Black Friday Haul

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to do a post about Black Friday. I had so much fun shopping until almost four in the morning with my sisters and cousins. In fact, we had so much fun that one of my sisters and I went back to the mall during the day on Friday to shop even more. 

Since I absolutely love Black Friday and I also love telling people about all the great deals I got, I decided I would do a Black Friday haul post. I bought a really nice DSLR camera bundle online before I even left my house on Thanksgiving, so that isn't being included in the list below. Also, I did buy a majority of the stuff for myself, but I have been working on my Christmas shopping since the beginning of the summer, so I was almost done by the time Black Friday rolled around.

Target: 

$22 for $45 worth of DVDs- Neighbors, Divergent (a gift for my sister), Bad Grandpa, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes

$15 for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo 3DS game (not pictured- gift for my brother), originally priced $29.99

Kohl's: $3.22 total for a $39.99 Big One throw blanket and a $16 v-neck shirt

Hollister: $19.97 for a really nice flannel that was originally $39.95

Hot Topic: $10 for an Ed Sheeran shirt that was originally $20.50

Forever21: $8.49 for a sweater (gift for one of my friends) that was originally $24.80

Tilly's: This was one of the deals I was the most excited about. I got two pairs of Vans (bringing my collection up to 23 pairs) for a total of $29.96. One pair was originally $39.97 on sale for $17.48, and the other pair was only $12.48 marked down from $34.97

Bath & Body Works: $20 for $72.50 worth of lotion- 12 small lotions plus 1 full size. Everything in the store was buy 3, get 3 free, plus I had a coupon for $10 off a $30 purchase as well as one for a free item with any purchase over $10. 

My grand total ended up being $128.64 for $364.20 worth of merchandise, which was a 64.7% savings. Overall, I'd say it was a great Black Friday.  

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Christmas is quickly approaching, which means final exams are approaching even quicker. With finals starting in just two days, everyone all over campus has been studying like crazy and finishing all the papers and other assignments they procrastinated on the rest of the semester. 

Thursday night, I was feeling the holiday spirit and decided to spread some Christmas cheer. And by that, I mean I put on my elf costume - yes, I have an elf costume - and grabbed three dozen candy canes and some Bath & Body Works lotion I got for some of my friends on black Friday (I'll post more about black Friday later). 

I actually had decided late Wednesday night that I was going to pass out the gifts the following night, and I also had the GENIUS idea to plan a Cereal and Christmas Party (taking place this evening), which includes an array of cereals, some hot chocolate, the classic claymation Christmas movie "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" (one of my absolute favorites), and "sleighfuls of fun" (yes, I actually put that on the invitations). 

So, I went around to all of my friends' apartments all over campus, accompanied by two of my other friends who were both wearing penguin sweaters, and handed out candy canes, lotion, party invitations, and happiness. 

I think with all the craziness that comes along with the end of the semester, everyone needed a little laugh and some Christmas cheer this week, and I'm happy I could  help make that happen. 

 

Floating Lanterns of Death

My Thanksgiving break was filled with food, fun, family, and friends. One night that I spent with my friends resulted in a rather interesting experience. I technically did something that was on my bucket list, but it kind of went awry.

This past Saturday, some of us went out to eat to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends. Afterwards, we all went back to that friend's house because she had a surprise for us - floating lanterns. We were all really excited, so we quickly went outside and tried to send them off. That's where things got interesting. 

We couldn't get the lanterns to light with the lighter, so we made a torch with a paper plate and then tried to light the lanterns. The lanterns all just kept catching on fire and burning up before we could send them off. After four or so tries, we finally got one to fill up with enough air to let it go, so we sent in up into the sky. When it was about twenty or thirty feet in the air, someone in our group exclaimed how beautiful it was, and then a split second later it went up in flames.

We all immediately started freaking out about the flying ball of fire that was now swaying back and forth across the sky above our heads. We kept nervously waiting for it to land on one of the dozen cars that were parked up and down either side of the street, or to burn someone's yard or house. After dancing across the sky for what felt like forever, but in all reality was probably less than thirty seconds, the flaming remnants of the once beautiful lantern finally fell to the ground halfway down the street. Clearly, we sent the guys to go stomp out the flames while we all laughed and tried to process what had just happened. 

Even though the floating lanterns didn't work quite as planned, they definitely made for a memorable night and a great story. 

Mac & Cheese Pizza

 Oh, the joy that ends when the living nightmare of the two weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break begins. While I am not looking forward to the chaos of the next few days, I am extremely thankful for the short break I had. Among all the places I had to go and stuff I had to do, I still found some time to relax. And also completely avoid any schoolwork whatsoever, which I'm slightly regretting at this moment...
One of the nights I was home, I was able to finally make some macaroni and cheese pizza. I absolutely loved this kind of pizza when they had it at Cici's, but all of the restaurants near me are closed now. Needless to say, I have been craving this pizza for a VERY long time. I have seen several recipes all over Pinterest and decided I would go ahead and try to make one for myself. And I think it turned out great!

