Guess Whose Back…Back Again! {Special Monday Musts}

Guess whose back….tell a friend!

Well, it’s not Eminem, readers – it’s me!

Now that recruitment is over and I have 49 beautiful new sisters, I’m able to get back down into the wonderful word of blogging!

I’ve missed blogging so much recently and was reminded about how much I love it during a recent trip out with my best friend.

After breaking my iPhone (whoops), my best friend and I went to the local Apple store to get it fixed. While out, we decided to get Shake Shack and skip the usual cafe food. While ordering, I was asked if I was Sami from “Sparkle and Shine” – I was so surprised!

Julia and I both starred with our mouths dropped. I felt like a mini celebrity; like Paris Hilton before the “Simple Life” gig or Bieber before the YouTube discovery. It turned out to be Emma from The World According to Emma, another college blogger. It was by far one of the coolest moments of my life!

Besides being a mini-celebrity, I’ve been super busy.

I’ve been working on my broadcasting skills. This past week I was the entertainment anchor for my school’s TV station, Q30, and did a package for one of our entertainment segments, #That. Check them out –

Plus, I’ve been getting down and derby with my sisters.

As an Executive Board Member of my sorority, I plan events for our sisters. This past weekend, I executed our first ever Bowties and ADPis event, a Kentucky Derby themed Grab-a-Date on our quad. Sisters and their dates dressed in their floppiest hats and brightest bowties and spent the day playing croquet and other yard games. I brought my best friend, Ben, because there is no one I know who is willing to get fratty and dress preppy! Here’s one of the many pictures of us-

But readers, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to finally be back!

Recruitment is over and I am finally back into my blogging groove. I have so many posts planned, so get set…get ready…because Sparkle and Shine is about to really shine.

But, make sure you shine, too, readers! Have a great week and keep sparkling!

9Sep2014

Office Depot: My Go to Place for School Supplies

by sparkleandshinesami

This is a post on behalf of my contractual membership with “Seventeen Magazine” for the Seventeen Magazine Social Club.

One of my favorite parts of Fall, besides Halloween, Uggs, and hot chocolate, is getting new school supplies for the school year!

Thanks to my partnership with Seventeen Magazine, I was able to get my new school supplies at Office Depot. Let me tell you readers, they had super cute supplies!

I’m now able to tackle junior year of college with super cute Teen Vogue folders and my all purpose four color pen.

I’m very anal about my planner – each item has a specific color. Blue is for sorority events, black is for blogging, black with yellow highlighter is Resident Life work, red pen is important dates, red pen highlighted in pink is important class days – like tests, quizzes, and paper due dates, and green is anything else. Instead of having to switch up my pens, I now have one pen to write it all in!

Whenever I am doing work, the fun patterns of the folders instantly add a pop of color to whatever room I’m in. One of my residents, Taylar, caught me doing work before with my folders out. She couldn’t help but to give me a compliment!

After going to Office Depot with my credit from Seventeen Magazine, I don’t think I will ever shop at any other office supply store again. They had so many super cute supplies that my sorority girl self could indulge in. I didn’t have to get just plain folders for all my work, I could get ones that allowed me to express myself.

Next time you need some school or office supplies, head on over to Office Depot! You can also order online and get free shipping on orders of $50 or more OR receive one hour free in store pick up.

Happy shopping!

2Sep2014

Top Instagrams of the Month: July & August

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy September, everybody! Hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day yesterday. Mine was spent in the library doing homework and sucking down the largest iced coffee Dunkin Donuts has to offer.

Now that it’s the start of the month, it’s time to share with you all the top Instagrams of the month. August was just way too busy that the start of the month passed before I shared with you all about my top Instagrams. Lucky you, that just means that you get to hear all about July and August in the same post.

Double the months, double the fun right?

July:

My Instagram picture with the most likes was one from when my mom and I went on a mother daughter date to Joe’s Crab Shack for the first time. The restaurant serves your choice of crab legs in a large bucket with corn and potatoes. The food was just so delicious!

My Instagram with the second most likes from July is when my little diamond, Amber, came to visit me for the weekend in New Jersey! Amber came up for a fun filled weekend, which included my first ever trip to “Carlo’s Bakery”! The cupcake I ate was just way too delicious – but nothing was more exciting than having Amber came to NJ for the first time!

One of my favorite adventures from the summer was seeing Rogers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway! This was the image that had my third most likes on Instagram. The show was absolutely amazing. For anyone going to NYC and looking for a Broadway show to see, this was my favorite that I have seen and I would recommend to everyone.

