I am a total dog lover. I know I’m about to make a lot of cat owners angry, but I think that dogs make the best pets. (I’m also allergic to cats, so maybe I’m unfairly biased.) Dogs are sweet, fun and loyal. To your dog, you’re the center of the universe, which means they’re the best friends you could possibly ask for. And celebrities agree! Check out these priceless photos of celebs with their dogs. Stars seem to favor tiny lapdogs, but there are a few big, cuddly dogs in here, too.

Ok, so it hasn’t been that rough of a winter in NYC. In fact, there’s not even any snow on the ground currently. But don’t let any of the aforementioned fool you. That hasn’t stopped me from dreaming of a tropical vacation.Warm sun, sandy beach, comfy lounge chair and a cold drink? Um…yes, please, sign me up!

Check out some of the warmer places I’d love to jet away to right now.

My first thought when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve was Hunger Games Movie Time. (My second thought was who is this bearded man thrusting his tongue in my mouth? I didn’t give you permission to be my NYE’s kiss.) I haven’t been this excited for a movie since Harry Potter and I honestly don’t even know what to do with myself. I’ve watched the trailer 19 times, listened to the Taylor Swift song and caressed all three of my books way too many times. Can we just fast forward to March already so I can light myself on fire and go to the movie?!

No? Okay. Well in the meantime, this photo gallery will have to suffice! How excited are you to see the movie!? Tell us below!

It seems ex-flames Ryan Gosling and Sandra Bullock are having some fun fun fun again in Austin this weekend.  The  couple was spotted making the rounds in Sandy’s home town at the annual Fun Fun Fun Fest on Auditorium Shores.  There’s no doubt the two make a cute couple, but we gotta say, seriously Ryan?!? You could do better. And by better I mean me. Yes, me. Choose me Ryan!

Update:  Turns out, the girl in the photo is not Sandra Bullock, but rather The Girl With The Dragon Tattoos’ Rooney Mara.  Ryan is in Austin filming with legendary director Terrence Malick.

]]> http://collegecandy.com/2011/11/05/ryan-gosling-sandra-bullock-fun-fun-fun-fest-austin/feed/ 7 ccandystaff Ryan Gossling Sandra Bullock http://collegecandy.com/2011/07/05/5-tech-things-every-girl-should-know-how-to-do/ http://collegecandy.com/2011/07/05/5-tech-things-every-girl-should-know-how-to-do/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:00:46 +0000 Jenn - Wagner College http://collegecandy.com/?p=106314 ]]> There are certain tech-type things that every girl knows how to do. We know how to upload Facebook photos, and how to listen to music online. We know how to tweet and send e-mails, and how to Skype and iChat. But there are other tech things that often escape us. Things that are less for entertainments and more for academic or professional purposes. Less exciting but infinitely more useful.

None of these tricks I’m listing below are rocket science and some of you probably know how to do all of them, some of you none of them, and some of you have probably heard vague mention of them but have shown no interest in actually determining what they are. Which is totally fine. But have a look anyway because these tips and tricks may come in handy some day.

1. Create a compressed a zip folder. Zip folders reduce the size of your files and the space they take up on your computer. And they make it much easier to send files over e-mail because they upload in half the time. It’s especially useful for pictures. All you have to do is right click on the folder, select send to, and then select compressed zip folder. It’s the same for a Mac, you’re just selecting “compress” instead of send to after you’ve selected the folders. Easy and efficient.

2. Back up your files. Backing up your files is essential. Especially once you get to college and you’re working on projects over long periods of time. If you back up that semester long assignment and your computer breaks down two days before it’s due, then you won’t majorly freak out have lost everything. If you have the money I suggest backing your stuff up on a flash drive or an external hardrive.  If not you can back up for free online. 

3. Crop and/or edit your photos. Necessary for fixing red eye, adjusting size and embracing the black and white photo. People get really fancy with this when they use programs like Photoshop and whatnot. But for me it’s simpler and cheaper to just use a free, online resource. Like picnik. No instructions needed. I promise.

4. Attach a file to an e-mail. It seems simple but a lot of people still don’t know how to do this. All you have to do is open the e-mail, click the “attach a file” button, browse your files until you find the right one the same way you would browse them to open a document, select the file, and done. Or you could download Google Chrome and get a g-mail account. Because they now allow the dragging and dropping of files. It’s fabulous. 

5. Save a document as a pdf.  It makes your resumes and your cover letters printable and more professional and it’s nowhere near as complicated as it sounds. All you have to do is select file, then save as, then click the drop down by file format and select pdf. And you’re done.

This is it, my last shot, my final semester. So I better to do it, right. With that thought in mind, I’ve come up with a few resolutions to guide me through my last semester as an undergrad. Some of these make a lot of sense; some of them are completely ridiculous. But I do intend to follow through with all of them.

