Tag Archives: kent state university

Making The Most Of The End Of Summer

Posted in Lifestyle by

I cannot believe it, but the summer is sadly winding down. I recently invited a few friends of mine over and we had a whole day of what summer is really about: sunshine, being outside (of course in a pool) and making memories!

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In 10 days I head back to my second home, Kent State, for the next four months, which is why I have decided to make the most of my time while still at home.

Most of my plans for the rest of the summer consist of spending a lot of time in my pool, but I also have plans to see as many of my friends from home as possible because I don’t get to see them often.

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I am also planning on going up to Baltimore this weekend with one of my best friends, Jake, my sister, Payton and my mom to a peach festival! I do not really know what this peach festival entails… but I am hoping there will be some awesome peach cobblers and homemade ice cream!

It is so important for college students to have some relaxation time during the summer because we know as soon as we get back to school, it is time to hit the books again. I cannot even begin to think about the group projects that are ahead me this semester!

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Annapolis, Baltimore and D.C. have so much to offer in the sweet summer time. I live so close to Annapolis, and go everyday, so I have decided in my final week at home, there is one thing in D.C. I want to do and one thing in Baltimore I want to do before I head back to Kent.

In D.C. I want to head down to Georgetown to shop and then grab dinner in Dupont Circle at my favorite restaurant called  Mission. And in Baltimore I want to go with my mom to this awesome place my mom showed me on Instagram, Graffiti Alley.

Although I definitely enjoyed the  majority of my summer in NYC , I could not ask for more for the end of my summer in Annapolis.

Now I am going to go jump into the pool in this heat wave!

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NYC Will Always Have My Heart

Posted in Lifestyle by

I cannot believe it, but my NYC summer experience has come to an end. Unbelievable, right?

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New York City became my home this summer and I feel like I legitimately left a piece of my heart there. When I first arrived in the city, I kept saying “I think I am going to have a great summer but I definitely do not see myself here after graduation.” WELL, I WAS WRONG. This summer my heart grew fonder as the days went on.

From learning the subway to mastering the different areas of Manhattan, to becoming closer with girls in the classes and internship to discovering so many amazing restaurants, my summer in NYC is one I will never forget.

I lived in the Upper West Side, which I always compared to the suburbs of the city. My internship was in the Flatiron District and my classes were in Midtown. I loved my classes and I definitely learned a lot of about myself and what I want out of my future at my internship.

I interned at a fashion PR firm, which was definitely an experience I always dreamed about. For the past three years I have said my dream was to work in fashion PR, but after interning in a fashion PR firm, I learned that I LIKE fashion PR, but I don’t LOVE it. I am so grateful for the experience I had at the agency I interned for. I was able to work at both New York Men’s Day (the opening event for NYFW) and at New York Men’s Fashion Week.

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This summer was amazing, and I think one of my absolute favorite things was getting to try all the different trendy foods that were all over Facebook and the internet this summer. For example, Frosé, the roll-up ice cream and I went to the bakery , Union Fare, which sells the rainbow croissants, but they were sold out by the time I got there so I tried their cookies and cream croissant, which was just as fabulous!

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Exploring was also amazing. You would think in the eight weeks I was there, I would have been able to do everything I wanted to, but I didn’t. If I did not have class or my internship, I probably could have, but I know that I will definitely have to do the things I wanted to do this summer first as soon as I am back in the city!

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Another thing I loved about being in NYC, everyone wants to come and visit! My sister, Payton and best friend, Amanda came twice, my friend Mary came with Payton and Amanda on their second trip and my friend Erin came up for a weekend trip. The FUNNIEST thing was Erin and I sleeping in my twin sized bed in my dorm room, haha!

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During my friend’s visits we explored all around Manhattan and went to Brooklyn! In Brooklyn, we adventured in Williamsburg and DUMBO, which is in the picture below.

