It is now well into May and it finally feels like spring! I am surrounded by green leaves and bright flowers. Unfortunately, these months are home to the dreaded Spring Cleaning! By this point you have probably pinned a million ways to clean out your house and maybe even applied those clever ideas to your home. But what about your Pinterest boards? Think about it. How many times have you accidentally pinned a pin to the wrong board and left it out of pure laziness? Or created a new board that separates your shoes from your clothes board, but forgot to transfer all those pins from the old board to the new? Well, it's now time to clean up that Pinterest board. 

I have only been using my Pinterest for a few years, but I already have 48 boards and over 3,000 pins. It's a lot to take care of, and I have found myself cleaning up my Pinterest boards many times over the years. This week, I decided to purge my business account and only use it for my blogging pins. This meant hours of switching over my personal pins to my old account. Now I am in the middle of a huge organizing session and thought that maybe others would find some use for my technique.

I would like to point out that this takes a long time to do. If your have an account that is around the size of mine or bigger, think about doing a step a day. 

If you have multiple pins that don't quite fit anywhere, but relate to one another, make another board. It makes things a lot easier. For example: for a long time, I had a board titled "Clothes" that I put all my fashion pieces in. I eventually branched out, but I still had shoes in my "Clothes" board. This week, I made a "Shoes" board and transferred those over. It's more fun to browse through your saved pins this way anyways! 

At this stage, you can also delete out any duplicates that you notice. 

2. Edit captions
This step takes the longest, especially if you have as many pins as I do. If you are like me, you often pin without editing the captions. I have pins that refer to people I have never even met. Now is the time to get your voice into your Pinterest boards. Go through and recaption the pins that you didn't change. You should do this even if you agree with what the pin says. A clean Pinterest board is a board that shows your voice and your style of writing. It may take a while, but then your friends will know for sure what you think about each pin. 

On the computer, you can edit a caption by hovering over the pin and selecting the pencil icon in the right corner. Then Click on the description and type what you wish. 

On your Smartphone, edit a caption by clicking the pencil icon in the top left corner. Select the caption and write what you want. 

3. Change cover photos
The automatic cover photo for your boards is the first pin that you pinned to that board. A lot of the time, this is not your favorite or most relevant picture in you board. The most successful boards are those that have cover photos that are representative of their content. 

Computer: Click the "Edit" button below the picture. It will bring up a lot of options. Go to where it says "Cover" and click the "Change" button. Using the arrows, find the picture that best suits your board. Arrange it within the square so that it looks right by clicking and dragging the photo into place. Click "Save Changes" at the bottom right. This will bring you back to the original editing options. Hit "Save".  

Smartphone: Click the "Edit" button. Select "Board cover". Pick your favorite photo and adjust it by dragging your finger. Hit "Done" and then click "Save" (both buttons are in the top right corner). 

4. Optional: Delete boards
This step is optional because I can't bring myself to do it, but I have a theory: if a board has over 150 pins you should either split it up into smaller boards or delete it. If it is much over that, you will not want to go and look through it, so what is the point of saving it? 

What are some good Pinterest tricks that you know? 

Those who have been on a diet know how easy it is to fall off the wagon. It is so easy to be temped by the mac & cheese at Noodles & Company or that piece of chocolate cake at the banquet. It's okay to indulge every once in a while, but it's easy to fall into the trap of overeating. 

I must confess... I recently messed up my diet. 

I just had spring break. I am a weakling when I go home. It is easy to avoid food on campus because it doesn't taste all that great. At home, it's a different story... My dad is a great cook and always makes my favorite foods when I come home. I generally do my best to eat smaller portions, but I'm only human. I gained about two pounds on spring break. This isn't necessarily that bad, but I got myself stuck in a rut. 

I know. Great role model right? 

The good thing is you can always get back on the wagon. As of today, I am officially back on track. Today's post is about how I get back on track when I mess up. 

Just some background: My diet isn't horribly strict. I allow myself to eat what I want (trying to switch out a few unhealthy foods for better options now and then), but I keep my calorie intake under 1,200. I have lost about 10 pounds using this method, and I am still aloud to eat foods that I like. I got off track this spring break by constantly going over my calorie goals. 

Here's how I reigned it in. 

