It’s a Very Merry Greek Christmas: Part 1

This post is a little late as a Christmas post but I think these are great gift ideas for a birthday, valentines day, or even an anniversry. Some of these are obviously more beneficial for those in the greek system, but some of the gifts are non related to sorority or fraternity life, so here is post 1 which is what I got my fratstar for christmas and part 2 will be what he got me Enjoy!

XOXO, ELLE 

His Presents: 

#1: Sigma Chi Afghan ($50) – His room at the fratcastle is always a little cold so I figured this would be the perfect present for him (and for me haha;). The afghan is great quality and he absolutely loved it. 

http://www.sigmachigear.com/sigmachiafghan.html

#2 Vineyard Vines Tie ($75)

We all know fraternity gentlemen love to dress up and vineyard vines so I combined them and got him a vineyard vines tie. The actual tie I got him isn’t available on the website anymore but they have a lot of awesome options out right now as well. 

http://www.vineyardvines.com/silk-ties/printed/Ties-Printed-Ties

#3 Ray- Ban Classic Wayfarer ($150) 

I love these sunglases on him, he actually has a pair of maui jims but he’s always worried about wearing them out because they are glass and he’s worried he’ll break them when things start to get rowdy, so I got him these so he can party his little heart out without being worried about breaking them. Losing them is a different story though I must say, so we’ll see how long they last haha:)

http://shop.nordstrom.com

When I grow up…

I have always known I wanted to be a stay at home mom eventually and I know to many people this sounds old-fashioned. The reason I decided to write a post about this is because of an encounter a friend and I had this morning at brunch. One of my best friends and I were waiting for a table at one of our favorite little restaurants in town, we were waiting outside talking about going back to college and what classes we would be taking this semester and such, a women sitting on the bench next to us came up to us and said something along the lines of how refreshing it was to see women in college to get a career with no intention to live off a man or worry ourselves with children. We were both a little taken aback, I politely told her yes I intend to have a career but when I do decide to have children, I would prefer to stay home and raise my children if that is possible for my future husband and I. The women then turned her nose up at me and with a look of complete disgust responded, “well that darlings is what I call a prostitute”, and stalked away. My girlfriend and looked at each other a little bit surprised, both our mothers were stay at home mothers, both their husbands had careers that made that life possible for them and when did our society condemn this? I do realize this was just one women, but it is not just this women who thinks this way, it is our society. Fifty years ago or even thirty years,  it would have been quite normal for a woman to say she planned to be a stay at home mom, but now it would be shocking for an educated women to say such a thing in almost any social setting. I realize this may sound like I am just planning on living off my future husband for the rest of my life but that is not at all what I am saying, I cannot wait to graduate college, and get started in my career and achieve all I can in my future profession but at the same time I absolutely cannot wait to raise my husbands and I’s children and be there for them as much as possible. I loved growing up having my mother there for me whenever I needed. So yes I want to be a housewife when I grow up, I want to clean my home, make dinner for my husband and children every night, and have the freedom to stay home and take care of my children if they stay home from school sick. It makes me sad that our culture has made this life so wrong, and one women would even go as far as to calling that “prostitution”. My mother has worked hard her whole life, though she never really took care of the home because my father was fortunate to be able to afford help in the home, my mother drove us to and from school, to countless sports practices and games, always made sure the fridge was stocked, and there was a hot dinner on the table for my father and my siblings and I when we arrived home, and she would run errands for my dad’s business when it was not something he necessarily trusted an employee to do. I’m sorry but to me that all sounds like a career not a women just living off her husband and I would be blessed and honored to eventually have the kind of career my mother had.

5 makeup products I couldn’t live without.

1.) The Urban Decay Naked 2 Eyeshadow Palette ($50)- I’m totally the girl who made a collection out of having MAC shadows, I had probably over 30 of them at one time, it didn’t matter that some of them were colors I wouldn’t be caught dead in, I had them if there was ever an emergency situation where lime green eyeshadow was immediately needed. None the less this palette has every color I could ever ask for as a girl who likes a neutral eye. I will not even be taking my MAC eyeshadows to college because the Naked is all I need whether its a natural day look or a smokey look for a night out. 

2.) Urban Decay All Nighter Long-Lasting Makeup Setting Spray($29) - Let me tell you spray your makeup a few times before you leave your house or dorm and your makeup is not coming off I mean full on it will look the same until you take it off whenever that might be. I had given up on the idea of my makeup being able to last all day and had made a habit of always having makeup with me so I could refresh it. Now I never have to carry makeup with me when I go out and I never have to worry about how my makeup looks throughout the night. 

3.) Urban Decay Primer Potion ($30)- This is my last urban decay product on my list, its funny to me that I have three products of there that I can’t live without because I never really liked their brand all that much, I have always thought the packaging was gaudy and trashy but none the less they make some amazing products. On to their eye shadow primer, use it! Your eyeshadow isn’t budging period, thats all there really is to say about it.

4.) Benefit BADgal Lash Mascara ($20) – This stuff is amazing, I have tried basically every brand of mascara and I constantly come back to BADgal. The brush is gigantic which makes it much easier to put on your lashes, every lash gets coated and the effect is about as close as you can get to have falsies on without actually having falsies on. 

