Green shade outside the back door: old camellia tree, Solomon's seal, hostas, bleeding hearts, ferns, and many weeds. I'd very much like to add an azalea sort of midway up the fence on the right-hand side, where there are fewer hostas and more weeds, but that I guess will have to wait for the fall, at least. It's already too hot to put in anything new. Still, I always love the visual respite of all this green, there at the end of the walk when you come in through the back gate. And right now, though it's hard to see, some of the hostas are blooming.
Much work to grind out today.
Wearing:
*Secondhand Flax linen tunic, year 3 of wear, I think? But it spent quite some time in the resale box before I retrieved it.
*Secondhand L.L. Bean linen skirt, bought a couple of weeks ago, first real wear
*Xero Z-Trek sandals, year 1
So, I am giving this skirt another go, and also the retrieved tunic. I'm not sure how I feel about this outfit, but at least it's cool, as in temperature. All linen. And the long tunic --- this is a SMALL, incidentally, but as you can see, it's none too small on me --- does hide the places where the skirt tends to ride up in odd ways. I am hoping that with wear the skirt's stiff linen will relax. It's such a pretty fabric, and I basically love the A-line skirt, but the fit is just . . . odd. It's an 8, which I thought would be too small, and in some ways it is. I have to wear the waistband pretty high on my torso. But then there's all this room in the hips, which I don't not need, but the proportions seem a little odd. Still . . . maybe it will relax. I might as well give it a chance. If it doesn't get better, I'll resell it, but since I have it, I will try wearing it.
And I believe that as of today I have Worn Everything Once, per my June challenge. This challenge applied to major wardrobe staples --- dresses and skirts --- not to tops or shoes. And I think now I have worn every major wardrobe staple I own. What'll I do tomorrow? I really don't know . . .
I do feel nice and flowy and bohemian in today's outfit. I'd thought I might wear my olive-green Oswegos, but I think that with the vibe of this outfit, sandals are indicated. And the pop of teal on my feet is fun.
Washed my hair and didn't feel like diffusing, so I am letting it air dry. Here's hoping I don't wind up with dermatitis, but I think on a hot day like today --- high of actually 90F --- my hair will dry pretty fast. As you can see, I definitely don't force my hair to be wavy. This is shampoo + LUS 3-in-1, with no styling technique whatsoever. I just shampooed twice, worked a lot of LUS through my hair with a lot of water, combed it out gently, scrunched away excess water with a microfiber towel, and here we are.
Going to walk the dog and then try to finish my essay for tomorrow before lunchtime.
AFTERNOON UPDATE
So far today I have
*walked the dog several times
*bathed the dog after she rolled in a festering dead squirrel on the street (read: THINK CAREFULLY before you invite a dog into your life, because this is the kind of thing they do)
*finished and uploaded one essay and began another
*read a segment of Virginia Woolf's The Waves (after Mapp and Lucia, now for something completely different)
*eaten two sandwiches and a bowl of plain yogurt
*not changed my clothes. The husband remarked that he liked this . . . thing . . . that I was wearing. It has been cool and comfortable all day.
I have the feeling that I always have at the end of any clothing challenge, of being excited that it's ending. Not that this one has been restrictive at all. The only restriction, really, has been that I couldn't repeat something that I liked. So now I'm looking back over the last two and a half weeks and considering what I do want to repeat, starting tomorrow, because I CAN.
Of course, it's getting hotter now, which makes me gravitate toward anything light and floaty. My NPL Smock dresses are at the top of that list for sure. My Dark Blue-Gray Smock was an early installment in this Wear Everything Once Challenge, and I can see just slipping into her tomorrow and stepping right off in my teal sandals.
Not sure what's up for dinner tonight. The husband has been wanting to go back to a local Mexican restaurant we last went to . . . when the kids were still in high school, maybe? I guess it's still there. But it all depends on whether the Artgirl will be home for dinner. If we don't go tonight, we'll go tomorrow, but then that means I need a plan that I don't currently have.
Shall ponder.
Oh, and --- I am looking for a reason to wear my new Xero Oswegos, though in general I truly prefer sandals as a look and a sensory experience. I tend to feel that any kind of sneaker/moccasin makes my legs look stumpier than they are. BUT I love those Oswegos. I might pick my floral pinafore sometime this week, because in terms of both colors and outfit proportions, I think the Oswegos would go especially well.
I think they'd also look good with today's skirt worn with a shorter top instead of a tunic --- the long line of the skirt would create the right Rule of Thirds proportions.
EVENING UPDATE
Outfit tweak to go out to dinner:
I wasn't that nuts about the NPL Dusty Blue Bay tank with this dress --- a surprise, because I had thought that that would be a winner combo. But it didn't look great untucked, and then, tucked in, it was weird and bulky at the waistline. I might just need to play with it more.
But I really like this swingier Oatmeal tank with the skirt. Something about the line and the curve of the hem makes this a very flattering top, even though it hits right across the hips. The swing makes it look as though your hips are thin by comparison . . . not that I'm trying to look thinner, but I'm also trying not to look like a refrigerator, and this is the only way I can come up with to say that in a top like this you don't just look blockily bisected across the widest part of your body. In fact, the widest part of your body is somewhat un-widened by the way the tank swings out over it.
Anyway, I like this very much.
Adding a jean jacket for the air conditioning --- because yes, you absolutely can wear a jacket that is shorter than your shirt.
So the skirt and I are making our peace with each other. Washing the dog together: a bonding experience. I like having something else patterned --- so many of my clothes are solid colors, and it's nice to have some subtle interest.
I also think that this skirt will layer well in the fall with sweaters and boots. That's certainly a long way off, and we've got to heat up more before we even dream of cooling down, but I am making a note nonetheless. This outfit I have on right now would work in the fall --- just add boots.
OK, the Artgirl is home, and we are heading out to dinner, all nicely dressed. The husband is wearing a crisp blue gingham shirt, so we're going to look as though we had planned our outfits.