Baking Strawberry Shortcake !!!

This strawberry shortcake was DELICIOUS!!!! Perfect for an after-dinner dessert.
Here's how to make it:

Ingredients:
1 box of vanilla cake mix
1 container of cool whip
1 box of strawberries

Directions:
Bake vanilla cake as directed on box.
Allow the cake to cool for an hour before icing.
Ice the cake using a spoon and the cool whip.
Cut up strawberries and lay onto the cool whip.
Refrigerate until served.

The final result was amazing! The cake was moist and the cool whip was light and fluffy. The strawberries added a bright color to the dish. Delicious!

Saving Money/Finding Cheaper School Supplies Tips

Back to school shopping...something we all love doing then hate it later in the year. Am I right? We all spend loads of money getting the cutest notebooks, folders, and binders. And yes cute school supplies is required in order to survive. But after a long day of back to school shopping, you get home and look at your shopping receipt and realize that you just spent almost $200 buying things you probably wont even use. Hours of regret comes next because now you don't have any money to go clothing shopping. You vow not to spend nearly as much next year. But here comes 2017 and you did it again. Does this basically explain your school life? Well not anymore because you are about to read ways to cut down on the school supplies shopping costs. 

Step 1: Durable binders

These Avery brand binders last forever. (just kidding, they last for at least a whole school year) If you buy one of these, you won't need to buy 3 different ones because you or someone else ripped the cover off like a wild gorilla. 

Step 2: Those colorful things that keep your binder organized, well most of the time. (binder tabs)

The Avery brand binder tabs last longer then one year. This is going to be the second year my sister and I use the binder tabs we bought last year.

Step 3: If you prefer Five Star supplies, DO YOUR SHOPPING AT TARGET!

I thought that if I went to Walgreens and bought a Five Star Notebook it would be cheaper then buying the same notebook at Target. (during back to school season of course) But no! At Target, I got a Five Star notebook for about $2 but at Walgreens the same exact notebook was about $5! Not only is Target less expensive, but it has a greater selection of color and designs. 

Step 4: Cheap pens & pencils & markers

Looking for dry erase markers, pens, pencils, and highlighters? The dollar store has your back. They have 10 mechanical pencils for just a dollar! They even have lead refills for 0.7mm, 0.5mm, and many many MANY more! The highlighters they have are so bright and they have just as many colors as Target would have. (credits to my little sister for helping me out with this caption)

Step 5: You will probably need wite-out

Since you just bought 3 years worth of pens, you will need some type of wite-out. These are my two favorite brands. Papermate and Bic. I found the Papermate version at Walgreens for $2.20. But I found the Bic version at the dollar store! They work exactly the same so skip Walgreens and go to somewhere cheaper. :)

Step 6: Stu{dying} Stuff

Who doesn't love a pack of colorful index cards and sticky notes? I know I do. But sometimes I go overboard and spend like $10 just on sticky notes and index cards. No longer. Once again, the dollar store is at your service. Sure their index cards aren't the brightest colors ever and sure their sticky notes don't stick very well but hey, at least they were only $1.

Step 7: Hole reinforcement hack

Don't you just hate it when you hole punch something and put it in your binder then you get home only to find out that the paper you just put in has fallen out because the holes ripped? Well good thing these sticky circles exist. Don't waste money getting the expensive ones. Instead go to Target and get the Target brand (Up&Up) hole reinforcements. 

Reasons Why The Target Brand Is Better:

-cheaper

-there is more in pack

-and who doesn't love Target brand stuff

Step 8: The unnecessary stuff (but still necessary)

 I love decorating my planner for school but you can't do that unless you have cute and colorful sticky notes. Everything you see in this picture I found for a dollar. The Target dollar section has some pretty cool stuff as well as the dollar store. (I feel like I've typed dollar store a million times lol)

Step 9: Backpacks

I don't really have a huge tip here but I recommend buying your backpack from Amazon if you want a really expensive Jansport. I found this viking red Jansport on Amazon and it was $10 cheaper then if I went in store and bought the exact same backpack. 

Click here if you want to find this exact backpack.

xoxo
Olivia

Blueberry Muffin Substitutes/Baking

If I had to chose one flavor of muffins to eat for the rest of my life, I would definitely chose blueberry. I usually use a packaged batter to make them so yes they are artificial. But, there are ways to make the muffins taste more natural.

For the recipe, I'm using the Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry muffin mix. Preheat the oven as you normally would. Replace the 3/4 cup of water with 3/4 cup of milk. And replace 1/4 cup of vegetable oil with 1/4 cup of unsalted butter.

I also only used 1 egg because my sister has an egg allergy. Reducing the muffins to only one egg makes them taste exactly the same as if you put 2 eggs. They don't crumble or anything.

This box was a bit more natural then a bag would be so it said to drain and wash the blueberries it came with.

