Best Statement Necklaces for Fall (and Winter!)

B and I are a bit rough on each other...we love to poke fun at each other's quirks and preferences in life. One of the things that makes him laugh most is when we're out and someone compliments my necklace.

Now, this might seem random, but it happens A LOT. We pretty much can't go out without someone commenting on my necklace collection. 

While I know it's been a few months since The Great Gatsby buzz, I truly believe Flapper Era inspirations are going to be a key part of my favorite jewelry pieces this season; The Art Deco gems feel so glamorous, which is what the holiday season is all about! 

Fall's Best Necklaces 

The best part about these pieces is that they pair with everything from your Little Black (holiday) dress to chambray and everything in between!


Will you be wearing Art Deco inspired pieces this season?

Today's Pickins:
1. Add an Art Deco Touch to your phone
2. Steve Madden's Escape - My Latest Obsession

Summer Statement Earrings

It's no secret I'm earring obsessed! I wanted to share some of my favorite earring picks for summer with you all.

Summer Statement Earrings 

Which pair is your favorite?

Today's Pickins:

1. Buffalo Cauliflower
2. DIY Rope Necklace

Statement Rings under $50

Is there a piece of jewelry you feel naked without?

It might be a watch, a favorite necklace, or even pearl earrings.

For me, that piece of jewelry is a ring.

I often wear my great grandmother's ring but I definitely don't limit myself--just as long as I am wearing a ring of some sort! 

Because I have a "favorite" ring, I don't always like to spend a ton on my other statement rings.

I've been searching for a new ring to add to the collection and I am loving these finds...all under $50!

Statement Rings under $50

Which ring is your favorite?

Today's Pickins:

1. Red Velvet Milkshakes

2.  How To: Retro Pin Curls

3.  Pretzel Bites and Cheddar Dip

BLING my valentine?

While I have never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day (I was once broken up with on VDay...), I have always loved the idea of being your own Valentine.

I truly believe that one of the keys to happiness in life is loving yourself. 

So, this Valentine's Day, why not show yourself a little love?

I personally love to buy myself fun jewelry. And being in the valentine's spirit, I am seeing red...and pink and hearts!

bling my valentine 

I might just be my own Valentine this year and get myself that pink Kate Spade Cameo Ring! 

Do you ever buy yourself Valentine's presents? 

Today's Pickins:

1.  Wear RED today for American Heart Month! 
2. Valentine's Printables
3. Loaded (Valentine's) Cookie Bars

Giveaway Winner!!

The first giveaway ended last night and I am so excited to announce that the winner is...

Congrats, Logan!! 

Thanks again to Molly from Lucy & Me Jewelry for sponsoring this giveaway! Make sure to head over to her ETSY PAGE and pick up some great gifts for the holidays! 

She adds new things all of the time, so check in every few days! Personally, I am digging this recent addition to her collect and totally plan on picking up a pair of Marissa Earrings, myself! 

Thanks for all of your participation! Have a great weekend!

"What's your Sign?" Zodiac Gift Guide

I have always loved reading my horoscope! While I don't believe in fortune telling or things of the sort, I do believe that our energy and aura are effected by our birth dates in some way.  Even in making this gift guide, I thought about friends who had birth dates under each sign and found that those that shared signs had a lot of the same personalty traits!

This gift guide features jewelry gifts, all from BAUBLE BAR. 

Do you think the gift for your sign fits your personality? 

Today's Pickins:

1. Spotlight On: The Tappan Collective

2. Coconut Oil Moisture Hair Treatment

3. The Secrets to the PERFECT Gift Bow

SAW IT. PINNED IT. DID IT.

On today's edition of "SAW IT. PINNED IT. DID IT." we're talking a look at a simple, yet fun, necklace I had been dying to try! 

via

I decided to make this little beaute on a whim! I was waiting for the Florida/ Florida State game to start (woo woo GO GATORS!) and when going through stuff in my room, found a baggie of pearls and some ribbon. I only had a thinner ribbon, so once again, this is my own spin on the project!

If you were cool enough to click through the pin, you might have realized there is no tutorial! Luckily, I had made a similar bracelet before, which can be found HERE. That tutorial is a great help. 

My bag of pearls had three different sizes. i didn't have quite enough to do a strand of pearls all the same size, so i organized the beads into piles and they laid them into a pattern that I liked.

As per the tutorial, I folded the ribbon and string the pearl.

I continued this process until I was happy with the desired length. At that point, I knotted off the string to secure the ribbon and pearl strand and left a piece of the ribbon hanging, just like in the picture.

Because my piece of string was long enough, I continued by threading the pearls on in the pattern I had preset.When it came time to add the ribbon back in, I simply left a long piece hanging, and then folded the ribbon, following the same pattern as before. 

