Fashion post {2/2/13}

• Shirt: A gift (November 2012)
• Cardigan: Kohl's (September 2010)
• Jeans: Hollister (August 2012)
• Boots: DSW (December 2012)
• Earrings: Taken from my mom's jewelry box and brought to college :-)

     Before I launch right into the fashion parts of this post I want to give you a little background on the first picture. That beautiful lady with me, L, is the French teaching assistant from my university! As you can probably guess, I take French classes. I'm also the vice president of the French club. It has been such a blessing for me to have a teaching assistant who is not only a great teacher but also a wonderful friend! Today we went into the city for some Indian food, which I learned that we both love. L- I will miss you very much when you go back to Paris next year! I hope we can share some more fun memories before then. :-)

     As you can probably guess, this was the outfit that I wore out to lunch with L this afternoon. I've worn my hair down a lot this week so I decided to mix it up a little bit and put it in a messy low bun. I think I have probably between 6-8 hairties in my hair in these photos... my hair seriously never wants to stay put! It takes practically a whole package of hair elastics for it to stay in one place. :-) I also decided to mix up my make-up a little bit today. There isn't a close picture of my eye make-up here, but I'm trying out masacara on my bottom lashes. Usually I just wear it on top but for Christmas I got some masacara specifically designed for the bottom lashes, so I wanted to experiment with it. Not sure if I like the look or not, but it could appear again soon!

     This adorable black top that I'm wearing was a gift from my friend K's mom. K is one of my best friends in college (Her 19th birthday was actually yesterday!) and I had gone to stay at her house for Thanksgiving instead of going home to Maine. K's mom had bought this top for her a few months before at either Marshall's or TJ Maxx, but it didn't fit K very well so it was passed onto me. :-) I love the ruffles in the sleeves and the touch of lace! I'm also wearing a black tank top under it to keep it modest. The tank top is from Wet Seal. My grey cardigan seen in the 3rd picture is something that I found on sale at Kohl's my junior year of high school. I love practical cardigans like this- I pair them with a lot of different things! I think that the dark grey of the cardigan and black in the top look very chic together.

     You've all seen these jeans and boots before. ;-) Seriously, I promise that the next fashion post that I do I"ll be wearing different shoes! Haha. I guess this shows at least though that I have gotten a lot of good use out of these boots so far...

      These earrings used to belong to my mom. Sadly she has some sort of issues with her ear piercings that they stay permanently infected so she can't wear earrings anymore. Luckily for me this means that I can have access to some of her old jewelry! :-) I'm not really sure where these earrings came from or when she got them, but I think they've very cute and the perfect touch to this winter afternoon outfit!

     Do you like to dress up on Saturdays or go with super comfy clothes? If I stay on campus on a Saturday then I rarely get dressed, it'll be a pajama day for me. :-)

     xoxo Miss ALK

     

Fun Fact Friday {2}

     I'm back again for another installment of FFF! :-) Again, this post is a link-up to the blog of my real life and blogging friend Emily. Her blog is The Adventures of Rosie.

February 1st, 2013

1. Today is the 19th birthday of my college bestie, K! Happy birthday sweet girl! She's currently getting over strep throat, but I hope that she can still enjoy her special day. 
2. My mom is the sweetest thing ever and yesterday sent me some homemade blondies with nuts and fruit in them. They are absolutely delicious!! Definitely beats the icky desserts in the college cafeteria.
3. My poor car (named Lucy) is in desperate need of a car wash. 
4. My moods have been all over the place the past week. I'm really hoping that'll change soon!
5. I've been having this urge to make cake pops. I'm not really sure why (and there's no kitchen in the building that I live in on campus) but I may have to use to kitchen in the building nextdoor and satisfy my urges. :-) They look really yummy!

     If you would like to participate in Fun Fact Friday please give credit to Emily in your post and follow her blog! It's a private blog to the public, so shoot her a friendly e-mail at theadventuresofrosieblog@gmail.com and she'll gladly approve you as a follower!

xoxo Miss ALK

Fashion post {1/29/13}

•  Dress: Lilly Pulitzer (December 2012)
• Boots: DSW (December 2012)
• Earrings: Gift from my grandma (November 2012)
• Bracelets: An airport jewelry kiosk (July 2012)    

