Weekend To-Do List :: Relaxation

I thought it would be fun to start a little series of "weekend to-do lists" that have certain themes. This weekend to-do list will revolve around relaxation! We all get caught up in our lives and get so busy that we forget we need to take some time for ourselves to relax. Try one or all of these ideas below this weekend!

Which ones are you going to do this weekend? Tweet them to me at @privateschprep!

Lilly Pulitzer Spring Favorites

I am absolutely swooning over Lilly's spring collection. It has me longing for spring break, warmer temperatures, and summer! Check out my favorite items from the collection below!

Eaton Shift Dress // Robyn Short Sleeve Dress // Callahan Short // Charlene Shift Dress

What are your favorites from the collection?

Mini Target Haul

I'm absolutely obsessed with Target. I always go in there needing only one or two things, and I end up coming out with way more than I expected. But I'm not complaining because Target is perfect! It has the cutest office supplies, and its $1 section is to die for.

I went to Target last night and got these goodies! They were both in the $1 section, which is fabulous. The first item is a pink chevron accordion organizer. I don't exactly know what I'm going to use it for, but I just had to have it! The second item is a set of 8 thank you cards. I can always use some more stationery, especially thank you cards, and those ones were too cute to pass up! And I love everything pink, so of course those items were pink.

The one thing I'm disappointed about is I don't think the Target near me carries Sugar Paper office supplies. I've seen so many Instagram pictures, blog posts, and tweets about people getting Sugar Paper items at Target, and I couldn't find any at my Target! I'll have to check back again.

What do you like to get from Target?

Study Tips 101 :: Notability

Because my school now requires each student to have an iPad, I don't really take notes in a notebook anymore because I have my iPad for that. I was really iffy about taking notes on my iPad at first because I love taking notes by hand, and I was worried I could somehow lose all of my notes on my iPad. At the beginning of the year, I came across the app Notability, and I absolutely love it!

Notability is an app that easily allows you to take notes for every class you're in. You can create separate sections for each class to keep your notes separated, give your notes a title so you know what they are, put them in chronological order, and more. It's turned out to be a great tool for me, and it automatically saves what you write! I mostly use it in history and English because I take the most notes in that class. You can even open up a word document or PDF in Notability so you can take notes on the actual document!

Above is an example of some of my history notes. You can change the text, size, and color. There is even a highlighter option that you can use to highlight important information and a pencil tool that you can use to write notes on a document.

I've tried other apps to take my notes with, but Notability is still my favorite and the only one I use because of how easy and organized it is. If you have an iPad that you use for school, I highly suggest that you get Notability and start using it if you don't already!

Do you use Notability?

Books To Read

As many of you know, I'm an avid book reader whenever I have the time to read. During breaks from school and the summer, I read a crazy amount of books! I haven't done a book review in a while, so I thought I would share some recent books that I've read that I really enjoyed. I'll admit that I totally judge which books I want to read depending on whether their covers are appealing or not (oops...), but it has actually turned out to be a good system for me!

For some reason, the picture won't show, so check the picture out here!

If there are any books that you think I should read, feel free to email me, tweet to me, or comment below. I'm always looking for new books to add to my books-to-read notebook!

What are you planning on reading next?

Why Blogging Breaks Are Good

As some of you know, I took a blogging break for a couple of weeks and recently came back. I was swamped with homework, work, and midterms, and I felt like I didn't have the time to blog. Even though I wasn't completely quitting blogging forever, making this decision was really hard for me because I love to blog. However, I noticed that taking a break has really helped me and my blog so far. Blogging breaks are, in fact, good for you!

one // new ideas

Because I barely had enough time to write blog posts before my break, my posts were terrible. The ideas were boring and the posts were written horribly. I had so much stuff to do that I just tried to write my post as soon as possible, so the post topics weren't that great. After my break, I was able to come up with lots of fresh, new ideas and make the posts a lot more longer and interesting!

two // more readership

Even though I wasn't posting every day, I was still getting views. I actually gained ten more followers in that time, too! Since there aren't any new posts, followers and readers tend to look through old posts and read those, therefore increasing readership.

three // increasing love

When I didn't have a lot of time to write my posts, blogging seemed more like a chore than a passion to me. I wrote my posts because I felt like I had to, not because I wanted to. At that point, that's when I knew I should take my break. You are supposed to blog because you want to and love to, not because you feel like you had to. Taking some time away from my blog made me love blogging again, and I actually really missed blogging! And if you blog because you feel like you have to, your posts will be boring and short. If you blog because you love to, your posts will be exciting and long!

