• About Me

    Vision Board Bingo: 2025 Goal Setting

    Can you believe we’re a little over a week away from 2025? I feel like 2024 just flew by. I’m trying to remember all the things that happened this year and all I’m getting is a blur. A big ol’ fuzzy blur. This is not a good feeling, especially since I know I accomplished something. I had to have, right? Right? Right. Anyway, I’ve decided that 2025 is going to be different. I want to be able to look back at the end of the year and see all the bright spots. To that end, I’ve customized my iPad so that it works much like an interactive digital journal. My…

  • About Me,  Fun Stuff

    Where Bloggers Live: The Best Gifts I’ve Ever Received

    When I was in my early teens, my best friend, Alisa, introduced me to Danielle Steel. Danielle Steel is an American author whose books are characterized by young women with traumatic childhoods who marry wealthy, much older men. Initially, I was caught up in the romance of the stories… To my thirteen-year-old mind, wealth and glamour went hand in hand with love and romance. Never mind that these women were marrying men who were old enough to be their fathers. That being said, one story stuck with me and would have a significant influence on me. Message from Nam told the story of Paxton Andrews, a female war correspondent who…

  • Fun Stuff

    {Audiobook Review} Untethered by Angela Jackson-Brown

    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. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus | Harper Muse for providing me with a free audio version of this book for review.  BOOK DETAILS Title: Untethered Author: Angela Jackson-Brown Narrator: Karen Murray Publisher: HarperCollins Focus | Harper Muse Publication Date: 3 December 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Multicultural Focus, Family Drama Format: Audiobook Listening Time: 10 hours, 51…

  • Books

    I was a Podcast Guest

    I don’t think of myself as a social media expert. In fact, I kind of have a love hate relationship with social media. I love it for all the things it has taught me, but I also hate it for all the things it has made me aware of {I won’t be too specific here, but SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE?!}. I don’t hop on the trends because I lack rhythm and I overthink everything — is the lighting OK, is the video too hazy, what is that weird background noise, etc. Still, I’m primarily responsible for the social media accounts for our college. My responsibilities consist of taking pictures, posting information about…

  • Style

    What I Wore: How I Styled My Denim Shirt with a Split Skirt

    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. Hey, y’all, hey!  How long has it been since I’ve done a style post? At least two or three months, right? Some things have changed in that time — check out the hair, IT GREW!! I’m fully natural now and pretty much just letting my hair do whatever it wants to do. I still keep the front twisted…

  • Books

    Reading for My Mental Health

    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. “Reading is political.” Or, at least, it has always been so for Black people. Enslaved people were forbidden to learn to read because the enslavers knew and understood the power of the written word. As Frederick Douglass said: “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Reading teaches you empathy, expands your vocabulary, helps you develop…

  • Books

    {Book Review} The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen

    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. So it seems the past few months have had a World War II theme to them, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because of the hellscape that America is turning into right now, with a wanna be dictator running for president, the Middle East going up in flames {again}, and women losing all of their bodily autonomy {and…

  • Fun Stuff

    Where Bloggers Live: My Top 5 Posts

    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. When Bettye first invited me to join this group, I had no idea what I was signing up for… I thought is was just gonna be one of those things that I did for a few months and then bowed out gracefully. Well, here we are five years later and I’m still hanging in there. Admittedly, there’ve been…

  • About Me

    Life Lately

    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 know, I know, it has been a minute. Y’all, life has been lifing lately and I haven’t really felt like doing much more than the bare necessity to make it day-to-day. But I think I’m back. Or, at least, I hope I’m back. Some of the challenges of the past few months have either eased up or…

  • About Me

    10 on the 10th: August 2024

    Classes start on Monday and I’m ready for it. Granted, I’m not a student, so my path is a little easier. I always look forward to the beginning of the school year, the students are all lively and full of hope and promise. The energy is palpable — I love it. With that being said, here are five things I liked and disliked about my own school experiences. ABOUT 10 ON THE 10TH 10 on the 10th is hosted by Marsha at Marsha in the Middle. In the tradition of old school blogging, she’ll share a list of ten questions or prompts to help us get to know each other…