Blogger Brittany from the blog Southern Soul recently tagged me in this fun little post idea called "8 Photos of Happiness" (the tag was originally created by the blog Ariel's Little Corner of the Internet). It is pretty straightforward: each blogger tagged has to write a post in which they share eight photos which to them represent the happiest memories or parts of their life! And then you tag up to ten other bloggers to join in on the fun. :-) Thank-you Brittany for tagging me in this challenge! I'm excited to participate, and to show y'all some fun photos and memories from blog posts past and also from my personal life.
This picture is from my most recent Spring Break, which was spent in the Dominican Republic! This blog post was apart of a collaboration that I did with Aerie, for their Spring 2015 swim line. To date this was the biggest collaboration that I have done here on my blog, and doing this post was the moment for me when I was like "Wow, I'm legit now with this blogging thing." There can be a lot of competition and pressure in the blogging world, and sometimes it can be hard to see other girls get opportunities that you wanted. But at other times, there are amazing moments- like this one!! I'm also a big fan of the Aerie brand and their #AerieREAL campaign!
Last summer, before heading back to school in Charlotte, I wanted to get together with some of my Maine besties to get some updated pictures together! We were able to do that one night on the beach... but before we were able to break out the camera, a big seagull flew over me and went to the bathroom all over my left pant leg!! You can read about it more in detail in the blog post recapping that night's adventures... what a night! On the bright side though, we were still able to get some wonderful pictures together (as well as this fun jumping one!).
3.
Oh my gosh... my friend Lily is going to kill me if she knew I was posting this here haha. :-) But this is one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE PICTURES so how could I not include it in a post called "8 Photos of Happiness"?? So the story behind this picture is that at my (very small) college each year there is an event in the winter where the school rents out a local ice skating rink in Charlotte and holds ice skating at Midnight! It's a really fun school tradition, and since I used to figure skate competitively as a kid I really look forward to it each year! Anyways, this past year, they had someone taking "candid" photographs of people throughout the night, and then posted all the pictures on one of the school Facebook pages. Well, candid photography and public skating don't mix very well... y'all, the pictures were so funny and bad, I literally had tears running down my face when looking at them. I can't say this is the most flattering picture of me ever taken... but just look behind me at my friend Lily in the red jacket! I promise that she really did have a great time that night, the camera must have just caught her at a bad moment. But this is now one of my favorite pictures ever.
This is me and my sweet friend/future suitemate Caroline at our school-wide semi formal, which is called Casino Night, last year! The theme was A Night in Las Vegas, and I'm obsessed with anything Vegas related (after I visited there a couple of years ago!). Caroline is an absolute gem and one of my favorite people at school, and I had so much fun with her at Casino Night! Being suitemates this year is going to be too much fun!
My Bid Day for Alpha Delta Pi in 2013! (That is my Big who got to shirt me!)
6.
My very first day back in January 2014 at my internship with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation! As of now I have completed three semesters of interning for RSF, and this internship has truly changed my life! From time to time I have blogged about my experiences with RSF and my career goals in radio and broadcasting. :-)
7.
Check out this incredible hidden waterfall that I got to visit on a day trip to Northern Italy while studying abroad in France during the past month! This picture is from my Instagram (@miss_alk)... it IS edited- but I promise the water truly was close to being that color blue!
And lastly, nothing makes me happier than my beautiful, sweet, perfect Charlotte! (And my favorite spot to take pictures and look at the skyline in Charlotte!) How I miss you and can't wait to be back soonish!
So those are my eight photos! Thanks again to Brittany for the tag! I picked eight bloggers who I am tagging to participate:
Happy Weekend y'all! Mine is not too eventful... since I had the past month off from work, I am spending my whole weekend working (and the next two weekends as well!). But not a bad price to pay when my boss gave me four weeks off so that I could study abroad!
This is Week Four for my Friday summer post series here on the blog, called Southern Belle in the Bunk. This blog series combines my love of fashion, beautiful scenic locations for fashion posts, and the fact that I'm spending this summer back in my hometown area of the Kennebunks region of Southern Maine! You can read more about the inspiration for this series in the intro post HERE, Week One HERE, Week Two HERE, Week Three HERE and Week Four HERE! Xo
My oh my does it feel good to be back to fashion blogging again! I had an unexpected break during my last two weeks abroad in France, and then during my first few days home I experienced severe jet lag, as well as feeling not so great due to some bug bites that I returned home with... which were later in the week diagnosed by my doctor officially as bed bug bites. :/ So dealing with that hasn't been the greatest. Honestly the highlight of my week has just been getting into somewhat of a routine again and going back to my usual eight hour shifts at work! Haha.
