Update: Wattpad Account

Hi All,

I’ve created a Wattpad account, which is an online storytelling platform.  I’m planning on posting short stories, and soon a new novel I’ve been working on.  I thought I’d share it here in case anyone is interested of reading, or in case any of you have an account yourself so that I can follow you!

If so, feel free to leave your username in the comments!

link to Wattpad Account:  here

Thanks,

Paula

Layering & Slips

Tags

casual, creepers, dress, fashion, fashionable, fashionblogger, fashionphotography, fashionpost, fashionwebsite, free people, hat, layers, lookoftheday, mini dress, ootd, outfit, outfitinspo, platforms, summer, TUK, vintage

Slip: Similar here and here

Bralette: Similar here and here

Hat: here

Shoes: here (sale!)

Sorry for the infrequent posts as of late, it’s been a busy past couple of months. Some good news though: my fiance and I invested in a new camera. It’s something we’ve been thinking about a lot this past year, and seeing as our honeymoon is coming up, we figured we would go ahead and buy it. I’m hoping that we can use it to increase the quality of photos on this blog as well.
Anyway, this is a pretty old look (and shot with my ipone in case you couldn’t tell). I’ve been getting into the bralette trend recently, especially ones like this because they have patterns around the collar and neckline. I’ve got a ridiculous collection of loose mini dresses and slips, so I find that bralettes like this are the perfect thing to layer with them. I’ve also managed to find a few super cheap ones on Amazon and linked them above. This slip is old, but I’ve linked a few similar ones from Free People that would work well with this look!

Dark Spring Look

Tags

casual, dress, fashion, fashionable, fashionblogger, fashionphotography, lookbook, lookoftheday, outfit, outfitoftheday, personalstyleblogger, skirt, style, styleblogger, summer, urban outfitter

Shirt: similar here

skirt: similar here

shoes: similar here

hat: here

This skirt used to be one of my favorite dresses. Supposedly it was fine to put in both the washer and dryer, but that ended up shrinking it drastically (don’t you hate it when that happens?)  I loved the print so much that I couldn’t bear to throw it away, so I ended up chopping it into a skirt. This has been something I’ve been doing whenever I wreck one of my dresses or am simply bored of a maxi dress that I own. Personally, I’d rather alter something to my current style than have it hanging in my wardrobe never used.  I paired it with a simple graphic T-shirt and my anklet flats for a casual day look.

Hope you guys like the look. I’ve got a few new collaborations coming soon, stay tuned!

ILoveMyDogJewelry

Tags

fashion, fashionblogger, ilovemydogjewelry, jewelry, jewelrypost, look, personalstyleblogger, style, styleblogger

For this post, I partnered with IloveMyDogJewelry, to show a few ways to wear my favorite pieces from their collection. As far as jewelry goes, I tend to be quite lazy. Although I frequently admire other’s jewelry, it is not the sort of thing I will spend time pairing with my outfit in the morning. For this reason, I tend to gravitate towards very simple, versatile pieces, which is what drew me towards IloveMyDogJewelry. Their jewelry is very unique, yet classic; perfect for everyday wear. That, and the fact that they donate a portion of their profits to animal rescue groups to improve the lives of homeless and abused animals, an issue very close to my heart.

I snapped a few of my favorites above (obviously my favorite is the machine gun earrings).  All of them can be found on their Etsy shop here

Check out their website here

Millennium Falcon Mini Dress

Tags

blackmilk, creepers, fashion, fashionable, fashionblogger, fashionphotography, fashionpost, fashionwebsite, look, lookbook, lookoftheday, mondocreepers, ootd, outfit, outfitoftheday, outfitpost, starwars, TUK

Dress: similar here and here

Shoes: here

I found this dress in the giftshop at my work and immediately became obsessed with it.  I’m not the biggest fan of most Star Wars T-shirts I find, so I figured this was a good alternative.  Unfortunately the dress doesn’t exist online, but I linked some other awesome dresses from Black Milk above.  I paired it with my usual Lug Sole Creepers for a pretty simple look.

Anyways, sorry for the infrequent posts.  I did a photoshoot recently so there will be more coming soon!

