Life via iPhone

On December 15th, a very important event occured...I FINALLY got the iPhone 4s! To say I'm a tad obsessed with it may be an understatement! I've had an iPod touch for a couple years so I already had some favorite apps, but have definitely discovered some new favorites these past couple weeks! If you have any apps you just can't live without, lemme know!

I know I have been slacking on the blogging lately, so I thought I would share some photos I've taken with my new toy!

I became a college graduate on December 12th!! It was very much touch and go for a while there but I made it! I decided months ago I wanted to bedazzle my graduation cap and I am SOO happy with how it turned out!  

This was the extent of my Christmas decorations. After finishing up finals, I ended up staying at my parent's house for about a week before heading over to my aunt's house to dog sit for 2 weeks. So there really was no time to bring out my tree :( But I absolutely love my Christmas wreath so I had to put it out, and it'll probably stay up until Valentine's day (it's pink and red...it works!!)

Couple graduation presents from my aunt...in case anyone was unsure what college I graduated from ;)

I told my mom I was so excited to start reading again. Since starting college I couldn't tell you the last book I actually read. I got this book for Christmas LAST year and could never find time to read it. I'm hoping in the new year I will be able to read at least one book a month!

Lusted just a tad over a pink mixer!

Admired my parent's Christmas tree

iPhone game obsession #1

New favorite earrings I ordered from piperlime

tracked Santa on Christmas eve!

Hung out with my favorite fur baby!!

Was spoiled on Christmas morning

Probably got most excited about this gift! Mom swore up and down she wasn't buying anything online, yet somehow this showed up under the tree ;)

Hit 50,000 miles on my car...meaning I'm no longer under warranty (much to my father sadness!)

iPhone game obsession #2

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to a fabulous new year!! 2011 was somewhat of a blah year so I am very much looking forward to 2012!

xoxo

Natalie

Versatile Blogger!

Adelaide over at Sweet, Sassy, Southern, and Classy awarded me with The Versatile Blogger award! I received this award WAY back when I first started blogging, so I thought it would be fun to revisit and award it to some of my new favorite ladies!

 Rules:

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers or however many of your choosing

2. Inform the bloggers of their nomination

3. Share 7 random things about yourself

4. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

5. Add the Versatile Blog award picture on your blog post.

7 Random Facts

1. I did not lose my first tooth until I was 8 years old. The teeth in my mouth are 'slow-developing' so that meant I had to pull 4 teeth just to get braces, and then it took over a year for those teeth to grow in! I'll have to get my wisdom teeth taken out eventually, but at this rate my 18 year old brother will be getting his out before me!

2. I have never dyed my hair. The only chemical process I have done is a perm when I was in 5th grade...which fell out 2 days later! :(

3. I spend so much money and have so many different skin care products, but I HATE washing my face at night! By the time I force myself to go to bed (usually around 2 or 3am), I am so tired all I wanna do is take out my contacts and pass out! PS- this is why they invented make-up removing cloths!

4. I am quickly becoming addicted to Bath and Body Works! I've always had their products in my cabinet from back in high school but never were my "go-to" items. But then came the candle obsession...and everything developed from there! I wish I was at home and could take pictures of my B&BW collections...I'm talking 15+ little PocketBacs (gotta have clean hands), 10+ candles, and countless bottles of lotion and body cream! Here is what I purchased at B&BW last week over a couple days....

If you aren't signed up for their emails, I definitely recommend it! They are always sending out coupons (which you dont even have to print off...just show them the email in the store!!) or $1 shipping codes. 

ANYWAYS....back to the random facts!!

5. I eat a Publix sub at least once a week! I am a lover of almost all sandwiches, but there's something about  Publix that is just so delicious! Plus it's super convenient considering I live just across the street from one!

6. I have decided to take a couple retailing classes in January, and I am SOO excited! All i have known my college career is biology, biology...and more biology! Like a total nerd, I was on Blackboard the other day and the lecture notes for my principles of retailing class were already uploaded, so like a total TOTAL nerd I was looking through the first lecture, and I can already tell I am going to be much more interested in this stuff than what I got my degree in! Here's hoping I may be one step closer to figuring out my life?!?!

7. This past week, if I'm not a work, this is the outfit I've been rockin...

Lazy Day Outfit by swtcarolinagrl featuring michael kors jewelry

...sexy right?!?!