Fashion blogging is another part of my regular routine that I am so happy to be getting back to! In honor of the fact that I was making the switch from living in 90+ degree temperatures (and extreme humidity) in Nice to cool and breezy temperatures in the low 70s back in Maine, this outfit seemed like the perfect fit for my first post to re-kick off my summer Friday post series, Southern Belle in the 'Bunk! It feels amazing to be in weather again that is cool enough that I can actually where jeans and other pants, and with all of the bug bites and scabs on my legs this week (sorry if that's TMI but it's true!), I wanted to wear pants especially in the earlier part of the week.
I rediscovered my love for this fun applique top upon my arrival back home! I have had this shirt since high school, and it always seems to resurface now and again in my closet. It is the perfect way to dress up a pair of skinny jeans, but I have also paired it before with a mini skirt and heels! Tops like this are so easy because you really only need minimal accessories with them. I chose to go with a fun little bracelet stack and my favorite purse, my vintage Chanel!! Some of you on my Instagram were asking about it- it was originally my grandma's, who gave it to my mom, and she gave it to me last year. :-)
The location:
Can you tell that I'm throwing a rock in these pictures? Haha!
For this week's edition of Southern Belle in the 'Bunk, I wanted to do something beach themed (especially since I had just been away from home for a month in the middle of summer!). But since I frequently shoot my blog photos at two of my favorite beaches in town, and the whole point of this post series was for me to reach outside my comfort zone of my favorite OOTD locations here at home, I decided instead to think outside the box a little bit and remember another favorite ocean spot of mine that is a little bit more off the beaten path.
Strawberry Island is the name of the area that these photos were taken in! It's not exactly an island... more just like a clump of rocks that can or can't be accessed depending on the tides. I think that at one point there was more of a tiny island that you could walk out to after the rocks, and that there were some bushes growing on the island, including some strawberry plants. At least that's how I think it got its name! Anyways, this little area is just under a mile away from one of the local beaches. You can even see some of the beach houses in the background of the pictures! It's found on a dead-end road, so it's a very quiet little area. The perfect spot for pictures (or watching the sunset) when it's low tide! My mom took these pictures of me right at sunset, and the light was very interesting on this day, as you can see reflected in the photos! They have a nice soft summer glow to them.
If you follow any fashion bloggers at all, then you would have to be living under a rock right now to not know about something called the Nordstorm Anniversary Sale, which is happening right now. The NSale began last week for Nordstrom card holders, and opens to the public on July 17th. I shopped in last year's NSale and bought my beloved Tory Burch riding boots. But I'm not sure if I'll be buying anything in this year's sale. A.) I just came back from studying abroad, which was a costly experience (and I did a little bit of shopping while in France), but B.) which is the main reason, there just seems to be WAY too much blogger buzz about the NSale this year... almost too much that it's turning me off from wanting to buy anything! I have read a lot of bloggers' recaps on it, and everyone seems to be picking out the same items that they're all loving and lusting over. I do love many of the brands that Nordstorm carries, but I personally would rather save up for a more unique item that's truly "mine," not just an on-sale item that every girl and her mother will have come this fall because every blogger instagrammed a picture of it this past July! Okay, rant over, haha. (I did consider buying another pair of Tory Burch riding boots in this year's sale, but I wasn't personally crazy about either style offered this year.)
Anyways, through all of the buzz that Nordstrom is getting right now, it lead me to to think a little bit about my other favorite department store: Dillard's. And then I started wondering, why don't more bloggers ever talk about Dillard's? It seems that throughout the year, so many bloggers are always talking about Nordstrom, Nordstrom, Nordstrom. Again, Nordstrom is a great store that sells some great brands. :-) But personally, I'm just as big of a fan of Dillard's, and I feel that this store often gets overlooked! Fun fact, whenever I shop at Southpark (Charlotte's luxury mall), I always park in the Dillard's parking deck, because Dillard's is my favorite store to see first whenever I enter the mall! So today I thought I would share some of my favorite recent online shopping finds from Dillard's. This post is not sponsored in any way, I just wanted to share some finds that I liked!
