Do you remember sitting in your backyard as a kid making those little string bracelets for all your BFFs? By the 4th of July, my wrists would be a tangle of bright colored braids from swapping these sweet little tokens of friendship. Well, I vote that we bring back the trend and make all our favorite buds some friendship bracelets to show our love. While perusing Pinterest (story of my life) I came across this cute craft idea.

Turn some simple string into something meaningful…for practically no money.

What you’ll need:

• Colored string
• Card stock
• A pen
• Scissors
• A hole puncher

How you jazz up the standard friendship bracelet:

Now, I’ve never been a person who could get a handle on all those intricate chevron bracelet patterns. Mine were always simply, straightforward braids. If you have the skills to go all out, by all means do so. If you’re like me, your humble braids will still look awesome. Grab your card stock, cut it into a cute shape, then write a personal note. Take your hole punchers and make two punches — one on either side of the card. Weave your bracelet through the holes, and voila! A thoughtful throwback to nights of catching fireflies and licking melting ice cream cones everyone will love.

[Thanks to Dandee for the idea!]

If you are lucky and have a long weekend for Easter, I am jealous. My friends and I were reminiscing the other night about the epic Easter egg hunts we used to go on as kids, and it really made me miss those days. Remember when you were a little kid and holidays were so exciting? And getting lots of candy was the greatest thing ever?

Well, now you can recapture those days! Check out these awesome Easter crafts and celebrate like a little kid again. See the photos here, then head over to our Pinterest board for the directions.

I love to cook. I find it so relaxing and fun – it’s one of the best stress relievers for me. But when I’m really busy, I tend to stick to the same few recipes. And that gets boring. I make a lot of chicken, and usually I do a simple lemon chicken recipe that I learned from my grandma. That’s great, but I’m tired of that flavor. This week, I decided to try something new: garlic chicken with white wine sauce.

The best part about this recipe is the fact that it’s one of those dishes that sounds super gourmet, but isn’t tough to make at all. It requires a few more steps and ingredients than my typical lemon chicken, but it’s totally worth it. This recipe is perfect for a weekend evening when you have plenty of time to set aside for cooking, and it makes 4-6 servings, so it’s especially good if you have friends to share it with.

Garlic Chicken with White Wine Sauce

What you’ll need:

• About 3 pounds of chicken (I recommend boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 whole cloves of garlic, with cloves separated but not peeled
• Olive oil
• 1 1/4 cup white wine
• 3 large sprigs of fresh tarragon
• 3 large sprigs of fresh thyme

How to make it:

1. Lightly smash the garlic cloves with the side of a knife, just enough to break the cloves. Leave the peel on (to keep the garlic from cooking too quickly).

2. Pat the pieces of chicken dry and sprinkle them generously with salt and pepper. Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large thick-bottom pan (with a tight fitting cover) on medium high. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides, working in batches if all the chicken won’t fit in the pan at once. Lay the chicken pieces on the hot oil, do not move until browned, then turn over to other side using tongs. Remove from pan when browned.

3. Add a little more olive oil to the pan if necessary. Add the garlic and sauté until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add the wine and the herbs. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken pieces. Reduce the heat to medium low. Cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Move the chicken pieces from top to bottom every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes.

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

I have a shopping problem. It’s such a stereotypical girly thing, but I can’t help myself. I love to shop. The only problem with that is the fact that I have a very limited budget. I go through phases where I get really sick of the clothes I have, and I start thinking about all of the new pieces I’d like to buy. But I can’t afford to run out and buy new clothes, shoes, and accessories every time I want to. So I’ve been looking for new ways to revamp my wardrobe.

Luckily for me, College Fashion has the perfect post this week. They’ve put together a few easy DIY ways to recreate old items in your wardrobe. Check it out here.

[Lead image via Africa Studio/Shutterstock]

Midterms. Sigh. I’m tired of studying. At this point, when I comes time for me to sit down and do school work, I’m looking for any excuse I can find to blow it off. And what better excuse than some fun, cute DIY projects? I just stumbled upon the blog I Spy DIY, and they’ve got some great stuff. Check out this gallery for just a few of their best projects.