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DUMBO: Down Under the Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass 

Dumbo was gorgeous! The architecture, the view of the Manhattan Skyline and the view of the Brooklyn bridge are out of this world. The area is located right in the middle of the Manhattan bridge and the Brooklyn bridge.

This summer also included going to Her Conference. Her Conference is a conference hosted by Her Campus, an online magazine for women in college. I am a writer for Her Campus Kent State and I am also in their blogging network! They hosted a kick-off event, hosted by Rebecca Minkoff. I attended the event and had the chance to meet her. I fan-girled so hard! She was so sweet and even signed the inside of the bag I purchased that evening.

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I cannot believe all of the things I did within these past eight weeks. These were just a few highlights from my summer. I truly cannot believe this summer is almost over. Summer 2016 is definitely my favorite summer yet!

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21 Things You Should Know About This 21-Year-Old

Posted in Lifestyle by

I cannot believe that I am 21 years old! I have been 21 for a month and a half and I have really thought a lot about 21 things about me that my readers may not not know about me!

But first I want to talk about what I did for my 21st birthday! I was able to celebrate two times, once with my friends at school and then another with my family and my friends in Maryland.

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With my friends from school:

My friends set up a “Bar Appearance”in downtown as we called it because I was really nervous about making it a bar crawl. I did not really want to go to a ton of bars, so we chose the two that we through I would really enjoy and stuck to those!

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My birthday happened to be the same day as “Fake Patty’s Day” in Kent, Ohio, which is why everyone is wearing green!

With my friends in Maryland: 

My sister set up an amazing birthday celebration! She set up a party bus for me and my friends to ride from Annapolis into D.C. for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants called Mission. It has amazing Mexican food. It was great because I not only got to see my great friends from Maryland, I also got to see my best friend, Jake, who I know from Kent State. The party bus was SO fun and dinner was great.

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I would definitely say that I had two amazing birthday celebrations.

21 things about myself that you may have been wondering: 

  1. I currently have two torn ACLs in my knee.
  2. I will be taking classes in NYC this summer for my minor, along with interning at Agentry PR firm!
  3. I love to travel. My favorite place I have been to is Madrid, Spain.
  4. I LOVE the color yellow. A lot of people ask me all the time why my whole blog is not yellow, because I love it that much.
  5. I am obsessed with psychics.
  6. I take my zodiac sign seriously, like really seriously.
  7. I  am pisces.
  8. I cry all the time, no matter if it’s a happy or sad cry.
  9. I have a cat name Angel. She is the cutest.
  10. I think everyone should go to therapy, it’s helped me a lot.
  11. I have anxiety.
  12. Thrifting is a huge stress reliever for me, but I haven’t gone in a few weeks because I have been so busy with classes.
  13. I am a public relations major.
  14. I am double minoring in fashion media writing and marketing.
  15. I LOVE Kate Spade.
  16. Coffee will always be running from my veins.
  17. I am extroverted.
  18. I always try to be positive, even if everything is falling apart.
  19. I have one younger sister, named Payton.
  20. I talk to my mom at least 3 times a day, and I would’t have it any other way. (I talk to my dad, too! don’t worry! 🙂 )
  21. I decided to start blogging because of Beautycon, a convention for all lovers of beauty, social media and gurus!

 

I hope this gives you a little more insight of who I am! I would love to get to know each and everyone of you!

 

 

The Creation of my Online Portfolio

Posted in Lifestyle by

Happy Friday!

So, I am currently taking a class called Online Tactics. Within the class I have been tasked with creating an online portfolio to showcase my work that I am doing in school to show my future internships and hopefully one day….a job!

An online portfolio is definitely something to consider for yourself, but you may not need one if your major is not something that requires any samples, but in PR I will definitely need one!

If an online portfolio sounds like something that might interest you, keep reading to see if this is something that could benefit you:

I made mine on Weebly. It was easier to make a quick online portfolio on rather than WordPress, even though WordPress will forever have my heart for any blogging needs that I have!

