Help Me Decide on a Dress!

I have a big end of year banquet tonight! I have two dress options:

Lilly Pulitzer Kiki Dress

with gold strappy heels

Lilly Pulitzer Vanna Dress

with nude pumps 

If anyone remembers, I've actually polled y'all for my dress for this exact banquet for the last two years!

 The first year I wore this dress:

The second year I wore this dress:

So now this year, I have to decide what to wear next! Help a sista out and pick your favorite! Vote here:

Outfit of the Day: GO GAMECOCKS!

February 20 by letsbepreppy featuring crochet tights

As I talk about a lot, I'm a tour guide at USC! I love it and it's my primary way I stay involved on campus. As a tour guide, rather University Ambassador, as we're called on campus, we recruit potential Gamecocks that are typically juniors and seniors in high school and their parents. We're gearing up for the busy season as the May 1st deadline approaches! Between now and May 1st the University hosts accepted students days, open houses and our usual campus tours that we give on a daily basis. In addition to all our tours, as University Ambassadors, we represent the University at Dance Marathon and Relay for Life as well.

I feel like the spring semester goes by SO fast between all these campus events and quick weekends. So far this semester, I've been to Clemson, Raleigh both of those events rapidly approaching. It's a very exciting semester and spring break is right around the corner--SO WEIRD! I can't believe how fast this semester has already been going! Next week I have to gear up because 1 day I have 3 tests--yikes! As I said yesterday to a friend of mine, ...here's to junior year?

Is that how you feel too? Are you ever overwhelmed by your classes? Does your spring or fall semester go by faster?

xxKatie

HAPPY 21st COLLEEN!

"Your birthday's OCTOBER 11th?!"

"Hallie, we're not like sisters, we're like TWINS!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF MY MOST FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

I can't wait to celebrate tonight!!

One of my favorite nights with ya bitty!

From trips to the Cape, to Columbia, to Krispy Kreme, to the VC here's to your best year yet!!! I am SO EXCITED for the rest of the year and to celebrate tonight with you!!! 

New Friends

Today is a big day in the life of all my University Ambassador friends. Today is our version of "bid day" when we get to meet all the members of the new "cohort"! I am SO excited to meet all our new friends and co-workers for the rest of the year! We only do recruitment once per semester and so this is our big first day!!

Last year we were fortunate enough to welcome the newbies at Williams Brice Stadium! Home YOUR CAROLINA GAMECOCKS!

Here are some of the boys decked out in their best garnet and black!

SO EXCITED!

Right before the big reveal!!

We will be spending a few hours with the new rookies today and then they officially start on next Thursday! I am so pumped to meet all our fabulous new friends and I look forward to getting to know them and helping them along their way as new future tour guides!

xxKatie

P.S.: Don't miss out on your chance to take part in the Scentsy GIVEAWAY by midnight tonight!!

Weekly Gratitude

1. I am thankful for my new job that I love!

2. I am thankful for my friends who really cheered me up this past weekend after getting through a yucky week!

3. I am thankful for all the fun giveaways coming up soon! Y'all are in for some pink and green treats!!!!

4. I am thankful for my fabulous Frye boots for being a closed toe shoe I can wear and still look cute. Otherwise I'm stuck in sneakers...

5. I am thankful for Luke Bryan's new CD called "Tailgates & Tanlines". Y'all this one is a keeper!

6. I am thankful for Papermate Profile 1.4mm pens. These are THE BEST pens out there. I can't take notes well without them. The are seriously the greatest. 

7. I am thankful for the Thompson Student Health Center nurses and LPN's. Without this staff, my toe would probably be the size of Texas and I'd be a sad little college junior. (Did I mention they asked me, "Sweetheart, are you a freshman?")

8. I am thankful for my own Coach and Rookie, shoutout before recruitment starts! If it wasn't for y'all, I wouldn't enjoy recruitment and look forward to all the new kids!

9. I am thankful for all my friends that I got to see this past week! I really think I've seen almost everyone I know and love since I've been back!!

10. I am thankful for the two impromptu singalongs we had this week to "We Go Together" from Grease and "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. 

