Happy Thanksgiving to all my lovely readers :) I am so thankful for all of you and your support for the past year and a half.

Thankful for:

I hope you all have an amazing holiday and get ready to shop those Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, I know I will :)

I am so excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow! It is my favorite holiday, hands down. I love the food, watching the Macy's Parade, and the weather--it's always the perfect, crisp, fall day. It's the true kick off to the Holiday season and my birthday is in three days so it's always the perfect week.

I feel as if I've come a long way in the past year, fashion wise, and I'm excited to put together my Thanksgiving outfit.

Here are some of my favorite picks:

Thanksgiving 1 by royallypink featuring J.Crew

Thanksgiving 2 by royallypink featuring black watches

Thanksgiving 3 by royallypink featuring a tory burch purse

On this day, in 1913, 10 incredible women got together at Hunter College in New York City and decided that it was time for a change. There were no fraternal organizations on campus that were open to women of all religions and they felt that one was needed.

That fraternal organization came in the form of Phi Sigma Sigma Fraternity. Our 10 founding sisters became the first non sectarian sorority which means that any woman of any religion was allowed to freely join.

Today we celebrate that incredible journey, this incredible sisterhood, 100 years later.

A lot of you may not care about my life as a sorority girl but it's something that has changed my life and it's who I am. 

Our sisterhood as changed drastically over the past 100 years and I have never been prouder to call myself a lady of Phi Sigma Sigma.

I would not be who I am without the 10 founding sisters. I don't think they knew what they were doing 100 years ago but I think they would be proud of us today. I think that the original 10 would be so incredibly shocked and in awe of how their little sorority has grown. 

I will not rattle off my emotions and my thoughts about my sorority because I have done that enough times in the past. I just want to take a moment to celebrate the past 100 years. It is an incredible time to be a Phi Sig and I have never been more grateful to a group of 10 women. 

Without them I would not have been the woman I am today. I would not have the confidence and strength that I do; I would not have the relationships and memories that I do; I would not have the skills and qualities that make me a leader. Without them, I would have nothing.

So thank you to Lillian Gordon Alpern, Josephine Ellison Breakstone, Fay Chertkoff, Estelle Melnick Cole, Jeanette Lipka Furst, Ethel Gordon Kraus, Shirley Cohen Laufer, Claire Wunder McArdle, Rose Sher Seidman, and Gwen Zaliels Snyder. Thank you for giving me the best experience of my life and for believing that Phi Sigma Sigma could achieve greatness...because we have.

Happy 100 years ladies, here's to another 100!

Once a Phi Sigma Sigma, Always a Phi Sigma Sigma!

OMG. Can I start off by saying that? 

A few months ago, on a whim, I applied to get Bethenny tickets. I never take advantage of living in New York and seeing all the wonderful things that go on but I knew that I needed to see Bethenny film her talk show before the chance passed me by.

About three weeks ago I got an email confirmation saying that I had reserved two tickets and that my show date was on Wednesday, November 20th. I was completely overjoyed and thrilled as was my mom who was my guest.

We both love and adore Bethenny Frankel; I've talked about her numerous times on here and the chance to see her in person was too good to pass up.

I am a naturally nervous person so the few days leading up to going to the show I was a mess. I was going to travel into Manhattan alone and the mere fact that I didn't know what to expect when I showed up there scared me. That is definitely something I need to work on. 

I woke up at 5:45, was in the city by 7:30 and at the CBS building where Bethenny was being filmed by 7:55. The line was already incredibly long but by 8:15, I was sitting in the waiting room with all the other Bethenny fans. We filled out forms and surveys and listened as producers and security explained what would happen that day.

No cameras or phones were allowed out while the show was being taped but before and after were fine. They also explained who the guests were...to be honest, I didn't know who they were. I only knew JessieMae Peluso from "Girl Code", which I was REALLY excited to see and then also Reza Farahan from Bravo's TV Show "Shahs of Sunset". 

They gave us a number and we waited to be filed into the studio. When I got in there, I was in complete shock and awe. It is SO tiny! The set is a lot smaller than it is on television which I assumed because most sets are like that. 

I was also freaking out because I WAS AT THE BETHENNY SHOW! It was so incredible and I was so nervous. I have a tendency to be dramatic if you haven't noticed and especially when celebrities around, I lose my cool, majorly. I was really nervous about seeing Bethenny in person.

They played a lot of music before hand, explained some more stuff, and had some dance competitions between the audience to win a Bethenny t-shirt. 

Finally, they were ready and the cameras began to roll. "Calling All My Girls", Bethenny's theme song began to play and then the doors opened and there she was. I was DYING. She is SUPER skinny, skinner than I imagined. She is so bubbly and so outgoing. She is perfect.

I won't go into full detail about the show...it airs on November 27th at 11am on Fox but it was really great. It was awesome to see how much goes into putting on a television show. Seeing everyone running around, getting things perfect, doing re-takes...it was surreal. 

I was also nervous about seeing how Bethenny really is. Everyone can act different when a camera is on but she is truly the same person. She is funny, sweet, kind and forever thankful to her fans. She is the exact same person on and off the camera. 

