Good weeks are the best (And Carabox reveal)

Have you ever had a week where everything good just seems to be happening to you? They only happen once in a blue moon, but when its does happen its like the stars are aligning and your just waiting for a Broadway ensemble to break out in song and let the whole world know that your having a great week. 

Ok, maybe I'm the only one who imagine that last part.

But anyways, this week was one of the bests.

It was International Education Week at my school and I won the international trivia and got a $25 visa gift card and I also won the international photo contest and got a $30 gift card to the campus store! If you know me you I love to win and I love free things so this made me really happy.

Just because I love to win doesn't mean I am a sore looser. I pride myself on my attitude and winning isn't everything so I never get too upset or show a lack of judgement over loosing. I consider myself a good sport so much so that this week it was also announced I was named on the Skyline Conference Fall All-Sports Sportsmanship Team. This was such an honor to me and meant even more to me than if I made the all conference team (which is for athletic ability). I believe attitude is everything so to have people recognize that I do always keep a positive attitude means so much.

Every communications senior in my school has to plan and execute a senior project (more to come in a future post) and we have to propose our project to all of the faculty in our division in a formal presentation. We started practicing for our oral proposals this week and I've been stressing and freaking out because public speaking is not even close to being on of my strong suits. I shocked myself when I got up to practice and it went better than I expected. On top of that my internship coordinator told me that my professor said my presentation was very professional. This makes me so much more relaxed about doing the real thing in a couple of weeks.

This has just been a really good even though I've been sick the entire week.

I've also received my Carabox this past week! I was partnered with Ileana at Sweet Reverie and Mandy at Through the Hanson Lens. It was such a blast getting to know both these girls. I loved how we got partnered with other bloggers in out age group this time.

Mandy sent me such a great box!  I love everything in it!

How cute is everything!?! She even included recipes for football Sundays, not to mention I've already worn this scarf at least five times and the candle is already halfway gone. I can't wait to fill up the photo album with photos.

Thank you Mandy for such a great Carabox!

Senior Year Bucket List!

If there's an award for worst blogger ever, it should go to me. I know I haven't posted in forever. This thing called life just keeps on getting in the way. I promise to try and be a much better blogger from here on out.

I cannot believe I am already in my last year of college. Time sure does fly by. I still feel like a freshman on this campus sometimes.

I am lucky enough to go to school in one of the prettiest places, the Hudson Valley. Nothing beats the views we have when the leaves are changing in the fall. As a native Long Islander I never thought I'd have anything good to say about upstate New York. But you can't deny the colorful mountains they have in the fall.

There's been so much I've wanted to do in the area that I never have. Since I only have 5 1/2 more months (who's counting?) left I want to make the most of it and do those things I've been saying I would. To help keep me on track I've created a Senior Year Bucket List!


I've done three of these things so far but I'll tell you all about those in a later post.

Got any more ideas for me? What's on your lists for this year?

Travel Tuesday: Ireland

Ireland was such a special trip because my family flew all the way across the pond to visit my sister and me. Even my 89-year-old grandma took the redeye to London, then hopped on another flight to Dublin and went straight to the Guinness Factory before getting a real nights sleep. What a trooper!

Grandma and her Guinness :)

The next day we took a tour of The Old Jameson Distillery before we left Dublin. I've never had Jameson before this and boy was it great! No more Jack Daniels for me. I even became a Certified Jameson Whiskey Taste Tester!

My dad rented a van that fit all six of us and all or our luggage (yes this looked like a kidnapper van) and drove us down to Cobh, Cork (pronounced Cove) on the left side of the road. This made for an entertaining and scary experience.

Cobh is the small quaint seaside town my ancestors are from. It is also the last port the Titanic left from before it set sail for the last time across the Atlantic. You're probably thinking "Jillian, you're full of shit. The Titanic left from England." And you'd be right, it did originally leave from England but it made a stop in Cobh before leaving for New York. Seven lucky people got off the boat at Cohb. That's my little town's claim to fame.

Our second day in Cobh we traveled to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip other than the Irish music.

Kissing the Blarney Stone!

It was so nice for us all to be reunited!

Climbing this tree was the hardest thing and getting down was even harder. Emily (in the white) dislocated her knee getting down and went to physical therapy all summer to return it to normal. Even though she got hurt my other sister and I couldn't stop laughing. Luckily the fall was caught on video. I'd love to share it with you all but unfortunately it is not on my phone.

After three days in Cobh were were enroute again and on our way to Galway. The drive was along the east coast and was filled with gorgeous views and lots of cows and sheep. Along the way we found a place to pull over so we could get a picture with the cows.

In Galway we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. I could not get over how amazing they were. And I thought the Block Island bluffs were spectacular.

Linking with:

The Weekend of Colors and Football!

 I've been a very bad blogger and have been neglecting this corner of the Internet lately. So today I will update you on the past two weekends which both pretty amazeballs.

Two weekends ago was beyond great or as Barney Stinson would say "Legend... wait for it....DARY!" And that's certainly what that weekend was.

On Friday my sister and I drove down to Queens and had and early night because the next morning we were up early for...wait for it....

THE COLOR RUN!

We all had a blast running it. What a great experience.  My goal was to run the whole thing without stopping and I did! I even came in first out of my family.

