Advent votive holders in the morning light, on a runner the Texasgirl brought back from her travels in college (on top of a tablecloth which is really a shower curtain I found at the thrift store, which is how we roll, tableclothwise).
The sun has come out today, and it's a good bit colder than it was over the weekend. I loved yesterday's rain, though it curtailed my dog-walking a bit --- I like walking in the rain, but last night it was coming down pretty steadily, and temperatures were dropping, so Dora and I just took a quick turn around the block before bed, instead of our usual whole-neighborhood amble in the dark.
The kids remind me that yesterday was the 15-year anniversary of our bringing home our old dog, Lance. He was beautiful and good and kindhearted, and we still miss him.
Not much on today, just continuing my Christmas shopping and editing endeavors, plus I guess writing something for the Sun. I do also want to walk my linen dress over to the alterations place and get that ball rolling. I think it'll be an easy fix: the shoulders are really straps (not whatever you'd call a lower neckline in the front set into a higher neckline in the back, if that makes sense), so can be taken up without throwing proportions off. There's also plenty of room in the armholes to do that without their being too tight. I really do want both the front and back necklines to be higher in any case --- I couldn't wear it by itself right now without the back of my bra showing, and without its being really too deep in front. This will raise the waistline, too, and take in some of the blousiness of the bodice without, I don't think, needing any other places taken in. I pinned it the other day to see what I thought, and yes --- this completely transformed the fit and made it flattering instead of off. I'll consider the color later --- maybe not until after Christmas --- but I think I would probably wear it a lot more year-round if it weren't brown.
It's not bad as is, and if I get it back in time I might well wear it over the holidays anyway, but I will continue to consider a custom color, probably using Dharma Procion Fiber-Reactive dye for best effect. That will be a new phase for me: these dyes require soda ash as a fixative, as well as salt while dyeing. It'll be a little more of a chemistry experiment than my usual outings with either Rit dye or the Dharma acid dyes for wool. I might just get cold feet and default to Rit dyes, which honestly I've used to good effect in the past. But on a garment this nice, it's worth at least thinking about a better quality dye. Yes, yes, I could just have bought a dress in a color I love, I realize. But this dress, in excellent condition, was going for unbelievably cheap on Poshmark, and I thought, why not give it a try? For a lot less than I would pay for even another secondhand dress in this brand, I can have exactly what I want . . . I think. But I'm not going to take any plunges without doing my homework!
In other news, the college kids get home Friday or Saturday, depending on the duration of their visit with their grandmothers en route. And we're going to a Gaudete Sunday party on (unsurprisingly) Sunday --- a perfect time to wear my Beetroot Brooklyn dress. She was made to go to parties, so it's lovely to have the opportunity. I appreciate having a closet of clothes that I love to wear. This makes a nice change from wanting to go out, but panicking, having nothing that I feel good or confident in that strikes the right note for a given occasion. I also don't feel overwhelm --- I could wear this, or this, or this . . . let me implode right now, because I don't know what to wear. Granted, I do have choices. I have lots of choices. But I don't have so many choices that I'm paralyzed by them. And in this case, I have a dress that I chose at least partly for those two Sundays, Gaudete and Laetare, though I also just love the color and will wear it plenty of days besides.
This feels like a good place to be. As we near the end of 2023 and turn the corner into a new year, I'd really like for gratitude to be my default setting. I have, honestly, a superabundance of things for which I am grateful, far above and beyond my clothes. Clothing is kind of a tiny serving in the overall abundance of my life. But it is an intimate serving, one literally next to my skin and therefore noticeable to me, if to nobody else. So it does matter, and I do want to cultivate gratitude for it, and perhaps to grow that habit more, rather than seeking to acquire the next new thing.
But that's really looking to the future. What about today? What am I wearing, with gratitude, today?
*Wool& Audrey dress (small) in Black Heather
*Secondhand Sparrow/Anthropologie merino-mohair-cotton sweater
*Very old linen scarf
*Snag merino tights in dark gray (forget the color name)
*Wool socks bought in Norway
*Secondhand Birkenstock Melrose boots in Graphite
Not hitting anybody over the head with Advent purple today, but that's okay. I'm warm and comfortable; my clothes feel soft and good. Audrey makes the absolute best winter "skirt," in a nice maxi-length A-line and a soft dark neutral color. I really like all the muted contrast going on with these colors --- this is what the Southern winter feels like, so often. The light is thin and bland; the landscape is never stark, but soft and resting under its blanket of sunshine.
