More summer blossoms. I don't have as many black-eyed Susans as I used to, but this clump by the gate into the backyard are going strong.
Today's high: 97F again, hooray. Who wants to do anything? NOT ME.
Yesterday I did a very quick, not-well-thought-out sketch for an outfit plan for this week. It was Sunday morning, I was on my way to Mass, and I didn't feel much like thinking about anything, but also --- it's going to be so hot this week that putting outfits together seemed, and continues to seem, like way too much work.
But a good general rule of life is that something is better than nothing. I cleaned some things on my front porch on Saturday, and it looks better, even though I didn't clean absolutely every inch of it as thoroughly as I might have wished. Yesterday I washed down the lower cabinets in my kitchen, and same: yes, I might have done a far more extensive deep-clean, but objectively the kitchen looks better for my having done the little bit I did than it would have looked if I'd done nothing at all. It's very easy to fall into an all-or-nothing pattern of thinking --- various neurodivergencies are particularly prone to this kind of thinking --- which is defeating, because you give up on things before you even start. If I can't do it all, you say, then I will simply do nothing. And then there you are with your grimy porch, your dingy kitchen, your work utterly undone instead of actually partly done, with something to show for it.
So for anybody, but especially for those of us who are patsies for this absolutist thinking: Something is better than nothing. Repeat after me, &c. Repeat it to yourself all day long. You don't have to do it all right now, or ever. But something is better than nothing.
Anyway, what this has to do with what I was saying is that at the very least, I have a list of dresses to put on this week. That's one big daily decision sorted, and then I can decide what else, if anything, to do about styling an outfit. It's a hot week, and how much styling anybody is going to do I don't know and refuse to speculate. Just decanting the body into some clothing might be as much as we can achieve --- but again, something is better than nothing.
As it happens, I'm wearing today the very first item on my list:
*Wool& Brooklyn dress (S/L) in Pacific, bought May 2023, last worn July 3, on the plane home from Norway --- she is fresh from her post-travel wash and ready to roll again
*Secondhand Birkenstock Mayaris, bought April '24, last worn on Saturday
I put this outfit on, and honestly it seems like enough, but I did think, What would I wear if I were going to "style" this dress?
In the time I've had it, I have styled it, successfully or not, with various cardigans, leggings, tights, boots, etc. I can also wear it with my silk-cotton kimono, which I've worn twice in the last five days.
But I thought, Hm, big button shirts are always begging to be worn . . .
Also, if I were really going to wear a second layer today, linen would be the choice. So:
The problem with any top layer, of course, is that you run the risk of spoiling the flattering fit-and-flare line of the dress. But it doesn't not work.
*Secondhand Chicos linen button shirt, bought sometime early in 2023, originally pale blue, but redyed with Rit Evening Blue by me last summer.
The juxtaposition of the lighter color with the tealy green is nice, I think.
I also like the juxtaposition of textures, the smooth knit dress with the slightly slubbier woven linen. I don't know that I will wear this all day, but at least another closet item is getting some wear.
Meanwhile, my hair is wet again, but not because I've washed it. As I mentioned yesterday evening, I made rosemary water yesterday afternoon for my hair. What is rosemary water? Really, it's what it sounds like: water infused with rosemary. You heat water to a boil, then turn off the heat and steep springs of rosemary in it until what you have is essentially tea.
And why would you do this? You would do this because it's supposed to be good for your hair and scalp, that's why.
In what way is it good? This is what my husband would ask, and it is at this point that I would lose patience and say, "I don't know. It's just supposed to be," because I'm an effective conversationalist that way, and also, while I remember that I've read things, I never remember salient details, such as what rosemary water is actually supposed to do for your hair and scalp.
But for you I will attempt to recover some better answer. Here is a rundown of the purported benefits of rosemary water, as well as ideas for using it. Now, "evidence-based" is a phrase which does a lot of work anywhere it appears, and I'm not sure here what work it's doing, exactly, other than to make you think that using rosemary water is a concretely good thing to do. I also think that unless you have an allergy to rosemary (and some people apparently do), you can't possibly hurt yourself with it.
