Dorm Picture Wall!

I Just moved into my dorm! Well like two days ago, but still.

I decided to make a photo wall and here's how it turned out!

The middle picture is a picture I took of Chicago and the colored sides are make of paint swatches. The picture on the right is a picture I painted of Illinois with the Chicago skyline in the middle (I made a blog post on it a while ago). The picture on the left is a nail and string art I made awhile ago. I printed out a couple of picture of my friends and family and used washi tape to tape them up.

Overall I love the way this turned out!

Squad Out-Caroline

College!!!

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! I've been so busy with travel (went up to Michigan for a few days to visit family) and when I got back it was all about college and dorm shopping!

Guys, I go to college in two days, that's crazy soon! I'm so excited to start this new chapter in my life and can only hope that it brings even more fun times!

Today was the day when my friend group started leaving. All of my friends went over to my one friends house for breakfast because she was leaving today :'( As I was leaving her house, I was just thinking about how when we all meet back up together over Thanksgiving our lives will be totally different. There will be new friends to talk about, all the different classes we've taken, and just new life experiences we have learned so far. But lets be honest, we will all be like "Remember when..." We will just hop right back where we left off, like we were never apart. 

But, as you leave, you have to remember, there are going to be a lot of new people to meet, new experiences to be had, and time to grow. Just this afternoon I started texting my roommate. Let's be honest, when I first found out who my roommate was going to be I was nervous. I was thinking, what if we don't get along, what if she snores at night. But thenI took a step back and thought, I don't have to become best friends with my roommate. If I do that'd be awesome, but I'll also meet so many amazing new people along with her.

Below are some pictures from the highlights of my summer!

All in all I am super excited to start this new journey and can't wait to see where I'll go from here!

Squad Out - Caroline

Summer Snacks

Great snacks during the summer are always a must. And having them be easy to make is an added bonus. Today I am going to show you how to make three of may favorite ones, for the summer and for the rest of the year.

My favorite of all snacks to make is homemade pretzels. They are super delicious and pretty easy to make (even though they take a couple of hours).

What you're going to need is:

1 cup of milk

1 package of dry yeast

3 tablespoons of light brown sugar

2 1/4 cups of flour 

10 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon of fine salt

1/3 cups baking soda

2tablespoons coarse salt

The first thing you're going to do is warm up the milk in a saucepan till about 110 degrees. 

Then pour the milk into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top and let the yeast soften, about 2 minutes. 

Then stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup of flour with a wooden spoon. Then dice two tablespoons of softened butter and add it to the mixture. 

Add the remaining flour (1 1/4 cups) and fine salt. Stir until all mixed together and the dough is sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed until the dough becomes smooth but still slightly tacky. 

Roll the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl. Cover the bowl and let it sit in a warm spot for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. 

After the dough has set, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Punch the dough to deflate it and pour it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into small pieces and roll them into balls. Then dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups of warm water. Dunk each of the pretzels into the baking soda water mixture (this keeps the soft on the inside). Then place them onto a greased pan. Put then in the oven for about 6 minutes or until they are golden brown.

When they are done baking, melt the remaining 8 tablespoons and then pour it over top of the pretzels. Then take the coarse salt and sprinkle it over top of the pretzels, and viola, ready to eat.

Another fun recipe is chocolate covered Pringles. These have to be one of the easiest things ever to make and they taste delicious. 

All you need is Pringles (original flavor) and chocolate, I used milk chocolate but you can use what ever type you want.

All you are going to have to do is melt the chocolate and then dip the Pringles in it. You don't need a lot of chocolate because then you can't taste the Pringle part, I used too much chocolate on mine.

Then lay them out on a piece of parchment paper and pop them into the fridge of freezer so they can harden up. 

One of my favorite drinks is this raspberry lemonade freeze thing.

You just need any kind of raspberry sorbet and any kind of lemonade.

All you need to do is blend your sorbet and lemonade in a mixer. The amounts you use is up the consistency you want. The more lemonade you use, the thinner it will be, the more sorbet, the thicker it will be. 

Then just pour it into a pitcher and you have a great drink for the summer!

I hope you choose to try out one or all of these great snacks, they are all super great and easy (for the most part). Talk to you guys soon!

Squad Out - Caroline

Storage Crate DIY

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, been super busy these past few weeks with being sick, traveling, and working. Well now I have a new DIY! 

I was wandering through Target, as usual, and I saw they had plain wooden crates. I was like these could be super cute to store stuff in! So I decided to pick one up and show you how I painted it!

These are the supplies you'll need:

Wooden crate

Paint (I used a teal paint, gold paint, and chalkboard paint)

Paint brushes

Tape (if you're a messy painter)

The first side I painted was the front side. I decided to paint the front with chalkboard paint so that you could write what you're keeping in it.

