Introducing: Southern Belle in the 'Bunk

     I am so excited to be introducing a brand new post series that I'll be sharing every Friday this summer here on the blog! I will definitely be sharing them every Friday that I am home here in Maine from now until I leave to study abroad (and the weeks that I'm home after my trip until I go back to Charlotte), and if I have enough time to get shoots in then I will hopefully have back-up posts scheduled for the four weeks that I am traveling abroad as well.

Easter Break 2015

     So to preface, even though I began blogging in high school (shout-out to my old blog Confessions of a Maine Teenager! #whataname), I didn't start Southern Belle in Training until the beginning of my freshman year of college, in September 2012. Starting this blog marked a lot of transitions for me: becoming a legal adult and turning 18 (in fact, my blogiversary is my birthday if you didn't know!), the switch from a focus on lifestyle and faith to fashion blogging, going from high school to college, and most importantly, my move from Maine to North Carolina. The last is the most important of all! So much of the content of my blog conveys my love for North Carolina and more specifically, the city of Charlotte. Not only have I now transferred to a college that's in Charlotte, but I'm also involved with The Charlotte Social, Charlotte's premiere blogging network, and several other southern/North Carolina based blogging networks and groups.


     But this summer, I'm home again, here in my little hometown of Maine. It's quite weird for me to be here for a whole summer to be honest. I do still have a couple good friends here, I enjoy my summer job, and I love living near the ocean again, but other then that it doesn't feel like there's much here for me. I can't explain it, but even though Charlotte is a city that I knew no one in a couple of years ago, it just feels like home now (read more about that in this post!).


     Yet whether I like it or not, I'm here and home for the summer, and that means that my blog is also here and home for the summer. Half of my blog's name reflects the NC side of me: the "Southern Belle" part of the name. But the other half of the name reflects my Maine roots, where I come from (the "in Training" part). This summer, I wanted to use my creative juices to come up with some sort of a special blog post series to celebrate Maine and where I came from, since this is most likely my last summer here as a full-time resident! (Even in the rare event I moved back to Maine after college, this is still my last summer here as a traditional undergrad living at home!)


     So a few nights ago, the perfect idea came to me! It began to formulate as I thought about how over the past few months, something that I have become really in-tune to when critiquing my own blog posts (and reading other fashion blogs) is the locations that bloggers use for photos. Yes- the clothing is a big part of it, but I also like to see fashion bloggers experimenting with taking their photos in beautiful places! Even when I don't have the time during the school year to be shooting all over the city I try and mix things up by taking my pictures at different pretty places around my campus. And when I do have the time on the weekends, all of Charlotte is my backdrop- the options are endless!

     Therefore the idea came to me that each Friday while I am home, I will do an outfit post shot at a different location in my town (or the neighboring town- more on that in a sec!), but have the focus on the post only be about half on my outfit, and half on the location. Yes, I have shot outfit posts at some different spots in my town before when I've been home on breaks, including at the beach. But I won't be picking spots I've already used. I'm going to be choosing very unique (yet still beautiful!) spots in town. The places that a tourist might not immediately be drawn to, but the places that I have memories at, or the places that make my town special. And in the post, I will share not only my outfit details, but why I picked the location that I'm shooting at! And I'll tell you about my memories in that location. And each week you'll learn more and more about my town, and hopefully through this more about me.

My favorite iPhone picture ever of one of our local beaches! Summer 2012

     So now- where is it in Maine that I am actually from?! (This is I suppose crucial for y'all to know for a series that is based around my town.) I realize to that I have never actually shared my hometown before on the blog!! Finally time to give away a big secret... :-)


     *Drumroll...* I am from the Kennebunk/Kennebunkport area of Southern Maine! These two cute, neighboring (and yes, they are two separate towns!), are located about 40 mins from both the New Hampshire border and also 40 mins from Portland, Maine's largest city.  They are both directly on the coast and each town has a few lovely beaches were are open to the public (which you can see one of Kennebunk's in the picture above!). Both towns are a huge tourist area, especially during the summer months.. The shop that I work in actually caters mostly to a tourist crowd! One notable attraction in the area is that the first former President Bush has one of his summer homes in Kennebunkport.

     Three interesting facts about the Kennebunks: one is that a church in downtown Kennebunk (as well as other locations around both towns) were the location for Taylor Swift's 2010 music video "Mine!" She filmed it right where I'm from. My dad actually drove me by where the filming was happening one day and we got to see her from a distance! This was back when she had her beautiful signature curly hair... I miss those days!

