Cleaning My Room: An Adventure

If you know me really well, you know that one of the greatest struggles in my life is keeping my spaces organized. When I say I have a tough time, I mean I have a tough time. I blame a lot of this on the ADHD. It's a classic side effect.

Whether it be my bedroom (the worst of the worst) or my car, or wherever else I may be, things might get literally messy.

I go through a constant cycle of clean up, throw stuff all over, then clean up. This cycle moves rather quickly for me and causes some stress. In all honesty, it usually takes me months to get my room even slightly cleaned.

Lately, however, I've been more motivated than ever to get my bedroom cleaned and looking nice. It has so much potential, but the poor thing is always covered with clothing, hats, papers, books, and whatnot. I've finally told myself that, as an adult (23 years old, mind you), I have no good excuse not to do a major cleaning of room. The ultimate goal is to keep it well-maintained permanently - no more of this "cycle" stuff.

Fortunately, I've got a record player to keep me company. I've been playing it more than I really ever have within the last couple of weeks. Most of my record collection thus far consists of classic film soundtracks.

Cleaning to Doris Day. Yes, please.

Project DECLUTTER THIS BOOKSHELF

Project DECLUTTER THIS BOOKSHELF, Pt. 2
Featuring Cluttered Bookshelf #2

A little bit of what's on top of my dresser:

I found this kitty contraption at a local church garage sale for - I believe - fifty cents. The cat's meow! ♡

Pumpkin Donut candle on a fall day - serenity.

Finally made it on top of my dresser: I "made" this in about 10 minutes one night. I thrifted this picture frame and left the back border in and glued these photos of Liza Minnelli in Cabaret (1972) + Gary Cooper & Barbara Stanwyck in the amazing movie Ball of Fire (1941) - which I printed off and cut out - to it. The fake flower is from a flower crown that kind of fell apart awhile ago.
Forget the mistletoe - kiss under a daisy!

I will be updating on the progress of my room soon. I can't wait for it to actually look nice. 

Thanks for swinging by!

A Bohemian Dress and Apple Cider

I went to a neighboring town with my Grandma yesterday afternoon to run a few errands. The first errand was a quick apple cider pick-up.

The apple cider sold at this orchard is the best cider I've ever tasted in my life. Ever since trying it a couple of years ago, my taste buds have been extremely spoiled. In fact, I no longer enjoy drinking store-bought (i.e. Walmart, etc.) apple cider because nothing else compares to this stuff.

One of their main attractions is apple cider slushies. Okay, so the plain apple cider is SO GOOD. But, my friends, the apple cider slushies are OH MY GOSH, AMAZING AND FANTASTIC AND BEAUTIFUL.

Samples await beside the refrigerator full of cider.

Heaven...must be missing an angel... ♫

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♡ FASHION TIME ♡

For this excursion, I wore a new dress from Goody's. As you can see in a few of the photos, it's got draped/bell sleeves - SCORE. 

I feel pure hippie wearing it (minus the politics). It sounds cheesy, but I really do feel a little extra free-spirited when I walk around in it. 

Personally speaking, I'm not really into shorter dresses. I just have an issue in which I fidget every time I think a dress feels like it's too short. My brain just does that to me, so I typically wear things that won't make me fidget. It works out nicely, since I don't go for that look anyway.

This dress length is about as short as I can go without feeling uncomfortable. It's super comfy and flowy, too.

I purchased my black bowler hat a couple of years ago at H&M for $12.95. It's similar to this hat.

These earrings are from rue21. I'd actually been wanting a pair for awhile and happened to find them while browsing. I was so excited to find them on sale for $2.99 and I grabbed another pair in mint green. They're incredibly fun to wear.

  

(Photo credits: My Grandma! These were taken quickly and I thank her so much for it.)

The afternoon was followed up by a little birthday dinner with my family. Dinner with my extended family always makes for a great time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Meredith xx 

American Legion Sale Finds

The American Legion hall in my town has a ginormous book sale several times a year.

Most of the building is lined with tables filled with hardback and paperback books both old and new, magazines from 1990 and beyond, records, movies (most on VHS), etc.

Today, I made my first visit to the sale that's being held until the end of the weekend. Typically, I go through it at least twice to make sure I didn't miss any cool items.

My (first) American Legion sale haul

If you know me, or as you get to know me, you will come to find that I am a capital "S" Sucker for sales like this one. Per usual, I made it out of the sale with a heavy box-load of books, a couple of movies, and several cassette tapes. You heard that right: cassette tapes.

