Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Step Into My Week 10.26

 Hopefully, by now, your week is moving along quite nicely! While I usually like to have Step Into My Week posts up earlier in the week, I’m slowly learning not to beat myself up about when they go up, but instead, be glad I have them up for you! It does make remembering all that I’ve been up to a little bit harder now that part of this week has already passed too. 

I can’t really remember what all I did on Monday, but since Mondays usually involve work meetings, that is my suspicion. I do think I worked from home most of the day, but I am drawing a blank when it comes to what else I did, what I cooked, and even what I may have watched that night. Usually, Mondays are our bible study nights, but we had rescheduled that to Wednesday so chances are I was in bed early! 



On Tuesday, I went to an MPower class in the morning before starting my workday. I had one more work meeting that day and was able to order some props for upcoming shoots too. I responded to emails and did typical work from home tasks up until the afternoon when I went to Hibiscus House to stage some pieces and knockout some work there. That afternoon Hunter and I went for a walk and then made an easy but delicious sheet pan dinner. We chopped a red onion, sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and Conecuh sausage, coated everything in olive oil and sprinkled on garlic powder, pepper, and rosemary, and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for around 25 minutes with a couple of minutes of carefully watched broiling at the end! It was delicious, and I’ll be making it again soon. We watched some of the Braves game and then turned on Squid Game to see another episode. It’s an interesting show, but definitely intense.


I had a food shoot at work on Wednesday and was in the office most of the day for that. In the afternoon, I went to an MPower class before coming home to quickly shower and fix myself dinner before bible study. After bible study, I got in bed to do a little more work and eventually, go to bed. 

Thursday morning, I went to MPower and came home to quickly rinse off and make my lunch since I had another food shoot in the office that day. We were able to move through our shot list pretty efficiently, and the end of the afternoon was spent working from home. I went for a walk after my workday was over and cooked myself dinner to eat while my roommate, Rebecca, and I watched Dear Evan Hansen. 

I had one more shoot day on Friday, but this time it was on location for our Porches and Pumpkins feature. I styled 80 green, white, mossy, and burlap pumpkins on a pretty porch and can not wait to see the final images chosen for the magazine! We finished around 1:00, and I went home to shower before running errands in the afternoon. That night, Hunter and I went to our friends Macy and Drew’s house to cook dinner and watch a movie. Macy set up a pretty table on their screened porch, which is where we watched scream and drank Hot Toddies. 

 

 

 Saturday was set to be a full day since Hunter and I went to the Alabama vs. Tennessee game in Tuscaloosa. Some friends rented a party bus to take us there, and we left around noon despite the game not starting until six. The ride there felt quick and once we arrived we walked towards campus and went to a few fraternity houses and wandered around the tailgates. We went into the game around 5:00 and stayed until the end. It was a little shaky at the beginning, but Alabama scored plenty of touchdowns by the end of it. Instead of waiting until midnight to leave with the bus, we rode back to Birmingham with Hunter’s brother and made it back around 12:30.


  

After an eventful Saturday, I slept in a bit on Sunday and eventually did my typical Sunday tasks of grocery shopping and laundry. In the afternoon, I made a big salad to have for lunches during the week and caught up on the phone with my parents and Nell. I had leftovers for dinner and watched The Haunted Mansion that night while getting through some work that night. I was in bed and asleep early after a fun weekend! 

I hope that y’all had a great week and weekend too! 

Friday, October 22, 2021

Affordable Fall Tops

 Happy Friday! This week didn’t feel like a long one until yesterday when I realized I still have another shoot tomorrow (today) and it felt like I had already done a full week's worth of work already. Fortunately, I am really looking forward to seeing how today’s shoot turns out, so even if it feels like the weekend should be here already I’m excited to style things today. 


