#Vlogging

Alright, here it is! My first video blog post. Let me know what you think (please be honest) and maybe if it works we can start this to be a once a week thing?? Please know that I'm super awkward and try to be funny when I'm nervous (so basically this whole video). Next time wont be so awkward, promise! But it's a learning process. Here we go!

Here's a link to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/kristarobertson13

(as mentioned) Here's a link to Sarah's channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/sarahbelle93x

twitter & instagram: @kristalinn14

Hope you enjoy :)

#IFBCON

So who's going? I'd love to see y'all there! 

More post coming soon! What to wear?!

One Year Q & A

As promised, I'm here to answer all the wonderful questions you asked! Some are general, some are pretty in depth but all are awesome. So enjoy...

1. How old are you? 21

2. Do you have any siblings? Yes, youngest of 6 (3 girls, 3 boys- brady bunch style)

3. What do you do in your free time? I like to eat (a lot), sleep, travel, and watch movies

4. What do you want to be once you graduate college? My answer for this is always 'Happy' but I know you want to know more... I'd LOVE to go back and travel Europe for a few weeks right after I graduate (cough cough graduation present parents? cough cough) BUT... The plan (always subject to change) is to move, work for the MLB doing social media, and open my own store. Wide enough range right?

5. What is your hair care routine? Like products and how you style! Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don't have one... After the shower (shampoo/conditioner: moroccan oil) I use moroccan oil treatment  (when hair is still wet) and usually let my hair air dry  and that's that, but sometimes I will blow dry my hair. Pretty exciting stuff if you ask me!

6. How has your college experience been thus far? Um... absolutely amazing. I've learned so much about who I am and I what I want out of life. I've made friends I'll have for life and have more stupid stories then I should. People weren't kidding when they said it'll be the time of my life. If I could write a book about college, I totally would. It was that good.

7. What did you eat while you were in London and Dublin? What didn't you like, what did you love, what surprised you the most? I ate everything... hahah I like to eat! But we would find random little restaurants here and there. Anywhere we could find really. But I did find this little French cafe that was the best food I had in London. I didn't like how small the food was for the price and I hate having to pay for water. Rude. I loved trying new things and what surprised me the most was how much better the food was in Dublin, because really everywhere in London (minus the French cafe) was not good.

8. What advice would you give to new bloggers (like myself) that want to see their blog grow? 1. Be yourself 2. DON'T and I mean DON'T copy someones blog post and say it's your own (it's happened, and still is happening to me and it's driving me up a wall) 3. Show your style 4. Link items through 5. USE SOCIAL MEDIA to your advantage (trust me, it really helps) 6. Post everyday 7. Stay current 8. Post about what makes you happy 9. Have interaction with followers 10. giveaways are always fun for everyone!

9. What is your favorite clothing item you own? And favorite accessory? Call me crazy, but I love my simple white long sleeve shirt from H&M Basics. It goes with everything (duh) and it'll never go out of style. Favorite accessory? My monogram necklace, never take it off. 

10. Do you ever regret any of your clothing/accessory purchases? i.e. too expensive, never wear it, etc. Yes, yes, and yes. All the time. I think I like something, and I end up not loving it when I come home, or I'll buy a dress for a particular event, change my mind before the event and end up never wearing it. Most of the time I'll return things, re-sell them, or find a way to 'make it work'

11. What is something you think that every girl should own (article of clothing/accessory) and why? A watch, a monogram necklace, and a good pair of jeans. Why? because all of these are timeless, basic, and overall awesome.

12. Have you ever thought of video blogging? I actually haven't... would that be something y'all would like to see? Because I can make it happen. Let me know in the comments below


If there are any more questions, feel free to ask- I'm an open book!

I'm Off!

I'm leaving today to head down south the visit my sister in Atlanta! I'm taking a long weekend and will be back Tuesday! Be sure to follow me on instagram and twitter @kristalinn14 for live updates from the weekend :)

Here are some pictures to enjoy:

I will be posting tomorrow in Atlanta, so be sure to check back! I'll be answering all of your wonderful questions that were asked on the post below!

If you have any more questions for me, now is the time to ask!

Happy One Year!

Happy One Year to my blog! (It's 2 days late, but we're going to ignore details)

 I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone. It's been quite a crazy year... one that I never expected! The blog has taken a life of its own and I couldn't be happier. My plan is to keep blogging for years to come and follow my dreams (whatever they might be) having the blog help along the way!

Because I forgot my blogs own one year birthday, I don't have anything planned. BUT I did think of something fun to do. A little Q&A to get to know me better. So this is how it's going to go...

1. You're welcome to ask me anything... about my life, the blog, my cat, future ambitions, where I bought a necklace... anything!