Lets take a look at Danieminor.weebly.com~

My homepage: 

I went with a very basic theme so it was very easy to understand and was straightforward!

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Something that I do not LOVE about Weebly is that it is not extremely customizable. I was hoping to brand myself a bit more with Defining Danie’s colors and fonts, but I had to go with something that was just close to it.

I kept my personality into my online portfolio but of course stayed professional!

Next I posted my Resume:

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One thing that I do LOVE about Weebly is they have a very easy-to-use set up for the pages. For me to upload my resume, it was very simple.

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Where it is circled pink, I dragged that element on to my actual Resume page of                      my online portfolio.

All I had to do was drag the element “Document” onto the page and then it let me upload any style of document I wanted, and then it uploaded into a Scribd document, so someone could scroll through and read my resume!

The third page that I have on my online portfolio is my section with my writing samples! This part took me a little while to figure out how I wanted it to look. I changed the style about three times.

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I finally figured out the best way to show some of my writing samples…I did it in a slideshow where you can preview the story/article I have written and then click on it if you want to read the rest of it. I linked each photo to go to the page where the story is located!

And finally, my Defining Danie lovers… I have a Blog Portfolio! I love writing this blog so I definitely wanted to include some of my favorite posts to showcase my writing skills.

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For my blogging portfolio, I made it look like a mosaic of photos where you can click any of the photos and have them take you directly to the link of the blog post! I thought it was a creative way of putting the posts on here rather than having just clippings of the articles.

This online portfolio is definitely a necessary thing to have if you are looking to go into public relations or any other field of work where your writing MATTERS.

I have been meaning to create one for a long time now, so having it as a project for class was just a way to give me a “kick in the butt” to get it done!

I hope this inspires you to showcase your own writing. If you create one, please share it with me because I would love to read yours!

 

XODanieSparkle

My Guilty Pleasure… Getting my hair washed and blow dried each week

Posted in Beauty, Lifestyle by

Want to know my guilty pleasure?

It’s most definitely getting my hair washed and blow dried once a week. I really hate washing my own hair for it just look awful after I attempt to blow dry it and then straighten it.

Before you think I am a diva (well TOO much of a diva), it is not as costly as you might be thinking it is! I have found Rush salon in Kent, Ohio that is honestly just PERFECT.

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I used to go and get my hair washed and blow dried before a big event, but this school year I started doing this on the first day of the school year. I called two weeks before school started and told them I needed their first appointment that day because I didn’t want to stress about my hair the first day of school, plus I wanted to look great after coming back from the summer!

HOW DO THEY MAKE MY HAIR FEEL SO SOFT AND LUSCIOUS? 

So now you may be asking yourself…”Does Danie only wash her hair once a week?” and to answer this question, yes I do only wash it once a week unless there is a reason that I MUST wash it. I have truly “trained” my hair to not get oily.

I started only washing it once a week when I had red in my hair because each time I would wash it, the red dye would come out and I was getting more annoyed each time I washed my hair. After researching what I would do to slow down the red washing out of my hair, I found out how awful washing your hair too often is actually for you. So even before getting it washed, I only washed it once a week. If learning how to get down to washing your hair once-twice a week, check out my previous post: here.

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But to get back to my guilty pleasure… I know it sounds ridiculous, but I honestly crave that hour on Tuesdays (the day I get my hair done!). That time I take for myself and I don’t check my phone or think about anything else that I have going on during that time. I focus on myself, which I do not do a lot. It is a stress reliever for me.

I get a lot of criticism from people who do not agree with my choices about me getting my hair done once a week- and what I want to say to those people is: How I spend my money is my choice, and I appreciate you looking out for my budget, but I will continue to get my hair washed each week.

Trust me…if I could make my hair the way that my favorite stylists, Skye and Allison, make it look, I would do it myself! 