August:

With close to 100 likes, my Instagram with the most likes is one of me and all my residents! As our second group meeting, I decided to show the girls around campus the day before classes to make sure that they knew where to go. Then, to test their knowledge, we stood in the quad and as I would say the building, they would have to point. Becoming an RA has by far the greatest task I have ever taken on in my life.

After going through my ten day resident assistant training, we had a banquet to celebrate the end of training and the start of our residents moving in. There was a beautiful fountain in North Haven, Connecticut, where our banquet was, to take photos in front of! Nice scenery equals perfect Instagram photo. Out of all the photos taken, I uploaded a candid laughing photo of my friend Chris and I. The funny thing about my friendship with Chris is that we became friends because of our obsession with a local diner near our school.

This past weekend, we celebrated the 19th birthday of my little diamond, Amber! Saturday night we took on the town. Before we went out, we took this adorable photo, which is now my profile picture. Our weekend celebrations continued Sunday and ended yesterday. Yesterday was Amber’s actual birthday, where we finished off the celebrations.

Amber seems to be a common theme in my Instagram photos that recieve the most likes. Finishing off this long list is the photo Amber and I took while filming our sorority’s recruitment video. A few weeks prior to school starting, a few sisters met at Quinnipiac to film Alpha Delta Pi’s recruitment video. In the video, Amber and I talk about how we are so thankful for Alpha Delta Pi because it gave us each other. Another reason I am thankful for my sorority is because it gave me my big diamond sister, Katherine, who was unable to make it to the photo shoot.

Now that is is September, my Instagram will be filled with even more photos. You can follow my Instagram HERE and check out my top Instagram posts from January, February, March, April, May, and June!

25Aug2014

My Monday Musts

by sparkleandshinesami

My oh my, happy Monday readers!

I haven’t said that in quite some time. After going on an M.I.A. stint, I moved back into Quinnipiac to start my junior year and life as a Resident Assistant. Since then, my life has been more chaotic than normal. Classes finally started today, my residents are all settled in, and I have a fresh new manicure to start tackling junior year!

This week’s Monday Musts are going to be a little bit different than the normal three exciting items of the week. Instead, I’m just going to give you a life update. So bare with me as we go over my life – without this post, I wouldn’t be able to start all the exciting posts I have scheduled (including one I’ve been working my butt off on!)

Since I last blogged almost a month ago, so many different events have happened!

Three of my best friends headed off to Ireland to study abroad….

I went to Great Wolf Lodge with my favorite guy…

A Blue Claws baseball game with my other favorite guy…

Got moved in and placed on the best Resident Assistant Staff I could ever possibly ask for…

Moved in my residents…

And finally, received the best residents I could ever ask for!!!

My classes started today. I only had one already – which is taught by an Emmy award winning producer on television and radio production. How cool is that?!

Ever have that feeling when you make a really awesome decision and you just know that so many positive things will come from it? That’s how I’m feeling now. I can’t wait to see where my life’s journey continues to take me!

Have an awesome week, keep sparkling, and stay tuned for next week’s Monday Musts to be back to normal!

28Jul2014

My Monday Musts

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, readers!

Wow, I feel like I haven’t said that in a long time. You can blame than on my little M.I.A. stint.

But, now I am back!! I know you’ve been missing your weekly dose of Monday Musts, which is why I’m going to jump right into this week’s!

1. Finding Carter

One of the shows I have been completely binge watching is MTV’s newest show Finding Carter. The show revolves around teenage Carter after she realizes her “mother” is actually her kidnapper. 16 years ago, Carter was taken from her family’s front lawn. Now, she’s reunited with her birth family and is forced to restart her life. The show is like any other show on television right now. Kudos to MTV! You can watching Finding Carter Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on MTV or on demand!

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2. Evernote

I live my life off of lists – whether it’s to do lists, a list keep track of books I want to read, blog post ideas, anything and everything! I keep all these lists in the notes application on my iPhone. However, it’s been getting hard recently to keep everything organized when I have notes for my personal life, my blog, and for Alpha Delta Pi all together. I had to keep them organized, so I downloaded Evernote. The app, which then will link up to your computer, allows you to create notebooks to store your notes in. You can add pictures, business cards, save recipes, and anything else you can imagine! It helps keep everything in one place, while still being categorized. The best part? I can just go onto the Evernote website, log in, and all my notes are right on my computer. So, when I’m prepping a blog post, save it on Evernote (like this one!), I can just open it right onto my computer then. How awesome is that?!

