Author: Jenkr

Earth tones

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Shirt: Fantasy Linen. Skirt: Fabric Sense on Yesstyle. Slippers: Muji. Cardigan: Land’s End. When I went out I wore my black TOMS.

WFH day, but I did run a few errands for the office and stopped by in the morning.

It started out rainy and cloudy this morning, but now the sun is out – mostly. It’s extremely humid. These are the worst kinds of summer days. I wish it would’ve stayed drizzling rain all day instead. The humidity at the ends of these sorts of days is stifling. I used to live in a state where it was hot a lot. Autumn and winter were basically reduced to December and January and that was it. Now I live in an area where the seasons are definitely noticeable, but the summers here are brutal. It’s so ridiculously humid. Even after 15 years here I still can’t get used to them.

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Blue

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Tank top and pants: Grana. Shoes: TOMS. Cardigan: Land’s End.

Other than my shoes, I’ve not work black at all this week. That’s… unusual for me. Seeing all the photos on my computer really shows me what colors I like and apparently I just wasn’t feeling black at all this week.

I got notice of some clothes I ordered will arrive on Monday and I’m really excited to get them. It’s nice to have a game plan of sorts when it comes to the kind of wardrobe I want to cultivate now and getting the pieces to make it come together makes me happy. This will no doubt be a very slow process, but that’s half the fun of it, right?

 

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Mostly repeat

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Shirt: Fantasy Linen. Jeans: Grana. Shoes: TOMS. Cardigan: Calo Rosa on Yesstyle.

Other than the jeans, I wore this exact same outfit on Monday. It’s that comfortable. I’m rather proud of how well I sewed up the arm holes so this shirt would fit better. They are technically a triangle piece inwards that meets with the original line of the shirt.

A Small Wardrobe had a great post today about dressing for your future self. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. What sort of clothing do I want to invest in? Since starting this blog and looking at my outfits, I realize there are several areas of my wardrobe I need to work out. I am starting to think in terms of what items would I spend the money on to keep for as long as humanly possible. Clothing with natural fibers would most likely last the longest. Also, I think the style of clothing I’m gravitating towards now will help in the longevity of my wardrobe as well. Close-fitted clothes get dirty quickly due to sweat and pit stains, especially in the summer. By wearing more clothes with natural fibers that have a looser fit I can wear them many more times before having to wash them. I think I’m finally on the track I want to be with what style and kind of clothing I want to invest in that’ll be with me in the future.

I’ve spent a lot of money on clothes this summer – there’s still many more items I’ve recently purchased on the way, but I have been considering the longevity of the clothes I’ve bought and their value to me. They are clothes I’m willing to put effort into keeping, instead of just discarding after a couple  years.

I overheard a couple guys in the office talking about clothing recently. One of them mentioned a brand that sells at Target and he seemed proud to say that the shirts from that brand lasted him at least 3 years. Somehow, that seems very short to me, but I can’t pinpoint to a lot in my wardrobe that’s even over 5 years old. Maybe I’ll go through the clothes I have to see which ones have lasted the longest and figure out why.

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Comfort & chili

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Shirt: Calo Rosa on Yesstyle. Pants: Grana. Shoes: Allbirds. Cardigan: Land’s End.

Today was another perfectly comfortable outfit day.  I could’ve tucked in the shirt, but I think it would’ve looked forced and I’d be fussing with it all day, so I left it untucked.

It’s been drizzling rain all day. At least it was where my office is located – a 25 minute drive away. My husband’s office is a 5 minute drive from our house and he said it was pouring for a while in the middle of the day. It’s always fascinating to me how much of a difference a few miles can make with weather.

I’m really surprised I’ve stayed away from wearing black so much this summer. It’s my staple, but looking at the above photo reassures me that I can wear other colors and be perfectly comfortable. I really like the color of the top. It’s an oatmeal color. I like that better than white. I think white can be a bit too stark for me.