To maintain my hair looking good the rest of the week, I wear a shower cap while I shower and I do not put any extra products in my hair the rest of the week.
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The only time I really touch my hair is when I straighten a few pieces that may have gotten curly throughout the week and when I pull my hair in my favorite hairstyle, the half up half down style!

 

I know all of you divas out there will feel my pain out there! I know that not everyone’s budget each week can fit $18 for you to get your hair washed, but definitely think about cutting down on how many times a week you wash your hair!

Let me know what you think of this idea!

XODanieSparkle

 

 

 

Thrifty Thursday: Summer to Fall Bag!

Posted in Thrifty Thursdays by

So, Defining Danie reader’s, it’s been a while. I’ve missed you all! School has been more than hectic, which is why I haven’t blogged in what feels like a lifetime.

Look at this amazing purchase that I found. The bag was originally $45 and at Goodwill it was being sold for $17, and then I got the student discount and ended up getting the bag for $15!

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This week’s Thrifty Thursday is based on a bag I found a few weeks ago that was originally from Target. Orange can go for either summer or fall, but adding this scarf definitely adds more a fall-feel. The bag was brand new and I bought it from Goodwill in Kent, Ohio. Goodwill and Target have a partnership where the Goodwill sells the clothing/accessories not sold during the time that they were being sold in Target so they have another chance to be sold again. The clothing/accessories are sold for a cheaper price than they would be sold in Target.

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Although the oranges are not the same, the scarf and bag still complement one-another. The bag has more of a coral undertone and the scarf has a darker orange, magenta, yellow and various colors of taupe! I love the scarf, which I got for only $1.00!

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Take a look inside this bag! It even has the perfect compartment for pencils and lipstick. 😉 And the polka dots are a lovely touch.

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Incorporating thrifted items into your daily outfits is not hard at all! It was a coincidence that I was actually wearing was thrifted over the summer.

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to fall!

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Embarking on My Junior Year

Posted in Lifestyle by

I am waiting for my first class to start at 11:00 a.m., and I thought what better way to wait then to write about how I cannot wait for my day to begin! This school year is going to be challenging, fun and different.

I have already been back in Kent, Oh. for a week now. I’ve been setting up my apartment, going to sorority recruitment workshops and finally catching up with friends, who I haven’t seen in four months. This week has honestly been jam-packed with exciting stuff, but I am so ready for classes to begin!

Classes I am taking this semester: 

  • Fashion Fundamentals (For my fashion media writing minor)
  • Fashion Branding (For my fashion media writing minor)
  • Research & Measurement in Ad and PR
  • Reporting
  • PR Publications
  • Vision Design Literacy

…I am taking 18 credit hours. I’ve done it before, and I am hoping I can do it again. It is going to be tough because I am also involved in several organizations!

Organizations I am involved in:

  • Chi Omega (My sorority)
  • Her Campus (Definitely check out Kent State’s HC page!)
  • Hillel – Jewish Student Organization

I have decided to update my blog once a week with different tips and updates on how I am keeping organized throughout my semester! I know it is going to be a tough year ahead of me, but I know I can do it and so can you!

First Day of Class Selfie!

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I would love to hear how you stay organized during the school year!

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An Easy 4 Step DIY For Your Dorm

Posted in DIY by

I live in an apartment-style dorm.  I decorated a little in the beginning of the school year, but last night (at 2 a.m. of course) I realized I had a lot of things with my monogram on it, but, nothing with any sayings on it! I came across a quote on Twitter that I absolutely fell in love with- so it had to be painted and put on my walls! 🙂

First Step:
I used this owl-shaped piece of wood that I bought at Michael’s craft store over the summer that I hadn’t done anything with. Then, I painted it with two coats of white paint.
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Second Step: 
I decided to use the quote: “She needed a hero so that’s what she became” because a little girl power is ALWAYS needed!  I used my favorite gold paint that I also bought at Michaels’s craft store. Make sure that when you’re using a gold paint, to buy the metallic gold paint! It will shimmer, and look GORG (just like all of you!).
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Make sure to go over the words at least twice, so the paint isn’t transparent!