Taylor Swift preparing for filming - August 2010.

    Second interesting fact, during my freshman year of college (right around the time I started this blog!) my town made national news for a very disturbing scandal involving prostitution and a zumba studio... you can read more about that from here from an article by Vanity Fair!

     Third interesting fact: Kennebunkport hosts an annual pre-Christmas celebration during the first two weekends in December called Christmas Prelude. All of the stores get completely decked out, there is Christmas caroling, Christmas treats galore, and a festive town tree lighting. Our celebration makes national rankings for best small town Christmas celebrations!! I am always so sad that due to final exams I can never make it for the first weekend of Prelude anymore, but the past two years I've been able to work the second weekend of it at my job!

Fireworks going off during Christmas Prelude 2013

    So that is a little taste of my town! The first post for "Southern Belle in the 'Bunk" will be up tomorrow! It features an outfit that I packed for my internship to Louisville last week but didn't have time to shoot for while there. I can't wait to show y'all the spot that I ended up shooting at here in Kennebunk- it's just beautiful!


     I have big hopes and plans for this summer series and hope you'll all follow along!


     xoxo Miss ALK

Instagram Recap: What I packed for Kentucky.

     It's been awhile since I've done an Instagram recap on the blog, so I figured what better time to get into it then to show y'all some of the outfits and accessories that I brought with me on my trip to Kentucky last week!!

     To recap: I spent May 12-16 in Louisville, KY, for an internship with the Fraternity Communications Association's annual conference. I was one of four collegiate interns, picked from Greek college students around the country, so that was a huge honor! I am actually writing a guest blog post for my sorority's official blog, so I will share the link here and on all of my social media after that goes up! That will share on in-depth details about what my internship actually entailed, and more info on the FCA organization itself. :-)


      I travel a lot between Charlotte and Maine, my school home and my real home, by myself throughout the year, but this conference was my first time ever traveling on my own for a work-trip type experience (and also doing things like checking into a hotel on my own, getting from airport to hotel on my own, etc). It was a really exciting experience (although it did have a few minor hiccups a long the way and that will get its own whole blog post- haha) and I think my favorite part is that since this was a conference internship I got to pack a whole suitcase full of my favorite thing in the world: DRESSES!

Dresses: Landsend {Dress #1: Not online anymore, but featured in this blog post. Dress #2 Available online here! || Necklace {Top picture} || Versona Accessories

     Landsend is a great place to find business casual dresses! These two that brought with me to the conference are some of the most comfortable dresses that I have ever come across! That is key when you are working a internship all-day. And they are perfectly stylish and conservative enough for business casual settings. So I would definitely recommend checking out Landsend for any dresses for the workplace! 

Dress: Marshall's {Old, featured in this recent blog post!} || Blazer: Forever 21 || Earrings: Kendra Scott || Luggage: American Tourister || Clutch: {Gift} 

     I also packed along this gorgeous dress, which I styled last month for a blog post that I did on business casual attire! I wore different accessories and shoes with it this time to change things up a bit. I think that it proved to be the perfect dress for an afternoon of exploring the Louisville riverfront area! 

Dress: c/o Gabe's {only $16.99!} || Shoes: Nine West || Clutch {Gift}

     

     Um- I don't even know where to start with this gorgeous dress! How about beginning with the fact that it's a beautiful formal appropriate dress for under $20?! Unheard of! But made possible by Gabe's- one of my new favorite discount store's! (You might remember that I was a featured blogger at a Gabe's store opening in North Carolina back in March- read about that here!) This dress will definitely be getting a whole post of its own on the blog soon so fear not- this will not be the last that y'all see of it! I wore this outfit for the FCA Awards Banquet, which was held during the final night of the conference! It was the most formal event, and one of my favorite parts of the whole internship! 

Dress: c/o Francesca's || Foot Products: c/o KushyFoot 

     Even though my suitcase was filled to the brim with cute dresses, I couldn't let my feet be forgotten about! I managed to fit a whopping seven pairs of shoes into my carry-on sized suitcase (although due to the weight of it I ended up checking it!). I wore a different pair of shoes for each day of my internship, to keep things different for my feet, but either way it was still very long days! Interns had to be at breakfast each day at 8 a.m, and the conference didn't wrap up until 5 p.m.! Then shortly after began the evening activities. If this doesn't call for tired feet then I don't know what does!

