Trailing ice plant in a planter I found on the street last year.
After all the storms last night it's a shade cooler today: high of 92F, which is not not hot, but is not as hot as the last few days have been.
Going to Mass at noon with the husband --- otherwise not much on. I've finished all my work for next week, but I'm sure I'll find something to do (other than play Mah Jongg obsessively, though that is certainly one option on the table). I'll walk the dog fairly shortly, for one thing. Right now she's flat-out asleep on her side in her crate, which I notice she does when she wears her Thundershirt to bed.
Thundershirts don't solve every anxiety, but this one has been so much more effective than any medication we've tried, in terms of helping her relax. The Fourth of July will still be awful --- I'm dreading it already, in fact --- but the Thundershirt will help some, whereas other things we've tried for alleviating her fear have helped not in the slightest. Yesterday evening, even when the thunder was booming away, she was okay in her crate, where I'd put her to have her supper, and that gives me some hope. I bought the Thundershirt right after New Year's this year, when we'd had nights on end of black-powder-shooting/fireworks trauma, so we'll see what kind of difference it makes for this next holiday, with its nights on end of neighborhood jerks making big boom-booms for the fun of it.
As always, I have no relationship with the makers of the Thundershirt. This is just an honest customer review, for the benefit of anyone who has a dog who gets scared of things.
I've also just bought her a seat-belt attachment (very cheap) for her harness --- no more having to crate her in the car, which was a pain. Mostly it was a pain because the crate, which I wanted just to live in the car, bungeed in where I needed it, kept getting taken out of the car (which is not only my car, as it turns out, but everybody's car when they want a bigger car) so that it could be used to haul things around. The crate would get left out in the open (so now it's rusting) or in the garage (where it got filthy), so that when I needed to use it, I would first have to clean it, and that was all a pain. Now it is clean and upstairs in the dudes' room, where I now can stash the dog when we have people over. And I have the seatbelt attachment, which: Lord save the person who takes this thing out of my car.
Anyway, it's just a short bungee leash kind of thing, one end of which has a clip to attach to her harness, and the other end of which has a seatbelt clip, so that it can fit right down into the fastening in the car. She is a climber-around while riding in the car, which is why I used the crate to begin with; now she won't be able to climb around, but can still sit on the seat in comfort and some security. I read somewhere that driving around with the windows down, so the dog can smell smells, is as satisfying to them as a walk --- this gives me an option for exercise, then, in the hot weather. I can clip her in in the back, roll down a window, and drive around in the country for a while, and she will have had some actual diversion. We might try that this afternoon, even though today is not as hot a day.
Now that I've finished my little breakfast of cottage cheese and blueberries (possibly my favorite breakfast to eat on repeat), I think I shall get dressed.
Wearing today:
*Secondhand NY&Co linen/linen-blend maxi skirt, year 3 of wear
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Bay tank in Dusty Blue, year 1 of wear
*Secondhand Xero Z-Trek sandals, year 1 of wear
Here's my base outfit for the day: cool and flowy. I've been wanting to nudge myself to wear this skirt more, and the Feast of the Sacred Heart, when I'm going to Mass, seems as good a day as any to reach for it. This Bay tank, too, could use a little more love. I do like it as an alternative to that swingier Oatmeal NPL tank that I wear a good deal. It fits a little more closely but still has a nice amount of blousiness, and I like the way it works with the line of this skirt. The pale blue is a nice neutral alternative to off-white. And my teal sandals make a fun little color pop on my feet, contrasting with my lowest hemline.
So I have at least 3/4 of the outfit formula going on here: light, dark, and color. But what about pattern? Also, what about covering my shoulders to be church-appro?
I knew I'd need to add something, at least for Mass. My first thought was my jean jacket, still lying on the bathroom hamper where I'd left it last night at bedtime. And I mean, that would have been great. The jean jacket is always great. But what other options did I have? So I asked myself, as I put my hand in the closet.