Y'all know that if I had to pick one word to define my style, it would probably be "colorful." Dillard's always seems to have such a great selection of colorful attire, accessories and footwear, and especially so during the warmer months! Take a look above at some of my favorite picks that are at Dillard's currently, and many of those items are currently on sale!!
I didn't include any of this above, but I should also note that Dillard's is one of my favorite places to look for semi-formal or formal dresses at! Both their juniors and misses departments always seem to kill it for gorgeous formal attire.
Are you a fan of Dillard's? What are your thoughts on how much publicity there has been on the NSale this year (especially in the blogging world)?
I begin a lot of my more personal blog posts in a similar way... usually by saying "I don't even know where to begin." Well, in the case of this post, this couldn't be more true. I have so much to say on this topic that I literally feel as though I'm about to burst, but I have no idea at all where to start.
I came home this past Saturday afternoon from my recent study abroad trip. I had so many experiences on this trip- some very good, and some very bad. All of this compiled together (and not having a cell phone data plan for a month which meant having a lot of time to think about things... haha!) lead me to want to write this blog post, to try to explain as the title said, my "mixed emotions" on studying abroad. I think that studying abroad is often portrayed as this magical fantasy experience, and while there were some wonderful times that I had, it was also one of the hardest experiences that I have ever been through (and for a variety of factors). BUT- before getting any wordier, I should probably start at the beginning...
I was studying abroad in France for the past four weeks, as apart of a summer language immersion program. I originally applied to this program over a year ago. I chose to do so for a few reasons. First and foremost, studying abroad is hugely popular at my school. At my college, it's the norm to study abroad, whether for a whole semester or for a short-term summer trip, which is what I chose to do. Thanks to a generous endowment program, my college is able to provide lots of amazing study abroad options, and costs are lower than at other universities. There are also scholarships available for each study abroad program to help with further reducing the costs, and I applied for one for my specific program and was so blessed to receive it! I even got to meet my sweet scholarship donor at a Donor's Luncheon at school this past April.
I am a communications major, but I am also a double-minor in both sociology and French. I knew that applying to French language immersion would allow me to finish my French minor in a unique and incredible setting that was so different from the classroom at my university. To be quite honest, the language department at my college isn't the strongest, and with each French class that I took after I transferred schools I started enjoying it less and less. I genuinely hoped that going abroad might re-instill my love for the language.
My junior year of college was absolutely the busiest year of not only my college career, but also my life in general. I was on-the-go about 110% of the time. Over the past two semesters I did enjoy blogging from time to time about what I was involved in at school, but I'll give you a quick recap: full class schedule (including some of the most difficult classes in my major each semester), being in a sorority and holding a position, holding an executive position in a club on campus, a radio internship, babysitting part-time, blogging, getting into three honor societies, keeping high enough grades to be on Dean's List both semesters, AND making time to have some incredible memories with my sweet friends! There are probably more things that I did as well that I'm forgetting. My point is that since I had such a busy school year, it never really sank it for me that I was going to be studying abroad. Sometimes people at school would ask me about it, and I would just brush off the upcoming trip as "Oh yes! That! I'll be thinking about that more after Finals Week..." But the conclusion of Finals Week just meant the move back home to Maine for the summer (which is always stressful), and then a mere two days after getting home to Maine, I left for the internship of a lifetime in Kentucky with the Fraternity Communications Association. Now that experience really did change my life for the better, and was as close to perfect as it could be, but it was a complete whirlwind, and when I got home, I truly did need a couple of weeks to decompress from the end of school and everything that had happened there. Again, I never really thought about France.
Then I hopped back into my summer retail job, and my hours started to increase as the weather got warmer (and France got closer). Then before I knew it, it was my last day at work before France, and just a few days later my parents were dropping me off at the airport for a direct flight to Paris. WHAT.
To fill everyone in again, I was originally studying in Tours, France, at a language school there and living with a host family. I was supposed to be there for the full four weeks. But for a variety of reasons (which I went into more detail about in this post), a lot of things in Tours were not really going as they should have been, so halfway through my time in France my university arranged for me to switch to a different immersion program. My new program was located in Nice, in the very southern part of France. I was also living with a host family and going to language immersion classes.
On the surface, a lot about Nice was better. The social environment of my new language school was MUCH better, and my new host family was a better fit. Those were the main two reasons that I switched programs, as there were severe issues with both in Tours.