I continued the previous step until I was happy with the desired length of the necklace. Unfortunately, my piece of ribbon wasn't quite long enough to tie well, so I knotted on a longer piece of ribbon to be the lie and left a second hanging strand. See! My own interpretation ;)

Voila! Final product! I doesn't look THAT much like the original, but I think that is what I like about it! The emerald is festive for the holiday season and the thin ribbon keeps the necklace from being too much of a statement! Plus, now that I have learned from my mistakes, I could do it again with bigger pearls, thicker ribbon, etc and the necklaces wouldn't be the same!

This was an easy project and would be a fun DIY for a gift for a friend! 

I look forward to reading through the rest of the link ups and hope you all participate in the future, too!

Today's Pickins:

1. Guess who has a birthday coming up!? I would love these DIYed candles for the big 22!

2.  Champagne cupcakes are a sweet treat for any celebration! Think of all the fun cupcake toppers!

3. I love Lauren's DIY catchall Guest Post on the Swell Caroline Blog! Check it out!

P.S. My first giveaway starts tomorrow!! Come back, check it out, and enter! 

Dream Board: Illustrations

It's no secret that I am a lover of illustrations!

In fact, I have a whole pinterest board of them! 

I wanted to build a dream board off of some of my favorite (and more colorful) illustrations pins as of late!

What do you like seeing illustrations of?

Have a wonderful evening, followers!

Transitioning to Fall Gameday

With the fall weather finally starting to kick in, it's time to transition our gameday wear from "what will I look OK sweaty in" to "what will keep me warm but cute". 

One of my biggest pet peeves about the transitioning weather in Florida is the lack of care put into cold weather gameday style. With the common excuse being that we only get about two games or so of this weather, my current mission is to update a favorite fall dress in my wardrobe to fit in for these few weeks.

I wear the bejeezus out of my Lilly Pulitzer Cassie dress in navy and white stripes. It's comfy and cute and easy to wash. WIN! 

As a Gator, my mission is now as simple as finding orange jewelry. So far, here are the cute pieces I have been able to find online:

My favorite of the accessories has to be the necklace in the bottom right, found at Macys! I also love the idea of a scarf for later months and a necklace for earlier months. 

The best part? I already have the boots and dress in my closet, so adding a necklace isn't a big. 

Happy Gameday, NCAAF lovers and happy shopping to me! woo woo!

How do you change your style for fall gamedays?

Today's Pickins:

1. Chocolate and sprinkle dipped Peeps are fun way to add pop to a favorite treat!

2. This DIY Mask is one of the coolest I've seen! A perfect last minute costume, too! 

3. Stella & Dot's Bryan Park Scarf in Poppy has me lusting right about now. 

Earring Exchange Link Up!

For the earring exchange, I was lucky enough to be paired with Mariel from The Preppy Student—the host of the giveaway! Her blog is so much fun and as a fellow Panhellenic woman, I love her pride for her sorority, Pi Beta Phi! I knew we would be a great pair.

With Mariel being the host,  I looked forward to picking out earrings that were extra special! I found these great House of Harlow earrings and knew they would fit this Pi Phi angel PERFECTLY! I was so glad to see that she liked them! You can check out her post on the earrings HERE.

I received my package from Mariel over the weekend and was so excited/ surprised to find not just one, but TWO pairs of earrings! I didn’t quite know how to describe my earring style so I said “Southern Belle goes to the beach” was the best way to describe me! I love big earrings and she surely did not disappoint!

The first pair of earrings really fits in with my bold but preppy side. They are big, double flower dangle earrings made from pink and orange enamel. They are fun and girly and I threw them on with my chambray shirt yesterday when I made a quick run to the grocery store. If I had looked a little cute, I would’ve taken a picture, so for now, this will have to do!

The second pair fits in with my beachy side! They are little silver starfish dangles that feature a pearl in the center! What I love about these earrings is that they also remind me of my sorority, Sigma Kappa. With the pearl being our official jewel/symbol, you will often find us Sigma girls in our pearls. I try my best to wear pearls in some way each day, so these earrings fit in with more than half of my jewelry collection!

Thank you SO much, Mariel! Y'all should go check out her page and the rest of the participants in the exchange!

Gifting for Under $25

Some of the people I love most have birthdays coming up! Seriously, my sister, Big, and Mom all have their birthdays in the same week!

As much as I love big girl paychecks, I am really trying to save, so I still spend as if I was living on a college budget. This leaves me in a bit of a rut when it comes to buying all these birthday gifts, seeing as they can quickly add up!

I’ve been on a mission to find some great gifts for under $25 and I wanted to share these ideas with you!

Here are some of my favorites:

I may be a little biased, but I just love Dixieland Monogram! Not only are her products fabulous, but her little is, too (that’s me!)!! One of my favorite gifts on the site would be perfect for a 21^st birthday---a monogrammed chuggler! It’s a sassy way to help them celebrate the big day and a perfect gift to keep for future tailgates! 

Trendy jewelry from places like Bauble Bar also make great gifts. This is one of my favorite go-to options because I have always been the accessories/ jewelry girl. I love bold statement pieces and trying new trends. By gifting these pieces to your friends, you will often ease the fear of trying something new, too!

