DIY Peel and Stick Kitchen Backsplash!

      The week after I moved to Virginia Beach, I did the most fun and relatively easy DIY project that transformed my basic little apartment kitchen! It'll be a little while before my new apartment is 100% decorated and I can share a full tour with you, but I did want to get this post up sooner as I'm still so excited about it. Here's everything you need to know about my peel and stick kitchen backsplash!

   

Four Easy DIY Lilly Pulitzer Craft Ideas!

     Calling all my Lilly lovers today! Lilly Pulitzer is a lot more than just a clothing brand to me- being a Lilly lover is honestly a lifestyle. 😉I love incorporating touches of Lilly colors and prints into other aspects of my life aside from my closet. I have two Lilly Pulitzer keychains, a variety of Lilly cups, mugs and wine glasses, Lilly Pulitzer travel accessories... you get my point!

     Since we are all spending more time at home right now, I wanted to round up four easy DIY projects that I've made, inspired by Lilly Pulitzer! Three out of the four are creative ways to repurpose Lilly catalogs or mailers, and the final one is a painting project which is a bit more time consuming than the other three, but still easy to do overall. 

How To Design Color-Coded Statement Shelves.

     One of my favorite things about my current apartment is the color coded statement shelves that I've designed in the living room! I've never had bookcases be the center of a living room in past apartments, but now I'm obsessed and think I'll always do something similar with shelving in future apartments or homes that I have. Designing these shelves was a lot easier than I expected, and I'm excited to share more in today's post! 

    This post has been on my editorial calendar for quite some time, but seems even more appropriate now given social distancing and spending more time at home! This would be an easy project to stay busy with indoors.

The Purrfect Couples Costume... For You and Your Cat!

Happy Halloween!! I've been anxiously awaiting share my costume for this year with y'all... because it features my cat Delilah! Truly the purrfect couples costume, right? 

Renter Friendly Apartment Decor: How I Added a Polka Dot Border Wall.

     Happy Sunday!! I asked on Instagram Stories yesterday if y'all would rather see this post today or at the end of next week (since I don't usually do blog posts on the weekends). The answer was overwhelmingly to post it today, so here we go! I'm so excited to be sharing a review and tutorial for using these renter-friendly wall decals, and more info about the Etsy shop that sells them!

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Southern Belle in Training!

My Daily Makeup Routine!

    This blog post has been a long time coming... as in I should've posted something like this years ago! Better late than never, right? Today I'm sharing my daily makeup routine, which is what I do for work everyday, and church on Sundays. My Tuesday blog post series for March focuses on different types of routines, and I thought this would be a fun one to start with, since it's been so requested over the years! I apologize in advance for the million photos in this post, but I wanted to really show the detail of how I apply everything.

    This routine takes me 15 minutes to do each morning. It's definitely a little bit longer than a very basic five minute face routine (with just essentials like concealer and mascara) - but I feel my best each day if I spend a little extra time on my makeup in the mornings! I usually start doing my makeup at 3:45 am before work- if I'm able to do this that early in the day, I promise it's not that hard! 🙂                                                             

The Easiest Half-Up Hair Tutorial Ever!

     This post was sponsored by Revlon Hair Tools as apart of Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. 

Photography by Kate Greer

Easy DIY Halloween Costume: Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time"

    The last time (and I think only time?) that I did a whole blog post dedicated to a DIY Halloween costume was three years ago! Crazy how the time flies. Anyways, the blog post featuring my Bachelorette costume has gotten a lot of traffic this past month! That inspired me to share one of my costume's for this year in today's post. This is another really easy DIY costume! I spent a total of $10 on this- all I had to purchase were the socks and the hair accessories (and you might already own those things!)

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Southern Belle in Training!

