Southern Belle in Training

Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle Blog || Est. 2012 || Virginia Beach, VA

January 4, 2015

2014: My Year in Review.



     After a very long couple of weeks, my computer is finally back to me from the tech repair shop! (It still has to go back briefly this week to get the battery replaced, but that will be a very quick fix. :-) ) I am so happy to be able to blog again! In the time that I didn't have my laptop I kept brainstorming many ideas for blog posts, as well as shooting OOTDs! So lots of new posts will be up for the whole month of January!

     And what better way to kick things off then with my review of 2014? I have loved reading many other bloggers' 2014 in review posts that were shared before the new year! Mine is coming a little bit late due to my computer issues, but hey, better late than never right?!

     I'm going to be starting off by sharing my favorite OOTD from each month of 2014, and then in the second part of the post recapping some of the highlights that happened in my personal life from each month of the year, and sharing some more personal pictures. :-) First up is 2014 in fashion!


     January

Technically this is December 2013 as this is from my family's Christmas trip to the UK- but it wasn't blogged until January 2014. ;-)

     
     February 



     March



     April 



     May




     June



     July




     August




     September



    October



     November



    December




 
      Thank-you to all of you who have followed along and encouraged my pursuit of fashion blogging during 2014! With receiving my DSLR camera for Christmas 2014, I am so excited to continue to improve the quality of the fashion photography on my blog in 2015, and to also continue to bring all of you great style on an affordable budget! :-) And I am also so grateful to the wonderful brands that I got to collaborate with in the last year- I loved getting to style and review so many wonderful items!

     And now onto some personal highlights from 2014!




   Many of you know that one of the biggest blessings in my life during the past year was my internship at Charlotte's location of the Ryan Seacrest Foundation! I am blessed to be able to continue my internship in 2015. :-) This picture is from my very first day at my internship in January 2014!



     My favorite part of my internship is the hands-on radio experience and getting to meet the sweet hospital patients (Seacrest Studios radio stations are located in childrens' hospitals!)... but getting to meet celebrity visitors that come to the hospital can be a perk too! ;-) One of my favorite guests from my first semester of interning was Dave Coulier, aka Uncle Joey from Full House!




     Another interesting highlight from Winter 2014 was experiencing my first Southern "blizzard." In other words, 3 snow days from school for 4 inches of snow! ;-) Quite the experience for this Maine girl! Here is me, my Big, and another sweet sorority sister of mine throwing what we know out in the snow!





    The start of my Spring Break was quite the adventure! My sweet friend Shara flew down from Maine to spend a few days with me at school, and I surprised her by having her friend Meredith, (an equally talented photographer and also one of the sweetest girls!), who is from Viriginia, join us for two for two of the days. Before Meredith's surprise arrival, Shara and I had already had a busy couple of days! She had met some of my school friends, visited my internship, and we had managed to get both free Chick-Fil-A AND won a giveaway at H&M to win free outfits (read about that here!). Once Meredith joined us the fun continued! We took a day trip and went hiking in the foothills of Western NC to visit some amazing waterfalls, and then on the second day we had a super fun photoshoot in Uptown Charlotte. Honestly those few days were some of my best memories of the whole year!




     My Spring Break fun continued after my time with Shara and Meredith in Charlotte! During the second half of the week, my dad and I took an amazing trip to the Dominican Republic! It was filled with warmth and relaxation. I am so excited because my dad and I are returning to the DR for part of Spring Break this year!! :-)





    April brought ADPi's biggest formal of the year, Black Diamond! My dear friend Ciera, one of my closest friends from my former college, was my date! We had a great time together... and then in turn, I was her date to my former college's Spring Formal during the last week in April!




    So when I think of April 2014, I think of fun times at two great formal events! :-)



   
    Here is a picture that never previously saw my social media! (Not even my personal Facebook!) In early May, right after I came home from college, I got to play the Mad Hatter for an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party at an art gallery in my town! My mom worked at this gallery during summer 2014 and during the tea party event in May she and I both dressed up and helped serve tea to all of the children and families who came. Sometimes being home from school means having interesting experiences like that! :-)
    May was in general a pretty quiet month for me though! I caught up with all of my friends here at home, unpacked from school, worked on my blog, and waited for my work hours to pick up.



      One of the biggest highlights of my whole summer was #BloggersTakeBoston, which happened in June! In short, #BloggersTakeBoston was a fun little blogging meet-up that I helped plan with blogger Ashliegh from The Darling Daily for us and a couple other Her Campus Blogging Network bloggers in the beautiful city of Boston! And best of all, my real life (and fellow blogger) bestie Katie got to join me! Such a fun day.




    The rest of the summer brought me lots of work hours, and lots of beach time when I wasn't working!



    A fun beach photoshoot with some of my favorite Maine girls happened just before I went back to school!


     And once I got back to school for the Fall semester- everything went by way too quickly! This semester was very challenging in some ways, I had some very difficult classes that pushed me to my limits, and for the first time in all of college I had various situations that I felt were really challenging my faith and everything that I stand for at different times in the semester. But on the other hand, I met so many amazing people this fall, and I also got a lot closer to many people that I knew last year but didn't know that well before! Many people that were formally acquaintances are now some of my bestest friends!

    Overall, even though it was certainly a challenging semester, I can say at last that my college now feels like my college. After being a transfer student it took a long time to get to this place, and I am so thankful to be there at last! Here are some snapshots from my fall:














     2014- you were quite the year! 2015 certainly has a lot to beat, but I know that it will be equally wonderful in its own way. I can't wait to see what's in store!

  
     If you made it through this very long post, thank-you! :-) Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for lots of new posts soon!


    xoxo Miss ALK
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6 comments

  1. Looks like you had an amazing year! Good luck with your blog!

    -Ruya
    sweetshortandstylish.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your looks! Especially the May, June, and November ones!!
    xoxo,
    Tatum
    thepaceblog.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loving your monthly looks! You are gorgeous, and I really want those Lilly pants!

    Excited to see what 2015 has in store for you, and so happy that you have a computer again :)

    XX, SS || A Little Seersucker Sass

    ReplyDelete
  4. You always have the cutest outfits! Can I hire you to shop for me and do my hair and makeup? I think 2015 will be a great year for you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like you had an amazing year! I love all your monthly outfits - very cute! Hope you have an awesome 2015 :)

    Liv
    www.liv-light.org

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for sharing your year of fashion & fun.......God bless in 2015!

    ReplyDelete

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