 

Liza Printed Babydoll Shirt Mini Dress

Tags

aldo, ankletflats, dress, fashion, fashionable, fashionblogger, fashionphotography, fashionpost, fashionwebsite, flats, look, lookbook, lookoftheday, ootd, outfit, outfitinspo, outfitoftheday, outfitpost, urbanoutfitters

Dress: here

Shoes: here

Hat: here

Shift dresses are a great thing to throw on during a lazy summer day.  This is a super simple outfit, yet I tried to accessorize it in a way that looks planned and put together.  I paired it with my favorite pointed toe flats from Aldo and my usual Peter Grimm hat.  I am usually not into flats, but these ones have quickly become a staple in my wardrobe.  They are extremely comfortable and go with just about everything (linked above).

In other news, Kevin and I are planning our honeymoon today.  We’ve decided on Paris and Italy.  Neither of us have really traveled, so we are doing quite a bit of research.  Any recommendations of places to eat for a vegetarian in: Paris, Rome, Venice or Naples?

 

Chapter 2: Mel

Tags

book, fantasy, fiction, novel, youngadult

I figured I’d go ahead and post the second chapter of my novel.  Chapter 1 is here, in case anyone missed it.

This second chapter introduces another one of the main characters: Mel (probably my favorite character actually).  Hope you like it!  As before, feedback is welcomed.

Chapter 2: Mel

The girl’s not clever”, Madame Eshra said as she crumbled a dry scone between her impressively long fingernails, “And she’s not pretty”. Her beady grey eyes darted to the young girl seated next to her. The girl was skinny and miserable looking, her blonde stringy hair covering her face like a veil. She didn’t even appear to know that they were speaking about her.

The girl’s uncle cleared his throat awkwardly and began twirling a silver ring around his finger. “And?” he asked.

“And so I want you to take her”, She replied matter-of-factly.
He stared at his sister, stunned, and placed his tea down carefully. “Take her…where?” he asked.

“Travelling with you”, she replied, “Just for a while, just until she’s out of this phase”.

“And what phase would that be?” he asked. He glanced at his niece once again, wondering if she was sickly.

Madame Eshra sighed and delicately pulled the girl’s hair aside as one would a curtain. Her head was tilted downward and in her lap was a thick book with a red binding. She did not look up, but even so, he could tell that she was a bit older than he had thought originally. Fifteen? Maybe sixteen? He tried in vain to remember what year she had been born.

He glanced at his sister, trying to understand what it was she wanted to show him. She nodded at the book in the girl’s lap. “Reading?” he asked finally, “The phase you want her to get over, is reading?”

“Nasty habit”, she replied. “And you know what they say about people who read, don’t you?”

“That they are literate?” he asked with a laugh. Why, if his sister only saw the amount of books he has in his caravan this very moment.

But she frowned, and placed her cane sternly on the floor as if she was about to stand up. “It’s not enough that we are descended from those people”, she hissed, “That we have to live isolated away from everyone in this old house with only a skeleton crew of servants to keep us alive”-Her brother almost laughed at that statement. If forty servants weren’t enough for two people, he didn’t know what number was- “Now my daughter is showing signs of one of them”.

She was quite disheveled; her hand shook as she raised her tea to her lips. He looked her over carefully. It had been at least ten years since he had seen his sister, but the two exchanged letters at least once a month. The years had not been kind to her. The wrinkles beneath her eyes were made more prominent by their deep purple color. Her mouth seemed to be caught in a permanent frown, and despite the pink powder she put on her cheeks, he could tell her skin was pasty. He wondered if she left the house at all.

“One of them?” he asked. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was getting at. He couldn’t see a whole lot else to do in this huge desolate mansion aside from read.

“You know”, she said, her voice lowering considerably, “like her father”.

He laughed again. “Magic? You can’t actually think she’s got magic? Magicians are obsolete. They disappeared even before the creatures themselves did.” He glanced at the girl. He could not deny that she certainly looked unhealthy, far too skinny and pale.

“She is just lonely”, he said, “She’s stuck all the way out here with you in this wasteland, and you won’t let any of your maids speak to her. If you would just consider moving to a town. Somewhere where there are people to-”

“You know why I can’t leave”, His sister snapped. “You know why I’m out here”.
He sighed and nodded in submission, because unfortunately he did know. And there was no talking to her when she was like this.

“But what about you?” he asked, “I don’t feel right leaving you here all alone”.

“Tell me where you plan to go for the next year”, she said, “Make a schedule. If I need you, I’ll send a messenger”.

He nodded halfheartedly. He didn’t know how to tell her that his business wasn’t predictable enough to have his entire year planned out. “All right then”, he said, “I suppose it may do her some good, after all”. His sister’s face transformed into a very slight smile, but it was still the first one he had seen since he arrived, so he welcomed it.