{I'm not even going to bother to link anything specific that I'm wearing because it's all older pieces from my closet! 😉 That's how easy this costume is.} 

     If you've been reading here for awhile, you probably know that I am a huge fan of Britney Spears, specifically of her early music! Late 90s/early 2000s pop culture is my JAM. One of my biggest highlights of the past few years was seeing Britney's Piece of Me residency in Las Vegas for my 22nd birthday! My very first CD was Britney's sophomore release, Oops!...I Did It Again. I distinctly remember going with my mom to the CD section of Sam's Club and picking it out, and then listening to it on repeat for years on my portable CD player and boom box. ...Baby One More Time (the album with the look my costume is inspired by) is actually Britney's first album, I purchased her second and first out of order when I was growing up! But I loved them both (and still do!). I'm currently trying to figure out a way to get back out to Vegas for Britney's new show, which opens in the winter!

     Given my adoration for Ms. Spears, I'm kind of surprised that I've never tried to do this costume, or a different Britney look, for Halloween in the past! I guess I wanted to save this idea for a Halloween in the future, and now is the time! It worked out to do it in 2018, since this year is the 20th anniversary of the song. There are so many great Britney costumes that you can do, but I wanted to take it way back to her first single, as the sexy but innocent school girl look from the ...Baby One More Time video is so easy to recreate.

     Here's what you'll need if you want to do this costume:

• White button up shirt
• Purple colored bralette (I didn't have a purple one so I used hot pink!)
• Grey cardigan (I used a bedazzled one to have a little fun)
• Black skirt (I used a sequin one to have a little fun)
• Black knee high socks
• Black flats or heeled boots
• Small silver hoop earrings
• Pink fuzzy ponytail holders
• Pink hair ties or ribbons
• Copy of Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time CD 😉

     I am so excited to wear this costume either this weekend or on Halloween night! So easy and fun to put together, and it's a tribute to one of my favorite artists and 90s pop songs. 

     My company is doing a Halloween costume contest next week- I'm actually doing a different costume for work! My only hint that I'll give is that it's one that I've done in the past... but I've revamped it and made it better for this year! You'll have to stay tuned to my Instagram on Halloween to see that one. 

     Please tag me on Instagram or other social media if you try my Bachelorette costume or this one this year. I'd love to see!

     God Bless,

     xoxo Annaliese 

Easy Galentine's Day Party Ideas.

     February might not be my favorite month weather-wise, but it does bring a holiday that I do look forward to! No, it's not Valentine's Day... it's Galentine's Day! In the words of character Leslie Knope from the TV show Parks and Rec, "Oh it's only the best day of the year. Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast style." The airing of this episode a few years back is when Galentine's Day I think first became a mainstream thing. Anyways, who doesn't love a day to dress up in red and pink, eat sweet treats, and celebrate the special bond of friendship between girlfriends? Sign me up please!!

      I've had a few fun Galentine's Day celebrations over the last few years, but the best part is they were all very low-key. One year my Big in my sorority and I had a movie night, another year one of my best friends from college and I got all dressed up and went out for a fancy dinner "date" in Uptown Charlotte, and last year a few girlfriends and I went out for a Galentine's brunch- which would have been a very Leslie Knope approved activity! This year, Galentine's seemed like the perfect time to finally host a get-together at my apartment. I love entertaining and have been wanting to have a party for awhile since moving to Vermont, and what better time than a girlfriends' get-together for Galentine's?! I was especially excited to celebrate this year since it took me such a long time to meet and make some girlfriends here in Vermont (which you know if you've been following my post-move update posts!). 

    Anyways, I'll be focusing on how I planned the party in today's blog post, in hopes that it might give you inspiration if you'd like to do something similar with your girlfriends for Galentine's Day! Vermont's weather has been so unpredictable this winter, so I planned the party a couple week's before February 13th/14th, so that it could be rescheduled closer to then if needed for weather. Luckily, the weather ended up being great this weekend so no cancellations were needed. 