2. You can either post it below or email me at southernshopaholicblog@gmail.com

3. Once questions are in, I'll post Friday and answer all of them!

How to Wear: L.L. Bean Duck Boots

A little while ago I asked for some help picking out a new pair of L.L. Bean Duck Boots and I received some wonderful feedback, so thank you! I chose to buy the 8" blue bean boots (found here). I wanted to first start off by saying I love them! They're really some great shoes.

I also posted a picture on instagram (@kristalinn14) of my new boots:

But the question from many is this: How do you wear them? Answer: I wear them with everything! Take a look:

 1. With a dress:

 

I first got this idea from Sarah Vickers (a blogger who I love!) and she wore them with a dress. So I thought I'd try the same. Of course, they don't go with every dress in my closet, but they sure do match a few. An example being the one above. 

2. With high socks:

 

(Necklace: Dillard's)

This is how I see a lot of people wearing them. Just with simple socks that come over the top of the boot. And of course add a pair of skinny jeans or leggings to make it a cleaner look!

3. With boot liners

And finally, my own little style: boot liners. These bad boys are originally made for rain boots. But I love the cable knit of them so much that I wanted to try them with my duck boots. It worked out pretty well if you ask me! The liners are from L.L. Bean as well (found here).

So there are a few ways I personally wear them, what do you think? Is there another way you chose to wear duck boots? I'm interested to hear!

Dublin

Alrighty! Here is my post about the second week abroad. I spent this week in Dublin. Before the trip everyone was talking about how I was going to just love London. London this and London that... but no one really ever talked about Dublin. There were a few exceptions where I found someone who had been once or twice. I of course asked them what there is to do there... like where to go or what to see and everyone, I mean everyone, I talked to said the same thing: drink. I mean Dublin has over 1,000 pubs. Crazy right?! 

No one told me how much fun it was going to be. I'm not sure if the group just became closer or if we really just had the time of our life in Dublin. I think a part of it was I had such high expectations for London and zero for Dublin that I was almost disappointed by London and blown out of the water in Dublin. Every day was amazing and every night was even better. I think it really did help that the people I was with were absolutely amazing. We became this little group of best friends and did everything together. Can you imagine trying to coordinate and go with a group of 30 people everywhere? Hard work. 

But anyways, let's start this post about my time!

The first stop in Dublin was The Brazen Head which is the oldest Pub in Ireland. Although a lot of Pubs claimed they were the oldest... But they had amazing food!

The next stop after lunch that day was St Patricks Cathedral. It was really pretty (I love old Churches) and our tour guide told us all about the history of Ireland and St Partick. It was really interesting to learn about. And our guide has such enthusiasm!

After that (it was a jam packed first day) we went to Trinity College and saw the book of Kells. We weren't allowed pictures inside so that wasn't any fun, but I did take a few snap shots of the outside! It was a gorgeous campus! 

That night a group of us went out to the first bar we could find just to break in Dublin! It was more of a relaxing night hanging around with friends. The place was pretty dead because it was so early, but we had a blast! For some reason all the music there is way behind the time and it was all old 90's music! We had so much fun dancing outrageously to the songs we grew up to. And when I say we danced crazy, I mean it. Sprinkler, two step, horrible robot... anything. We were just being so silly and we had an amazing time. 

The next day we ventured to Croke Park (the head of the Gaelic Athletic Association). Where the Gaelic Games are held. It was interesting to see how different sporting venues are in places like Dublin compared to the US. I'm a bit of a sports fanatic so it was really cool for me to go and see the stadium. 

 

The place to go in Dublin at night is the Temple Bar area. It's like their 'downtown' where are the pubs and clubs are right next to one another and it's filled with people. Later that night after dinner, the group decided to find ourselves a traditional Irish Pub with a live band and that's just what we did. We went to THE Temple Bar! (it's Dublins most famous bar). Somehow all of us got amazing seat right up front and had the most amazing time.

Y'all might not understand, but this was hands down one of the best nights of my life. I can't pinpoint one specific reason why, but everything about that night was amazing. The music, the people, the drinks- everything. If I could do it again, I'd jump at the opportunity. 

our drink menu...

The next day we went on a little hike of Glendalough Co Wicklow. It's one of Irelands most beautiful destinations as well as one of the most visited places in Ireland. I can understand why! The scenery was gorgeous!

We also stopped by an old jail in town! The actors were the best part!

That night we wanted to have just as much fun as the night before! (which was hard to do, but we managed). Most of the days on the trip, including days in London, we had to be up and ready, already ate and good to go by 8am. This night we realized we didn't have to be anywhere until noon. So we did the responsible thing and went out knowing we were able to sleep in! We hit a few different pubs here and there until we found a great little place where we posted up for the night.

