Frosty morning window, brilliant sky outside. Heading out in a few to walk the dog, but thought I'd bang out this post first, while things are still quiet.
My little arty daughter is cranking out the art objects lately. Here's a screen print, which in a different color might be a strong contender for cover art for my next book of poems. Not that that book is really in the works yet, but one of the things I've been doing is editing, adding to and subtracting from it, polishing and polishing, so that hopefully in the next year or so it will see the light of day. I told the daughter: do some bird prints. And we both love owls, which happen to occur more than once in the new book manuscript.
She's also doing pottery this semester, as in throwing pots on the wheel as opposed to hand-forming them. Here are her latest creations, hot out of the kiln. And here. She does amaze me continually.
The drama son is doing sound design for the college's fall mainstage production, working alongside one of his professors as an apprentice, as well as appearing in at least one senior-studio one-act play. He also amazes me continually.
As do the grownup set. The firefighter son has finished his season and is hanging out in Great Falls, where he has been based. The home-staging daughter is . . . BUSY. Work is busy, but they keep adding new chickens to their flock, and the dogs are receiving some intensive training, and her husband's sister is living with them, and life is simply never dull.
One thing about the turn in the weather is that I start to understand that Christmas will get here, and that they'll all be here together, and that that will be GREAT.
Today, meanwhile, is fall break. The husband has to go in for a faculty meeting, but after that we're driving up to Black Mountain to see some longtime friends who have retired there.
Wearing today, in sequence:
I've sort of turned my Maggie dress into a Rowena with the addition of a long-sleeved base-layer merino tee, thrifted last year. I have been dithering about what dress I want when I can buy one, having a little crisis about whether I REALLY want another swing dress, or else something like the Fiona, with a structured waist. But this is illuminating. I REALLY like the Maggie shape with long sleeves, possibly better than I like it with short sleeves. I think I'd be happier with a Rowena than just about anything else, except a black-heather Audrey, which is also very high on my to-buy list.
The longer sleeves here seem to balance out the longer length better. As much as I like this dress, I have kind of regretted not getting her in the regular length, so that the hem would be where my Camellia hem is. But this is instructive.
For a change of pace, I'm wearing Snag merino tights in Sand Dollar, which as you can see is a really lovely taupe. I'd thought about doing a navy merino leg, to have a whole tonal look with just a pop of contrast on my feet, but I think I like this.
Added, again, my thrifted alpaca cardigan for another layer of warmth:
And finally, a scarf, because my hair is wet, my neck is cold, and I have to walk the dog soon:
I think all this works pretty nicely together, blending without being matchy. It's really just tone-on-tone, with my shoe nicely contrasting my lowest hem, and everything else just kind of harmonizing, with low levels of contrast. I'm warm, I'm comfortable, I feel put together even though I could be still in my pajamas in terms of how the outfit feels. It'll be very chilly in Black Mountain, I anticipate, and we're going to walk from our friends' house to the German restaurant, so I'm glad to be well layered in clothes I'm comfortable moving around in.
It's 36 wonderful degrees out there, so nice and brisk for a morning walk. I might try drying my hair a little before I go out!
POST-WALK/DRY-HAIR UPDATE:
Shiny face because moisturizer, but we are nice and invigorated after our time outside.
Had to take the cardigan off because it's warm in the house, but I'm thinking this is going to be a regular cold-weather ensemble. The navies of the merino base-layer tee and the dress aren't an exact match, but they're close enough that nobody would really notice that I was wearing layers. I was PLENTY warm out walking, too, with tee, dress, cardigan, scarf, merino tights, and puffer jacket, the last item of which I almost didn't need.
I've added a step-counter app to my phone and learned that IF I walk up and down the dog park a lot as I did today, my normal morning walk to and from said dog park is not quite two miles. I was thinking it was 2+, dog-park inclusive, but nope, it's not quite that. Still, starting the day with *roughly* 2 miles isn't bad, especially when we're going to walk again multiple times between now and bedtime. AND I'm up and down in the house, not being totally sedentary even when I'm working. The app has given me 6K steps as a daily goal, instead of the standard 10K, which I guess is because I'm old? Anyway, I should hit that target handily without even trying hard. According to the app, from the time I put the phone in my coat pocket to leave the house, I've walked 4828 steps, which amounts to 1.98 miles, burning 185.7 kilocalories.
And the day is young yet.