Life Update!

I assumed that when I graduated college, I would have more time to blog and post about fun things. This is definitely not the case! As many of you probably know, looking for a full-time job is a full-time job in itself, and it's where most of my time is going!

Here's an update as to what my life has consisted of over the past few days!

1. Looking for a job like crazy!

Since I concluded my internship last week, and am no longer required to do office time, I have been looking for a full-time job like nobody's business. I would love to do something marketing, event, social media related, so if you know of something, hit a sista up!

2. Decided I'm going to Homecoming!

Homecoming at Appalachian is a BIG deal,  and I was super bummed when I saw that we had a wedding that day! It isn't until October, but friends of mine are already talking about all the festivities. Last year, I was lucky enough to be on the Homecoming Court, when my parents & I got to go ON THE FIELD! There's still a few details to work out, but it looks like I can have someone fill in for me at work, and I'll be heading to Boone on October 6th!

3. Shopping!

I'm a born and bred shopped, so whether I have a job or not, I'm always looking for a cute outfit for some occasion! Yesterday, I headed to the mall to look for a possible Homecoming outfit! I checked a couple different places, and ended up at H&M! I have shopped in H&M multiple times, but this was my first actual purchase! I scored my cute game day smock for just under $30! Woohoo! Be looking for a post on this later on!

4. Looking at this necklace!

I have seen so many great ways to style this J.CREW inspired bauble necklace, but I don't have one of my own yet.

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That's where you come in! Those of you that have this necklace, I would love to know how you like it!  Is it easy to wear? Heavy at all? Any information would be appreciated!

5. Working more at Sam's!

In the midst of completing my internship and looking for something full-time, I'm working at my restaurant job about 4 days a week now! Though I love everything about Sam's, I'm ready for something full-time, in an area I'm interested in! A salary would be great too!

6. Planning a party!

I am BIG on birthdays, and my 22nd birthday is a mere 29 days away!

What better excuse do I need to put together a guest list, find cute invitations and a new outfit?! While my 21st birthday was like most people I know...a bit hazy, I'm looking for this year to be a little toned down, fun and memorable with some great girl friends! I'm thinking about having dinner at Village Tavern, and then heading to this new bar & grille called The District in downtown Winston-Salem! Have you heard of it?

I hope you've enjoyed hearing about what I've been up to lately! Enjoy your Wednesday!

I've Hit the Forever 21 Jackpot!

For an avid shopper like myself, the words Forever 21 and jackpot don't normally go together, but lately they have!

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I've never been a successful Forever 21 shopper. There's something about the mounds of clothes, the fact that nothing has a proper place and that most of their items resemble club wear gone bad, that has me leaving empty-handed and frustrated.

Lately, this has not been the case at all! I'm calling it, "Hitting the Forever 21 jackpot!" I can't decide if Forever's clothing is getting better, or if I'm just learning how to successfully shop in their store, but either way, I'm loving this change!

Here are a few of my fabulous recent finds:

Navy & pink short sleeve dress = $20

Perfect for wedding rehearsals or a night out on the town AND it has pockets!

Black scoop neck dress with bubble sleeve = $29



The perfect interview dress! It makes a someone short like me look super long and sassy!

Black sleeveless layered dress = $17


This dress came in 5 different colors and can be dressed up or down!

And my most favorite find...my birthday dress!
My birthday isn't until late September, so I don't want to show the whole thing just yet, but I tried this dress on and fell in love! Plus, how can you beat the $29.00 price tag!

Here are a few sneak peaks!


I also snagged a great set of gold bangles to wear with it for $4.80!

Have you had any luck at Forever 21 lately?

I'm No Longer An Intern!

I am happy to announce that I have completed my time as an event planning intern!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved, I mean loved my internship, but I'm so excited to be an official Assistant Wedding Coordinator! Since my interning days are over, and I won't be working in the office during the week, I'm going to miss our beautiful downtown office so much!

Here's the front door view!

From the inside!

My desk for the summer!

Since it was my last day, I wanted to make sure it was a special one! For me, it's not a celebration without presents and dessert! So that's exactly what we had!

My sweet Mama whipped up one of her famous chocolate eclair cakes for us to enjoy. It was delicious and perfect for the occasion!

Thanks Mama!

I also brought a few gifts with me!