    Luckily for me, just a couple weeks before I had gotten a package filled with all sorts of foot and shoe care products from KushyFoot. I tucked all of them in with me in a pocket of my suitcase, and I'm so glad that I did! These products are a dream come true for any girl who has long days ahead of her on her feet. My two favorite products were the foot covers (perfect to wear with flats- they don't show at all!), and the flats-to-go. Seriously how handy is that- you can slip this itty-bitty pair of flats in your purse or clutch with you for a night when you're wearing your sky-high heels, and when you're feet just can't take it anymore you literally have a pair of "flats on the go!" Genius! Thank-you KushyFoot for sending me these products at just the right time! 

      This internship just reminded me how much I love getting to dress up in business casual clothes each day! The good news is that tomorrow is my first day of work for the summer at my job here in Maine! This is my third summer of working in retail at the most darling little store, which is part art gallery, part American-made crafts, and part artisan-made jewelry! Due to the environment of the business, I get to dress up in similar outfits to those that I wore in Kentucky for my summer job everyday- and now I really can't wait! 

     Xoxo Miss ALK

Blackout Derby Style {A shoot with Meredith Sledge Photography}.

      Hello and Happy Monday! After what has possibly been the most busy and whirlwind (but wonderful!) three weeks of my life, I am finally home in Maine for awhile after finishing up a very demanding junior year in Charlotte, road-tripping from Charlotte to Maine with my dad, being home for less than three days and then flying off to Kentucky for the most incredible few days for an internship opportunity! I have SO much to share about both my internship experience and Kentucky, but first off, today comes a post that I would have written last week had I not been traveling. 

     

       Back in March 2014, I first had the privilege of meeting Meredith of Meredith Sledge Photography.  I first got to know Meredith as an online friend through the Delight group, which is an online ministry for Christian teen girls and young women pursuing photography, blogging, or the arts! (Delight is also how I met my real-life Maine BFF/fabulous photographer Shara from Shara Lynn Photography.) When Shara planned a trip to visit me in Charlotte in March 2014, Meredith and I got in contact and set it up that she would come down and surprise Shara!! This was the first time that Meredith met Shara and I in person, but we pulled off the surprise and all hit it off beautifully. You can read more about our adventures in Charlotte from that week here and here! 

March 2014 in Charlotte with Meredith and Shara! (Do y'all recognize this spot? ;-) )

     Anyways, Meredith lives in Virginia, not too far away from the highway that my dad and I follow for much of our drive home! Our schedules aligned and we were able to meet up in a town right off I-81 in Virginia for the afternoon, called Stauton. Off of the highway it doesn't look like much, but if you drive just a couple miles it turns into the most darling little downtown area ever!! I wish that we could have spent more time there. Meredith got to meet my dad and the three of us spent some time catching up in a cute little coffee shop called By&By (definitely stop by if you're ever in the area for the Vanilla Chai Latte!), and then jumped into my photoshoot!

     Meredith is without a doubt one of the most talented young photographers that I have ever met. Please check out her website or follow her Instagram (@meredithsledge) to see more of her work! It is such a blessing for me to get to call her not only one of my all-time favorite blog photographers, but also my friend!! 

    Of course I couldn't choose just a few pictures from this shoot, so here are several favorites. :-) I love how Meredith captured not only my outfit and personality, but also the beauty of downtown Stauton! 

Dress: Kiki LaRue Boutique || Shoes: DSW {Old, Similar here} || Purse: Michael Kors || Clutch: Target {Old, Similar version from Kate Spade here}|| Necklace: H&M || Bracelet: {Gift} || Ring: {Gift} || Nails: {Acrylics from my sorority formal} || Lips: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Demure (my signature color!)

     Once I knew that I was going to have the chance to shoot with Meredith in Virginia, I had a little bit of a hard time picking out what I was going to wear at first!! I wanted it to be the absolutely perfect outfit for her amazing photography. 

     While going through my closet, I re-found this adorable LBD from Kiki LaRue Boutique and realized I had never styled it for the blog before! I had won a gift card to Kiki LaRue last fall from the blog Sunshine and Stilettos, and picked up this fun little black number! I am growing to really love dresses that are higher necked or conservative in the front and then get fun in the back. ;-) Have you ever seen anything cuter on a dress than the adorable bow on the back of this dress?! I absolutely fell in love. I think that it also ended up being the perfect dress for a shoot in Stauton because since Stauton is such a colorful and fun town it allowed both the dress and the surroundings to stand out in Meredith's pictures!