Third Step: 
At first, I was thinking I liked the board with just the words, and no bedazzles, but I wouldn’t be Danie without any extras on my crafts! So, I decided to look in my crafting bin for something cute I had to put on it, and I found two pretty fake flowers!

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I just magically had two flowers left- so, it was meant to be for this craft! I just hot glued them on, and they stayed perfectly.

Fourth Step: 
Now it’s time to hang up your masterpiece! I used a command hook and hung it up in my living room!

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I hung it up underneath of one of the many monograms that are in my apartment!

These small things make your dorm room have personality! I would love to see some of your DIYs that are in your dorms! 

xodanie2

Fashion Show in Kent!

Posted in Fashion, Lifestyle by

Hi everyone! There is a really exciting event coming up for anyone in the Kent/Cleveland area. In Kent, on Feb. 13th, there is going to be a fashion show called “For The Love of Fashion”. The profits are going to benefit Kent State’s chapter of Delta Zeta’s philanthropy.

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The fashion show is going to be showing off the stores of Downtown Kent! I love all of the boutiques, so the clothes will be so cute. The tickets are only $10, and are on sale online.

The fashion show is going to be held at the Kent State Hotel (so dress cute! :))

For more information check out their Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/events/355946411259824/360808944106904/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

I hope I see you all there!

xodanie2

Thrifty Thursday!!

Posted in Thrifty Thursdays by

IMG_3143My Awesome finds this week:

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This week, I had the opportunity to going to two different thrift stores for my Thrifty Thursday! I went with my friend Marie! We went to the Goodwill in Akron, Ohio and we also went to Value Discount Outlet, which is also in Akron, Ohio!

The sweater and the ADORABLE Kent State pajama pants are from my stop at Goodwill. For those of you who don’t know, I go to Kent State, so I thought these pajamas were a must-have! 🙂 …And they just so happened to be my size, so of course I “needed” them!

I am always constantly in need of a white cardigan, but I never find one that I like and yesterday I found this Ann Taylor one that was perfect! It was also a great price for Ann Taylor! (Also, check out Ann Taylor’s website, they are having a great sale right now!)  At Goodwill, I spent a total of $5.50! I saved a little money at Goodwill too with my student discount! I also have a Goodwill card that I rack points on. Make sure the next time you’re at your local Goodwill to sign-up for one! They are so worth it. When you reach 100 points (which is so easy for me! LOL), you receive 35% off of your purchase! You get a point per dollar.

At the next stop, Value Discount Outlet, I found some of my favorite things I have ever found while thrifting! I love love love the red shirt with the white flowers! It’s my favorite material to wear.

Then, I found the grey workout pants! They are Champion brand, which is sold at a number of places, but I usually see it at Target!

At Discount stores, they usually have a “Color of the Day.” This means that the color tag that is on your clothing will be 50% off when it is that “Color of the Day.”

Yesterday, at VDO, the color tags of the day were yellow and green! So, you can see that the items that I picked up had yellow tags meaning that the items I bought were all 50% off! At VDO I only spent $11!

A very exciting piece of clothing that I found was:

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This adorable vest is Craft & Barrow brand! Craft & Barrow is sold at Kohl’s!

GUESS WHAT EVERYONE! I took this picture right before I dropped off the vest to get monogramed at The Dragonfly in downtown Kent, Ohio! The Dragonfly (who you should like on Facebook!) will monogram anything your little hearts desire for $5! They have so many color and script choices, it is almost overwhelming! I could sit in there all day and think of the different pairings that you can get!

This time I chose to get a gold monogram! You can see on the tag for this vest that it was $8, but at VDO, green was one of the tags that were 50% off! So, I bought the vest for $4! And then, my monogram was $5! So, I got this customized-monogramed vest for only $9!!!!!!!! YAYAY!

I will post pictures as soon as I get the vest back!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

XO,

Danie