The Big 100.

This is Keep Not Settling's 100th post!!! Can you believe it? This little shindig is 100 posts old! CRAZINESS!

When thinking about what I wanted to write about for this ultra-exciting post, I pretty much drew a blank. What do I say? Who's even going to care? Is it really that important to celebrate? (The answers are: whatever you want, people, and yes, respectively).

So... this is what I've come up with: 

I just want to send out a quick thank you to everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis. Although I started Keep Not Settling for myself and it continues to be an area of happiness and serenity (as weird as that sounds) in my life, the most gratifying part of blogging is knowing that there are so many people who enjoy reading.

When I made the spontaneous decision to start blogging, I never anticipated that it would grow to be what it is today. I might be the one typing up these posts and sharing them to social media, but I'm just a small part of what Keep Not Settling is. Whether you're a family friend who's been reading just to keep up with my college shenanigans, or you stumbled across this blog randomly, you rock.

My hope is that you'll continue to grow with me as KNS makes its way towards 200. 

Keep not settling,

Weekly Roundup.

ONE | Renovations

One of the most exciting things ever happened this spring break... my family bought a house!! After fifteen years of renting in California, my parents have made the amazing decision to buy a house here in North Carolina! Not only am I super excited to have a new room to design as I see fit (hence my board on Pinterest), it's also going to be so nice to have them closer to me. 

Mom and I have already started conspiring about what we're going to do spruce up the inside... Bye-bye white walls! 

TWO | DIYs 

I've been super into finding unique and easy DIYs like this one on Pinterest lately! There's so much out there to try... I can't wait for the summertime when I actually have the hours in my day to do LOTS of DIYing. 

THREE | Planner Perfect 

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It's no secret that I'm obsessed with planners. Simply obsessed. This is old news if you've known me since my sophomore year of high school. Recently on Instagram, I've started following planner decorators.... I might need to jump on board with this next year. 

FOUR | Lilly Pulitzer x Target 

To say that I'm excited for the release of Lilly + Target would be an understatement. The items in the collection were just released on Target's website and I'm so impressed. The essence of the Lilly Pulitzer brand has been relayed perfectly into an everyday affordable line. Smart marketing, if I do say so myself. 

Keep not settling,

Keep Not Settling Playlist #3

There's been so much going on lately, and I've been experiencing some serious blogging withdrawals.   But it's ok because KNS is back in full swing! Spring Break is this week, and I ended up with a pretty nasty cold (my fifth time being sick this school year....yay) but now that I'm feeling better, writing is at the top of my schedule. 

OH, and my mom is here with me!!! Double yay! Some pretty amazing things have happened since she's been here. I'm so glad she's here with me. Unfortunately, she has to go home this weekend. Boo. 

I've been listening to a lot of music this month. There have been days when my Spotify playlists keep my sane. So here's a playlist of the songs I've had stuck on repeat...

Keep not settling,

Weekly Roundup.

ONE | Stick It 

I honestly don't know how I haven't seen this movie before. If you've read Keep Not Settling before or just know me in real life, you'll probably know that I'm majorly obsessed with gymnastics, and I super duper wish that I had those skills (sigh). This movie is a little silly, and some of the details are not-so-accurate, but I'm glad I watched it! 

TWO | Legend of the NeverBeast

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS. I pride myself in having seen every Tinkerbell movie released, and I have plans to curl up and rent this one tonight! I feel like such a little kid when I talk about how much I love the Tinkerbell movie series, but oh well! 

THREE | The "American" Rainbow Fish

This is a hilarious "adaption" of the very popular children's book, The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. I remember reading this book when I was little, but this new "Americanized" version is even better. My roommate and I had a good laugh over this while writing up some journals for our economics class. Enjoy. 

FOUR | Russian Acrobatic Gymnastics

Back to my love of gymnastics. When I'm bored, I find myself in the part of youtube that showcases a lot of different gymnastics performances, whether that be from previous Olympic cycles, or random national/world competitions. But I'd never seen anything quite like this before, until my Big posted it on my Facebook timeline. Check this out. The human body shouldn't even be able to do what they do.

FIVE | Ellen Pompeo. 

I just love this. That is all.

Keep not settling,

Weekly Roundup.

As I mentioned in my last post, this week has been absolutely nuts. Yesterday we had our fourth snow day in two weeks, which means that I've now missed 3 sessions of my Tuesday and Thursday classes, and 2 Monday classes. Ugh. Nevertheless, the snow has given me some seriously amazing time to catch up on homework and find some pretty neat things for this week's Roundup! 

ONE | Yet another snow day 

I took this picture this morning in the Salem Square! Everything looked so white and clean. Hopefully my SD card will work soon, because I have almost 100 shots that are a heck of a lot better than this. You can guarantee that I'll be posting them as soon as my computer doesn't freak out every time I put my SD card in. 

