◈◈LEOPARD IN A PARK◈◈

 thrifted dress, boots, yin yang necklace and belt, ebay bootstraps, ebay cactus bag, flea market jewelry

Things have been hectic to the max, as I pretend to prepare to move across country in less than 3 weeks. I find myself putting everything off until tomorrow, while only accomplishing the most medicore of tasks before spending the rest of my time out with friends and family. Oh, I need to put all my furniture on craigslist today? Instead I'll go sit on a patio and dine, and probably nap afterwards. Tomorrow I need to get boxes and pack? I think I'll just go to Jazz in June and stuff my face more while drinking. Five thousand e-mails and voicemails to respond to, and I can't even bare to listen or read right now. No thanks, I've got to sit and play with my dog. I'm a last minute sort, I guess. Things will never change.

I took these photos earlier this week before it was 10983 degrees out. Dis dress! It was too long, so I cut it and knotted up one side. I feel very Fred Flinstone meets Peg Bundy in it. Luckily I cut it too short, so I forever have to wear biker shorts underneath. *Yay*.

(Hi Patrick!) <---british guy who has a lot of hopes.

instagram: caseystrawberry

◮◮SUPER AWESOME FUN TIME◭◭

I'm cleaning out my life and making room for my move across country. After donating 6 bags of clothing, giving away some to friends, and selling a number to local buy/sell/trade stores, there are a few vintage pieces that are hard to part with, so I made an etsy shop featuring a portion of them. If they don't sell, then oh well; I like them all still. I just don't have much room in my car! So please, browse around my tiny etsy shop and buy if you feel so inclined! There are more items than what I have pictured here.

Visit my etsy shop here, aptly named: 

Super Awesome Fun Time

 

☼ SHORTS FOR DAZE ☼

shorts c/o one half wolf, top from store in south dakota, jeffrey campbell boots, thrifted belt and bag

Upcycled and handmade by a mother and daughter, the shorts created by One Half Wolf are right up my alley. Get a load of these:

I have a blanket with the same pattern as the second pair. I'd like to wear this blanket. They read my mind and transformed a similar blanket into shorts. SHORTS. My obsession. Blanket shorts forever! 

Normally I wouldn't clash colors and patterns like this but,...WHO AM I KIDDING, of course I would do that. This is only half mismatched, though, as my hair does the rest of the work to have this outfit "make sense" in any way. 

Sometimes I wonder about my reasoning and place in the world of personal style blogging, and I start to feel like maybe I'm just some sort of vanity-obsessed female who spends too much money on clothing. But then I look through my posts at my unbrushed hair and unprofessional photos, wearing mostly secondhand clothing, and I remember that my purpose has nothing to do with being ostentatious. After reading Eckhart Tolle's "The Power Of Now", and spending the last month trying to rid my mind of any sort of ego, positive or negative, I contemplated stopping this blog. I probably would stop if I didn't feel like I could help anyone by having this ol' thing. Over the past year, I've been able to spotlight small businesses through etsy, and I think that's a wonderful thing to be able to do. On top of that, I hope to inspire women to dress how they feel inside, regardless of their age. Often people tell me they can't believe the fact that I am 27 years old. "You don't dress like it!", they will state. Is there some sort of cut off age when you have to begin dressing different than you feel? People are too quick to say that they "could never pull that off at their age", and that's a bummer. I'm here to help stomp that social norm deep into the ground, particularly midwestern people who feel like they are supposed to be 'boring'. I've got a soft spot for my midwesties. It's a lot tougher to not settle into a cookie cutter traditional world out here, but my hope is that more and more people can overcome that pressure and live their lives the way they would prefer. Lastly, I'd like to help Brit with her animal blogging community idea. I love that she wants to use her blog as a platform to teach and motivate bloggers to become active in animal rights and rescuing. Hopefully that will come into action and the entire blogging community can take part if they are passionate! 

Ideas, ideas.

PRAIRIE CHURCHIN'

belt, shoes, and levi's jacket thrifted in cowboy towns, nina mantra moon necklace, jewelry from melrose trading post/random, f21 pants, american deadstock tie dye cropped top, divided black tank, ebay bootstraps

I'm not sure what exactly is going on in that second to last photo but it sure does appear like I have junk in the trunk like crazy, which is AWESOME, if I do say so myself. I've worn elements of this outfit in previous posts, but after venturing to this abandoned church-thing in a small ghost town area outside of the city, there was no way we weren't taking photos. This place was so rad. I keep picturing everything shamelessly covered up in old tarp before suddenly being unveiled and magically dusted in the blink of an eye, bringing life back into this place (graffiti included) like that scene in Addam's Family, if I'm remembering that movie correctly. Ahhh, vampy church, how I love thee.

These shoes are my favorite of all my thrifted finds in some of the recent cowboy town adventures we had last weekend. $4. What? Okay. Yes, please. To add to it, I found this Levi's denim jacket for $5, and this belt for $1.35. One thing I will forever miss about this state - the distaste amongst people for everything I love, who gladly dump their old things at thrift stores, especially in small towns. I don't find a lot of people rummaging through stores like this, so there are multitudes of treasures to be discovered - and at a very low cost. 

Oh, Nebraska, sometimes I love you. Except when I hate you (November through April - gag me).