A white-breasted nuthatch in oil pastel, done by my dad: one of three bird drawings by him that hang right inside our front door.
The day began cold but is warming steadily. Last night after the pub, our walk was beautiful but pretty bitter. When I woke up this morning the temperature was still in the 20s Farenheit, but has been climbing fast. It's now 38F, and the projected high is 60 --- pleasantly cool but not cold at all, and a great change from the last day or so.
This morning, once my husband leaves for work, my plan is to fold laundry and put sheets back on the upstairs beds, in preparation for our weekend guests. Tomorrow I'll clean the upstairs bathroom; Saturday I'll vacuum up the dog hair. No point in doing that until the last possible moment. I made huge headway on the MFA thesis yesterday so that I could spend today doing other things, largely: needed housework, but also, in the afternoon, taking AK driving.
You might remember that I'd taken her to get her learner's permit back in the summer, because although she had driver's ed in high school, nobody expected her to be able to drive, so she never has. That's been the story of her life in a lot of ways: people who should have equipped her with life skills either thought she was incapable (grossly underestimating her intelligence and ability), or were incapable themselves, or both. So anyway, she got the learner's permit, which in itself was a bit of a drama, and has been taking driving lessons all fall. I'd told her she could take the driver's test in my car, and now that she's acquired the requisite insurance coverage, she needs to practice driving it. SO this afternoon we're going to go eat some pizza and drive.
Anyway, that's the day ahead. If I can get some more thesis reading in, I will, but my priorities are elsewhere.
Wearing:
And now for something completely different. I am, in fact, wearing a Wool& dress: my redyed royal-blue Camellia is serving as an under-layer/slip today. I hope the blue dye doesn't rub off on this pale skirt . . . we'll see how it goes. I'll keep an eye on how everything is behaving and change clothes before leaving the house if necessary.
The rundown:
*Wool& Camellia (medium regular), originally lapis blue, redyed royal blue
*Thrifted green Sparrow/Anthropologie pullover (merino/angora/cotton blend)
*Thrifted Cherokee linen skirt (size 14, plenty generous), originally white, redyed with tea and matcha powder
*Snag merino tights in Crocodile
*Thrifted Birkenstock Madeiras
Again, this is a fairly different look for me, as I've been mostly wearing intensely saturated colors. And I can't remember the last time I wore a top and skirt, though I've often worn a pullover over a dress, with the dress functioning as a skirt. At the end of the day yesterday, I was a bit dubious about this skirt, which is still very pale. I might really redye it --- it would be a good candidate for another round of some natural dye, but I need to do my homework. I'd love for it to be more putty/"natural" colored, or else greener. Before I do anything else, I need to acquire some alum or another mordant, because most plant dyes require that (whereas tea does not).
The skirt's still a bit stiffly wrinkled, though I did smooth it out with some wrinkle-relaxer spray (because I was too lazy to go out and get the ironing board, that's why). I hope it will soften up more as I wear it through the morning. It's also still quite see-through --- probably it will always be see-through, because the linen is thin. As I might have mentioned before, I have owned a couple of this exact skirt model, one bought at Target, another picked up in a thrift shop, and I remember this about them. Basically, they're cheap skirts. BUT they are 100% linen and not bad to wear, as long as you wear something under. In the summer it'll have to be a half-slip, but for now a dress underneath will work, so that I'm not flashing my underwear everywhere at everybody. I also just like the simple A-line cut of them, which should prove versatile to wear.
It's nice to have a fall-into-winter outfit in fresh, light colors for a change. I suspect I might like this in the spring as well --- warm layers, but tender, soft colors. I'll wear a coat and probably a scarf out this morning to walk the dog, but in the afternoon, as the day continues to warm up, I should be perfectly comfortable in just the pullover, which I wore a lot in Norway, in the cool of the evenings and mornings.
Here's Camellia, playing peek-a-boo. As pale as this skirt remains, I still like it a thousand times better as an off-white than I did as a white skirt. Just toning down the brightness makes a huge difference, at least in my own mind. It reads as "natural," rather than "bleached."
Now I'm going to go dry my wet hair a bit before taking the dog out. And on with the day.
LATER:
I put on a scarf to walk, but took it off again as soon as I got back. It's quite warm out there today.
ALSO, my secondhand Not Perfect Linen dress has arrived. It's beautiful, but I'm making myself wait to put it on, and just wear what I am wearing instead.
Only one more pinafore still to arrive, and then things will be pretty much complete for the winter. Again, I'm happy to have some extra variety in my wardrobe. This is still not many, at least on a relative scale (I realize it's not minimal!), but it is much. With this collection of clothes, I can make pretty much any kind of outfit I might envision making --- well, not a trousers outfit, because at the moment I own no trousers. But then I sort of feel that any trousers outfit that I envision would look better as a vision than as a reality. I just don't look the way I'd like to look in trousers, so I don't wear them. I can look various ways that I'd like to look in dresses and skirts, so I do wear those.
I never imagined that I'd be a dresses-only kind of person --- and this is definitely NOT a function of any religious or modesty principle. I honestly think Mary doesn't care that I'm not wearing her exact dress. Mary has knees; I'm sure she's fine with my having knees and sometimes showing them. I'm not getting all bunged about that. Over the last couple of years I've simply discovered that I look and feel better in dresses, and that I can do everything in a dress (the right dress!) that I could do in any other kind of clothing. It might be nice eventually to acquire some overalls for gardening, to wear over my dress, but I'm not going to acquire them today. I've acquired enough for now, and it will see me through the winter, and in the meantime, I have Christmas to plan for, oh boy.
By the way, here's an interesting discussion about dyeing with privet berries, something I (alas) have plenty of. When I was about nine, my dad and I did a big natural-dyeing project, using various plants out of our backyard (including privet) and various mordants to dye yarn. This was my science-fair project that year, and I'm still mad that it didn't even win an Honorable Mention, because it was the coolest project ever. Anyway, I might really try redyeing this skirt with privet and baking soda, for that Granny-Smith-Apple green . . . though then it might not go so well with this pullover . . . so I'm going to think about it before I do anything.