Tres Chic: Your First Stop for Teen Fashion

If you've explored the site and saw the recent recipe post about Cake Mix Cookies, you understood that I recently hosted a jewelry party. In fact, as recent as a couple hours ago. Sarah and I felt bad for not writing anything on the site in so long and felt as if we needed to share this party with ya'll. There are certain things that make a party fun. Yes, having good company and close friends is important, but also, it is vital to have fashionable decor and nice food to go with a specific theme.
The first step is to find a theme. My mom and I decided on doing a Mother Daughter Christmas Tea. 
For the food, we chose small finger foods that didn't really require individual plates and a selection of deserts. Our main appetizer dish were mini italian raviolis that people could eat with just simple tooth picks. For the tea, we chose a few holiday teas (in beautiful teapots), hot cocoa, and special coffee drinks for the mothers.
For decorations, we  went for holiday decor (duh!). We put on the fireplace for immediate welcomeness and I prepared a holiday play-list that we could play silently in the background. On the tiny mantle we have in between our kitchen and main sitting room, We placed beads and Christmas balls in glass jars (I think an idea my mom found in one of her many magazines), and in the dining room, we placed all the jewelry on our dining table covered with a lace runner. Then we set up our treats and food on very decorative winter plates along out coffee table next to our couch. 
In my opinion, the party went well, but honestly you would have to ask the guests.


Jen

It's never been a secret that school is demanding. Between sports, a rigorous academic schedule, and, of course, the ever-present drama, one can begin to feel like they might explode if one more responsibility is put upon their shoulders. That is certainly how I feel sometimes and it is a a major challenge to not completely lose your mind. Sometimes I think that teachers don't realize that most students have a life outside of their class, not to mention five or six other teachers to deal with that seem to think that their students only take their class. As I can't, obviously, change that, I have come up with a few ways to stay sane during the school year.


1. Make time for yourself. Even if it's only ten minutes a day, just being by yourself and doing what you want to do can really relieve stress. 
2. Keep things in Perspective. While your life might seem absolutely horrible sometimes, always keep in mind that it won't last forever and things will improve.
3. Stay positive! This might be the most important point. If you have a negative attitude, it will not make things easier to contend with, believe me. It will only depress you and slow you down further.
4. Don't keep emotions to yourself. If you feel like you need to scream, scream! If you keep pent-up emotion inside, it will eventually be so overwhelming that you can't function.
5. Stay in the moment. Only focus on the here and now, not what's happening in a week or a month or even tomorrow. The only time that matters is now. This way, it will be easier to get things done.
6.Do not dwell on things in the past. It is not the end of the world and life will improve. Again, only focus on the present. The test you have next hour does not pertain to the class you are in now.


Stay happy! and happy October!
Sarah

Right now, half of my English class is home, sick. Most of the marching band is sick and around 10 cheerleaders are also ill. Unfortunately, there's no way to stop the epidemic of colds, and, as luck would have it, I have now also gotten sick. Don't fret! It's not the "Piggy" flu like many confuse it to be, but I still have a few tricks of my sleeve to getting better faster (or at least feeling a bit better faster):

1. Watch re-runs of Friends. It might not be the "Cure- All" remedy, but I have to say, Friends is a great way to distract you. It makes you laugh your head off and forget all about how bad your stomach or throat aches.
2. Hot Cocoa. Ahhhh, Hot cocoa is warm, creamy, and delicious. When I'm sick, I always drink Hot Chocolate because it wakes me up and gives me the energy to get throughout the day (without an energy crash like most energy drinks give you).
3. Blow-pops/Tootsie-pops! I have found that unlike cough drops which, in my experience, taste horrible, Blow-pops and Tootsie-pops cure sore throats. Just sucking on these (w/0 chewing on them) gives your body the sugar (it wants =] ) and helps your throat feel soother.
   
4. Blog/Write. I have found that I write the funniest or most inspirational things when I am sick because I have no energy to do anything else. For example, right now, I am blogging this entry, and most of the grammar is very incorrect. However, It makes me feel more fulfilled and my head doesn't hurt as much as before.

xoxo
Jen

It hits me every summer: Boredom. And trust me, it hits hard. For a normal person, they might deal with boredom by going out to a museum, riding their bike or calling up a friend. But luckily, I was born with a creative nap. So this Summer, while most my friends were taking driving classes or were vacationing in Cozumel, I was using my creative senses. My creativity went into full blast when I spotted a large cork board on deep clearance at King Soopers. I immediately bought it and took my treasure home to be revamped. How, you ask, do you make an incredible memo board out of just a plain cork board? Well, I will show you the basic steps.

1. Buy the cork board, obviously. Go to cheap places like Walgreens or the local dollar store. Or you can also find them at your basic craft store. They come in various sizes but I like to get the biggest one possible so that I don't have troubles adding more things as I go on.
2. Pick a color of acrylic paint and paint the borders of the cork board with two coats of paint.
3. After the paint has dried, buy 2 rolls of narrow ribbon that match your paint and cut them into long strips.
4. Lay the strips of ribbon down on the memo board in a diagonal diamond pattern.
5. Use 1/2" sequin pins to poke through the board wherever the ribbons criss-cross and at the edge of the ribbon. Then use pliers to curl the ends of the pins under, if they poke out of the back of the memo board.
6. Decorate the board with pictures, magazine cutouts, art and more! :)
xoxo
Jen

Unlike New Years, (during which I hardly ever make resolutions) the month of August sees me making up resolutions, and, more often than not, not keeping them. This year and every other year, I have decided to attempt to stay organized. As I progress on in school, the classes become more and more demanding, making even more essential to stay together and on top of things. Now, the key to staying organized is that it does require some effort on your part; you can't just stuff things into random folders and expect for things to be kept clean. You might even find that by organizing the mess of your locker, (oh yes, I KNOW its a mess) your grades might improve. Being able to find homework assignments is always a good thing. :)


1. Keep a different space for every subject. This does not mean that you must have a separate binder for each subject, it only means that you must try to keep pages for different classes individual. I find that 5-subject notebooks work as great multi-taskers when it comes to this daunting task. Not only do they keep things separate, they each have pockets where you can conveniently store loose leaf pages according to the corresponding class.
2. This may be the most important rule of good organization: you must commit to being organized! Really, although this might seem irrelevant, when it comes down to it, if you don't at least try to put things in their proper places, you won't be organized. 
3. Usually at the beginning of the school year, the administration gifts students with handy little planners. Don't throw it away! Use it for what it was meant for and plan. Writing down homework assignments helps immensely with destroying stupid mistakes, like forgetting due dates. WRITE THINGS DOWN!!

--Sarah--

Ah, the time has come. Not only do have to worry about shopping for school supplies and shopping for first-day outfits, You have to find the perfect accessories for that perfect school picture. I have seen it all throughout my years. I have seen bad accessories, good accessories, no accessories, and even one accessory that looked like Wilma's necklace on the Flinstone's. Yes, you can choose to accessorize correctly and have beautiful pictures, or you can end up with a picture full of Wilma Flinstone beads.