• About Me

    Where Bloggers Live: My skincare routine

    Hi, how are things? Wondering what I’ve been up to? Well, my friend Kristin {Chicken Librarian} and I brought back our Coffee and a Pie Chat series and, let me tell you, we’ve already made two incredibly delicious and easy pies. Plus, the TikTok shop convinced me to buy the cutest barrel dress, and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be my new uniform. They have so many colors and all of them are good. Annnnnd I wrote a new post… THE PROMPT: My skincare routine To be honest, I never really had a skincare routine until recently. And the only reason I have one now is because I stayed at…

  • Recipes

    Coffee and Pie Chat: Ginger Peach Pie

      Welcome to this month’s edition of Coffee and Pie Chat. Let me know if you’ve ever had Ginger Peach Pie or if you plan to try it. ABOUT GINGER PEACH PIE When I first saw the ginger and peach combination, I was like hmmm? But you know what? It works. Between the peaches, the brown sugar, and the ginger, you get the perfect blend of sweet and savory, which works really well when you have a sweet tooth but not. Does that make sense? If not, once you taste this pie, you’ll totally understand. THE RECIPE Pie Crust Make your own or use 9 in pie crust Filling 2…

  • Style

    What I Wore: How I Styled My Barrel Dress and Mesh Tee

    As the blogger and photographer behind Living Outside the Stacks, I independently select and write about stuff I love and things I think you’ll enjoy too. Living Outside the Stacks has affiliate and advertising partnerships so I get revenue from sharing this content and from your purchase. Thank you for your support. I swore up and down that I would not get a Tik Tok account so you know what that means… I created a TikTok account. Originally, I’d planned to use it for sharing style pictures because my daughter kept sending me all of these chic style ideas from different accounts, but I ended up using it mainly for…

  • About Me,  Photography

    My Summer Vacation: Part 1

    Hi, I just wanna give you a head’s up, this post is photo heavy. I don’t have a lot to say except I cannot wait to go back for a visit and I’m hoping it’s in the fall because I cannot imagine how beautiful these spaces are with the changing leaves. On the day we visited, everything was covered in the most mysterious, yet beautiful fog. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, hanging with your adult children and realizing that you like the people they’ve become is a whole nother level of momming. This is the first time that I’ve actually hung out with my son for…

  • About Me

    Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Thing About Summer

    I’m a plant mom, have been for a very long time. I think I inherited my love of greenery from my dad, who was a plant dad. In some ways, he was a better plant dad than kid dad. Our house in Virginia had a sliding glass door and, in front of that sliding glass door, my dad had shelves of plants of all varieties. Including cacti. He used to tell us all the time not to run in the house because we might fall on the cacti and hurt one. Yes, seriously. And, one day, my sisters and I were running through the house, when one of us {me},…

  • Recipes

    Coffee and Pie Chat: Melopita {Greek Honey and Cheese Pie}

    Hey, y’all! How are things? Things have kinda sorta slowed down over here. We celebrated commencement a few weeks ago, you can see the pictures here. It’s always a good time when we get to celebrate the students and their accomplishments. Now we’re working our summer schedule: Monday – Thursday, 7 am – 5:30 pm, and closed Friday – Sunday. The first few weeks are always the hardest, but I do enjoy having those three-day weekends. In fact, it was having a three-day weekend that allowed me to bake my pie without rushing. So yay! ABOUT MELOPITA {Greek Honey & Cheese Pie} Melopita is a traditional honey pie from the…

  • Fun Stuff

    Coffee and Pie Chat: We’re Bringing It Back

    Y’all, I’m so excited to share that Kristin and I are bringing back our Coffee & Pie series! We first started our “pie along” in the Summer of 2019, using seasonal fruits like lemons, blueberries, nectarines, and such. It was a fun and most delicious time. I learned a lot about myself — mostly that I really, really like pretty pie plates. I also learned that I cannot make pie crusts. I don’t care how good the recipe is, my pie crusts always taste like flour. So I use store bought crusts and I’m OK with that. Over the past few months, Kristin and I have DMed each other about…

  • Photography

    My Photography Project: The Graduate

    I haven’t worked on a photography project since 2024. Or, rather, I haven’t posted one since 2024. How could it possibly be that long? Have I been that busy with, ummm, what? Life? Let’s see, what have been doing? Oh, I know… I’ve been totally obsessed with my garden. Have you seen my greenhouse? You can check it out here. So far, I’ve harvested about 5 strawberries and handfuls of Sweet Basil and Rosemary. The Sweet Basil and Rosemary were used in pasta dishes and on some pork chops. Sooooo good. And the strawberries were amazing!! I still need to figure out how to control the bugs, so if you…

  • About Me

    Where Bloggers Live: What’s in My Bag

    As always, I’m a couple of days late with my post. This time, though, I have a bit of an excuse: I was taking pictures of my granddaughter for her prom. You can see some of the pictures here, or you can wait for me to write a post {I promise it’ll be soon}. It wasn’t until a few years after I got out of the Army that I started carrying a purse. I carried diaper bags with my kids, but I kept leaving them places and would have to retrace my steps until I found them. To be safe, I’d put a bottle and a pamper in the pockets…

  • Fun Stuff

    Get Ready to Grow: My Greenhouse

    I’ve always credited my grandma with giving me my love for coffee. One of my most vivid memories is of her sitting at the kitchen table watching one of her evening soaps with a cigarette in one hand and a coffee cup in the other, laughing and screaming at Alexis Colby Carrington’s shenanigans. Goodness knows I was way too young to be watching those shows, but Grandma and my aunt would always include me in their evening banter. My other memory is of my grandma working in her vegetable garden.\ Grandma had two massive gardens, one at the family home in Washington, D.C. and the other at her and Granddaddy’s…