      I want to start things off with a shout-out to the BEAUTIFUL weather! The South is had an unusually warm day today, and temperatures  neared the 70s. This is a huge winter blessing for this Maine girl!  
Now, onto my outfit. This post will be my first (of probably many) declarations of my love for Lilly. Lilly Pulizer that is! I was never really a big Lilly fan in high school, but I think the main reason for this is simply I didn't know much about it. I checked the Lilly website and it appears that there's only one boutique in the whole state of Maine that sells it... but the South is totally different! Lilly Pulitzer items are the rage down here, and there are many more Lilly stores to shop at. The only problem with Lilly Pulitzer is that their items tend to be very expensive. This dress that I bought in December was very marked down, and still cost me over $100. Don't get me wrong- I typically don't spend that much money on my clothes! I'm all about bargain shopping. But I fell in love when I tried it on, and it was an end-of-semester gift to myself for getting all A's and surviving my first semester of college. :-)
     This dress is called "Jeannie." I adore the pretty colors and floral print (If I haven't said before I'm obsessed with anything floral), but my favorite part of this dress is the modesty factor. It's high cut with a flattering neckline and adorable 3/4 legnth sleeves, and it's definitely long enough, so these factors combined prevent me from showing anything unnecessary. ;-) But what I really like is that even though it's modest in cut it doesn't just hang on me like a sack, it's fitted in all the right places and shows off my chest and hips in a ladylike way! Seriously ladies, this is a win-win situation going on.
     Yes, the boots that I'm wearing here are the same ones that I've worn in my last few posts. At least I warned y'all that they'd be appearing a lot. When I get a pair of shoes or boots that I really like, I tend to wear them all the time. My freshman year of high school it was that way with my first pair of Uggs. I wore those poor things out so much that by the time they were unwearable the soles of them were almost nonexistant and they had many stains and scratches. Let's hope I never take these poor boots to those extremes!
     My grandma gave me these earrings a little after Thanksgiving. For the holiday she had flown down to Virginia to spend time with my uncle and aunt who live there, and she had found these at a little jewelry boutique while she was there. They're simple, so they blend in well with this bright dress, instead of taking away from it.
     Yes, I really did get these 2 stretch bangles at an aiport kiosk! To be specific it was Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. On my trip to visit my college for orientation last summer my dad and I had some time to kill in the airport on the way down, and I found my way to a jewelry kiosk. They were having some sort of deal if you bought two. I love how one of them says "PRAY" on it, what a great reminder to thank God all the time! And the pretty stones in the other bracelet match almost everything I wear. Moral of this little story: cute jewelry can be found almost anywhere! Even in airports. :-)


     What was the weather like where you live today? I'm sad that it will again be turning cold here later in the week.


     xoxo Miss ALK

On humbleness.

     If you pick up any Christian fiction book, chances are there will be a moment in the story when one of the main characters hears or reads a bible verse that really speaks to them and encourages them in that moment. The character will always thank the Lord for showing them what they needed to hear in right then, and then usually try and apply whatever they learned to their life. Before a few days ago, I was pretty convinced that this only happened in books, or to people that were much deeper into their faith then I was.

     One of my dreams since when I was little was that I wanted to be famous. It's a very unspecific dream, and I was never really quite sure what I wanted to be famous for. For example I was 5 I decided that I wanted to be the next Britney Spears after watching one of her televised concerts. That dream died a few years later when I realized that singing high pitched pop songs wasn't my specialty, so I tried to find other things that I could be famous for. My ideas for fame have varried over the years, and my point isn't so much specifically about what I want to be famous for, but why I have had this obsession with fame. I think that a lot of it comes from the fact that most of my high school years weren't that great, and I have this empty place in my heart from that where I just want to prove myself to people, and show them that I am capable of doing great things. But this week God showed me that this dream isn't healthy.

     Every night since New Years' I've been reading a chapter of my bible right before bed. I'm starting with Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. This past Wednesday, the 23rd, my nightly reading was in the 23rd chapter. This one verse in particular stuck out to me:

     "For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." -Matthew 23:12 NIV

     And then suddenly, I was experiencing that God moment! I knew God was speaking to me through this very passage. He was reminding me that my goal of living my life shouldn't be about me getting the admiration of other people... it should be about bringing the glory to Him! He reminded me that even though there is nothign wrong with wanting to be accepted by my peers and by being well liked, "fame" shouldn't be a goal on my radar. After reading this verse I gave some thought to my chosen career path. I'm a communications major in college, hoping to someday be a DJ on a radio station. While this is still what I want to do, I started thinking about how I can use radio someday as a positive outlet to stand up for my Christian faith, instead of just promoting myself and secular views.

     Humbleness is such a powerful trait. Being humble doesn't mean that you have to be 100% submissive to those around your or let other people take credit for work that you did, but it does mean that your main goal in life is to strive for godliness and giving the credit of the things that you do to Him.  

     I'm sorry if this post was really jumbled. It took me 3 days just to be able to write out all my thoughts. They make perfect sense in my head, but were hard to type out. I'm always a little nervous in sharing my thoughts on disciplines on the faith (maybe that's why it's a little easier for me to stick to having a primarily fashion blog), but I pray that this post encouraged you.

     Have you read any bible verses that have stuck out to you lately?

     xoxo Miss ALK

Fun Fact Friday {1}.

     Today I'm linking up to my real-life and blogging friend Emily's blog The Adventures of Rosie. She's been doing "Fun Fact Friday" posts for the past couple weeks and I thought I'd join in on the fun! I used to occasionally do "Facts" type posts on my old blog, but I like the idea of having a set day and number of fun facts to post per week! I'll try and make my fun facts pretty unique and interesting.

January 25th, 2013

1. 25 is actually one of my lucky numbers! I've just always liked it, not really sure why. :-)
2. At college I sleep with a jar of Nutella on the nightstand next to my bed. It's been there for months. I don't eat it very often but I think it adds a unique aspect of "decor" to my bed area!
3. I love Pasty Cline's music. My mom used to play a cassette of her greatest hits in the car when I was little. It was one of the few types of music mom and I could agree on. ;-) I now have a special playlist for her songs on Spotify.
4. I refuse to get a Pinterest account. It looks like a lot of fun, but Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and blogging take up too much of time already. My college is big on Twitter so I'm on there a lot.
5. My mom keeps asking me if I've gotten a flu shot yet this year, and I keep telling her I will... but shots scare me! The thought of taking myself to a flu shot clinic by myself is quite terrifying.

     If you would like to participate in Fun Fact Friday please give credit to Emily in your post and follow her blog! It's a private blog to the public, so shoot her a friendly e-mail at theadventuresofrosieblog@gmail.com and she'll gladly approve you as a follower!

     xoxo Miss ALK