TWO | An inspirational quote 

I think there's a lot to be said in this quote. Failure is a hard thing to deal with, but it's necessary to know what "greatness" actually is. 

THREE | The Economist 

I'm required to read the Economist for my ECON100 class, and since the online version only lets your read 3 articles weekly for free (tear), I opted to subscribe. Let me just say... I love it. Like every news magazine, it has it's flaws, but it's pretty great all around.  

FOUR | Lilly Pulitzer Spring 2015 

To say that I'm obsessed with Lilly Pulitzer's latest prints would be an understatement. I've always been a fan, but this year has been A+++ so far. 

FIVE | Rifle Paper Co x Paper Crown 

Rifle Paper Co. has been on my radar for quite a while now, and their latest collaboration -- with Paper Crown (Lauren Conrad) -- is absolutely perfect. I really wish the iPhone case was available for the 5S, because I'd have my hands all over it. Plus, how cute are those notebooks? 

Keep not settling,

Weekly Roundup.

This week has been something else, that's for sure. Between snow days and school days, being overloaded with reading for classes and having two major assignments due next week... ouch. Nevertheless, I've found some things that I wanted to share with you. 

ONE | Make It or Break It 

If there's one thing I've been a huge fan of (again) lately, it's been Make It or Break It. I used to watch this show all the time when it was on ABC Family, and then I watched it again when it was on Netflix. Now, it's on Hulu, and I'm enjoying it all over again. Binge TV much... well.. yep. It got me through the snow day. 

TWO | Rainbow Rumble 

Along with MIOBI, Rainbow Rumble was a good distraction from how freaking cold it was this week... especially when I spent 100% of the time stuck inside my room. It's kind of like Bejeweled meets Candy Crush... talk about addicting. 

THREE | Formal Dresses

Formal is tonight and I couldn't be more excited about it. Because I was homeschooled throughout my entire life, I never went to any of the über cliche high school dances, so I'm finally getting the chance to now that I'm in college. 

Keep not settling,

#EyesOnIt: iPhone Cases

Yesterday was the first day in quite a while that I've missed a scheduled blog post. I felt terrible all day for not posting but it really did come down to how I was feeling (and it wasn't "human"-like). My  apologies. As of today, it's back to normal. Today's post is a new installment of....

J.Crew | Lilly Pulitzer | Kate Spade

I've been interested in finding a new case for my iPhone lately, since the one I'm currently using is beginning to deteriorate. The problem is trying to find places that are still keeping up to date with producing 5/5s cases, since the 6 and 6plus are now so popular (thanks for that, apple). When I have free time, I'll do google searches for nice cases... at one point, I think I had a list of about twenty that I liked... oops. 

I've narrowed my options down to three, as you can see above, but I'm not sure which one yet. Decisions, decisions. Who wants to bet that I spend so long deciding that my current case is going to actually fall off? Yep. 

Keep not settling,

Loving Yourself First.

In honor of Valentines Day this weekend, I thought it would be fun to do a post about all the reasons why it's important to love yourself first. Now, don't get me wrong, loving other people is important and being in relationships can be rewarding... but at the end of the day, we have to recognize ourselves and appreciate ourselves to be able to appreciate and love anyone else. This isn't too serious of a list... just a few fun things to think about! 

LOVE YOURSELF FIRST... BECAUSE: 

• Only you really know exactly how you like your coffee. 
• Sometimes, nobody else is going to sit down and willingly watch your favorite trash TV show. 
• You know what it takes to make YOU happy. Do it. 
• Watching your favorite movie just for "the feels" is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. 
• Even though there are other people who love you, you're the one to fall back on. 
• Trusting yourself is important.
• ... And, if you're an introvert (like me), you're going to be spending a heck of a lot of time with yourself. So you might as well love it. 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

Bring Them Back! My Favorite Childhood TV Shows.

When I watched TV as a kid, it was pretty much always an even 3-way split between the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Discovery Channel. Today's post is all about the television shows I'd love to see brought back, even if just for a little while. I had such a hard time narrowing this down to five shows.. really, I want all of them back.

ONE | That's So Raven 

TWO | Rocket Power 

THREE | Lizzie McGuire 

FOUR | As Told By Ginger 

FIVE | Rugrats 

Let's just face it, the late 90s and early 2000s had the best range of television shows out there. I still like to pretend I'm a kid and watch any of these whenever I get the chance. Sometimes, I'll catch ones like Hey Arnold on Nick-at-Nite, and there are one or two Rugrats movies on Netflix. What really needs to happen is this: Disney and Nickelodeon should both put out box sets of classic cartoons and tv shows. I'd buy all of them. 

Keep not settling,

One of Those Days.

I'm going to be completely honest. I'm already having one of those days.

I woke up this morning on the very wrong side of my twin bed after an awful night's sleep. Breakfast hadn't even been considered yet and my mood had already been ruined. Maybe it's because it's not a very sunny morning, or maybe it's because my stomach was already giving me issues and I hadn't even been awake ten minutes... but I quickly realized it was one of those days. 