As seems to be my pattern lately, my outfit is partly sustainable small-business, partly secondhand, and partly something old that I've kept and reworn for years. This is really emerging as my goal: to buy new from small businesses with ethical commitments regarding labor, sourcing, and the environment, but otherwise to wear secondhand-purchased items and to rewear what I already own. I've pretty much culled out things I really don't want to wear from my stock of long-owned clothes, so the challenge is to keep wearing what I have.
My love for this pullover sweater is maybe extreme --- I bought it to go to Norway last summer, wore it extensively there, and still feel so inclined to reach for it with many outfits. It's very thin and light, but quite warm. And then the bodice of my dress provides another thermal layer. If I needed more layers, I could wear a merino long-sleeved tee, too, but I think I'll pass on that for now. We'll see how I feel after dog-walking, at any rate.
On with the day!
MIDAFTERNOON UPDATE:
Took a nice walk with the dog this morning, just over two miles. Had lunch, did some work, and now have walked over to the seamstress to leave my dress for alteration. So that's underway --- I was afraid I'd put it off and put it off, so I made an outing of it just now. Of course, literally everything else downtown is closed today, because it's Monday. Don't even try to shop or eat in this town on Monday! It won't happen! BUT the seamstress was open, and nice, and agreed with me that a) the dress needed taking up in the shoulders, and b) it was an easy fix. I'm happy about all that. I'm especially happy not to have underestimated the difficulty of this alteration. It's easy, when you don't sew, not to see the complexities sometimes. But there really isn't anything complex about this project. It just needs doing well, that's all.
I have also ordered some Dharma Procion Fiber-Reactive dye, and some soda ash. Trying on the dress in the daylight in the seamstress's shop clinched that decision. So . . . while we're customizing, we're just going to go all the way with it. (I will add: I am going for a color that I'd been hoping to buy something in from Wool& . . . my great hope now is that this will scratch that itch, and I just won't feel that I want another whole dress).
ANOTHER UPDATE: I've now found vintage Pendleton wool shirts in good shape for all my guys (except my husband, who is getting some other lovely things for Christmas, and a wool shirt for his birthday, which is right after Christmas). The one that arrived today is perfect --- just a beautiful shirt, which I hope the recipient will genuinely enjoy.
I got all the girls Bandi belts, because they're so great for travel and nights out, when you don't want to have to carry anything extra but need your phone, credit card, and ID. I'm going to add something to each of those gifts, because they seem kind of small: I have some pretty brooches that I don't wear and want to pass along. One daughter will also get the stainless-steel sheet pans I'd gotten to give somebody in her household, though I wasn't quite decided which one of them was going to get these pans. She's the one who has talked to me about sheet-pan dinners, though, so this fits. And I'm scouring the house for other (nice) things that really could be handed down as gifts. If this is the rate at which we're downsizing our belongings, I really should start NOW and not wait.
Meanwhile, I have two more extended-family gifts that I need to order and have shipped. And I need to find something for AK, who has made us a gift, and take it to her when we go driving on Thursday.
But mostly I feel weirdly on top of things. I haven't yet started lying awake in a cold sweat because I'm sure everything I do is going to be inadequate. Maybe this year I just won't think that. I mean, I'm not making resolutions, but . . .
EVENING:
Husband: grading
Dora: crated
Me: cooking pork citrus carnitas with mango chili sauce and oven-roasted diced sweet potatoes that I hope are going to be kind of like little tater tots.
ETA: I had kind of forgotten that tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but the menu fits for a vigil.
Also making my Christmas menu:
Christmas Eve: Norwegian Fiskesuppe, crusty bread, cheese (or maybe a snack board), fruit, mulled wine, eggnog and cookies
Christmas breakfast: egg-and-sausage casserole, baked oatmeal with cranberries, Norwegian Sot Suppe (sense a theme developing here?), coffee, orange juice
Christmas dinner (not so in keeping with the theme): ham, mango chutney, scalloped potatoes, baked apples, roasted brussels sprouts, oyster pie, bread pudding, egg nog, cookies
Time to start amassing the groceries . . . and to remember that people will want to eat more meals than these while they're here . . .
EVENING:
Woohoo, three adult kids (including two significant others) plan to arrive on the 20th. Another adult kid (the significant other of one of the two significant others arriving on the 20th) should drive in by the 23rd, which is also when my mother and brother plan to roll up. We shall be a full house, and fun will be had.
Also, my Birk Mary Janes have sold --- nice to make a sale, since I keep taking stuff out of my Poshmark closet to keep for myself. Tomorrow I'll have to pack and ship them, in case the buyer wants them in time for Christmas. They are nice shoes, though they didn't work for me. I'm glad somebody snapped them up.