One for Leigh, for being such a wonderful boss during my internship, and for giving me this amazing opportunity! While shopping last week, I saw an adorable personalized (with a monogram of course) business card holder. For someone with beautiful business cards like Leigh, this was the perfect gift!

How cute is this for her desk?!

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Yesterday also happened to be Olivia's birthday (one of the other interns)! Olivia works for a photographer in our office, and it just as sweet as can be! Did I mention she loves Hello Kitty as much as I do? That made picking out the perfect present a breeze! I went straight to Target and picked up a Hello Kitty scented notebook (not quite sure how that works!) and the cutest birthday pin!

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I had a great last day working on updating our vendor list for Leigh Pearce Weddings! We love our vendors, and there are a ton of them! Leigh and I also visited our favorite restaurant next door for a great lunch at M'Coul's!

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The Kickin' Chicken Wrap? Yes, please!

Around 4:15, we were ready to call it a day, and I made my way out of the office for the last time as an intern! So bittersweet! 

Then it was time for the real fun...my post-internship celebratory trip to Lilly Pulitzer! Luckily, it's just a few miles away!

Though I didn't buy anything during my visit, it was still fun to shop and look around!

I am so thankful for an amazing internship, an amazing experience and an amazing summer of wedding planning, design ideas, and wonderful brides! I can't wait to see what the fall season has to offer!

Have you finished your summer internship? Did you fall head over heels in love like I did?

The Life of a Scrapbook Queen!

I've always joked, that around my house, money goes toward two things: dresses and scrapbooking. Today, I want to talk about the latter. My Mom started scrapbooking about six years ago, on a whim, and it quickly turned into her biggest passion. I can remember going with her to our very first Creative Memories party (a haven for scrapbookers) at our nearby hair salon. Our hair dresser, Lisa sells Creative Memories products (like Pampered Chef for the cook) and introduced my mom to a world she now knows so well.

When I say scrapbooking is my Mom's passion, you may be thinking that anyone can print out pictures, glue them on a page and add a few details. What she does is so much more than that! Over the past six years, she has made ten different scrapbooks, each with their own themes and details that she picked out one by one. 

During my four years in college, she made a scrapbook for each year! She spends hours making page after page for my brother and I, and she's really good at it. Real scrapbooking takes planning, and she's got that down pat. Her normal day consist of printing hundreds of pictures, buying scrapbook paper, albums and embellishments. Then she goes to town with the tools of the trade: the tape runners, shape makers, glue dots and everything else. 

Though she's the ideas and expertise behind each of these albums, she needs a little help from us along the way. First, she has to have pictures, and tons of them. We take pictures of EVERYTHING! Then, she needs the details, these are things like tickets, brochures, labels, stickers, postcards, from the places that we go. You never know what could be the perfect detail on a page! She adds the embellishments (the jewels, letters, and custom cut-outs that make every page come together) and after a little TLC, the page is done!

I know that these amazing creations are something that I will treasure for years to come! 

Thanks Mama, you've got it going on!

Here are some of my favorite pages that my Mom has made!

Getting my new car! 

The biggest fish I've ever caught!

 Dad's Day football tailgate!

 Halloween as Minnie Mouse!

College graduation!

If we were BFF's, you would know that...

Sweet Like a Song is growing!

I've got a new blog design in the works, new followers popping up all over the place, and blogger business cards are soon to follow!

I am so excited for all these changes and I'm so happy to have you along for the ride!

In honor of any new followers that have recently joined Sweet Like a Song, I wanted to do a post that I saw a few bloggers do a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure who originally came up with this post, but all the credit goes to them, not me!

In order to get to know me, here are 10 random facts that you would know about me...if we were best friends! 

If we were BFF's...

You would know that I can ride a unicycle

You would know that I was voted "Best Smile" in high school

You would know that eating is my favorite pastime

You would know that I collect cupcakes and love Hello Kitty

You would know that I hardly ever buy myself jewelry or shoes...dresses all the way!

You would know that I'm from a small town with three stoplights

You would know that I love yard sales!

You would know that I prefer Michelob Ultra to fancy drinks and margaritas

You would know that I'm as girly as they come

and you would know that I introduce myself by saying "Hi, My name is Melody like a song" 

(Hence the name of my blog!!)

What do you think? Do we have anything in common? I'd love to know!

Oh Happy Day!