Before the color

After the color!

I highly highly highly recommend this run to anyone and everyone! Even if you don't run, walk it! So many people walked the race or would switch between running and walking. This run is definitely for people of all ages and athletic abilities.


The next day we were energized and pumped for the Jets season opener! To give you some background I am third generation Jets fan and my inheritance will be our family season tickets. My family has spent Thanksgiving at the Jet's game twice in the past three years. If you are familiar with the Jets you will now how unfortunate this is.

Despite the usually pitiful Jets they somehow but the grace of God (literally) managed to beat the Buccaneers in the last few seconds. I won't go into details but I'll just say that this was probably the most exciting game I've ever been too and there's one Buccaneer in a lot of trouble right now.

This past weekend my friends and I hiked Mount Beacon which is right across the Hudson River from my school. It was such a beautiful day to be spending outside and the views from the top were unreal! We got sandwiches from a local deli and had a picnic once we reached to top of the mountain.

Oh, hey NYC skyline!

Found a walking stick!

How pretty is that view?

Back to School

My summer is officially over. (Cue the sad music).

On Sunday I drove back up to school and moved into my (huge) room. Since my roomie graduated last fall I am living in a single for this year and at first I was dreading it but I have to say so far I kind of like it.

It's absolutely insane that I am already starting my last year of college. I feel like it was just the other day that I was starting my freshman year and didn't know anyone. It's also such a weird feeling to be back on campus after nine months away. I did get a little tear eyed one my drive to school when I realized I wasn't going to be in London this semester. I'm so sad that my time there is over but I am incredibly excited for what this year will bring. My friends and I have even made a Senior Year Bucket List of things we've always wanted to do in and around our school but never have. (More about this in future post). 

During my first two days of classes I've found two quotes that really caught my attention and put me in the right mindset to start off my senior year.

Hope these motivate you as much as they do me. 

Sally Sells Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

Summer is almost over and I am super bummed about that :( It seems like I just got home from London and already I have to go back to school next weekend. But lets be real, I've been on summer vacation since December. So who am I to complain that summer is over?

I've decided to share a quick and super easy craft that can help make the summer spirit stay alive.

1. Paint a box (any size or shape you want) a color of your choice. I recycled a box I got Shabby Apple earrings in. Boxes like this are all sold in craft stores.

2. Pick out any shells of your choice. (If you do not live near a beach sea shells are also sold at all craft stores.) Arrange the shells before gluing them down. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted them. It's almost like a puzzle.

3. Once you have arranged all of the shells then go ahead and start gluing them down.

Let dry and voila! 

Birthday Week Recap

Long time no post! Sorry I haven't been around much. This has been a busy couple of weeks. Between celebrating my birthday and being in the middle of switching rooms with my sister I didn't have much time to sit down and talk to y'all.

Now that I'm back I can tell you all about my birthday week! It started when I had a barbecue with my family.  What a great time! Even my grandparents were playing beer pong. My grandpa even beat my sister and my dad (they'd kill me if they knew I told people this). Oh and fun fact: old people tend to play beer pong underhand.

Grandma playing some bp!

The next day I went to the FUN. concert. That was one fun concert (pun intended). It was at Pier 26 in Hudson River Park looking out to New Jersey with a great view of the Freedom Tower right behind us.     We had such a great time listening to great music with great food trucks and a bunch of craft beer! We even saw Allison Williams from HBO's Girls walk right past us and later we saw Lena Dunham from a distance. If it wasn't for her unique style I wouldn't have been able to tell it was her. It started to rain around the time the concert started and by the time they got to "Some Nights" at the end of their set it was pouring and the whole crowd was going crazy. The rain definitely added to the experience. Once you're wet who cares if you get more wet!

Freedom Tower!

Soaked after the concert

Two days later on my day of birth I got my nails done with my mom before I headed back into the city with my sister and my friend. First we went to see Miranda Sings perform at Birdland Jazz Club. If you don't know who Miranda is check out here videos on youtube. You'll be laughing for days, I promise. After we went around NYC to different bars. Later on we decided to move the party to Bayside, Queens. (If you live in the NY area and never been to Bayside you should check it out! They have great bars and restaurants if you want something more low key than Manhattan.) Once in Bayside my stepmom joined us for drinks after work. That's when things started getting bad. Three beers with a couple of fireball shots thrown in,  I was sick and done for the night.

Birthday Outfit

The sis and me 

First legal drink!

The one and only Miranda

Selfies with Frankie Grande

It took me all of Thursday to recover but isn't that's how it's supposed to be the day after your 21st birthday? By Friday I was back in action and ready for a great weekend at the beach. A bunch of friends and I all headed over to Ocean Beach where all the bars are. I've been wanting to go out on Fire Island for years but the bars there are 21 to get in and those bouncers are very strict. I still can't believe that I'm old enough to get in. I got used to being legal when I was in London and then it all got torn away from me when I came back. It all seems to good to be true and I'm waiting to become underage again. It's crazy to think that it won't happen.

Dancing the night away

That crazy Atlantic

Family

Early morning ferry rides home are always so beautiful and serene

 We spent the weekend relaxing, swimming, dancing, clamming, eating, and drinking and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

What is your best birthday memory?