Beautiful autumn day, new week, lots to do. I need to wrap up my new essay for the Institute for Classical Education by Wednesday, but otherwise no outside work on the agenda, just revisions of my own and maybe some new poem exercises to get me going again in that direction. I'll continue to do some careful fall garden cleanup, and am also a little more seriously on the trail of a new dog. Our son, when he was home Halloween weekend, noted how quiet and strange the house felt without our old Lance, and he's right. I've gotten used to it, more than he's had a chance to, but it's true. Hoping to have some news on that front sometime soon, though we're not in a hurry. It's important to locate not just a dog, but the right dog, for roughly the next fifteen years. It gives me pause to consider that the next time I have an old dog who can't get him/herself in or out of the car, in or out of a bath . . . I will be in my seventies. I'm active and reasonably strong, but even so, at my current age, I had a rough time with a 55-pound dog who couldn't get up and down easily. So we are proceeding carefully, but proceeding we are.
In other news, my white camellia tree outside the back door is starting to bloom.
The red ones along the back fence, on the north side of the yard, won't bloom until Christmastime or later. Usually one is blooming in Holy Week –– depending on when Holy Week is. But the white one blooms in November, and is lovely.
Wearing, today, a wardrobe item I didn't wear at all during my 100-day dress challenge, one of a relatively small category of clothes that didn't work with my blue Camellia challenge dress. I bought this pink-and-green floral Liz Claiborne maxi skirt, in a kind of gauzy wrinkled georgette fabric, at Goodwill last spring, just before Easter, when I was in the mood for springy florals. It's a size 10, but a decidedly small size 10, fastening easily at the empire-waist level, not my natural waist. Good thing it's a long skirt, and I can wear long things over it . . . I've toyed with outboxing it, since it does fit imperfectly, but it's so much a kind of thing that I don't have otherwise that I have hung onto it and am determined to wear it.
I've paired it here with my Ebay-purchased Piko bamboo swing dress in burgundy, tied on one side. I actually tied the hem up with the right pocket, because otherwise the pocket would hang out, and it seems to work.
Snag tights in "Thicket," plus Birk Madeiras. If I were going out somewhere and wanted to look nice, I'd wear my camel boots, but since I'm home and value comfort over looks when I'm home, Birks it is.
Feeling statuesque, I guess. I'm not really sure about this outfit, but I wanted to wear the skirt, and the dress does make a soft, drapey tunic. I like the ruffled detail around the bottom of the skirt, too. The overall effect feels kind of earth-mothery. I could grunge it up with Doc Martens instead, taking us right back to the 1990s which I remember all too well, or again, make it kind of rugged-dressy with my camel boots. If I needed a third layer, I'd probably wear my duster-length gray cardigan . . . or possibly a jean jacket would look good. In fact, I think that would probably be the right note, since little dainty floral patterns seem to play at their best with something a little more masculine/not dainty.
So, we'll just call this Experimental Monday. Noting that I could also wear my Sierra over this skirt, though as the Sierra is longer, I wonder how that would look.
Meanwhile, here's a look I admired as it came across my Instagram feed this weekend. I love a lot of what Bron wears, but this layered navy look, with striking silver necklaces, really speaks to me. For one thing, navy is a very good dark neutral for me. I love how she puts together a tone-on-tone look that's sleek and elegant without being stuffy, and although it's spring right now in Australia, could work in any season. I don't have ankle boots like that, but I could see wearing a navy dress with my camel boots for a cold-weather take on the same look, or with my natural-leather fisherman's sandal wedges for a summer version. The one thing I really don't have, it occurs to me, is either a navy blazer or a navy cardigan. As I haven't entered my no-buy year yet, but am preparing for one, that's something I'm actively going to look for in the thrift stores, because I'd get boatloads of wear out of it. I'm not going to buy new, and I'm not going to pay more than ten dollars –– fifty cents would be my perfect price, but we'll see if I can do that! –– but whereas there are endless things I could potentially want, and indeed do
want, this would be a really targeted acquisition, something I both want and would get massive mileage out of with things I already have.
I do have two navy dresses, one darker than the other.
This thrifted Talbots rayon-knit fit-and-flare dress is approaching its sell-by date, but I can't seem to make myself get rid of it. It is a darker, truer navy, and a very versatile dress, sleeveless but wearable year-round.
Pictured here on my birthday last year, without the crop top I usually wear under it to mitigate the décolletage. This is a reliably flattering dress, and I have worn it a lot, despite its probable innocence of any natural fiber. I could easily do a sharp navy-on-navy look with it, especially as it is a true dark navy, with a blazer cut much like the ThredUp-purchased green corduroy one here, or a cropped, close-fitting cardigan. This dress would likely be easier to match than my other navy dress ––
–– which is more of a washed navy. Still, I could see creating that same kind of sophisticated dark monochrome look with this dress as well, possibly with a slim longline cardigan or blazer. Again, I'd wear tall boots in cold weather, natural-leather wedges in warm, and layered silver necklaces.
Taking these notes against the next time I find I want to look sleek and polished . . . you never know, such an occasion might well occur. With either look, I'd wear my hair in a half or full updo, though I start to find myself hankering after the ol' chin-length bob again. It is a phase I go through every several years.
Well, back to it. Among other things, I'm reading Henry James's What Maisie Knew, which is exactly like watching a multi-car pileup in Jamesian-prose time. Painful, but you cannot look away.
UPDATE:
Quick midday outfit adjustment (since this is Experimental Monday):
Dress un-knotted, Doc Martens substituted for Birkenstocks. I like this better, with the grunge element of the boots. I remember the 1990s all too well, but with great fondness.
