Daffodils forming buds on the 8th of January, even though it's cold. This is the only one I've seen budding so far, thank goodness, though many other clumps are well up.
Sorted my leggings/joggers/knit-pull-on-trousers bin this morning:
Again, like the closet yesterday, this didn't take long. It's nice to see clearly what I have, and lovely to dwell on the colors, which please me in their coherence. My wardrobe isn't monochrome at all, but more and more, as I've clarified what colors I really like and how they might go together, it is harmonious. Color registers might be brighter or darker, more or less saturated, but the whole effect, I think, is tonal, creating pleasant chords.
These happen to be my colors, but you could achieve the same effect with whatever your colors are. To my mind, this is the way to create a coherent wardrobe –– not a capsule in the sense of a bunch of monochromatic pieces that go together as a default, because that gets boring fast, but again, a collection that has some internal coherence in terms of color. Looking at what's in this bin, I see immediate correspondences with what's in my closet ––
–– so many potential outfits I could make, especially when you also add in my sweater drawer, which reflects much the same palette. While I'm not sure this actually qualifies as minimalism, it's an amount of clothing that could work in a smaller space than I have (though really: this is my closet . . . it ain't big), while remaining flexible in terms of choices. That's as minimalist as I'm ever going to get, but I'm happy to think that I could live in, say, an RV, and not sacrifice a lot in terms of what I wear. I probably won't ever live in an RV, mind you, but I always like to think that I could.
I'm continuing to track what I wear daily; the dates will help remind me what I wore together. Looking at my bin, I can see things I'm not sure I'm going to wear much, but at this stage I don't know that I'm not going to wear them. Daily tracking should help me see my patterns more clearly, so I know better what to keep and what to pass along.
Wearing today (for a change of pace):
Very old ponte-knit charcoal-gray skinny jeans, new-to-me light-gray bamboo tunic top, new-to-me pink micro-strip merino scoop-neck tee. Aside from one more bamboo dress (which might serve as a nightgown), which I'm still waiting for, these are the last things I bought in 2021. The merino tee makes an excellent thermal base layer on a chilly day, and I love the flow and drape of this silvery bamboo tunic. It's thin and fluid enough that it will be easy to tuck into trousers or skirts and fit without bulk under sleeveless dresses. This is a definite improvement over the gray cotton J.Jill tunic I bought it to replace; the old tunic was a lot stiffer and boxier and had odd pockets that made it impossible to tuck and difficult as a bottom layer. I've outboxed it –– though I'd had it for four or five years, it's still in very good shape, so will be one of the items I Poshmark when I get back from my college-student road trip next week.
I like the gray-on-gray tonality of this outfit, but also the little glimpse of pink.
The neckline felt a little bare and empty, even after I'd put on my usual four-way medal, so I added a second necklace. I wasn't sure about it at first –– my impulse was to feel that it was kind of cluttery –- but I think it's an improvement to the outfit.
The whole thing again:
The beads add just a tiny dressy note, which I like. I'm comfortable, but I feel polished and put together even at this level of casualness, and even with my hair all over the place. The wrinkles will shake out of the tunic eventually, which will also help! Anyway, I don't wear pants that often, but I have always liked these. I step into these Birkenstocks by default, but I could dress the look up more with Doc Martens (which I have now cleaned, after stepping in . . . something . . . in the yard, so they're ready to go again). In warmer weather, I could wear my fisherman's sandal wedges (with no socks!) for an even more out-to-dinner vibe. More and more I prefer wearing dresses, but this outfit feels like a nice change today.
Fiddling still more with my terza rima poem of the other day –– a little section in the middle that's been out of focus, but whatever I do to it has to work with the rhyme scheme, which makes a challenge.