the six people you meet on every college campus

I go to a very big, public university. Sometimes when I'm walking through campus, I'm baffled at some of the weird shit I see. The other day I saw a guy on a skateboard with no shirt and the words "future baby daddy" painted on his chest. Which inspired this post.

note: this is just for fun. these are stereotypes, and I don't mean to offend.

the fratstar
We all know this one. Man tanks, Sperry's, sunglasses, and a tan. They're loud, obnoxious, competitive, and usually, they're major douchers. After talking to them for about five minutes, you know which frat they're in and why its better than all the others. They can be found drunk in class a majority of the time.

sorority sister
They're all about the sisterhood. Monograms, Starbucks, and full class during the day, but at night they're all about the tight dresses and tequila. You can find them throwing up their gang signs or doing the sorority squat everywhere they go. They love their house, they love their little, and they love flaunting it.

athlete
College athletes generally think they're better than you. Maybe they are better than you, but they're definitely not modest. They don't care about grades, as long as they're eligible. They think they deserve special treatment in their classes, because c'mon- they're college athletes! They stick with their team and they love a good celebration after a victory. Or a loss. They just love to party. Go cats!

foreigner
Well, I live in Arizona. So we have cacti everywhere. You can tell when someone's not from around these parts when you see them taking pictures in front of a cactus with their friends. Or when they freak out when they see people by the pool in November. Or when they say, "Oh, you're from Arizona? You must be used to the heat." No. You never get used to 130 degrees, sorry.

nerd
They can usually be found in the library for hours on end. Sure, everyone's in the library during finals week, but a true nerd spends at least three hours a day in the big house of books. They attend every office hour the professor holds, raise their hand to volunteer every class period, and they get mad if they catch you on Facebook during lecture. When the professor says, "discuss with your neighbor," they actually discuss, and they take it way too seriously. They usually got all A's in high school and expect no less now that they're in college. Be friends with these people. You'll pass every class.

activist
They love to push their views on you. They hand out flyers, stop you on your way to class to share their views, and they shout their ideas to the world. They can promote anything- equal rights, religion, saving the environment, but no matter what, it's annoying. We have a problem with this one on our campus. His name is Brother Dean. He loves to tell the girls walking by that they're sluts and that we're all going to hell. You can read the article and see the video of him telling girls they "deserve rape" here. It's sickening.

Well, there you have it! The six people you'll meet on every college campus. Happy Wednesday!

a little about me + an artsy picture of some hot cheetos

Well, the last time I did a post sharing random facts about myself I had about 700 less followers. So I thought maybe it was time for another one. So, here's fifteen more things you probably don't care to know about me.

I realized that I have no pictures of me alone. This is literally the only one.

I get extremely uncomfortable in elevators with strangers.

I can chew through a whole pack of gum in an hour. I don't like gum after I've been chewing it for more than like ten minutes, so I have to get a new piece.

I get my feelings hurt really easily

Cheese is slowly becoming less appetizing to me (thank goodness...being lactose intolerant sucks.)

I hate writing but I love blogging

I never would've imagined that I would find a passion in blogging/designing/photography. I never took interest in anything art-related and if you would've told me two years ago that I would be so passionate about all of it today, I wouldn't have believed you.

I'm only 19 (which apparently no one in blog land knew until I tweeted about it the other day)

I'm graduating college a year early (maybe a year and a half now…yay!) and I'll graduate before I turn 21

I'm obsessed Hot Cheetos. Like so much that I may or may not have tried to take artsy pictures of them with my new camera... yolo

I hate the dentist so much

I get a major lady boner for Connie Britton

I hate wearing anything but yoga pants and a sweatshirt. Real pants are just so uncomfortable!

Sometimes I buy things just because they're pink

I'm terrible at saving money

I love winter and snow and cold weather. Anything beats 150 degree summers in Arizona.

What's something we don't know about you?

travel talk with casey!

Hey pretties! Today one of my lovely sponsors is taking over! Casey has an amazing blog and literally every post makes me jealous because I'm stuck in AZ and I cant be somewhere cool like Rome or Paris. Show her some love!

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Hi Endlessly Beloved readers!  I’m Casey from True Colours, a travel blog that features my globe-trotting adventures while my husband takes gorgeous photos and I fill in the blanks with words.  I'm so excited to be guest posting here today!  

I do a lot of traveling, both for work and for pleasure, and in my travels, I've realized over the years that the world has a unique way of teaching us, feeding us lessons with each new place we see.  Over my years of traveling, I've been taught lesson after lesson with each new place I experience, but perhaps some of the most important lessons are those that you realize over time, after you've had months or years to relive a trip in your mind and really realize what you might have taken away from it.  So today, these are some of the best lessons I've learned from my travels over the years and ones that I try to hold with me for each new trip on the horizon!

