About Madeline Beard

Posts by Madeline Beard :

Weekend Recap : CapFABB Meet Up

This weekend was wonderful for a few reasons — I caught up on my sleep, got the chance to meet some amazing district bloggers at the CapFABB meet up, and sported a grass skirt and leis on leis on leis Saturday evening. Sleep + new friends + grass skirt = great weekend!

The CapFABB meet up was held at Tyson’s Galleria in Virginia where bloggers were invited to come and partake in the All Access: Fashion event. The Galleria put on several fashion shows throughout the day and you can see some of my favorite looks from the Seven for All Mankind show in the photos below. A big thank you to my dear friend Devon who drove me out to Tyson’s and snapped this photo of what I wore to the meet up:

My patterned harem pants finally made a debut for fall! I will probably end up living in them this season, they add so much personality to everything I pair them with.

And here are the photos from the show:

Some of my favorite trends from the runway include the use of metallics like rose gold pants and jackets, baroque patterned pants and fringe boots that seemed a tamer version of Leandra Medine’s “My Little Pony Goes Drag” shoe.

I also had the chance to snap a few photos of some stylish ladies off the runway:


I almost fell over when I saw this woman’s white Celine bag. I loved the chartreuse sweater + white bag + leopard flats pairing.

The lovely ladies of CapFABB! So happy I finally got to meet Liz (So Much to Smile About), Alison (Chain Strap Purse) and Lacey (A Lacey Perspective)!

Another fellow CapFabber, loved her sparkly chevron sweater!

What do you guys think of all the fall trends? Any looks you’re particularly excited about? More adventures to come, for now I’ve got to make a mug of chai tea, light a candle and settle into a night of Adele and homework.

Fashion Friday : October Wish List

October Favorites

Here are a few things on my wish list for October!

I feel like the cat sweatshirt goes without saying — cool weather and an infatuation with everything feline makes this sweatshirt the coolest thing since sliced bread. Paired with a spiked headband inspired by a Fashion Week look from one of my very favorite bloggers, Peony Lim, I am determined to push the envelope between what’s crazy good and just plain crazy. Blurring that line is half the fun of putting an outfit together. If I’m feeling ambitious, I may attempt to DIY the headband with instructions I found here.

On the more conventional side of my sartorial desires of the month, I am definitely searching for a pair of black wax jeans — I feel like they offer the edge of leather pants while remaining a bit more practical for every day wear. I am also on the hunt for some floral booties and a bright orange satchel. Normally towards the middle of October my wardrobe starts to drift towards the monochrome color scheme in shades of white, grey, and of course, black. I want to keep color in my wardrobe through the fall and winter months, and what better way to do this than an orange satchel? Orange is a great color for summer to fall seasonal transitions because it is everywhere right now — the leaves on the trees, the pumpkin in my Pumpkin Spice Latte and the stripes in my candy corn. I love finding inspiration in unexpected places.

Tomorrow I am headed to my first ever CapFABB meet up and I couldn’t be more excited! I will have my camera on me for the whole day, cannot wait to share the event with you guys. Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday!

Homemade Pop Tarts

I want to start this post off with a quote I just found on The Man Repeller‘s Instagram:

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

I really like the idea of this — happiness should be a duty, a priority, in our lives. I feel too often I spend my time micro-managing that I only have a few fleeting “wow, I’m doing this for myself and no other reason” moments every week. Which brings me to the main topic of tonight’s post: homemade pop tarts!

I pinned these over the summer and have been wanting to test drive the recipe for months. Wandering around the aisles of my neighborhood grocery store last night I thought to myself, “What the heck, I’m going to make pop tarts tonight because I need a break from everything else.”

So I gathered up the ingredients…

… mixed up the dough…

… flattened the dough out with my trusty rolling pin + cut out 14 rectangles for 7 pop tarts…

… added strawberry preserves + closed up each tart with a fork…

… let ’em bake, then let ’em cool…

… annnd adding the icing/sprinkles in the morning!

And let me tell you, they turned out great. Like taking a bite from my childhood, without all of the extra preservatives and red dye #12. Yum! My tips for future pop tart endeavors: less is more with this crust, and the more strawberry preserves the better. I was pretty light handed with the preserves this time around and I really didn’t need to be — live bake and learn 🙂 If you end up baking your own homemade pop tarts, you’ll have to let me know how they turn out through a tweet or Instagram photo.

These pop tarts turned out looking pretty celebratory, what with the colorful sprinkles… who knew today I would have something to celebrate!? Last week my dear friend Tania asked if I wanted to be featured in her “Looks on Campus” column on College Fashion. I jumped at the opportunity to connect with a wider audience of fashionistas, you can read Tania’s article here.

After the article was posted, I reached a record 500 page views in one day! Opening my Google Analytics account this morning was such a big surprise and I want to say how thankful I am for everyone and anyone who has read SLB — every day is an adventure, and I’m so glad I get to share it with you guys. On that note, I’ve gotta get to bed, the last 24 hours have been both exhilarating and exhausting. Sweet dreams readers, much more to come.