living in these wedges.

Its no secret that I love heels. Anything to make my 5'0 self a little bit taller! This spring I have two pairs of wedges that I cannot stop wearing because: 1. they are super cute and 2. they are super comfortable, win-win for me!

Mossimo Winda Wooden Wedge in black/bronze. 

A Target opened up right down the road from my office and there was already one 10 minutes from my house and I am always in there finding things but I saw these shoes and was instantly in love. I was a little weary though because I have had bad luck with Target shoes being uncomfortable. These are SO comfortable though, I can wear them all day at work and my feet don't really hurt and they add the perfect amount of height. I would not suggest wearing them all day at work and then wearing them all night at an event assisting a freelance photographer, your feet will be hurting by the end of the time you finally get home, bad.  

Lucky Brand Miller 2 Wedge

One of the stylists at work had these wedges and she would always talk about how she will never wear another wedge again so I bought myself a pair. She was right, they are super comfortable (you do have to break them in a little) and I can wear them all day at work. They aren't quite as high as some wedges I have and I like that they add just a smidge of height. 

What is your favorite shoe for spring?

growing up my room

I am still living at home with my parents during this transition time of post-grad and I really don't mind it especially when I hear my friends complain about paying rent. Sometimes I do wish I had a kitchen or a living room to decorate but since it looks like I will be here at least a few more months I do want to give my room a little revamp. I want it to be a little bit more "grown" up but still have a fun side too!

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I posted a picture of my upholstered headboard that I made while on my blogging hiatus and I am in love with it (I'm working on a post on how I did it!). In my head I picture a basic white down comforter  with a fun patterned quilt or blanket at the bottom of the bed similar to these two rooms. I have this fun polka dot duvet from IKEA that I plan on using. 

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Another thing I want to add is fun patterned pillows. Something just to add a little spice! Also it would motivate me to make my bed every morning which I sometimes don't feel like doing, I feel like if I had fun pillows to put on the bed in the morning, I would make the bed! 

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One last thing I want to do is a little bedside table and bookshelf styling. Over the past few months I have acquired a random collection of books from work (not just cookbooks) so I would like to make them look a little nicer. I bought a brass rhino at Target a few weeks back and I can't wait to stick him in the perfect spot, right on top on a stack of books! 

My plan is to put together this little revamp this weekend and share next week so stay tuned! 

What I'm Loving Wednesday: (donna) Hay Fever

Since I started working in the cookbook publishing world, I have discovered all kinds of neat cookbooks, international magazines and amazing brands for dinnerware. Well Donna Hay is someone who has all three of those things.

Around the office we call her the "Australian Martha Stewart" except I think she is way more awesome than Martha. Her magazine creates the most beautiful photography with simple styling and innovative recipes. We try to make our images look like hers but I just don't know what her secret is. For my birthday I got her "Seasons" cookbook sold at Anthropologie and I haven't made anything from it yet but I could spend all day looking at it because its just so stinkin pretty!

She also has a general store in Australia where she sells all kinds of kitchen tools, dinnerware and party supplies. I wish she would bring it over to America because I would probably buy it all (or wish I could anyways!) until then, who wants to take a trip to Australia with me?

what i've been up to

Since its been a while, I figured I would give you a little glimpse of life lately. Some of these pics are from my Instagram account and others are just random pics from my phone!

1. Christmas came and I was so excited to get this Ryan Gosling mug. I had seen it on Popsugar a few days before Christmas and my mom surprised me with it on Christmas day. I drink my coffee out of it every morning 2. After a few weeks off work for Christmas, we went on location to what may be my dream house. Look at that chandelier! I snuck pics of the house all day! 3. I decided to give my room a little revamp. I thought it would be a great idea to make a nailhead upholstered headboard, it was tricky but I love it, more on this later! 4. I started the search for a new purse and stumbled upon this Rebecca Minkoff bag at TJ Maxx. I snatched it up and have been carrying it ever since! 

A cookbook that I "modeled" for came out. Its a Cooking Light book and these are just a couple of my "modeling" shots. You can't tell its me at all but I know and I point it out to everyone. 

I have a new baby cousin! Emry Kate was born in February and I am so obsessed. Isn't she such a presh pot? 

In October, I bought my mom tickets to see Maroon 5 when they came to Birmingham in March. March finally came and we went and they were amazing in concert. Of course Adam was looking super fine and they put on a great show.

I turned 23! How did I get this old again? 

I mentioned yesterday that I had an interview with a magazine which lead to an audition process. Well part of the audition was to style an Easter tablescape and this is what I came up with. Even though I didn't get the job, I'm still pretty happy with how this table turned out and I had so much fun putting it all together! 