This morning, I woke up around 6AM, feeling energized, thankful and so excited to start the day. What better way to share this happiness than a What I Love Wednesday post?

Here's what I'm loving this week!

1. I'm loving that today is Wednesday and we're half way through the work week!

I'm beyond excited for next week to arrive because I'm traveling to see Jake and I have five full days off work! It can't get here soon enough!

2. I'm loving the new dog toy I bought for Paisley yesterday on sale for $5.99! 

(She's loving this one too!)

I finally got Paisley one of the animal toys that has an empty water bottle inside it. Pet Supplies Plus had a sale going on yesterday, and with the toys 50% off, I couldn't resist. The only animal they had left was a skunk, but Paisley doesn't discriminate haha! She's been toting this thing around everywhere!

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3. I'm loving that I get to see my boyfriend one week from today, after going a whole month without seeing him!

I'm so excited to be traveling to see Jake's new apartment and the law school that he'll be attending for the next three years! I may even be more excited about all these changes than he is!

4. I'm loving that Paisley has slept in her crate for the past six nights! Hallelujah!

For those of you that have heard my anxiety and trouble with crate training, you know that I had given up on it, at least for a little while. Last week, my Mom's best friend came to visit Paisley and gave me a lot of inspiration/support about the crate training. I went to the basement, got the crate back out of the box and put it up in our kitchen. I put Paisley in it that night and there was no problem whatsoever! It was the craziest thing! Thank you so much for all of your sweet thoughts and prayers that you've sent my way during this new experience.

5. I'm loving the cute dressy capris that I found at Target on sale for $16.99

Target has a style of capri pants that I really like. You may have seen them because they have them season after season in the same few colors (black, royal blue, fuchsia, and navy), and they come in shorts, skirts, etc. While scanning the sale rack last Sunday, I found a cute pair of black ones in my size, and for 30% off. They fit perfectly and I wore them to work on Monday! Score!

6. I'm loving that Sweet Like a Song is getting a face lift!

This is probably the thing I'm most excited about this Wednesday and into the coming weeks! In honor of my one year "blogoversary", Sweet Like a Song is going under construction, and will be looking oh so beautiful once it's done! I have been admiring the designs of Jenn from Munchkin Land Designs for months, but I finally took the plunge and ordered my new design! If you haven't heard of Munchkin Land Designs, you can check out her site here. 

I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

What are you loving this Wednesday? Link-up with Jamie and let us know!

Craft Tutorial: Chevron Picture Frame!

A few days ago, I spotted a craft on Pinterest that I thought was just too cute!

Remember seeing this floating around?

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I saw it and fell in love!

With Jake getting ready to leave for law school, I've been looking for something cute to make for him, that he could set up in his new apartment. Even though it ended up looking a little girly, I hope that he'll still love it!

I know this is a pretty simple craft, but don't let it fool you! It's tedious! Here's my craft tutorial, just in case!

The Supplies:

Paper plate

Two main paint colors

Black paint

Ruler

Pencil

Sharpie

Various paint brushes

1 - 5x7 Photo

$1.00 Wooden frame from Michael's

I started out by taking some measurements of the frame and hand drawing chevron stripes over the whole thing. This is the hardest part by far! With the heart cut-out in the center, you have to make sure all your lines match-up. I know I worked on drawing and re-drawing these lines for a couple hours. I used a ruler, but I think next time, I would try tape or another option.

When you have your lines exactly how you want them, paint the first line with one of your two colors, and then alternate over the whole frame. I started with white.

Paint the remaining lines with your second color.

Don't forget to paint the rim of the picture frame and the thin edge inside of the heart, once the front side of the frame is completely dry.

My Mom has much better handwriting than me, so I had her write the words "The Only Fish In The Sea For Me" (just like the original craft) in Sharpie on the frame. This made it much easier for me to trace with a paint brush.

For the actual picture:

 It's best to choose a picture that's been sized up to a 5x7. I tried a 4x6 at first, but it was too small for the heart shape. You can use the cardboard insert that comes in the frame as a guide to cutting your picture.

Right before putting the picture in, I painted over the hand-written words in black paint. This really made them stand out! 

I love how this craft turned out, and I can't wait to give it to Jake! The best part, the whole thing only cost me about $2! 

Hopefully it'll find a special spot in his new place!