1. Make a decision to get back on track and commit to it
Losing weight is all about attitude. If you're not fully into your goals, you are not going to achieve them. The first thing I had to do to get back on track is tell myself that I am not allowed to go over 1,200 calories no matter what. It sometimes helps to give yourself a fake punishment to go along with it. For example: the world will end if I go over 1,200! Think of the children! How you do it is all up to you, as long as you set your mind to it! 

2. Choose healthy choices
If you are on a diet like mine, this can be particularly helpful. I don't count salads and fruits in my calorie intake because you burn most or all of it off during digestion. I find it easier to get on track when I eat an apple every time I am hungry and bigger healthier choices for my main meals. This keeps your calories in check. 

3. Start cutting back
Once you have your calories in check you can start cutting back your snacking a little. I am not saying that you should go under your calorie goal, because that can become dangerous. Also, cutting back on fruits and veggies is not a good idea because they benefit you greatly. What I'm talking about is that bad habit you developed of eating a couple Oreos after you get your homework done. Basically, cut back eating during times that you didn't need to eat before, but formed a habit of eating during. 

4. Religiously document your eating 
I use the MyFitnessPal app to document my calorie intake. Instead of skipping out on documenting a few snacks, make sure you log everything before you eat it. That way you know exactly how much you are eating and it also gets annoying to eat because you have to work a little harder for it. 

If you follow these steps, you should be back on track in no time!

Do you have any more ways that you get back on your diet? 

Today, I am leaving school to go home for spring break! On our breaks, campus closes and you have to clean out your room using a checklist. I think the checklist is a great idea and want to post it here so you guys can benefit from the list that my school sends me. Just so you know, these are not my ideas, it is Illinois Wesleyans requirements for closing the dorms. I am just going to expand on them a bit. 

1. Clean Room
I want to further say that you should not only clean your room, but vacuum it too. You don't want to get bugs in your room because some crumbs got into the carpet. This also means you should go through and organize your stuff. If you have things you don't ever use, now is the time to take it home. 

2. Empty the Wastebaskets
Clean out your trash. It would be disgusting if you let that crap rot in there while you are away. Again, you don't want bugs to decide to live in your dorm room. That's nasty. 

3. Defrost and Clean out Refrigerator 
You need to defrost your refrigerator before you unplug it, otherwise the ice will melt and get everywhere. If you don't know how to do that, here is a tutorial. Make sure you take all the food out of it, otherwise it will rot over spring break. You don't want your dorm to smell like rotten Chinese food...

4. Close and Lock Windows
Make sure your windows are shut up tight. It would be bad if something came in through the window. Also, who knows what that would do to heating and cooling costs. 

5. Close the Drapes
This makes sure that the temperature in the room stays constant. It is more important than you think. 

6. Unplug Everything
Make sure that everything is unplugged. That includes the fridge, extension chords, microwave, (piano), and lamps. We have to make sure we aren't harming the environment by using up energy for no reason. 

7. Turn off the Lights
Same as before: save energy. 

8. Lock the Door
You don't want anyone to steal the stuff you left behind. 

Here is a cute little checklist that I made! Feel free to print it out and use it whenever you like! 

Do you have any suggestions on how else you can clean up your dorm room before you leave? Tell me! 

Photo credit to Forums.mangafox.me

Today I got up at 8:30 and have gone from one thing or another all day, with no break except 30 minutes for lunch. Yet, despite how busy and stressful today has been, I am doing pretty well. I used to get upset under the stress, but today is different. Why? Because I figured out how to deal with it.

Luckily, today is mostly busy work and not anything important, so even though I haven't had much rest or "me time", I was still pretty stress free. The key to limiting stress is to believe that what your doing is important, but will not affect you on long run if you mess up. To be honest, most things in life fall under that category. If only I had realized that sooner.

In order to make my time seem longer, I made my free time more significant. At this point in your life, you have to look at 5 minutes as a time to gather yourself. You would be surprised how slow 5 minutes can been when you focus only on you. It is really nice. Today during my 30 minute lunch hour, I was able to gather myself up and get ready to jump back in again!

Hopefully, I will be able to apply this to test days or recitals. I guess we'll have to see!