But even though there was so much to be thankful for here in Nice, I still definitely didn't have a "perfect" or "magical" experience. Sure, there were happy moments (most of which came during the afternoons that I spent getting out the city and exploring on day trips), but with each passing day, I kept realizing more and more how both little prepared I felt for the trip, and how much culture shock was affecting me. My physical health also started to become a problem at the end of the trip.
In regards to physical health, I didn't feel prepared to deal with flare-ups of not only my migraines, but also my allergies (which come out in the form of uncomfortable hives, and haven't affected me in at least a couple of years), and even a low fever near the end of my trip. It's hard enough to deal with my headaches (or other sicknesses) when I'm away and at school, but at least by this year I have built up a support system at college. When you're on the other side of the world in a country that doesn't speak your language, you have no one. I wasn't prepared for that. During my last couple days in Nice, I was literally so sick that I had lost my appetite and was too weak to do much of anything. It was terrible.
I also seemed to have gotten attacked by some sort of bug while I was in Nice. At first that I thought it was just bad mosquito bites (since my bedroom always seemed to have mosquitos in it), but after I continued to get more and more bites, with some bites even causing hives/allergic reactions, I had a feeling something wasn't right. I visited a local urgent care center the day after I came home, and was told that they are most likely either from bed bugs, fleas, or some other sort of French parasite type bug. They are very itchy and painful, and I literally have bug bites on most parts of my body right now. My parents also had to take away and bag all of my luggage as soon as I came home (as a precaution in case whatever bugs were biting me came home with my stuff), but because of that I haven't even been able to unpack at all.
Another thing that I really was not prepared for was the food. This one was huge. I will be the first to admit that I'm an extremely picky eater. Eating in my college's cafeteria has always been a challenge for me, and I do have to curb how much I eat out due to budget reasons. Coming to France, I just assumed that the food wouldn't be too different from the US, except maybe more Nutella crepes. Well, the latter part is true, but the first part couldn't be more different (I should also note though that there are a lot of traditional American foods that I don't eat, so I don't really get my original reasoning either.)
As a picky eater, it is so hard to become a part of a family (or two families in my case) and have to adapt to eating their foods. I was expecting coming into this to try some new things... and try I did... (again and again and again), but when day after day you're getting served meals that are made from foods and flavors that you would never usually touch, it gets hard. I also had a few situations with getting served different foods that reminded me of less comical versions of this great scene of mine from one of my favorite movies (although in regards to the movie clip below, I do LOVE lamb):
I also don't think that I went abroad fully prepared for the stress of living for a month in a country where you don't speak the language, and how demanding that actually is. It's one thing to be a tourist, but another to live there as a student. Yes, I was going to French classes on weekdays, but I quickly learned when I arrived here that even though I had been learning French since middle school, I am far from fluent. It is simply emotionally exhausting to just be thrown into life in another family, in a new city, in a new country, with a new language. A complete definition of the word "overwhelming."
I hated not being able to do much fashion blogging while in France. Coming to France really did put things in perspective for me about how much time I spend every day on social media and my blog. I didn't have a data plan on my phone while in France, and wifi at both of my host family's houses was a little sketchy, so I was definitely online a lot less then when I'm back in the US. And that gave me time to think a lot about blogging (more thoughts on that to come). But goodness- did I miss actually doing it! I did write some posts while I was here, but most weren't fashion related, which is my typical content. I was never really able to find anyone here to take my blog pictures for me (which is, you know, a big part of being a fashion blogger), and with the extreme heat and my 500000 bug bites, most days I just threw on the least amount of clothing that I could, ran my fingers through my hair, and called it good. So physical beauty-wise I wasn't even really feeling like myself, much less wanting blog photos even if I had found a photographer here in Nice. Not being able to do what I love really made me feel like a part of me was missing. Yet at the same time, I felt very narcissistic and selfish for feeling that way. Here I am, in one of the most beautiful places in Europe (and possibly the world), and one of the reasons that I'm bummed is because I don't feel well enough to get dressed up and have someone take pictures of me for my blog.... something about that just seemed wrong. Yet working on fashion posts from my blog is exactly what I do several times a week at home and at school! It's a part of my routine. And I missed it. So I had a lot of conflicting guilty feelings about my blog while abroad. Forgive me for being so blunt and brutally honest here, I am just trying to give you all a true glimpse into my head and how I was feeling.