The most amazing thing about the show? I GOT $600 WORTH OF FREE STUFF! Yep, Bethenny did "Christmas in November" and my audience got very lucky! We got a Soda Stream Machine, Jenu Anti Aging products, a portable speaker (can't remember the name) and a $150 gift card to Maggy London.

I am super happy about all of that!

This was a truly amazing experience and being able to see one of my role models in person was perfection. If anyone is in the NYC area, go to Bethenny.com and see if you could get tickets to her show, it was amazing!

I have been truly struggling with finding a great mascara lately. Over the past few months I have gone through a bunch of different kinds and not one of them is satisfying me. Either they aren't giving my lashes enough volume and body, they make me look like I have spiders on my eyes or they are giving me too much volume and body for an every day look.

I do have quite the collection of mascaras that are in my make-up bag and I alternate every day depending on what I'm looking for.

Here are the mascaras that I've been using:

1. Maybelline Great Lash-- Blackest Black

2. Elizabeth Mott-- Volumizing Mascara

3. Almay One Coat Thickening-- Blackest Black

4. Flower Beauty Extreme Measure Lengthening Mascara

5. Pixi Lash Booster Mascara

6. Maybelline One by One Volume Express

These are not ranked in any sort of order. These are all mascaras that I've used over the past few months and none of them are completely up to par. They all have their pros and they all have their cons.

My favorite out of the bunch are obviously the Maybelline ones. I raved about the classic pink and green Great Lash last week but my favorite is the One by One Volume Express. I only wear that one on the weekends because the way it elongates and volumizes my lashes. It's really intense and makes my eyes pop. If you want a mascara that is going to do that and give you a sexy, dark eye look--go with the red tube.  

My least favorite of the bunch is the Almay One Coat Thickening. It doesn't do much for my lashes and is very runny. It smudges easily and almost watery. I rarely use it and it just sits in my make up case unless I am completely out of mascara.

One of my favorites that I've used up is the Flower Beauty mascara. I received it in my Intern Queen Party goodie bag back in July and pretty much used the entire tube. It was perfect for an everyday, day time look. It gave me the perfect amount of color and length without being too voluminous. I hate nothing more than really out there lashes during the day. I reserve that for night time when I'm going out.

The other two mascaras are some I received in my beauty subscription services a while back. I rarely use them because they make my lashes look spidery and don't stay on very well, similar to the Almay mascara.

Even though I love my Maybelline mascaras, I need/want to try something else. What are your favorite mascaras? What do you recommend? Tell me in the comments!

This week I stepped away from my typical Essie manicure and went with another brand, a little more up scale and one that I've been dying to try out for a while.

I've only heard good things about Deborah Lippman nail polish and I've been lusting after them on the Nordstrom website for a solid year. I could just never justify paying $20 for a bottle of nail polish.

About two weeks ago when my chapter held our Phi Sigma Sigma Centennial celebration, one of our advisors bought some items to be raffled off to raise money for the chapter. One of those was a three piece Deborah Lippman set of nail polish. I put my eggs in one basket and surprisingly won the raffle!

I finally painted my nails with two of the shades on Friday; the base color is a greige (grey and beige) called Planet Rock and the other shade was a multi color glitter top coat called "Baby I'm a Star". 

The formula of the polish is pretty wonderful; you could tell that it's more expensive than Essie. It feels more expensive. It glides on beautifully, dries quickly, and one coat was more than enough to become opaque. I applied two anyway because I'm used to that.

The top coat had the perfect amount of glitter in each stroke and I was super happy with how my nails came out. 

The only problem is that my nails chipped the day after I painted them. I was disappointed that the polish didn't hold up. I don't know why, it might've been a too thick manicure or it may have me or the formula isn't as good as I thought.

The other polish in the three piece set was another glitter top coat. This one was pure silver and called "When Lighting Strikes". I haven't tried it out yet so I will keep you updated on how that manicure turns out!

Maybe sometimes expensive items aren't as good as the cheaper ones! Back to Essie it is!

What is your favorite expensive nail polish? 

If I'm being honest, I love reading Total Sorority Move. The website has gotten a lot of heat over the past few years for being inappropriate and giving sorority girls a bad name. It's brother site and the original Total Frat Move is not any better, if anything it's worst.

TFM and TSM degrade men and women, they encourage hazing and they don't portray us Greek life members in a positive light. 

All these things set aside, I love the site. It's funny, it's sometimes true and it's pure entertainment. 

Every so often, TSM will post a column that will make me think. It may be about boys or e-board positions but nonetheless, it sparks something in my mind.

Well, one of those columns were published this week and the internet went crazy. I never would expected something so true, so needed and so eye opening to come from TSM but it has happened.

In this column, the writer talks about the epidemic of weight concerns going on in this country. Women, especially young women are so overly concerned and conscious of their weight, myself included.

#MindtheGap is something new that is centered around thigh gaps and how we should all strive to not have our thighs touch.  