If you are ever debating on taking a break from blogging, I highly suggest you go and take a break. It may seem like the wrong decision at first, but once you feel like you are ready to go back to blogging, it will be so worth it!

Why do you think blogging breaks are good?

Birthday Present

As some of you know, my 17th birthday was on January 4th. I've recently become really good friends with Sammy from Preptista, and she was so sweet as to send me a birthday present! I had no idea what it was going to be, so I was really excited to see what it was. It turned out to be a Smathers & Branson key fob! I was excited when I saw what it was because I've been lusting over their belts, and the key fobs are just as cute. Sammy gave me the bow ties one!

I absolutely love it! It's adorable. I already put my keys on it, and it adds a little bit of preppiness and color to my boring keys!

Do you like Smathers & Branson?

Review :: Best Name Necklace

While searching through Etsy one day, I came across Best Name Necklace. And I fell in love with their monogrammed necklaces. I've always wanted to get a monogrammed necklace, but I never got around to buying myself one because I was always putting my money towards clothes. So when I got the chance to review the Monogrammed Sterling Silver Necklace, I freaked! The necklace is absolutely adorable. Best Name Necklace also carries name necklaces!

The chain and the monogram are very durable. The materials don't feel cheap at all, which is a good thing because I would hate to have it break! However, the one thing I really don't like about the necklace is the length of the chain. It's really short, and it's right up against my neck, so it feels and looks awkward. I'm going to try to see if I can buy a longer chain because other than that, the necklace is perfect! I highly suggest Best Name Necklace if you like short chains and are dying to get a monogrammed necklace!

What do you like from Best Name Necklace?

Blogging Break

Most of you have probably noticed that I haven't blogged in about two weeks, but I want you all to know that I didn't just stop blogging forever and disappear! I got really busy and felt that I didn't have the time to blog. I really wanted to blog, so I continued to post every day, but I found that my posts seemed boring, rush, and short because I just wanted to finish them so I could continue doing the millions of stuff I needed to do.

So now I'm back! I won't be posting for a couple of more days because I'm still kind of busy. However, I have some fresh, fun, and exciting blog post ideas in mind! I missed all of you and blogging. I'm so happy to be back!

P.S. I edited this post with Grammarly's proofreading software because what is more attractive than proper grammar? ;)

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday! I turned 17. Tyler had something planned for my birthday for a while, but he wouldn't tell me what it was because he wanted it to be a surprise. He picked me up at 9:30 yesterday morning. When I got in the car, he said, "We're going to Boston!" I was pretty excited about that because I love Boston, but he wouldn't tell me what we were doing. I sort of know my way around Boston, and when we got to the area, it was nowhere near Faneuil Hall, where I thought we were going. We ended up parking at the first parking garage we saw.

Tyler put the address of where we were going into his iPhone, and it was 1.7 miles away from the parking garage! The walk didn't seem that bad until we remembered that it was about -2 degrees out that morning... and I'm not exaggerating! We stopped at a Dunks for breakfast and to warm up. Then we continued to walk until I couldn't feel my hands and feet, so we stopped at a Starbucks, where I got my favorite Skinny Peppermint Mocha Latte. We walked again! Finally we reached our destination - Copley Place. I had no idea why we were there, but I loved it the minute we stepped inside; it's an extremely high-end mall.

When we got inside, I was pointing out stores that I liked just for the fun of it. When I saw the first store, I said, "Oh, there's Tiffany!" Tyler then said, "Good, that's where we're going!" I was so confused, so I gave him a weird look. It then dawned on me that that was exactly he had planned - taking me to Tiffany. When we got in the store, he told me I could pick out whatever I wanted, and I was so excited! I ended up getting the Paloma Picasso Love & Kisses Ring and Ziegfeld Collection pearl earrings. I'm absolutely obsessed with them!

After we got the jewelry, we walked around the mall for a little bit. We came across a Tory Burch boutique, and I couldn't not go in! I fell in love with the Robinson Smartphone wristlet in Tory Navy, so I bought it as a birthday present to myself. I love it!

After we were done walking through the mall, we decided that it would be best to take a cab back to the parking garage. We stopped at a Panera on the way home for lunch. I had a great day, and it was definitely the best birthday ever!