A Summer Wasting

As summer comes to an end, I have been enjoying my last few days outside in the beautiful weather before I set off to college. Life has bee stressful lately with preparing for college so it was nice to unwind and de-stress with my doggy, Misty. Anyone else going off to college soon?

How to jazz up plain phone cases

My neighbor recently gave me some of her old phone cases for my iphone 4s. Most of them were very plain and needed some sprucing up, so I decided to pull out the glitter N glue and turned it into a DIY art project. I love being crafty, so this was right up my ally and has been something I’ve wanted to experiment with for a while now. Basically the inspiration I took for decorating these phone cases was based off of cases I saw on Pinterest and crafty things I had laying around my house. 

The Splatter Effect

For the cool splattered look, I used a couple of nail polishes in summer colors. The phone case ended up being very simple to make, but had a very messy process so I'd recommend setting down a tarp or doing it outside. 

The colors I chose for my case:

Essie /Tart Deco

Revlon /#85 Minted

Essie /To buy or not to buy

Love My Nails /#522 Twilight Mauve

N.Y.C /#114 Taxi Yellow Creme

Love My Nails /#556 White

All you need to do to create the splattered effect, is to dip your brush into the polish then flick it back and forth over the case. Voila! You now have a cute case that all your friends will be jealous of!

Bejeweled

I got the inspiration to create this case from Pinterest. A studded cross cases has been on my wish list for some time now, yet never seemed to be worth the money. Instead of buying a $50 case, I spent $10 dollars on the studs from Hobby Lobby. (If you're also looking for a plain/ clear phone case, you can find them on Amazon for around 2 bucks!)

To attach the studs to the case, I used tacky glue and looked at a photo of the case I was trying to mimic as reference.  

Half way through, I found it easier to spread the glue about the case and then apply the studs instead of applying glue to each stud individually. 

Have you made your own DIY Phone Case? Leave me a link to a photo of it in the comments! I'd love to see what you all come up with! 

Dinner at Melting Pot

One of my favorite things to do is drive around and find different and interesting places to eat at. There's something about hopping in the car, taking a relaxing drive and finding something new, that I just LOVE. Recently I came across a restaurant called the Melting Pot, which is basically a Fondu place. My parents and grandparents took me there after my graduation and my boyfriend also treated me their for a nice date. It's a special occasion kind of restaurant since it's pretty pricey. It's probably for the best, because it's practically a four coarse meal and if I ate it often I'd blow up like a balloon from all the fondu.

First of all, I loved how the place was decorated. The outside of the restaurant was decorated with beautiful and elegant flower shaped lights wrapped around the trees. We went during the day, but I imagine it would look so beautiful at night with all the lights lit up. It also had places to sit down around a fire to relax with friends. It would be a great place to go on a romantic date. (*hint* *hint* to those of you reading this who are men)

Then the inside was decorated with beautiful and colorful things such as walls that had bubbly water that changed colors. There were also bright bottles set up near the tables and dim lights to make the setting more romantic. Each table was also divided into little cubicles to give people more privacy. 

The first coarse of the meal is choosing a cheese dip. I chose the Wisconsin cheese, which is my favorite because it has blue cheese in it. What's really cool about this restaurant is that they prepare the food right in front of you. For the cheese dip they brought out different types of bread, veggies and apples to dip into the sauce. 

The next two courses are a salad and the meat. What's really unique about the meat is that the people dining out are the ones who have to cook and prepare the meat, not the chefs. First, you have to choose a broth that you want the meat to cook in. I usually choose the Coq Au Vin, which is a burgundy wine infused with fresh herbs, spices and mushrooms. Next each person gets to chose their own entre of meat. I usually order the classic, which comes with angus sirloin, memphis-style BBQ pork medallion, shrimp, chicken and teriyaki-marinated sirloin. The meat comes raw along with different colored broiler sticks for each person. You have to then cook the meat by stabbing it with the sticks and leaving it in the pot for a couple of minutes to cook. Each person has their own colored sticks s that they can tell which meat is theirs. The meal also comes with different sauces to dip the meat into such as curry and teriyaki glaze.

Last, but definitely not least is dessert! You get to choose your chocolate and then are given different treats to dip into the chocolate such as rice krispee treats, banana's and strawberries. I usually choose the flaming turtle, which is a combination of milk chocolate, caramel and pecans. 

Have you ever been to the melting pot? What did you think of it and which part of the meal was your favorite? (My favorite has to be dipping the apples into the cheese!)