When you travel, you give up control.  You give up control of the weather, of airplanes being on time, of hotels being what you thought they would be.  Traveling can be brutal sometimes and it's those times that you really do need to be prepared for anything, even if that means you're not prepared at all for what comes and you just have to take it in stride.  Often times, you're left sleeping on airport floors or rerouting a trip that didn't go according to plan, but in those times, you learn very well how to prepare yourself in the future and using that as a lesson in itself.

So many times while traveling, many people are trying to cram so many things into a specific place, trying to hit every museum, every new restaurant, every activity.  It can be so draining to travel that way and you don't really even get to enjoy the place.  For me, I travel the way I live, if I want to go into a museum, I'll go.  But if I don't, I don't worry about it.  For me, wandering through Central Park with my husband or hitting our favorite restaurant (even though there might be 5 million others to try) are more important to me than making sure I see everything.  

Sometimes it's the smaller things you see in a place, the way you feel just wandering around that makes more of an imprint on you than being a typical "tourist."

This is an important lesson to learn early on when traveling.  I'm the type of traveler that likes a nice hotel, that likes to sleep in, and that likes to have an itinerary for each day of where we're headed.  For me, that's what works best.  For others though, the complete opposite might be true.  Before you travel with other people or even listen to others' travel advice before a trip, realize that not everyone travels the same.  What might be important to you, might be worthless to someone else.  Figure out what works best for you and don't worry about what other people will think.

So often when traveling, it's the things you see in the most random places that end up being the most memorable.  Like when you're lost in Marrakech and wander upon a gorgeous spice market or end up using your French in Paris because you can't find your hotel without it.  It's those times when you really embrace the unexpected things that come up along the way that you will remember more than other moments.  Embrace what's around you, take it all in.

A really important lesson I've learned over the years, and perhaps one of the most important, is that you aren't going to love every place you see.  For me, I don't love Italy and while most people do, I often get strange comments or looks when I say that.  But that's just me.  I happen to love Paris, but many people do not.  Traveling is about finding those places you love and being ok with the ones you don't.  But on the same hand, the places you don't end up loving, often they are the ones that follow you and you think about often afterwards.  Each place you see and experience will stay with you, whether it ends up that you love it or not.

I hope you all enjoyed Casey's post! Be sure to check out her blog :)

Pinterest is one of my biggest traffic sources on this here blog. Over in my post about my blogging goals that I want one pinterest-worthy picture per post. I got a few emails from that asking how I do it. So, I thought I would do a Pinterest tutorial and share some secrets that help make Pinterest a great way to increase traffic to your blog!

i love valentine's day

Hi, I'm Brianna and I love Valentine's Day. Like, I really love it. Sometimes I'm afraid to admit that because I feel like it's a pretty controversial holiday. You hardly read posts or hear people talk about how much they dread Christmas, but around this time of year I always hear people complain about how they're not looking forward to V-Day. But I look forward to it for months.

Of course, I love being in a relationship on Valentine's Day. I love getting cheesy packages together for Handsome. I love the sweet exchange of "Happy Valentine's" words we say to each other. I love that its all about being cheesy, sappy, and romantic because I really eat that shit up. But that's not what makes February 14 one of my favorite days of the year. Besides, I can't be with the man I love anyway, so I don't really get to celebrate it in that way. But still, I really love Valentine's Day.

For one thing, it gives you an excuse to eat chocolate. Especially if you're alone, right? Like come on, who expects me to walk into the grocery store filled with pink boxes of chocolate and not come home with some? I eat chocolate all day every day, not just around Valentines, but I feel like this time of year I have a legitimate (kind of) excuse. Plus, the day after everything is half price...jackpot.

Along with that, I use it as an excuse to cheat on my diet. Every year on Valentine's Day I go out to dinner with my friends who are single/in a long distance relationship. We're going to this amazing Italian restaurant this year and I already know what I'm going to have. Cheesy garlic bread, my favorite pasta, and a pizza cookie. I normally can't have any of that (because I can't have dairy or gluten) so I use the fact that I'm "alone" on Valentine's Day as an excuse to eat whatever I want. Yolo.

But really, fat girl status aside, I think Valentine's Day is beautiful. If you couldn't tell by now, I really love love. I think that we should show each other how much we love each other every single day, not just one day a year, but I also think that Valentine's Day can be really good for a relationship. Going all out and doing something special and unique for the day can really open up opportunities to connect with someone. We get so caught up in day-to-day life and we're so busy all the time, so I think its perfectly fine to have one day out of the year dedicated to showing someone how much you love them.

