Caralina Style: October 2014

Recipe: Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is from the Southern Living Cookies Cookbook. I made them recently and I thought I would share it today! They're pretty easy to make and because they are very large cookies they last quite a while! You will need: 1/2 cup of butter, softened 1/2 shortening 1 cup of dark brown sugar 1/2 sugar 2 large eggs 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour 1 teaspoon of baking soda 1/2 teaspoon of salt 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Beat the butter and shortening together, Then add the sugars, Then the eggs, Then the flour baking soda, and the salt, And then stir in the chocolate chips.

Once the dough is ready, take a 1/4 cup and put them onto baking sheets

I put 5 cookies per sheet for 12 minutes in the oven

The recipe should make about 15 jumbo cookies! Thanks for reading!

DIY College Halloween Costumes

Halloween in college is always fun because no one really knows what they want to dress up as until maybe a day before and no one really wants to spend much money on costumes. Personally I would rather not spend $40+ on a costume that comes from a bag and barely covers your body, or a combination of duct tape and body paint. It's usually pretty cold on Halloween! And I just personally like to stay covered. But if that's what you like to do, you do you. Here are just some fun DIY costume ideas that don't require buying a lot and are easy to put together with friends! Beanie Babies You just need animal ears/hat, make a TY tag and wear colors that go with the animal you're dressed as! DIY Beanie Babies Halloween Costumes

via Hannah and I did this our freshman year

Pretty Little Liars All you need is a black dress, and a red A for added effect! Halloween Costumes: “Pretty Little Liars” ATrain Edition | College Lifestyles

Halloween Costumes: “Pretty Little Liars” ATrain Edition | College Lifestyles

via And if you happen to all have red coats, that looks great too! Pretty Little Liars Costumes, DIY Group Ideas for Halloween 2013 | Teen.com

via We did this last year, you can't really tell, but we had name tags with a red A and the name of the "liar" we were dressed up as. In this picture, we were Hanna, Spencer, and Aria

Toddlers and Tiaras You just need white t shirts, little tutus (I think we got them for $3 at Hot Topic last year), tiaras (also very cheap) and we made sashes out of wide white ribbon, and you could also wear leggings and add a pacifier. I've also seen this done with ruffle socks and Mary Jane shoes which looks adorable! Toddlers and Tiaras costumes. Too funny... Definitely next costume!

Toddlers and Tiaras costumes. Too funny... Definitely next costume!

via Hannah and I did this last year as well

Tiffany and Co. Box This could be done either by making the dress as demonstrated here, or putting a white ribbon around a turquoise dress and a white bow in your hair could be added as well! DIY Halloween Costume - Tiffany Box @Kathryn Maher We should have done this! Haha

DIY Halloween Costume - Tiffany Box @Kathryn Maher We should have done this! Haha

via Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's All you need is a black dress, big sunglasses, a small tiara, black gloves, heels, and an optional cigarette holder #Halloween #DIY We <3 Audrey Hepburn!

via Flapper Or Daisy from The Great Gatsby, whatever you want. Basically all you just need a sparkly or fringed dress, lots of pearls or gems and a headband around your head

via (from Sarah Vicker's blog, actually a summer party, but too perfect not to include!)
Greek Goddess Just make a sheet toga like for a toga party, plus gold accessories and shoes!

via
Happy Halloween, Thanks for reading!

Outfits of the Week 10/24-10/28

Another outfits of the week, but as usual I forgot to take pictures for several of the days Monday afternoon- class

J. Crew Factory vest and sweater J. Crew scarf 7 For All Mankind jeans Vince Camuto boots Tuesday morning- internship

J. Crew shirt, skirt, tights, and shoes Necklace from Rue La La Lilly Pulitzer belt Thursday morning- internship

Lilly Pulitzer top Kendra Scott earrings J. Crew Factory pearls J. Crew pants Vince Camuto heels Friday morning- internship

Ralph Lauren shirt J. Crew peplum and pants Necklace from Groopdealz Vince Camuto boots Thanks for reading!

Plaid Blanket Scarf Inpsiration

I'm sure everyone has seen the famous Zara Blanket Scarf that was so popular last year, and has continued into this year. I loved the tartan they did last year, but never ended up buying one. Zara did not bring that specific print back for this year, but Brinabox has a very similar version and I think the old ones and other dupes are available on eBay. Zara has them available in a burgundy/navy plaid and a brown/yellow plaid for this year. It's a trend that I really want to try, but being such a small person at 5'2, I don't know how such a large scarf would work on me. I was discussing this with my best friend Hannah and she said "Yeah, it would be more like a sleeping bag scarf for Cara". Anyways, here are some of my favorite ways these scarves have been styled by other bloggers!

via Bows and Sequins

via Just Dandy

via Atlantic Pacific
oversized blanket scarf… cute!

via Southern Curls and Pearls

via Classy Sassy
Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

via The Fashion Canvas
Thanks for reading!