Shop by row from left to right:

Getting dressed for work lately has been a bit of a challenge since my fall clothes didn’t make their way to Birmingham until last weekend when my parents came to visit. Although the coats won’t be getting much wear anytime soon, the fall tops I had designated to not be part of my summer wardrobe have been very missed. A lightweight top tends to be one of my closet staples this time of year as it starts to cool down but can still be hot in the afternoons. For all of you with a true fall, I’d guess that you still value easy throw on tops just as much but with a layering aspect added in! 

All of those thoughts inspired me to put together today’s blog post, which is full of cute (and mostly affordable) fall tops I’ve seen online lately and love. Target has been my go-to the past few seasons as they knock it out of the park with their clothing selections. You’ll see the shirt below included in the graphic I’ve created, but I wanted to show a picture of it on as well so you know it has my full recommendation! Paired with jeans and sneakers (as I typically do), these tops quickly and cutely complete an outfit! 

shop the whole outfit here

To shop this post you can click directly on the items in the image below OR use the links beneath the same image above. I hope this helps any of you who may be on the hunt for a few new pieces to throw into your wardrobe rotation! 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Step Into My Week 10.19

 Hooray for the first “real” Step Into My Week post since July! I don’t really count last week’s post since it covered about half of my summer, but now we’re back to weekly recaps, and it feels good. Speaking of feeling good, the weather finally seems to be deciding it's fall. We had a fake fall a few weeks ago, which felt like a tease, but I’m optimistic these nice temperatures will stick around this time! 

I’ve been in the habit of starting my weeks off with a 6 am MPower class on Monday mornings and have been loving that. It feels like a productive start to the week, especially since I usually just have meetings and am working from home on those days. This past Monday however, I had a half-day shoot for Southern Lady’s porches and pumpkin's story for their October 2022 issue. My car was filled to the brim with pumpkins and mums, and by the time I had it all unloaded at noon I was tired of moving pumpkins and pretty hungry. I ate lunch, eventually showered, and spent the remainder of my day working from home. I typically have bible study on Monday nights, but because someone was unable to make it my friend Mary and I decided to get ice cream at Mountain Brook Creamery instead. After that, I got in bed to do a little more work before going to sleep.

 

I didn’t have a shoot on Tuesday, so I decided to get up early and go on a long walk before work started. I had hoped it was going to be cooler out, but the weather didn’t start to actually cool down until Saturday. Once I was home, I showered and worked from home until midafternoon. When my workday was over, I went to the Hibiscus House showroom to get some work done there as well. I listed some products on the website and staged a few Instagram posts before heading home to gather ingredients for Hunter and me to make homemade pizzas. We didn’t have a rolling pin and ended up having to use a wine bottle, but the end result was delicious! Once the Braves game he was watching ended we watched an episode of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. 


 
Wednesday, I was back in the office for a shoot featuring quiches. We finished around 3:00, and I completed my workday at home after that. That night Birmingham’s soccer team, The Legion, had a home game that Hunter and I went to with a few of his friends. The team won, and after the game, there was a very impressive firework show that took us all by surprise.

 
I had another shoot on Thursday that was a bit more all over the place since it was for a variety of columns for an upcoming issue. We wrapped around 1:00, and I was able to order in products for upcoming shoots before heading to the Hibiscus House showroom for a bit. After that I went to an MPower class to workout that evening. My parents were set to come to town over the weekend, so I began the process of deep cleaning my house and doing lots of laundry that night so that I wouldn’t have to do all of it after work on Friday.


I got up early on Friday to get some work done before going to a workout class at MPower. After the class, I got a much-needed car wash and came home to get through my workday before showering and cleaning the house. With swiffering, vacuuming, dusting, and wiping down everything in addition to laundry and changing my sheets my time before my parents arrived was pretty much shot. I was able to get myself ready and eat lunch right before they arrived around 2:00. Since they were staying with me they brought our dog, Scout, who quickly made herself at home. That afternoon we had reservations at Top Golf which was on my dad’s to-do list of activities. He and Hunter definitely showed up my mom and me, but I think everyone had a good time! I realized just how bad I am at golf when the only impressive thing I did the whole time was accidentally hit the cart that was picking up stray golf balls. Once our time there was up we went back to my house to get Scout so that she could join us for dinner at Back Forty. After that, it was back to my house where I had my parents watch the first few episodes of Ted Lasso before going to sleep.