A lot of friends and family back home kept commenting and saying things along the lines of "So Jealous!" or "You look like you're having the time of your life!" on the photos and updates that I posted while abroad, which I felt like I didn't know how to respond to. I think that many people understood that my first experience in Tours wasn't great for a variety of reasons, but they just assumed that when I came to Nice, it would be the 100% magical stereotypical study abroad experience that everyone has. (Maybe I even assumed that too.) Nice was definitely still a better experience that my first two weeks in Tours. But I guess the point of this very long and rambling blog post is just me trying to say that truly, nothing is perfect. And before you commit to doing something large, you need to make sure that you're strong enough to do it. I don't know if I was strong enough to study abroad. Did I survive it? Yes. But did I thrive while doing it? I hope so... but I guess I'm not sure.
The title of this blog post though was "mixed feelings," so it's important for me to also touch on some positive highlights from France as well. I need to say first that I met some of the most incredible people from around the world while in Nice. The language school that I attended there had university students from countries all over the world, and I literally made friends from all over Europe and beyond!! I am only sad that I was feeling so sick during my last couple of days in Nice that I was unable to say a proper goodbye to everyone. :-(
My favorite memories from Nice were from the days that I was feeling well and was able to go on some fun day trips out of the city with some of the new friends that I had made! I have already blogged about my day trip on the 4th of July to St. Tropez, and soon I'll share pictures from my day trips to Monaco and Northern Italy. A couple other fond memories that I have were going to see a movie in a local theatre (in French! And I understood most of it!), watching the evening news every night with my Nice host family, and striking up a conversation with a stranger in the train station in Monaco and talking with her in French for at least 10 minutes!
I also brought a new daily bible reading plan with me that I started when I arrived in France, and I am so glad that I did. To be honest, as ashamed as I am to admit, for awhile I had gotten out of the habit of reading the bible every day. But this experience could not have been a better time for me to get back into scripture. It has encouraged me so much on many days when I needed it! Re-reading the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis was especially comforting to me while here. I would definitely recommend that everyone does a bible reading plan- it has definitely been helping me and I can't wait to continue it now that I'm home!
I also can't wait to get back to my blog's more regular content now that I'm back. My summer post series, Southern Belle in the 'Bunk, will also return soon!
When I was younger, I lived a very active lifestyle. I actually grew up as a competitive figure skater, and I took dance classes in ballet for seven or eight years (as well as trying jazz and modern dance as well) to supplement my ice skating. After 10th grade I had stopped skating, but that year instead I joined two junior varsity sports teams at my high school: volleyball and tennis. During my senior year of high school I didn't play on any sports teams, but instead I joined a local gym. I loved working out a few times a week, as well as going to Zumba classes at the gym with my girlfriends.
But then a little thing called college happened. Over the past three years, I have been so focused on schoolwork, this blog, and work/internships (especially those that will try to benefit my hopeful future career in radio), so fitness often gets pushed to the back-burner of my life. I do try to make some small healthy decisions each day: such as this past year when I lived on the fourth floor of a dorm building, I tried to take the stairs as much as possible instead of the elevator. But still, I know that I really need to get back into a regular fitness routine this year!
That's why I was so excited that Charlotte's brand new premier store for fitness apparel, The Track&Field Store, reached out to me about working together this fall! I honestly think that this was just the motivation that I needed to get excited about fitness for when I go back to school- sometimes things happen at just the right time. ;-)
The Track&Field Store is Brazil's largest fitness and lifestyle brand of apparel. They are just starting to expand into the United States, and Charlotte is the home to their third (and brand new!) US store. The Charlotte location of The Track&Field Store opened in May, and is located in Charlotte's luxury mall, SouthPark Mall (one of my favorite places to shop when I am in the Queen City!). Ron and Silvia Skufca, co-owners of the The Track&Field Store's Charlotte location, said that "We know that residents in Charlotte and the surrounding area lead active lives, and look for high-quality products that fuse fashion and function together, which makes the brand a perfect fit for this region." I couldn't agree with that more!
I will be doing a fitness style collaboration and visiting the Charlotte location of The Track&Field Store once I am back down South in a couple of months. Until then, I encourage any of my Charlotte readers to go and check out the new store!
What types of activities do you enjoy doing to stay fit? I am hoping this Fall to start going to some of the dance based workout classes that my school's gym offers, and to also start power walking more often on the treadmill in the gym as well (running and me don't mix ;-) ).
xoxo Miss ALK
Thank-you to The Track&Field Store for partnering with Southern Belle in Training blog.
11th grade - serving in a home game for my high school volleyball team!