     When I plan a party, I like there to be two themes. One theme for the occasion, and one for the food. (The rest of it doesn't need to be over-planned- let people have fun and mingle and enjoy what a get together should be. 😊) Obviously the occasion theme for this party was Galentine's, and spending time with girlfriends. Most of the girls that I was inviting didn't know each other, as I don't have one specific friend group here in Vermont. So I was really excited to introduce the wonderful ladies I have finally met to each other. I decided the food theme would be a cookie swap. Each girl could bring a dozen cookies, so that there would be plenty to eat at the party, and also plenty to swap with each other and take home. Easy peasy right? 

     I purchased a few different pink beverages at Trader Joe's (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), and set up some easy Valentine's decor on my dining table. I purchased the table cloth, plates and cutlery at my local Dollar Tree, and the fake floral centerpieces pictured below I made from this Pinterest tutorial! Everything for those was purchased at Dollar Tree as well. 

     My Galentine's cookie swap party was a lot of fun, and it might be an annual party tradition that I continue in the years to come! My friend Anna is a very talented cake baker and decorator, and she made the most beautiful pink and white cake that completed the array of sweets. (Anna just started an Instagram page for her amazing cakes- check her out @thegoldencrumb!)

     

     If a cookie swap party isn't your cup of tea, here are some other easy ideas to celebrate Galentine's Day:

•      Go out to brunch (very Leslie Knope approved!)
•      Have a DIY spa party 
•      Have a chick flick movie marathon 
•      Old fashioned slumber party! 
•      Have a crafting day to make handcrafted Valentines cards 
•      Host a fancy tea party, or go out for a high tea if a local hotel offers that!
•      Have a group Skype date with out-of-town friends

     Here's to the love of friendship, and celebrating our best girls! Have you celebrated Galentine's Day before? Are you planning anything fun for this year? You might have seen a little peek at the outfit that I wore for my Galentine's party on my Instagram stories... I'll be doing a full blog post on the outfit coming soon!

     God Bless,

     xoxo Annaliese 

My Favorite "Constant" + An Easy Christmas Gift Idea.

     This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TeaProudly #CollectiveBias

      Happy Friday! Today is actually a super exciting day- I'm spending most of my day in various airports as I'm heading off for an amazing long weekend adventure with my friend Kylie from Dress in Sparkles. This weekend is not only my first vacation out of New England since I moved to Vermont in April, but it's also a trip has been in the works for months and I can't wait to share much more about it soon! I'm so happy today on the blog though to be partnering with one of my favorite tea brands, Bigelow, again for a very special post! I'm sharing today how Bigelow teas, especially their Constant Comment. have been a steady "constant" through my life in recent years, and also an easy and simple Christmas gift idea featuring this tea!

      While I began blogging here on SBIT in September 2012, when I was beginning my freshman year of college, my blogging journey in general technically began a year and a half prior, in January 2011! (For my junior and senior years of high school, I had a personal lifestyle blog, which was really more like an online journal and place to share my thoughts and feelings about high school, life in Maine, and the college search process.) So January 2018 will mark seven years of being a blogger! WOW! A lot can change in a person's life in seven years. A few of my big changes: I've called two additional states home, I have a diploma, a degree, and a certificate from a trade school, I've traveled to five more countries and countless more states, and I've had my first kiss and first heartbreak.

      But as much as things change in a person's life with time, many things are also constants, and stay the same. Some of mine: I still have long brown hair, I'm still not a great driver, I still am obsessed with late 90s and early 2000s pop culture, and my faith is still extremely important to me. Another constant that's been with me through the years? Bigelow tea- more specifically Bigelow Constant Comment! 

      I've never been a big coffee drinker- tea has always been more my thing. My first memories specifically of choosing Bigelow Teas and Constant Comment go back to my junior year of high school in Maine (right around the time in life that I started blogging!). From 10th-12th grade, I was involved in the Interact Club at my high school, which was a community service club. I would usually carpool to the meetings with friends of mine, and especially in the winter we'd always stop beforehand at a local coffee shop on Main Street in our town for a hot beverage to take along. My friends were all coffee and latte aficionados, but I was and still am a tea girl! I remember that this coffee shop carried Bigelow Teas, and I used to love ordering Constant Comment as my tea of choice in the winter months for Interact meeting nights.