Here are just a few of the hashtags mentioned in the article that the writer saw on Facebook and other social media:

“I’d kill myself if my thighs ever touched. #mindthegap”

“I lost fifteen pounds in two weeks! #mindthegap”

“He’ll love you more if you lose the weight. #mindthegap”

In my opinion, that is disgusting. The writer of the article goes on a complete tangent about how the fact that so many Americans girls have eating disorders and are obsessed with excerising. It's because of society. It's not because of themselves or their parents or movies or the fact that they actually do need to lose weight...it's everything combined. 

The world we live in now is not emotionally healthy for girls to grow. Our minds are stunted at young ages with our Barbie dolls that this is what beauty is. This how is how we should look, this is what we should eat, this is how we excerise. 

By the time you're old enough to understand what body image, weight and calories are, your mind is ruined. You're ruined and you hate yourself.

You hate yourself because you ate a slice of pizza instead of a salad. You hate yourself because you missed a gym day. You hate yourself because you went up a jean size.

Why wouldn't you hate your size 10 body when you see Victoria Secret models strutting down the runway in nothing but a bedazzled bra? It's only human nature.

It doesn't have to be like that. 

Instead of teaching young girls that Adriana Lima is the perfect size, teach them to love themselves. Teach young girls the healthy way to eat, not some diet fad. Don't tell a little girl she's fat and don't expose her to the type of society and behavior that will form her mind into thinking she's ugly just because she's not a size two. 

#SCREWTHEGAP is what the article says and I agree. I'll preach it to the high heavens because I think it's ridiculous the way society has forced eating disorders onto our generation and younger. 

I'm sick of being obsessed about weight. If you're happy with how you look, how you feel and you're healthy, there should be no reason as to why you should #mindthegap.

I always see bloggers doing weekend recap and I always find it interesting to see their personal lives debuted on their blog. I always strayed away from doing those types of posts because this was never a really "personal" blog, rather much so I portrayed it as a lifestyle blog.

I feel like I've been getting more personal lately with my posts about mental breakdowns and being stressed out so I thought that when something exciting happens in my personal life, I should be able to showcase it here, especially if it's something important to me.

This weekend was one celebrated with my beloved sorority. As much as being Vice President and a senior has been stressing me out, it's weekends like this that really make it all worth while and make me realize what it means to be part of Phi Sigma Sigma.

On Saturday, it was quite the eventful day. We initiated eight beautiful, incredible new women who are now part of my beloved Delta Nu Chapter. It was a beautiful initiation ceremony and I was so proud to be part of it.

Saturday night, we celebrated our Centennial anniversary of Phi Sigma Sigma as a chapter. I planned a Centennial Banquet with active sisters and alumnae. November 26th marks Phi Sig's 100 year anniversary and this was a great way to commemorate the incredible milestone. 

It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone! 

The weekend was very busy but so much fun. I can't imagine a better way to spend my days!

What did you do this weekend?

It seems that all my Tuesday inspirations have been the same lately. It's another week, a new start but the same old problems. It seems that all my problems can't go away. 

This week is a rough one for me, a lot of work and a lot of happenings and I can't wait for it to be over. I just want to make it through in one piece without any issues. 

I saw this quote yesterday morning and have been replaying it over and over in my head. 

This past weekend was Halloween and unlike most of the college community across the nation, I celebrated one night, on actual Halloween. I was not original in my costume as I dressed up as a sexy teacher. A lot of people I saw had pretty cool costumes like my roommate who was dressed as Katy Perry in the "Roar" music video and some of my other friends dressed as Blue Ivy and North West, which was pretty cool.

Aside from Halloween, I took the weekend off and rested up as this week ahead is super busy and hectic. I'll be happy when it's Sunday November 10th. 

I did in fact do something new and fun! Me and a few of my sorority sisters went to support another sister at her Crew Race at the beautiful Glen Island in Westchester, right near my school. It was so much fun attending my first crew race and the surroundings were just gorgeous. I felt like I was walking through a story book, it was the perfect Fall setting.

I could not help but take some gorgeous snapshots of the scenery, I couldn't get enough!

Saturday night, I fell asleep at 7:30pm and slept for 15 hours straight! It was much needed and I felt incredibly refreshed on Sunday. It was my school's Open House so I had to wake up and work Phi Sigma Sigma's table along with the rest of my sisters and other organizations and clubs. It was such a restful and wonderful weekend!

What did you do this weekend? Let me know in the comments!

I'm pretty sure I posted a manicure monday with this polish last winter but I've rediscovered it and fell in love.

I purchased Bahama Mama by Essie last year but never really used and abused it. I liked it but it wasn't one of my favorite colors. I've been in dire need of new nail polishes and I thought I'd try this one out again. I remember that I didn't like it because the formula wasn't as great and two coats didn't make it as opaque as I wanted.

This time around I was much better about it and did three coats of the burgundy color. I am in love with it! It's such a perfect Fall to Winter color and there are hints of purple mixed into the red wine color. 

Speaking of nail polish, I have not bought any new ones that were released in Essie's Fall or Winter collections so I'm seriously slacking.

I'm obsessed with all the colors, they are so different and so beautiful, I need to get my hands on them ASAP.