Dog, recovered from yesterday's heat, but still pensive about it all.
Not doing much today. Again, it is hot. I think our high is officially 95F, but it's supposed to feel like . . . 114? Hooray. I am currently sitting outside with the dog pictured above, because she wanted to sunbathe. Somehow I think we won't be out here long.
Otherwise . . . doing some research, finishing off my copy-editing job, playing with poems. Sent out a submission today for the first time in a while. Even at the best of times, it's hard to work up too much energy for that part of the whole process. Creation is satisfying. What comes next typically isn't, all that much.
Wearing today:
Somehow this hands-in-the-hair pose always seems to work. Here's Maggie T for a fourth July wear --- the Maggies have really been on deck this week, and for good reason. Even in the sun on a day like today, I feel pretty cool and comfortable. One thing I think that wool really has over linen, even in the heat of the summer, is that it never gets that rumpled, exhausted look. Granted, rumpled just is linen's valid way of being, but at the end of the day it can look and feel as tired as you are. Wool, on the other hand, stays exactly as it is, giving the impression, at least, that you just put it on and are ready for anything. I just thought of this and am pleased to have thought of it.
And even with her little mended hem-rip, I love this dress so much. Yes, the pockets are there and kind of visible, but half the time I have my hands in them.
I love this lush deep teal. It feels so vibrant now in the summer, and it will handle cold-weather dressing equally well. It was with great reluctance, back in the spring, that I sent back the cobalt Sofia I had ordered after long deliberation, because the bodice just didn't fit me right. I got this Maggie as an exchange, kind of as an impulse, but I've never regretted that impulse.
In the heat and emotional doldrums of late July, I have been finding it satisfying to plan my autumn wardrobe, even though it won't really feel like fall until November. I always exclude things like underwear and tights from my no-buy schemes, so I have bought two new pairs of Snag tights, in Blueberry and Beach Bum, I think is the name of the lighter blue. They'll both look great with all my dresses, creating that more tonal look that I think I'm going to be after with layers this fall and winter. I've also ordered two more Kosher Casuals crop tops, which I count as underwear --- you really wouldn't wear them on their own, I don't think --- in "jeans blue" and "aubergine." Mostly I'll wear these with my Brooklyn dress, as alternatives to the teal crop top I already often wear with it. The aubergine, which is really just a nice plummy purple, will be great for Advent and Lent. And I can wear them with my Audrey dress as well, for cleaner-looking under-layers than my various tees have provided.
I'm not getting rid of all those tees in one fell swoop, but I have reposhed one of them, and I might well wind up selling all but the dusty rose-pink long-sleeved one, just to prevent my continuing to make outfits I don't really like. I'm considering reposhing both the merino/merino-blend tanks I bought last winter, too. I'm just not sure they're serving me the way I had hoped they would. I don't plan to buy any more dresses anytime soon --- maybe a marine-blue Brooklyn when they come back in stock in 2024 --- but I think I would wear the dresses I own better with better accessory options, which mostly means fewer not-great ones. Get rid of the not-great ones, and I'll see the good ones I mostly already have more clearly. Meanwhile, it's nice to have added some more tights to my stash for the fall and winter, and to anticipate a couple more of those crop tops which I have found so easy and useful to wear when I want not to flash the world.
Anyway: Team Basic Maggie T today. Grateful to feel nicely dressed without even trying.
Also grateful to have come in out of the sun and the heat. Even Dora seems to be prostrated now.
PS: ALL I want to do is think about clothes. I'm hot and bored and kind of depressed in the way that summer always makes me. Thinking about clothes is fun and escapist and a lot cheaper than going to the beach.
EVENING UPDATE:
Dinner done, everyone home. Sent out not one but two poetry submissions today. Finished and sent in my copy-editor's notes. Did a boatload --- we're talking Icon of the Seas here --- of laundry. I didn't know we owned that many towels, but apparently we do. And now they're clean, folded, and restored to the upstairs bathroom. You're welcome, upstairs denizens.
I don't actually mind doing this laundry. I've been hanging towels outside, where they dry fast in the sun and heat, which means that things in the dryer dry faster, too. Things also don't go down the black hole of somebody's laundry pile. And I know when the washing machine will be free and empty. It's kind of a win, especially when I'm the only person home for a lot of the day.
Meanwhile, in hair news, I'm still pretty jazzed about these Invisibobble Wavers. I broke one pretty promptly, but then I guess that's why they sell them in 3-packs. They are smallish and not flexible, so you have to be a little careful with them, but my goodness, do they hold hair in place.
I twisted up this front bit of my hair this morning and secured it with a Waver --- and secure is the word here. It hasn't moved.
These are gentle and don't break your hair the way metal barrettes can, but the hold is amazing. I will take care of my remaining two babies so that they last me, because they are an answer I had been looking for.
Hair outta my face at the end of a longish day. It's the little things.