Day 55 of 57: Rummage me this

    On day 55 of 57 Days of Dresses I had a afternoon of rummaging with Jason and our friend Emily. Our first rummage was at the "Really, Really Free Market" at Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville.
    What a disappointment.
    The premise of the event is great in theory; it's essentially a public swap meet that's held the last Saturday of every month. However, in practice, it became an stunningly pungent, unorganized pile of old, dirty clothes with the sparse remnants of Asheville's Occupy movement holding a rather confused General Assembly, foul-smelling faux-hippies picking through some underwear, and a bearded woman discussing the latest extremist feminist trends with a glamorous tranny queen. Emily did find a cool Jawbreaker band tee. Besides that, we promptly scrapped up the bits of our dignity we had left after about five minutes of subjecting ourselves to the stench and found a bathroom to wash our hands. Jason didn't participate in the dirty clothes rummage, needless to say.
     Next on the agenda was looking for a birthday gift for Jason's father. Emily recommended the Lexington Avenue Antique Mall. This place is huge! From the outside it looks like a small shop, but the store expands into a supermarket sized space.
    We spent a good two hours poking around, and decided to leave after Jason and I started having a sensory overload from the amass of stuff in there. The was an impressive inventory of vintage clothes, and quite a bit looked reasonably priced. I'll have another visit, and soon.
    After an oddly fruitless trip to the antique mall, We went to Karen Donatelli Cakes on Haywood Ave. to enjoy some absolutely delicious desserts. I'm a huge fan of French macaroons, and the bakery had chocolate macaroons and raspberry macaroons. Yum! Jason got a  German chocolate cake ball, and there was a gluten-free flourless chocolate tort that Emily was able to thoroughly enjoy.
    We parted ways with Emily and head to Black Mountain in continuance of our search for the perfect birthday gift, and we found it! Happy birthday, Waymon!
    Our last order of business was a photo shoot by the old red truck.
    I got this 1980s vintage dress at Local Honey in Nashville, Tenn. It's a very comfortable, slouchy, dropped-waist cotton tennis-style dress. The ruffled skirt has two layers that have a nice bounce to it. The bodice has a paint swatch pattern that's quintessential '80s design.
    This simple dress is a great springtime piece for daytime activities, and looks great with or without accessories--I think with this dress less is better. I have it paired with some other authentic '80s pieces: a pair of denim pumps and an over-sized fish barrette straight from my mother's boxes of her old clothes from the '70s and '80s (I remember her wearing these when I was, like, five years old), and a great vintage patchwork leather purse I picked up a a vintage boutique. Now if there was only a New Order concert sometime, somewhere soon! I can always dream!