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3. Icing

When Amber came to visit, we went shopping! My shopaholic self somehow discovered a new store that is literally perfect. It’s my definition of heaven!! The store is Icing by Claire’s. It’s filled with all things sequins, glitter, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and anchor printed – five of my favorite things. I’ve already gotten headbands from there, an accessory for my office, and gifts for others. If it was up to me, I would buy everything! Find out if you have an Icing near you by going HERE.

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Now that I’m off my hiatus, I have so many exciting projects to be sharing with you, readers! While I was lounging on the beach this week with my best friend, I kept coming up with tons of post ideas – as I wrote them down in my Evernote app on my phone!

This week, I also tackled another item on my bucket list! I’ll be sharing that with you this week, too! I can’t wait for all “Sparkle and Shine” has in store for the next few weeks. Get excited!!

Most importantly, have an amazing week! Keep sparkling!

9Jul2014

I Am The Girl…..

by sparkleandshinesami

Hey, readers! Recently, I’ve been thinking that I don’t really share a lot of my life with you all. Minus My Monday Musts, for the most part, I don’t really share about my life and what really makes me, well me. So, when Emma from The World According to Emma asked me to help her co-host a link up called “I Am The Girl…” with Lindsey from Lindsey’s Thoughts and Natalie from Finding My Voice, I couldn’t help but agree to it! Without further ado, get to know me! I Am The Girl……

whose initials spell her name. Yup, that’s right! My name is SAM and my initials are SAM.
doesn’t have a gall bladder or an appendix. Whoops! During senior year, I had them both removed since they stopped working properly.
who is always aimlessly scrolling through social media. I’m completely obsessed. Twitter and Instagram are my favorites.
who has her entire Cinderella themed wedding planned, thanks to Pinterest! Check out my wedding board HERE.

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who has Lilly Pulitzer letters that match her planner. #noshame
who, based on what I just told you, prefer to write in a planner than use her laptop or phone’s calendar to plan.
who LOVES to be involved! On my campus I am the social chair of my sorority, an RA, and involved with my school’s television station. Besides my blog, I also have a contract with Seventeen Magazine as a member of the Seventeen Social Club!
who prefers reading than watching a movie or a television show. I’m currently reading Truth or Dare, which you can read more about in this week’s Monday Musts.
who is a PROUD Jersey girl!
who wishes she could eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
who has to listen to classical music to get anything done.
who loves sequins, glitter, and anything else that sparkles.
who makes motivational quotes her phone background. Here is my current one:

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who LOVES a good theme party!!
who hates pizza – unless it’s Dominoes or Pizza Hut.
who never really stops talking. I even won Most Talkative in my high school yearbook. #sorrynotsorry
who makes my family, my best friends, and my sorority sisters my main priority.
who will most likely make you take a fake laughing pictures…and then try to convince people that it was real. Like this one, with my little diamond sister, Amber:

Now it’s YOUR turn! Tell me a little bit about yourself in the comments below. Better yet, if you’re a blogger or vlogger, make your own “I Am The Girl…” post!! Share the link below:

An InLinkz Link-up

1Jul2014

Top 3 Instagrams of the Month: June 2014

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy July, readers!

As I said yesterday in My Monday Musts, it seems as if this summer is flying by. However, I was able to capture some of my favorite memories and most important days on my Instagram account.

June not only had a lot of memories made, but was a month for me to revisit past memories. Check out this month’s Instagram pictures with the most likes.

June 4th is one of the biggest dates in my life – it is the anniversary of my father passing away. One of the ways that I grieve is by posting an image of my father and I and writing a little caption about him. This year marked four years since he passed away from brain cancer. I honestly had the greatest daddy a little girl could ask for. Though it is super hard without having him here, as I said in the caption, I am thankful that he is no longer suffering.

Another reason June holds a lot of memories is not just the anniversary of my father’s death, but there is Father’s Day. I found a quote that I absolutely loved and couldn’t help to share it with my followers as I posted a tribute to my father on the holiday. The quote stated, “A girl is lucky to find a Prince Charming, but she’s even luckier when her father is her king.” I may still be searching for that Prince Charming to come along, but my father is – and always will be – the most important man in my life. He loved me, protected me, and was my King. He always will be.

Though this summer seems to be revolving around my summer job and blogging, I still make sure to relax and spend time with my best friend, Julia! We love tanning, so we spent one of our full days off by her pool. We got iced coffee, put “Timeflies” Pandora station on full blast, and laughed the day away. Julia’s sister, Jenna, captured this candid photo of us laughing – which was just so perfect! Julia and I base our friendship around the classic Sex and the City soul mate quote. When it was referenced in Greek, I jotted it down for just the right Instagram picture – and this was it.