Today, I have a job interview, and I think it went pretty well. However, like most things of this nature, it could have been better. So, for my sake, I have decided to make of a list of ways to prepare for an interview. This is partially for me, but also to help my readers interview more successfully in the future. Without further ado: 

5 Ways to Prepare for an Interview

1. Get comfortable 
Okay, the biggest problem with going into an interview is the nerves. Before I went to do my interview, I couldn't stop moving, I was so anxious. This is ridiculous, because you are just talking to a person who wants you to do well. So, in order to calm down, you have to remind yourself of that and try to think of the interview as a conversation. I know. It is a bit cliché... But thinking about an interview as a conversation really does help. 

2. Prepare your stories
The interviewer is going to be asking a lot of questions about how you handled certain situations and about your experience with one thing or another. The best way to prepare for this is to find common questions online and think of examples from your life that you could use to answer the question. ALWAYS use an example, even if they don't ask for one. It may seem like you are babbling, but if you keep close to the point, the interviewer will appreciate the evidence that you are providing. 
Some common interview "questions": 
   -Tell me about yourself.
   -Tell me a situation in which you have gone above and beyond. 
   -Have you ever been in a situation in which you were in conflict with someone? How did you deal with it? 
   -Tell me about a situation in which you have failed. How did you deal with it? 
(There are many more, but I am not going to list them here. Google it!)
The most important thing is to remember that you want to put yourself in a good light. Don't give bad examples and always spin a negative into a positive!

3. Pick out an outfit
Interviews, like a dance or party, require careful clothes planning. You cannot run out the door wearing whatever wasn't in the clothes hamper. You want to pick something nice, but also comfortable (you don't want to be fidgety because your dress zipper is itching). You also want to dress in a way to fit the job. No, that does not mean wearing a bathing suit to a lifeguard interview (do they even have those?). It means not wearing a three piece suit to an interview for a position at a fast food restaurant. My interview was for a counseling position at a summer camp, so I decided to dress in a nicer casual outfit. I wore a black and white patterned shirt (not a button up) with a burgundy cardigan. Now, my interview was over Skype, so I wore a nice pair of yoga pants, so that I would feel comfortable, but if I were to interview in person, I would wear dress pants. Men, in the same position you would want to wear khakis and a polo shirt, or something similar. Just remember: the more dressed up you would need to be on the job, the more dressed up you should be in the interview!

4. Practice with a friend
You want to know a great way to get used to talking to another person about yourself? Try talking to another person about yourself. It is a little bit easier to talk to a friend, but it can still be uncomfortable. After a while, you will quickly get over it. 

5. Groom yourself
There is nothing worse that talking to someone who has dirty fingernails, especially if they draw attention to them by gesturing (which, in itself, isn't a bad thing). Before going into an interview, make sure that your hair is trimmed and brushed, your make-up is tidy and muted, and your fingernails are clean.

Once you have these 5 things down, all you need to do is be confident in your abilities. You will do great! 

Have a happy interview! 


Update from yesterday's post: Below is a picture of the window of my room, with the light switch in the "on" position...

Help us! We are slowly getting paler and paler! We are losing our sense of sight! Slowly we are becoming animals of the night!!! Physical Plant, please come save.... *howls to the moon*.

If your have OCD like I do, you probably are irritated by the tiniest things. For example, when the brick path has a glitch in the pattern, when that picture frame isn't centered on the wall, or the picture in this post. I have a strict philosophy when it comes to medical disorders: I won't let it get the best of me. So, in order to follow this philosophy I have decided to laugh about it. 

Okay, so this isn't a picture that I found on google and posts like this will never be. I took this picture while at a cute little coffee shop in Bloomington, IL. I will probably post about the shop at some point, but I want to get to know it a little better before I talk about it.  Anyways, I actually enjoy this picture. I love the memories behind it. Last week my roommate, her sister, another friend, and I decided to check out this coffee shop. We loved how it was set up and how good the food and drinks were, so we decided to start going every weekend. Last Friday, the picture happened. We were sitting in this palette couch (it is quickly becoming our Spot) and I decided to get the puzzle off the shelf beside us. 

