I'm Moving

I just wanted to let you all know that I've moved my blog to a new domain. Follow my new blog "The Girl Who Does Everything"

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DIY Tumblr Inspired Notebooks

I start my freshman year of college in just 35 days. What?! I just don't understand how that is even possible.

I decided that I was going to stay really motivated and on top of my school work. And what better way is there to stay motivated than having adorable school supplies?

I guess I'm not as artistically challenged as I thought. Today, I got really ambitious and decorated a notebook and pocket folder for school to stay organized. I'm sorry that I don't have a tutorial for this but I can tell you what I used. If you want a tutorial in the future for my other school supplies just let me know in the comments and I will do one soon!

What I used:

1 2-pocket folder
1 composition book
Patterned cardstock paper/scrapbook paper
Washi tape
Scotch tape or stick glue
Letter stickers
Sharpie pen
Gift tag

The great thing about these notebooks is that they're inexpensive and you can make them however you want!

*Tea Time*

So this Friday night I had no plans to go out with my friends or family so I decided to just relax. For the past few weekends I attended several graduation parties and, honestly, although they were fun, they left me feeling quite exhausted, so quietly relaxing this Friday night has been very refreshing.

After eating our routine Friday night meal of Digornio pizza, I retreated to my bedroom, changed into some comfortable clothes, and started watching some YouTube videos by my new favourite YouTuber Eva from MyLifeAsEva.
I just discovered her channel recently and I absolutely love it. Not only does she do hair/makeup turtorials and fashion Look Book videos, but she also does some really cool fitness/health videos, which I absolutely love. And to top it all off, she is hilarious which is pretty awesome.

After I damaged my eyesight from staring at my phone sceen for so  long, I decided that I would make a cup of tea and read a book before going to bed.

The other day I went to Target and purchased some tea that I have heard alot of people raving about for a while. I got the Tazo Passion Tea, and let me tell you, that is now probably one of my absolute favourite teas (and I like a lot of tea!). It's absolutely amazing. They even had the same flavour in iced tea but I didn't get it when I was there. I have tried the Passion Iced Tea at Starbucks and that I just as spectacular as the hot tea.

Lately, I have been reading some really good books by some of my favourite authors, but the one I decided to start reading today is To Whisper Her Name by Tamera Alexander. I haven't gotten far enough into the book to become completely obsessed with it yet, but I can guarantee that I will, given the fact that I have loved all of the books I've read by her before. I'm really into the Christian Romance/Historial Fiction and Drama genre of novels (don't make fun of me!!) so if you enjoy those types of books too, I would recomend you read that book.

To finish off the night, I took out my notebook and started jotting down some ideas for upcoming blog posts for my this blog and my other blog, ideas for YouTube videos that I could be potentially be starting, and some song lyrics (and by "some" I mean "very few").

Fun fact about me, I have always wanted to write a song and have it published, but I think I have unintentionally damaged all my creative senses that restult in writting songs because I listen to SO MUCH music ALL the time.

Also, I think I want to start making YouTube videos soon so we will see how that will all play out.  

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

*Peach Picking*

So today my family went to a graduation party for a friend and on the way home we passed a farm with various fruits and vegetables for anyone to come a pick. We aren't the type of family to go on a spontaneous excursion such as peach picking, but they looked so fresh and ripe, we just couldn't pass it up. Here are some pictures from the trip. I also had the opportunity to try out a new photo editing app that I just got called VSCO Cam and I absolutely love all the filters it has!

Before we went back to the orchard, I spotted some colourful, vibrant flowers in various containers for sale.

We took a hayride to the back of the farm to the orchard and along the way we saw some classic farm items such as a barn and a run-down tractor.

We decided to pick white peaches and they were absolutely perfect! Here are a few snapshots of some of my siblings with their findings. Top: Jeremiah (5); Middle: Rebekah (7); Bottom: Hannah (10)

Then of course, my Daddy wanted us to take a 

few group pictures. I'm on the far left, and next to me is my 12 year old sister Sarah, and on the far right is my older sister Cecilia.

Here is the last picture of us counting all of the peaches we got. They charged us $.89 a pound so we ended up getting almost 8 lbs. of 

peaches for 6 dollars and change. It was a great deal and it was pretty fun. 