I can’t wait to see what July has in store for me! It’s my last full month home before heading back to college, so I can’t wait to make this month truly count. Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing these adventures not only on the blog, but on my Instagram. So, follow me to stay updated! Plus, check out my top Instagrams from January, February, March, April, and May!

30Jun2014

Monday Musts

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, readers!

Can you believe that this week starts July? Summer seems to be flying by my eyes faster than the speed of light. Maybe it’s the 40 hour work weeks or all the blogging? Who knows, all I know is that I’m making the most of my time and this week definitely demonstrated this.

First off, I finally got to reunite with one of my best friends from college, Jen!

We got to catch up (she just came back from Disney – I’m so jealous!), talk all about the new season of Orange is the New Black, stuffed our faces at The Cheesecake Factory, and saw one of the best films ever. You’re just going to have to keep reading to see which movie it was!

My mom also surprised me with tickets to see Cinderella on Broadway for this week! Cinderella is my all time favorite Disney character and has been an obsession of mine for as long as I can remember. My wedding – which is completely planned out, thank you very much – will even be Cinderella themed. After my mom surprised me, I tweeted about my excitement – and Cinderella on Broadway tweeted back!

After completely fan-girling and thinking nothing more exciting could happen to me on Twitter this week, it did.

After this week’s Duck Dynasty episode, Martin, one of the show’s main cast members, did #askMartin on Twitter. During this time, viewers could tweet questions at Martin and he would respond. I normally don’t participate, but thought I would give it a shot this week. Much to my surprise, he answered my question!

Follow me on Twitter to see what exciting events will happen for me this week on my favorite social media site!

Before you do that, however, check out this week’s Monday Musts!

1. The Fault in Our Stars Movie

Back in February, when The Fault in Our Stars movie trailer was released, I wrote about my excitement in that week’s Monday Musts. I finally got to see the movie! Jen and I are both TFIOS fans, so we waited til we were both free to go see the movie together. The movie lived up to what I was hoping it could be. Though it may not have been as amazing as the book (the movies never are), the movie itself was still amazing. I laughed and I cried as John Green’s novel came to life right before my eyes. Now, I don’t want to give away any plot details because everyone should see this movie. Plus, now I have the BIGGEST celeb crush on Ansel Elgort, the American-Russian actor who played Augustus.

2. Dawson’s Creek

I remember being a pre-teen and catching re-run episodes of the teen drama, Dawson’s Creek. Every time I heard the start of “I Don’t Wanna Wait,” I would glue myself to the television to watch the episode. However, since the show aired from 1998-2003, I didn’t get to see all the episodes, in order. Thanks to Netflix, I now am able to! I started the six season series, which follows Jen, Dawson, Pacey, and Joey in the New England town of Capeside. The show follows the teens as they experience love, heart break, friendship, and other trials and tribulations. Now that I finished Orange is the New Black, this is the new show I’m watching non-stop!

3. Guess the Emoji App

I don’t really get addicted to games on my phone, since I’m normally too busy tweeting, liking pictures on Instagram, or answering e-mails from one of my four accounts. However, my Facebook feed one day was loaded with people asking for help on the Guess the Emoji app. I love games that make you think like this one. So as I was guessing the answers to the questions people were asking for help on, I decided to download the free app for myself! On the app, you are given emoji images that either form a word, a phrase, or represent a word/phrase. The letters that you need are scrambled up alongside extra letters. You must then solve the puzzle to gain more points and advance to the next round!

I can’t wait for next Monday to share about my adventures of the next week with you – keep your eyes open for a post about my room that I am repainting and redecorating and more!

Have a great week, readers! Keep sparkling!

24Mar2014

My Monday Musts: ADPis in Wonderland

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, readers!

So this past Friday, my Alpha Delta Pi sisters and I celebrated our formal. As our Director of Social Enrichment, I was the one who planned formal – from coming up with the theme, doing decorations and guest lists, and every other possible detail you can think of. I love party planning, so no matter how stressful the event got, I still had an amazing time with my amazing sisters.

If you can remember back to our Great Gatsby themed semi formal, I shared ten of my favorite photos of the night with ten of my favorite Gatsby quotes in a special edition of My Monday Musts. Well, after how much success that post had, I decided to do one similar to that in honor of ADPis in Wonderland!

1. ”You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret, all the best people are.”

Most of you have seen my best friend, Ben, posted on here many times before. Ben is pretty much brother, so it was so great to have him along with a bunch of our other friends come and visit me and take pictures with me before formal!

2. “In my world, the books would be nothing without pictures.”

