Literature and Fashion Combine

I have always enjoyed modern allusions to classical literature. As a soon-to-be English teacher, I find that modern literature and real life circumstances relate to classical literature so well. And then I found Polyvore. The basic gist of Polyvore is to find interesting clothes, accessories, and home decor items and combine them in unique ways to make cool outfits. I wondered if there was a way to make outfit combinations that represented certain pieces of literature. That's when I got on a roll. See sets I've made and sets I love at my profile and visit my Pinterest page for work-related clothing ideas.

The Great Gatsby | Literature Styles by deannalexis featuring straight leg dress pants

Fahrenheit 451 | Literature Styles by deannalexis featuring tailored blouses

Moby-Dick Evening | Literature Styles by deannalexis featuring a white shrug

Moby-Dick Weekend Getaway | Literature Styles by deannalexis featuring tory burch jeans

Road Trip Packing

My grandmother and I just returned from a six day road trip to Niagara Falls and back. Before we left, I looked for resources on Pinterest that would help with packing. You can see my road trip Pinterest board here, and I have consolidated and expanded upon many of my favorite resources and ideas to write this post.

1. You do not need a giant suitcase. That will be much too difficult to lug into hotels at every stop. I used a small, carry-on suitcase for clothes and shoes. I used my small Vera Bradley duffel bag for toiletries, makeup, undergarments, and accessories as well as a tote bag for things to do in the car, like my knitting. I carried my clutch purse within my Kavu purse, so I had both handy.

2. Pack smart. I used many resources from Pinterest, including this diagram of a useful packing scenario. I also think that using trial-sized bottles of my shampoo, soap, face wash, and eye makeup remover was an excellent idea.

3. Wear items more than once and use variations.  

I chose to pack five T-shirts, two skirts, one dressy shirt I could wear with either skirt, one pair of jean pants, one pair jean capris, one jean skirt with black leggings, one pair of white shorts, one pair of jean shorts. I also packed undergarments and pajamas. For shoes I wore tennis shoes and packed dressy sandals and Chaco sandals. I also brought one long-sleeved shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and my rain jacket. 

I did not need all of that. In fact, it would have helped if I brought along another T-shirt and skipped either the long-sleeved shirt or the hooded sweatshirt. I wore one dressy skirt when we went out to a super nice restaurant and I wore the white shorts with a semi-dressy blue/white shirt and a navy cardigan when we went to a moderately nice restaurant. 

I did wear some items more than once, like I usually do when at college, but I carried a laundry bag with me for items I did not want to wear again. When I got home, I just dumped the laundry bag into the washer!

4. Picnic. 

We choose to eat out only at our prime destinations or when we were meeting friends: Lancaster, PA, Hershey, PA, and Niagara Falls, ON. At via destinations (along the way), we had picnics at rest areas and the occasional gas staton parking lot. 

Before the trip, we went to The Fresh Market in our town and stocked up on fresh fruit, sandwich bread and fixings, a rotisserie chicken (that we ate one night when our hotel room had a full kitchen), snacks (like apple chips, hummus, and Raisenets), and water bottles and sodas. We carried these items in a large cooler in the backseat and got bags of ice at about every other main stop. We also had a small cooler to carry cold items or random things up to our room. Almost halfway through the trip, we stopped at an Amish farmers market to refresh our fruit supply. 

Picnicking saved us money and time and gave us some fun experiences, like eating with the "Thinker" statue in Philadelphia, PA, which I found really funny.

You can see our entire trip route and more pictures on our TrackmyTour page here.

End of the Semester Leftovers

For those of you college students with kitchens in your dorms or apartments, using up leftover food can be a hassle, and it's always a bad idea to waste food you bought with your own money. Here's some tips:

Use www.allrecipes.com to locate recipes that contain whatever ingredients you have.

- I made Banana muffins with the flour, sugar, and mushy bananas I had leftover from previous projects. I got to share them with my literature class and use up leftovers.

Make Trail Mix!

- Got half a box of a cereal, some raisins, chocolate chips, Goldfish, granola, a bag of popcorn, or anything similar? Mix it up and share it with friends! Make sure you have equal amounts of sweet and salty.

- I mixed together Raisinets (chocolate-covered raisins), a bag of popped popcorn (let cool before mixing), and some toasted wheat chex cereal and poured into snack bags to eat during this stressful exam week.

I hope this helps you eat up all those leftovers so you have nothing to waste!

Craft: Tea Bag Wreath

With some help from my tea-drinking friends, I have created a wreath of tea bag wrappers which we used to decorate our small apartment. It's really easy, and a good way to use all of those wrappers that you don't really need anyway. And it didn't cost us anything! See how we did it:

Pieces of cardboard leftover from a box my mom mailed me made our matting.

We tried a couple different strategies. In this one, the tea bag wrappers were layered up and down.

