Still looking like Christmas around here, but with the quietness into which the season inevitably settles after all the front-end excitement. I used to find this sort of sad, as if we weren't still feasting, but more and more I think the quietness and nothing-to-do are themselves the better part of the feast.
Here is one of the paintings my youngest daughter gave me for Christmas. They aren't her own –- her best college friend, who is doing a minor in painting, had a series of these Blue Madonna paintings up in the chapel at the University of Dallas. Very sneakily they enticed me to come and see them before we left. I exclaimed over them, and (again very sneakily), my daughter and her friend managed to go back and choose out two for me. Here's the other, Our Lady of La Leche:
More mundane scenes also abound, which have their own beauty:
It's chillier out today than it has been for the last couple of days. What is this? Winter or something? Wearing Camellia with my secondhand merino long-sleeved tee, old charcoal-gray leggings, Birks (but my feet are cold, so I'll probably put on socks, at least):
I love this merino tee. Keeping it was the right choice. I could do with a cardigan over all this, as well as socks, but essentially I'm warm and comfortable in light layers.
I also like this combo, with Camellia as a jumper, better than any other similar combination I've tried. Maybe that's because so many of my "jumper" efforts with Camellia involved a whole other dress underneath, rather than a shirt, though the "shades of blue" effect is also subtly nice, I think.
I'm enjoying the soft, light drape of this dress, as I always do. Layering it over more merino is really the perfect solution, and although I'm not generally a fan of crew necks, because they're too high to be flattering, the higher neckline of the merino tee fills in the barer, summerier neckline of the dress admirably. My complaint all fall was that it was too hot for autumnal clothes, but the dress still felt too summery . . . I think I just needed a crewneck tee. Note to self for next fall.
Everyone else is occupied with various things today. My oldest daughter is upstairs making work calls, and possibly my son-in-law is working remotely as well. Others are lying around, because . . . well, you know. What else is this week for, really? But I think I'm going to do some closet organizing and clothes sorting, preparatory to the onset of No-Buy 2022. Thinking through the coming seasons . . . thinking through what kinds of situations I might encounter (weddings, funerals, poetry readings) and what I might wear for those situations. Thinking about walks and hikes in all weathers and what would make me comfortable and happy in my skin as I live a physically active life. Trying to think ahead about the coming year and mentally dress myself for it, so that as those days come along, as they will, one by one, the last thing I'll have to worry about is what to wear.