But that’s life. We are human. We can’t be perfect all the time. Sometimes life pulls us in other directions. But as I’ve said before: I’m now back to blogging regularly. Hopefully I mean it this time!

Yep, the first quarter of 2012 has gone by in a blur. So much has happened. And in someways I feel so little has happened. But through it all I’ve had my trusty instagram app with me. So this is my InstaLife from mid February-mid April. I guess we can conclude from these photos that I am a crazy cat lady, a food-junkie, and a sometimes stylish person. 

What’s your favorite bag of the moment?

I wasn’t a fan of the mirrored closet doors that came with all the bedrooms in our place. They have no charm and they have a horrible brass trim which to me looks so very 90′s. But I assumed (incorrectly) a fix or new door would be expensive. The ladies of Madison Modern Home suggested I cover the mirrored doors in my office with grasscloth and repaint the trim for a fresh look! I was smitten with the idea and kinda amazed it was doable! They sent me this link on how to do it– http://blog.californialivinhome.com/2012/02/our-little-remodel-mirrored-closet.html –which was very inspirational, though we did end up doing things a bit differently.

Here’s a hint of how the doors looked before:

Materials

• Grasscloth Wallpaper (we used THIS)
• wall paper primer
• heavy duty wall paper paste
• wallpaper squeegee
• Xacto knife
• spray paint for metal

First … We took the mirrored doors off the track and took them outside. We taped off/covered the mirror area and just spray painted the brass trim a white color. We also spray painted the top of the track for the doors in my office!

Second… We went down to our local Wallpaper store, Goleta Valley Paint, and they didn’t have any vinyl on vinyl paste like my instructions suggested. Instead they suggested using a wallpaper primer to paint over the mirror to make it more textured/rough so the paste has something to grip. They also suggested a heavy duty wall paper paste. So that’s what we ended up using!

Third… We painted the primer on the mirrors just as if it were paint. It went on easy and dried quickly!!!

Fourth… Once the primer dried, it was time to apply the wallpaper! Cut the wallpaper to be a few inches longer than the length of your door. This is the piece you will work with! We used a paint roller to roll the heavy duty wall paper paste onto the BACK of the grasscloth as well as onto the mirror directly. We then laid down the paper and pressed (with the squeegee) from the center to the edges to make sure it was smooth and flat. On grasscloth always go side to side, never top to bottom!!!

Fifth… The Wallpaper was about 4 inches wider than our door, which means the excess paper had to be trimmed! We went around the edges with a ruler and an Xacto knife to trim straight edges! The great thing about the texture of the grasscloth is it hides mess ups and imperfections quite well!

Once you’re done, give it a few minutes to dry (I found that it dried VERY quickly) and then hang them back up! Here’s my finished project!

Ta-da! The project cost me about $125 for the two doors! I plan on doing this to all the other closet doors in our condo! It’s such an easy, cheap fix and adds so much WOW factor!

Hope you found this post helpful and inspiring! xo, Ash

I really can’t take much credit for this project, as it was inspired by a photo I found on Pinterest. I then googled “DIY Chevron Curtains” and found a bunch of helpful links which inspired and instructed me on the entire project. The links are as follows:

http://craftiliciousness.blogspot.com/2011/06/panels-part-ii.html
http://thehuntedinterior.blogspot.com/2011/12/hot-trend-of-2011-chevron.html
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/how-to/how-to-make-perfect-chevron-stripes-every-time-139609
http://kfddesigns.blogspot.com/2010/10/chevron-curtain-diy.html (this link was the one I found the MOST helpful)
http://www.greenyourdecor.com/8209/chevron-curtain-tutorial/

Materials Needed

• Curtains in Cotton or Linen
• Latex Wall Paint
• Small Paint roller and tray
• Blue Painter’s Tape

For me, step one was picking out the curtains. I agonized at Ikea for seriously 30 minutes! There are a lot of similar options at Ikea that will all work well for the project with different price points. I couldn’t really understand what the difference truly was or which one would look better. I ended up choosing the Merete Pair of Curtains in Bleached White and they worked PERFECTLY! I am really glad I chose them! They are so affordable too, at $25 for a pair. I needed 6 panels for my room, so I bought 3 packs. $75 for 6 curtain panels is not bad at all considering that the West Elm panels I bought for my office were nearly $75 PER PANEL! I also love that the Ikea curtains are extra long, because I wanted to hang them at ceiling height to make the room look taller and the windows look even bigger. My mother in law was able to hem the panels, before we painted, so they were the exact right length!