If you have a local orchard or farm you should go sometime and see if they let you pick your own produce. You can turn it into a great activity for your family, you and your signifcant other, or just you and your friends. You get to have fun, take some nice picture, get some fresh air, and even get some healthy, fresh produce to enjoy.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. I will try to post more often, too! 

*DIY Tea Party*

Today was my little sister's 10th birthday and I decided to throw her a Birthday Tea Party. I got the idea from a YouTube video and I added some of my own ideas.

For the decor I used an old sheet with a blue floral print because I didn't have a tablecloth and it worked out pretty well. I added a few Mason jars and a little tea light lamp holder with a floral lampshade that gave the whole table a vintage feel.  

For food we had rolled waffer cookies, chocolate covered tea biscuts, apple slices, rasin cinnamon swirl bread, and mini sanwiches filled some with Nutella and some with raspberry preserves. We had three types of tea: Irish Breakfast tea, Peach tea, and Spiced Chai tea. 

My dad found some utensils at a yard sale and I thought they were just absolutely adorable for the table setting. Then I used some simple white mugs and some decorative saucers for the food. 

I hope you all like this idea. I really think that I was born in the wrong era! I would love to have tea parties all the time.

 Let me know what you think about this party idea and I want to know if you have a tea party, too! 

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! 

*Virtual Scrapbook*

So lately I have been kind of really interested in Instagram (username: @alaynamarley13). Okay, maybe a little obsessed. I don't really post that much but I just like seeing everyone's creative pictures and silly hashtags. And, personally, I think I'm a little weird but I just really love double-tapping the picture to "like" it (don't judge me! You probably feel the same way).

So today I would like to share some of my favourite pictures and memories that I have posted on Insta. And if you want to see some more often you can check my account out for yourself.

Hope you enjoy my little "scrapbook"! 

This is the first picture that I posted on Instagram. I never got senior pictures taken when I gratuated aside from the ones at school, so my sister took this picture of my shoes so I could use it for my graduation party invitations. I saw this really adorable idea on Pinterest and it was so easy to do. We just shaped the laces from my favourite pair of Converse into the year that I graduated and took a picture. Then of course I had to use a filter, because obviously it was on Instagtam (I always use filters!)

When "Throw Back Thursday" comes around I can never chose just one picture!! So I decided to chose some of my favourite memories from my senior year: Volleyball tournament in Cali, Senior Trip in Virginia, Cheerleading for the basketball team, Senior Banquet, and of course, GRADUATION! 

When sunday comes around I love taking pictures of my "Bus Kids". Working in the Bus Ministry at my church is one of the best decisions I've made. So I just love sharing these silly pictures that I take with my kiddos. We look pretty adorable if I do say so myself. We do so many fun activities on the bus and we decorate it from time to time and I like to share that too. 

Then there are times I will post my "Outfit of the Day" (ootd). Sometimes it's my whole outfit or just part of it. I'm the type.of girl who loves vintage inspired clothing, but you could probably already tell from looking at my Easter outfit and my classy-looking Oxfords (which are so comfortable, might I add). 

Finally I like to pretend I'm original and creative and wise and I post quotes or edits that I make. The first 3 pictures are my own edits but not my own quotes. Oh well. I can't be good at everything! 

I hope you all enjoyed my lovely little virtual "scrapbook" and I hope I inspired some of you to create your own or get an Instsgram account to share all of your fun experiences! 

Have a lovely day, everyone, and thanks for visiting! ❤

Announcements

So I have three announcements today.
1) I will be changing the name of this blog to "The Lovely Life" because I like the name much more than my original title. Plus, to me, it describes my life at this moment and it's a much easier, simpler, sweeter name to remember.
2) I've started another blog called "beYOUtiful" which is a teen girls blog designed to give girls some good advice. I've learned so much from my teen years that I would like to share it with other struggling teens. I'm not saying that I'm by any means perfect in any way. I just want this blog to be an encouragement to everyone who reads it.
3) My final announcement is (you guessed it) yet another new blog. (I think have a slight obsession that may cause a problem in the future!). This blog is called "Lovely Little Stories". All these stories or poems are my original work, though the pictures may not be.

Thank you so much for checking out my blogs. It means so much to me and I hope that I can be an inspiration to you all! Let me know what you think of all these new changes in the comments below!