      Then came my college years in the South! This is when I really became a tea drinker. Tea was apart of my daily routine- I'd have it with breakfast in my dorm, often with lunch or dinner in the dining hall, and of course while studying in the library! Bigelow Teas were now my favorite to choose from the university dining hall, and also a brand that I'd always look for at the store on weekly grocery runs. (My two grocery staples in college: Bigelow Tea and cheese- true story!) 

      And finally- the present. I live in Burlington, Vermont and work full-time as a radio personality. I drink a cup of tea every single workday before going on air! I love the feeling of warm tea in my throat before having to talk into the microphone. Of course- I keep my desk at work stocked up with lots of Bigelow Teas, and just like when I was in high school, Constant Comment is again a favorite during the winter months. The delicious taste is timeless. This tea truly has been a "constant" in my life- and for that I am thankful! 

     

     

      Now that I've shared a bit of my personal connection to Bigelow Tea and their Constant Comment and why it helps me to Tea Proudly, I wanted to share a super simple DIY Christmas gift idea with y'all! 

     

   

      This gift would be ideal for those people in our daily lives who do make a difference and mean something to you, but you still might not know them well enough to purchase them a large Christmas gift (or would it be appropriate to). Some examples could be coworkers, your hairdresser or nail technician, a professor (or your child's teacher!), fitness instructor, church friends/bible study group members.... etc etc. I think this would make an ideal little Christmas gift to still let these people in your life know that they're being appreciated and thought of during the holiday season!


     Purchase a festive holiday mug, tie some cute ribbon around the handle, and fill with Bigelow Tea packets so that they can enjoy warm beverages all season long in their new mug! I chose to fill mine with Constant Comment, since its rich flavor really is the ideal winter tea. (And it is caffeinated, so it'll definitely wake you up on chilly winter mornings!)

 


    You can easily purchase Bigelow Teas and their Constant Comment Tea at your local Walmart store!

     If you prefer to shop online, you can also purchase them by clicking the photo below (it's shoppable!) :

     Be sure to connect with Bigelow this holiday season on their social media, and share with them how you plan to Tea Proudly:


     *Facebook

     *Instagram

     *Twitter



      Thanks so much for reading today's post. Be sure to keep up with me on social media this weekend during my trip, especially on Instagram @miss_alk!




      God Bless,




     xoxo Annaliese

The BEST No-Bake Icebox Cake.

     Doing something a little different for this Saturday blog post! I absolutely love cooking and baking, they're two of my favorite hobbies, and something I do regularly. However, it's not something I blog about too often. With the busy work schedule that I have now, I tend to stick to making a lot of the same recipes again and again. This is unrelated to my own cooking habits- but I also find food photography to be quite difficult. I am kind of a perfectionist about photography on my blog (hence why I work with photographers for most of my posts), and you would be amazed at the amount of recipe posts I actually have tried to shoot, but I've let the bad lighting in my kitchen or difficulty getting good shots of the finished product prevent me from ever blogging about it- ha! Well, that's changing today. This recipe is too good to keep to myself, so I have to share it with all of you. (And I think the photos came out okay-ish. 😉)

HAIR TUTORIAL: How To Get Big Southern Curls (+ My First Blog Video!)

      Today is a very exciting Monday on Southern Belle in Training! Many of y'all have been requesting that I do a hair tutorial on the blog for years. (And no I'm not exaggerating- actually for years now! Cue the #embarrassedmonkeyemoji) And friends- that day is finally here- YAY!

Decorating My First Christmas Tree.

Photography by Deeana Kourtney Photography

     Now that it's officially December, I feel like it's finally appropriate to share these photos of my Christmas tree! No shame in my game- this has been up in my apartment with lights on since November 1st. I think that might be one of my new holiday traditions in adult life- getting the tree up the day after Halloween! The Christmas season goes by too quickly, and while there are some things that I don't mind waiting on until right before Christmas (*cough cough overplayed Christmas music*), I am all about getting decorations up as early as possible. 

