Up early for Mass, with my morning coffee in an Artgirl mug.
Same old, same old today --- a little more woodwork cleaning around the house, a little more writing, a little more trying to get all my travel details for the late fall sorted out, so that I don't have to think about all that again until it's time to go.
I'll probably still have fun thinking about conference outfit ideas, though.
High today of 79F, though right now it's quite cool out. I think I'm going to ditch my proposed outfit plan and wear something that's currently hanging on the drying rack: suitable for Mass, but also something I want to experiment with, to see what fall conference/lecture outfits I could make.
Wearing:
*Wool& Willow dress (M/Long) in Ocean Teal, bought October 2023, last worn on Monday. 2024 wears to date: 18
*Very old thrifted Talbots cotton cardigan, last worn yesterday.
*Secondhand Kalso Earth Shoes Mary Janes, bought in August, last worn yesterday.
The theme of this outfit: What Was Hanging Around in the Bathroom?
I guess this counts as "rewarding your hot outfits," although I'm not sure I've ever worn this precise combination. I mean, I'm sure I haven't, because I haven't owned these shoes that long, but even the dress with the red cardi is, I think, a new idea, not one I've done before.
I washed out my dress when I took it off Monday evening, so it's fresh and clean now. Possibly it's a little stretched out, because I didn't bother to roll it in a towel to remove water, but just hung it over the drying rack. Anyway, it feels very soft.
Like yesterday's Audrey, this has quickly become one of my most versatile and frequently worn dresses. I really want to try it with my green blazer and other pieces, to see what kinds of sharper conference/presentation outfits I can make with it. It was a great fall/winter dress through the last year, with boots and tights and various cardigans, and I'm looking forward to wearing it through, eventually, another good season of colder weather.
Hair in a default ponytail with a satin scrunchie for softness. I will probably wash it later for pub night and to be ready for tomorrow's funeral.
Time to brush my teeth and head out for Mass.
LATER:
Back from Mass, having had a nice chat with some friends from our very first days in the parish: an older couple who lost their only daughter to cancer about 20 years ago, but who persevere in faithfulness and have always been interested in and kind to our children. It was lovely to see them. My husband had been to visit the wife in the hospital when she had pneumonia some weeks back, and it's good to see her on her feet. As she says, she has recovered better than anyone expected her to, and she attributes her progress to all the prayers for her.
Meanwhile, I have been following with interest the peregrinations of one of the cardigans I bought on Poshmark at the end of August. It was supposed to arrive here, from somewhere in the Dallas, Texas, metropolitan area, on Tuesday. Instead, it went, via Charlotte, to Spencer, North Carolina --- a town I had to look up, because I'd never heard of it, but it's somewhere on the far side of Salisbury, which is roughly an hour northeast of here. That's where it was yesterday. Today I checked in, because I thought surely by today it would have arrived in my town and would be out for delivery.
But no.
Guess where it is.
Just guess.
Make it make sense.
At least it's not cold yet, and I wasn't going to wear this sweater for quite some time. But still.
I guess it's on its way back to the seller? Even though my address surely was clear and visible? I print out enough of these mailing labels myself to feel certain that it was.
Anyway, what the heck.
Meanwhile, other things don't make sense, like yet another school shooting. I'm not here to talk about politics, policy, or specific cultural issues, and that's a line I hold hard. Doesn't mean I don't think about those things. Doesn't mean I'm not paying attention, examining my conscience, or considering my votes. It simply means that this is not the forum for that conversation (which is one reason why I don't open comments here). More and more I think that no online space is really the forum for that conversation, if anybody expects the conversation to be productive and fruitful. But yes, I am thinking about all of that today. My chat about clothing will not silence the thoughts in my mind or the emotions in my heart. If anything, you can understand these relatively trivial concerns as comfort food. That's what they often are anyway.
LATER AGAIN:
Taking a break to try a couple of outfit ideas involving this dress.
First, the purple blazer cardigan:
The great difficulty in wearing just about any layer over a swing dress is that the hem of the cardigan or jacket is almost always going to hit just at the point where the line of the dress is widening out. If you are a short-waisted, pear-shaped person, this is going to be a lot more obvious than on a taller, longer-waisted person with a more rectangular or inverted-triangle body shape.
So this is not, probably, the most fantastic silhouette. But weirdly, I don't dislike it. I think that wearing boots --- my Birk Melrose boots especially --- would add some balance by creating a sense of weight or bulk at the bottom of the silhouette. Even just tights, with these same shoes, would add something. Even so . . . I really don't dislike this cardigan with this dress. I like the colors together an awful lot, especially as a fall color scheme. If I added a scarf, just draped around my neck like a stole, that vertical line would be helpful as well.
So I might well pack that blazer cardigan. We'll see. One reason I'm thinking carefully about these things now is that I plan to take my one carry-on backpack, and whatever I'm wearing for days of being out in public at ongoing literary events has to fit in that backpack.
Anyway.
Here's the blue rayon bolero/bolo/shrug cardigan. I'm really not sure which is the right term for this shape.
Blue on blue is a totally different effect --- or ice-blue on teal, I guess. I like these together, as a color/texture combination. Again, the main issue is that just about any layer over a dress like this is going to make me look hippy. But then, I am hippy. Again, boots would help, I think, as might a scarf. Really depends on how chilly it's going to be. Here, the first weekend in November, it could be cold or it could be 80 degrees Farenheit. Not sure about South Bend, Indiana.
And the green corduroy jacket, which I am pretty sure is going to win a spot in my packing:
Without, then with my teal velour scarf (ancient, bought in a T.J. Maxx in 2004, I think). I'll for sure pack that scarf, because it dresses up anything instantly, without adding a lot of weight or extra warmth. It is warm, but you could wear it on a warmish day and not die of heat stroke, is what I'm saying.
And I really groove on that mossy green with these teals.
I have to make myself wear a structured jacket. What I naturally gravitate toward are soft cardigans. But I love the look of this so much that I'm going to make myself wear it and get used to it.