A monogrammed wine stopper paired with a bottle of wine and even a DVD from the $5 bin at WalMart would pair for a perfect friend date! She would be able to reuse the stopper after and always have the sweet memories of the late night secrets and fun forever. Awwww!   

Not too far off from the last gift idea is a giftbasket. Gift baskets can be done for just about any occasion or any interest--and ANY price point! I’ve seen everything from tons of mini bottles of alcohol, to cookies, to a Christmas in July gift basket! You can often find great fillers for these baskets in the Dollar sections at Target or Michael’s! Check out these inspirations! 

Of course, always check pinterest for great DIY finds ranging from hair boys, to jewelry knock offs- and even canvas paintings! NEVER discount the meaning of a home-made gift—one of my sorority sisters painted a little canvas for me as a senior gift with a quote that reminded her of me. “People throw rocks at things that shine” is a great reminder of our friendship that is proudly displayed in my room!

What is one of the best, inexpensive gifts you have ever received?

Today’s Pickins:

1. I tried Publix’s Ranch Fried Chicken last night and OMG I wish I hadn’t..it was so good! 

2. This Martha Stewart Sketon Shirt DIY is a cute way to be festive while passing out the candy! 

3. The recipes in this Southern Living SEC TailGating Cook Book look devine! 

4.  Lastly, a shout out ot all of the Big Bang Theorylovers out there. 

Weddings make you happy, right?

I’ve been a little down and a little off today. A case of the Tuesday Troubles, if you will. I can’t seem to get into my groove with anything today, even though I was actually able to make a purchase before Lilly shut down.

Like most of us out here, I find Pinterest to be one of the best distractions from the real world.  Now let me preface the next statement by saying I have never been a wedding person and DO NOT have my dream wedding all planned out.

I totally love pinning Wedding Ideas.  Maybe it’s the joy and excitement in so many of the photos. I’m not entirely sure, but for some reason, wedding pins make me really happy.

So, to bring up my “down day” here is a collage of some of my favorite wedding pins from today!

What things do you do to bring yourself up on a “Down Day”?

Today’s Pickins:

1.       Vanilla Ice Cubes would be perfect in anything from coke to coffee!

2.       Moscato Cupcakes. Sounds too good to be true….

3.       These Ashley Duncan heart bangles are so sweet! I love how they are two-toned, as well.

4.       I don’t care if you think these are tacky because I am in love.

OOTD: 8/20/12

Top and Trousers: Worthington from JCPenny //  Shoes: Target // Necklace: J. Crew

I often find that the best way to make it through Monday is a cute outfit! I have a good feeling today with fly by!

Today’s Pickins:

1.       S'mores remind me of the fall and this S’more milkshake would be the perfect transition in this hot Florida weather!

2.       An ombre dresser would be a fun DIY in my new place!

3.        Not sure what I like more about this pin: the toile tie or the sweet note!

4.       Mango Sunrise. Will be trying this out this weekend. I’ll let y’all know how it is!

Time Flies, So Slowly

I’m having a moment where I remember how fast time really flies. I’m sure we can all agree, when we were younger, we use to wish time away. We’d wish for school to be over for summer to come, or our birthdays to get here, or even for the semester to end so that we did not have to go to a class anymore.

It’s crazy to think it has been three years since I started at the University of Florida and joined the most amazing sisterhood on the planet. It has been so hard watching the rest of PC09 go back to school and not being there to join them. Yet, at the time, I loved college but was ready to “grow up”.  I miss my sisters more than anything and wish I could go back just for one last year. But that’s the funny thing about it, we wish time away because of all the bad we see, not even looking at the fun times that are flying past us! It’s only been three months and my memories of class are already wiped from my collegiate memory vault.

Even this past week flew by! It feels like it’s only been on a few hours since I was sitting on the tarmac, delayed FOR HOURS, waiting to fly to North Carolina. I counted down the days, for months, waiting for the trip. The last week before the trip seemed to take the longest; yet, this week post trip has gone by in the blink of an eye.

While this post may seem a bit sad, both of these distances in my life will be gone two weeks from today!! So here I go, wishing time away…again.

Today’s Pickins:

1.       I am a total ring person, so it didn’t take much for me to fall in love with these State Love Rings!

2.       Maker’s Mark cookies!? I know a guy that might just love theses…

3.       Coral and Lavender color schemes are inspiring my current nail polish plans!

4.       I think it’s a good thing that Lilly Pulitzer is only offering the Panhel table cloths in the original four chapters. Otherwise, I might be tempted to buy!

 

Dream Board: 8/3

I've had a thing for dream boards ever since high school. Although most pople update their boards once a year or so, I like to make mini boards on days when I need to add a little umpf to my life.

Today's board seems to have a common theme of cool, comforting colors, which I am really digging these days (I have on a turquoise necklace and lavender nails right now...).

What has been inspiring you lately?

Morning Pickins:

1. This Tory Burch iphone case doesn't help me hide my leopard love!

2.  Olympic inspired cocktails sound like the perfect TGIF treat!