Step two is buying the paint! My mother in law and I went back and forth on what would be the best way to paint these. She was thinking a fabric paint would be best because she worried regular wall paint would make the curtains look crunchy. BUT all the DIY instructions I read had suggested wall paint. So that’s what I decided we should do. I am happy to report that the curtains really aren’t crunchy or too stiff, even with wall paint on them! We bought the black latex wall paint at a home improvement store on sale, $25 for a gallon. With 6 panels, we nearly used the full gallon!

Step three is the hard part. DOING THE MATH! Yep it turns out chevrons are very mathematical and to make each panel the same you are going to need to figure out some measurements. Unfortunately so much of the measurements are dependent upon the width and length of your panels, and your personal taste… so any measurements we found online didn’t work! The basics that I remember of what we decided on was that each Chevron would be 14″ wide and that from the high point to the low point of the chevron was 18″.  The measuring and taping was a real pain in the butt. There is pretty much no way to sugar coat it. That is the point in the project where you may want to quit, or kill yourself or go pay one million dollars for a designer curtain in a fancy store! But don’t give up! You will get through it… or rope someone else in to help you. Like I did. Thanks to Sharon, my mother in law, for crawling on the floor taping and measuring! I would have gone insane without her!

Step four is the fun part! Painting! Once we had the chevrons all taped off we got to work on painting! One tip is to press hard on all your tape lines to make sure you will get a clean and even edge. Secondly, I did two coats of paint because I thought it looked better more even. Make sure to pull the tape off the panels when they are still a wee bit damp! And then hang them up!

And then you’re done! Woohoo!!

Here are some additional tips/thoughts on the project:

• Enlist help! This project is fairly easy, but it is a whole lot easier and quicker if you have help! Try to do this with some one and you will enjoy it so much more!
• Unless you are only doing 2 panels, don’t expect to be done in one day. With 6 panels to do, the project took us about 4 or 5 days from taping to painting!
• Expect to play around with the measurements and placement of your first chevron on your first panel. It took us 3 tries to get it how we liked it. But once we figured it out we were able to apply the same measurements to each panel!

Hope this post has been helpful and inspirational!!!! Xoxoxoxo

Every year, around December (and sometimes rolling a little into January) I like to do a series of blog posts that review and sum up the past year. It really helps me relive all the fun and awesomeness of the past year and see how far I’ve come!

Last year, I debuted a Behind The Scenes post where I showcased all the photos I could find of me shooting weddings in 2010! To my complete surprise, it was a big huge hit, and I got so much feed back that people loved seeing me in action. So now that 2011 is coming to a close, I decided to spend an hour or two digging through all the photos from the weddings I shot this year…searching and searching for photos of me in action! It was kinda like playing Where’s Waldo!

Well… I found some doozies that I hope you will enjoy! Without further ado, here is Behind The Scenes of Ashleigh Taylor Photography 2011!

Here I am with Frances + Jared, shooting their First Look and romantics:

Getting a few portraits of the groom! Excuse the greasy hair please, it was over 100 degrees outside that day! YIKES!!!

What’s better than shooting on the beach with toes in your sand? Shooting an adorable couple on the beach– like Lauren + Drew!

I LOVE shooting romantics! I always have a dopey smile on my face when shooting them, no matter how hot or cold it is outside!

I always make sure to line up everyone for family shots and angle them just right for the perfect photo!

I LOVE showing my clients pics on the back of the camera and seeing their reaction! I think they love it too because they can see right away that they look amazing!

I always tell my the bridal party how to lift up the bride’s dress just enough so you can step in close to her without stepping on her dress! That’s what I’m doing here. Serious business friends!

I LOVE this picture! The light was fading as we walked back from the beach to the reception… and we chatted about Boardwalk Empire! Being friends with your clients is rad!

Just explaining poses to get the shot!

Yep, I can handle a big old bridal party and get them to have fun!!

Just chatting with the groom as I take some portraits of him!

This is me at my destination wedding this year!! Which was in New England in November! It was a chilly, windy 40 degrees that day so I bundled appropriately but also pretty snazzy! My hat had sequins– dressy and yet keeps the head warm and cozy!

I always make sure to check the back of the camera to make sure I got the shot before we move on!!