Saturday morning was when the weather finally got pleasant, so we went to Pepper Place’s farmer’s market to wander around. My mom got a few things and my dad and I grabbed some treats for breakfast before venturing to The General and Shoppe in Forrest Park. Next, we headed to Crestline to go in some stores there before getting an early lunch at Saw’s and taking Scout on a walk around the hidden Crestline Park. Since football games were on my mom and I left my dad at my house to watch and did a bit more shopping before taking it easy in the afternoon before our dinner reservation. We went to Helen at 6:15 which I was excited to try after hearing some mixed reviews. I enjoyed everything we ordered and it seemed like everyone else did as well! Once dinner was over we went back to my house to watch the end of the Alabama game.


 My parents wanted to get on the road somewhat early Sunday morning, so after drinking coffee and packing up they left. I was able to do some laundry and get my grocery shopping complete in the morning and spent the afternoon cooking and catching up on the phone with friends before going on a long walk. I came home and showered and got a bit of work done before Hunter came over to eat some of the soup I made. We were trying to find a Halloween movie to watch, but we started Squid Game on Netflix instead. We’re three episodes in, and it’s interesting, but if you have a weak stomach, I wouldn’t recommend it. 

I know I said this last week, but it feels so good to be back! Stay tuned this week as I try to get in the routine of having 2-3 blog posts up! 

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Step Into My Summer

 After an unexpected summer sabbatical that lasted a bit into fall, I’m excited to finally be posting here again. After years of successful multitasking between school and blogging and in the past few years, work and blogging, I think burnout finally caught up to me, and it was feeling like getting a post up was more of a chore than a hobby. I should have written a post about taking a little bit of time off, but if I did that, I knew I’d be tempted to set a return date which would have still made posting on here feel like a have-to instead of a want-to. Well, after a few months off, some big side gig responsibilities under wraps, and plenty of fun in-between I’m ready AND EXCITED to be back and posting. 

Realistically with work, helping at Hibiscus House, and keeping up with friends and socializing, I know I won’t be able to commit quite as much time to Prep In Your Step and likely won’t have five posts up a week like in the past. Instead, I’m going to aim for 2-3, and if I have time for more, then it’s an added bonus! I’m also going to make an effort to post more on my Instagram, so I hope to be sharing a lot more with y’all soon. 

So, since I missed quite a few Step Into My Week posts, I decided a Step Into My Summer was in order. While it won’t be nearly as descriptive as my weekly updates, I’d guess y’all are mainly just in it for the pictures, so hopefully, you won’t mind!

My job as a stylist kept me very busy this summer with location shoots pretty much every week. In the summer, we not only are shooting content for the following summer, but also making up any holes there may be for Christmas of the coming year. Setting up a Christmas tree in the Alabama heat in July falls very low on my list of things I love, but the summer ones were fun to work on! 



  

Most mornings started early with workouts at MPower. I’ve been loving their pilates classes and am almost to 100 classes. I wanted a change-up from what I was used to doing previously, and it has been a great workout although no matter how many classes I go to they always seem just as hard.

A lot of my free time lately has been spent helping out at the Hibiscus House showroom staging pieces and planning out social media. At the end of August, we hosted a big introductory event for designers, friends, and families in Birmingham, which was an undertaking. It was such a colorful and fun night that you can read more about it here


Thankfully the summer wasn’t all work and no play! There were many weekends spent at the lake, a trip to the beach with my family, friend visits and celebrations, and even a trip to Jacksonville, FL to visit my brother and sister-in-law before they moved. 




 



I can’t wait to keep y’all more updated with my day-to-day life soon! I hope you enjoyed this look at some of what I’ve been up to.

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