Tell me you had room for breakfast on the day after Thanksgiving without telling me you had room for breakfast on the day after Thanksgiving.
The smirk of the person whose pie tastes even better on the second day, combined with the fixed and desperate gaze of the person who has forgotten that the camera timer was set to ten seconds and has already used up her quota of blinks.
Nothing on today, other than a lot of lying around and some desultory novel revision. Later I might locate the Advent wreath and begin to ponder making my house fair for the coming season, but I don't think I'll ponder too hard.
Today's style theme: Hm, what's this thing still slung over the drying rack?
Answers:
*Yesterday's thrifted J. Crew green cotton cardigan
*Day-before-yesterday's wool Camellia tank dress
*Old cheapo charcoal-gray ponte-knit leggings, forget when I last wore them
*Doc Martens
I continue to wear my bamboo slip as a base layer. Trying to remember whether I've washed it yet or not –– if I have, I've only washed it once, yet it stays fresh, just hung to air overnight on the drying rack. Today isn't as cold as I thought it might be: it was pretty chilly this morning when I was walking Dora, wearing my gray cotton t-shirt dress and old REI base-layer leggings, both of which I'd slept in, with a heavy cardigan and puffer jacket over, plus wool socks and hiking boots, which I've been leaving under the drying rack. I figure that Dora's in a hurry to get outside in the morning, so to the greatest extent possible, I'm trying to be able to roll out of bed and take her there. In the summer I imagine my routine will be to throw on a bra and sandals with whatever t-shirt dress I've slept in. Anyway, it has warmed up now into the low 50sF, and I was comfortable outside in just what I was wearing, without a coat.
The weather, as you can see, is bright, dry, and very gusty, so much so that we've had a fire alert issued for our area.
Anyway, I'm happy with what I picked off the drying rack and flung upon my person. I never tire of blue and green together; today's combination has me feeling like the evergreen laurels against the sky. I've worn tights a good bit this week, but leggings feel so good and heavy and substantial by comparison. I feel a lot more lounge-y in them than I do in tights. Leggings also allow me to wear thick wool hiking socks that don't slide around inside my slightly-too-big Docs.
I'd love to be able to pick up at least one more pair of bamboo leggings before the end of the year, but we shall see. Trying to slow down even my secondhand acquisitions, though at the same time I'm filling holes, conscious of the fact that I'm going to be challenging myself to go a long time without adding to the wardrobe I have. Xero Shoes was having a big sale, and I bought both a pair of athletic sandals in charcoal for next summer, because I wear the heck out of things like that and don't have any at the moment, and a pair of Oswego walking shoes in purple, because my sneakers are all either pretty worn out or go unworn and need to be passed along, and I liked the look of these. I'm not a sneaker person, but I could really use a walking shoe that's not my Madeiras, just to give them a rest.
Meanwhile, I'm still on the lookout for a good secondhand navy blazer or structured cardigan. I would love to be able to create a relaxed but dressy navy-on-navy outfit. We shall see . . . if I go another year without being able to create said outfit, it will hardly be the end of the world. I can do various iterations of gray-on-gray, which has the same kind of polished effect and can take me lots of places, potentially.
And we're heading into Advent, when my anchoring color day to day will be purple. I'm not going to bother to create a seasonal capsule, though I easily could; mostly I want to experiment to see how many things in my closet I can incorporate into a scheme involving purple, without pre-determining anything. Things I know I'll wear:
*purple Pact sheath dress
*purple patterned rayon knit dress
*several cardigans in shades of purple
*purple leggings
*pale grape linen scarf
*soft grape collarless shirt
*charcoal-gray Sierra dress
*various gray tights
*various gray leggings
*various gray cardigans
*charcoal-gray ponte skinny jeans
*dark-blue bamboo swing dress
Out of just these items (note that I didn't itemize cardigans, leggings, etc, that I have multiples of in various shades), I could readily make four weeks' worth of outfits, especially when you figure in Gaudete Sunday, when I'll most likely wear my burgundy swing dress as my "rose." I won't limit myself to this list, because I'm sure I'm leaving out things I'd want to wear, but I've given myself a start. Now, wearing purple is hardly a spiritual discipline, and it's probably a lot less so since I've called attention to the fact that I do it. But it's a fun little challenge all the same, and it does remind me what season I'm in, even when the season starts to pall on me. What I'm wearing reminds me of who I am and what it is that I have set out to do –– that's a good thing for any day, but it can be especially helpful in these weeks-long seasons of patient waiting.
But today I'm glad I reached for my Camellia, to remind me of the brilliant still-autumn sky outside.