In this design, we decided to do more of a fish scale layering. We went with this design.

 And after hot-gluing the pieces of cardboard together and the tea bag wrappers to the cardboard, we have a finished product! We used command strips to fasten it to the wall.

Pinterest Works: Necklace Tangles

As a Christmas present, my parents gave our family a cruise for Christmas! We'll be heading down to Cozumel and the Cayman Islands in couple days. When we were finalizing plans and beginning packing, my mom turned to me and said: "How can I keep my necklaces from tangling?" I didn't know how to respond, but she promptly asserted, "I'm sure Pinterest has an idea!"

She was right, of course.

Just thread your necklace through a drinking straw (bend it or cut it to make it fit for shorter necklaces) and store it away.

Source: Uploaded by user via Alex on Pinterest

It's a great idea and I'll be using it as soon as I figure out what I'm going to wear!
Thanks Pinterest!

Recipe: Holiday Leftover Pork Stir-fry

When my family gets together on Christmas Eve to open presents, we always get a nearby local restaurant to cater dinner. Ham, pork, various southern sauces, sandwich buns, and sweet tea make up our Christmas Eve fare. This super quick recipe comes out of a desire to eat something other than another pulled-pork sandwich. Leftover pork or turkey? Stir-fly!

• A few slices of already cooked meat, such as pork or turkey (cut into stir-fry strips or cubes)
• About 1 cup of veggies (either frozen or leftover from the holiday dinner)
• 1/8 of an onion, choppped
• 1 bag instant rice (or about 2 cups of your favorite rice or rice substitute)
• Soy sauce
• Garlic powder or another seasoning to taste

1. Start cooking the rice as directions indicate or per your preferred method.
2. Add a bit of olive oil to a medium-sized skillet on medium-high or high heat.
1. If using frozen veggies, go ahead and put them in the skillet and cook until they are pretty much cooked through. Then add onions and continue to cook. Stir consistently.
2. If using fresh or thawed veggies, add onions just prior to adding veggies. Cook until all veggies are cooked through.
3. Add a small amount of soy sauce to the veggies, stir, add salt and pepper.
4. Stir meat into the skillet and add more soy sauce. Sprinkle a pinch of seasoning of your choice over the stir-fry. I would use either garlic powder or garlic salt.
5. Serve warm over rice.

Enjoy!!

Favorite Love Songs

Don't take the title of this post too seriously. If you, like me, have fallen into the category of hopelessly-single-but-faithfully-waiting-for-the-guy-God-has-for-you-while-[seemingly]-everyone-else-is-getting-married, this is the post for you.

Here I have compiled a list of my favorite love songs of various genres, many country, many Christian, some serious and some not-so-serious. I hope it inspires you, single ladies, to keep waiting for Mr. Right. I hope, for those of you preparing to say "I Do," this list could serve as ideas for your reception, guest gifts, or marriage playlist. Enjoy!

Funny and/or Upbeat

• "Hold On" - TobyMac
• "Let a Country Boy Love You" - Jon Wolfe
• "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" - The Georgia Satellites (fun and southern - love it!)
• "Falling in Love" - Ben Rector
• "Lucky Guy" - Mockingbird Sun
• "She Is" - Ben Rector
• "Guys Like Me" - Eric Church
• "You and Me" - Ben Rector
• "Take Me There" - Rascal Flatts

Fun to Dance To

• "Dancing in the Moonlight" - King Harvest (So much fun to dance to!)
• "Why Don't We Just Dance" - Josh Turner
• "Never Gonna Let You Go" - Ben Rector

More Contemplative

• "Country Boy's World" - Jason Aldean
• "Enough to Let Me Go" - Switchfoot
• "Who Are You When I'm not Looking" - Blake Shelton
• "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not" - Thompson Square
• "Head Over Heels (In This Life)" - Switchfoot
• "Lead Me" - Sanctus Real
• "Dancing in the Minefields" - Andrew Peterson
• "God Gave Me You" - Dave Barnes / Blake Shelton
• "The Day Before You" - Matthew West / Rascal Flatts

Super Slow

• "When You Say Nothing at All" - Allison Krauss
• "Oh My Dear" - Tenth Avenue North
• "Beloved" - Tenth Avenue North
• "I'll Be" - Edwin McCain
• "You and Me" - Lifehouse
• "Daughters" - John Mayer

Father-Daughter Dance Possibilities

• "Butterfly Kisses" - Bob Carlisle 
• "And Then They Do" - Trace Adkins

Rock-esque Love Songs

• "Falling In" - Lifehouse
• "Life After You" - Daughtry
• "Show Me What I'm Looking For" - Carolina Liar

Praise and Worship (for worship at a Christian wedding)

• "Made to Worship" - Chris Tomlin
• "Happy Day" - Tim Hughes

I hope to keep adding more, so stay tuned!