A Stella & Dot Birthday Giveaway!

What better way to celebrate my 22^nd birthday than a giveaway for my lovely readers?!

 

That’s why, when my sweet friend Taylor, a Stella & Dot stylist, contacted me a couple of weeks ago about sponsoring my blog, I knew it was perfect timing!

I have known Taylor for a few years now, she is one of my Alpha Phi sisters and probably one of the sweetest girls I know! She’s also an up and coming blogger! You can see her little piece of the internet right here!

Aside from being absolutely fabulous, Taylor became a Stella & Dot stylist this past year, and she has graciously offered a piece of their beautiful jewelry to one of you lucky ladies!

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Stella & Dot is "an Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Company, is a San Francisco based social selling company that creates flexible entrepreneurial opportunities for women. Our boutique-style jewelry and accessories line is available exclusively through in-home Trunk Shows by Independent Stylists and online." 

What’s up for grabs?

The Luxor Link Bracelet in gold, regularly $89.00!

 

See the full details here!

Here’s how to enter:

Be a follower of my blog Sweet Like a Song via GFC! (Required)

Follow me on Twitter @melodycaroline (tell me your Twitter name!) = 1 entry!

Follow me on Instagram @sweetlikeasong (tell me your name on Instagram) = 2 entries

Tweet about this giveaway! Make sure to tag me! @melodycaroline = 3 entries

Like Taylor’s Stella & Dot page on Facebook = 3 entries

Follow Taylor’s Blog “The New Girl in Town” = 4 entries

That’s 13 total ways to win!

Please Leave ONE comment letting me know everything that you did!

The giveaway will end one week from today, on Thursday, October 4^th at midnight!

Good luck!

As always, Have a Sweet Day!

Goodbye 21, Hello 22!

Tomorrow, I'll say goodbye to being 21. 

I'll say goodbye to the age that everyone waits their whole lives for, and I'll be on my way to bigger and better things. While 21 has been an amazing year, I am so excited to see what 22 has to offer!

I feel like just yesterday I was having my birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese, skating rinks, and my sweet sixteen at the Holiday Inn! How things have changed since then! I can even remember as a teenager, thinking that 22 was so old, but now my view has changed.

At 22 years old, I will be a whole year wiser than I was last September, and every year before that!

Over the past year, I have experience some of the happiest times of my life: here, here and here. I've also experience heartbreak, and the feeling of a relationship at its end. I've experience graduating college, and closing a huge chapter of my life. Then there was the beginning of another great chapter, a wonderful furry addition, and finding some of my biggest passions.

Credit to: Liz Grogan Photography

I've experienced having a bad roommate situation, sorority high and lows, feeling on top of the world and feeling defeated at times. But if I've learned anything in these 22 short years, it's that everything happens for a reason. Everything makes you stronger, and for that, I am thankful.

I feel so lucky to have gone through what I have, and while I don't know what 22 has to offer, I know it will be a great year!

I have a family that loves me, 

friends that will last a lifetime,

and an amazing dog that I love more than life! 

My life is not perfect by any means, but it's going well. God has blessed me beyond belief and I am so thankful.

Cheers to 22!

As always, Have a Sweet Day!

Birthday Celebrations: Part One

Fabulous is the only word that can accurately describe last night's festivities! 

I had the absolute best time celebrating my birthday with my amazing work friends!

 Some of these girls I have known for years, while others I met just a few weeks ago, but I am so lucky to know each one of them, and to have them help celebrate my birthday!

Here are some of my favorite highlights from the evening!
(I apologize for the picture overload!)

Having a photo shoot on the front porch before heading to dinner

(Thanks, Mama!)

We couldn't leave Paisley out!

Arrival at The Fourth Street Filling Station!

 Posing with all the girls!

Opening gifts!

 Yes, I got a Hello Kitty onesie!

Delicious Food!

& a fun stop at Chili's after dinner!

 Cheers to many more fun occasions with these beautiful ladies!

As always, Have a Sweet Day!

Homemade Calligraphy Invitations!

Today marks the first day of my birthday week posts, and what better to talk about than invitations?!

I love great paper products, and for me, that could mean anything from invitations, to business cards, letter-writing stationery, the works. I've always said, you can tell a lot about a person that uses great paper!

With all this in mind, when I started looking at invitations for my birthday party with friends, I knew I wanted something, cute, fun, and very ME! I found all this and more at Target!

These sets of 10 invitations were perfect for my dinner party and cost me just $4.99 each. I needed two sets, so I bought one pack in a flower print and another in a chevron pattern. LOVE!

Since I was planning to simply hand them out around work, (as opposed to mailing them) I wanted them to have a little something extra!

This was the perfect opportunity to incorporate my love of calligraphy!
With a little help from my brother, I found the perfect calligraphy font from this site. He downloaded it to my computer, and we were ready to go! I took a few pictures a long the way, so I could share this cute craft with you!

How-To: Homemade Calligraphy Invitations!

1. Find your favorite free font online and download it to your computer

2. Type out the names of your invitees into a normal Word document and print
(I did my names side by side to conserve paper space)

3. Cut the names out so they are on little slips of paper

4. Grab your favorite pens and match them to the colors on the invites! 

(I used these great Stabillo pens)

5. After choosing your colors, slip a name into every envelope and hold them up to the nearest window. 

(Do this a few times to make sure the names are as centered as possible!)

6. Once the name is centered, use the pen to trace the name onto the outside of the envelope.

I traced the outline of each letter, then filled them in. I also tried to match the color of the pen to each girl's personality! (I know, OCD)

7. After the envelopes are done, fill out the invitations! 

I used the same color Stabillo pen on the invitation that I used on the outside!  

