Upstairs hall. It's really a nice little play area, just waiting for some children to come and play. This house misses having children in it.
Some more views of the house this morning, just for the sake of variety. The view from my office window is more or less what it was this time yesterday.
The living room:
The way our house is canted on the lot, we don't get huge amounts of direct sun, except on the southeast side in the morning. This side, tilted northwest, doesn't get direct light even in the evening. This is nice in the summer, because it keeps the house cool. In the winter it can be a bit gloomy, but that's what lamps are for.
I don't see a lot of love for Benjamin Moore Jute, which is the color on the walls and the fireplace surround in this room, and in the adjacent "sunroom," the other half of the double front parlor in this house. But I love Jute. It's a soft stone-beige with a greenish undertone, very calming but not cold. It lights up nicely at night, in lamplight.
All the trim throughout the house is Benjamin Moore Linen White, which provides a soft, creamy, warm contrast. Except for a couple of upstairs bedrooms, Jute and Linen White are our entire color scheme (the Artgirl's room is a green called Sweet Caroline, and the Viking's room is some dark, bright navy from Valspar, the name of which I don't remember). Both Jute and Linen White, which are the wall colors throughout the public parts of the house, and in our bedroom (Jute) and our bathroom and my office (Linen White) make good neutral backdrops for the muted chaos of all our hand-me-down furniture and rugs, all our art objects and icons. I can count on the fingers of one hand the items of furniture we have actually bought new (other than mattresses and Hollywood frames for beds). Everything else was given to us, passed down to us, or found on the curb. A few things, such as the blue leather recliner in the living room, came from the Habitat Restore.
The smaller side of the double parlor, on the southeast side of the house:
Our bedroom shares the wall the piano is on and also gets this much light in the morning. If you want to get up with the sun, this is a good thing. I don't wear a mask to sleep, but my husband, who gets up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours, then sleeps in, absolutely wears a mask. Whatever works. I prefer to sleep through and get up when the light prompts me.
That's sort of a weird room. Furniture all around the walls is not optimal from a design standpoint, but there's really not much else to do with said furniture in a small space. I could put a coffee table in the middle of that rug, but then people (read: the husband) have to trip over it to get to the desk in the corner. Mostly this room exists as a place to put the Christmas tree and to open presents on Christmas morning. I've already planned to move the settee in the window into the dining room when that season arrives.
Dining room shown as is, with spousal detritus.
This is the north side of the house, looking out on the shady side yard between our house and Jane and Steve's --- an area the younger children named "The Village" when we moved in, and a favorite play place when they were little. The dining room used to be painted dark green, a green so dark it was almost black, with stark white woodwork. I might have swung too far in the other direction in painting it in Benjamin Moore Linen White --- possibly this is boring. But it's no longer a cave. And in dimmed light and candlelight, the walls glow softly gold, and it's beautiful and warm and bright.
Much on today, mostly accomplishing tasks I've been putting off because I haven't wanted to leave the house (to do tasks; I'm fine leaving the house to be taken out to dinner). I probably won't do any essay-writing today, though I will look at things and think about them. That seems to be my best weekly rhythm. In the general way of things, I don't accomplish much in the way of actual regular writing work on Mondays, and none on Fridays. I ease into the week, touching things with my mind, but not yet doing anything about them. At the end of the week I might touch things again by way of revision, but I'm finished with the actual work.
I have touched poems of my own this morning, though. Mentally assembling a submission to a journal I'd very much like to land something in, but so far have submitted with no luck. Going to try it again --- I'm waiting for word about a couple of things that are still out elsewhere, because I dislike simultaneous submissions, even when a magazine permits it. I just think it's not a great habit, even when you keep a submissions spreadsheet, as I do.
And really, when you get stuff back with a rejection, it's good already to have an action plan for those things --- look them over, touch them for another revision, and send them right back out again, not giving yourself time to ruminate over your failure as a human being. This is the way forward. Every writer has his or her own particular strategy, but in this general way we all deal with the reality of rejections, which most writers experience far more than they experience acceptances. I guess there are famous people whose names will always give them some guarantee, but even so, as a magazine editor I've sent back work to famous people, because it wasn't their best work, and wasn't as good as things I had sent forward to the chief section editor for consideration.
OK, well, enough of all that.
Wearing today:
I'm not going back to school today, but today is back to school for the husband, and I'm feeling a bit that way myself. High today of 85F, which shouldn't feel that hot but probably will, if yesterday afternoon, with its saunalike mugginess, is any indication.
*Secondhand Erika&Co. vintage floral linen-cotton pinafore dress. Bought November or December 2023, last worn August 4. Total wears this year so far: 11. Not bad for a patterned piece, and one that didn't get wear at all for the six weeks of Lent or the two weeks we were in Norway.
*Devold merino men's base-layer tee, bought June 2024 in Norway, customized by me (cutting out neckline, shortening sleeves), last worn July 8 (with this pinafore, as it happens). Like all my tees, this one is bound to see more wear as the weather cools down. It really works better as an under-layer than as a top on its own, owing to its thinness, and I'll be glad of it as both a visible base layer, as I'm wearing it today, and as an invisible one under other dresses. I've worn it only 2-3 times since I bought it, but I expect that that number will tick up with the change of seasons. I bought it (or let the husband buy it for me) because I loved the color, and that's still definitely true.