If there is any night that we all joke about, it was this night. We all poke fun at each other for the silly things we all did. But it was a lot of fun. We just enjoyed the city!

Before getting to Ireland we were informed that we should NOT order Irish Car Bombs (for obvious reasons). So with a little help we figured out that they're called Polish Car Bombs... weird right? I just found that very interesting. I'd never had one before, but that drink was not for me... I found a friend to pass it off to.

The next day was one of my favorite stops in Dublin! We went to the Guinness storehouse. I'm not much of a beer drinker and especially not a dark beer drinker. I had tried Guinness once or twice before and hated it. But I was convinced to try it in Dublin and then again at the factory. I was amazed! It tasted SO different! It was actually good here. Surprise surprise! (Side note: one of the guys on the trip had it when he got back to the states and said it tasted horrible, so I wont be drinking it again until I go back to Dublin!)

What I found fun was you could get certified at the factory to pour the perfect glass of Guinness! Abby and I took the time and found it was a great experience. We made friends as well as pouring the perfect glass! (There's a science to it, look it up)

Later that night we took more of a chill tempo and just hung around some pubs. It was our last official night to go out and we were all pretty drained. That was the idea at least... we ended up going and finding a club (the only thing open on Sunday? Totally normal...) and I have photos from it, but for my sake and others, I will not post them. We'll just leave it at the idea of a really good last night out. Bang bang. 

The last day was one we had to ourselves to just hang around the city for one last time. We spent part of the morning watching a movie. After that (and a little nap) we went out to site see and walk downtown and shop a little. We also planned having one last dinner with everyone. A nice dinner that we were able to share together and also hand out awards!

My roommate Lucy and I were just being super silly and wrote up awards for everyone... Some were super weird like "Most likely to find wifi in a tanning bed while on jersey shore" to "most likely to stay in dublin, become a tour guide and get everyone lost" to "biggest bro" and "best dancer" to name a few. They were just one big inside joke. I will however, not reveal mine as it is a little embarrassing. But I will share one award that my roommate and I received: "Cleanest Room" take a look: 

Oh yea, that's real life right there. 

The next day we flew home and that was it! Going abroad was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I wanted to thank my parents especially for letting me have the opportunity to do such a life changing thing! Y'all are the best! I also wanted to say thank you to the amazing people I spent two weeks with. These are people I will surely never forget and will always have a special place in my heart. 

So if you ever get a chance to go abroad, GO! What are you waiting for?! It's amazing!

London

Alright! I'm finally back and able to post about my time abroad! Other than being very sick and just getting over my jet lag, I had the time of my life. How I'm going to do this is in two parts: one part about my week (and a few days) in London and the other part about my week in Dublin. I'll help pictures guide the way of my story so it will be a little easier to follow along as well as being a lot more fun to read! So here we go!

As you all remember I left the day after Christmas. It was of course a little bitter sweet because I was enjoying my time at home! But it did mean the time to finally go to London was here! I will admit that I was a little (okay... a lot) nervous. I cried on the way to the airport even (anxiety got the best of me). I have never been outside the US other then going to Mexico and different places on a cruise with my family. It was the unexpected that got me so worried. But after leaving home (and making a quick trip back to get my passport) I finally arrived at the Chicago airport and was on my way to Philadelphia for my connecting flight. Problem: Philly was hit with a MAJOR snowstorm. All flights delayed. Ugh! Lucky for me, the people at US airways were nice and bumped me up to the earlier flight so I'd make my connection. A majority of my classmates were connecting from Nashville and Cincinnati which also got hit pretty hard with snow, so those flights were canceled. So as far as I knew, I was the only one going to make it to London.... what?!

I arrived in Philly after a rather bumpy flight (*note to self: don't watch the movie Flight before flying...) and I had two hours to spare! Sweet! A lot of the time was spent chatting with my roommate abroad Lucy who was with our instructors. Trying to figure out the plan because they were stuck in Cincinnati and there was no way they were getting out of there for a few days. So I just did my thing (instagrammed a picture) and waited:

(@kristalinn14)

I finally was on the plane! It was really happening and this plane was awesome! I was in the very last row in the back corner, but I didn't care. I was headed to London and I had my own little TV. When boarding was almost done, I saw these two girls literally running onto the plane. Thankfully they were part of my group. Ellen and Erin were also from Chicago (they didn't get moved to the earlier flight and barely made this one) and I was so happy to see them. I'm officially not alone anymore. Since half of our group didn't make the flight, there were a ton of open seats and we all got moved up. Not that it made a difference, but it was nice to not be in the back anymore.

I was way too excited (and into my movies) to sleep... which isn't good considering the 6 hour time change. When we land in London it'll be morning but my body will feel like its the middle of the night. Awesome! (not) But what's cool is I did get to see the sunrise!

