Girls Gone Mild

 

 

Leather Peacock and I have taken our fair share of girls' weekends in the fifteen years we have known each other. Our first trip together saw us taking advantage of Greyhound Bus' companion rides free promotion and riding overnight all the way from Louisville, KY to New Orleans, LA. We stayed in an awful youth hostel for $12 a night so we could save our money for more important things... like booze, swamp tours, booze, voodoo and crawfish.

 

In our 20s (and first few years of our 30s), we continued to act like sorority girls on Spring Break by vacationing at party spots like Myrtle Beach, Savannah, Washington DC and Memphis. We have danced on the bar at several Coyote Ugly joints. We both have gaping holes in our memories from the night in the piano bar in Savannah, cringe when we think about the time we licked Jell-O shots (served in a syringe, of all things!) off some random Marines in Myrtle Beach and have deleted way too many pictures from our cameras due to their incriminating nature.

 

A few months ago, Leather Peacock called me, stressed out from work, and commented that it had been a while since we had taken a trip. Fearing that I was going to get ridiculed for losing my mojo, I cautiously suggested that we do something more relaxing like a spa weekend. Luckily, Leather Peacock agreed that this was right up her alley too.

 

The Internet quest to find an ideal spot for this new style of girls' weekend begin. I hit jackpot with the Google search "girls spa weekend north carolina" when the Lakeview at Fontana in Bryson City, NC came back as the number one return. They have this spiffy Girls' Night In package for only $565 per person for three nights. This includes your room, yoga classes and three spa treatments of your choice. (And, no, I don't work for them or get any benefits from this). The icing on the cake for us was when there was an opening for a weekend in mid-October, right at the height of the leaf turning splendor.

 

During the seven hour car ride from my house, our decision began to be questioned but any anxiety was quickly erased upon our arrival (conveniently just ten minutes before their nightly Happy Hour!). Lakeview at Fontana is an old 1950s motor lodge that has been converted in to a resort that they tout as "Rustic Chic". I would put more emphasis on the chic. We were too spoiled and pampered for anything to be considered rustic.

The view at Happy Hour from their observation deck.

Jacket: Wilson's Leather

Shirt: Forever 21

Tank: Old Navy

Jeans: American Eagle

Boots: Old Navy

Relaxed smile: c/o Lakeview at Fontana

 

 

The Main Building

 

Awesome retro room key

Our cabin (right across from main building)

 

 Living room. No TV or Wi-Fi at the resort so we brought Trivial Pursuit.

 

The kitchen/dining room. Note all our bottles of wine.

Bedroom. We thrashed it within minutes of arrival with our eight suitcases for the three day trip.

 

Nightly Happy Hour offerings. I still dream of their feta-pesto spread.

 

 In room S'mores maker included in the package. Also popcorn and fashion magazines in the room. See how spoiled we were?

 

To commemorate our 15 years as friends, I decided on an updated version of the old Best Friend split heart necklaces. Behold our awesome matching whale necklaces with "Amies" etched in to them. P.S: We were a little hammered at the time of this self-portrait so pardon the wacky expressions.

Necklaces: Etsy shop IAdornU

Prep Attack

What is it about Fall that makes me feel so preppy? Take today's outfit for example. Plaid pants, cable knit sweater, oxfords for crying out loud! Give me a few more days and I will throw in a headband and start calling myself Muffy. Hmmm... actually a headband might look cute here...

Pray for me. I might be slipping over the edge.

Sweater: Old Navy
Tank underneath: Target
Plaid jeans: New York & Company
Oxfords: Ruche

Hanging with my new buddy in the front yard

I am mildly obsessed with these new oxfords!

Summer to Fall

As someone who never used to wear dresses, I have, over the past two years or so really gotten into dresses and will use any excuse to wear them. I've acquired several dresses this summer from Francesca's Collections but still want to wear them this fall. For dinner with friends the other night, I paired my new turtleneck with one of my summer dresses for a perfect transition outfit!

Dress: Francescas's Collection
Turtleneck: Victoria's Secret
Belt: Target
Boots: So old, I have no idea where I got them!

An outfit like this makes me ever more giddy for the fall season.

As a complete bonus, while I was out, I found a Choose-Your-Own Adventure Jane Austen novel!!! Can't wait to read it. I LOVED choose your own adventure books growing up!

Showing My Plumage

Lately. I have been spending my weekends caravan-ting between North Carolina, Virginia, and the greater metropolitan Louisville area. I had been dying to give my new peacock feather dress from the Esty shop Sealmaiden a whirl. I've given it two goes in the past two weeks with slight variations and so far am loving it!

