The Beginning

Oh haaaaaiiiii! Did you miss me? Don’t say no. It’ll crush me.

So if you follow me on Instagram (why aren’t you following me on Instagram? @melodyrich, k?) you’ve seen all the cruise spam I’ve been spraying. So how about some more of it here? I mean, this blog is me and I went on a cruise. Ergo, my blog went on a cruise.

I mean, it was freezing the day we boarded. Ya girl decided to wear a gauzy swim cover up and the thinnest denim shirt on the planet.

Day one we sailed to Cozumel, Mexico. We spent all day lying in the sun getting burned. This is the exact moment I earned the splotchiest sunburn I’ve ever had. I mean, my skin is still marked. It’s bad, y’all. But napping in the sun with a margarita next to your sisters is pretty neat.

Day two we woke up to the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Well, technically we woke up to the sights and sounds of that Carnival ship off our balcony. But that ship was in the clearest water I’ve ever seen. So, that’s something.

We disembarked and got on a small boat and headed to Isla de Pasion. (Add a tilde over that ‘o’ in Pasion, for me will ya?) We passed a yacht from Australia, a rusted sunken ship, and came upon this…

This is where they filmed your favorite Corona commercial. And this is where I fell in love with sand. Free margs and rum and guacamole? SIGN.ME.UP.

Let’s go back.

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The Mountains Are Calling

12.3.1410.4.19 - Melody

military jacket: thrifted, tunic: Dressin’ Gaudy (HOLLER), tights: Dressin’ Gaudy, combat boots: Forever21

WHAT! AN OUTFIT POST!? I am BACK, baby. I wore this on Thanksgiving day in the mountains of Arkansas. My mom’s family rented a house in Mena that backed up to the Ouachita National Forest. *heart eyes emoji* The log house was surrounded by fields and fences and trees and mountains and the sun was prettier up there than down here. (Sorry, Texas.) The crisp cold and the sun setting behind me made for some pretty epic outfit photos. (Thanks sister!) We had so much fun hiking in the forest and playing dice and eating together and just being together. It’s been a while since our whole family has celebrated together and it refreshed me. Shel and I drove up Tuesday night and I stayed until Thursday night, driving back to work Black Friday. It wasn’t actually so bad! I survived, right?

Anyway, back to the mountains. UGH. They were gorgeous. I’ll either get married in the mountains or on the beach. It’s a toss up.

How was your Thanksgiving?

I Might Move to Waco

06.30.1410.4.19 - Melody

Remember when a couple of weeks ago my sister found a stupid awesome apartment in Waco so we went down to sign her lease and we did a bunch of shenanigans? (Is did the right word there?) Well the last shenanigan we did (is it?) was walk through the gorgeous garden a few steps away from her front door. It’s part of the Armstrong Library on campus and I can’t believe she has such a photogenic place so close to her house. Almost makes me want to move to Waco…

Oh, and of course we took outfit photos in said garden. But only after hittin’ up Common Grounds. Also a few steps from her front door. (Yeah, I think I’ll move to Waco now.)

plaid button-up: hand me up, tee: Target, jeans: Target, shoes: TOMS, necklaces/watch/glasses: Dressin’ Gaudy

I was only there for a day but I love it. It’s the perfect home for my sister. God’s gonna do some crazy awesome stuff with her.

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PS! No new Getting To Know You this week because of scheduling. Check back next Wednesday for a new one. 🙂 In the mean time, check out the ones I’ve done so far!
Brittney
Kait
Candice
Bailey
Kelsey

Ina Garten’s Chocolate Globs

03.21.1403.16.14 - Melody

Winter took our little town by surprise a few weeks ago and threw sleet and snow all over the ground. A huge pink glob was hovering over us on the radar with no end in sight. Our power was fine all afternoon and then wham! Shut off. It surged a couple times before giving up completely.

After some panics and talk of Slenderman we lit all the candles we had and then sat around saying now what? Mom had the brilliant cliche idea of pulling out a board game. Specifically Wahoo. We’ve played this game for as long as I can remember and it’s the first board we pull out on vacations. If you’re not familiar, each player takes four colored marbles and rolls dice to move around the board to eventually get them all “home.” Rudy won, surprisingly.

Thank the Lord I had the foresight to bake cookies before all of that calamity.

These… are so delicious. We skipped the nuts in this recipe and just used what we had. It’s a very forgiving recipe and you can throw whatever you want in it! Make them. Now.

Recipe here!