[Lead image via Mostovyi Sergii Igorevich/Shutterstock]

Despite the healthy veneer I have coated my personality with, deep down, I enjoy McDonald’s. Too much. From the fries to Egg McMuffins, I think I could successfully take on the Supersize Me! challenge set by Morgan Spurlock. It takes a lot of self control and creativity for me to make my healthy diet as tasty and exciting as a hamburger and fries. Okay, it’s really not that hard. It just takes a little more time.

I recently made the choice to scale back the amount of meat I eat. I’m typically a “one animal protein meal per day” girl. I decided to scale back to only eating 2-3 meat dishes per week and making them really count. I read a report that stated “flexitarian” eaters were more healthy than people who ate a lot of lean animal protein and vegetarians. (I will say that this report included all vegetarians, which can include your 12-year-old next door neighbor who uses vegetarianism as an excuse to only eat potato chips! So, yes, a little skewed). I decided to make the transition.

I’ve never been much into eggs. They have to be cooked really specifically – I’m not someone who typically orders eggs in a restaurant. However, on a whim, my best friend and I decided to make homemade egg McMuffins on a morning where I had taken the GRE and she had accidentally left $20 in an ATM. Eggs are a great source of protein and are super easy to cook. Combined with chopped spinach (for a little extra veggie nutrition), turkey bacon and your favorite cheese, the results are truly magic.

Homemade Egg McMuffins

You’ll need…

• 1 can of biscuits
• a few slices of your favorite cheese – I like smoked Gouda or smoked cheddar for these!
• 3-4 eggs
• 2-3 slices of turkey bacon
• about 1/4 package of spinach, chopped
• 1 tomato, sliced

How to make them…

Bake biscuits according to package instructions.

Spray a skillet with a bit of nonstick cooking spray and place on stove top on medium heat. In a bowl, whisk your eggs. Add to the skillet. Chop spinach finely and add on top of the eggs. Stir to allow spinach to wilt. Then, let the eggs cook before flipping.

In a smaller skillet, cook turkey bacon until warm and slightly browned on each side. Cut each slice in half and set aside.

On a plate, prepare about 1/2 a slice of cheese for each biscuit. Use this time to slice the tomato.

When the eggs are cooked through, cut into fourths. When the biscuits are done, remove from the oven and split in half. Each biscuit gets 1 slice of bacon (cut in half), 1/4 of the egg, about 1/2 a slice of cheese, and 1 slice of tomato.

Note: This recipe makes four McMuffins, with extra biscuits left over. I save the biscuits and just reheat them for dinner or for more McMuffins later! 

I’m already mentally preparing my body for Thanksgiving. It’s an all day eat-athon and I do not want to be cramping up on the 26^th mile.

The more pressing issue I’m asking myself is how I’m going to wake up on Thanksgiving morning, nurse my Black Wednesday hangover and make tons of food to eat later that will hopefully soak up all the residual alcohol. Whose idea was it to take tequila shots again?

Since I’m partly in-charge of co-cooking the kitchen, I realized just how important it is to find a few recipes that don’t have more than a dozen steps so that I can spend more time laying in front of the TV than standing in front of the oven.

For those of us that will be spending most of our Thanksgiving morning hugging the toilet bowl, I have a treat for you. I racked the Internet for simple, course-by-course recipes that you can prepare in between running back and forth to the bathroom anytime someone says the word “gin.”

initiating the gallery...

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There is almost nothing as comforting as potato soup! It tastes slightly like mashed potatoes combined with the deliciousness of a baked potato – sour cream, bacon, cheese. Mmm. Is there anything more homey than that?

Surprisingly, potato soup isn’t that hard to make – it’s just a matter of using the right ingredients and learning how to properly thicken things! Potatoes have gotten a reputation as being bad for us, but they are very healthy when eaten in moderation. Mostly, their skins are excellent sources of a multitude of vitamins. In this recipe, I like to keep the skins on for this reason!