So that is what I've been up to lately. It feels good to get back in the blogging swing of things and share  little pieces of my life with you guys! 

remember that time i used to blog?

Hi. Its me. Staley. Its been a REALLLLLLY long time since I have even thought about blogging. For a while, I was really burned out on blogging. I was working everyday and I was struggling to think of ideas to blog about and I was burned out on the blogging world in general. The last time I blogged, my fellowship at Oxmoor House had just been extended for a second term, I was loving the job and the experience and pretty hopeful that I would be hired full time come summer. February comes and Time Inc. (Southern Living, Cooking Light and Oxmoor House are all owned by Time Inc.) starts laying off people and it left things up in the air. A week or so later, my boss tells me I should probably start updating my resume and job searching because come summer, he wouldn't be able to offer me anything full time. I was pretty crushed, I should have known not to get my hopes up, the company has been declining for a while but I was trying to be positive that the print world I love so much would pick up. It hasn't, and its put me right back at square one. I applied for a job at another pretty big name national magazine here in town,  went through an audition process and didn't get it. It was another blow, I probably wasn't as qualified as some of the other applicants but I put so much effort into it and was so happy with how it turned out, when I didn't get it, I was bummed.

I have no clue where I am going or any idea of what I will do when my fellowship ends next month but I thought I would come back to the ole blog. Just to have a creative outlet, a place to sharpen my photography and photo styling skills, share my fashion inspirations and to just talk about life in general. I don't know how often I will post, hopefully a couple of times a week. Blogging makes me happy and I am taking this time to figure out what I want to do and where I want to go to do the things that make me happy. So I took a break from blogging and now I'm back.

I saw this quote on The Every Girl from decorator Kathryn Ivey and it was her advice that she would give to her 23 year old self and since I just turned 23 and it just has stuck with me ever since I read it..

“I’d tell my 23-year-old self that you don’t have to have it all figured out. Your twenties are about exploring your interests and passions. A great piece of advice I heard was that your twenties were like sailing—you tack back and forth until you find your route.”

I guess I am just sailing right now, trying to figure it out and I think I'm ok with that for now. 

What I'm Loving Wednesday: Krazy for Khroma

Everyone knows my not-so-guilty pleasure The Kardashians. Since writing my senior thesis about them the obsession has died down (because once you write at 20 page paper about something, you get a little tired of it). I'm still a fan but just not as obsessed. There is one thing that I have always wanted that the Kardashian's have and that is their crazy eyelashes. I never really know if they are false or just gifted with long eyelashes but either way, I want those lashes. When I heard they were coming out with a makeup line, I was a little skeptical, their clothing line isn't really that great and I did like their nail polish for Nicole by OPI but I just didn't know if they could dip into the makeup pool and do a good job at it.

I went to Ulta this weekend where they had a small selection of the Khroma beauty line. I noticed the sisters had come up with 3 different mascaras and I figured why not give one of them a shot. I settled on the Stroke of Midnight Faux Lash Look mascara, because it had "faux lash" in the title so I thought it might give me that Dash Lash Look I was going for. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for it, I saved the packaging and receipt in case I needed to take it back but surprisingly, it is amazing. My lashes are long and have lots of volume but not clumpy. They are dark and super full, the longest my lashes have gotten with mascara and eyelash curling. Another good thing is the price point, it's only 9.99 a tube which is a little high compared to my Maybelline Great Lash but lower than the Benefit "They're Real" mascara. So kudos to the Kardashians, hopefully this makeup line will be successful because I have found my new favorite mascara!

the cake

For Thanksgiving, I got this bee in my bonnet that I was going to make a homemade chocolate cake from scratch. I asked everyone in my family what dessert I should make and that was one thing that everyone  kind of agreed on. So I went searching and settled on this recipe and the icing that went with it. The cake itself was super easy to make, then came the icing and it just totally failed. I don't know what went wrong but it did not turn out, so then I started to add things that my mom said she thought might make it better well nothing worked so after our Thanksgiving lunch I had to start totally over trying to find a recipe that I could make with ingredients I already had in the house. Luckily I did, and it turned out! I then decided to use this decorating tutorial and if you follow me on instagram, you saw it but if not here is the little beauty. I wish I had gone downstairs and gotten my camera to get a better picture but by the time I was done, I was just ready to dig into it!

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. This was the first time I tried to make the cake pretty and make it taste good, I'm pretty bad at decorating and I really wanted to make it look good. The decorating tutorial I followed was really helpful and I think it was a good first start for someone who isn't the best decorator. Sure there were flaws but just the fact that I did it all myself and made it work was good enough for me. Have you ever been so proud of something you have made before, if so, what was it?