Meanwhile, it's putatively connected with hair growth. As I've been losing a good bit of hair lately (the normal cycle, but it always hits me hard), I'm interested in ways to regrow hair I've lost, as well as maintaining the hair I have. I'm also interested in any benefits for the scalp. Mine is a lot healthier since I've been using this minimal-ingredient Head&Shoulders shampoo, but if there's something I can use between shampoos, maybe to extend the time between shampoos, then that's appealing to me.
I made two big glass vacuum-stoppered bottles of rosemary water yesterday. Today I simply bent my head over the bathroom sink and poured rosemary water through my hair, massaging it into my scalp as best I could. I then combed it out --- my hair did have a lot of slip, possibly from products still present from my last wash --- wet-brushed it, and applied a little more Not Your Mother's Curl Talk foam. This I smoothed on, then raked through with my fingers, then finally brushed, brushing a roughly 5-inch-wide section at a time up and away from my head, then shaking it to get the wave to re-form. Then I scrunched it to encourage more wave, squeezed excess water out with my microfiber towel, and diffused for just a minute to speed drying time.
As always, this process took longer to write about than it did actually to accomplish. I don't do anything that time-consuming that isn't writing. But it was a version of a hair refresh that I hope will both look good dry and redound to the overall health of my hair and scalp. I've always had pretty good hair, and it feels like good stewardship to take care of it, especially as I age. Also, I have a lot of rosemary growing in my garden, and rosemary water is one beauty product that costs me nothing, other than the few minutes it takes to make it.
Finally, it smells nice. The foam I used pretty much overrides the rosemary scent, but obviously I could have opted not to use foam. I'm just experimenting to see how nicely wavy I can encourage my hair to be, with simple techniques and minimal investment of time and energy. Film at eleven.
And with that, I suppose I should do something productive.
Also: Speaking of productive, the husband is going to paint my laundry room! I've chosen Benjamin Moore Queen Anne, which is a kind of peachy blush pink recommended for north-facing rooms. This laundry room is basically a north-facing hole, and I hope some lovely blush-pink paint in a scrubbable finish, as well as a good clean-out and some new shelving, which he is also going to accomplish, will make it a less actively unpleasant space. I'm pretty stoked about this. I should also probably help haul stuff out of the laundry room and find new places for whatever we don't want to junk (like, for example, the little front-porch Christmas tree I stuck in there in desperation back in January, because I didn't know what else to do with it).
So, this is happening.
LUNCHTIME UPDATE:
I've written part of an essay, and my hair is dry.
Not bad for Day 3, I don't think. I do always comb my hair out when it's dry, gently teasing the clumps apart with a wide-toothed comb, and maybe I shouldn't do that, because I sacrifice some definition. But I really prefer a more natural look most of the time, without the sharp, styled-looking definition, as long as my ends have some shape. I like having shine and softness, and also not being afraid to let my husband touch my hair. I do still have some quite nice waves here, and my hair overall is pretty soft --- I'm used to its being coarse and stiff and hard to work with, so this is a continual revelation.
It's probably good for my hair to go another day without an updo. As much as I like being able to put my hair up, I worry a little that that's contributing to hair loss, with the pulling on my scalp. I try to arrange it so that it doesn't pull, but I'm not always successful. And I often don't realize how much it's been pulling until I take it down at night and feel, suddenly, how sore my scalp is. That can't be helpful. Half-updos are better, but even so, I should probably try to wear it loose more regularly.
Still wearing my round wire sunglasses/transition lenses as a default. This does mean that I don't forget to wear sunglasses when I go outside, which is so often the case. I also just kind of like the look of them. Hella cool, as the Artgirl says. That's me. Just writing two million words too many about Christina Rossetti, and being hella cool while I do it.