“How do you feel about that Kathryn?” he said to the girl in soft voice, “That might be nice, don’t you think?”

His sister’s smile faltered. “That’s the other thing”, she said, “She doesn’t speak anymore”.

At first, he thought he had misheard her. “What do you mean?”, he asked.

“No words, not for a few years now”, she waved her hand as if it was nothing. “Like I said: a phase”.

But as they sped away in his caravan, the girl’s eerie stare on him as steered his horses, he couldn’t help thinking that it was not, in fact, ‘nothing’. And he quite wished he had been told that bit of information before he had agreed to take her.

‘Perhaps she’s a fool’, he thought to himself, as he remembered a certain boy who’d lived in his town growing up. The boy was dim, and every time he spoke, his words came out jumbled and peculiar sounding. After a while, the boy stopped speaking altogether.

But then, after an hour or so, the girl opened her satchel and pulled out that same book she had been reading before, and he began to think otherwise. It couldn’t have been less than five hundred pages, and the writing seemed quite dense. Not many knew how to read anymore, and even less enjoyed it.

‘She’s just odd’, he thought to himself, ‘And how could she not be? After all, she grew up in that house without another person her age for miles and miles. Interacting with only her strange mother, and all those servants who refuse to speak to her.’

“Kathryn”, he said to her. At first she gave no sign of acknowledgment, but then slowly, she lifted her head and her dark blue eyes reached his. “Should you ever choose to speak, you can just call me Mel. Your mother used to call me that growing up because she couldn’t pronounce Melvin”, he said. She made no movement but he had a feeling that she was listening. “Should you never choose to speak again, then that is perfectly fine. However it will be a year of seeing new places and meeting new people. And I have to say, you’ll only be getting about half the experience should you decide not to speak to a single one of them.”

Her mouth didn’t move, but she looked thoughtful. Eventually, she gave a slight nod, and turned back to her book.

Though it was a small step, Mel was quite sure he had just accomplished something.

It was two weeks before they passed anything other than a ghost town. “You mother doesn’t do anything halfheartedly, does she?” Mel said to Kathryn, “She decides to move away from people, and so she moves two hundred miles from a single soul”.
Kathryn smiled slightly. This was how communicating with her had become. Not a sound escaped her lips, but when he said something funny or clever, he got some small response.

The town they had come to was called, “Murder’s Brook”, even though a brook hadn’t run through it in at least a hundred years. There was a sole inn, and his horses trotted directly to it. He had stayed there a number of times, and they knew the sign of it meant fresh hay and water.

“Take them to the stables and see that they are well fed”, he said to a boy who came to meet them. “Come along Katheryn”. Slowly, she stepped down from the caravan. Her eyes were wide, and she took in the boy, then the inn, then the street as people walked along it going about their day. She was still for some time, looking like a deer frozen at the sound of danger.

“Is…she all right sir?” the boy asked.

“She’s just fine. Come along”, Mel lead her inside.

Kathryn seemed even more stunned at the interior of the inn. A few men crowded around dirty tables eating and drinking, while women in aprons hurried about collecting used plates and bowls. Everything seemed to be covered in a thin layer of grease and dirt. ‘She’s probably never seen anything like this before in her life’, he realized as he studied her expression. He couldn’t entirely comprehend whether it was intrigue or disgust.

He purchased two rooms from the surly innkeeper, and handed Katheryn her key.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. She shook her head.

Her eating habits had quickly become one of his main concerns. He offered her food about five times a day, all in large portions. Usually, she would shake her head and turn back to her book. Occasionally, she would pick at a few pieces of dried fruit or nuts. He wouldn’t have been so adamant about it if she wasn’t so skinny; he didn’t know what was holding her together. He was terrified at the idea of returning to his sister and explaining that her daughter had starved herself to death.

An idea occurred to him, however, and he turned to the innkeeper and said, “Two cinnamon cakes please”. She nodded and disappeared for a moment.

“They are very good here, the best I’ve ever had”, he explained to Kathryn, who was still wide-eyed and staring at the men eating a few feet away.

The innkeeper returned and led them to a table. She placed two small cakes covered in thick yellow icing in front of them. Kathryn looked at them skeptically, and wrinkled her nose. Mel took a bite of his, as she watched him with a strange curiosity. “Go on”, he insisted.