#SBSW not #SXSW

03.17.1410.4.19 - Melody

You guys. If you ever get a chance to go to South By So What?! you should so go. My primary reason for going was to see Taking Back Sunday but they didn’t play til 8 on Friday night so I browsed the set list and found several new bands to love and even MET one of them! OH MY GOSH it was amazing. But I always feel so weird after meeting a band I love. I gush and gush and they’re so sheepish and grateful. Didn’t hurt that they were super handsome, either. 😉

South By So What?! started seven years ago and is a 3-day music festival featuring lots of locals and lots of popular bands. There was a lot of screamo on Friday but we had a freaking blast, and even though I’m not a fan of screamo I came to really like We Came As Romans! (Look them up! They put on a crazy cool show.)

The line to get in looked insane but once we got inside the baseball stadium venue it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. The weather was perfect all day and there was ample shade in the stadium seats. Perfect.
On Saturday, though, I heard they had to cancel a couple of the headliners due to severe weather. Mike Ziemer, the founder, was pretty broken up about it but let all the people that went Saturday get in Sunday for free with their ticket. Pretty cool guy.

Those teeny tiny people on that stage are Under Dog House. Two of the dudes my friend Kait and I went to college with and are super cool dudes. I’m a big fan of their music so you should czech them owt! Plus they’re coming out with some new tunes soon! I’m super proud that they got to play this festival. So awesome.

Oh and apparently this is the drummer for We Came As Romans. My friend’s boyfriend was freaking out but too shy to take a picture so I sneaked one. You’re welcome, Don.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you’ll know how much I’ve been freaking out over Everything’s Gonna Be Alright by Mike Mains and the Branches. WELL LOOK! THERE THEY ARE! They.Were.Incredible. I was too embarrassed to go and meet them afterward but I downloaded three free songs off the back of a sticker they gave me. LOVE THEM.

We kept seeing that dude in a suit walking around the venue all day and thought he was super profesh and then realized it was Mike Mains himself. 🙂

FEVER.DREAMER. I freaked when they took the stage. Month of Sunshine has been the only song, besides the Mike Mains song, that I’ve listened to this last month and a half and it was so cool to hear it live. I worked up the courage to go up and meet them literally right as we were walking out. I gushed and gushed to the handsome gentlemen and they told me their album is coming out in the next month or two. I WILL BE THE FIRST TO BUY IT. PS. Hi Zack and Cody. (Am I creepy, yet?)

And Taking Back freaking Sunday. Put on the greatest show known to man and I felt 14 again. It was beautiful. And apparently Adam Lazzara, the lead singer, lived in Tyler! Small world. I love them so much. I hope to see them play again one day.

SWAG. On our way out two girls in a hardcore Red Bull Mini Cooper said, “Hey guys! Want a Red Bull?” And we were like, “Yeah, okay.” So I got a blueberry Red Bull which was actually delicious. It hyped us all up for ten minutes then we crashed. But hey, SWAG, right?

I had the best time. I’ll be going again next year! And hopefully SXSW too!

“We’re going to Jefferson.”

03.11.1410.4.19 - Melody 2 Comments

My best friend came over Friday night and we hung out until the early hours of Saturday drinking pear ales and talking about everything that popped into our heads. I finally went to bed at 2:30 with all the hopes of sleeping until noon, but my sister came in at 10:30 telling me to get up because “we’re going to Jefferson.” Cool.

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If you don’t know east Texas, Jefferson is arguably one of the most historical towns in east Texas. According to my dad, the town was booming around the Civil War. The river was high and Jefferson was the furthest any boat could get into Texas and still be able to turn around. Boats would bring in goods and beach themselves at the turnaround on the river and then unload them at the warehouses on the beach and then load back up with cotton bales. They’d turn around, trek out of Texas and take that cotton to any number of places in the world. Then one day, Jay Gould decided he wanted to bring his big trains into town to undercut the river and boating business that made the town so successful. He hired some guys to blow the dam upstream successfully lowering the river and destroying the boating business. He ultimately destroyed the town, but hey! He got the railroad in town!
The turnaround is still there and has been turned into a park of sorts. It sits underneath the old and new railroad tracks with new sidewalks and trees and gardens being planted. We picnicked there one year!

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I eventually got up and got ready and grabbed all my camera gear. And by gear I mean my camera and my Fuji Instax. Saturday was misty and gray, perfect light for pictures all day actually. We got into town and pulled right up to the Hamburger Store. So. Delicious. Although it was a little awkward that the family that “drove 7.5 hours for a hotdog” complained about the hotdog “not being cooked” the entire time at the table next to ours and the poor waitress doing everything she could to make them happy.

After I ordered the biggest burger they had and ate all of it, we drove around looking at all the gorgeous hundred year old homes and slobbering all over ourselves at how beautiful they are. Then we drove back by the railroad tracks and spent the rest of the afternoon thrifting. My kind of day.