In which I plan to wear things I bought at Goodwill last week, at least some of the time.
MONDAY MAY 31
Thrifted Lee jeans, white tank, and duck-egg-blue shirt — I forget what label. Blue EVA Birks to walk in. Restrained hair seemed indicated somehow. Jeans are a size 12, which does not delight me, but at least they fit. I’m enjoying the play of cool, pale colors.
The shirt is really a smock top – here it is the day I bought it, with the same jeans, in a different attempt at styling:
TUESDAY JUNE 1
Continuing the capsule idea by repeating yesterday's jeans and white tank with another third-layer option from my Goodwill shopping last week.
Practicing for next Advent and Lent, I guess, when I hope this top will see a lot of wear. Today's high is supposed to be 81F, so I'm a bit dubious about keeping it on all day, but the white-on-white of the tank and jeans will be okay on its own if I get too hot in the third layer.
Agenda:
*Mass at the Abbey
*Lunch out in Belmont
*Pilgrimage to a new bookstore in Concord
*Husband making burgers, so I don't have to worry about dinner!
Continuing to love the delicious colors of the things I bought last week. This is my spectrum, folks: colors I can wear without feeling I need making up, that work with my own coloring instead of competing with it, overwhelming it, or washing it out.
Tomorrow I think we plan to go to the mountains, so I might wear shorts. I have to wash yesterday's blue top, because cooking, but if I can get it washed, dried, and ironed in time, I want to wear it with my sage-green Gap shorts. I think that would be a pretty marvelous color marriage. BUT as it's supposed to be only 66F up the road in Blowing Rock, I could wear the royal-blue Gloria Vanderbilt jeans at the far right of my flat-lay shot at the top, possibly with the darker orchid/soft-grape shirt as a top layer over a tank. We shall see . . . I don't usually thrift shop with the idea of making a capsule of those things I buy, since thrifting is so unpredictable, but it's interesting to see how these items have worked out as complements to each other.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 2
You can see below how my beloved smocked Loft shirt, thrifted several years ago, is starting to fall apart. It's not too obvious from a distance, but the sad day is coming.
THURSDAY JUNE 3
A quieter day after yesterday's hiking. By now I've worn everything from my thrift haul/capsule from last week and thought I would try an outfit incorporating something that had not been part of my May 30x30 challenge, which means I haven't worn it in over a month. I'm also determined to make use of my v-neck Walmart tees, even though v-necks don't suit me as well as other things, and they've been a bit boxy and tricky to wear.
Today's outfit:
*thrifted Liz Claiborne floral skirt (a small size 10)
*Walmart rose-pink v-neck tee (size L)
*thrifted Birkenstock Floridas
For a size 10, this skirt is clingier than I would like, though a slip helps some. My knee-jerk impulse is to want to wear something long on top, to cover my stomach, hips, and thighs. BUT to do so would be to make myself look shorter-legged and stumpier and more shapeless than I already am. I thought about leaving this tee, which hits at my hips, untucked or unknotted (I went for side-knotting, as you see) for that reason, but I sucked up my courage and went for at least the suggestion of a higher waist. The line's not straight, which I think helps. At any rate, today's little challenge is to embrace my imperfect body and not hide it, but dress it.
Washed my hair last night, slept on it damp, and combed it today. No styling, no gel or anything. Just can't be bothered. It looks okay.
Also, as of today, and minus what I’m wearing and the sweaters in a single bin under my bed, here is my whole wardrobe:
It's all kind of shoved together; there's more there than you can see, but I am happy with how compact it is, and how more and more, the items in it go with each other. I can make any number of capsule wardrobes out of it, depending on what I want my organizing principle to be.
Janet and I walked down to the Good Neighbor shop in the afternoon. I bought some little Corelle dishes, plus a white gauze sleeveless top, a pair of gauze navy wide-leg culottes, and the butter-yellow shorts you see hanging up at the far left. I don't normally wear yellow, and I would not wear it next to my face, but it goes so nicely with blues, whites, sage green, periwinkle, and other colors I do wear all the time, that I thought they were worth the gamble. They have a nice high waist and fit well. All in all, I'm happy to have them and will add them to my packing list for our upcoming beach trip.
FRIDAY JUNE 4
Wearing 2/3 of my thrift catch from yesterday:
White (really a slightly ivoried white, especially compared with other white tops, but it seems to flatter me all right) gauze loose top, tucked. Gauze wide-leg pants in navy. If you had told me years ago that I would be wearing a lot of navy and white, and that I would not look like a member of the North Carolina Republican Women's Caucus in such a color combination, I would not have believed you, but here we are. This outfit, incidentally, represents a $4 expenditure. When we went into the shop, the ladies there told us that there was a sale: all clothes $2, except new items and things on the 50-cent rack. Actually, I think that's the sale that's on all the time, but there's nothing so motivating as hearing the word "sale," which I'm sure is why I bought these things.
Today's agenda:
*errands (pick up dog meds, etc)
*make upstairs bed which Janet has just vacated & straighten room
*entertain friends who are coming through for the afternoon
*dinner
*try to get some poems off to a magazine whose Duotrope submission page is not working for me, but I really want to send to them.
*plan beach travel capsule for upcoming trip
Wishing you all a good weekend, a joyous celebration of the great feast of Corpus Christi, and a happy beginning to this month dedicated to the Sacred Heart.