She took one tentative bite of it. The moment it touched her tongue, he could see her eyes light up a little. She chewed it delicately and then took a much larger bite.
All the food served in his sister’s house seemed to be bland, and he had to admit, the food he brought travelling wasn’t much better. Perhaps he just had to present her with things that were too good to turn down.

He was pleased when she finished the whole cake. “We’ll get a good amount of those to take with us when we leave”, he assured her, and she smiled slightly in return.
They spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of the town’s few shops. He bought all kinds of snacks, the best, most flavorful ones he could find. They looked through toy shops, and marveled at painted dolls. He bought her a blue dress that he caught her eyeing in a window, and she smiled brightly when he handed it to her, boxed up with a ribbon. By far her favorite part was the chickens, which seemed to wander the road freely. She tore up bits of bread and fed it to them, not even minding when they pecked her hand. She even gave out a shrill laugh when one climbed atop her shoulder
He’d never had a daughter, but he couldn’t help wondering if this was what it felt like.
At the end of the day, before she went to her room for the night, he presented her with something: a small leather-bound book, sealed shut with wax.

She gave him a gracious nod and tore open the seal. Her expression turned very quickly to confusion when she saw that the pages were empty.

“You see, no one prints books anymore”, he explained, “Not for about a hundred years or so, when the magicians disappeared and the Dark Years passed. Of course, most books were about the magicians. Once magic was marked illegal, there wasn’t too much to write about, was there? So I thought maybe you could write your own story. You’ve read enough books after all; perhaps you can be the one to bring them back into this world.”

She stared at it as if it was an entirely new object than she had been holding one moment before. And then, something truly miraculous happened. She parted her lips and said, “Thank you”. Her voice was strong, and clear as a bell. He almost thought he had imagined it.

Then she smiled and walked into her room. He couldn’t help but wonder if she just chose to save her voice for special occasions, or if this was the first time in a number of years she actually had something to say.

Pale Pink Platforms

Tags

casual, dress, fashion, fashionable, fashionblogger, fashionphotography, fashionpost, fashionwebsite, free people, look, lookbook, mini dress, ootd, outfit, outfitoftheday, platforms

Slip: here

Shoes: here

I’ll admit that this outfit is mostly about the shoes. I picked these up at Topshop the other week, and am completely obsessed with the nude/pink color. I just paired them with one of my dozens of Free People trapeze slips, and layered a pale pink slip beneath to match the shoes.

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been doing too many outfit posts recently. This is because of two reasons:

1.) My phone broke, and all my photos, including a week’s work of looks were lost.
2.) Our apartment is being remodeled, and there has been clutter everywhere, including this hallway.

You may have noticed that there is now a door in my hallway, where there used to be nothing. I’m not crazy about it, but I’m hoping that once it’s finished and painted, it will look better.

Anyways, I’m hoping to get back to posting more regularly now. Hope you guys like the outfit!

Short Story: Healing Tiger

Tags

fantasy, fiction, shortstory, youngadult

This is a short story that I wrote in college, which I’ve been coming back to recently.  It has no connection to the first chapter posted of my first book, just a separate piece that I recently revised.

I’ve been considering expanding on it, perhaps basing my second novel on it, or re-writing it into a longer short story.  I figured I’d post it here for feedback/ideas.  Hope you like it!

 

“Healing Tiger”

By: Paula Gallagher

 

“You don’t have to-” I stopped as Sira moved her massive head along the long gash that ran down my forearm.  She purred, which sounded more like a low growl coming from her, as her saliva began to heal the skin.  It hurt, but for only a moment.  And then new flesh grew over the wound and it was gone.

Sira stared up at me with her unbelievably brilliant green eyes, as if waiting for approval, but at the same time exuding enough wisdom so that I knew she didn’t need it.

Being in the academy for so many years and particularly being assigned as paige to the stables, I had gotten used to my share of scrapes and bruises.  And accidents do happen.  Even today, when the hunters brought back a frightened live Minotaur and it slashed my arm open with its cracked horn, I wasn’t too surprised, and I didn’t complain.  But I’m sure if Sira was capable of speech, she would have.

“Erm…thank you”, I said.  She shook her head, trying to get her fur straight.  Then she stood up and lumbered across my room to the large mound of pillows that she had apparently declared as her bed, and flopped over on top of it, her eyes closed, paws outstretched in front of her.  

From this angle she looked like a gigantic kitten laying down for its afternoon nap, rather than an ancient beast that I had inherited and been bonded with after twenty years of wishing for something else.

