Why my "& Co." is amazing

So by now you've probably all figured out that my "& Co." is my best friend...my mom. She's been the biggest help in making The Wine Cellar the cutest off-campus house Bradley University has ever seen. Seriously, she is awesome.
Last weekend, my mom, sister, dad, grandpa, uncle and great uncle came down to visit me! The guys went golfing while us girls did one of our favorite activities...shopping. I found some really cute clothes and jewelry, as well as few more things to decorate my room with. My mom also brought a bunch of stuff to finish the last room in the house that needed some TLC. I think our house might finally be complete! For our living room, we had to work off the colors from the plaid chair, so our accent color was kind of a burnt orange and some navy blue as well. Of course we weren't going to take the easy route and just buy some pillows and wall art. Instead, & Co. found some cheap pillows at Goodwill and re-covered them with fabric in our accent colors and stenciled them, just like my stenciled rug! She also made the most adorable wall art for the awkward wood wall in the living room. Each picture is just painted and stenciled on recycled pieces of wood!

Lilly Agenda Upcycle

I never thought the day would come where I would cut up one of my old planners. I am incredibly OCD about my planners and writing everything I have to do in them, so I have a ridiculous attachment to them. I have every planner I've used since my Sophomore year of high school- it's crazy! So why did I suddenly decide it was okay to actually CUT UP one of the most expensive, beautiful planners I've owned? Well, it's quite a tragic story actually. While in Spain last semester studying abroad, I brought along my beloved Lilly agenda. On one of the many rainy days there, I had the planner in my backpack and my travel-sized umbrella dripped water all over my backpack, causing my planner to get completely soaked. I was absolutely devastated. I spent over 2 hours with a hair dryer on the pages and all of my notes were completely smeared. Once it finally dried, it was a crinkly, warped mess.

I'm still a little heartbroken, but I've tried to make the best of this minor tragedy. The day the new Lilly agendas went on sale for pre-order, I placed my order for the Large Agenda in "Resort White Chiquita Bonita."The new agenda starts in August and I can't wait to start writing in it! I'll do another post in the future about my organizing tips for my agenda and how I stay on top of things (hint: LOTS of color coding. It's marvelous). So now that you're brought up to speed and my new agenda is just waiting for me, I feel at peace with cutting up the old one. I bought a coffee thermos at Starbucks today that is blank and you can put any pictures or paper inside to decorate it yourself. It looks like this:

Next, I went to town cutting up the old planner. I have a lot of leftover scraps that I'm in the process of planning a new craft for.

I traced the shape of the paper onto my own scrapbook paper and glued the pieces into a beautiful Lilly collage!

Here's the finished product!

Hope you enjoy!
Keeks

Confessions of a Book Nerd

I love books. I always have. From the time I was a little girl, my mom could put me in a room with a stack of books and come back hours later and I'd still be there, entertaining myself. I'd finish the books and then sit and make up new stories or new endings and to this day, I can finish a 500-page novel and minutes later pick up the next book on my list and dive right in. There's something so magical about getting so wrapped up in the lives of the characters in a book for a few days or weeks or however long it takes you to finish, only to part ways and meet a whole new set of friends (or enemies, as the case might be) as soon as you pick up a new book.
As much as I love to read for pleasure, the schedule of a college student doesn't exactly allow all that much free time. This is one of the many reasons why I love summer! Even though I'm working, I don't have homework to come home to or tests to study for so I can spend my free time reading book after book after book-just the way I like it!
Side Note: I have also been spending a lot of my free time lately getting wholeheartedly addicted to the show Downton Abbey. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. I can't WAIT for the new season to start this fall!

So I'm here to bring you some of my summer reading suggestions, or at least what I am reading and plan to read in the next month before school starts!

1. Where We Belong by Emily Giffin. This is my current read at the moment! It's a great summer read, but if you've read any of Giffin's other books (Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, etc) you can expect this novel to have quite a bit more substance and meaning than her other books. Another fun fact is that Giffin is actually from my hometown of Naperville, IL!


2. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult. I don't know how you feel about Picoult (sometimes her books can get a bit repetitive) but I do like to throw in one every now and then because her storylines are just so compelling! You can't put them down! This is an older one of hers, but I enjoyed it. I just finished reading this one a little over a week ago.



3. The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon. This came recommended to me by my roommate, and it's probably the next book on my "to-read" list for this summer. It's supposedly quite suspenseful, a genre I adore.


4. Inferno by Dan Brown. I LOVE all books by Dan Brown. The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons are two of my all-time favorite books, so naturally I was thrilled when I found out he was coming out with a new novel for the summer. I need to make a trip to the bookstore to add this one to my collection and can't wait to start it!


5. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. This is another recommendation, this time from my "& co."-my mom. She read it a couple summers ago and I've never gotten around to reading it, but hopefully I'll find the time this summer!



That's the shortened version of my summer reading list, although I always keep a list of books I'd like to read. I add to it every time a friend recommends something or I see a new title in a store that is just calling my name, which means that I never get to finish my "to-read" list. I think that's just wonderful, though. There are always new (and old!) things out there to read! And here's my last little plug to reading...I do NOT own any sort of e-reader. I appreciate the convenience behind traveling with a Nook or a Kindle, but I don't think I will ever be able to bring myself to buy one. I 100% prefer old-fashioned books that you can physically close once you've finished them. There's something so satisfying about that! I don't judge those who use e-readers, but I personally am so sad that so many bookstores are closing and the notion of paper books is quickly diminishing. SAVE THE BOOKS! (and hey, paper books look better on your bookshelves!).