Viewing national organization websites make that clear!

I hope that you are all having wonderful weekends!

Peace and Blessings (& avvic),
jDl

Sister, Sister

Hey y'all,

This past week has been very exciting and therefore, blogging has been at the bottom of the to-do list. But some of the most exciting things this week involved family. I learned that my favorite cousin and her husband are expecting! I can't wait to go shopping for her and the little one in the coming months, to bad we are going to have to wait until Spring to see the little guy or gal. Apart from that great news I spent the weekend with my parents in celebration of my father's birthday! I will not reveal his age but I am so proud and glad that I was blessed with him as a father.

Daddy at my graduation in May rocking UNC even though he's a UMD Terrapin. 

And another exciting thing to happen this past week was BID DAY! Phi Beta Chi's Kappa Chapter welcomed some adorable little lambs and I can't wait to meet all of them especially since one of them will join my family as my great-grandlittle.

The New Members

The Whole Chapter at Bid Day

My adorable glittle and little in the plane since it was a flying theme.

Now speaking of sisterhood, I have been loving finding my sorority sister's blogs! It is so great to see what is happening in their lives on a daily basis so I figured I would share them with you!

Christina's style blog Style Storm perfectly describes her. Christina is so sweet and I'm so excited to share her blog especially since we were Associate Members together. I miss her dearly now that she no longer lives in the state of NC but I was blessed to see her a few times my Senior year and hopefully I will be able to visit her in the future. 

The beautiful Christina! This is from her photo shoot with Nikki Lugo and you can read more about her style and outfit HERE

Whitney. Although Whitney graduated before I became a member of PBX I did meet her through older sisters and Alumni events. I am so excited to hear all about her upcoming wedding and all the other exciting happenings and crafts she gets up to through her beautiful blog, Blessed Southern Tarheel.

The beautiful Whitney!

Caitlin. Caitlin is seriously one of the sweetest people you will ever meet and I am very blessed to have her as a sister and a role model as she was even the President of PBX when I was a member! Her beautiful blog, Catholic Cookie Jar discusses a lot about love, relationships, and faith especially through her own relationship with her husband Thomas. It is a great read no matter your marital status and together they are a strong couple in their faith and love for one another.

Caitlin and her husband, Thomas. I still can't believe that they have been married for over a year now. 

McKenzie & Brian. McKenzie, a sweet sister writes about her and her husband's adventures especially since they are moving across the ocean to Japan. Their relationship is similar to Caitlin and Thomas, built on faith and love and such an example. I await more updates on their life as a military couple surviving the big adventure in a foreign country.

McKenzie and Brian are bound for Japan!

Travis. Travis, another sweet sister (let's agree that all of my sorority sisters are sweet!) has just begun to blog about finding the little moments in life at The Little Moments, finding the beauty in the uncertainty. As a SENIOR this year at UNC I understand the need to capture the small little moments of beauty.  I can't wait to read more about her adventures as a senior and beyond since I know she will be successful post-grad.

Travis

I hope you find some great reads on my sorority sister's blogs!

All Polished Off With....

Hey y'all,

Since I have been a horrible blogger between looking at all my PBX sister's photos on facebook during recruitment this week, applying to 15 jobs this week, working, ordering and crafting for my Littles and Big's birthdays I have had very little time to sit down and blog/become creative with a blog topic but you are in for a treat since today I am posting 3 times. Yes you read that right. I didn't want a humongous-ly long post so I am splitting up my rambles into three parts today so stay tuned. So here we go with post #1 on this lovely Friday!

So a few weeks ago I joined Meghan and Angela's nail polish swap. I am starting to get addicted to swaps if you couldn't tell. I mean who doesn't like meeting new blog friends, searching for the perfect gift and then getting an amazing surprise. I was partnered up with the lovely Kelly of Living the Before and y'all, I was seriously spoiled.

The sweet card and little makeup bag

The beautiful polishes. Told you I was spoiled. 

OPI's Brisbane Bronze
Essie's Recessionista*THIS IS THE PERFECT COLOR FOR FALL!
Essie's Going Incognito
Sally Hansen Top/Base Coat
Small blue sparkly polish
Revlon Nail Files.

So now that you have seen my beautiful gifts, I have a confession. I am a nail polish addict. Well, more like a big collector and this past week I have found the best deals so of course I grabbed more. I had been doing so well all summer in not picking up polish but here is what I have grabbed.

My collection of mini polishes in my new makeup bag.

I might have a few polishes.

Julep Polishes from their September Mystery Box. If you haven't heard about Julep you can read my post here. But they offered the Julep Mavens a mystery box worth between $60-200. I got a smaller box with these four colors(L to R): Portia, Jennifer, *No Name(unreleased color) and Eva.

The un-named color reminds me of Sephora by OPI's Mermaid to Order

Current nails: butter London's Royal Navy with Julep's Portia on top.

Portia reminds me of fish scales/mermaid scales with the large chunky blue/green glitter.

So during Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty I picked up the butter LONDON's buy one get one free deal. I got (L to R): Slapper, Henley Regatta, Royal Navy and Macbeth(English Major Nerd Choice). I was torn because I also wanted HRH and British Racing Green

I also found these OPI colors on Clearance at Ulta.
I Brake for Manicures
William Tell Me About OPI
Suzi Takes the Wheel

And last but not least in my nail polish deals of the past two weeks, I found Essie at Marshalls!

Glamour Purse
Little Brown Dress
Absolutely Shore
Exposure

Tonight I am rocking my letters as I write this since today, Friday is Kappa Chapter's BID DAY! I can't wait to hear all about it!

Do you collect anything? Favorite nail polish color?

Peace and Blessings,

jDl