     Since this is my first year of living in an apartment, it's my very first time getting to decorate at my own leisure for the holidays! My dorm rooms in college never had much space. I had a one foot tall silver tree from Hobby Lobby for the past few years, and would always decorate the door to my room with a holiday garland, but that was about the extent of my college decorating. Now that I am out of school, I was too excited to finally have the chance to decorate my little apartment, and not just a college living situation!

     My decorating inspiration for Christmas came from Emily Gemma from The Sweetest Thing. I've been obsessed with Emily's Christmas trees for a few years now as I've been a longtime reader of her blog, but the one that she and her husband John had in their home last year was absolutely unbelievable! I had all the heart eyes as I read that blog post from my dorm room- haha! My tree is green obviously so it couldn't be quite identical to Emily's tree, but I was definitely inspired by the colors, and using ribbon embedded in the three and building a 3D unique sparkly tree topper.

     My tree was actually given to me by my sweet blog photographer, Deeana! She and her husband moved into a new home this year, and had the opportunity to buy a larger Christmas tree. So she gave me their old one! I think that it was the perfect size for my living room. 

     All of my ornaments are from Hobby Lobby or At Home, but I've linked some in similar colors and styles here below. Have you already decorated your home for the holidays? What is your decorating style?

    Hope that y'all will be having a great weekend. This was a very long and weird week for me- more on that in next week's Midweek Ramblings post. On a happier note tonight I will be attending the last of four blog events that I went to this week- I'll try and share a recap post of everything soon! So much happens at this time of year!

     xoxo Miss ALK

Four Cookbooks Every 20 Something Needs.

     I feel like I've been saying this on a weekly basis here on my blog since I graduated college, but by far the thing that I love the most about adult life so far is having my own kitchen at last, and getting to cook and bake to my heart's content. Spending time in my kitchen has become such a form of both creativity and stress relief for me, and I look forward each week to experimenting with new recipes and whipping up ones that are quickly becoming tried and true favorites.

{Sweater old, similar here} // Pants 

     A lot of the recipes that I have been making in recent months are Pinterest recipes, solely because it's very convenient for me to do a quick search on there for the type of dish that I'm wanting to cook or bake, and results will come up instantly. And there are some real recipe wins on Pinterest! (Check out this blog post that I wrote last month: Tried and True Pinterest Dinner Recipes)


     But despite being like every other 22 year old female who is Pinterest-obsessed, I have also inherited a certain trait from my mother: collecting cookbooks! My mom has shelves upon shelves of all types of cookbooks throughout our house, and I have fond memories when I was growing up of her rotating through different ones through different years and reading through pages and pages of recipes the way that others read novels. Like my mom, I also adore cookbooks and have from a young age. My mom has bought me many of the ones that I own- they were a popular Christmas present for me to receive growing up! But now that I'm older, I also enjoy buying and discovering them myself, and I proudly have a full shelf of cookbooks in my own little apartment.


     I definitely haven't had the opportunity yet to fully discover all of my cookbooks, and of course I keep buying more and more. #ofcourse But I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about four of the cookbooks that I have made several recipes from, and that I truly find to be staples in my kitchen!



     Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook: This is essentially the bible of American kitchens. Almost everyone's house or apartment that I visit- whether back home in Maine, here in NC, (or anywhere really for that matter!) has a copy of this in the kitchen. If you've never seen the inside of this cookbook, it's organized very easily into tabbed sections for different types of main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. Some of the newer editions, like the the one that I have, feature pictures in beginnings of sections for some of the popular recipes. If there's any cookbook that you need to have - it's this one!


      Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics: One of my neighbors in Maine gave this cookbook to me for Christmas when I was in elementary school. I was already a proud owner of several kid's cookbooks, but this was one of my first grown-up cookbooks, and I was ecstatic! This cookbook will always be special to me because the memories that come along with it, but the recipes are great as well. It features many tried and true recipes for classic American favorites, and lots of comfort dishes. My two personal favorite recipes from this cookbook are the corn bread and apple crisp recipes - I made the apple crisp on a weekly basis for a lot of September and October this year! My roommate, who is not as big into cooking and baking as I am, has also really started to love this cookbook, and finds the recipes very easy to follow. She is a big fan of the meatloaf recipe.