This is my kind of color. Notice how it doesn't match, but does intensify, the lighter blue in the floral pattern. It's not a match, but an echo, and I love that.
*Secondhand Stegmann clogs, bought August 2024, last worn August 12. I'm not tracking shoe wears just now, but I will say that I'm really happy to have multiple pairs of shoes that I can wear in transitional weather, which really is what so much of the year here consists of. We have a lot of really hot weather. We have some really cold weather. What we have most of, for months on end, is weather that can't make up its mind what it wants to be, and hangs somewhere between hot and cold. We also have long, warm autumns. I like having shoes that don't look like summertime, but aren't boots and don't require tights, although I can certainly wear them with tights and leggings, depending on the weather. I also like that their light color will make them good for contrasting with darker leggings and dress hemlines.
What I love about these shoes is that they're light enough not to feel like rushing the season, but they're close-toed and made of an all-year material (this incredibly soft, beautiful leather). I also love that the more I wear them, the more beautiful patina of wear they'll accrue. That is the value of leather: it wears long and well, and wear only makes it more beautiful. You simply cannot replicate that in a synthetic.
Oh, last night I did go into Belmont and meet my husband for a lovely, quiet dinner at the Primal brewery. I changed out of my church clothes and wore what felt more like casual date-night clothes instead:
It may be back-to-school, but I'm still not ditching the Birks.
And now I had better let the dog out and go for a lazy stroll in the morning sunshine, here in the golden hour of the year.
LUNCHTIME UPDATE:
When I came back from my walk with the dog, the mail had arrived, and guess what arrived with it? Friends, I regret to tell you . . .
The secondhand April Cornell vintage silk dress? She's a keeper.
Now, this dress is a large. I could get her altered a little: hemmed and possibly taken in at the bodice.
I might opt to do that at some point. But for now, I'm not going to bother. If she's a little nightgownish, well . . . who doesn't want to wear a nightgown all day long? Mind you, I don't always want to wear a silk nightgown all day long, but when I do, this is the one I want to wear.
I love the luminous, lustrous plummy purple, with its subtle rose highlights. I love the scoop neckline and the tucking at the bodice:
I love the sweep and drape of the whole dress. It's not a sheath dress, but more of an A-line with a loose Empire waist and pleats --- a silhouette I loved in the 90s and have missed.
Here's a quick little fashion show. I didn't change my shoes, but I did want to pull things from the closet and try them with the dress, especially as I propose to wear it in all seasons.
My favorites out of this off-the-cuff lineup of options are the blue shrug cardigan, which gives a whole Jane Austen vibe to the dress --- I could see this with Tari boots to complete that vibe --- and the jean jacket. I don't really know where I'd wear the Thai silk kimono thing that Marly talked me into buying last year, unless it's to some fancy do with my mother, where everyone else would be so overdressed that I wouldn't look out of place. But you know, I could wear these things together. That Thai silk thing is one of the items I will just keep, because I could never replace it, and you never know when you're going to want that exact whole whatever. I did wear it to the symphony with my mother last year, and presumably I could wear it again, who knows? But it's kind of a treasure (having cost me $10).
But really this dress goes with tons of things in my closet. I have been contemplating how much I might, one day, like a second Audrey dress, and this really scratches that itch, as well as the itch for another purple dress. I'm going to have to learn to be brave about wearing silk, but I've gotten brave about wool and linen, so I suppose I can gut it up for silk, too. It feels marvelous on the skin, and I can see how it's going to be both cool and warm, as the season demands.
So . . . yep, I broke my rule, and I do not feel sorry about it. I am prepared to buckle down again until I'm ready to give myself a birthday present (which I might do a little early, so as to have it for events around my birthday), and then really . . . I think I'll be good until I decide I'm not, which is the way it goes.
I also think I'll amend my outfit plan and wear this dress, probably with the blue shrug, for Br. James's ordination on Saturday. I really love the silhouette, and I also love the sheeny light blue against the purple. I can also honestly see wearing that ensemble for readings and events this fall. Seems like an excellent uniform for occasions, until I get used to the dress enough to wear it for everyday (well, really, I don't see wearing it to be pawed by Dora, but that's okay --- I have plenty of other clothes to withstand that treatment).
OK, time to crate the dog, make myself some lunch, and get down to business for real for real.
Oh, by the way, the armholes are not too big after all. That was my chief concern:
The whole dress is big --- you can see the extra fabric in the bodice when I stand like this. But it's really not too big in the shoulders (my other concern), and the armholes don't gape any more than the armholes of my small Audrey dress do. I can work with the extra volume, I think. One idea, down the road, if I want to have it altered, is to have the seamstress take a couple of inches off the hem, to make the hemline hit right where my calf starts to narrow into my ankle, and use that that fabric to make ties at the back, so that I could take in the waist if and when I wanted. That's really a live option, now that I think of it. I'm not going to do it right away, but I really will think about it for down the road.
EVENING UPDATE:
Dinner in the oven, husband not home yet, some clouds moving in, and here's the living room in lamplight:
Sofa cushions are a bit rumpled, but you know, people live here and sit on that sofa, so that's the way that goes.
Making a kind of open-faced pie with a soft crust of oats and spent-grain flour, layered with goat cheese, yellow onion, shredded rotisserie chicken, and sliced figs, with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We'll see how it turns out.