Why Anthropologie should hire me...

I am not one to brag...but my room looks SWEET. also--I did a lot of super cheap, lovely things to make it look good!  I shall share now. Take a gander.

Ok this is my bed.   The frame was $99.00 from IKEA.  The duvet cover is one I made a while ago by sewing a bed sheet on the back of a tablecloth. I don't know where I came up with the idea.  Super lovely. The curtains are beautiful (and $6.00) napkins from Ten Thousand Villages which I lined so they wouldn't fade and hung with curtain clips from a black curtain rod.  done.

This is...uhh..my bedside table and sitting area?  I guess.  I've never had one of them before.  haha. The chair was once in my living room. I love it.  It didn't really match the red shag carpet (yikes) so I threw this Navajo looking blanket on the back (which i found while going through my grandma's house last summer), which includes some red stripes and ties is all together (sort of).  I AM OBSESSED WITH BEES--hence the pillow. got it at TJ maxx. The bedside table was in my attic.  Apparently they are from some Milton Hershey thing.  My mom says there is one in the Hershey Museum.  Sweet. The mirror is one my roommate bought back in the day which i spray painted black.  That is my cat's bed--which is an old laundry basket with a pillow in it.  Riley likes it, thank you very much.

This is my dresser.  It is old.  On top I have this sweet mirror from Ikea, a beautiful hurricane lamp from my grandma Lucy, and various perfumes.  The thing my earrings are on is an old screen from my basement window that I found in the basement.  I have been keeping my headbands in a vase for a while now...i think it is a great way to display them and keep them from getting bent.  The picture in the frame is from a yoga magazine.  I am all about cutting crap out of magazines and putting it in frames.  so chic! 

This is my desk/bookshelf area.  The desk and bookshelf are from Ikea.  The chair is from an old library. we have like 5 at my house for no apparent reason.  The bulletin boards (one on the wall and one on my desk) are old ones I had that I painted and covered with great fabric i found in the basement.  I dried some Yarrow and put it in a big canning jar on my desk cause it matches my wall perfectly and is pretty. The teal "A"is one I painted.  And again with the framed magazine clippings. haha.  To the left of my bookshelf is a basket holder rack thing from the grandma's house which I have hung my 400 bags on.  Another good way to store them/display them. 

I think that is it.  I have loved making this space my home.  If you know anything about it pre-remodel.  It was horrific.  There were apple stencils.  dreadful. 

hope you enjoy. 

Love to all. 

Memory Box

I have had a memory box for a long time.  I think it really began when I started getting pictures and notes from the 3 weeks i would spend at summer camp.  Anyway, it has grown tremendously over the past couple of years.  I keep pretty much every card I have ever received, ever camp picture, every note or little craft a camper has made me, every tilly gift (a weekly gift between camp staff members), pictures, notes, dumb things I never want to forget...you know...everything.  Let me tell you...my memory box is pure comfort in my eyes.  About once a week, I get it out and go through it.  I sit on my bed and read through every card, every little note, and every picture.  They make me smile, make me miss people and times in my life, and give me peace.  It is like meditation to me.  I sit and think about the people who made things for me, wrote things to me, or posed for a picture with me.  I pray for them.  I hold them close.
Tonight was one of those nights.  I think my favorite thing about my memory box is that it holds every sort of emotion inside of it. I have cards from people who I have unfortunately had to part ways from.  I have notes from dear friends who I no longer talk to.  I have cards from my grandparents funerals.  I have pictures from college, the first friendship bracelet a camper made for me my first summer on staff...all of these emotions and things that make my story interesting.  And once in a while, I will read something that I wrote, or someone else wrote to me, and it will strike a chord for me.  Tonight I found a note I wrote to myself. (side note: I write notes to myself ALL the time.  In college, I would write a note and stick it on my desk and read it every day.  It's like the only way I get through to myself or something. I don't know. I'm weird.)
Anyway.  here is what the note says:

Dear Adelaide, Get out of God's way.  Love, Addie.

Adelaide is what I call myself when I'm getting serious with...myself.
But seriously.
You know when you have a moment when you feel like you are smarter than yourself.  I felt like that.  Those words ring true tonight. Just what i needed to hear.
So if you are like me and need to hear that short but sweet message, remember my little note in my memory box.  Get out of God's way.  I really don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this note, but I am not sure how I feel about "God's plan" language.  I think that this note is to remind me to simply ride the waves. Don't create drama where there is none.  Don't act like things are hard when they aren't.  Slow down.   Listen with every fiber of your being to God and your "God gut" as I like to call it. (I like to think that the queasy feelings I get when something bad is about to happen is all thanks to that crazy spirit in the sky).  Walk in stride with Christ who calls and leads.  If we pray without ceasing and make every breath a praise to the one who creates and sustains, then we have no choice but to get out of our own freakin' way.  Step aside, sista.
Thank you two year ago Addie for writing that little note on a post-it and then strangely keeping it in a box under your nightstand like some sort of hoarder.  It proved to be quite helpful.

another side note:  My parents are both downstairs singing along to Barbara Streisand live in concert of PBS.  This is my life.  Here's to you, Babs.