DIY: Map Heart Decor

Hello fellow bloggers!

Today I spent my 20th birthday picking up craft supplies for my projects this summer! I figured I would show you what I came up with and how to make it. I am getting ready to move in July, and in our new apartment I want to do the guest room/study room a travel theme! One of the ideas I saw was a map heart decor piece. This project is pretty simple and something I saw on Pinterest, but I gave it my own touch. The whole project costs less than $25.

First what you need are maps of the states which are special to you. You can find these on Google. Then I inserted them into Word and put a heart shape around the part of the state which I liked most.

TIP: Make sure that the hearts are the same size. Use the copy and paste feature to ensure the hearts turn out the same.

Second I printed out the pictures on white cardstock paper, which costs about $0.69/page but is on sale now at Michael's 6/$1,  and cut out the heart shapes. I used about 2 pages. I chose to do four states at first, but it didn't fill the frame I had so I choose two more so there would be three in each frame. I chose to do North Carolina, Michigan, Tennesee/Georgia, New York, Illinois, and of course Florida.

Last I put them in see through frames. These frames are 8x10 and cost around $10 each. On Pinterest I saw them in a frame with a solid white background which looked good, but I really liked the way this turned out with the double glass. What do you think? Not too shabby for a rainy afternoon project! All together the project would cost around $22. Luckily I already had the frames and paper. But if you go to http://weeklyad.michaels.com/coupons/ they usually have 40-50% off coupons and sometimes an extra 25% off all sale and regular priced! I plan on doing more DIY blog posts once I start working on the room some more. I ordered a map today to make my own cork board map with pins. Hopefully the room comes together nicely and I will post pictures once we get it all together in the fall. If you decide to do the project I would love to see how yours turns out!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

-Olivia

Updates: Puppies, Work, and Upcoming Events!

Hello everyone!

It has been a little while since I posted an update on things in my life. First of all I wanted to write about how we are doing now that our puppy girl Nike is home with us! We got her on May 10th and she turned 12 weeks old on Friday, so we have had her for about three weeks! She has been doing fantastic and we love her but she definitely is a lot of work. If anyone out there is considering getting a puppy, read this post with caution before you do. As many of you know the original plan was to wait until I graduated next summer before we got a dog, but as our roommate moved out of our apartment Madi and I felt like it was a good time to jump in and get her since we had more time with less classes (that and hardwood flooring until July ;) ). We do not regret our decision AT ALL. She is the perfect dog for us and we love her! But there is so much more work that goes into a dog than what we thought. We knew that we would be getting no sleep. Getting up every two hours is exhausting, but was what we expected. Cleaning up pee and poop on the floor (again thank God for hardwood floors) was also in our plan. We also even considered how much we would be spending on vet bills, food, toys, treats, etc. But we didn't think about how much time you actually spend with the dog. Before we picked Nike out, we sat down and made a schedule of how often she would eat and go out on walks. We assumed it would be every two hours or so: WRONG. Try about every hour then sometimes a three hour break then sometimes thirty minutes. You can't schedule a puppy. I know that I never really considered what she would be doing while we did homework. I figured puppies sleep a lot and so she would lay relaxed by my feet. Which that actually is true sometimes, but other times she is running around barking, biting at our toes, chewing on furniture, and there is no way work can get done. It's like a toddler that can't speak, you have no idea what they need and every one is different. Literally from 6AM until 11PM you spend the whole day with her. When she wants to play, you play. When she has to go out, you take her out. You get good a multi-tasking, but you also get good at doing as much work while she sleeps as possible! It seriously is like having a baby. I give props to single parents (of children or puppies) because I have no idea how I would do it without Madi. So if you consider getting a dog, really think about when is the best time. I think we got so lucky and picked a great time because we don't have school as often and we get into a routine with her now, but there is no way I could have done this in the fall!

Next of course I wanted to talk about where I'm at other than the puppy. I luckily got offered a great position at Moffitt Cancer center earlier this year. Today I found out that I am going to be promoted to become a technician which will be great for my resume and my bank account because I'll be making more per hour! It's so awesome to hear that your work is appreciated and that you're doing a good job, but sometimes when you don't get recognition it makes you feel like you let people down. That is how I felt last week. Not that I always feel I need to be recognized, but that things at the hospital did not go as planned and situations occurred where I had to do things that wouldn't please everyone. It is nice to know that with this promotion they recognize my ability to make good choices and that I am a hard worker. Other news on the work front: my book is coming along great! With the free time I have because of less summer classes I have been able to meet up with my illustrator to get jump started on the pictures for my picture book, as well as get ahead on the sequel to The Portrait Pathway. I am so excited to see what happens with my author life this year, and look forward to getting involved with a few schools in the fall!

Up and coming events? Well Sunday I turn 20! Woohoo! No big trips this month, but Madi and I will be going to Universal and Busch Gardens a few times. In July we will take our normal trip to Michigan and our friends from Chattanooga are coming to spend some time with us here in Tampa for a week around the fourth!

That's all I have for now. Thanks for keeping up with me!