5.) NARS Orgasm Blush ($45) – My favorite all time blush color, it truly is gorgeous. I have actually only tried this color but I have heard good things about all their blushes. 

I hope ya’ll enjoyed my little makeup review, if you would like to see more blogging about my daily makeup routine, other favorites or tutorials, just comment and tell me, like this or follow me! 

High School: Tips and Suggestions

I took a year off between high school and college so though I’m not that far removed, I think a year is enough time to compile a list of the five most important things I learned or suggestions I have for high school. So here we go.

1. )Popularity is all about confidence. TV and movies make popularity seem like this big important thing where you have to be the pretty blonde cheerleader and this and that. Not true at all. All there is to popularity in high school is being confident in who you are. In high school most people have pretty bad self esteem and if you think highly of yourself they will too. Honestly thats all there is to it. Also just as a warning I’m not trying to say it really matters if your popular or not in high school, but no one whose going through it will ever believe it so thats my little full proof tip.

2.) Going to a dance without a date isn’t going to kill you. I didn’t get asked to my sophomore homecoming and let me tell you I thought it was the end of the world. I ended up not going to the dance at all and sitting alone in my room pouting. I regret that so much you only have what two dances a year and here me feeling sorry for myself missed one just because I didn’t have a guy to give me a corsage and take pictures with me for five minutes. In a week no one is going to remember that you didn’t have a date to a dance but they will remember if you didn’t go at all.

3.) This goes a little with number two but go to every dance, every pep rally, every big football game and all the little events, because those little events might seem meaningless but they really do add to your high school experience. You only have four years to be this young and carefree. You have the rest of your life to grow up and be boring, go all out on spirit days, do whatever it takes because I can promise you your going to miss it once you graduate.

4.) Have opposite sex friends! This sounds kind of lame writing it out but heres what I mean its great to date in high school and have the big man on campus as your boyfriend but its so much better having the ten cool guys on campus as your best friends. And I don’t mean friends that you’ve dated or probably will date I mean guys who are purely just your friends. I’m not saying I didn’t date in high school because I did but mostly guys from other schools and guys who were in different grades than me but I had these guys to talk to through everything. They dated my girl friends and would love them for a little while and than once there was a breakup she would almost be ostracized from his life and all his friends life. I’m so thankful I never had to deal with a situation like this, still to this day they call me about their girl problems and protect me fiercely from guys they do not think are good for me and that is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. Dating one of them freshman year would not have been worth losing all their friendships for the rest of my life.

5.) Join a team. I feel like everyone says this and it sounds stupid but really, coming into freshman year I didn’t really know a lot of people. My best friends from middle school had transferred and I was kind of coming in alone. Let me tell you thank God for the tennis team and the older girls on it. They made me feel so at home, I am still so thankful to those girls who took me under their wing and made the transition from middle school to high school hardly noticeable. I still look up to those girls so much and even saved some of the sweet notes they wrote me throughout that season. I know when I was co-captain my junior year and than captain my senior year I strived to be the role model those older girls were to me and really make and effort to get to know those younger girls. I didn’t realize until my senior year how much extra time those girls put into me that they really didn’t need to. It’s one thing to drive a younger girl home from practice which really was above and beyond because I didn’t really live super close to any of the junior and senior years but it is quite another to introduce me to all their friends and take me out with them on the weekend. Also if anyone still in high school is reading this, take the time to take a younger girl under your wing, you have no idea how much it can effect their lives.

Recruitment: Preference Night Outfit

Pref night is the last and most formal night of recruitment, I decided to go pretty simply on the jewelry because I really wanted the focus to be on this dress which I absolutely cannot wait to wear. For this night I am either going to be wearing the platinum jack rogers pictured or my platinum athena alexandra wedges. Help me decide! As always the brands are below

XOXO, Elle
Dress: Lilly Pulitzer
Ring: Tiffany & Co
Sandals: Jack Rogers
Earrings: Grandmothers Pearls

Recruitment: Skit Day Outfit

Skit Day is a bit more formal than the first day, I would have liked to wear wedges but the school doesn’t recommend it with the amount of houses we could be visiting. The brands will be listed below and again if you need help finding anything just let me know!

XOXO, Elle
Everything for the most part can still be purchased except this particular Lilly dress is a couple of seasons old and not available for sale any more.
Ring: Tiffany & Co
Necklace: Our family jeweler made mine custom for me but the one pictured is a Marley Lilly design.
Sandals: Jack Rogers

Recruitment: Open Houses Outfit

My universities formal recruitment starts out pretty casual. I have decided to show ya’ll what I am wearing for at least 3 of the days. So this is my take on casual for the first open house day. I’ll put the brands down below, but if you have any trouble finding something comment or message me and I’ll see if I can help you out.
XOXO, Elle

Oxford: Ralph Lauren

Shorts: J-Crew Chino 3′

Sandals: Jack Rogers Navajo

Ring: David Yurman Petite Ablion in Lavender Amethist

Earrings: My grandmothers pearls:)