Easy Potato Soup

You’ll need…

• 2-3 russet potatoes, diced into bite size pieces
• about 1/4 of an onion, diced
• about 3 tablespoons of butter
• about 2-3 tablespoons of flour
• about 2 cups of milk
• about 1 cup of chicken stock
• about 3-4 tablespoons of Philadelphia Cooking Creme OR cream cheese
• about 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 slices of turkey bacon, diced
• about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (your favorite – I like smoked mozzarella!)

How to Make It…

For the potatoes, you can wrap them in foil (after scrubbing them!) and bake them for about 1 hour at 400 degrees. Or, you can dice them into pieces and roast them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Choose what you have time for! (Baking the potatoes and then dicing allows the potatoes to break down in the soup slightly.)

In a small skillet, cook turkey bacon until warm and slightly brown on both sides. Remove from heat and when cooled, dice into small pieces.

Once the potatoes are cooked slightly, chop onion and add to a soup pot with a bit of nonstick cooking spray. Cook the onions until they are just translucent. Add bacon and potatoes. Add butter and allow to melt. When the butter is melted, add the flour and stir. You’ll want to cook the flour for a few minutes to remove the mealy taste of it.

After about 4-5 minutes of stirring, add your milk and chicken stock. Stir and allow to thicken slightly. You’ll want to bring the liquid to a very low simmer! Add Philly cooking creme or cream cheese, as well as the sour cream. Stir to combine. Add the shredded cheese and allow to melt and combine. Allow to simmer for another few minutes and then serve!

(If your soup doesn’t thicken up much with just the flour and butter, you can combine about 2 tablespoons of corn starch in a small bowl with about 2 tablespoons of water. Stir to combine and add to the simmering soup. Stir rapidly and this should thicken it up a bit more!)

Note: This recipe serves about 3-4 people. It can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2-3 days!

[I love spas, but being on a college budget doesn't allow for visits to them. I like to create my own spa days at home, and this is something you all can do too! So I will be bringing you some of my favorite at home treatments with ingredients you already have.]

Last time in Spa At Home, I talked you all through some DIY Scrubs. This week, with the weather finally changing, I thought we should visit some DIY hair and face treatments that you can find in your fridge right behind the OJ. It’s amazing how many treatments you can do with what you’ll find in the fridge. Whenever I’m at home, my parents are always really confused when eggs or fruit go missing and end up on my bathroom counter. The way I see it, why buy a pre-made treatment with lots of chemicals when I can make it at home?

In this video I’m going over some of my favorite hair and face treatments made with super simple ingredients that you probably already have. Watch on!

On my face: MAC Studiofix powder, Laura Gellar bronzer, Painted Earth liquid blush in Flutter, Mary Kay eye pencil, Painted Earth mascara

[I love spas, but being on a college budget doesn't allow for visits to them. I like to create my own spa days at home, and this is something you all can do too! So I will be bringing you some of my favorite at home treatments with ingredients you already have.]

Scrubs are one of my favorite things to make at home because there are so many different kinds. You can make a scrub out of almost anything from your kitchen. At home scrubs are super cheap and can actually be better for your skin because you’re not using a bunch of chemicals that can be found in store-bought ones. Do be aware though not to get too crazy and start throwing random ingredients together especially if you have really sensitive skin.

I’m going over two face scrubs and a body scrub in this video that I use on a regular basis. They’re extremely easy to make and won’t put a dent in your wallet.

On my face: Painted Earth Pore Perfecting Primer, Painted Earth concealer, MAC Studio Fix Powder, Painted Earth liquid blush in Flutter, Painted Earth eyeshadow in Unforgettable, Painted Earth mascara

On my nails: OPI Siberian Nights

Got something you want me to cover? Post it in the comments below. And don’t forget to follow us on YouTube and check out my other videos right here! And for more beauty related tips, check out my website and follow me on Twitter!