When I was a child, I remember being terrified of her.  When she yawned her huge teeth looked like daggers shooting out of her gums.  But then my Grandfather instructed me to touch her face.  I stretched out my tiny hands, and she placed her massive nose in them, and stared at me with an expression of calm curiosity.  She looks at me the same way, even now.

“You know you get tired every time after you do that thing-after you heal me”, I said.  The giant tiger didn’t stir.  “Maybe you shouldn’t do it”.  She opened her eyes and stared at me.  And somehow I had an idea of what she meant.

We were together now.  We were partners, bonded for life.  Just as she had protected my grandfather, and I assume his grandfather before him, she would protect me at any cost.  It didn’t matter that I hadn’t wanted her, and was a horrible bitch about it.  Now it was me and her, and nothing could change that.

I remember when I had been called into my master’s office, and he had explained that because of my Grandfather’s death, Sira needed an owner.  Without a bond of someone with his direct bloodline, she would die.  I couldn’t believe it.  After all of this, after all of the preparation, after all of the hard grueling work, I would be stuck with her.  Ceremonies were coming up, the Dragon eggs were hatching, and the Griffons were being given away.  Even a Pegasus would have been more useful.  At least it could fly into battle.  And I wanted to fly.  More than I had wanted anything in my short impatient life.  Ever since I saw my father fly on his harpy for the first time.  Ascending until he was nothing more than a tiny dot in the stretching blue sky.  Ever since he told me that our family was meant to fly-to be warriors fierce and unyielding, the ones who flew eagerly into battle.

But no, I would be given a Healing Tiger; and the oldest one in existence at that.  She was massive, about the size of a mule, and fierce looking; but she was slow, and thoughtful, and careful.  All the things I most certainly am not.  My master had winked at me before I left his office, “You may be able to teach that old tiger some new tricks”.  I sincerely doubted it.

Perhaps if my Grandfather had lived out the remainder of his life in peaceful solitude like he was supposed to in his retirement, he would still be alive.  He’d be holed away in his little secluded log cabin, Sira at his side, sleeping peacefully, watching the days roll by lazily.  She would have loved that.  Everything would have worked out for the both of us.  But no, my Grandfather had to go volunteer in the war.  As if people actually did that.  And then he got himself crushed by a giant.  One step and he was only a splatter of skin, blood and guts on the bottom of a foot of a creature with less than half of his intelligence.  

And then I imagine Sira sitting there, looking at what remained of him, distraught, and trying in vain to figure out how to go about healing him.  She was too loyal for her own good.

But then, I liked how she always stayed close to me.  She did not stray when we went into the forest, or chase fireflies like the newly hatched dragon babies tended to do; their people rushing after them aimlessly.  Sira never left my side, and her ears were always perked forward, always on the lookout for danger.  She would always be looking out for me.

She opened her eyes once again, saw me staring at her, and blinked a few times before turning her gaze to the brush that sat on my little night stand.

I sighed.  “Yes.  Sure”.  As I began combing through her already immaculate fur, she placed the entire weight of her massive head in my lap.  It was at least twenty pounds.  Then she closed her eyes, breathing slowly.

After a long day of work, this was what she always wanted; and it was the only thing she ever asked for.  She never even asked to be fed.  I typically remembered; if only because I ate frequently enough to be reminded of it.  And I suppose she could always go out to the pasture and eat a goat if she got hungry enough.  

It was shockingly simple, and low-maintenance.  I recall my master saying, when he first told me of my inheritance, “You may be able to teach that old tiger some new tricks”.  And I wondered, as her tail began to whip in the air, if it might be the other way around.

New Fishnets

Tags

fashion, fashionable, fashionblogger, fashionphotography, fashionpost, fashionwebsite, fishnets, fishnetstockings, look, lookbook, lookoftheday, ootd, outfit, outfitinspo, outfitoftheday, outfitpost, platforms, TUK

Boots: here

Top: here

Fishnets: here

I’m always skeptical of an overnight trend, but fishnets are one that I can get on board with.  I love patterned tights in general, but fishnets add so much edge to an outfit.  I’ve also been wearing them with high wasted boyfriend jeans.  Here I paired them with a plain black shift dress with a graphic tee over it from Shop Le Happy.  Then I added a pair of my favorite platform boots from TUK.

In other news, I’ve finished the novel I’ve been working on.  I’ve been very excited to have an entire story from beginning to end, so I went ahead and put the first chapter on this blog.  Please check it out here if you are at all a fan of fiction/fantasy.