Granted, I’ve always been way ahead of the social learning curve but I think most of us would agree.  Forget leaving your twenties behind, I think those awkward early teen years are the ones I’d sooner like to leave in the dust.  Seriously.  Do you remember…

Having not-so-great fashion sense.
I remember being a freshman in high school and wearing an Abercrombie tee for gym class that said “Nighttime Full-Contact Football” across my boobs in sparkly letters.  And I believe I paired that stellar top with some white running shorts and those Adidas sneakers everyone had.  Except mine were gold.  Now tell me, who let me walk out of the locker room looking like such a horrendous mess?

Bad hair.
Maybe you were the brunette who tried Sun-In and ended up looking like Carrot Top.  Maybe you thought pink highlights were a good statement to make. Maybe you didn’t know what a flat iron was. Or were you like me and experimented briefly (but on multiple occasions) with bangs?  And I’m not talking about the cool side-sweepy ones.

Dating idiot guys because they were cool.
You learned to interpret their various grunts because words just escaped these beautiful creatures.  The epitome of high school dating success was having the hunky captain of a major sports team (aka basically any of the teams except golf club) walk you to class.  It didn’t matter if he was a senior taking freshman English for the fourth time or if his drink of choice was Peppermint Schnapps stolen from his parents’ liquor cabinet.  You were in L.U.V.

Braces.  Acne.  Glasses.
The nerd trifecta.  Chances are you had at least one.  If you suffered through all three, then I’m super proud you made it out alive.  You must have had an excellent psychiatrist.

“Dad, can I get a ride?”
Unless you lived in the deep South where they practically hand you a diver’s license along with your birth certificate, chances are you were bumming rides from the ‘rents 24/7.  What’s cooler than getting picked up from a party in a Volvo station wagon driven by a 45 year-old-man in his pajamas?  Pretty much anything.

What do you miss least about your teen years?

So cute. So easy. So the perfect way to personalize that 10X10 cell.

I’m obsessed with taking pictures, absolutely obsessed. I have approximately 44 albums on Facebook and that’s after I consolidated and cut down about 300 pictures. I can’t help it.

The digital camera changed my life. I love taking pictures of everything and anything, and capturing every drunken moment of friends passed out over toilets or park benches, of every group pic in the sorority pose, and every picture of birthdays and holidays.

My room has always been covered with the pictures I’ve taken, a visual documentary of my life displayed around my room on a cork board and on the walls. But instead of tacking photos to the wall or searching for the perfect picture frames (which happen to be really pricey), here’s a creative, easy, and cheap way to make a hanging frame of your own.

Whether your room decor is classy or flashy, this custom DIY picture frame will be the perfect wall decor to decorate your life, display your photos, and showcase your memories with some style! It is also the perfect gift to give a friend for the holidays if you’re low on cash but got lots of love.

What You’ll Need:
Picture: Whatever moment or event you want to display!
Cardboard: Use cardboard from an old shoe box, packing box, or even an old pizza box (mmm Domino’s, yummmmmm)
Glue: Superglue and a glue stick. The most essential of all craft tools. You’ll need this a lot during the constructing process.
Ribbon: Any color and any design of your choice. The ribbon will be how you hang your photo frame and can also be used to add accents like bows.
Scrapbook Paper: You’ll need two sheets of different paper per frame (for 4×6 and 5×7 photos). You can use construction paper, but scrapbook paper is the best as it comes in a wide variety of colors, designs, and textures. Buy a stock of paper sheets or buy by the sheet. Usually you can buy 4 sheets per dollar.
Decorative Extras: Buttons, jewels, rhinestones, or bows! Any extras you may want to add to your frame for accents!

What You’ll Do:
1. Cut your cardboard, leaving a border of 2-3 inches of extra cardboard around the size of the picture itself. For example, for a 5×7 picture, cut a piece of cardboard that is 7×9. Use scissors or a razor cutter for a straight edge, but you don’t have to cut it perfectly as you won’t be able to see the cardboard itself anyway. This will be the base of your picture frame.

2. Save your scraps of cardboard! Cut 4 thin pieces (about an inch thick) of cardboard that are about a half inch shorter than the size of your picture. So, if you’re framing a 5X7, cut 2 4.5 inch long strips and 2 6.5 inch strips. Make sense? You’ll use these in step 5.

3. Use the glue stick to glue scrapbook paper to the cardboard base of your frame, completely covering the cardboard. Use a solid color design for classier frames, or a bright and crazy pattern to really add some spunk to your frame! Also, glue a different pattern/color of scrapbook paper to the four thin pieces of cardboard (you can glue these all onto one sheet and then cut off all the excess).
4. Using the glue stick, glue your picture in the center of the cardboard frame base.

5. Using superglue, glue the four border pieces of cardboard a few centimeters away from the actual picture, creating a 3-dimensional border to your frame. These pieces won’t surround your entire picture, but instead create an unconnected border and some pizazz.

6. Cut a strip of ribbon (depending on how long you want your frame to dangle) for the hanging portion of your frame and super glue the ribbon ends to the top left and top right sides of your frame (on the back!).

7. Superglue any extra buttons, jewels, fake flowers, or rhinestones to random spots on your new frame for that extra bit of glam. Or, to make your frame extra special, add additional layers of frames and attach them to your original frame using ribbon (so it looks like a laddder). Or make a frame within a big frame by using a larger piece of cardboard and displaying multiple pictures!

The possibilities are endless for this project, giving you the opportunity to let your creative side out. And after all that studying, there’s nothing you need more than a little creative outlet.

"OMG! I forgot I packed all these empty Bacardi bottles!"

At the end of senior year I shoved all my belongings into boxes and garbage bags without using any kind of rational order or logic. Whatever could fit in my boxes went in — and whatever couldn’t fit got thrown away.

Perfectly good pots and pans ended up in the dumpster (and soon after in a dumpster diver’s kitchen) while perfectly useless items like homemade off the shoulder t-shirts got rolled in bubble wrap and packed away.

This past weekend I moved into my new apartment and began unpacking all my boxes. It was like 8 nights of Hanukkah all rolled into one. I had forgotten I owned half of that stuff so each time I reached into a box and pulled something out it was like winning a raffle. The kind of raffle where you win prizes that are good for a laugh, yet have no purpose…a broken shower radio, a dirty mug, stolen freshman year dorm posters, a lime green shoe bag, 75,000 dryer sheets.

Basically nothing useful or even decorative for my new apartment. But they come from college and even though they should have been thrown out months ago, I can’t bear to part with them now. I held up every item and explained to my mother what each one meant to me. However she was increasingly less entertained as my stories got more personal. She finally cut me off at  “oh here’s the pregnancy test I – I mean my roommate – used one time she thought she was pregnant.”

My inability to throw anything away made me realize that I’m officially one of those old people who won’t ever get over college – or anything related to it. If I can practically sing the praises of a pregnancy test that originally gave me angina, there’s no hope left. I’m a few more trips-down-memory-lane away from tattooing the Syracuse fight song onto my face. Once I do that there’s even a chance I might actually follow the basketball team’s season.

Will I ever be OK with real life? Will I ever start stories with something other than, “This one time in college….”? Will I ever understand the concept of “Just one drink”?

Who knows, but in the meantime I’m trying to find space in my jail cell of a room to fit all my Syracuse memorabilia. NYC apartment bedrooms are roughly equivalent to a fourth of the space of dorm bedrooms. I have my bed on risers on top of my dresser on risers on top of my underbed storage box. So it’s an understatement saying it’s going to be hard to fit everything from my old life along with everything from my new life. Especially with the giant box of costumes I unearthed this morning.

“I can’t get rid if it, mom! You never know when you’ll need orange rubber wading pants in NYC.”

So, based on my DIY crafting history, it is obvious that I have a lot of t-shirts lying around. A lot. I just can’t part with stuff that has so much history. And these t-shirts are all souvenirs from really big moments in my life (except the free credit card tees I get on the way to class – I’m not sure why I haven’t gotten rid of those ones yet…)

I’ve been lugging some of these shirts (like the one from my high school senior-all-night-party) around for 3+ years and I recently realized it was time to put them on display like they deserve. Which is why I’ve started turning them into things I actually use. Like an awesome shop-till-you-drop tote bag. Or an adorable throw pillow for your bed or couch.

This little project frees up space in your closet, adds some cute comfort to your bedroom/living room, and allows you to display those important memories (without risk of getting really crusty/yellow armpits). Yes, the DIY T-Shirt Pillow is a total win/win.

Materials:
1 Old t-shirt
Throw pillow sans cover, or pillow stuffing (found at craft stores)
Needle and thread or sewing machine

Steps:
1)    Mark cutting lines on the shirt with chalk or washable fabric pen. To decide the size you need, take the dimensions of the pillow and about 1/2″ on each side for seam allowance, plus about 1/2″ ease. So, add 1.5″ to each dimension side so the material is big enough to fit around the pillow.

2)    Cut along the lines you drew (through both the front of the t-shirt and the back!).

3)    Separate the two layers of fabric and flip both sides upside down (so the designs on the front and back face each other) and stitch along the edge of three sides (usually left, top, and right).

4)    Flip it back out so you can see the design and stuff the inside, either with the throw pillow sans cover or with stuffing.

5)    Sew along the bottom of the square-shaped pillow to enclose the stuffing.

6)    Put in a movie, pop some popcorn, and relax on the couch with your favorite t-shirt throw pillow!

The end of the school year is here. Good for some (everyone who gets to come back next year), horribly scary for others (seniors), and bittersweet for all.

Before you tape up that last box and kiss your friends goodbye, though, take a moment to reflect on the year that was. We did, and we realized we have some great effing memories from the past 8 months. Some are big events (like the big 21st birthday) and others are just random nights on campus. But all of them make us laugh and smile and appreciate the amazingness that is college life.

So take a trip down memory lane with the CollegeCandy writers this week, then share your own favorite moments in the comments section below.

Ricki – University of Michigan: When my sorority sisters pretended that there was a squirrel in the house and fooled the whole house, and kept the joke going until we called the house mom, were all standing on chairs, and convinced a girl that she has let in this fake squirrel when she propped the door open to bring in her groceries.

Laura – St. Johns: All my friends turning 21 and no longer having to do all the beer runs myself!  Plus, finally being able to enjoy being 21 and experiencing the bars with my best friends.

Erica – Kent State: The first weekend of school one of my new roommates (who I didn’t know very well at the time)  & I went to the bars w some mutual friends. We ended up getting hammered & wandering away from the people we knew (who were also our ride home).  Basically, we were stranded so we ended up drunkenly wandering to someone’s house (we thought we knew them, turned ou twe didnt’), knocked on the door, CLIMBED THROUGH THEIR OPEN WINDOW & slept on their couch all night & left in the morning — all without them ever knowing!  Creepy? Yes.  Moral of the story? Don’t sleep with your windows open in a college town unless you want to wake up to drunk girls on your couches.

Lauren – University of Michigan: Jello wrestling my roommates in our backyard. Actually, spending 2 weeks making the jello was pretty fun too. Not fun: being tinted green for the following week. That stuff doesn’t wash off easily!

Brithny – Duke: Tailgating with my friends and dressing up as a box of Crayola crayons. Then getting doused with beer and becoming a dripping-wet, dye-coming-off, soggy pink crayon. And having the dye bleed through and staining my white underwear and undershirt pink. Crazy fun, but needed to buy new whitey-tighties.

Charlsie – Hollins: The last time my friends and I were all truly together, which was the History Department Party that is thrown at the end of every semester. We had ourselves a great time dancing with the local celebrity known as “Chicken Man.”

Donnette – Manhattanville College: My school experienced a blackout one weekend and it was absolute chaos!! There was even a guy in a mask going into open rooms to scare everyone.  My favorite memory is my open door policy that weekend: random strangers playing Catchphrase by flashlight, saying crazy things, and doing crazier things. Blackouts need to happen at every school!!

Alex – Lakehead University: Meeting my boyfriend. Let’s just say that I sought him out using some extreme stalker skills.

Kari – FSU: I don’t remember the whole event, but it involves floating down Bear Paw river in the middle of nowhere with a keg in an inner-tube tied to my toe. Good times.

Ashley – CU Boulder: I was at a fraternity formal and walked into my hotel room after being at the pool (everyone had been wasted) to find my date passed out spread eagle on the bed butt naked holding his tinkler. It was the absolute funniest moment!

Sarabeth – University of Texas: When I was making a friend’s birthday cake in the dorm and after icing and decorating it, I accidentally dropped it on the floor.

Kelly – Simmons University: The night before Spring Break, me and my friend Jen were in a coffee shop. We ran into a guy we had seen there a few times and spent a while talking to him. Somehow, the idea of driving to New York City came up (we live in Boston). We all decided to say f**k it and just go. It was kind of scary because we didn’t really know him (you’re not supposed to get in cars with strangers!) but we ended up having a blast. We got there at 2 AM, walked around the city, saw the sunrise in central park, then drove home. It was the perfect impromptu road trip.

[Ever see something you want but don’t have the money to buy? Ever get sick of studying/watching TV and have the urge to get crafty and make things on your own? We know! Us too! We just don’t know where to start, which is why we got some of CollegeCandy’s craftiest writers to share their favorite DIY projects with everyone. So get to your nearest craft store for the essentials and let’s make some fun sh*t.]

The semester is coming to a close and I can’t help but feeling a bit nostalgic. I’ve been going through my photos, reminiscing and getting a little misty that I have to leave these people in just a few more weeks. As I sat in my dorm room, weeping in front of my laptop, I started wondering why I don’t take advantage of all the pictures I’ve accumulated over the years. Of course I have the obligatory photo collage, a few in frames, and a few for the wall of shame, but that doesn’t even make a dent in the Facebook photo albums.

So I’ve been searching high and low for cool new ways to display the shrine of my college years and fell in love with the photo cube. Simple, modern and chic, it looks like something straight out of an Ikea catalogue. But don’t bother buying it because its easy enough to do it yourself.

Materials:

• 6 Photographs (multiples of 6 if you want to make more than one cube)
• Photo paper
• Scissors
• Double sided tape or glue
• Ruler
• Pin (optional)

Steps:

1. Before you print your photos, crop each one into a 4×4 square.
2. Print each photo on 4×6 photo paper, setting your preferences so that your photo will print in the center of the photo paper.
3. Cut the corners off (diagonal cut) the extra inch that is on either side of your photo. This will leave a trapezoid-shaped paper flap on either side of your photo.
4. Slap a piece double-sided sticky tape on each flap, cutting the edges so they are even with (read: the same exact shape as) your trapezoid flaps. Get the tape as close to the actual photo as possible.
5. Here’s the tricky part, you need to lay out your photos in a way that will leave you with a cube. To end up with a cube, you will need to lay them out in a “t” shape (that’s a lower case “t,” people) – a line of 4 photos with 1 photo on either side of  the second photo.  Use this diagram to help figure out the flaps. Make sure you pay attention to what photos will be next to each other.
6. Stick the flaps together. The last few flaps will be the hardest, so try using a pin or knife to get the last pieces stuck together. Be neat! The closer and straighter your lines are, the better it will look.
7. You now have your photo cube. You may want to weigh it down if you’re leaving it on your desk, or you could hang it with some fishing wire. (Note: this also makes a great grad/end-of-the-year gift – personal and oh-so-cheap.)

If you, by chance, decide that you would like to smell like “Spring 2009,” some of the fragrance trends for this season include:

-Limey (But who really wants to smell like the aftermath of a tequila shot?)

-Sandalwood with creamy lactones (Such as coconuts, which your nose considers synonamous with the beach)

-Deep, dry amber notes (Yes, the gem)

-Rose Violet (Featured in almost all perfumes)

-Tuberose orange flower (Huh?)

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking. “Thanks? Am I supposed to go a market now and rub a tuberose orange flower all over myself?” Well, you can if you want to, but an easier way to create that spring scent-track (like a soundtrack for your nose) is to hit up your local Sephora and check out the newly featured perfumes created for Spring ’09. Here are a few of my favorites:

Dolce & Gabbana L’Eau The One is technically the same as “The One,” but with a twist. Some of the notes included are peach, vanilla, and amber, making this perfume “Divinely fresh and luxuriously fruity.”

Lilly Pulitzer Wink is reppin’ several of the trendy spring notes in this extremely girly pink and green bottle. The smell of violet, amber, and rose, among others, will definitely have you thinking Spring (and that is enough to get you through the rest of this dreadful winter).

C L E A N Simply Soap has some serious “rolling around in just cleaned sheets” feeling with the trendy notes of rose oil, violet, and musk that will probably make you decide you “randomly” want to go roll around in just cleaned sheets. Outside. During a picnic. Get where I’m goin’ with this?

In today’s economy (and in college) it is pretty difficult to go out buy every scent you desire. So be the innovative student you are and try to create something yourself with oils, fruits, spices, or flowers. It will allow you to have your own unique scent for “Spring 2009” that no one can duplicate!

I was working a job, getting straight A’s and somehow managed to go clubbing every.single.weekend. without my parents finding out.

When it came to music, I pretty much only listened to whatever was on the radio when I was driving around with my friends. And Bright Eyes. I always listened to Bright Eyes. And, because of my addiction to the night life – even though I couldn’t even legally drink yet – I fell in love with the Hot 100 charts on Billboard.com. I would peruse the latest additions and then download them with Napster.

Lucky for me, Billboard keeps all their Hot 100 charts online. So, I was actually able to look back and view the top songs from five years ago (wow, that seems like a really big number) when I was a wee 17 year old.

