Evening windowsill the other night, the kitchen lights making a crown of stars over Mary's head in the window. We've had rain blow through, off and on, but the clarity it leaves behind at this time of year is so wonderful.
The kids left yesterday afternoon, barely making it onto their plane. They had left home in good time, but traffic, my husband said, was packed up for miles, and it took them half an hour just to get from the airport entrance to the terminal. Books have been left behind, but then meds are going to need to be sent (all in the passive voice --- WHO did the leaving? WHO will do the sending?), so I guess it'll all get boxed up and off to its rightful owner, who I hope didn't need the book under the passenger seat of my car to write a paper this week. Same person also had to pay an overweight fee on his suitcase, so he really could just have packed the book, since he was going big anyway.
Freaking out a little thinking about how much work I have to do, and how not-clean the house is, and how nine people will be turning up here in (checks notes) three weeks. So to steady my nerves, I'm just going to make lists of purple clothes I have (many items pictured in Saturday's post) and ponder what they go with (virtually everything, really), and this will give me an illusion of control over my life.
Purple Clothing Items I Own (including zero dresses)
Tops:
grape merino short-sleeved v-neck tee
pinky-purple long-sleeved merino scoop-neck tee
pinky-purple ramie-cotton pullover sweater
Cardigans:
Eddie Bauer ruffle-edge cable cardigan (the famous 25-cent cardigam)
Outerwear:
plummy purple polarfleece pullover
dark periwinkle longline blazer
Anna-Kate-crocheted shawl
Bottoms:
purple crop leggings
Scarves:
pinky-purple linen
blue/purple infinity scarf
daughter-knit little scarf
mohair purple-multi scarf
Shoes:
Xero Oswegos
And then of course I have everything else in my closet, which could be worn in combination with any of these things. I'm not bothering to limit myself to a capsule wardrobe, just wanting to be aware of what I have so that I can wear something purple every day.
Outfit Ideas Combining Elements Above With My Dresses:
*Maggie with 25-cent cardigan, navy tights, Birk Madeiras
*Maggie with ramie-cotton pullover, navy tights, Tari boots
*Maggie with purple leggings and Oswegos, + a gray cardigan
*Maggie with gray cardigan, tights + boots, pinky-purple linen scarf
*Maggie over long-sleeved pinky-purple merino tee
*Maggie with the same tee tied over, + linen scarf
*Audrey with 25-cent cardigan and boots
*Audrey with ramie-cotton pullover
*Audrey over long-sleeved merino tee
*Audrey with long-sleeved merino tee tied over
*Audrey over short-sleeved v-neck tee with gray drape cardigan
*Audrey with short-sleeved v-neck tee tied over, with cardigan
*Audrey with dark periwinkle blazer
*Audrey with gray cardigan and Oswegos
*Audrey with gray or blue cardigan and various scarves
*Fiona with 25-cent cardigan
*Fiona with dark periwinkle blazer
*Fiona with purple leggings and Oswegos
*Fiona with long-sleeved merino tee tied over
*Fiona with any cardigan and various scarves (not going to type out all the various scarves --- I know which ones they are!)
*Sierra with 25-cent cardigan . . .
This is getting repetitive. Basically, I have something purple to wear with every core dress I own. Every outfit idea I have, with a few exceptions (that ramie pullover is boxy and doesn't look great with swing dresses), will work regardless of what dress I'm wearing. I can wear my big shawl with any of these dresses for instant purpleness.
I think I'm going to make it through Advent just fine.
To wit, wearing today:
Wool& Maggie dress, the 25-cent cardigan, Snag merino tights in Silver Lining (my original merino tights, from early last winter), thrifted Birkenstock Madeiras.
So this is pretty simple, but it's what I have energy for today. One thing I've been considering is just how much I appreciate having a selection of merino tights to wear. As much as I love wearing leggings, I think tights look better with shoes and boots, and especially with shoes that don't cover your ankles. Owning tights that are no less comfortable to wear than leggings, that offer warmth and breatheability, is such a gift. Last year, when these were the only merino tights I owned, I wore them constantly, with the result that they do have some pilling in the feet and ankles --- but I don't care. Still wearing them. Fortunately I can now rotate them with other merino tights, and I wash them lot less, which I think saves wear and tear. I just hang them to air on the drying rack, and in a day or so at most, even the feet lose whatever odor they might have picked up during wear.
I experimented a little with belt options before deciding I didn't care and would rather not wear one.
This, for example, is the tie to an old fuzzy synthetic cardigan I no longer own. I kind of like the dusty pinkish color, the thinness and the fact that I could wrap it in any number of ways, kind of like those cork belts (from Julahas, for example) that are currently popular. But the fuzziness . . . eh. I wasn't feeling it today, at any rate.
Then I tried this grosgrain ribbon, which my husband had used to decorate one of my birthday packages. I have the whole spool, in fact, but this is the length he used on the package, and it was still hanging about on the drying rack where I'd tossed it (because that's where everything ends up). I knew it wasn't going to go with this as an outfit, but I wanted to see how the ribbon worked on the dress.
Actually, it's not as jarring with the purple cardigan as I had originally thought, which is why it's always valuable to take pictures of things. But somehow I don't like it with the tights and shoes. What does occur to me is that this could be part of an Easter outfit. Maggie with some kind of little springtime cardigan, with this ribbon at the waist, and spring shoes --- part of my little internal stress about possibly doing a year in wool was what about Easter? I think I'm still not going to declare any kind of official year for next year, but if I wanted to wear wool dresses for 365 days straight, I could.
And ribbons are so easy to come by. I have various lengths of ribbon in my dining-room cabinet, where I keep a lot of Christmas things, and I could so easily dress this dress up in various ways, just by tying a ribbon at my waist. Again I'm contemplating the ease and versatility of this dress, in both color and shape. Marine blue, as you can see, is a really glowing take on basic navy. It goes with everything, but it's not boring in itself. It can read as wintry or springlike. It was lovely and light last summer. The drape is silky and luxurious. This dress is so basic that I often overlook it, but honestly, it might be my favorite of all --- when I stop to think about it.
And I could dress up today's extremely basic look, if I needed to, by adding knee boots. But for walking, working, laundry, all the things on my Monday list, this is fine.
Today's Bible-in-a-year reading: Genesis 3-4, Psalm 2, Matthew 2, Imitation of Christ, Book I Chapter 2.
I've also started Sigrid Undset's The Master of Hestviken, which I've never yet read. Just finished a couple of Penelope Fitzgerald novels: The Blue Flower and The Bookshop. Have also just been struck by the idea of a historical novel with the unknown Gawain/Pearl poet at its center, and have been going down a Richard II rabbit hole since last night . . .
LATER:
Felt kind of boring, so I did put on a belt:
