Current dining-room table situation. I'll probably leave these things on for tomorrow, because they look nice, and I don't have any other overtly autumnal centerpiece.
Making my shopping list and checking it twice, because eventually the Artgirl will wake up and I will send her out into the wild to procure last-minute things we need.
Items I'm going to cook today:
*cranberry-orange relish (literally just cranberries, orange juice, and sugar)
*pumpkin pie (better served chilled, so I won't wait until tomorrow)
*maybe I'll go ahead and prep some vegetables. If my Brussels sprouts look good out there in the garden, I'll halve them and get them ready to be baked on a sheet pan tomorrow. If they don't, we'll have peas for our green vegetable. Nobody here much likes green-bean casserole.
Otherwise . . . this is Nice Lunch for Four, and I'm not knocking myself out.
The rain has stopped, but the weather continues colder. I continue to enjoy the prospect of wearing more layers of clothes --- a thing I'll be sick of soon enough, because human nature is just like that, but for now it's fun. Even when I want to work out, all I have to do is take off some layers, then put them back on again when I'm finished --- which is NOT the same thing as changing clothes, but is entirely doable and not an impediment to working out.
What to wear today, what to wear?
Once again, I did a little searching in the closet, so as not to repeat accessories, even though I'm quite clearly wearing the same dresses in loose rotation. I'm really trying to reach for different cardigans, tights/leggings, and shoes. Today I haven't put on a scarf, though I might well grab one to go out with the dog, but otherwise, the reality is that I'll be cooking, wearing an apron, not wanting to drop my scarf in the cranberries. I'll likely lose the cardigan once the cooking starts, too.
But for now . . .
I've kept taking out this plum merino Talbots blazer-cardigan to try with an outfit, then for whatever reason not wearing it. Today I determined that come what may, I'm wearing it (at least until the cooking starts). I bought it on Poshmark back in January, and it's truly a great piece: 100% merino, heavy, warm, well constructed. The knit is like a ponte, or maybe a heavy interlock --- I'm not that versed in knitwear modes, but anyway, it's quite heavy and thick, without being bulky. I really like the tailored lines and the blazer-style collar, which make it feel like a wholly different animal from my other cardigans.
I bought this piece thinking,
Just the thing for Advent and Lent. And so it is. But I really need to remind myself to wear purple more regularly. This deep plum pairs very well --- this is honestly the best combination I've made --- with my Aegean Teal
Maggie, yet another contender for My Favorite Dress Ever. I love the color. I love the simple style. I love how versatile this dress is, summer to winter and back around again, through all the seasons.
Also wearing Snag merino tights in Crocodile, and these Birk Mary Janes I got on Poshmark for a relative song. I like that the three major components of this outfit --- dress, cardigan, tights --- are three different colors, yet they don't feel clashy or disjointed, juxtaposed with each other. At least, to me they don't. Part of it is that none of these colors is especially bright or loud. They're all saturated colors, deep and intense, but not that individually self-announcing, if you know what I mean. Also, they're individually complements for each other. I like greens and teals together. I like greens and purples together. I like purples and teals together. That each individual color works well with any one of the other colors means that collectively they work.
These shoes feel a bit dressy, with their glossy leather finish --- I'm kind of itching to put my Tari boots back on, and I might give in to that impulse. That would make the outfit more casual and maybe a little funky-feeling, and I could go for that happily. But I like trying out the Mary Janes, even if I wind up reserving them for Sunday wear. I think I'm glad I have them, though if it transpires that I'm not that glad, I'll resell them. They're in remarkably good condition, like new, to have cost $40.
Yeah, the itch was too much . . .
Really, I prefer the Tari vibe. Also, contra my resolution not to repeat accessories, I picked up
yesterday's scarf off the kitchen chair, where I'd dropped it to make dinner, and instead of putting it away as I'd meant to, I put it on. Yesterday I liked how the soft aquas and teals coordinated with my alpaca cardigan and my Wisteria Willow dress. Today I'm liking the paler contrast with a dark teal dress and plum cardigan. I guess I'm not being
too repetitive, either, not having worn this scarf in literal years. These smaller, slimmer scarves have been a pleasant rediscovery among all my pashminas and shawls and big billowy scarves. Wrap one around your neck and you're instantly warmer, without having to swathe yourself in more fabric.
Anyway, this finalized outfit feels like a keeper, one I'm going to want to remember and repeat all winter. It's got the softness and flow that I love, without being slouchy or droopy --- just a nice body-skimming fluidity, and a touch of structure without, again, being too tailored or stiff. And the play of colors feels balanced and interesting, without that dissonance of colors competing for attention. I like the little bit of higher contrast in the boot (the darker shoe with the dark tights felt a wee bit boring, to be honest), and the contrast again in the scarf. The scarf gives me some subtle pattern, too, so that I have the light-dark-color-pattern template going on, which I didn't before. What I'd originally put on was okay, and had some perfectly good elements going on, but when I scroll between the two photos, the top one looks obviously incomplete to me, and maybe even kind of off. I could run out the door wearing the top outfit, and it would be fine, but in the bottom outfit I feel actually great.
Even with very winter-straight hair I feel great. And now that we've established all that, I need to walk the dog and revisit the grocery list and basically do all the things I got up this morning to do.
LATER:
The Artgirl has been to the store for me. Cornbread dressing and one pumpkin pie are in the oven. Cranberries are simmering in orange juice on the stovetop. The husband, wandering through, has remarked that it smells like a holiday. No idea what's for dinner tonight, but tomorrow we will feast.