      Better Homes and Gardens The Ultimate Cookie Cookbook: Possibly my favorite thing on earth to make are cookies. The very first thing that my mom let me bake in the kitchen by myself when I was little was the original Nestle Toll House cookie recipe (from scratch of course- no pre-made dough for us!). While Toll House cookies are still a favorite recipe of mine, I enjoy baking (and eating large quantities of) cookies of all shapes and sizes. That's why I adore this cookbook! It's another winner from Better Homes and Gardens. My go-to recipe in it is the Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies- my book literally falls open to the page that's on! But everything that I've made from here has been tasty- and especially with the holiday season approaching I look forward to trying more of the recipes.


     The Fix-It and Forget It Cookbook: During my first couple months of living on my own, I did most of my cooking in my roommate and I's Crock-Pot. Slow cooker meals are so easy to make, and most have really large portions, so they provide lots of leftovers! This is the quintessential Crock-Pot cookbook with all sorts of meals from soups to various meat and vegetarian main dishes, and even breakfast items and desserts!

      Do you have any favorite cookbooks? Please share them in the comments!



      Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! I am working for part of this weekend, but I also have some extra time which will be spent getting some holiday blog posts ready. Deeana and I are shooting early on Sunday morning- we've been doing Sunday shoots for the past couple of months and it's been working well. I'll try and post some behind the scenes pics on Snapchat and Insta Stories that day!



      xoxo Miss ALK


   

Tried and True Pinterest Dinner Recipes.

      There were many things that I was looking forward to about moving into my first apartment this past spring. I couldn't believe that my days of communal laundry rooms, late night fire drills, closet-less clothing storage, and claustrophobically small shower situations were finally over. However, what surprisingly proved to be the absolute greatest thing about having an apartment was the kitchen situation! (Yes- despite that I'm a fashion blogger, my kitchen even beats my walk-in closet for me, can't believe I'm saying that!)


      I absolutely adore cooking and baking- especially baking! I have barely had the opportunity to do either of these things during the past four years while I was in school. The lack of a kitchen access was definitely one downside to living on-campus. Now that I do have a kitchen, I cook and bake all the time! I usually bake some sort of a treat to take with me through the week to school and work as snacks on Saturday or Sunday nights (depending on my schedule), and I try and cook dinner at home on most weeks for the majority of weeknights. It both saves money, and is fun and relaxing for me! I joke all of the time to my friends that I am the world's most single "housewife". ;-)



     I would like to start blogging more about my cooking and baking adventures since it's become such a hobby of mine this year. I thought that sharing a Pinterest recipe round-up post might be of interest to y'all! I do love cookbooks and own many, but usually I prefer to try recipes directly from Pinterest. They can be kind of hit or miss though- I've had some that have turned out to be big hits, and others that have been flops. With Pinterest sometimes you never quite know what you're getting.


    I've done the hard part and actually tested all of these out, but here are some Pinterest recipes that I have deemed to be "tried and true." I would definitely recommend adding any of these to your recipe boards! If y'all would like, I can continue to share Pinterest recipe round-ups as I continue cooking my way through my Pinterest boards. :-)



*Korean Beef Rice Bowls - This might be my favorite dinner recipe of all that I've found and tried from Pinterest since I moved into my apartment! These are very easy to make, and SO tasty. The leftovers are also delicious. I love spicy food, so I always add a lot of red pepper flakes. Also- I've never made mine with the Gochujang (Korean ingredient), but they still come out amazing even without that.



*Garlic Honey Ginger Glazed Salmon - My go-to recipe when I have company for dinner! It tastes much fancier than it is to make! The sauce on this is so delicious (and again- I can't stress how easy it is).



