How To: Lockers

As a senior, this is my last year with a locker. I generally like to add some personality to my locker, as well as keeping it fairly organized. It's really helpful to have everything where you need it so you can get to classes on time.

This is my locker as viewed as a whole. Much to my dismay, I've never had a locker that is representative of those in typical teen movies. Instead, I get these bad boys. In order to make more space, I break the locker in half with an additional shelf. You can buy them from any office supply store for less that $10 dollars. The lovely beige color obviously needed some additional details, so I hung two name pictures that my friend made me. I also have a mirror. Unfortunately, I am too tall for it to be of much use. See the silver lock sticking out? That is exactly where my face lines up. 

 The top half of my locker is where I store my books, back pack, and lunch box. The three books on the bottom (AP/IB Chem, AP/IB Psychology, and IB Chem study guide) all reside there because I rarely have to bring them to class. The top three (IB History of the Americas book, SAT, and IB Math Studies book) all stay on the top. I bring my math book with me to every class and the SAT book is for free periods. This is an easy way to set up books because it allows for more books to be in the space.

On the bottom, I keep folders and binders. I organize the binders so that two equals one. The best way for me to describe this is by putting the thin side (the part that opens) towards the back of the locker, then placing the next binder with the thin side towards yourself. I have binders for all my classes, excluding IB German. I use a folder and a composition notebook for that class. I generally try to keep my binders in order of my schedule.

The Art of Thank You Notes

As a child raised in the South, my mother instilled in me the principles of writing thank you notes in a timely matter. As a child, they were the bane of christmases and birthdays. Now, I do enjoy writing them and supporting the U.S. Postal Service. There really is nothing quite like receiving a handwritten note. Despite years (17 to be exact) of practice in the art of writing thank you notes, at times I find myself at a lost on how to approach writing a thank you for certain gifts. It is easy to thank someone for a watch or earrings, or even a gift card, but I often find it hard to write a thank you for cash or check.

I sometimes believe that it is tacky to just bluntly thank some for sending you cash. This might be a personal dilemma, but some others might feel the same way. I find it is easier to thank someone for money when I format it in something similar to this:
     Dear Aunt Jane,
        Thank you so much for the check/gift! I am using it in addition to other gifts to buy an Anne Klein watch (or other gift.) I have been saving for a while and this is exactly what I needed to get it. Thanks again for the gift.
     Love,
         Alexis

I find that as long as you mention what you are doing with the money, it lessons the tackiness of writing about money.

Blondies

Hey, y'all. A few months ago, I posted about making brownies. Over the past few months, I've started baking more and realized how much I really liked it. Last week I decided to try my hand at blondies.* Seeing as though I had never attempted these before, I decided it would be fun to make them. I got the recipe from here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/blondies-recipe3/index.html

The first step was to mix some of the wet ingredients together:

Then, we mix the dry ingredients:

Then, of course, we beat the ingredients together:

Then, we add the chips.

After they cook and all, they looked suspiciously like cookie bars:

Now, the verdict:
I was a little worried about them, especially because I had not made them previously. Nonetheless, I ate them. I also gave them to several friends, who all agreed with me. They were extremely moist and incredibly soft. It was a problem for my whole family. They were gone in two days.

* I was watching Nancy Drew, which always inspires me to either bake blondies/lemon bars or buy loafers.

How To: Desk Organization

Over the course of the school year, my desk tends to get loaded up with old papers and tidbits that don't have anywhere else to go. As I have more time on my hands, I am going to re-paint several rooms and the house and organize everything. I've decided to start with my room, and obviously, reorganize my desk. 

Here is the before shot:

Clearly, this desk needs some help. There is an insane amount of paper from the school year collected and just a general disarray of everything.

Here is the after:

The best part of this is I know have more space to use, just by moving some things around. The desk top is also clear now.

This is one side of my desk. I have all my DVDs, three books, and a german/english dictionary lined up. I also have pens and pencils in a glass. Underneath the Rubik's cube are SAT vocab cards. In the green holder, I have german vocab cards. My planner is by Sarah Pinto, and I generally leave it out whenever I'm home so I can keep on track.

On the other side of my desk, I keep magazines that I want to read. The small book is Nancy Drew's Guide to Life. I generally use it to prop up my laptop so it won't overheat. 

Now, we'll look at each drawer individually. The first is the flat drawer:

The firs thing to do is to invest in a large amount of file folders. I have mine labeled with things like: taxes, job/college, health, 2002 Lincoln LS, etc. 

Other than having things in folders, I keep the papers I need to get done immediately on top of the folders. I also keep things like post-its in this drawer. 

The first drawer is more of a random drawer. I keep hand sanitizer (stocked up at the Bath and Bodywork's Semi-annual sale), paper clips, chargers, and other random things in there. I find that wrapping chargers in circles is the easier way to keep them from getting tangled.