It makes me sad that so many people are against Valentine's Day, really. I understand that if you're not in a relationship it can be a little pointless, but it is a holiday. Even if you don't have a boyfriend or husband to spend it with, you can still make the best of it by going out with the girls rather than being bitter about it. At least that's what I do. Besides, how can you not love a holiday whose "color" is pink??

I'm really bummed I can't be with Handsome this year for Valentine's Day, but I did send him a little package with some candy and a video game he's been wanting. Oh, and some conversation hearts, but these ones are from Spencers had some not so G-Rated things written on them...yolo.

I feel like this post kind of when in a different direction than I had originally intended, but whatevz I do what I want. My point is, I think that whether you're single or not, Valentine's Day is about love. I understand that we should show each other love and appreciation all year round, but spending one day going out of your way to show someone you love them, how can that be a bad thing?

How do you feel about Valentine's Day?

blogging goals

As my blog continues to grow, I've decided that it's time to step my game up. I've been thinking a lot lately about the direction I'm headed with my blog, and I've set some goals for myself in the process.

::post five days a week:: I try to post at least three times a week around here, and I usually do more than that. But the past two weeks, I've been trying to publish a post Monday-Friday and it has been pretty successful so far. So from now on, I'm going to try to consistently post each day of the week and take the weekends off, except for the occasional sponsored post.

::at least one good picture per post:: Well if you haven't heard, I got this nice fancy camera that I absolutely love. I'm making it a goal to have at least one good and pinable picture in every post. Pinterest is a huge source of traffic for me, so I want to utilize it much more efficiently.

::schedule my posts ahead of time:: I get stressed out really easily. I want to have my posts scheduled at least a few days in advance. Ideally, I'd love if I could be an entire week ahead, just so I don't have to stress as much. But that probably won't happen. I also want to have a good amount of drafts written up, so I can pull from there when I need something to publish.

::highlight my sponsors in a unique way:: I'm trying to make my sponsorship posts more fun, so I'm trying to present the bloggers in a creative way. If you haven't seen sponsor mad libs yet, you should definitely check it out. If anyone has a suggestion on a fun way to introduce a sponsor, I'd love some ideas!

::quality, quality, quality:: Some of my posts are shit. I'm the first to admit that. Some of them are really good (or at least I'm proud of them). I want to feel that way about every post. I never want to publish a post that I think isn't worthy of this blog. I work really hard to make this something special, and as I continue to grow, I need to focus on keeping the quality of my posts up.

::grow:: This one applies both for the blog and the design site. I really want to focus on connecting with other bloggers and growing my readership. I'm excited to take on more design clients and sponsors. I'm excited to reach 1,000 followers on Bloglovin (my next big milestone). Seeing how much this blog has grown in the past six months (whoa its been six months already?!) has been amazing and I cannot wait to see where it is after a year!

What're your blogging goals?

like clockwork

I love Easton Corbin. He just released a new single and I'm so excited about it. Keeping it short and sweet today, this week I'm listening to Clockwork by Easton Corbin.

Here are the lyrics:

Might as well have my alarm set on my phone girl 

It's like you got a camera, don't know how you know, I’m home alone girl 

Come around 10:47 every Friday night 

Might as well leave the light on, cause you're always right on time 

Chorus: You call, I say hello You knock, I'm lettin' you in 

You say, you've missed My lips, we kiss Here we go again 

Your dress, my shirt We love, I live and never learn

 I crash, I burn You leave, I hurt Like clockwork 

It's like I’m walkin' down the street and fall in that same trap girl 

I see a freight train comin' I just stand there on the tracks girl 

Somebody'd be gettin' rich if they were placin' bets 

On me thinkin' no, no, no, always sayin' yes

You call, I say hello You knock, I'm lettin' you in 

You say, you've missed My lips, we kiss Here we go again 

Your dress, my shirt We love, I live and never learn

 I crash, I burn You leave, I hurt Like clockwork 

It's too easy, you know my street

 And you know where I leave my key 

Baby you know me, I can count on you, to count on me 

It's like a movie I’ve seen a thousand times 

I hate the end But I still hit rewind 

You call, I say hello You knock, I'm lettin' you in 

You say, you've missed My lips, we kiss Here we go again 

Your dress, my shirt We love, I live and never learn

 I crash, I burn You leave, I hurt Like clockwork 

Like clockwork Like clockwork