*Sesame Ginger Turkey Meatballs - These are a really unique twist on meatballs. They have such a delicious seasoning blend in them!! They would not be good in traditional spaghetti and meatballs, but are amazing on their own, or served with plain pasta or rice. 




*Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup - Can y'all tell that I like Asian influences in my food?! Haha!! This soup really does taste just like Thai curry, it's so good! Since it is a slow cooker soup, it does make a very large portion. I've stopped making it often because it often makes too much just for me to eat, but would be great for having people over for dinner (or for anyone who lives with more than just themselves!).



*Italian Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Potatoes - This is such a tasty side dish!! I have served it before when I've had company over with the glazed salmon recipe that's linked above. It makes a lot- so if you live by yourself you'll definitely have leftovers!!



*Easy Indian Chicken Biryani - A fairly simple Indian dish!! I am not a fan of raisins so I omit them in this recipe, but if you don't mind them then they would add a fun touch of sweetness to the recipe.



*The Best Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup - Another great slow cooker soup option! This would be ideal for a sick day, or for some cold weather comfort food. As with the other soup I shared, my only downside on this is that the portion is huge!




     Happy cooking!! Please let me know if you would like to see more cooking/baking/adulting/apartment living type blog posts. And stay tuned for a fun outfit post tomorrow- we're almost to Friday!



    xoxo Miss ALK

Back-to-School Binder Covers Tutorial with HP.

     This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BTSwithHP #CollectiveBias

     The back-to-school season means that it's time for most students to begin lots of shopping. While basic school supplies like pens and binders usually top high on the list, sometimes items that are a bit more investment-worthy are needed for the school year as well, such as a new laptop computer! These days, it is almost impossible for a middle, high school, or college student to be able to complete their homework without having a computer of their own, as so many assignments are either online or require online research to complete nowadays. In college, I even had to take several online classes throughout my four years, meaning that these classes never even met in a physical classroom!


     Since a laptop can be such a big purchase, I know that a lot of students who might be shopping for one will be looking for one that combines convenience and affordability. Luckily- HP has come to the rescue. Walmart stores are carrying a wide array of HP laptops, all at different price points, which are perfect for different students' needs. 


     I recently had the chance to test out one of the new HP laptops (sold at Walmart). The one that I received was an HP Notebook. It came equipped with the latest Intel processor, a crisp HD screen, and high performance backed by over 200 tests! In getting familiar with my new computer, I decided to use it to help with a small project that I'd been wanting to work on for school! As some of you know, I began attending broadcasting school just over a month ago, which is essentially "graduate school" for people in my chosen career path. The start of school came upon me a little earlier this summer than I was expecting, so I am still in the process of figuring out which school supplies to bring with me each week, and what is best helping me studying and homework needs. One thing that I do need is a big binder to help organize all of my class notes. I was using a plain one, but I wanted to try and make a decorated and personalized binder cover to add a little bit of color and pizzaz to my school supplies!


     There are a lot of tutorials online for how to make your own customized monogrammed binder covers, but I already have either my monogram or the letter A on a lot of things, so I wanted to do something a little bit different and add an encouraging bible verse to my binder cover. 

     The first thing that I did was use Microsoft Edge, the all-new web browser that came pre-installed in my HP laptop, to search with and find a pretty background for my binder cover. (Is anyone really that surprised that I went with a Lilly Pulitzer background?!) 

     Next I launched Microsoft Word, which is the program that I used to make the binder covers. You don't have to have Adobe programs or anything fancy to do something like this!

     I then copied and pasted the Lilly Pulitzer background image into the Word document, and resized it to fit the whole page. Then I went under "Insert" and found a shape that I wanted, and placed that over the picture. Lastly, I added a text box over the shape. The text box had a default white color around it, but I was easily able to deselect having any color around the box, so that the text was transparent over the shape. Lastly, I selected a font and typed what I wanted it to say, which was "Broadcasting School," and an encouraging bible verse! 

     

    I have previously owned an HP printer (which I absolutely LOVE), and it was very easy to link my new laptop to the printer using HP's ePrint service. 

