For the Love of Sisters

I featured this photo back a few weeks in my first Pinning Sweetly post and I've mentioned my sorority a time or two on here, but I've never gone into detail about the things I love about my greek life experience and adventure. Since yesterday was the start of work week, I thought I'd do just that and share some of the great things about my sisters.

CREDIT

1. Support - While I was debating moving schools, my sisters were nothing but supportive. They told me they'd hate to lose me as a chapter member, but were excited for me to make my dreams come true.
2. Friendship - Most of my friends at school are also my sisters. It's not because they're my sisters that they're my friend, but because they're my friends that I chose them as sisters. I love my girls and I know if I ever truly needed them they'd be there for me. I also made one of my very best friends through my recruitment/New Member education. 
3. Connections - Some of my new friends recently graduated and are now alums of my sorority. One, specifically, is moving to New York to be her amazing self and chase her dreams, but had trouble finding an apartment. At one point, she contacted a woman about an apartment and she happened to me an Alum as well. Needless to say, my friend now has an apartment and will be chasing her dreams with our New York City sisters!
4. Parties - I'm not the usual college kid party-er. I don't drink or act crazy, but I love my sorority's parties. We have 4 every year just us and our dates, then 3 or 4 more partnering with the fraternities on campus. Then again, it could be argued that every time we get together it's a party! We always have so much fun laughing and singing. We don't need to drink or go out, anytime we spend together is tons of fun.
5. Charity - My sorority's philanthropy is the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Every year we grant or help grant at least one child's wish. I love getting to meet the kids we're helping and seeing how happy they are. Last year, we grant a little boy's dream of a play house that he could really play in. After buying it, a bunch of us went out to help build it! We had some much fun playing with the little boy and his younger sister (while the men/boys built the house). I love knowing that not only am I helping myself and bettering my left, but that by being a part of my sorority I'm helping ill children get their dreams.
6. Family - I've mentioned my grand big before, even showed the picture below in my "Of Sisters, Food and Explosives" post. I love the close knit families we develop in my sorority. It's so great to know that, while I have a huge group of sisters, I also have a very close, loving, accepting family to turn to. My grand-big and I have bonded so much this summer and I can't wait to help our family grow in the coming months with my own Little sister!

Those are, obviously, just a few of the things I love so much about my sorority. I love the greek system in general and I love what it does for universities.

Are you a part of Greek Life? What are some of your favorite aspects of your experience?

Finishing Friday

This is a series I may have seen somewhere a while ago, but I don't know where or if I dreamed it, so I'm going to say I'm starting this series (probably bi-weekly, possibly weekly, depending on how it goes and the popularity) in which I showcase the crafts I finished this week.

[Technical Difficulties with the photo. Will correct ASAP.]

This week has been fairly unproductive. I completed the above piece to give to my Little (new Sorority sister). I pretty much used scrapbook paper I had laying around, markers, and scotch tape. Now that sounds like a shabbily made gift, but I think it turned out cute and I'm actually really happy with it. I think it's cute and quirky and will look nice in the average dorm room. 

I also attempted to crochet a big cat, doll, thing but that did not go as planned. That's where I spent all of my crafting time. 

And that's all the crafts I've managed to complete this week. I hope you enjoyed the peek into my crafting life. Please feel free to link to a similar blog post you've made this week showcasing your completed crafts!

What did you finish this week? What did you think of this post?

An Adventure in Baking

This last Friday I had a lunch date with my grandfather. It was quite lovely. I really like spending time with him and I'm glad we got to do something before we leave Wednesday for Colorado! I wore a pretty, but casual, summer outfit for the whole day.

After lunch, I went to visit my grandmother and take her my leftovers, where I spent about 4 hours. My car wouldn't start! It was horrible! The key doesn't turn right now and it takes quite a bit of finagling to make it work, but at least it does work, and for that I am grateful!

After the trama with the car, I went to the grocery store and picked up a whole mess of supplies! I'd committed to baking cupcakes and cooking sausages for my Sorority's Summer Potluck (Which went AMAZING! I'll have a write up on that for you Tuesday!) The cupcakes I wanted to make were ones I saw on Pinterest. They looked like owls and were so adorable, I just had to try them (owls happen to be my sorority mascot and my favorite animal)! But while at the store, I decided to also get some muffin mix and make some blueberry muffins!

I feel like they turned out really well. I was surprised that each one was almost perfectly golden brown

After the muffins were out of the pans, I started on teh cupcakes. I made them with some yummy yellow cake mix, and resisted licking the spoon!

They baked wonderfully as well. I think out oven (we just moved to this house) is pretty darn amazing, or I am! When the cupcakes finally cooled, I got to town trying my best to get them to look like owls. I used half oreos and brown Reeses Pieces for the eyes, an orange Reeses Piece for the beak, and, of course, chocolate icing to make it all stick. I was so proud of the finished product!

I was really surprised how well the little owls held up over night and on the car ride to the sorority house. Everyone thought they were adorable! Finally done with the baking, I curled up in bed with The Espressologist and quickly passed out. It was a busy, slightly hectic day, but, believe it or not, the next day was much more busy! But I'll get to that on Tuesday. Now I'm going to run off to bed and sleep my life away!