I’m a shorty. A REAL shorty. So my secret to getting great angles and pics often involves standing on chairs, benches and whatever solid furniture I can find!

We shot Skylar + AJ’s romantics on a suspension bridge!! What daredevils we were! Not gonna lie there were a few moments I was a little nervous but SkyJ is so sexy, I quickly forgot where I was and rocked the shots out!

That’s me showing a bridesmaid how to pose!! Sexy right? LOL

Just shooting a wedding in autumn, in New Hampshire, on the grounds of a Castle… that’s all!

This me showing a bride how I want her to pose. Aren’t I adorable?

Fun with my bride Carolyn in her ATP Phunky Booth!

I also LOVE getting fun shots in regular style photo booths too! Here are some great ones from 2011!

If you provide a pimp hat as a photobooth prop, I will pose with it on. Yeeeeah dawgz! I’m gangsta.

What a goofball I am!

Well folks, there you have at! A look at what goes on behind the scenes at one of my weddings! Hope you enjoyed!

(images via Nordstrom)

I have always envied gals with Tory Burch flats. Mainly because my feet are SOOOOO small (a size 4 in womens) and I had never seen them in my size before. Until one day I got a little email for Nordstrom saying new sizes 4′s were in my size and lo! and behold! TORY BURCH SHOES! In MY size!!!! YIPPEEEEE!!!! I feel in love with the Caroline flats. They are pretty comfy and I love the shape and that they are patent leather. At first I bought the black but then I had to get the nude color too! The nude ones are lovely!!! I have so much fun wearing these shoes and finding new outfits to pair them with. They are a major obsession! Love!!!

What’s your current favorite shoe? Let me know below!

After dinner on our first “date” at the classy dining hall, we went back to AJ’s apartment to watch DVDs and maybe finally smooch a little. I can’t confirm or deny the latter. I just remember the butterflies. Feeling this electricity pulse through me. He couldn’t stop telling me how pretty I was. It was almost annoying, probably because I didn’t believe I was that pretty that it warranted being mentioned every five minutes. I really had no idea where all these feelings were going. I had been in college for just a month, and he was a senior prepping to go back home to California come May. Where could this all go anyways? I didn’t know but even though we had practically just met I could feel myself falling. Hard.

It astounds me that 7 years have gone by. And that we have this amazing life which we have built together. And that our dreams that we chatted about while laying on my dorm room bed are beginning to come true. And that the cute boy who knocked a garbanzo bean off my fork to get my attention is my husband– and the best husband in the world. I am so lucky and I always want to remember that.

Earlier this year, we were photographed by the amazing Katya Nova for an intimate couples session. It was kinda a challenge for my shy little AJ, but I really appreciate him trying to do this for me. Going out of his comfort zone like that really showed how he loves me. And the pictures? They are priceless. The perfect representation to me of our love, seven years in.

(image by katya nova)

I mean, SIGH, right? I’d share more but they are kinda fabulously scandalous. But I am so thankful to have gorgeous pictures to document the various stages of our relationship, and I want to make it a goal to do at least one professional session as a couple, and eventually with kiddos, per year! Because photos are truly priceless.

AJ – I love you so much. I am beyond amazed at all the past 7 years has brought us. You are the perfect husband and life partner. I can’t imagine the world without you.

(image via Simply Delicious)

It is no secret that I LOOOOOOOVE Nutella. I mean really. I love the stuff and if it wasn’t kinda fattening I’d probably find a way to eat it at least once every day. Yep, I love me some Nutella. So when I saw this recipe for Nutella S’mores on Simply Delicious I felt like I had died and gone to heaven!! I mean look at it! You know that’s gotta taste ridiculously yummy. I can’t wait to try making this verrrry soon! Yum Yum!

What’s your favorite thing to make with Nutella?

(image via The Hills)

While perusing around on Pinterest, I stumbled across this GORGEOUS gray, white and yellow bedroom from The Hills blog! They DIY’d this room and I have to say it turned out amazing! I only hope I can be so skilled and creative when I finally own my own place that I can decorate and paint how I want! While I do love bright colors, I love the timelessness and softness of the gray. I also ADORE the patterned wall, which I cannot believe was done DIY. I would love to do something like this one day! I also love the pops of vibrant yellow. Very chic indeed.

What does your dream bedroom look like? I’d love to know!

What about you, do you love Pumpkin Spice Lattes (and other pumpkin treats) as much as me?