     I am just loving how this binder cover came out! It is so much cuter than the plain binder that I was taking with me to school before. 

     You can find my HP Notebook and a wide selection of other laptop models at your local Walmart! 

    Are you currently in the market for a new computer for back-to-school (or for work if you're beyond your school years)? 

     xoxo Miss ALK

My First Apartment: Bedroom Reveal!!

Photos by Deeana Kourtney Photography

Bed: Bedroom Expressions {similar here} Bedding: Jessica Simpson Collection // Pink Blanket: Target // Accent Pillows: At Home {similar here} // Paintings (above bed): At Home {similar here} // Painting {right of bed}: Evelyn Henson // Lamp: At Home {similar here} // Desk: IKEA {similar here} // Dresser + Mirror (holding perfume and jewelry): Rooms To Go Sophia Vergara Collection // Desktop Art Block: Curly Girl Designs // Lilly Pulitzer Inpsired Letter: Etsy // Desktop Gold Mug: Anthropologie // Planner: c/o Me & My Big Ideas // Pencil Case: Kate Spade // Makeup Containers: The Container Store 

     The much-awaited post is finally here: I'm so excited to be showing y'all my new bedroom today! While I was excited to move into and decorate each room in my apartment, my bedroom is what I was most enthusiastic about making my own. 

  

      This is the first time in my life that I've ever had a bed larger than a twin! Because of that, I had to get everything brand new for my bed: from the mattress to the bed frame down to the accent pillows! The two things that I knew before moving into my apartment were that I wanted a tufted headboard and white bedding. My headboard in my childhood bedroom is wooden (and in college dorms you don't have headboards), so I wanted something different, and I also think that tufted headboards are so elegant.  The white bedding might be a bit cliche since I am a fashion blogger... but I had fallen in love with pictures of so many other bloggers' bedrooms and I am always drawn especially to the look of crispy, white bedding! 

     There are certainly a lot of white bedding options out there, and when shopping for bedding I did thorough searches of both local home goods and department stores, and also many online retailers! I ended up going with this bedding set mainly because of the unique draped ruffles sewn into the design. This bedding pulls off the "undone yet perfectly polished" look so easily. I personally have never been one to enjoy making my bed, and I knew that if I wanted to start doing this in post grad life then I would need bedding that was easy to make. Things ended up working so well, and it takes me about two minutes each day to make my bed (less then half the time that it takes me to make my twin bed back home, just because of the differences in bedding!). 

     Followers of my blog or social media know that I am definitely a fan of color! After I realized that my bedding was definitely going to be white, and the headboard that I selected coordinated with the tan walls (which came with my apartment ;-) ), I knew that it was time to start adding chic and small pops of color to the room! Accent pillows are a great first place to start. I love the ones that I picked and they have been great for the summer months. I might switch them out later this year for fall/winter. And I fell in love with these two pink abstract art pieces for above my bed, which I found at my local At Home store (similar art piece here). The Lilly Pulitzer inspired letter "A" was a dorm room decoration from college that I purchased on Etsy a couple of years ago- it now hangs on the door of my bathroom! 

     Lastly is the table next to my bed. It is technically a desk, but I am currently using it as a table for my extra makeup storage and some additional decorations. My next decorating project for my room will be to turn this table space into a blogging desk! I want to move my extra makeup into my bathroom, figure out new homes for some of the decorations, and buy a really cute desk chair. I long for the day when I will live in a place that has room for my own blog office, but for the near future I will work on making this desk idea a reality! (The desk was given to me by a friend of mine from college who moved this past winter- sometimes friends who are moving can be a great source of apartment furniture or decor!) 

     

      I am so pleased with how my first "big girl" bedroom came together, and I can't wait to see what future rooms of mine will look like through years to come. Decorating my new apartment has been lots of fun, and I've realized that with time and perseverance, home design can absolutely be done on a budget!

    Thanks so much for reading!

     xoxo Miss ALK