The top of the study bookshelf: a random still-life.
Also, I keep taking these bathroom selfies, judiciously leaving out most of the view of the bathroom. Because everyone's already toured the garden exhaustively, not to mention most of the rooms in this house, here today are the rooms that usually get left out of any tour.
Our downstairs bathroom, a jack-and-jill arrangement connecting our bedroom with the back den/study. There's also a door into the hall, though we mostly keep it bolted, and the drying rack usually stands in front of it. As people are coming over today, I moved the drying rack into the bedroom, by the window, so that we can open the bathroom door onto the hall. That generally makes it easier to tell people where the bathroom is, and easier for them to find it without having to go through other rooms.
In thirteen years, we've pretty much forgotten what it's like to take a shower instead of a bath with a shower attachment. Occasionally, now that the kids are gone, one of us will think to take a shower in the upstairs bathroom, just for the complete novelty of the thing, but most of the time: nope. Soaker tub it is.
The upstairs bathroom. This level of tidiness and cleanliness is not its natural state. Also, no, we were not the people who thought a hardwood floor in a bathroom was a good idea. There's a lot of reality judiciously covered up here, but it makes a pretty picture.
Today I reached for my Sierra dress again. After –– what? –– two days off? it feels good to put her on again. Easy to be dressed, ready to face whatever the day brings.
The marbled bamboo leggings (Ebay) and the green cotton cardigan (Goodwill) were hanging on the drying rack with Sierra, so I put them on with my Birk Madeiras. It's cooler today, and I might need a jacket over if I go out walking, but this is pretty warm and comfortable as it is. Hair in a half-updo with a little soft velour scrunchy, for a change from the updos of the last few days. I combed it and spritzed it with a little water after sleeping on it, scrunching the waves back into a little bit of shape. I hadn't used any kind of styling product when I washed it yesterday, just shampoo and conditioner bars, but it's fine.
Happy with the muted gray backdrop for the green sweater, with the subtle interest of the patterned leggings.
As I was saying yesterday, I like the drape of this dress with its more substantial fabric, the way it fits through the bust, then flares subtly, hanging in these softly-structured folds. It is a very unstructured dress, yet it has a shape and holds it. That really hits a sweet spot for me that I didn't know I had. I love swing dresses generally and feel good in them, but this one, casual and easy as it is, achieves just this little bit of almost-tailored polish, which I think is a function of both its cut and its fabric. If I'm going to have a cooler-weather uniform, this feels like it.