1. Document my life via digital camera. I have never been the girl with the camera. Not because I don’t like tagging myself in massive amounts of Facebook photos, but more because I just don’t like the idea of having to carry a camera around everywhere I go. But this year, I’m going to make an effort to take more pictures, or at least make someone else take them for me. I’m gradating in less than five months. This is the end of the end. And these moments, the big and the small deserve not only to be savored, documented, in Facebook albums named for inside jokes no one even remembers. This way, years from now, when I’m super famous and my Facebook has been hacked to find out the minute details of my life, people can oh and ah over my cute outfits, love of mango margaritas, and inability to take a decent photo.

2. Skip a class and not feel guilty about it. I’ve taken plenty of “mental health days” in the last four years, but I’ve never managed to avoid that twinge of guilt that accompanies skipping class. Curled up on the couch, watching The Real Housewives catching up on my homework, I can’t ever help but think, should I have gone to class? What if there’s a pop quiz? What if my friend skipped too and I can’t get the notes? What if I misread the attendance policy on the syllabus and now I’m doomed to failure? This semester, I’m going to skip a class and I’m not going to feel guilty about it. So I’m a nerd. So what. Shut up about it, okay?

3. Invest in a work wardrobe. I love my skinny jeans just as much as the next girl, but I’ve begun to realize that pretty soon I’m going to have to start looking for some work wear. Dress pants. Pencil skirts. Button down tops that aren’t plaid and from American Eagle. Pumps that aren’t sequined. If nothing else I need a really great interview outfit. Something that says, “Yes I know I’m not even out of college yet and have little to no experience in this field, but you should hire me, anyway, pretty please?” Where does one go for an outfit like that? Probably not Forever 21, right?

4. Take things less seriously. So apparently I’m not the only person going through this whole senior year thing. What comes next? Why do I have to go? What am I supposed to do? Supposedly I’m not the only one who has these questions. People have graduated before me, and people will graduate after me, and they’ve all somehow managed to figure it out. (Haven’t they?) So I’ll figure it out too. Eventually…

5. Prepare really ridiculous answers for those questions about post college plans. Yes, the questions have started already. And no, I’m not any closer to having a legitimate answer. (Unless well I’ve been writing for some…and I applied to a few…no, I don’t have any definite plans yet…counts as legitimate.) So instead I’m going to come up with a few ridiculous answers.  So far I’ve got (1) “I’m moving to Hollywood to become a hooker and live out my Pretty Woman fantasy.” (2) “I met this guy on my last trip to Vegas. We got married. So I’m all set.” (3) “I’m pregnant. I’ll be staring on MTV’s new show, Pregnant Post Grads.”

… I’ll work on it. Any suggestions?

Your hair is done, your makeup is on and your outfit is perfect. All you have to do is pack that wristlet and you’re ready to head out with your friends. Money? Check. ID? Check. Camera? Check.

Before you leave, you mix a few drinks and have a mini-dance party with the girls. Two rum and Diets and a few old school Britney songs later, it’s time to head out. But not without a “SELFIE!!”

You gather the girls around, make your sexy face, stick that arm out and capture the moment.

“Let me see!” your friends shriek.
“Ew. I have a double chin. One more!” So you take one more.
“Cuuuute!” everyone agrees. You put the camera back in your bag and head off to the bars.

Once there, you whip that camera out, strap it to your wrist and settle in for a night of partying. You beeline to the bar and order a round of shots. You snap a picture of them sitting on the bar, then you snap another of you and your friends cheers-ing. Then you ask the random dude standing next to you to get a picture of you taking them.

You chase the shot with a round of vodka sodas. Before you take the first sip, you ask a girl standing nearby to take a picture of you guys holding your drinks. Then, remembering how good you look, you ask your friend to get a shot of you and your drink alone.

“FACEBOOK!” you scream.

Suddenly, you hear Kelly Clarkson blaring from the DJ booth. You make your way to the dance floor, camera swinging from your wrist, to shake your rump. You do a little dance, pause, and take a picture of your friend getting humped from behind by a total shadester. Then you gather the girls together for a selfie.

“Want me to take that for you?” a nice gentleman asks.

“Nah, I love me some selfies.” You stick your arm out (and your chin up – you don’t want any double-chin action) and take the pic. Realizing you left the camera on zoom and only captured your teeth and your friend’s hair, you do it again.

“CUTE!” you all shriek.

“Ok, now let’s do ‘you just found out your boyfriend is gay’,” one friend proposes. You huddle up, stick the camera out and take the pic. Then you pass it around for everyone to admire.

“Ok, how about ‘who farted?’” another friend recommends. So you do it again. And again. And again. There is “sexy,” and “drunk,” and “your drink is empty.”