It was my little diamond’s first formal! It was so much fun taking on formal with Amber. Kisses to her for all the work she did to help me make it so amazing!

3. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

My favorite thing about my big diamond, Katherine, and little diamond, Amber, is that we can always be crazy and be our absolute selves around each other. So we can all be a little crazy together. And shoutout to our sister, Jess, for photobombing and making the picture even more entertaining!

4. “Curioser and curiouser.”

Who needs a boy when your best friend is your soulmate? Julia is my person, for all of you Grey’s Anatomy fans who are catching onto my lingo. We never got to go to prom together since we are in different grades, so it was so much fun to put on our senior prom dresses and go together!

5. “Where should I go?” “Well, it depends on where you want to end up.”

Thank you Tony for keeping me laughing when anything got stressful and for all that you helped me with!

6. “No, I don’t mean impassible. Nothing’s impossible.”

Not going to lie, Amber and I were taking so many awesome pictures. I’m so happy we got such awesome ones, like this hugging one, for our first formal together!

7. “How long is forever?” “Sometimes, just one second.”

Besides our (honestly) candid laughing photo from before, we also needed a good smiling picture of us. Thank you for everything, J. I love you!

8. “I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.”

One of my sisters, Emily, brought one of our best friends, Megan, to formal with her! It was so awesome to have one of my non-Greek affiliated friends experience the night of a Greek organization, especially when it was an event I put on!

9. “That’s impossible.” “Only if you believe it is.”

So last year at formal, Katherine, and her big diamond, Katie, and I decided it would be funny to throw up some peace signs. It’s been a joke for the three of us for as long as I can remember. Now that Amber is my little diamond, we couldn’t help but take one as the four of us. Katie is a grad student at QU, so it’s so awesome that she can come back for events to take pictures with us!

10. “It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”

I love candid photos, so I just had to share this one of me and Sam. Just like Tony, Sam was able to help me so much when the event got stressful and even was there to wipe a few tears.

Next week, I will be back to my normal list of Monday Musts. Hope you enjoyed this special edition. If you are interested in more pictures of myself and my beautiful sisters, search #ADPisinWonderland on Twitter and Instagram.

Enjoy your week, readers! Keep sparkling!

17Mar2014

My Monday Musts

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, readers!

I’m now back at school, except something is different…… I’m now 20 years old!

On Saturday, I celebrated my 20th birthday, saying goodbye to my teenager years and welcoming in a new chapter of my life. I was lucky enough to be home with my family for my birthday thanks to spring break. Since my best friend from home also comes to Quinnipiac with me, we rang in the big 2 – 0 together at midnight. While my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…like this cute collage from my big diamond, Katherine …

……and text messages were flooded with “happy birthday” messages from my friends, I will be celebrating this Saturday with them.

PLUS, Friday night all my hard work as Social Chair of ADPi will come together for our “Alice in Wonderland” themed formal. Wow, this is going to be a great weekend!

Look to next week’s Monday Musts to find out more about these events, but in the mean time, here are this week’s My Monday Musts!

1. Cabin in the Woods

When I wasn’t crafting away for formal decorations over spring break, I spent my time on Netflix and watching shows on Demand to try and catch up on all my favorite shows that I have missed while at school (including “Duck Dynasty” of course). I’m a huge fan of horror movies and heard quite the buzz about “Cabin in the Woods.” Mixed with an “Inception” type thought process and a “Hunger Games” style plot-line, the movie was quite entertaining. If you’re looking for just a basic horror flick, it’s not this one. At times, it may feel like you would want to take notes or just yell out “huh?” at the screen, but in the end, once it all clicks together, you’ll really start to get into it!

2. Four Year Anniversary of my Sweet Sixteen

As sweet sixteens continue to sweep across high school society, I still remember mine every time March 13th rolls around. I can’t help, but to think about that day every time the anniversary of it rolls around. My Hollywood themed Sweet Sixteen was – and still is – the best night I have ever had of my life. I can still remember every detail and every moment that had occurred that night – from my candle ceremony, to my guests dressed in black and silver, my entrance, absolutely everything. March 13 will always hold a special place in my heart and I wanted to share that with all of you.

3. Man Sings “Let it Go” in Different Disney Voices

Ever since my chapter of Alpha Delta Pi watched “Frozen,” our whole entire chapter has been obsessed with the movie. If you can recall back to my Cinderella iPhone case review, you may remember that I am a huge Disney fan. My Facebook newsfeed has been flooded with everyone sharing the link of Brian Hull singing the popular Disney song in the voices of different Disney and Pixar characters. I can’t get over how accurate each character’s voice was. Check it out for yourself by watching the video now.