What's in My Bag? Small Crossbody Edition

Way back when I first started blogging, I did one of these What's in My Bag Posts with my Longchamp tote bag. Since I came across the Rue La La handbag guide, I was inspired to do another post showing you what I have in my small crossbody bag! As you probably already know, Rue La La is one of my favorite shopping websites! If you haven't joined already, you can here :) This bag I actually found on Rue over the summer, my off white scalloped Kensie bag has served me well the past few months. I really love crossbody bags, this one and my monogrammed one from Personalized From Me to You are just the right size for me and my college schedule. I also really like neutral bags that go with everything, because as much as I love handbags, as a college student I don't really have the budget to buy that many, or the space to store them all in my apartment, so I rarely switch bags out for each outfit I wear.

Since I have a large tote for my books, and another for my dance bag, I usually only need my phone, keys, and wallet for around campus or out shopping. In high school, I used to carry big bags and throw just about anything I could have ever needed in them! This was partially because I was in photography classes, and it was a lot easier to carry my camera in a purse than carry a separate camera bag.

I have in my bag:

My keys and school ID

My wallet with my various cards

My iPhone

A compact mirror, lip balm, and mascara

Other favorite cross body bags:

GiGi New York

Tory Burch

Kate Spade

GiGi New York

Cambridge Satchel Company for J. Crew

Kate Spade What's your favorite type of bag? Have you checked out the handbag guide from Rue La La? Thanks for reading!

Outfits of the Week...and a half 10/5-10/16

So this is kind of a failure, but when I went home for Fall Break I didn't think about taking my mirror photos. So here's half of last week and half of this week, in 1 post! I'm sorry for the overload of J. Crew and that every outfit is pants, I actually wore dresses a lot over break! Sunday afternoon- church

J. Crew sweater Ralph Lauren shirt True Religion jeans Kendra Scott earrings Monogram necklace J. Crew shoes Monday afternoon- class

J. Crew Factory vest J. Crew scarf Sweater from TJ Maxx 7 For All Mankind jeans Vince Camuto boots Tuesday morning- internship

J. Crew blazer, shirt, pants, and shoes (I have a problem, I know) Kiel James Patrick and J. Crew Factory bracelets Kate Spade ring Wednesday afternoon- flight home

J. Crew shirt and sweatshirt 7 For All Mankind jeans Yosi Samra flats (that my dog destroyed while I was home *insert crying emoji*) Tuesday morning- internship

J. Crew shirt, pants, and necklace (the obsession continues) Lilly Pulitzer bracelet Vince Camuto heels Wednesday afternoon- class

J. Crew shirt Lilly Pulitzer scarf and vest True Religion jeans Vince Camuto boots Thursday morning- internship

J. Crew blazer, pants, and necklace Ralph Lauren shirt Anne Klein heels Thanks for reading!

My Mixed Feelings about Forever 21

I've never been a really big fan of Forever 21's products. I do think it's really great if you want to try out a recent trend, but not spend a lot of money, and I think they do have some pretty good options for that and for basics! Although most of the clothes I really like are expensive, I only buy them on sale, and I know that I am paying for quality fabric. And I don't really like places like Francesca's (love their accessories though) and Express for clothes, because they have cheap fabrics but expensive prices. Forever 21's cheap fabric for cheap prices make sense to me! However, some of the stuff in their store I just question why they were even made. And why do they have so many cropped sweaters?! Your stomach isn't cold but your arms are? And there are a lot of times I look at something and think "That would be cute if only it didn't have ___". I know they try to cater to every style, there are some things I just cannot see being practical to anyone! Anyways here are some of my favorite items Forever21 has right now, I'll leave the cropped unicorn sweatshirts, baseball caps covered in silk flowers and studs, and the shirts with sayings in other languages that are grammatically incorrect, or quoted wrong to someone else though.

Forever 21 Likes by jadorejcrew featuring a vintage vest

Forever 21 sleeve shift dress / Forever 21 cocktail dress / Forever 21 pleated a line dress / Forever 21 embroidered blouse / Forever 21 sleeveless blouse / Forever 21 vintage vest / Forever 21 lightweight pants / Forever 21 pleated skirt / Forever 21 a line knit skirt / Forever 21 pointy toe pumps / Forever 21 pointy flat / Forever 21 high heel booties / Forever 21 vegan handbag / Forever 21 quilted purse / Forever 21 lightweight scarve

Thanks for reading!

outfits

Game day in Tiger Town!

Since I went home for Fall Break last weekend, I got to experience game day at Clemson University! I've kind of grown up going to Clemson games since my dad went there, and several of my cousins have more recently gone there, but we would go when they played Wake Forest or Duke because it was closer to home. Now my boyfriend goes there, and this is the first one I've gone to in Death Valley, which was quite the experience! My school's football team is Division 2, so we don't have any tailgates (we don't even have an actual stadium) and the ideal apparel for them is a school sweatshirt and jeans. It was so fun to wear a game day dress! I always get really jealous scrolling through Instagram seeing my friends and other bloggers at southern schools all dressed up at tailgates. The game was super close at the end, but the tigers won 23-17!