And:
Here's this shirt I co-opted from the dudes' closet, where it had been hanging for literal years. Clearly nobody was wearing this shirt. Possession, as we all know, is 9/10 of the law, so here's MY shirt.
Et voila, we have light-dark-color-pattern, the whole outfit formula in play. This is fun, in kind of a 90s-grunge-esque way . . . but could it be even better?
What if . . .
I tied the shirt at my waist, so that it's clear that in fact I have a waist (or, if I didn't, could achieve the illusion of having a waist via this one weird trick)? As you see, I did tie the shirt at my waist. And I like this even better. I didn't not like the untied version, and would have been fine wearing it, but I do like the polish and shape of this arrangement. I like that it allows the lovely silhouette of my skirt to show itself. I like that it gives me clear Rule of Thirds proportions.
And I like that this shirt is slim enough that tying it doesn't create a lot of bulk at my waist, which is honestly often a problem with this styling. I'll liked the tied look from the front, but hate it from the side, because the shirt has too much fabric not to be really bunchy at the back and sides.
Here it's less a problem:
I don't mind this. It's not too much bulk. We're all good.
Anyway, I have a number of default things I might have worn to finish off this outfit to wear in church, but I'm glad to have remembered the shirt with which I rewarded myself for cleaning and reorganizing the dude-room last month.
Now I'm going to take the shirt off so that I can walk the dog in the hot sunshine, but I'll put it on again before I leave for Mass.
AFTERNOON UPDATE
Lovely feast-day Mass in the parish, where we saw a number of friends. The husband brought me home, then went out to lunch with our godson's father, whose birthday was yesterday. Dora and I went for a ride in my car, out in the country, to try out her new seatbelt clip --- she liked putting her head out the window to taste the wind, but the ride made her more than a little nervous. Still, it wore her out, which is something. We came home, sat in the sun for a very few minutes, then came inside, where she is flopped out on the daybed beside me while I write this.
I've gone through my Poshmark closet just now, to re-share items. I'm really happy to have sold the green twill Gap shorts I've had listed for the better part of two years --- a small return, but still more than I paid for them, years ago, in the thrift store. And they'll be in somebody's hands, where I hope they'll see years of good wear.
I did provisionally set my off-white linen skirt to "Not for Sale" for now, thinking I might wear it after all. It's really more of a natural linen color, almost khaki, and I do have tops that would go. When I bought that skirt, it was too tight for me, but I have dropped some inches (weirdly, since I haven't lost as many pounds as you might think), and it has a little stretch (it is a linen blend), and at one point it was almost too big for me. I need to try it on, and try it with some shirts, but as the summer heats up, I think I might get wear out of it, especially as I've consigned my Japanese linen pinafore, which really is too big for me, to "apron/coverall" status. It's a light-colored skirt, but I have worn it in the winter with boots as well as in the summer. My main objection to it has been that it's fairly straight, and I like skirts with some sweep, such as the one I'm wearing today, but I think I want to give it another try anyway.
As always, when you feel like shopping, shop the outbox first. That's one good reason to have an outbox: it's primarily for things you intend to get rid of (by reselling or donating them, either one, or possibly both), but it's also where items you're on the fence about can go for a little R&R, while you wear other things. Then, when you get bored with the other things, you can visit the outbox to see what calls your name.
I generally don't list things for sale unless I'm sure I'm okay with actually selling them. I've been okay with selling the three Wool& dresses I've resold, for example. Haven't missed them. Hope somebody else is really enjoying them. But if something doesn't sell and doesn't sell, then I think it's fair to pull it out again and reconsider. Do I, in fact, want to wear it? Would it fill a little gap in my wardrobe, even for a while? I can always reset it to "For Sale," if and when I want. But in the meantime . . . what if??
I'd be fine with somebody's snapping up that skirt, but since they haven't . . .
It's clouding over again out there, so perhaps I should go check my laundry on the line and bring it in. Ope, but no, now the sun is out. Maybe what I should do is check the weather report to see if we're expecting rain.