This is the second drawer. I keep art supplies and things like that in there. I just stack by size and keep things in bags. Underneath the calculator is a pink bag filled with sharpers. I also keep lead, tape, and things like that are always handy to have within close reach when working on homework and projects.

My final drawer has magazines (Seventeen, Teen Vogue, the occasional Cosmo) and my bank information. I keep savings information in one box and checking in the other box.

Since I have no where else to store these, I keep them under my bed. On the right, I have my psych book and my dictionary. The left contains all my study books. (I'm thinking about selling some of them, so let me know if you are interested in any of them.)

That's all for today! Tomorrow or the next day will contain a post about my first time making blondies....see you guys soon.

Welcome Back

Today we are officially four weeks into my summer vacation. I hope I can now start to blog and YouTube more often. I know I really have let this blog slide, but one of my summer goals is to really get into it. Hopefully, I will have time to accomplish this. Yet, I still have an unbelievably busy summer:

Take SAT Subject Tests

Palmetto Girls State

Internship with law firm

Lifeguard work

SC Business Week

Tennis

Plan next year's tennis team activities

Plan Homecoming week

Cook more

Work out more

 Scholarship apps

Begin common app

In addition I need to:

Finish (and start) my AP Chem summer assignment

Study SAT

Study ACT

Read: (for IB English HL)

  -One Hundred Years of Solitude 

  -The Joy Luck Club

  -The Invisible Man

  -The Sound and the Fury

  -The Turn of the Screw

  -Othello 

  -Daisy Miller

Hopefully I can post again tomorrow. Looking forward to this summer. Almost a senior! 

Christmas Eve/Day

I decided to do a "follow me around" type blog. Although these are generally seen on Youtube, I thought it would be easier to do on a blog--with pictures.

Warning: This is a rather long post.

Here we have the stockings, hung by the chimney with the care. And of course, the nativity scene. I used to play with it when I was a little girl, but now I just like to set it up.

On my bed reside two holiday-themed teddy bears. 

I wish I could rotate this, but it doesn't seem to let me. However, this is our Christmas tree.

And we have the track with the train on it. 

On Christmas Eve, we have egg nog punch. The Santa behind it was filled with yummy goodies from an aunt.

Do you see the dress?

Of course, on Christmas Eve, we watch my dad's favorite Christmas movie:

White Christmas

This scene is from their "Sisters" song.

And this year, we decided to go see the light show. This blurry photo was taken while driving through the Candy Cane Forest. 

And this is another blurry, drive-by shot of the giant star.

Mom is making the sugar cookie dough (:

Christmas Tree sugar cookie cutouts!

My brother, Jack, and I are decorating the Christmas Trees in our pajamas. 

Christmas morning breakfast casserole with Mimosa!

The adorable gold christmas tree is one of my favorites (:

And here is the dining room table all set up for Christmas Dinner.

You can barley see the chandelier (is that what that is called?)...I wove a garland through it and hung gold ornaments as well.

And my mom and I stand for a pre-Christmas meal picture.

There were two more pictures, but I felt that they were too many to put in one post. However, this Christmas was really nice because I'm starting to appreciate family more. As this is my second to last Christmas as a high school student, it really makes me think about how much time I have left with my family. Sometimes, you take them for granted, but you never really should.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday!

Manners Matter

After having sat through a very long family dinner, and having an etiquette class last Saturday, I am slowly realizing that manners do matter. 

I am probably the last person that should be preaching the merit of manners. I am a horrible messy person, and on most occasions you will find me as the least-lady-like person in the room. Yet, when the occasion calls for it, I can be extremely lady like. I will not talk about politics, mention how much something costs, nor will I put my elbows on the table.  I will also put my knife on the plate, with the sharp side pointing towards me. 

And this leads me to my next point; a simple list of my biggest manner pet peeves:

       1. When people talk about how much money something cost.

                This is my number one for a reason. I cannot stress how absolute tacky it is to brag about how much you spend on something. The only reason it is ever done is to show off how much you have, when it does the opposite. It reveals what a shallow person you are that you let materialistic items define your worth to other people. 

         Example: "Don't you love this couch? I spent $1600 on it. A little pricy, but so worth it."

                         "Tell you're father that I have a tool he can borrow! It's a $200 dollar tool."

      2. Chewing with your mouth open. 

                I'm sorry, but if I wanted to see how food looked mashed up, I'd give it to my one year old cousin. I have no interest in how the turkey looks in your mouth, or waving around on your fork while you loudly yell about something. 

        Example: "And then *chewchewchew* he did that! *points with piece of food on fork*

      3. When people talk about politics or other controversial subjects and don't let the other person have an opinion. 

           I think this one is really self-explanatory. It's quite annoying when some tries to shove their views down your throat and refuse to listen to any other opinions. It's rude and boastful.