I drive a '99 Toyota Camry that still plays cassettes, so when I find cool old ones for like 25 cents, I go for it. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a Jeanette MacDonald + Nelson Eddy tape and a solo Nelson Eddy tape. I love them SO much, especially Nelson Eddy.

The fact that Nelson and Jeanette's names are handwritten on this tape make it even more special to me - not sure why. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in my tape deck. :( 

When I put this in my cassette player, the first song that played was "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" and I actually squealed when I heard the first note sung by Nelson. I love him so much.

For those of you not familiar with them, here's a song Nelson sings with Jeanette in Rose-Marie (1936). So romantic.

I found some awesome books, too. A couple of them include Carol Burnett's autobiography and a book on how to style scarves from the '80s. Rock on.

In all, I spent just under $13 for a box filled with goodies. Friends, never pass up a good sale.

Happy shopping!

Folklife Festival 2016: In Photos

The third weekend of October is an incredibly special time of year in my hometown. A longstanding event takes place downtown on Main Street called Folklife Festival. Many of us who were raised here have been fortunate enough to experience its splendor every year from childhood through adulthood.

It's one of those events that consistently brings back scads of college students and former residents for the entire weekend.

Local residents usually stroll the streets looking for their favorite food stands. Personally, I always head for the catfish sandwiches and kettle corn. That stuff is A+, to say the least. Live music from years past can be heard all along Main Street. Families bond, couples stroll, and dogs hang out with their humans on the sidewalk. For some of us, the crowds can get a bit overwhelming, but it's totally worth it.

On Saturday afternoon, I went down to the festival for about an hour with my friend Cori. I actually wasn't all that hungry (!!!), but I had no reason to worry, because I knew I'd be back on Sunday to cater to my lunch needs.

While I spent time down on Main Street with my friends on Saturday and Sunday, I decided to put my (mom's) camera to good use and the results turned out so much better than I even expected.


Folklife Festival 2016 through my lens:

Hello, Main Street!

Poems to Go - loved this. I had to inquire about this fascinating sign placed next to a beautiful typewriter in one of the festival venues. The woman in the photo types up poems about a subject that you suggest and based on your personality, etc.  

This guy made my day. He saw Cori and me walking toward him and noticed that I was pointing the camera lens all around and joyfully volunteered for a photo. I missed his peace sign, but at least I have a photo of him. He's from Alabama and was up here for business, but decided to enjoy the weekend's festivities by chilling outside the place he was staying with a couple of drinks. He was so sweet.

This was the weekend to meet awesome people. Seriously. I sat down and waited for my friends at the Cheese Haus patio on Sunday. This couple happened to be chilling out and we talked for a few minutes. Mike and Bonnie live in St. Louis and decided to make a road trip up here. They had no clue what they were walking into!

A bee found its demise in my nearly-empty bottle of root beer. I found out the hard-ish way by taking a swig and feeling something that wasn't root beer on my lips. Buzz buzz.

Feline good.

Friday Nights Are Made For Flower Hats

For the past few months, Friday nights = going downtown to one of the local pubs with a few friends to talk about and laugh about life.

A few days ago, I found an adorable hat at an antique shop. I'm not sure how old it is, but I don't think it's extremely old. But I saw this hat, tried it on, and couldn't resist purchasing it. I wore it out for the first time last night. It made for a great talking piece and it's so fun to wear.

I feel like Doris Day when I wear this hat. I'm no Doris Day, but to feel a little bit like her is glorious! 

No black hat in sight, but all is swell. Photo courtesy of dorisday.net

New Hair Color + Photo Shoot

I recently took a weekend road trip to St. Louis with my best friend Sheridan. It was the longest distance I've ever traveled in order to get my hair done. Sheridan's sister is a hairstylist who's expanding her portfolio, so I'll just say that my hair was an art project of sorts. It was a late night hair style session - even better!

She sat me down in a barber's chair located in a nice little studio room and began to cut my hair and bangs. I had been growing out into an awkward not-yet-a-bob look and she took me back to my pixie cut style that I've had on and off for the past four-and-a-half years. Then, I dyed. I DYED. A dark purplish hue was added to my brunette locks. After letting the color soak for awhile, I was taken to the bathtub where I had my scalp thoroughly cleaned and rinsed.

The result was exciting. Sher and I had a little photo shoot to celebrate the magic of hair!

Here's my hair before:

And here are a few shots of my new hairstyle: