The Monogrammed Life: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013 1 comments

Monday, July 29, 2013 No comments

Friday, July 26, 2013 2 comments

SMU girls tend to agree with Reese on this; anything that isn’t emblazoned with Panhellenic letters tends to wear a girl’s other most important letters: her monogram! Monograms are a fun and classic way to make your look special, and whether you prefer a subtle touch of personalization or a bold advertisement of your initials, there are countless items that can be monogrammed. Get out your credit cards ladies (unless you have your number memorized… guilty!) because it’s time for some online shopping.

You can find tons of online monogramming stores, but MarleyLilly is by far my favorite. They have awesome customer service, great turnaround time, and really any product you could want monogrammed!

For the monogramming novice

Try an accessory that is low-commitment to get a feel for the look of your monogram.

A double wall tumbler is practical to take to class, and the small monogram adds the perfect touch of personalization without being too much. You could also try a small cosmetic bag for school or home, or a baseball hat for a pool day.

For every day

Once the obsession starts to set in, you will probably want monograms on most of your everyday items. Luckily, you can purchase almost any item monogrammed, and you can even find local embroidery shops to put monograms on items you already own, such as towels and tote bags. Here are some of my favorite everyday personalized items.

I felt like I was the last girl in Dallas without a monogrammed necklace until I got one for my birthday. You can also personalize rings, earrings, and bracelets.

This clutch doubles as a cross-body. Perfect for day or night!

Any of these monogrammed t-shirts can be worn with workout shorts or dressed up with a cute pair of jeans like Amy from Coffee Beans and Bobby Pins did. Love the white on white!

I also love my monogrammed scarf for fall!

For the monogram crazy

Some things don’t need to be monogrammed, but they still add a little fun to your day!

This decal works on iPads and eReaders

A cover for your pool lounge chair- separate from your towel, naturally.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in a state that doesn’t require front license plates, these add a feminine touch to your car!

Also, make sure to check out Marley Lilly’s sale page for discontinued and “only 1 left” items, and like them on Facebook for information on flash sales and giveaways!

It doesn’t matter if you’re in Texas, Colorado, or anywhere else- a little Southern tradition will add something special to your day!

— Sorority love, Haley Smith of Delta Delta Delta at Southern Methodist University

Written by Haley Smith, Sorority Stylista Contributor

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 No comments

When Mason (who writes the ADORABLE blog Mason...Like the Jar) sent us a link to the following blog post, we just knew that our readers would LOVE this post! If you decide to make a phone wall paper using this tutorial, be sure to tag the photo on Instagram with #masonlikethejar! You can also tag us too (@MarleyLilly & @MasonLikeTheJar). And while you're at it, you should follow us too!

We might share a few of our favorites!

I'm not an enormous "do it yourselfer." I love browsing Pinterest and seeing all of the adorable crafts and ideas that everyone posts, but I never actually get around to doing them because ain't nobody got time fo that.However, like most people, I have my little board of things that "I'll make one day when I have all the time in the world to sit around and be crafty" and for my "I'm going to be the best mom ever" moments and for my "I'm going to have a super Pinteresty DIY wedding for like $50!" delusions.

That being said, I do love being a teensy bit creative, and when I'm bored, those creative juices flow a little more than usual...although let's not get ahead of ourselves because I'm nowhere near ready to hang up my lifetsyle blog hat and trade it in for a DIY blog because, honeychild please. But I will pretend, just for this one post, that I'm adorably creative and have a lot of cutesy crafty knowledge to drop on ya. But that's only because I was asked to ;)

A few weeks ago, I got bored and decided to make a little collage of my favey Instagram photos to use as my iPhone wallpaper. I posted a photo of it on Twitter, and a few people asked for a tutorial, so here it is!

Pretty adorable, right?

There's probably a much easier way to do this, in fact there's probably an app for that, but this is how I created the lovely little collage above.

1. Open Diptic or whichever collage app you use, and select the jumbo layout with nine photo slots.

2. Next, set the borders to {0}, so there is no space between photos.

3. Go through your Instagram photos and select 24 that you want to use for your wallpaper, and input the first nine into the layout. Save the image to your camera roll.

4. Clear all of the photos from your collage, and input nine more photos for collage number two. Save the image to your camera roll.

5. Clear the photos from your collage, and input three photos in only the lefthand column, leaving the rest of the spaces blank. Save the image to your camera roll.

6. Clear the images, and input three more photos in only the lefthand column. Save the image to your camera roll.

By now you should have four collages saved: the first two with nine photos and the second two with three photos.

7. Select the layout with four square photo slots.

8. Set borders to {0} like you did on the first one, and put all four of the collages into the frames: the big collages in the lefthand frames and the smaller ones on the right. Save the image to your camera roll.

9. Open up the picture, and crop out the blank space on the right. You should end up with something like this:

The whole thing should be roughly the size of your screen. I have an iPhone 5, so if you have an iPhone 4, the dimensions will be slightly off, and you might need to lose a row of pictures, but you get the idea. My screen is a little narrower than the collage, so the edges got chopped off a little, but just play around with it until it's to your liking.

I think it turned out pretty cute :)