Today I finally made the trip to William Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak (an Oxford MUST). I love history so I have always loved touring old houses when I have had the opportunity! It was so cool to be able to see his home, and property and the space where he wrote! Faulkner is something of an Oxford hero and Rowan Oak is on the Freshman Bucket List so I'm so glad I finally got the chance to go. There were also some really nice nature trails connected to his property so we spent a while exploring. It was the perfect day, sunny and not too hot, and it made for a great break from studying for finals. Little things like this are what make Oxford such a special town and I'm really thankful to have the opportunity to get to live here for 3 (ahhhh) more years!

{William Faulkner's Study where he wrote!}

{A Bottletree cinnamon roll in all its glory}

With finals coming up next week, I figured I would post some final exam study tips!

Personally I have a lot of trouble studying for finals, I get distracted and I have trouble staying motivated at the end of the semester. But it is so important to stick to finish the semester strong and here are the best tips I have found:

• Avoid Distractions. I cannot stress this enough. Turn your phone on "do not disturb" and disable text messages from your computer. Don't give yourself the temptation to sit on your phone instead of studying... trust me, a 5 minute instagram scroll can turn into 30 minutes of checking every form social media you have. 

• If you're going to study with friends, make sure its with friends you can actually get stuff done with. If you spend the majority of the time you're supposed to be studying, talking and messing around, then you will be stressed out later when you actually have to study.

• Allow yourself breaks, go outside and take a walk (exercise puts you in a good mood, and clears your head), stretch, do whatever you need to, but be careful not to go overboard. 

• Create study guides or notecards well in advance, you will be much less overwhelmed when you go to start studying. One thing that always helps me is Quizlet you make flashcards online (or you can sometimes find flashcards pre-made from your text book!) and its really helpful for memorizing!

• Take care of yourself, drink water, and make sure you allow yourself time to sleep, nothing is worth than being sick during finals. 

• Start Studying two weeks before your final. Spend a little bit of time each day, studying each subject so that you don't find yourself cramming for each subject right before the exam.

• Have a study plan! Set goals and plan out how much studying you want to get done each day and you will feel less overwhelmed and stressed each day and you will feel accomplished as you get things done! I made this template, and I print it out and use it to plan out what I'm going to do each day. 

{Thomas Rhett wearing an Ole Miss Shirt!}

{Typical freshman dorm hallway pic before the dance}

Throughout my whole freshman year, I've been trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and expand my horizons. I've been really working on being spontaneous and going with the flow rather than having every second of every day planned out and never deviating from that plan. Yesterday night, at 10 o'clock when I was starting to get ready for bed, a friend who is also in the Croft Institute for International Studies (my major), asked if I wanted to go to "Crom" aka "Croft Prom." It's basically just a formal for our major and there was a big group of other freshman girls who were going. The catch, was that they were leaving in 10 minutes. Normally, I would have said no way. I had no makeup on, my hair was a mess and I had no idea what I would wear. I also normally take at least 45 minutes to get ready for something like that! But then I remembered something, "20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do" (thanks Mark Twain). So in the spirit of spontaneousness, I got ready in record time and went! I ended up having a blast and I'm definitely glad I decided to go!

Happy Earth Day! I thought it was only fitting to talk about mother nature (sorta) today! In the beginning of the year, my friends and I discovered this adorable park called Lamar Park. It's beautiful with a 2 mile walking path and it's usually pretty quiet. In the beginning of the year we would get up at 6 in the morning just to go for a leisurely walk and watch the sun come up, before it got too hot. Our walks at Lamar quickly became one of the highlights of my day and it was sad when the weather got too cold and we quit. But this spring weather is perfect (not too hot yet!) and we've been walking again almost every day. It's so relaxing and it serves as a de-stressor for me, where I can just walk and talk (and usually vent) with my friends. Having a place like this where I can just go to get away from campus for a little while has been so beneficial to me throughout my freshman year and the walking is an easy form of exercise that always puts me in a good mood.

{Lamar Park on this beautiful earth day}

Over the weekend, my parents were in town and we decided to take a trip to Graceland, the home of the King of Rock n' Roll, Elvis Presley. Graceland is located Memphis, TN which is only an hour from Oxford, so it made for the perfect day trip. The house was stuck in the 70's in the very best way, and it was clear that it was decorated with the upmost style of the day. We took an iPad tour (with John Stamos--aka Uncle Jessie from Full House--narrating our walk through the house). It was so cool to see Graceland as it was when Elvis was alive, and to learn about all his accomplishments and all the good he did in his life as we walked through the house and the grounds. If you are in the area or just passing through I would definitely recommend stopping by. We did the most basic tour, and it provided plenty of stuff to see and do! 

I'm obsessed with everything Urban Decay Naked. It really fits with my style because its very natural, but you can still create a more dramatic look. If I'm going for a more casual, everyday look, I always use the Naked 2 Basics or the original Naked Palette. My favorite palette for summer is the original Naked because it has lots of gold tones, that look really good with a tan. My go-to for going out, or dressing up is the Naked 2 because it has really good colors for creating a smokey eye. The Naked 3 is my least favorite, as it has a lot of pinkish tones that don't always look good on my skin tone, but it has a lot of really pretty colors and I find that I use it the most in the winter. Before applying eye shadow, I always apply the Original Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, which makes it stay all day. The Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion-Sin is new to me but I love it (sin is one of my favorite urban decay colors) and it looks really good with the Naked 2 if you're going for a darker more dramatic look. If you're thinking of investing, I would definitely go to Sephora or Ulta and play around to figure out which one has the colors you're looking for, and the colors that would look best with your complexion!

What are your eyeshadow favorites?

After staying up until midnight central time to see if Lilly for Target went live, I set an alarm for 12:57, 1:57, and 2:57 and had my computer at the ready to check every hour on the hour. A little after 2, during my second check I was about to give up and go back to sleep until 3 but a friend who was also up waiting for the sale said she saw it go up real quick and then go back down so I clicked refresh until it finally came up. For the longest time it wouldn't let me add ANYTHING to my cart, so I missed out on a lot of the stuff I wanted which sold out very quickly. The website had a ton of glitches and kept kicking me off but by almost 4 I had managed to order a few things, but I had to order a bunch of stuff separately. I also accidentally ordered more than one of a few items that I didn't think went through (oops). My parents were in town for a visit this weekend so they went by a few targets on the way home (Oxford doesn't have a target) and found almost nothing! All in all, my experience with Lilly for Target was exhausting and a little disappointing but I'm still happy that I managed to get quite a few things!

I absolutely love this new take on Lilly's "First Impressions" print! It's so bright and colorful and fun! This dress is the perfect spring & summer staple, because its not too dressy or too casual. Its perfect for church, a wedding, a nice dinner or going to a show! It's the perfect take on Lilly's typical shift dress.

Which Lilly shift dress is your favorite?