     I styled this dress completely differently back in December when I went to my Maine bestie Katie's sorority formal! (I had a whole travel adventure just to get to that formal... you can read about that in this post.) 

     Wearing this darling dress with its bow in the back, my big hat, and the floral clutch (which is technically a large wallet) made me think of an all-black Kentucky Derby outfit!! It made me all the more excited to wear it, since this was just about a week before my trip to Kentucky, where I knew I would be visiting Churchill Downs.

     Since this dress is from a smaller online boutique and is from last season, I can't link-up the exact item, but below linked are four gorgeous black dresses that are all under $100 (most under $50!). 

     xoxo Miss ALK

Dress like it's...2012.

Dress: Marshall's {Old, Similar here} || Shoes: TJ Maxx {Similar here} || Earrings: Forever 21 || Necklace: {Gift} || Bracelet: Express || Lips: Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Cotton Candy

      This is an outfit that I wore to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory during my last night in Charlotte for my junior year! So crazy to think that this was just a couple of weeks ago: since then I have moved out of school (with my dad's help :-) ), road-tripped with home across the East Coast back to Maine, as a part of that trip stopped for a day trip in Virginia for a fun photoshoot with my friend Meredith (which y'all will be hearing more about next week!), spent a whirlwind evening in New York City, then had a very busy weekend at home in Maine before leaving for my internship in Kentucky. As y'all are reading this post I'm currently here in Kentucky! 

     I titled this post "Dress like it's...2012," partly because this dress was my high school graduation party dress (Class of 2012 represent!), and partly I because I feel like this outfit was much more of my high school style! As far as jewelry goes, back in high school I preferred wearing big earrings paired with a delicate necklace. I had a variety of small pendants that I used to swap out on a daily basis (my favorite was a Tiffany and Co. pendant that was a gift from my aunt and uncle in New York), and I liked to pair all of my little necklaces with dangling earrings. The earrings that I'm wearing here were a favorite of mine in high school! I also was not nearly as good as doing my hair back then as I am now, so I wore it up a lot more than I do now.

     My style has definitely changed since then, especially in relation to jewelry! I wear a lot more smaller earrings now, and have gotten really into the statement necklace trend. When I do wear large earrings I often make them the only jewelry piece that I am wearing (minus rings or dainty bracelets). And let's at least be thankful that by my senior year of high school my Hollister and Abercrombie t-shirt phase was over... (Please tell me I wasn't alone! ;-) )

     

High school graduation party, June 2012

My sweet friend Caroline! She has been on the blog before. And I'm excited to announce that she will be my suitemate next year!!

     Since my dress is old (obviously!! Haha) I have instead linked up some similar but equally cute dresses below! 

     Stay tuned for lots of posts next week including pictures from my photoshoot with Meredith and all of the details about my time here in Kentucky!

     xoxo Miss ALK

An Open Letter to My Ex-Best Friend.

Pictures in this post are a preview from a fun shoot that I did with Meredith Sledge Photography!

Dear Ex-Best Friend,

     I came home from college for the summer very late at night a couple of days ago, and it took less than 48 hours before I ran into you while I was out and about. I'm not sure if you know this, but I go to college many states and hundreds of miles away from (you and) our little town, and just finished up my junior year. With each year that goes by, I think about you and the pain of losing our friendship less and less, which is a blessing. Both physical distance and the wonderful new life that I have created for myself in North Carolina will do that I suppose. But the simple act of seeing you in person again brought back a lot of feelings for me. I wanted to write an open letter to you, here on my blog. I feel that there is a lot on the internet that talks about the pain of losing a romantic relationship, but not enough that speaks of the pain of a friendship break-up. I hope that this will finally bring forth some of the closure that I never really got, and also might be able to help some girls who also went through similar friendship break-ups, so that they can know they aren't alone.

"You, with your words like knives

And swords and weapons that you use against me"

     We met right in the middle of my high school years, and got close very quickly. I highly doubt that you read my blog, but I do know that some people from my hometown do read it, so to protect your identity I will not offer any additional details about how we met, the best memories that we shared together as friends, or any of our old inside jokes. That isn't what's important anymore. What is important is that during the time that we were close I truly thought of you as the sister that I never had. 

