Here's a midcentury-style Christmas house in a midcentury-style Christmas house, in Dallas, which the college kids and I left around noon today.
My daughter made these last year or the year before, and they're a fun little touch. The pink one in the last photo looks the most like the actual house, although the actual house is not pink.
Took this shot as I was eating breakfast this morning:
You can see the slopey roof and the clerestory windows, which make the front rooms amazingly light-filled. It's a tiny house, but full of fun.
Fun and dogs.
I have managed to get shots of what I was wearing this week, out of my travel capsule. Again, this consists of all five of my wool dresses, plus one purple cardigan, one merino base-layer tee, one polarfleece pullover, four pairs of tights, and underwear. I have not yet repeated an outfit, yet it's been easy just to put my hand in my backpack and pull out something I'm happy to wear all day.
Tuesday's outfit, in which I drove through torrential rain from Memphis to Dallas:
Marine-blue Maggie dress, thrifted purple cardigan, navy Snag merino tights, Xero Tari boots (THE shoe of this week).
I did add a scarf to finish things off a little more:
Wednesday, when I sat in the student center at the University of Dallas for about six hours and wrote three poetry essays while my children got themselves moved out of the dorm, a process that lasted until about 1:30 a.m. (but I was not part of all that, thankfully):
Wool& Fiona dress, the same cardigan and scarf (not really shown), Snag charcoal-gray merino tights, which I opted for after not liking the way my taupe merino tights looked ---
A little too nude-looking or something. Not enough contrast with the boots. I'm glad I listened to my uncomfortable feeling and changed, instead of telling myself that I was being stupid. I put on the darker tights and felt instantly better.
TODAY:
Charcoal-gray Sierra, with dusty rose-purple merino tee under (not seen all day, but it was cold, and I was glad I had it on), and this thrifted purple polarfleece pullover. I don't love polarfleece so much anymore, but I'm not sorry I've hung onto this piece. Navy Snag merino tights, and the Tari boots.
That was a weirdly flattering angle. I actually looked dumpier than that in this outfit:
It was comfortable for driving, so I didn't care, but next time I think I'll tuck the bottom of the pullover up underneath, so that it looks cropped. Proportions aren't great here --- the line is hitting right at the start of my hips, so the effect is a little too wide. This doesn't bother me with my Camellia dress, which has more drape, but with the really A-line skirt of the Sierra, it's not brilliant.
So the good news is: the dress isn't objectively frumpy, nor is the pullover. The way I'm wearing them IS a little frumpy, but I can fix that for next time. Meanwhile, I was quite cozy for a long day on the road.
Going to do some laundry now and go to bed. Tomorrow is a rest day, then the next day we go to my mother-in-law's, then Sunday is the last big push for home.