My roommate didn't want to participate at first, but we eventually convinced her. Around plates with cinnamon rolls and cups of tea, we tried to assemble this "100 piece" puzzle. For a children's puzzle, it was harder than we thought (I blame the cups and plates). We eventually got most of the outer edges and the head of the T-rex when we figured out that we built the frame upside down. That was a very useful revelation! We "finished" the puzzle only to find that a large part of our difficulty had to do with one annoying and absent piece. Considering that we had slaved for at least 30 minutes under to intellectual might of a children's puzzle, it was very difficult not to laugh at this petty little problem. 

A missing piece that would normally itch at the back of my brain made a great memory. I would encourage all my readers to approach life in the same way: laughing at puzzle pieces. 

So after staying up until 7 in the morning last night setting up this blog, I decided that I would write a post on the concept of sleep. Okay, I know what you are thinking. "Couldn't you wait?" To be honest, no. I could not. You see, I suffer from insomnia and have since childhood. My insomnia, unfortunately, can be triggered when I am excited by something (like starting a new blog). However, my sleeping disorder is not what I'm going to talk about today. 

Have you ever pulled an all nighter and felt like you could conquer the world that next day? That is exactly how I feel right now and have always felt after not sleeping. Hopefully, I'm not the only one that feel like this, because it seems almost silly to talk about it, considering it is so contradictory. I have always wondered what the brain chemistry of this particular scenario is. How could I possibly feel so awake right now? I read somewhere once that it has to do with Newton's First Law of Motion: an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. I think that is an interesting theory. I would love to see scientific evidence of it. If you happen to know any more about this, please contact me! I'm curious to know! 

Now, I am in no way trying to encourage others to skip a night or two of sleep in order to get this energetic high. Going without sleep is not good for your body. Sleep has many benefits. Here is a list of them from Health Magazine. 

1. Improves memory
While you are awake, your brain essentially records data and stores it. While asleep, your brain goes through these memories and consolidates and enhances them so that you can remember them later. 

2. Improves your grades
As we have established, sleeping improves your memory. It also makes you more attentive. During sleep, your brain prepares itself for learning and upcoming memories for the next day. All of this is essential in getting good grades. Plus, nobody wants to be at school when they are tired; it makes things more stressful. 

3. Enhances the creative process
While sleeping, your brain consolidates memories. It also reorganizes them and makes them stronger, which can lead to more creativity. Also, sleep enhances the emotional aspect of memories, which also aids the creative process. 

3. Raises your energy (especially for sports)
Stanford University discovered that football players that got at least 10 hours of sleep at night were better able to improve their sprint times, increase their stamina, and were less fatigued during the day. Now, we are not all great athletes, but we all receive the same benefits from sleep. By sleeping more, we will have more energy. 

5. Sharpens your attention
Sleeping makes it easier for you to focus the next day. This is particularly true for children. Adults become sleepy and groggy when tired. Children become hyperactive. Both reactions to a lack of sleep make it very difficult to focus on what needs to get done throughout the day. 

6. Helps lose weight
A study at the University of Chicago found that dieters who get enough sleep burn more fat that those that do not. In fact, people who do not get enough sleep lose muscle mass. "Sleep and metabolism are controlled by the same sectors of the brain," Dr. Rapport says. "When you are sleepy, certain hormones go up in your blood, and those same hormones drive appetite." In other words, you are more likely to be hungry when you don't sleep enough.

7. Lowers Stress
Unfortunately, stress and sleep have a nasty relationship to one another. Sleep reduces stress levels, but stress can keep you from sleeping. It's kind of annoying how that works isn't it? Eventually, though, you can figure out a way to go to sleep earlier and get the required amount of sleep to lower your stress levels. Sleep is important in regulating your cholesterol and blood pressure. This helps reduce your risk of heart disease. Your body also goes into repair mode and renews itself while you sleep. That is why you get dark circles under your eyes when you don't sleep enough. You are not letting your body renew itself and the blood vessels actually dilate when you don't get enough sleep. Additionally, when you get enough sleep, you are more able to handle any stress that you may encounter during the day. 

8. Makes you happier
Lack of sleep and anxiety can lead to depression. When you sleep, you are able to reduce your stress levels and give your brain time to recharge and relax. This is essential towards becoming a happier person. Loosing sleep can make you cranky and irritable, and as everyone knows, the day only gets worse from there. 


Moral of the story: Sleep! You will feel so much better and will be able to perform daily activities in a more productive and meaningful way. 

Thanks for reading!
Bonne nuit!