Southern Belle in Training

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

May 23, 2018

Midweek Ramblings + Recent Purchases + Current Wishlist.



{A Royal Wedding inspired look from this past weekend (dress details below). Follow me on Instagram @miss_alk!}


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Ramblings:
  • Royal Wedding Thoughts: Of course I have to give a shout-out to the biggest wedding event of the year (possibly decade?) on the blog! I intended to wake up earlier on Saturday to watch more of the wedding, but with my friend Caroline visiting we ended up sleeping in until about 8 am, so we only caught the very end. What a grand celebration! I loved seeing some American elements (such as the choice of pastor, and the choir) brought into the normally traditional British ceremony. Harry and Meghan looked so happy and in love! However... in all honesty, I didn't love either of Meghan's dresses. I did like the reception one better than the ceremony dress, but neither were really my taste. Honestly- Kate's or Princess Diana's dresses weren't my favorite either. Maybe British Royal wedding dresses just aren't my style? Haha! What did you think of the royal wedding? 
  • Hostess for the Weekend: My senior year college roommate Caroline visited me in Charlottesville this weekend, and we had a great time! The weather was unfortunately awful for her first two days here, but we made the best of it, and still had a wonderful and low-key visit. We checked out a new-to-me winery on Saturday morning for a wine tasting, and then in the afternoon Caroline got to come into work with me and have a tour of the radio station. The weather got worse Saturday night, so we went to the movies and saw Book Club. (Has anyone seen it? So funny!) The mellow but great weekend was a good reminder that you don't always need to go above and beyond when entertaining friends. Sometimes just planning a couple activities and spending a lot of time relaxing and catching up is great too! 
  • Headed North: I will be going home to Maine to see my parents for Memorial Day Weekend! I had to work both Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends last year at my former job so I wasn't able to travel anywhere for either. I feel very lucky to already have this long weekend off at my new job, and it will be nice to be home for a couple days. I haven't been home in almost 10 months! As of now, the forecast says rain for just about the whole time... I'm hoping this will change between now and then. 
  • New Favorite Financial App: I have been wanting to integrate more financial content into my blog this year, so I might do a whole blog post on this and other things related, but for today I did quickly want to share! I downloaded the app Goodbudget right around the time I moved to Virginia, and this has been so helpful in tracking my expenses and making sure I stick to my monthly budget! If you're familiar with the cash envelope system of budgeting, this app works similarly to that. You create a personal budget with different "virtual envelope" categories (such as Rent, Groceries, Gas, etc), and then as you spend money throughout the month, you record each purchase you make or bill you pay in its appropriate envelope. While I found a few things about the design of the app confusing when I was first using it, I've got the hang of it now, and have really found this helpful for staying financially accountable! Again- more posts to come on stuff like this. 


Purchases: So this week I had a variety of miscellaneous things to take care of- in addition to the usual bills, I had some presents to get, packages to mail, travel expenses for my trip this weekend, and I also spent more out and about this weekend than I normally do since I was entertaining. No fun shopping to balance all of this out- it's all about sticking to budget! 😉

     If you're interested though in the pretty pink lace dress I'm wearing in the photo above, you can shop that here!  (Be sure to size up.)



Wishlist:

  • This blue jumpsuit is adorable! It screams summer date night to me. The bow totally makes it!
  • I am considering getting a new pair of nude heels for a wedding I'm going to this summer. This block heels have a fun formal twist to them- I keep looking at them online! 
  • I need some more summer tops that are work appropriate and not too casual. (Radio is a casual workplace but most days I like to dress up a bit.) I'm going to see if this cute top is on sale this weekend!
  • The cutest little summery chambray top - this would coordinate with so many looks. 
  • Ummmm... is this not the PRETTIEST cocktail dress you've ever seen?! (I might consider ordering for the wedding I'm going to this summer... but I tend to tear up dance floors, and my only fear is it wouldn't be the most flexible dress for dancing! Ha!))




Recipe of the week: I actually didn't try any new recipes this week! I re-made a few old favorites that I've shared many times before on here, and also have been trying to eat up all of the leftovers in my fridge since I'll be gone this weekend. Looking forward to trying many new recipes in June! 



Song of the week: Bad Boys by Inna. Inna is my favorite European Dance Pop artist. I've been listening to her since high school, and I'm kind of obsessed! She's pretty big in many European countries- I wish her songs would break into US Top 40 charts someday. Anyways, I listen to Inna radio on Spotify a lot, and just found this song! I feel like it has Bollywood influences and I LOVE it!






     God Bless,



     xoxo Annaliese 






      


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11 comments

  1. I can't believe I've never heard of Goodbudget! Looking in to it ASAP! In regards to the Royal Wedding, it was replayed up until 2/3pm! I hope you got to watch the whole wedding.

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  2. That blush pink looks amazing on you! I love the dark caps on the pointed toe shoes too!

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  3. I haven't heard of Goodbudget! It sounds great! This look is so cute!

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  4. I did not watch the royal wedding but it was all over social so it was like I was watching it. I i have never heard of good-budget before.

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  5. I loved the royal wedding! I watched in YouTube after it steamed.

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  6. i didn't watch the royal wedding! But i've loved seeing all the fashion randomly pop up on my feeds! i need ot check out goodbudget too!

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  7. I grew up in London, England so I know a bit about these royal wedding procedures. The chapel they got married in has strict dress codes - no one can expose their shoulders which limits a lot of wedding dress styles.

    xo Deborah
    Coffee, Prose, and Pretty Clothes

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  8. I didn't love Megan's wedding dress either, everything was just too basic for me!

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  9. This outfit is so gorg! Loving the texture that the lace adds!

    Xo Mindy
    amixofmin.com

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  10. Very posh look <3 Though, admittedly, I did not watch the royal wedding!

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  11. so i heard her first dress was a tribute to another black woman who married a european royal (maybe the first to do so?) I can't remember the article now. BUT the dress was a modern version of hers .. so I get it now. But I do agree, I was a little underwhelmed with the whole thing. The makeup though... up close was not a well done job of a "no makeup look" in my opinion. i could go on and on about it.

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