<3 Olivia

Wilmington, NC: Visiting Capeside and Tree Hill

Hello everyone,

I have been anxious to share my pictures from our visit to Wilmington from the past two days! I got to see so many cool landmarks from my favorite TV show ever, One Tree Hill, as well as a new favorite show of mine Dawson's Creek! I decided to make a comparison side by side of most of the landmarks, one with my picture and one from a clip of the TV show. I will also include a small map of downtown Wilmington that will give you a good idea of how close these places are to each other as well as the addresses for these locations. Let the fun begin :)

Dawson's Creek

First and foremost I will begin with the pier from the opening credits, seen in this video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef9qfidX1Kg

My hair was blowing EVERYWHERE and it was super windy but this is the pier! It was so cool to see that big icon from the show. 

703 S Lumina Ave, Wrightsville Beach, NC

Second iconic scene from Dawson's Creek would be Capeside High School. 

This is the outside of the school, which is actually Alderman Hall at the University of North Carolina- Wilmington. 

This is a shot taken facing away from the front of the school. I thought it was cool that the cannon is still there and the trees are the exact same. 

601 South College Road • Wilmington, NC 28403

Next up is the Federal Building used in both Dawson's Creek and One Tree HIll. On Dawson's Creek you see Dawson sitting on the steps of the building during the opening credits on some seasons but it is close up so you can't really tell. In the episode The Dance on season two of Dawson's creek, Andie and Jack wait for Pacey to pick them up for the dance and you briefly see the fountain and the steps. On One Tree Hill in season seven  the episode What's In the Ground Belongs to You, Quinn takes Jamie on a treasure hunt and one stop is the fountain!

60 North Water Street Wilmington, NC

Fourth is the wall Pacey gives Joey, which unfortunately is now covered up by a saloon. Sounds lame enough to me. I am secretly hoping the saloon bombs so they can knock down their stuff and show the wall again where they should!

28 South Front Street, Wilmington, NC

That's all for Dawson's Creek comparisons, but here are some important places that I couldn't find a good enough still shot of from the actual show. There are obviously so many more places but this is what I had time to see!

This is Leery's Fresh Fish from Dawson's Creek. Established in the third season of the show, but now it is a hispanic restaurant called Mix To. It still looks the same inside though!

5 South Water St, Wilmington, NC

The information board is across Water St. from Leery's Fresh Fish and the old Icehouse restaurant is just a dirt lot now :( but it is down Water Street if you are heading South. 

Also there was Hell's Kitchen from the last two seasons of Dawson's Creek. I hear if you go inside Joey's boat is on the wall in the back but we didn't have time to stop in.

One Tree Hill

Of course there are so many things to see from OTH but I tried to stick to the basics ;). Here are some of my favorite spots! 

First up was Karen's Cafe and Tree Hill Cafe. Located across Grace Street from each other, these two rival cafe's were important landmarks for the show. Tree Hill Cafe is still a coffee shop but Karen's Cafe isn't anything anymore. Someone should buy it and recreate Karen's Cafe or Clothes Over Bros which was what Karen's Cafe became in later seasons. 

Grace and Front Street Intersection, Wilmington, NC

The next place would be one of the most iconic places in the entire show, Lucas and Karen's house. This house still looks the exact same except there is a swing on the porch. 

1829 Wrightsville Ave, Wilmington, NC

Peyton's house was next. It was maybe a two minute drive from Lucas' and what was cool about this house that I learned on our trip was that people actually filmed many of the scenes inside the actual house. There was an awesome article about it in GQ called "Peyton's Place" here is the link: 

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201110/one-tree-house-filming-john-jeremiah-sullivan

1901 Chestnut Street, Wilmington NC

Right next door to Peyton's on the left is Haley's house when she lived with her parents in the first season. It looks the same except for the yard work but I recognized it as soon as I saw the red door!

1811 Chestnut Street, Wilmington NC

Next up, Quinn's photography gallery Focus. This was not as recognizable as most of the other places but it was cool to see for sure!

33 S Front Street, Wilmington, NC


Last but not least for comparisons would be Brooke's house. This place looks exactly the same, and as I had heard from other OTH bloggers, the door is still red! So cool.

2314 Tattersalls Drive, Wilmington, NC

Next would be the riverfront park which had a lot of important Naley moments. First is the bridge which is seen in a lot of different shots on the show and goes over the cape fear river. The second is the famous "Don't Say I Never Gave You Anything" table where Nathan gives Haley a cracker jack box that has the infamous bracelet in it.

Front St and Water St Intersection

Another awesome place I would have never found without help from our tour guide would be the restaurant where Nathan got thrown through the window before the NBA draft. 

23 N Front Street, Wilmington NC

Last but not least is not a Tree Hill or Capeside location but it is from A Walk to Remember. The alleyway where Jamie tells Landon that she is sick. 

I couldn't really find a good still shot from the movie. But that is the scene you can see it in!

Those were the places I decided to visit. If you have time, you should definitely take the Hollywood Location Walk. Our guide tailored the walk to our favorite TV shows and movies and we learned a lot about the town and reasons why certain locations are no longer there and such. I hope everyone enjoys these pictures as much as I did. It is cool that so many locations are still there to visit and there are so many more I wanted to see but we didn't have time for! I will do a collective post for the rest of our stops but I figured this one deserved sometime special since it was the place I was looking forward to most! 

Thanks for reading,

Olivia :)