First I tried it while out to dinner with friends:

Three quarter pleather jacket, Target.
teal tights, Target.

with these boots from Aldo (see Southern Helle, I own foreskin boots!).

While on a very quick trip home I tried the dress with my go-to leather jacket from Wilson's Leather, gray tights from Target and boots from Payless:

Unfortunately, my mom's cat Gibbs decided he wanted to be in every picture.
Without the jacket:

Doing my best Zoolander pose.
Not sure which style I like better, but I definitely love the dress!

Fall Has Finally... Fallen?!?

Today was the first day where it actually felt like Fall. Sadly, I live in a pine tree infested area so my attempt at a backyard photo shoot while frolicking in the leaves was stymied. My yard was littered with a bunch of pine needles and cones and maybe 15 leaves.

Blouse: Forever 21
Skirt: Forever 21
Shoes: Nine West

Warm colors for a cool day

Inspiration: Fall Day at Ivy League school. A girl can dream...

I see a dye job in my future. My roots are ridiculous and nobody is buying it when I say I am going for the ombre hair effect.

Comfy loafers

Tie collared blouses used to remind me of the movie Nine to Five but I am starting to come around.

All Tied Up

I can't seem to decide on how to tie my scarf today. Looped once over the neck or long with a single twist in the front? I have a love/hate relationship going on with my scarves. I realize that scarves are a great way to add a little something to your outfit and are my go-to transition staple lately as summer gives way to fall. Yet I never seem to know what to do with them.


Dress: American Eagle
Scarf: Modcloth
Bag: American Eagle
Wedges: Payless
Sunglasses: Old Navy

Move Over, Lucy and Ethel

Their outfits were pretty cute.

Muscadine wine should replace sweet tea as THE drink of the South. Even people who don't like wine usually take well to it. The best muscadine I have found so far is made by Duplin Winery in my neighboring county. In order to kick off their harvest, Duplin Winery always holds a festival with live bands, a tasting and an old fashioned grape stomp. Leather Peacock was finally able to make it this year and even ended up stomping by butt during the Grape Stomp Off.

T-shirt: American Eagle

Skirt: Forever 21

Shoes: American Eagle at Payless

Bag: thrifted

Necklace: Forever 21
Bracelet (Hard to see from pics which is a shame. It has Scrabble tiles on it that spell out CHEERS! ): LC Lauren Conrad at Kohl's



Notice the Wine Slings around our necks holding the glasses. Whoever thought of that should win the Nobel Prize or something! Of course, we coordinated ours with our outfits.

My best accessory. And I do actually mean Mr. Southern Helle, not my thrifted handbag.

My love of the Rocky movie franchise finally paid off when I could correctly answer who played Rocky's opponent in Rocky IV. A bottle of their latest wine is way better than a medal. Suck it, Men's Olympic Swim Team!

The Stomp! I would like to think we were moving so fast that the camera couldn't keep up... but I suspect Mr. Southern Helle had sampled too much wine to take the picture well.



Autumnal Mood in Ninety Degree Heat

Who knew fashion blogging required such endurance and skill?

My first obstacle was debating whether or not to go in to full fledged Fall mode while the thermometer was still hovering around 90 degrees. Living in Coastal NC, I probably won't see cooler weather for at least another month and a half. Unfortunately, I have Only Child Syndrome and I want what I want RIGHT NOW!!!! Plus I got a really cool scarf for my birthday last week that I have been dying to wear...

I settled on an autumnal palette and paired my new scarf with a dolman sleeve tee and shorts. That should keep me cool, right? Bad call. I was sweating before I even hit the front door. Even the car's A/C cranked full blast couldn't save me. But I am getting ahead of myself... back to my string of bad decisions.

After getting dressed, I remembered "oh yeah... I am a fledgling fashion blogger nowadays. I should snap a few pictures on my way out the door". Easy enough, no?

An hour later, after being forced to make the bed and hide piles of clothes from view, posing in every single room in my house (note to self: must get better light bulbs), pulling a muscle from trying various poses all while keeping my stomach sucked in and a few temper tantrums involving me throwing my phone on the ground due to frustration with its camera settings (stupid thing! Grrrr....), I had this to show for:

Dolman tee from Alloy (find it here)
Shorts from NY & Company (old)
Scarf is Mossimo from Target (find it here)
Open toe flats are Merona from Target (old)
Skull bracelets from Claire's (find it here)
Saints bracelet from Forever 21 (old)
Leather wrap bracelet from Alloy (old)


Side note: better lighting and a new camera now top my shopping list. Hang in there... I should be getting better at this. Maybe one day we may be able to laugh over drinks about it.