Lavender in bloom, with oregano and speedwell.
Today is my mother's birthday; she is 89. If you're a praying person, spare a prayer for her today, for grace and growth in her 90th year.
Not much on today out of the ordinary. I have essays to work on, a book to read for review purposes, correspondence to keep up with --- etc. The usual.
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (S/M) in Dark Blue-Gray (I think --- I've never been sure of the color), bought December 2023, last worn May 12. Wears in 2025: 9
*Secondhand Brooks Brothers merino cardigan, year 2 of wear
*Thrifted Crocs sandals, year 2 of wear
An all-secondhand outfit today, which pleases me, as does my choice of dress for Day 3 of what I have decided is my June Wear Everything Once Challenge. The rules are basic: I don't repeat a dress or skirt in my closet until I have worn every dress and skirt in the closet once.
There are exceptions, at least provisionally. I am giving myself permission to exclude my purple silk dress, because it's a little trickier to wear unless I have some special event --- though I could just wear it out on a Thursday night with sandals and a jean jacket. It's not an un-simple dress. So it could work with this challenge, but I'm giving myself an out.
I'm also not including shirts, which I view largely as accessories anyway (accessories, including cardigans, scarves, etc, are excluded from this challenge, as are shoes, which I'm obviously going to repeat a lot). Skirts, on the other hand, are major wardrobe items, so they're in. I have two in my closet right now: my red linen-blend maxi plus this blue patterned linen skirt that came yesterday, one of my cashless purchases with credit I earned selling two bigger-ticket dresses. That seems like the right number of skirts to me, given how many dresses I also have, plus my clear preference for wearing dresses.
Fortunately for me also, I don't really have a dress or skirt that isn't a summer wardrobe item. With the weather warming up, this is a good thing. On the other hand, the mornings and evenings are still cool, so I'm glad to have opportunities to wear cardigans and jackets, and to be not too hot in dresses with sleeves.
Again, this dress I'm wearing today is a favorite --- but then, they all are, aren't they. This particular dress was one of my first NPL dresses, one of two that I bought with Christmas money at the end of 2023, and like the other, my Cinnamon Rose Leila dress, it's a purchase I have not regretted, and a dress I hope to wear until it falls to pieces, beyond repair.
What do I love about it?
*The soft slaty gray is an excellent neutral for my coloring, and it goes with everything. But it's not just a backdrop for other colors --- I noticed again today, as I was taking photos in the bathroom mirror, how lovely the play of light was even on this very basic-looking fabric. It's just beautiful linen, with the depth and luminosity of a high-quality fabric, and even though the color might conceivably strike someone (even me) as boring, it's really quite subtly dramatic.
*The fabric has worn to a gorgeous softness, so as well as being visually lovely, it also feels good to put on.
*The silhouette is relaxed without being shapeless. I love the curve of the waist and the gathered skirt, with its fullness. This dress skims lightly over the body but doesn't just hang there. After wearing mostly Wool& swing dresses for two years before I started buying NPL dresses, this came as a great relief. I don't like tight or fitted dresses (much, anyway), but I do appreciate beautiful tailoring. I love the soft scoop neck and the whole hang of the dress on my body --- it's the perfect breezy summer dress.
*As perfect a summer dress as this is, it's great in the winter as well. The generous shape means it's easy to layer over a wool dress for extra warmth. It's cute with boots and a bulky cardigan. It lends itself well to transitional-season dressing. Lent and Advent? Yes, indeed.
Anyway, now I've talked myself into wishing I could wear it every day, instead of having to wait until I wear everything else, but you know --- everything else deserves its day in the sun, just like this. Whatever I wear tomorrow, I can talk myself into loving just as much.
I'll lose the cardigan soon, maybe even on my dog walk, but for right now it feels good. I do really love pink with this dress. In the meantime, I'm going to drink some more coffee and ponder things.
PS
Thought I'd try this outfit with my new bag, as an accessory to complete it. Will I actually go out with this bag as part of my outfit today? Doubtful. But I could . . .
This green --- which I would never wear in an article of clothing --- plays a lot better with a lot more of my closet than I was afraid it would. It's actually a lot of fun. I'm wondering if the tall part of it, across my front, is where you're supposed to put a water bottle . . . You could do that, at any rate. Anyway, it's a really cool bag, and I'm glad to have it. Here's to not leaving my belongings all over town.
OH ALSO
I gave my hair a trim this morning, using the Creaclip (not an affiliate link) I bought . . . two years ago? . . . after seeing someone use it. I have used the longer curved clip to do layers in my hair, but today I just used the shorter one, combing my wet hair straight down in front of my shoulders and positioning the clip so that I could trim off the bottom in what I hope was a straight line. Cutting it that way makes it fall in a tapered shape on my back, which is what I want. I did also do a tiny unicorn trim --- where you comb all your wet hair to the top of your head (bending over upside down) and fastening it with a scrunchie in the middle of your forehead, so that you can trim the ends of the ponytail this makes.
This does create some layers in your hair --- the more you cut off, the more layers you get. I trimmed just about half an inch, with the goal of getting at some split ends that other trims hadn't accessed. This gives me a tiny, tiny bit of layering at the bottom of my hair, but not enough to make much difference. I slept with my hair in a braid last night, which I think I'm going to keep doing, just to have it out of my way, especially in hot weather --- so I did not want to cut it in such a way as to jeopardize its capacity to stay neatly braided. Meanwhile, my ends are soft and fresh, which I appreciate. I want to keep my hair long, but only if it stays healthy. And I don't want to let it get unmanageably long, however long that would turn out to be. Frequent tiny ends trims let it keep growing without any damage. Fortunately wavy hair is very forgiving!