A dog nicely sitting in winter sunshine while her handler walks away.
This trick is still in development, but it's a good one. You don't even have to teach stay as a separate command, just sit until released.
Boisterous Boxing Day dinner last night, featuring crowns out of our Christmas crackers:
Tonight, I think, will be the last of our dinners together --- the two elder couples will be heading back to Dallas tomorrow. The house will seem quiet and lonely without them, though the two youngers might enjoy regaining their privacy, and having their bathroom to themselves.
Today five of them are going snow-tubing somewhere near Asheville, all but the one unlucky soul who has to work this afternoon.
I have officially Poshmarked this cardigan I got for Christmas --- which again is a really nice cardigan, but not at all flattering on me. It's a medium, and I could probably have used a small, but I don't love it enough to bother exchanging. Now that I'm up and going, I think I'm going to list other things currently in my outbox, rather than donating it all.
Meanwhile, I've been forming a bit of a plan for the start of my NO-no-buy year --- otherwise known as "Slow-Buy 2023." Though I do keep looking at Wool& dresses and fantasizing about what I want to buy next, I'm going to resolve not to buy any dresses in January, at least. I might get a purple dress to do a 30-day challenge in Lent (not for Lent, as my discipline, but a little extra fasting from my regular clothes), but I'm going to hold off on any more large-piece purchases.
Ultimately, I think I might like to own seven dresses, one for each day of the week, at least theoretically. I don't think I'd have The Monday Dress, and so on, but it would be nice to be able to rotate so that no dress has to be worn more than once in a week, thus extending the life of each dress. I don't think I'm wedded to this idea, and honestly, the number of dresses I have right now is sufficent. But it's an idea I'm floating.
What I want to do in the shorter term, however, is focus on smaller items, things that give me more options for wearing the dresses I have. Between New Year's and Ash Wednesday, that will be my goal. I don't want to go nuts, but I would like to add a few more cardigans of different colors, shapes, and lengths to my collection, preferably in natural fibers, most preferably in wool. I'd like to continue to cull items that aren't serving me well, and --- unlike this year, for the most part --- consider replacing them with something better, preferably secondhand. I might keep my eye open for more leggings and skirts as well. I'm down to two skirts in the closet, and I like wearing a skirt over a Wool& dress from time to time. It would be nice to have a few more options for doing that.
I am putting together some cumulative thoughts about this no-buy year. Mostly I'm glad to see it end, even though it hasn't been that onerous, mostly because I have in fact bought things. Still, I am really having to resist the temptation to open the floodgates as a reaction, a major binge after a major fast. At the same time, one effect has been more culling of my closet. I expected to shop my closet a lot, and I guess I have, but mostly what I've done is take things out of it. Having dresses I really like wearing has highlighted how much I didn't really like wearing other things I owned. If I don't like wearing it, and have to force myself to do so, there's no point in keeping it.
So my wardrobe is a lot leaner than it was, and not because I haven't been buying. In a no-buy year, I have still managed to add three dresses and two pairs of shoes. Yet I have far less than I started with, because most of what I've subtracted from the closet hasn't been replaced.
At the same time, I have more to wear. Fewer items, greater value. I have a much clearer sense of my own aesthetic and what looks and feels good on me, thanks to the daily selfie habit. I can easily see what I have, to put it on. This feels like a solid win.
And I haven't just bought things to buy things. The major success of this year's discipline has been to break me of the reflexive habit of thrift shopping, of saying, "Oh, why not," to everything my eye falls on, and winding up with a lot of stuff I don't really want. I have bought things, but when I bought them I was sure I wanted them. I'd thought about it. I'd considered what else was already in my wardrobe, and how a new item would work with the rest of it. I'd chosen carefully. And I've been genuinely happy with each purchase. Each item has been something that I like wearing and look forward to wearing.
Overall, I'm happy with how this year has gone, and happy with where I am in terms of how I dress. My clothes fit how I live. I like that I'm not (I don't think) cosplaying as somebody a lot younger than I am, but I'm not dressing like a little old lady, either. I like that I can get dressed easily, but my outfit isn't a "nothing" outfit, or all that boring (mostly).
I also, of course, like that my clothing budget is going to small businessnes with sustainable practices. I like that I'm not supporting the vast faceless mass-producing fashion industry. I like that I can think in terms of "style," not "trends."
So this no-buy year, as it draws to a close, has not been precisely what I thought it was going to be, but it's been a good exercise in sharpening my focus. It's forced me to think about what I'm doing, and not use shopping (even thrift shopping) as a reaction to boredom or discontent. To have things is unavoidable in this life, but there's a different between having things and having stuff. The no-buy challenge, as limited as mine has been, has taught me a lot about that, and I'm grateful.
ETA: I am thinking seriously about a year in wool, as a challenge. As it stands, I have enough wool dresses to consider this as a doable practice. It would have been hard with only two, but with five, I have enough variety and rotation to pull it off. Realistically, I will probably acquire at least one new dress in the coming year. Much depends on how well my first two dresses continue to hold up. So far so good, but I do find myself doing some mending, and at some point Camellia and Sierra are going to fall out of the "wear for nice" category. Maybe not this year, but one never knows.
At any rate, I think that's what I've been doing with my closet: moving it closer to an all-natural-fiber, largely-wool zone.
Aaaaaaannnnnnd, wearing today:
Wool& Maggie dress, secondhand cashmere cardigan, old navy cotton leggings, oldish wool socks from Target, Xero Tari boots, and a totally synthetic scarf my children gave me years ago, which I still like. I'm also wearing my bamboo slip as a warm base layer. I was plenty comfortable walking the dog, plenty toasty at the dog park.
While everybody's out of the house, I'm going to do some tidying and switch my laundry over. By then my Kindle will be charged, and I can keep reading The Master of Hestviken. That sounds like a decent way to spend the day. Leftovers for dinner tonight: salmon chowder, ham, rolls, fruit.
Wishing everyone joy in the quietness of these days of Christmastide.