When you go to the bathroom, you snap some pictures (“SELFIE IN THE STALL!”). When you stop for pizza on the way home you snap some pictures (“SELFIE WITH A SLICE!”). When you get home and your feet are totally blistery from those heels, you snap some pictures (“Ew, our feet are gross!”).

And when you wake up in the morning, you grab your camera and flip through the ridiculousness that was last night. By the time you make it out of bed, you have 5 emails from friends begging you to post those puppies on Facebook.

Yup – been there. I don’t know what it is, but – much like a guy in a hot pair of jeans -  there is something about the alcohol/selfie combo that is just impossible to resist.

I want to update my room style from posters of David Beckham and Edward Cullen (I love you, RPatz – if you’re out there….call me. Seriously….) to shabby chic art, furniture, and frames. I want my room to scream “I’m a fabulous adult” and not “I frequent college poster sales,” and I don’t want to spend a lot of money to do it.

Instead of bringing along a DIY corkboard (perfect for any college dorm), I decided it was time to display my favorite college mementos, pictures, and reminders in a more sophisticated way. So I scoured the internet and the few flea markets that exist in my neighborhood to get design ideas until finally I came across an old miniature dress form.

Dress forms have been a symbol of chic fashionistas since sewing was invented. To me they scream modern yet vintage décor, and can be used for more things than just designing clothes. Instead of traditional frames or tape to mount my favorite pictures and mementos on a wall, I transformed the dress form into its own display board, frame, and jewelry case.

So here is an easy, creative, and inexpensive way to step up your style and display tidbits of your life.

What You’ll Need:
1. Dress form (mini or large): You can find these online (Craigslist, ebay, All Dress Forms) or take the time to search flea markets and consignment stores in your area. A covered dress form will work best because you can easily pin stuff on, but if you find a foam or plastic form, you can always cover it with fabric first.

2. Ribbon, buttons, and decorative flair: These will personalize your dress form even more and add extra room to place pictures and mementos, like ticket stubs.

3. Sewing pins/fabric glue: To keep it all together. Used to pin your photos up. Find these at any art store or drug store.

4. Mementos: Your favorite pictures, cards, reminder notes, and necklaces!

What You’ll Do:

1. If your dress form is old/dirty/boring and needs covering, there are tons of ways to fix it up!

Some ideas: Use papier-mâché and strips of newspaper or old book pages to cover the dress form for a vintage/city look. Cut up old college t-shirts and pin them on in an interesting pattern. Or use your favorite fabric to cover the dress form to match your bed linens or the color palette of your room. Secure with fabric glue for a custom fit to your dress form or keep it just the way it is if you like the basic look of the form.

2. Cut pieces of ribbon (or use colored shoelaces!) and wrap your dress form in different places. To secure the ribbon tightly, glue to your dress form (back side) with fabric glue. For an even easier route, just pin the ends of the ribbon or shoelaces to the backside of your form (the side you will not see when displayed).

3. Decorate with your favorite things! Tuck in photos and ticket stubs behind pieces of the ribbon or shoelaces. Hang earrings and necklaces with pins. Get creative and put your newest chic display décor anywhere in your home.

4. Look at you. You’re now a grown up with chic and easy sense of style.

While perusing (and by “perusing” I mean obsessively checking and re-checking) Facebook for the fourth time yesterday, I noticed that no one had done anything since the last time I logged in (an hour before). In a fit of never ending boredom that made signing off impossible, I decided to look at pictures of me.

Of the 300ish photos of me, 250 involved drinking and 249 of those involved me making some sort of awful face. Not like “I wasn’t ready for the camera” awful; more like, “I am going to make the ugliest face I can think of” awful. The sad part is that I can distinctly remember taking most of those pictures and consciously making the faces that are now staring back at (and horrifying) me.

I even giggled as I made one of my uglier faces and poked my head into what would have been a cute picture of friends. Why did I ever think that was a good idea?

Self Reflective Beer Goggles, that’s why.

It’s like the minute the beer hits my lips, I am somehow unable to take a picture without doing something completely stupid. Whether it is an awful face, mimicking oral sex with a beer bottle or thinking of a ridiculous scenario (“Your boyfriend just asked you to pee on him”) before snapping a selfie, I always look horribly, terrifyingly, bad.

You know you’ve been there. Go ahead; log onto Facebook right now and take a look at drunken pictures of you and your friends. I guarantee Self-Reflective Beer Goggles make an appearance. Many appearances, in fact.

I have been a victim of beer goggles many times in my life — I even once sported them for an entire 10-day cruise — but I never realized that they affect more than the way I see men. They affect the way people (like everyone on Facebook – hi mom!) see me!

At least, unlike kicking an ugly/short/hairy stranger out of your bed in the morning, this is easy to remedy; a simple un-tagging will do it.

Do you have SR Beer Google issues? What do you think about the druken Facebook picture epidemic?

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.