I’m making chili for dinner. It seems like a good chili kind of day. It’s a smoky beef chili with a cup of beer in it. I had to go get beer for it specifically after work because the only beer we have in the house right now is citrusy and light – hefeweizens and blondes. This chili calls for a good medium bodied beer, but I’ve made it with stouts and porters as well. It also calls for fire-roasted tomatoes, which can be hard to find in the grocery store. There’s only one place near us that sells the crushed tomato kind the recipe calls for. So I had the husband go get the tomatoes while I got the beer. Here is the recipe. It’s a heavy rotation recipe for autumn/winter months in our household.

I’m really looking forward to cooler weather.

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Wrinkled

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Shirt + Pants: Fantasy Linen. Cardigan: Calo Rosa on Yesstyle. Shoes: TOMS.

I did steam these clothes to get out wrinkles last night, but after wearing them in the office throughout the day they ended up still quite wrinkled. But that’s the beauty of linen clothes. This is the big shirt I mentioned a while back I bought in the same order as the pants. The shirt I don’t think was made quite right because the arm holes were so big my elbows would get caught in them, so I sewed in the sides a little with my sewing machine. It’s still huge and it’s meant to be oversized, but I do still like it. I didn’t adjust it well for these photos. This outfit was like wearing the comfortable PJs in the office all day. It didn’t help that I hardly slept last night and had a hard time staying awake. Being this comfortable in an outfit was almost to my detriment.

I got lost down a rabbit hole of eBay finds today. I’d almost forgotten all about a Japanese brand that I fell in love with years ago and would follow all the time – but I never bought anything from them because they are so expensive. 45rpm had the most amazing lookbooks and I coveted most of what they had available, especially their denim and indigo dyed fabrics. Their ad campaigns now are rather generic and no longer show beautiful outdoor scenes with their clothes that I fawned over so much before, but the clothes are still quite beautiful. Anyway, I found some items on eBay through sellers for very reasonable prices. It’s very tempting to go hog-wild.

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Relaxing

 

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Today the hubs and I went for a walk at a nearby preserve. It’s been the first nature walk I’ve taken since January. I forgot how relaxing and calm it feels to be surrounded by greenery and nature in general.

I was unemployed for a couple years during the recession and every day after I’d do my job scouting, I’d go drive out to my favorite park and hike for hours. I have around 40k photos of that park because I always took my camera and documented the change in the trails I took throughout the years. It was the only thing that kept my depression at bay from being unemployed for so long. I think I was at my most happiest during that time.

If you’re feeling stressed, go to the nearest park and take a walk.

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Achievement Unlock: Baggy Comfort

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Shirt: Calo Rosa on Yesstyle. Pants: Fantasy Linen. House slippers: Muji.

I know I normally don’t post weekend outfits, but I felt like taking photos today.

Why did I ever obsess about wearing skinny jeans? I wore jeans once this week and I just wanted to go home and change. They are the comfortable Grana jeans, but now that I’m starting to embrace loose clothing I feel so much better and rarely want to put on jeans.

This top is fantastic and I love the texture. It’s also much warmer than I thought. Layered with a long sleeve tee or turtleneck underneath would make it perfectly suitable for cooler weather. I could even wear leggings underneath the pants and be fine for autumn.

My mood about my ankle has gotten better. Other than the lump that was created from wearing the Nisolo shoes earlier, I’ve not had any problems. In fact, even when I had the lump I didn’t have any major pain either, so maybe I need to give the tendon a little more time to strengthen.

I’ve been doing my usual weight training and actually started throwing weights on the barbell again. I had 40 lbs on the barbell for squats yesterday and ooof…. I am feeling it today. It’s been so long and that amount is so wimpy compared to where I was before! Baby steps…. I’m also taking regular walks around the neighborhood. After all the exercising, I spend more time now stretching, paying extra attention to my calf for tightness around the tendon.

I mentioned I’ve been craving ramen (not cup noodle, the real bone-broth stuff) and the best place to get it is in the city 40 minutes away. The hubs mentioned going to have some for dinner later today.

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This is my perpetual battle in the house. Keeping this chair fur-free. Most of the time I fail because the cats both love this chair. They’ve claimed it as their own and Yuki, seen above, is usually in it 99% of the time. When Bento wants in the chair, he’ll pretend to attack people so they leave and he can get in it, because he’s an asshole that way. He usually only attacks the husband though because he’s a big softie.

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