You know, when going back to bed forever seems like a really good idea until you realize that you have a trillion things on your to-do list. Things that cannot be ignored. 

Thankfully, I don't have too many terrible mornings. I'm extremely fortunate to live a pretty healthy life (with the exception of the stomach issues contributing to today's awesomeness) and a very happy one at that. But I'm also human.

I may not have gotten enough sleep last night... it may have been too hot in my room to even try. I may (read: definitely) have been worried about making sure that I get everything done this week, since Scholarship Weekend starts on Saturday and I'll have absolutely no time to breathe all weekend.   

It was never my intention for Keep Not Settling to be too much of a ranting place. Although this is my personal blog, I've always pictured it as a happy spot in my life. But today I need to be real. Because these days happen every once and a while and to pretend that I'm having a "fabulous" day today would be lying. 

BUT, I hope that your day is fabulous. If it's not.... Tuesday isn't that far away. 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

How I Operate

Recently I took one of those cheesy little Facebook quizzes, just for kicks. It was all about determining how you "operate." Unsurprisingly, I got labeled as a "rational" and a "thinker" and, well, I can't deny that those things are true. While I think it's silly to try and determine how someone learns or thinks by a few answers to trivial questions, it prompted me to write this post. 

There are four extremely important facets of my everyday life that I do differently from most people on my hall, or just people I know in general. Over time, especially since being at school, I've had these things pointed out to me by others, and I've realized them in myself. 

1. I work ahead. I've noticed that a huge part of being a "college student" for many people is perfecting the art of procrastination. Under no circumstances am I ever comfortable with leaving assignments or important social "contracts" to the last minute. When it does happen, I panic. Instead, I like to start thinking about projects as early as possible. 

1. Once I establish a position, I keep it. That's not to say that everyone I know is wishy-washy in their beliefs, because that's absolutely not true. But I've always been exceptionally good at maintaining grounded views. The key here is that I really try not to have a solid opinion on anything until I know as much as possible about it. Pretty much everything I do involves an informed decision, even if I don't want it to. 

1. I take impossibly long notes. About everything. One of my friends commented on my notes in class a few days ago, and it made me start to look around at everyone else's notes... in a world shorthand, I have to do everything the long way. This comes with knowing that my brain can't work with only keywords. I need sentences. So, I take long notes, even if it takes forever. I've come to terms with the fact that my brain won't ever let me have a break.  

1. I work hard to know my stressors. I think it says a lot about a person when they know how to control their levels of stress in certain environments. Over the last few months, I've carefully watched my professors let stressful things slide while teaching their class. I've done my best to draw from that. Recently, I've spent a lot of time thinking about stressors in my life and healthier ways to react to them... I've gotten pretty good at dealing with stress. I turn it into positive energy. 

What are some things you do differently from everyone else? 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

Weekly Roundup.

Aanaard we're back on this lovely first Friday of spring semester for a new weekly roundup!

ONE | Reign 

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Reign came back for the second part of Season 2 a few weeks ago but I've just gotten the chance to catch up... so so so so good. I've been a huge fan of Reign since the beginning, but the storylines and progression in the most recent episodes really have me sucked in. Note: Season 1 is available on Netflix! 

TWO | Salem College on HuffPost! 

An article on women's colleges was posted to HuffPost on Wednesday, and it features a picture of Community Picnic at Salem.. there I am on the left! Not only is it cool to see my face on HuffPost, but the article is fantastic as well. Read it here! I've always dreamed of being featured on the Huffington Post one day... although, I always thought that it would be me writing for them, not necessarily what actually happened. 

THREE | Vagina Monologues 

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Last night I attended the opening night of this years' showing of the Vagina Monologues here at Salem. It's put on once a year in February, and is student led and performed. As weird as it sounds, the Vagina Monologues was an awesome experience. Simply put, it was the very essence of attending a women's college. 

If you're not familiar with the Vagina Monologues (I wasn't before coming to Salem), you can get the gist of it's importance online. 

FOUR | An Uplifting Quote 

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This week I've been trying to wrap my mind around the next few semesters of college, especially now that I've put a pretty solid 4-year plan together. So, I've gotten used the idea that next year is going to be terrifyingly hard in terms of workload and important major-related classes, but it's ok. I read this quote shortly after putting my plan together and it really helped me calm down. 

FIVE | Fremdendienerin 

This week I also got my name badge and tee shirt for Fremdendienerin! Frem is one of the huge reasons why I'm at Salem, and I'm so excited to be a part of it. Next week, during Scholarship Weekend (*), I'll be helping out with welcoming prospective students to campus. As exciting as Scholarship Weekend is, Imust admit, I'm pretty psyched about the name badge. 

* Can we just talk about the fact that it's already been a year since my first visit to Salem? 

SO FREAKING WEIRD.

Keep not settling,