If you want to try to make your own, you'll need a pizza crust, half a box of squiggly noodles (their proper name is "cavatappi") and a jar of cheese pasta sauce. Follow the directions below:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2.  Boil the half box of squiggly noodles according to the directions on the box
3. Drain the noodles while warming the cheese sauce over low to medium heat
4. Cover the pizza crust with a layer of the cheese sauce
5. Stir the rest of the cheese sauce into the noodles
6. Cover the pizza crust with the macaroni and cheese (you'll have a small bowl of mac & cheese leftover)
7. Bake the pizza for approximately 17 minutes or until the crust is crispy
8. Enjoy the magnificent mac & cheese pizza you just made!

A Calm Saturday

Hot chocolate, Christmas movies, and Black Friday planning. That's what my Saturday has consisted of. Most of my friends are gone for the day and the ones who remain are watching football, so I decided to just sit inside and relax. Plus, this is the first Saturday I haven't had to work since the beginning of the semester, so I was pretty excited about that. I somehow accidentally slept in until about 12:30, which is the latest I've slept in probably well over two years, but I didn't go to bed until around 4 a.m., so really it's not THAT bad. After finally climbing out of bed, I came to the realization that I had absolutely nothing to do aside from waiting until tomorrow to finish the relatively small amount of homework I have to do before Thanksgiving break. So I put on some sweatpants, turned up the heater, and made myself a delicious cup of hot chocolate. I decided I'd finally make a shopping list from the Black Friday ads I've been looking at online for the past couple of weeks, because Black Friday is one of my favorite things and I am just way too excited that it's only a couple of days away. I also watched some of my favorite Christmas movies - The Year Without A Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Overall, it was great just spending the day relaxing and getting into the Christmas spirit.

Why I'm Looking Forward To Thanksgiving Break

Exactly one week from today, I will be at home, enjoying the comfort of my own bed while eating a bowl of cereal and watching a rerun of some show within the Kardashian world. This is the excitement that awaits Thanksgiving break. Aside from the aforementioned relaxing evening I have to look forward to, there are a lot of things about break that I'm excited for (and not just the break from schoolwork). To show my excitement, I decided to compile a list of some of the things I'm most looking forward to about Thanksgiving Break.

Black Friday Thursday? - I always get super excited about Black Friday shopping (even though I'll probably be done by the time Friday actually hits since the stores are opening so early), but this year, I'm even more excited because I get to go shopping with my sisters and two cousins, which is sure to be a blast. Especially our mandatory IHOP stop :)

FOOOOD! - Basically everyone looks forward to this, but since I don't really get to spend Thanksgiving with any extended family, it's mostly about the food for me. And by food, I pretty much just mean cheesy potatoes. And mashed potatoes. Really, just any form of potatoes.

Goodwill trip - The city I'm from has this amazingly huge thrift store, which I haven't been to in a very long time, so I've already planned a trip there during break to hopefully expand my sweatshirt collection.

Baking - I absolutely love baking and I feel so deprived when I'm at school because I don't have the means (nor the time) to do it. So I will be baking up a storm while I'm home next week.

Target trips - Target's pretty much my favorite place ever, so I will be stopping there at least one other time aside from Black Friday.

Birthday dinners - Since I'll be at school for my birthday later this week, I get to go out to eat twice while I'm home during Thanksgiving break to celebrate a little late. And since both my mom and grandma take me out to eat, I get to hit up my two favorite restaurants without having to choose between them.

Relaxing - This will be my first complete break from both school and work this semester because I had to stay on campus and work during fall break, so I'm excited to go home and just have some time to myself to relax.

Christmas gifts - Since there's less than two weeks between the end of Thanksgiving break and the start of Christmas break, I'm going to have to have all my friends' Christmas presents ready when I come back from Thanksgiving break. I'm super excited about this because I love everything about giving gifts, especially when it comes to wrapping.

Cereal options - My house is always fully stocked with a plethora of cereal options, and since cereal is one of my favorite things, I'm looking forward to all the different cereals I can choose from while I'm home.

14 Times Lizzie McGuire Taught Us What Not To Wear

One of the greatest gifts that Disney Channel brought us was Lizzie McGuire. Back when Disney Channel was in its Golden Age, you could catch an episode of this magnificent show almost every day. And everyone knows that the only thing better than the show, was Lizzie's wardrobe. Some of my friends and I have been able to relive some of Lizzie's interesting fashion choices recently since I have several episodes on DVD. While we were discussing how strange some of her outfits were, I decided that I would make a list of some of her weirdest ones. And since it's Thursday, and Thursdays are for throwbacks, it only seems right that we would look at 14 times Lizzie McGuire taught us what not to wear.

Their faces here match my opinion of these outfits

I had to save the infamous unicorn sweater for last. 

I clearly didn't pay close enough attention to this episode...