The weather continues warm for the next couple of days, but it's more overcast today than yesterday. For us it will be another quiet day, though we have a party to go to in the evening.
Reading an inevitably enormous new edition of Emily Dickinson's letters --- she was a prolific correspondent, even for an era when letter-writing was a serious occupation, and many friendships were conducted via the epistolary medium. Last night I read for an hour, and when I closed the book she was still fifteen years old, writing in great high spirits to Amherst Academy friends.
Wearing today, though I will probably change to go to this party later:
*Secondhand WoolX men's blue merino tee, bought autumn 2021 and later cut by me (neckline, arms, hemline) to fit my body better. I've been wearing it as a base layer a good bit this winter, but here you can see more clearly how I altered the boxy shape of a men's undershirt to flatter a female body with a short waist. All I did really was cut out the heavy, high crew neck, shorten the sleeves, shorten the body.
*Thrifted Christopher Banks linen-blend midi skirt. I've had this skirt for at least ten years. The thrift shop where I bought it has been first that thrift shop, then another thrift shop, then a vacant storefront, then an outdoor outfitter's, then a vacant storefront, and now a real-estate office. Through all those changes, I have had and worn this skirt. It just feels like springtime, though sometimes I wear it in the winter with a sweater and boots, for a breath of spring-in-winter, like forced hyacinths.
*Secondhand Birkenstock Bali sandals
Wet hair dripping everywhere. I gave it a light wash, brushed it with my wet brush while it was still soaking wet, for definition, squeezed a little water out with my bamboo slip (one I don't like so much, so how it's a hair towel), and applied gel, to try to get thick, defined waves. I mean: whatever. But I do like to experiment sometimes, as long as experimentation doesn't start to mean routine that eats up my day.
This shirt is so cropped that I have to be kind of careful how I raise my arms, but I love the shape it gives with the flared skirt. I feel very twirly and, again, very much like the springtime. Temperatures are going back down mid-week, so my plan is to enjoy it while I got it.
LATER:
Back after walking the dog. The sun is sort of out, and the weather feels utterly balmy. In a little while I'm going to go sit on the porch swing with Emily Dickinson and hear more about her garden, which is always doing "finely," the flowers she is pressing to send in letters as gifts to her friends, the "studies" she is doing at school . . .
I've found and mended another pocket hole in one of my dresses, my Wisteria Willow this time:
This is an identical hole to the one that had sprung in my Audrey dress. It was a bit more frustrating to mend, because I didn't have a good match for the fabric color, but I think I've done it more or less invisibly. Certainly nobody who wasn't looking would notice the mend (no, I'm not picturing it, because I'm honestly not good at this --- just trust me that the hole isn't there anymore), though I know it's there. As much as I love these dresses (and truly, I do wear them pretty hard), this development is kind of frustrating, given how much I paid for the dress. I feel a lot more philosophical about holes that I know I've inflicted: snagging my dress on something, for example. Granted, I have worn this dress a LOT in the year and two months that I've had it, and I guess the lesson here is to stop putting my phone in my pocket. Still . . .
Oh, well, I've mended it, and I'll keep on wearing it. My continual challenge to myself is to wear my whole closet: hence today's skirt and top. I have, as an Easter gift to myself, and to mark the end of my Lenten no-buy, bought a secondhand Flax linen tank in a dark blue that I think will go with everything I have (like this skirt, for example --- really with all my skirts, which was a goal I had in buying it) and a secondhand pair of Birkenstock Mayaris. I have really wanted a new pair of Birks that I could just step into without needing to do a strap, and used Mayaris are quite easy to find. I'll still wear these Balis a lot, because I love them, but for travel, for example, it'll be nice to have shoes I can just step in and out of in the airport security line, without having to stop and do them up. I'd like another skirt as well --- still hewing to my "NO DRESSES" rule for 2024 --- but I think I should focus on wearing the skirts I already have before I contemplate adding another.
Besides this skirt, I have:
I still really would love to find a "ditsy" floral skirt for spring and summer, but it would have to be linen or cotton, and that's harder to find than rayon. In the meantime, I have plenty to wear and plan to enjoy wearing it. There are some shirts that I haven't worn in a long time that I should make an effort to cycle in, or else pass along. And I have lightweight jackets that I should make an effort to wear as well, or else, again, not keep them. I do like having them, because sometimes that's what you want and need to wear, but I reach for cardigans far more often.
Easter Monday seems like a good time to take stock of things. It is nice to have my whole wardrobe back, after a long purple season. I don't intend to stop wearing purple, but I sure do enjoy wearing a other things for a change.
LATER STILL:
Pausing in my reading of Sally Read's literary memoir (unreleased; I'm writing an endorsement for the back cover), to make some deviled eggs and get dressed for this Easter party, in . . .
My Easter dress --- what else? --- albeit with comfy shoes this time for standing around talking to people. I am wishing that I had thought to make these deviled eggs several hours ago, but oh well.
*Not Perfect Linen Leila dress (S/M, with additional alteration by my seamstress) in Cinnamon Rose, bought December 2023
*Same much-loved Birk Balis
And a little visible muscle definition in my arms and shoulders, which makes me glad I have been hefting these weights around, even in small doses, since last fall. Change is possible, friends.