I give this award to the following FABULOUS bloggers...
1. Turtles and Pearls
2. Just Peachy
3. Everyday AEM
4. Coffee at Nordstrom
5. Keep it Classy, Alabama
6. Let's Be Preppy!
7. Peaches & Pearls

Top 5 Tuesday: Finals Distractions

Once again I am linking up with Rachel from Just Peachy for Top 5 Tuesday! Of course this week's topic is something that is lingering on the minds of college student everywhere...finals! I am in the middle of what is hopefully my last week of *undergrad* finals EVER! My first true final is Thursday evening and then the one that I am most worried about is Friday at 2pm.

Since I have had 4+ years of finals experience, I am an EXPERT at procrastination and finding things to distract me from studying! Here are what I have as my Top 5 distractions this exam season (in no particular order)...

1. College Football

Even though the regular season of college football is over, this post-season is giving us TONS to talk about (I'm currently watching the Experts on ESPNU)! I spent all day this past Saturday watching the SEC and ACC Championship games and now there's tons of talk about the BSC National Championship game and the Heisman. I've always been a big college football fan but for some reason this year I am OBSESSED! I love hearing all the differing opinions and we all love a good rivalry or two! ;)

2. Youtube

O my goodness Youtube is a HUGE distraction!! Yall know I am a beauty junkie and Youtube does nothing but contribute to this obsession! I subscribe to 40+ "beauty gurus", meaning I have about 60 videos sitting in my subscription box ready to watch. This also does nothing for my spending problem...so many items get added to my beauty shopping list from these videos!

**Side note: I've been thinking about doing a post highlighting my favorite Youtube "gurus". Would yall be interested in that?**

3. Law and Order SVU

Yall know this had to make the list! It's not only the show itself that causes a distraction (hello Tuesday marathons!) but its going online to watch sneak preview clips and get updated on the latest news. And it doesn't help that Mariska Hargitay has been out and about all over NYC, meaning there's tons of photos to ohh and ahh over!

Sephora Wants by swtcarolinagrl on polyvore.com

4. Sephora

A beauty junkie's dream! As a VIB Sephora sent me a $20 gift card to use but you have to spend a minimum of $50. So of course I've spend hours trying to decide what I wanted to purchase and making sure that no new items have been posted that I just have to have!!

5. Pinterest

I think Pinterest would show up on any college girl's procrastination list! At first you don't really get it, but then you start filling up your boards and it becomes an obsession! Pretty soon you have 20+ boards with hundreds of pins and you can't stop! Here are a few things I have pinned over the last couple days (click here to follow my boards!)

Source: theamericanlegacy.tumblr.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: media.photobucket.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: collegefootballstore.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Some honorable mentions: Facebook, Twitter (I sorta don't count this cuz I have TweetDeck so all my tweets are directly on my desktop), Tumblr, Target

What are you Top 5 distractions? How did you get yourself to focus and actually get stuff done?!?

xoxo

Natalie

MIA and Giveaway!

I know I know I've been absent from my blog for a couple weeks, and trust me I have missed it! Everyone knows the last couple weeks of the semester can be MAJOR crunch time, and of course this semester was no different!

On Thursday I attended my last classes as an undergrad. To say that it was a bittersweet day was an understatement. I didn't really have time to focus on the fact that is was my last day because in one of my classes I had 2 'make-up' tests (teacher lets you take if you don't do well on tests the 1st time), so I spent all night Wednesday studying for those, only to get to class and see that the tests were NOTHING like what the professor told us! A lot of people in this class are like me and just NINE days away from graduating, and this class is putting us in jeopardy from getting our diplomas because this teacher does NOT teach during lecture classes and tests on the most random things.

So that has been a major cause of stress for me. My final for the class is this coming Friday, and I am set to graduate on Monday. I feel like it's almost pointless to study because it obviously has done me NO good so far! But I'm going to do my best to stay motivated this week and study my a** off so I can walk across that stage!!

I hope everyone else who is knee-deep in schoolwork can keep the motivation. Just keep telling yourself that CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE!!!! That's what's keeping me going!!

xoxo

Natalie

PS - Make sure you head over to Rachel's blog Just Peachy and enter her 200 followers giveaway! I'm hoping to get together a giveaway myself once I finish up with school!