 

We finally made it! The flight was short and sweet (thank you food and movies) and I was officially in London! You can totally tell from the picture below... right? 

We got our bags and found out tour guide for the day. There were 6 of us in total (out of the 32 that were supposed to be there). So we really had the day to ourselves. Gale (our guide) showed us where to eat and hang out for the day and then let us go on our own! And that's just what we did! Our first stop was food, next was the British Art Museum:

Had to get the touristy picture...

And then we did some of this:

We needed to celebrate being in London! The funny thing is it gets dark really early, around 3, there and we arrived in London around noon. So what felt like nighttime to us was really only 4pm. To skip some parts, I turned in early and found myself passed out in bed around 6. Gotta get over that jet lag somehow right?

The next day we joined another group for the day and found ourselves on a bus tour. At first I was a little hesitant because all I wanted to do was explore the city on my own since our teachers weren't there, but after the tour I realized how great it really was that we did that. We got to see all the major sights in one day- for free! Here's the six of us:

The first stop was St Paul's Cathedral: (I have a lot more pictures, but didn't want to bore you with 100 pictures of the same buildings so I found one and went with it)

Next was Westminster Abbey

Big Ben, the London Eye and Parliament (semi pictured on the right) and many more stops, but these were my favorite. 

So if you're following along, that's two full days in London without the rest of the group, teachers included. Thankfully half had made there way to Nashville while the other found themselves in Canada to both came across the pond and play in London! (everyone got in that night) So I took Lucy (my roommate) and we went out! Walked around Soho and found ourselves in one of many (aka all of Soho) Gay bars. It ended up being a lot of fun!

Now that everyone was finally here we could do our scheduled tours and start class! Here's a little picture of our outfits (notice what Lucy is wearing compared to what I wore the day before on the bus tour... It's an inside joke. But seriously, she's copying me...)

Our first stop was the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio tour. I'm not much of a HP fan, but I have seen most of the movies. Lucy on the other hand... well lets just say she was excited:

It ended up being a lot of fun. We were able to see all of the sets for the movies, how it was made with computer help, the designs, costumes... everything. So that was cool to see! We also stopped by the actual 9 3/4 platform (a few days later) in one of the tube stations. Lucy's idea but I'm glad we did it! It was really cool

Being UK fans in the actual UK was a little frustrating at times, but with the brilliance of text messages, we were able to get text updates of the UK v. UofL game in London! Throwing up some three goggles: 

The next day we took a tour of Chelsea Football Club. It was a lot of fun and I'm a big sports fan so it was cool to see how things differ in UK versus here at home. Football (aka soccer) is the major sport there. The tour was so great and learning about the history was awesome. I left being a fan!

Lucy helping me stretch it out in the locker room

That night as a group we decided to go to the London eye. Although it was too late to go on, we still found a time for a photo shoot! Here's the group:

Thankfully on the last night in London, a small group of us did end up going on the eye and it was one of my favorite things we did! If you ever get the chance, go at night! We also got some shots of Parliament and Big Ben

The next day we went to Warwick Castle. It was fun but very cold and rainy so we climbed 500 stairs to the top (pictured below) and went inside to eat. Lucy and I woke up late that morning and missed breakfast so we were rather hungry!

this is us waking up late:

That night was New Years Eve! I've never been a big fan of NYE because it's always somewhat of a let down and never as exciting as movies and TV portrays it. That was until I went to London. The time of my life! Hands down the best night in London. As a group (still don't know how we did it) we managed to all find our way and stay together to watch the fireworks down by the river.

 

The fireworks were AH-MAZING

And after a small group of us went out to a club! Celebrating New Years with great friends:

The teachers were very nice and let us have New Years day to ourselves to explore the city! We were planning on taking a train to Paris for the day, but I woke up too late to buy us tickets :( But we did make the day one to remember! We went to Abbey Road!!

We got to take our picture! I was so excited! But for some reason I thought we'd be the only ones there... Boy was I wrong! There were around 60 people waiting to take pictures walking across the road dodging cars and bikers and making it so no one else got in the picture. We did a pretty good job if you ask me!

Later that day we went to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was there! The guards were not :(

Our last full day in London was spent at Wimbledon. This place was amazing! To sit at center court and hear all the history and upkeep that goes into making Wimbledon this historic place was fascinating! Did you know they have a grass counter? Someones sole job in life is to count every piece of grass on all the courts to make sure it's suitable for play. What?!

Later that day we went to eat and then went to Harrods! This HUGE mall that is one of the worlds most famous department stores. 

I had to take a picture of this... How touristy yet iconic! 

And that's it! That's my time in London! It was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better time with better people. Tomorrow will be about Dublin so make sure to check back!