8. Add a cute seal or sticker!

I used Hello Kitty & cupcake stickers on mine!

Ta-Da!

After these 8 steps, your homemade calligraphy invitations will be ready to hand out!

What do you think?

As always, Have a Sweet Day!

Fall & Excitement is in the Air!

Year after year, the last week of September is busy one at my house. It has a little to do with the coming of fall/the changing of seasons, and a lot to do with my birthday on the 27th!

There are so many exciting things going on that I wanted to share them with you!

1. Getting the iPhone 5

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Someone once told me that getting a new phone was like getting a new puppy. In the beginning, you're so careful with it, want to take it everywhere and show it to everyone. Now that I have Paisley, I know the truth of that statement;) Though I'm SO excited to finally join the rest of the world, it's tough not knowing how to do anything!

2. Joining the YMCA

Over the past two days I've been trying out the YMCA! After making some calls on Thursday morning, I found out that the local Y offers tours of the facilities, as well as a 3-day guest pass for people in the community that are interested in joining! Later that day, Samantha & I went to try everything out! It was so refreshing, and I felt better just getting out of the house! I haven't decided if I'm joining just yet, but we'll see.

3. Tickets to See Eric Church

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I am a huge country music lover, and when I saw that Eric Church was having a concert nearby,  I knew I had to go! Tickets went on sale yesterday morning at 10AM, just in time for me to snag 3 tickets on the lower level for myself and two other girls from work! It's at the end of November and I am so excited!

4. It's Almost Birthday Week!

This coming Monday marks the beginning of my birthday week! Though my actual birthday isn't until Thursday, the 27th, I reserve this week every year to have all types of celebrations! Great dinners will be eaten, fun outfits will be warn, and you'll be part of all the action! I've got a whole weeks worth of fun posts planned and and maybe even a giveaway:) so don't forget to stop by!

5. New Jewelry!

Yesterday, I was introduced to the website GroopDealz for the first time, and I'm so excited I found it!  I was scanning yesterday's deals, when I came across a set of rings that I have been wanting for weeks! They came in a set of 10 different colors, and for a great price! SOLD!

How cute are these stackable chevron rings for 7.99? Love! I can't wait to pair them with all my outfits!

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I hope your first few days of fall have been just as exciting as mine!

As always, Have a Sweet Day!

A Fabulous New Look for Sweet Like a Song!

My new blog design is finally complete! 

I started dreaming of a new design from Munchkin Land Designs months ago, when Neely gave one away on her blog! I can remember sitting in the wedding office with Leigh, brainstorming what colors I should use, the patterns we liked and finding inspiration from Pinterest to hold onto until the time came.

Why Munchkin Land?

Because I fell more in love with each one of Jenn's amazing designs! You can check them out here! I loved that though every design was completely different, they all had a common element, an extremely talented designer behind their details and creativity.

At the end of July, I read that Jenn was having a special discount where you could get 20% off any design. She was celebrating her third anniversary of the design company, and I saw this as my opportunity to get in on the action! That day, I put in my order for an Elite Design Package, and waited for the magic to begin.

Jenn understood my personality to a T! 

I answered her requests by choosing color palettes, cartoons, and fonts that I liked. I sent her inspiration photos, blogs that I loved, and a little about my tastes, but the amazing product that came from it was 100% her. I am so happy with my fabulous new design. I think it describes me perfectly! 

The glitter, the mint, the pink, the chevron... I seriously can't stop looking at it!

I hope you all love it as much as I do! Sweet Like a Song wouldn't be what it is without my lovely readers! If you've been thinking about giving your blog a facelift, I highly recommend Munchkin Land Designs! 

As always, Have a Sweet Day!

The Stylized Wedding Shoot!

Later this afternoon, I'm doing something that I am really excited about! 

I am attending a workshop on how to successfully put together a styled wedding shoot!

For those of you that have no idea what that is, (because I didn't either, until I got into the wedding business) a styled wedding shoot means setting up a mock photo shoot with a bride, groom, tablescape, paper products (invitations, save the dates, etc.), flowers, cake and one amazing theme. When all of these pretty things are mixed with great styling and a fabulous photographer, you're sure to get some beautiful photos!

Here are a few pictures from a past Leigh Pearce Weddings "Southern Secret Garden" styled shoot!

 

Design + Styling: Leigh Pearce Weddings | Photography: Alexa's Photography | Hair + Makeup: Carla White | Venue: O.Henry Hotel | Cake: Maxie B's | Florist: Just Priceless | Paper: Ashleigh's Fine Paper | Dress: Maggie Sottero | Tux: Gordon's Menswear 

All types of wedding vendors use styled shoots to promote their business. Though it takes time and money to put everything together, the vendor gets to choose every aspect of the shoot, where as in an actual wedding, you're shooting whatever the real bride and groom have picked out. Once the shoot is complete, your favorite shots can be narrowed down, edited to perfection, and sent in to your favorite wedding blog or magazine! Photographs from styled shoots are also a great resource for ad spaces, business cards, and a number of other amazing marketing tools!

Today, the wedding planner that I work for, Leigh Pearce Weddings along with an amazing photographer, Anna Paschal Photography are putting on this workshop, and I'm the designated greeter/helper/going-because-it's-going-to-be-so-much-fun-person! 

I'm excited if you can't tell:)

Sure wish I had my new iPhone to share the pictures with you! I guess I'll have to settle for the ol' Droid a little longer!

Look for pictures later this afternoon on Twitter & Instagram!