I then painted all of the other sides the teal color leaving one of the slats unpainted.

Don't forget to paint the insides!

With that slat we left unpainted I decided to paint it gold to give it a pop.

Then once your chalkboard paint is fully dry (look on the bottle of paint for specific instructions) you can write on it. 

I decided to keep blankets in it but you could but anything in it, book, magazines, random papers. 

You can also customize it with any paint colors to match your room!

Squad Out - Caroline

BLACKHAWKS WIN!!!

So as you all know, or should know, THE BLACKHAWKS WON THE STANLEY CUP!!! 

This year was the first year I really got into hockey and enjoyed it. I tried to watch every game I could, and if I didn't have time, I'd be checking my phone religiously waiting to see the outcome of the game. Now I am a huge fan of hockey and can say its one of my favorite sports to watch.

Anyways, if you didn't know, the Hawks have had a parade every year they have won. This year was the 6th Stanley Cup win so it was no exception. They also have a rally where all thefts can gather and listen to the coaches and players talk about their season and for everyone to unite together on one common love, the Blackhawks.

The parade ended right in front of Soldier Field, where the rally was being held, so me and my friends decided to wait outside and watch the cup go by before we went inside to find our seats. The parade consisted of a lot of random people on trollies and a few players on the top of double decker buses with their families. 

The parade was so much fun, but the rally was even better.

When we got to our seats inside we had to wait for all the coaches and players to unload from the buses so it started a bit late. They started out introducing some old Hawks players and other people that work for the team. Then they played a season highlight reel. I'm going to behest, this gave me goosebumps and made me tear up. Just watching the players reactions with each other when someone scored was priceless. They were genuinely happy for each other, partly because that was one point closer to winning the game but also because they like seeing each other succeed. That is one of the reasons I like hockey, the whole team is a family, and it shows. 

After the highlight reel, Coach Q came up and gave a speech. Then all of the players came up, introduced one by one with lots of applause in-between each person. Some players gave speeches but not all. 

After all that, confetti cannons went off and the whole crowd started singing the Hawks theme song "Chelsea Dagger"

Then "We are the Champions"

This whole day just made me proud to say I'm from Chicago (well just outside of Chicago) and proud of the support the city gives it sports teams, especially the Hawks.

Now lets keep the Cup here for another year!

Squad Out - Caroline

Skyline DIY

Today I am going to show you how to make this cool art! You can customize it to be any city you want or any colors you want!

I got this idea when I went to Target, as usual, a few months ago and came across this painting

Now I was drawn to this painting for a number of reasons. One being that out of all the pictures I have hanging in my bedroom I yet to have one of anything Chicago. Two, I love skylines. Photos of skylines, for any city are some of my favorite. 

They wanted like $35 for this. I looked at it and was like I bet I could make this my self for a lot cheeper, and I did. I made it for around $8 instead.

First things first you are going to need to get everything you need. I used a 12x12 canvas for mine because thats what fit my map, but feel free to use any size you want. You're also going to need a map the state you wanna do and a silhouette of a city in that state. I also used stickers to put on the canvas so I could easily paint out the letters. You will also need black and white paint and a paint brush.

First you are going to tape on the map to the center of your canvas. Then you are going to trace around the map with a pencil to get the shape of the map onto the canvas.

Then you are going to place your cutout skyline onto the canvas with the skyline centered on the map. You are then also going to trace the skyline onto the map with a pencil. Don't worry about tracing the bottom because all of that will be black anyways.

You are then going to move the skyline a little up and to the right to create the shadow of the buildings. You are going to trace this skyline the same way as before just with out tracing inside the buildings already drawn.

Then you are going to add the stickers to the canvas to spell out the cities name. you can use any font of sticker you want, I used these because it was what I already had. Make sure the stickers are super stuck down because, as you will see with my final, sometimes the paint tends to slip under them.

Next you are going to paint the skyline, but just in that first skyline you drew. Make sure to paint over the letters too, being careful not to get a lot of paint underneath the letters. 

Then you are carefully going to remove the stickers, making sure no to touch the other paint too much.

Next you are going to need to make a dark gray color by mixing some white with a little black. You are then going to use that color to paint the other skyline you traced. This will give you a shadow effect over the skyline.

Then you are going to make a really light gray by mixing mostly white with a little bit of black. You are going to use this color to fill in the sky. You can do some shading by making some areas darker than others.

You will then get your finished product! So much better than paying $35, and this way you can brag to your friends about how you actually made this!

I hope you try this out and see you back here soon!

Squad Out - Caroline

Summer 2K15

A majority of my summer consists of me and my friends "taking laps" around Oak Park. We just drive around with the windows down, playing music as loud as we can. This is a weekly occurrence for us, one of which requires a fire playlist. 

I made a Spotify playlist of some of our favorite driving songs. Hope you check it out!

Squad Out - Caroline