Junior year – of high school and college – has probably proved to be the most exciting. You’re finally comfortable where you are, and adult-like things like graduation are but a miniature blip on your radar. (You’re mostly worried about what you’re gonna wear to that killer house party you are going to go to this weekend). Perfection.

Anyway, let’s take a trip down memory lane to my original junior year here. Good times.

“I did my first beer bong in that one,” you tell yourself. “I can’t throw away the memories!” Well, you don’t have to. Here are a few ways to reuse your old shirts.

Throw pillows — Pick the t-shirts with logos you love, but never wear. Follow these easy instructions, and you have new room decor. The main cost is pillow forms, or cotton batting, but it’s a lot cheaper than going out and buying them from a decor store. Variation: make an actual t-shirt pillow.

T-shirt shopping bag — Go green when lugging your groceries home with a snazzy new shopping bag. You can save the planet by not using plastic bags, and have extra change for happy hour by not spending a cent on the reusable ones from the grocery store. Plus, you can turn that pre-party t-shirt into something actually useful!

T-shirt quilt — If you’re feeling ambitious, and have a ton of t-shirts, make a t-shirt quilt. You’ll have a unique new blanket, and still be able to look at your favorite tees. If you’re not feeling up to the challenge alone, and have a quilter in the family (such as a grandma or an aunt) why not ask them to help you out? You will get a less amateur looking product, and they will get some quality time with their favorite student.

Pillow cube — Makes a soft projectile to wake a roommate sleeping through her alarm if you share a bedroom.

Recon your t-shirt — If you really like the design on the shirt, but don’t like how it fits, why not reconstruct it so you’ll actually wear it. The book, Generation T: 101 Ways to Transform a T-shirt is a good step-by-step guide to help you out.

Have any more suggestions, let us know!

With less than three weeks before we welcome 2009, now is the time to do everything you said you would do in 2008. And if any of those plans go awry? You can start off with a clean slate in under 30 days. Now is the time to carpe diem, my friends, so see 2008 out with a bang.

1) Get a jump start on your New Year’s resolution. It’ll make January 1 so much less painful. Dead set on losing weight? Start out each day with a mere 20 minutes of cardio. You’ll lose a couple of pounds before the big par-tay and be motivated to keep toning up throughout January (and beyond). Want to quit smoking? Cut down now. Cold Turkey will be easier when you’ve already cut a pack-a-day habit down to 2 or 3 nicotine sticks.

2) Ask out that hottie from lab. What do you have to lose? The semester’s almost over anyway. And if he’s interested, you might have your New Year’s kiss all lined up.

3) Have a clothing-swap party. Clean out the stuff you bought in 2008 because you thought it would make a fashion statement. Encourage your friends to do the same, and then get together and see if anyone wants someone else’s duds. If your friends don’t want your fashion don’ts, donate them to the Salvation Army or another charity, and start off 2009 with some good Karma.

4) Buy some Obama memorabilia. Come on! Comemorate history in the making with an Obama t-shirt or button or novelty Barack condoms. You’ll be good to go for 2009′s much-anticipated inauguration.

5) Do something BIG. Has 2008 flown by too quickly? Don’t wait till New Years Eve when everyone’s going to be out and about. Grab tickets to a concert, a sporting event, a theater performance, or a comedy show. Get out of the house (and out of your normal weekend routine), and buy a ticket for something that you can file into your scrapbook under “2008.” If you can afford it, take a weekend getaway. If you can’t, try to find one of your city’s secret gems, like a free museum visit or a student discount pass to a local attraction.

6) Make contact. If you’ve lost touch with someone or had a falling out, this is the perfect season to reconnect and make amends. Reflect back on 2008. Should you apologize to your ex-best friend for having a blow out that really wasn’t that significant? Have you grown apart from your Spring ’08 lab partner? Did someone make a difference in your life last year, and you never got to properly thank them? Why wait till “next year”? Do it now.

7. Have a “Best Of” party. Tell your friends to dress in their favorite ’08 trends (even if they went out a couple of months ago), bring over their iPods and blast the best jams of the passing year, or have a 2008 movie marathon. Have everyone write down some 2008 memories, and throw them into a hat; then, read everyone’s contributions out loud. Nothing ends a good year with some damn good reminiscing.

8. Do something small. But still meaningful. Check out this blogger’s “45 Things to Do Before 2009″ List and see if you get inspired. Rent some of Hollywood.com’s “Must See” suggestions. Or, see what other peoples’ goals are, and see if you can relate.

The clock is ticking, friends, and you can’t make up for lost time. What do you hope to accomplish before we begin a new year?