Amy Anderson from stylish blog Parker Etc. is kind enough to share her mess with us this Monday.  I’ve had the pleasure of chatting it up with Amy online for the past couple of months and I’ve so enjoyed getting to know her.  Not only does she run a fab blog but she also is one of the girls from Blog Brunch (The first Saturday of the month a new topic pertaining to blogging is discussed on twitter -it’s so much fun).  Amy has great style and I have to say I love taking a peek at her What I Wore posts for inspiration and just to get a glimpse into city life.  Be sure to check out her blog + join in on Blog Brunch next month.

The top of my dresser is like the intersection of four major highways. There’s the perfume corner, the nail polish and lipstick touch-up corner, the jewelry section that really just dominates and overflows into all other available corners, and then the meticulously placed dish that was shifted so very specifically to catch any and all stray hair ties and bobby pins….. and yet….. this dresser is also apparently where they go to disappear. Forever. It’s my first and last stop in my morning routine and the first and last stop in my evening bedtime routine. Despite my best efforts, it will always look a wee-bit disheveled.

I have a deep affinity for the good ol’ dinner table and all that it can encompass. It has become the center of all things in the apartment, and due to our nature of hosting dinner parties on a whim, gathering friends over to raise glasses in celebration of good news or merely being the place E and I cozy up with the newspaper and coffee on a Sunday morning…… that table gets a lot of action. So, no matter how many times I just simply re-organize the mail and contents of my purse it accumulates in mere minutes, it can never stay pristine and clutter free. That used to drive me to clean it incessantly, until I realized, no one leaves your home talking about how crum free your table was or how spic and span your countertops were, but they will leave with a sense of renewal from an intentional conversation and genuine hospitality. So let that be the focus.

So bear with me through this cheesyness. My husband did a phenomenal interview for ‘The Great Discontent’ and this quote from him is basically the easiest way to sum up what we all so often forget, but should remember daily. I won the husband lottery….. he’s a dashingly handsome and wise man!“In the big scheme of things,

the work will come and go,

the trends will shift,

there will be good years and down years,

but investing in community and people is something that will prove worthwhile.”

– Eric Ryan Anderson

So tell me, what does your dresser look like?  Is it neats?  Sparce? Cluttered?  And what do you keep on your dresser?  At the moment, my dresser has a few books, magazines, jewelry, and a brass bunny a top.  What about you?

images amy anderson

By Trina