Both my parents did a lot of needlepoint at a certain stage in my childhood. Our house was full of needlepoint-cover pillows like this one, as well as needlepoint-covered stools and the occasional framed needlepoint. My dad did an entire rug for his office, roughly the size of my kitchen table --- it took him years, but he finished it, and now it hangs on a wall in my mother's house, too precious ever to be walked on again.
Possibly my grandmother made this particular pillow --- the 1970s were full of people doing needlepoint, everywhere you looked. Anyway, I've ended up with the pillow, which sits on a wicker chair in our bedroom, and I like it. I like the calm colors and the fern design. Although it's still botanical, because I guess botanical is my thing, it makes a little change from all the garden pictures. I never tire of looking at blue sage, but it does look the same, day after day.
Today's agenda (more of the same as yesterday's):
*proofreading and proofreading notes
*another Sun poetry essay for next week (yesterday I wrote about Laurence Binyon; today Sara Teasdale)
*my own writing --- actually, I got up and wrote an acerbic little sonnet, so that's something.
I washed my hair and bought my groceries yesterday, so can strike those items off my list for today, at any rate.
Yesterday I'd walked the dog wearing my thrifted blue-dyed bamboo swing dress (as distinct from my blue bamboo swing dresses that came that way), then changed into another ensemble after bathing and washing my hair. I flung the discarded dress onto the drying rack to air after my sweaty walk, and today, preparing to walk the dog again, I flung it back onto my body.
It still smells pretty fresh, especially given all this wear in muggy weather, and looks fine. I might wash it out when I take it off tonight, or I might not. At any rate, I'm going to keep it on today.
I continue to love this luminous blue, which was kind of a random mix of Rit Indigo and (I think?) Evening Blue? I can't remember now. Anyway, a couple of blues, which I dumped in together, 1:1. I had forgotten to buy fixative --- even now, this dress still bleeds a lot, which is one reason why I hesitate to wash it --- so it faded a good bit with the first wash, but I like it. It's kind of a washed navy, but feels very shimmery and bright somehow.
Happy with my Day 2 hair, too. I combed it out, which broke up the actual curls I had going on, but I really don't mind that. I always like the "before" versions of curly/wavy people's hair at least as much as I like the "after," with the super-defined curls. Weirdly, after washing with conditioner only, my hair almost feels cleaner today than it did in its just-dried state yesterday. It's very soft, relaxed, and shiny. IF ONLY V05 came in a no-waste packaging format . . .
Still looking forward to the arrival of my next round of dyeing supplies, intended for the refurbishment of my Camellia dress. Again, my plan is to dye her royal blue , and to use the washing machine this time, rather than a bucket.
Anyway, I'd love to go on thinking about clothes as a means of procrastination, but I'd better make myself attack the requisite tasks.
LATER:
Finished and sent in the proofreading notes. Hooray, hooray, that was about the last thing I had to do, I think!
Worked more on the sonnet, knocking it back and forth with my friend Marly --- I don't often do this at this early a stage, but she likes to swap poems, and she's a great person to talk through things with.
I need to get on with my other projects in a minute, but it's nice to take a little break.
We're going to a P A R T Y tomorrow night, the first in I don't know how long! Friends who've moved to DC are back in town, and some other friends are hosting a cookout. Thinking about what to wear, a process that in the old days would have given me a breakdown: how to hit the right casual-festive note, how to be comfortable for the weather, how to feel good, how to feel that I look good? All that, formerly, would have been one big anxiety attack.
Now . . . I just have to ask myself which dress I want to wear. Having a style album helps a lot, because I can scroll through and remind myself of combinations I've liked. I have toyed with the idea of green shorts, some shirt, and my red Cassie Mary Jane shoes, but really: D R E S S. If I want a surefire formula, I will wear a swing dress and sandals, which will make me feel great and not focused on myself. Thinking I'll wear Maggie . . . with or without a belt . . . maybe with a scarf for a belt . . . probably with my tan sandals for the casualness . . . Anyway. Nice to know I can just put my hand in my closet and pull out something that will look and feel good.
I want to think about clothes, because that's kind of comforting, in the same weird way that police procedure is comforting, but really, the point is that I don't HAVE to think about them all that much, and once they're on my body, I don't have to think about them at all.
EVEN LATER:
OK, I've written my Sun essays for next week. Indulging myself by fantasizing, yet again, about what I'm going to buy in the future (this is the less-great aspect of my no-buy year --- everything I want to buy but am not letting myself buy is taking up a LOT of rent-free space in my brain lately. I have not become more nobly non-materialistic by way of this endeavor).
I keep pondering the mauve Sierra. It seems like a really pretty color, especially as I've seen pictures of it on actual people. Of the purples on offer (even though this one is technically pink), I think this one is just about the most reliably flattering for me.
So I'm thinking I might get it around my birthday (God willing --- I really hope they don't sell out in my size) and do a 30-day challenge in it, that would encompass Advent. That could be kind of fun, and also solve the "what purple things do I want to wear" question for that season. It's never a bad time to simplify, but Advent seems a particularly good time to want to focus on simplicity. I think I'll hold this thought . . .
Speaking of Sierras, I just hand-washed mine for the first time in I don't know how long. I literally don't remember the last time this dress got washed. She's smelled perfectly fine, of course, all summer long . . . but wow, the dirt that washed out in my bathroom sink! It definitely wasn't dye, just plain old North Carolina dust, acquired via gardening, walking, being walked on by the dog, and so on. Not that anybody would ever know, and I do air her out between wearings, but yeah, I guess it had been a WHILE.