Morning light on the kitchen table.
On today:
*Dog-walking
*Essay-writing
*Dinner-cooking
*House-cleaning
*Poem-sending-out (because I have some things back now, though also something accepted, and a place to send a new submission, so why drag my feet?)
Thinking about a travel capsule for the weekend at the beach as well:
*2 Brooklyn dresses
*Audrey dress (though I did just wear her yesterday)
*Marine-Blue Maggie dress (especially for church)
*at least one button shirt
*kimono
*bathing suit
*underwear
*Birkenstocks
*Crocs
I think that would really about do it.
Wearing today:
*Secondhand WoolX men's base-layer tee, bought autumn 2021, later cropped and customized (with scissors) by me. Last worn June 13. Total wears so far this year: 7
*Secondhand Flax linen skirt, bought February 2024, last worn July 19. Total wears so far this year: 11
*Secondhand Birkenstock Mayaris, bought April 2024, default shoes
This is a pretty basic outfit for a day when the projected high is 94F. I wanted my hair up and my clothing minimal. I didn't have this tee on my outfit plan for the week, but it seemed like a good thing to pair with the lightweight skirt: I like the boxy shape of the cropped tee with this simple A-line, and the sky-blue against the periwinkle purple.
I'm actually surprised by how frequently I've worn these two pieces, given that I mostly wear dresses, not separates. One reason I put them on today is that it had been a while since I'd worn either, and I wanted to foreground clothing items that had been getting less wear, but really, I do wear these clothes. Not every day, or even every week, but I do wear and like them, separately and together.
The skirt obviously will get a lot of wear in Advent, as it did in Lent this past spring, when I'd just bought it. I like it with tights and boots, or with Birk Papillios. It'll play nicely with Mary Janes as well. I guess I could have opted to wear my brown MJs with my outfit today, but it's so hot . . . a good day to be more minimalist. There will be plenty of time for closed-toed shoes in the weeks and months to come.
And I love this tee under things as a base layer, as well as on its own. I'll wear it with my NPL Smock dress, with my floral pinafore, and as a warm layer under things when the weather really does get cold, as I know it will, even though that seems impossibly far off right now.
I'm still calling these outfits "summer-into-fall," even though it's not yet Labor Day, and the temperatures this week are distinctly summer. But again, the mood is changing. Everyone is back to school. The dogwood outside my window has its red berries on, and the mornings and nights are cooler. And even these intimations of a shift bring refreshment.
Meanwhile, having resigned myself to missing the Eucharistic Congress and choir, I am really looking forward to our weekend away. It'll be fun. Note to self to touch base with dogsitter today as well.
Now I'm going to go scramble some eggs and contemplate getting down to work.
Color check:
Unretouched old face in morning light. I do love this blue.
EVENING UPDATE:
Made this Middle-Eastern beef bowl recipe for dinner, subbing in cauliflower rice for the couscous and having sliced, marinated baby beets from the garden (olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic) on the side. I also added shredded beet greens to the meat for some extra vitamins.
Still thinking about purchasing habits and how to regulate impulse buying, prompted yet again by my favorite Finnish Instagram account. Consciousness of upcoming events in the fall --- in places that are likely to be actually chilly in late October/early November --- makes me want to buy things, but I'm looking first at my closet to see what outfits I might make for reading and general conference-going and literary socializing, late in the fall. My brown Leila dress stands out to me as something I'd want to take with me: an autumnal color that makes me look and feel good, adaptable for a colder season.
I am considering cardigans. Some of my old favorites are starting to seem really old, as in pilled and stretched. I'll keep and wear them for everyday, but I am thinking about making sharp, presentation-level outfits, and meditating on how some judicious cardigan additions might lend more punch to my existing wardrobe. Shoes I have. Tights I have. But warm layers that are also a little dressy . . . hm. I don't plan to look corporate, but I would like to look stylish, within the parameters of my own personal style. I'd really love to find some more cropped/shrug cardigans to wear with my two NPL Leila dresses.
And I'm thinking ahead to this dress I have told myself I'm going to buy for my birthday. I mean, granted, I've broken my NO DRESSES rule already. And I might very well take my silk dress when I travel for these events, because I have it and it's lovely. But the main thing I'm thinking is that although I'd told myself I was going to buy a new Not Perfect Linen dress as a big gift to myself for my 60th birthday (but buy it early, so I would have it for the planned events), now I might just hew to the one rule I made for this year that I have kept. That rule? NOTHING NEW.
I want to avoid the revolving door of buy-sell-trade secondhand, that just winds up being a lot of consumption and a lot of time spent on consumption, but I think I'd still rather buy something that way. It's a tough call in one sense, because I'd like to support good companies. On the other hand . . . I could stretch the same money a lot further if I buy secondhand and not necessarily items from companies whose products are almost as expensive used as they are new.
Not that I want or need to load up my closet with stuff, because I have about as much right now as I can wear. Fortunately a focus on natural fibers helps narrow things down. I'll see a sweater I like, then look at the tag, and oops! Acrylic! Instant un-like!
And . . . I don't know. I love my Wool& dresses and wear them regularly, but some of them are starting to wear out. Two are already basically nightgowns. One thing I'm realizing, meanwhile, is that I get tired of wearing jersey knit. Yes, I love it sometimes --- quite often, even --- but I'm so happy to put on linen, which is soft and drapey and comfortable but not quite as liquid. So there's that.
Anyway, I don't think I'm purchasing anything tonight, although there are a couple of things I have my eye on. Exercising impulse control, but also thinking about the fall . . . and keeping my eyes on what I already have, and holding out for things that would work with what I already have . . .