Have a lovely day! ❤

Spring Has Sprung

Today I spent a majority of my time enjoying the amazing weather that we have been having. Most of the time I was outside listening to some tunes on Pandora, taking pictures with my Canon camera, writing in my journal, and napping. I'm not usually the person to spend all day outside but today I really enjoyed the fresh air and the sunshine.
These pictures are just a glimpse of my seemingly simple, relaxed day.

These are my favourite pair of Converse high-tops. 

I'm really excited to take a lot of pictures this spring and summer with my beloved camera.

I love journalling lists and ideas whenever I get the chance. This list may seem like nonsense to you...probably because it is...but I just like to jot things down whenever I get inspired.

So this past week our dishwahser broke so now we have to wash all the dishes by hand. That's really a lot of dishes considering there are ten of us! Hopefully, we can get the dishwasher fixed soon. 

I finished off the day by making chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, they weren't made from scratch like I usually make them, but fortunately they were still delicious.

I hope everyone is having a lovely spring!

Wavy Hair Tutorial

This is a tutorial for you if you want to have wavy hair. This hair style doesn't take that long to do but you do have to sleep on it overnight.

You will need is a curling iron (preferably a 'wand' or clampless iron but you can use whatever kind you like the best). The one I used is a 1/2 inch size. You will also need a hair tie, a brush (optional), and hair spray or dry shampoo (optional).

Please excuse my pictures. I took them all with my phone because my laptop is broken so I had to upload them from my phone. Hopefully my next post will have better pictures (as long as my laptop gets fixed)! And also please excuse my face. I'm not wearing makeup because I did this right before I went to bed and when I woke up! Sorry about that! :) Follow the steps below and let me know how yours turns out!

Step 1: Make sure you have 'dirty' hair. Freshly washed hair doesn't hold as well. You can brush your hair out and make sure you get all the tangles out. I didn't brush mine because my hair is naturally curly and it's easier for me to use the curling iron when my hair is not a big frizz ball. :)

Step 2: Pull your hair into a high ponytail on top of your head and secure it with a hair tie. If you don't want any creases, use a hair scrunchie (do they still even make those anymore?). I pulled my bangs back too, even though I'm going to leave them straight this time. You can do whatever works for you.

Step 3: Make sure that your curling iron has heated up all the way. If you have fine hair you may want to use a heat protecting serum before you start to curl your hair. My curling iron is set to the highest setting.

Step 4: While your hair is still in the ponytail start wrapping 1/4 - 1/2 inch sections of hair around the barrel of the iron. Alternate the direction that you curl every other time so you don't end up with one huge curl when you're done (because you know that will be really cute!) 

When you're done it should look like this. And I kind of look like Alfalfa because my bangs are sticking out of my ponytail.

Step 5: Take your hair out of the ponytail and toussel your hair a little bit. I like to flip my head over when I toussel it. Then you would want spray in a little bit of dry shampoo if you want to. I didn't use any dry shampoo this time because I didn't have any and because my hair already has some volume and it holds pretty well when I curl it.

Step 6: Next you would want to shave off all your hair....JK.

[Real] Step 6: Just kidding. You will now French braid your hair and secure it with a hair tie. If you don't know how to French braid you can just do a regular braid. Doing this will give you gorgeous waves. I like to French braid my hair because it gives me more volume but it works just fine if you do a regular braid. And yes, you can see me taking the picture with my phone!

 

Step 7: Now it's time to get some beauty sleep! And, no, this is not my gun. Sometimes this is my reaction when my alarm goes off, though! 

Step 8: Wake up and check yourself out because obviously you look just as adorable as I do.

Step 9: Get ready as you usually do and save doing your hair for last.

Step 10: Time to get rid of the braid! And look! I have on makeup!

Step 11:This step is optional. unless you are one of those perfect people who wakes up with perfect hair every day, you will probablu need to touch up your 'do a little bit. You can touch up a few locks of hair that you want to be just a little bit wavier and you can either set it with hair spray or use some dry shampoo to give it a bit more volume. You can also add some hair accessories if you want. Now you're done and you have pretty wavy hair that will last all day!

Let me know how this worked for you by leaving a response in the comments. And if you have any other ideas for another tutorial you want me to do, you can comment that, too!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!