Blackberry canes I pruned yesterday, trying to train the vines toward, not away from, the fence. I thought I'd put them in water and try to root them so that next year I won't have to buy more blackberries. I'd love just to get these started, then bung them in the ground once the weather cools off this fall. I have rooted a cane successfully before, so I am full of hope.
Still waiting for my dye supplies to get here. Maybe by the time they do, certain of my offspring will have removed their laundry items from the laundry room, so that I can actually do something in there.
Today's agenda:
*wash my hair (which I do not feel like doing but really must make myself take the time to do)
*read proofreader's notes for the novel
*put up Sun poems and begin to meditate on what I might say about them
*write some lines or sentences or something of my own; very much treading water in my own writing right now
*buy groceries
The bathroom is occupied, and I am incapable of taking pictures anywhere else, but in any event, what I'm wearing at the moment is this, exactly. I overslept, and Dora and I had a late and very hot walk, so now I'm all sweaty --- even though the dress is basically fine, I might change into something else after I bathe, just so I feel fresher. This seems to be Bamboo Week so far, which is great --- I had worn these dresses slightly less often in July, while I was focused on shaking up my swing-dress default mode, but now it feels good to relax into them again. They are so soft and lovely. I wore my burgundy long-sleeved dress all day yesterday, then out for beer, without changing anything about my outfit. I do look forward to things like my denim jacket in the fall --- I don't wear it a whole lot, but it sharpens up any basic outfit, and it will be fun to add it back in once the weather's not too hot.
Off to perform my ritual ablutions. More later.
LATER:
After bathing and hair-washing, I did decide to change up what I was wearing, and experiment with something I haven't worn in ages --- not since the end of January, according to my wardrobe tracker.
I bought these cotton-knit paper-bag-waist pants last year on Ebay, thinking they were secondhand. As it turned out, they weren't, so it was a fast-fashion purchase, and I've learned to read entries more carefully before I hit the buy button. They are nice pants: thick and soft and relatively good, for a cotton knit, at holding their shape. The fit feels fairly flattering to me. I don't wear them often, because I just don't wear pants often, especially in hot weather, but somehow the softness appealed to me today.
Part of why I haven't worn them is that it's hard to find tops to wear with them, for an effect that I like. But I thought I'd try this light thrifted linen hoodie top --- it has long sleeves, obviously, but it's linen, so pretty cool. I'm wearing my dusty-rose bamboo crop top/bralette underneath.
Anyway, I've been asking myself whether I want to hang onto these pants, and I think the answer is yes: at least for the time being. They do look better with sandals than with any other kind of shoe, so I had better wear them while I can wear sandals --- though possibly the tan Chelsea boots I have my eye on for the fall will work with them in terms of color and shape.
For the moment I'm insanely comfortable. If I get hot, or whatever, I'll change again. It might just be that kind of day --- which isn't bad. I don't have too many days where I'm unhappy with what I'm wearing and can't get it right, and for that I give thanks. That used to be a regular setting for me. The prospect of going out anywhere made me an anxious mess, trying on outfit after outfit that felt wrong and terrible and made me hate myself. I virtually never do that anymore, and it's like being set free. In fact, it IS being set free. But it's okay every once in a while to try something out (on a day when I'm really not going anywhere), then decide against it and put on something else.
And so to work.
LATER STILL:
Have worn this outfit all day, indoors and out. Quite comfortable and happy. It's nice to get reacquainted with this pair of pants.
I wear long pants so seldom that when I do, it's really a revelation to enjoy myself in them.
Hair turned out pretty well, too. I co-washed in V05, since I still had a bottle of it under the sink, for a change of pace, then raked gel emulsified in a lot of water through it. I don't think I want to do this all the time, but I'm happy with the outcome today.
Instagram image of the day: my personal inclination would be simply to have the one-piece thing, instead of trying to match two separates that closely (navy + navy? Do you have any idea how many shades of navy there are??? I have tried doing this exact thing with the pants I'm wearing today, and OY). I would simply have the jumpsuit in that color, or the dress. But I really like this color combo, mixing "marionberry," because that's what that color is in Wool& clothes, with light blue (or is it light gray? It really looked blue on my screen just a minute ago, but now it doesn't!). Definitely keeping that in mind, should I acquire anything in marionberry (and, okay, the same thing goes for gray).
ALSO: I'm going to keep calling this a no-buy year, because by and large that's what it's worked out to be --- but for 2023 I'm going to shift to a new designation: the slow-buy year.
In lots of ways, that's what this year has been. It's not that I haven't bought things. I've just bought them with a lot of consideration, and not as a knee-jerk habit, which has been a good new habit to inculcate in myself. I've researched items, and looked at them, and thought about them, and when I have bought, I have bought carefully and been happy with what I bought.
That's the habit I want to carry forward. I am planning to do some more considered purchasing around my birthday in November, though I start to get anxious that things I've had my eye on are going to sell out. I'm trying not to be anxious, and/or to have alternates in mind for the things I want (though I'm pretty sure I want those Tari boots, and the more I think about them, the more I think nothing else will do). I've also been striking things off my wishlist --- I bang everything I think of onto that list, but a couple of weeks later, if I'm not still yearning for the thing, off it goes. I don't need a long wishlist, just a very targeted one. Or to put it another way, I'm not going to buy tons of things when I do buy. I'm going to buy extremely well-considered and targeted things, not everything that has happened to catch my eye. It's okay to let my eye be caught, but whether the thing stays stuck there . . . is an image I think I don't want to play out to its logical (or scriptural) conclusion.
So: year upon year of "no-buy" seems like not a sustainable premise, but year upon year of "slow-buy" --- that I think I can commit to. It's not a negative. It's not the kind of situation where I then have to dance all around justifying why, when I'm not buying anything, I am in fact buying X. Telling myself that this year is a "no-buy" has been a useful narrative, which I've stuck to a lot more than if I'd told myself something else. But going forward, having reset my habits this year, I think I can loosen it up a little in the future.