So now that we have all of our substitutes, we can mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Stir in the batter, milk, butter, and eggs. After that is completely mixed, gently stir in the blueberries.

Your batter should look something like this when you are finished.

Put your muffin paper in the cupcake pan and fill each one with an equal amount of batter.

Place the pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

(above is the muffins when they still have 5 minutes left)

When the time is up, the muffins should have a little brown on the top and should be fully cooked throughout. The substitutes we used should make the muffins taste way better then they would've if we used water and vegetable oil. Of course if you are using a different box, you will have to change the measurements and the cook time. 

I hope this helped you out with your baking!

xoxo

Olivia

School DIY: Tumblr Collage Notebook

Don't you just love all the colors of this notebook?!?

This is my blog notebook actually! It's just a simple composition notebook that you can get from basically any school supplies store. This DIY can be put on any type of notebook, folder, planner, or anything that has a cover on it. I've even seen laptops with these type of DIY. This is similar to the tumblr wall. There are really basic steps to doing this.

Step 1: Go onto pinterest or tumblr and find a couple of pictures that inspire you or that you like. (you can really go on any website to find pictures or you can use your own)

Step 2: Print and cut out all of your pictures to the size you want.

Step 3: Use Mod Podge or glue to stick each photo down.

(optional) Step 4: To finish off, use a paint brush to apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over all of your pictures to seal them down. 

This is a super fun and cute way to spice up your school supplies. I made 2 of these notebooks and I took pictures of both. Some of my friends saw them and they said things like, "Please sell these" and "These are so cool, I would buy one." These notebooks will definitely draw attention. (in a good way)  Click here to go to my pinterest account to find all the these exact pictures.

xoxo

Olivia

DIY Tumblr Photography Wall

This colorful wall of photos is what I call a tumblr wall. It's colorful, inspirational, and super pretty. 

All you have to do is go on pinterest or tumblr and find photos that inspire you or that you just like to look at. Print them all out and if you want, you can leave a thin white boarder or you can cut them completely. To stick them to the wall, you can either use a disappearing purple glue-stick or sticky tabs. If you are using glue, make sure its disappearing purple. Any other type won't let the pictures come off and they could peel and ruin the paint.

I used disappearing purple glue and I can switch out the pictures and move them around without ruining the walls. I only put 24 pictures on the wall but I plan to add more! 

A really good word to search when looking for quality photography is "adventure" on pinterest. You could also search "tumblr photography". I like to search things like "pineapple tumblr photography" or "donut tumblr photography". They all give really good results.

If you want these exact pictures, you can click here and it will take you to my pinterest account.

xoxo

Olivia

DIY Planner Ad-in

(see bottom for more detailed explanation)

Planner: Target
Washi-Tape: Walgreens
Scrapbook Paper: Tuesday Morning

In my last post, I said I would make a post about how to make the ad-in you saw. So here it is!

Steps:
1. Cut out the size you want the ad-in to be using the scrapbook paper. I recommend using a ruler to get straight edges or just 'eye it' like I did.
2. Cut a piece of washi-tape a little bit longer then the paper itself and place it just a little less then half way on the front.
3. Flip the paper over and cut another piece of washi-tape and place it directly on top.
4. Align the paper and tape to the spiral.
5. Using the pen, draw dashes to mark were each spiral meets the tape.
6. Hole-punch where each dash is. Try to get them in a straight row. You can use a ruler to help straighten them.
7. Cut a rectangle out of each hole-punch to make an open circle type shape.
8. Place in your ad-in.
That's it!!!

If your planner doesn't have very much note space, you can make these big enough to fill the whole page. I like making these if I have to put in lists for a month or a week. And the best thing is, if you have to reschedule something that you wrote on your ad-in, you can just move it to a different week!

xoxo
Olivia

DIY August Planner Decoration

Scrapbook Paper: Tuesday Morning

Washi-tape: $1 section in Target

Page Flags: $1 section in Target

Silver Glitter Duct-tape: Walgreens

Stickers: Target

For back to school season, I decided to decorate the month August in my planner/agenda. In my planner, each month has a theme. Since I go back to school in August, I made a school-ish theme. I cut-out rulers, alphabet cards, lined paper, and all different types of patterns that I got from a scrapbook paper set. 

I used scrapbook paper for all of the cut-outs you see here. I used washi-tape for the boarder and to keep the add-in on, and I used stickers to mark important dates. I went to a store called Tuesday Morning and bought 3 scrapbook paper sets for $15 with 240 sheets each. I cut out different shapes, sizes, and patterns to go with a certain part of the month. 

To put the days of the week, I cut a striped pattern into squares. Then, I cut a triangle into the square to make it seem like a flag. I glued it down and that's it!

I got the cut-out of the word 'August' from a pattern in the scrapbook set. I also found the alphabet cards from a sheet. For the add-in paper you see on the spiral, I will make a separate post about how to make that but it's extremely simple.

xoxo

Olivia