"You have knocked me off my feet again

Got me feeling like I'm nothing"

     And then suddenly, without warning, it was all over. You began to cut me off, and then when I questioned you, you told me that you "felt like we were in different places," that "you had grown up more over the summer" (even though we talked on the phone or texted just about every day of summer that we couldn't hang out?) and "felt you were growing out of our friendship and we weren't best friends anymore." My high school aged mind couldn't comprehend this- there had never been a big fight, never any drama over liking the same boys, never even another girlfriend coming between us (each of us had our own separate groups of friends as well {which I still to this day think it's always healthy for two best friends to have their own separate other friends as well})... the whole thing just didn't make sense. All I know that is that I was losing the person that I considered to be my sister and I had no control over the situation. I cried in front of you and begged you to work on whatever it was that I had done that was bothering you so much.... but your response was deleting me as a Facebook friend. 

"You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard

Calling me out when I'm wounded

You picking on the weaker man"

    The year that I lost you turned out to be the worst of my life. It wasn't necessarily your fault- a bunch of things contributed to it. But losing you definitely did not help. I battled anxiety and depression all year. But some good things did come out of this dark time. Since I was in such a low place in my life, this is when A.) I started to find my faith again, and B.) I first began blogging and discovering the blogging community (on my first blog, Confessions of a Maine Teenager). 

"You can take me down with just one single blow

But you don't know, what you don't know..."

     In September 2012, I was 18, and a college freshman at my former college in North Carolina. I hadn't thought about you in awhile. But I remember the exact afternoon of when I logged onto Facebook and your picture along with news of a great accomplishment of yours was at the top of my newsfeed. You and I still weren't (and still aren't) Facebook friends, but enough of my own FB friends had liked the post so it still showed up in my feed. I immediately burst into tears and called either my mom or dad (I can't remember now). They thought that I was overreacting for sure, but just hearing about you still hurt me. I wanted to be happy for you, and to celebrate your accomplishment! But knowing that you still thought so low of me and didn't want me in your life continued to sting, all the way in North Carolina. 

     But the good thing that came out of that is seeing your big news is what inspired me to start taking Southern Belle in Training more seriously. I had just started this blog at that time, and hadn't been writing on it very often. I realize now that it sounds terrible to say that you were the motivation for one of the things in my life that I am most proud of, but over time my blog became my accomplishment, and something that I did for me and me only. I guess I just needed seeing your news that one afternoon to be the push in the right direction to get me back into blogging, so thank-you for that.

     But, let's go back to recently, when I saw you again. For years I have imagined getting to bump into you in public somewhere, being able to casually say hello, tell you a little bit about what I am up to, hear what you're up to, make peace, and then go on our own ways. But that isn't what happened. 

     I saw you, you saw me, and no one said anything. And that was all. AND IT KILLED ME. I seemed to forget that I'm a girl who has lived out-of-state for almost three years, got into my top choice sorority during recruitment, had radio internship opportunities where I am on-air all of the time, has gone on dates with cute boys, etc, etc...but just seeing you, made me feel like a powerless little high schooler again. Like all of my college years and worth didn't matter. 

"Someday I'll be living in a big ol' city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?"

Taylor Swift - Mean

     But, this is me announcing that me doing nothing is over. The next time I see you, I'm either going to make conversation with you, or look you dead in the eye and smile. I realize that it is your loss that you missed out on being my friend, not the other way around. I hate the fact that you were so cruel to me, but it was a big warning sign for me in what to look-out for when making friendships in college and beyond. Without sounding cruel here- thank-you for teaching me some of the hardest lessons that I've ever had to learn. 

    -A

     Thank-you for reading through to the end of this very personal blog post! To anyone who has also lost a best friend: know that I would not wish a falling out like I went through on anyone, but if anyone reading this has been through a similar situation, then know that you aren't alone. Trust in the Lord to get you through the tough times, and that He will bless you with Godly, amazing friends in His timing. 

     Unrelated to this post: today I am leaving for my dream internship with the FCA conference (related to Greek life) in Louisville, Kentucky. I am feeling beyond blessed for this opportunity! Follow my travel adventures in Kentucky on Instagram @miss_alk with the hashtag #sbittravels. I do have posts scheduled for this week, but I will be blogging all about my time at the conference next week!

    

     xoxo Miss ALK