Lawyer blogs on home decor, gummi bears and everything in between
After looking at Jackie Stoughton’s bio we realized we found a real-life superwoman. Seriously, this woman does it all. She’s a lawyer, a new homeowner — and therefore home-decor fanatic — an amateur ballerina, a gummi bear connoisseur, engaged to be married and, of course, she runs her own blog: Jade and Oak. She blogs on fashion, her dogs, adventures in home decorating and the day-to-day. Meet Jackie …
Where I’m based: Pittsburgh
How long I’ve been blogging: Since August of 2012 — still so much to learn!
Blog/business basics: I first began my blog as a way to motivate myself to keep working on, and decorating our house. I was reading so many other home decorating blogs at the time, and thought I would love to have my own. I also blog about my life in general, with some fun posts on fashion, cooking and my two puggies.
Other blogs I love: It’s hard to decide on some of my favorite blogs, but a few are A Cup of Jo, Peppermint Bliss, Vintage Revivals and Mimosa Lane.
What do you enjoy most about blogging? I love all the people that I have met — other bloggers are the sweetest and I have met some awesome ladies. I also love reading other people’s blogs and finding some new great ideas, recipes, stores, etc.
Guilty pleasure: Watching Pretty Little Liars, which is a show for people who are about half my age. I just am so hooked on it!
Last thing I bought: I just got a new rug for our guest room at a great price from RugsUsa.com.
Fav stores: For the home — I love everything at Crate and Barrel and HomeGoods. For clothes, I’ve been buying a lot more at LOFT lately — the prices are great and the clothes are great for both work and the weekends. For everything else, I am absolutely hooked on Target. I never leave that store empty-handed.
How did you become a décor fanatic? What does that consist of? I am totally hooked on HGTV and love seeing all the great ways that can make your house uniquely your own. I love reading home decorating magazines and blogs. Every weekend, I try to add something new to our house to make it even homier.
What have you liked best about home-ownership? What has been hard? I love that we can do whatever we want to the space — change fixtures, change the paint and hopefully remove some walls soon too. As for the hard parts, it is annoying to have to fix the not pretty stuff like pipes and air conditioning. Not fun, but a necessary evil.
How has your journey into cooking been? Slow and steady! My mom is an awesome cook so I’m hoping the “awesome cook” gene kicks in soon. I have been working on easier recipes and am slowly working my way up to the more complicated ones.
So when’s the wedding? September of 2014. I have been going back and forth between wanting to have a traditional wedding versus something simple like running away. But I have now come to terms with the whole wedding thing and am really looking forward to it. I can’t wait to buy a pretty sparkly dress and some fun jewelry.