Have a great week everyone!

xxKatie

Outfit of the Day: Double Duty

August 24 by letsbepreppy featuring j crew shorts

I wore this outfit yesterday! I was at work for a little to fill out some new-hire paperwork, had class, and had an Ambassador function last night! We're starting our Recruitment process for our new cohort of Ambassadors and we couldn't be more excited! Last night got us SO excited (complete with a group version of Rock, Paper, Scissors that I'm so game for playing again) to bring in the new crop and start giving tours again!

I had two days worth of outfits squished into one! I had my class/work/run errands outfit that I was in until about 6 and then my visitor center/University Ambassadors/tour guide outfit that I wear (a different version of) once a week, for football recruitment, and special events that the University hold that require the aid of student volunteers!

I get a lot of questions about what I typically wear to give tours in so the second outfit is common. We have pretty easy rules to follow: it has to be garnet and black, have Carolina on it somewhere and bottoms must be fingertip length or longer. You also have to wear shoes that you're comfortable giving tours in! This is a pretty common outfit for me to wear until it starts to get colder out here!

Be sure to enter Tuesday's Sassy Palmetto GIVEAWAY too!!

Is it still hot as heck by y'all? I can be in tops like these for the next few months!!

xxKatie

Weekly Gratitude

1. I am thankful for Bodypump. I did it Sunday night and it was a great reality check into how out of shape  (my arms especially) I am. I am making a commitment into going 3 times a week to get my bootay in shape!

2. I am thankful today is my first tour! I am SO excited to get back into the swing of things! This week will be great to finally hit my stride and get into a real rhythm!

3. I am thankful to be working! I am lucky enough to have gotten a job that I am already loving here at school! The ladies I work with have really taken me under their wings and teaching me things I haven't quite learned about Columbia yet!!

4. I am thankful that my parents are coming to visit me soon for the Navy v. USC home opener game! I got a little homesick over the weekend for   a little while and I can't wait to see them!

5. I am thankful to be reunited with my fabulous roommates! It has been so much fun to see them and hang out with them. And I'm pumped we're friends with our neighbors--it's like having 5 roommates instead of 2!

6. I am thankful that it is going to stay summer here for much longer. At first I though I'd hate it being so hot here, but no, this weather rules. 

7. I am thankful I am still staying in touch with my friends from home, the summer, and even last year. Y'all have no idea how much it means to me and how grounded it keeps me. I love each and every one of you!

8. I am thankful that I have FINALLY found some decor for my room!!!!!! I have been on the lookout for something to hang on the walls and I have finally found something that I like and fits me so well! I am getting 4 11x14 posters BUT that's the only detail I am going to give y'all for now! Oh yeah, and it'll arrive with the arrival of my next paycheck! I've desperately needed something to hang to make it feel a little more like me, so this will be the perfect touch!

9. I am thankful for my calendar and agendas that were both organized yesterday!! The new calendar is hung appropriately and color coded for each event coming up!

10. I am thankful that CAROLINA FOOTBALL is right around the corner! We are 12 days away from our season opener!!

xxKatie

Weekly Gratitude

1. I am thankful today is Saturday because thanks to Rebecca Black, we know that Sunday comes after Saturday and I get to leave on SUNDAY!

2. I am thankful that my wonderful, loving parents took me back this summer. I feel like I was so busy I hardly got to take an extra breath, but they put up with me, school, a crazy work schedule and all kinds of girl drama.

3. I am thankful that my sister and I got to spend another summer together. Everything is SO completely different than it was just a year ago and I'm glad I get to spend some extra time with her because before we know it she'll be heading off to college!

4. I am thankful that all my friends are literally going to be within a spitting distance of me in a matter of hours. I plan on seeing everyone within my first week back. Mark. My. Words. Y'all. (Read: you'll get lots of hugs and maybe tears and lots of jumping!)

5. I am thankful for the close friends I have here at home. They have filled voids, made me laugh, helped me through crazy situations this summer, and most of all, listened to me and my craziness. All of it.

6. I am thankful today is my last day of work at the Pink Crab (but I will miss it tons!). I have had the best summer ever working this year, loading up hours! I will miss this place SO MUCH and I'm not sure what I'll do without the lovely ladies that I get to share a store with. I have the world's best boss, a great staff, and fun clothes to sell to cheery people. Oh yeah, and we have a sick view. Does it get better than that?

