About Me // 25 Facts

I was inspired to write this post by Ivy of Perfectly Ambitious! My about page is fairly brief, so I thought I would introduce myself a bit better and share a few facts about me.

25 Facts About Me

1. I live in Southern Pines, North Carolina, but I’m actually a northerner who grew up in Powell, Ohio. To be totally honest I’m not fully adjusted to Southern living yet, even after almost three years– the South is still a bit of a culture shock sometimes.
2. In addition to blogging and running my Etsy shop, I also work a full time (60+ hours/week at times) job as part of the management team for a non-profit nursing organization.
3. When I’m not at the office, blogging, or working on my Etsy shop, I’m usually reading.
4. My three cats (from left: Noctus, Binx, & Freyja) are the loves of my life.
5. I’m seriously addicted to watching planner unboxing & plan with me videos on YouTube.
6. If I could eat sushi every single day, I totally would.
7. I have a mega crush on all things Kate Spade.
8. When I’m not working, blogging, crafting,  or reading, I’m probably playing video games. A few of my favorites are the Pokemon series (Gen 2 for life!), Diablo III, Hearthstone, and Final Fantasy I-X.
9. I could spend all day watching reruns of Top Chef and Law & Order: SVU. And sometimes I actually do.
10.  I’m new to Photoshop– and it’s probably obvious– but I’m lucky to have a very talented (and very patient) boyfriend who is a pro at graphic design and willing to teach me the basics.
11. I’ve been a stationery addict for as long as I can remember. I have entire drawers filled with unused notebooks that I bought just because they were too pretty to pass up.
12. Similarly, I’m on a constant quest for the perfect pen for my planner. Something fine tipped that doesn’t bleed and has nice ink and writes well and looks pretty..
13. I wish I were better at cooking and baking. I’ve mastered a small handful of recipes, but if it’s outside of that limited repertoire then I’m pretty much hopeless.
14. I love buying new make-up and beauty supplies but I’m honestly terrible at using them. My make-up routine is so simple that you would think a five year old designed it– and it hasn’t changed much since high school: I still stick to the basic eyeliner-eyeshadow-lip gloss combo.
15. My personal style is some kind of mix between goth and shabby chic– like if Martha Stewart and Marilyn Manson ever had a love child, it would be me.
16. I have a major weakness for pretty candles (especially from Target’s Threshold line) and my favorite scents are peppermint and lemongrass.
17. I may or may not do a little happy dance every time I hear that Etsy “cha-ching!” notification for a new order. My shop is slowly picking up, and every sale is still so exciting!
18. I’ve struggled with anxiety, bipolar disorder, and self-injury since my teenage years, but as I’ve gotten older it’s taught me how important it is to fight my inner criticism and doubt with positive thinking. I still have bad days where I think that everything I’ve ever done is awful and worthless, but even on those days I try to stop what I’m doing, clear my head, and remember that every mistake I make is something that I can learn and grow from.
19. I have one tattoo that I got for myself shortly after leaving my husband in 2014. It reminds me just how much strength I have, and that I can overcome anything.
20. This is my second serious attempt at blogging. My first blog, Dear Wilde, was self-hosted and I ultimately shut it down in 2015 because I let self-doubt wreck my confidence and I burned out. I took a year-long hiatus from blogging, and now that I’ve come back to it I’ve learned a lot about what not to do this time around. I think I’m in a much better place now, and I’m going to make the best of this blog.
21. My dream job when I was in college was to finish my English lit degree and someday become a professor of Victorian literature studies. I don’t think that this plan is where life will take me, at this point, but it’s always lived in the back of my head as one of those improbable wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if.. kind of fantasies.
22. My favorite book is The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. I have a major love for mid-to-late Victorian literature; Oscar Wilde, Wilkie Collins, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, and J.K. Huysmans are several of my favorite Victorian authors.
23. My taste in music has an extremely wide variety– I listen to everything from Combichrist to classical to Ke$ha (I actually have a huge weakness for Ke$ha.) The genres of music that I’m not so much a fan of are thrash & death Metal and Country.
24. I think the most important things that I can bring to blogging are honesty and authenticity. I believe in staying true to my own voice, no matter how strange and quirky (and sometimes cringe-worthy) it can be.
25. Obvious fact is obvious, since it’s pretty much the point of my blog– but I am utterly obsessed with all things planner-related. ❤️
26. Bonus: I’ll be 27 in June, and it’s actually freaking me out a little that my twenties are so close to being over!

If you like my blog and want to see more of my life, you can also find me on Instagram (@merricataddams is for my life/blog & @adoreplanners is for my Etsy shop), Twitter (@merricataddams), and my Etsy shop finally has a Facebook page as of yesterday (hooray!)

You can also follow my blog on Bloglovin’— and be sure to check out my latest posts this week!