7. I am thankful for all the packing I've been doing. In the words of my smart Daddyo, "Katie, you can't pull an all nighter Saturday and expect to drive all day Sunday." He's a very smart man.

8. I am thankful for Amazon Prime. I've been looking up textbook prices and it's consistently saving me between 9-32% on every book. And giving me free shipping. But like I tweeted, big girl textbooks mean big girl prices. YIKES! (Thanks Dad!)

9. I am thankful to be going back to a school that I love. Bring me Gourmet Shop chicken salad, sweeeeeeet tea, Bojangles, Cocky, Publix, the VC and my UA family, sweltering heat, Williams-Brice, my little pink and green room, Wal Mart, 1704, Eric San Jose, football, Rosewood Drive, and YOUR CAROLINA GAMECOCKS!

10. I am thankful for Little, my car. It got a lot of work done this week that we weren't expecting and in the words of Jessie James "is lookin' fresh and brand new" for our drive back down South. (Dearest Little, sorry you have to get covered in disgusting bugs in North Carolina. I've never really understood that phenomenon, but it happens trip in and trip out.)

xxKatie

Weekly Gratitude

In my not-so-busyness of being at the beach, it seems that I'm a day behind for my weekly gratitude!

1. I am thankful that I was able to come out to the beach for 4 days! This rules!
2. I am thankful for ROCKING my summer classes and as a bit of a reward my Momma treating me to these babies that should be awaiting my arrival at home tomorrow:

3. I am thankful for Shop It To Me's reward program because I'm getting FREE SHOES! What's better than ordering free shoes? The shoes arriving of course! I'm expecting these espadrilles coming soon (and with free shipping!) from Piperlime:

4. I am thankful for the week off that my hair got as well. No straightening it, no blow drying, just salty air, sand, sun and the elusive, natural, air dry. I'm thinking about getting my hair cut soon but having this super long hair has been really fun! Tough decision...

5. I am thankful for AmazonPrime. If y'all haven't signed up for it and you're a student, YOU NEED TO. It's free and you get free shipping on so much stuff. Besides my Momma ordering those boots with my AmazonPrime account, I ordered a few DVD's with it and they were all shipped FREE! Seriously look into it. Now.

6. I am thankful for Burt's Bees Lip Balm. Big time. This stuff works real wonders. I got some of my topical face gel on the tippy top of my upper lip and this stuff has really helped to heal it! This girl is ADDICTED.

7. I am thankful for some of my new purchases that I've made recently. Recap to come soon. Summer shopaholic? Not exactly. Getting close? Maybs, but a lot of it has been FREE! I heart free stuff as much as the next college kid!

8. I am thankful that my FAHBULOUS manicure from last week has lasted ALL week long with only minor bumps and scratches to speak of. Manicure win thanks to Bella Salon in Annapolis!

9. I am thankful for the beyond perfectly perfect beach weather that I got to share with Momma (and Daddyo for a day) all this time at the beach! I'm talking warm weather, no humidity, beach breeze kind of perfectly perfect. Yeah, that JUST happened.

10. I am SO THANKFUL THAT I GET TO GO BACK TO COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA IN 1 MONTH! 1704, GAMECOCKS, VC + UA, DENSE SC AIR, SUN, FOOTBALL, FABULOUS FRIENDS I MISS SO MUCH, AND ROOMMATES, HERE I COME!

xxKatie

Summer Purchses

My summer purchase list is quickly being filled out! I haven't done much shopping between school and work, but a girl can online browse right? I got about an hours worth of shopping in while I was at the beach, and snagged a new dress from the store but here are a few of my summer snags:

Lilly Pulitzer Ramona Dress

J. Crew Printed Mini (I got another one of these but I can't seem to find the print anywhere!)

J. Crew Carson Short Printed

Lifeguard Press Croakies in "Floaters"

Nike Tempo Running Shorts--ON SALE! I also got another pink/black pair that are very different but equally as fun! Find other colors of this polka dot pattern on sale here too!

I got a lot of summer staples and I have a few extra items on my summer wishlist! I also have a few absolute LUST items on my mental list...those are the real "wishes" that I want! Some also happen to be awfully impractical, but that makes them all the more fun right...? 

What's on your summer purchase list? Any big wishlist items? Let me know!

xxKatie