(J.Crew Rebellious Librarian)
We leave for New York today. There’s packing to be done. And cleaning. No one wants to return home to a fridge full of rotting vegetables. In trying to pack, I can’t help but notice that I’m fine in the cocktail hour department, but what about everyday living? Everyday living here in Austin, for me, means sweat shorts and a stained v-neck tee-shirt with an eaten collar. Yes, I nibble on my clothes when I write. I need everyday clothes for summer, clothes a mother can wear without looking like a mother.
Ever notice how Tim Gunn tells everyone who’s a mother to just say no to mom clothes? No capri pants. No drawstring and pockets on the legs. Nothing short. Elongate your body. I get it, but my closet doesn’t. I own one pair of shorts that fit right now. One. And they’re tight. It makes absolutely no difference to them that I’ve lost eight pounds. I have no idea what to pack. Am I really going to walk around the Bronx Zoo in a silk J. Crew skirt? Really? It’s come to that. I’ve got that or the tight uncomfortable shorts, or the dreaded mom capri pant in beige. I need everyday clothes, casual–things I can wear in public–not yoga clothes. And not all day dresses because it’s hard to frolic with the radishes while worrying if someone might get a glimpse of mine.
Can anyone help? I am going to New York, so there’s shopping to be had there, of course. But aren’t we always tempted to buy what looks pretty instead of what works for everyday life? It’s too hot to put on jeans, and as lovely as the strangle of pearls is come autumn, it’s too heavy this time of year for so much jewelry. It just feels wrong. Everything should be light and full of whimsy. Basically, I need basics. Looks I can pull together that can take me to the duck pond, the zoo, and through city streets without being too weighed down.
I hate feeling this way. The other day, I was at the San Marcos Outlets, and I breezed through a J.Crew, after shopping for the tikes and the man… and nothing fit, but that’s not the point… there was a woman in a gold and white horizontal striped skirt which she paired with an intense navy silk shell and a yellow long cardigan. Though she might have also wrapped some random long scarf around her whole body, hoping for a clubbing of bohemian. And I thought, "See, people can make casual really work." She looks stylish, dressed down. Except now that I think of it, she was wearing a SKIRT, a silk skirt, with a silk BLOUSE, and then a cardigan. A CARDIGAN. Is this what my life has come to? I don’t want to have to think. I just want someone to dress me… someone outside of this house. "Wear this, Mama," Abigail said to me today, the two of us in my closet. She was holding up a bathing suit sarong. Not exactly appropriate for an airport excursion, but love the for whimsy. I’ll give her that.
This is all a very long-winded way of saying, I’ve got shit to do, and in the coming days I hope to iron out things on this site, too, to dress it. So you find what you’re looking for, so it’s easier to read, so you know where to go when you want to find that post about wedding speeches, or that recipe I put up for the Abigail Rubytini. So I’m still working it all out… which is a fun and miserable process at once… just like shopping. Mostly, I just want to have fun and be playful with it, so I’m open to any site suggestions– or wardrobe suggestions. In the interem, thank you for excusing the untidyness you’ll find here and there with too many fonts, and footers that only work on some of the pages, etc. That’s my personal hell right now. Hence… I must sleep. Feel free to poke about and add any suggestions you have. Obviously I haven’t populated the videos yet, but that’s where they’ll always appear each week.
4 YEARS AGO: Dumbe Reade, Showing Skin
5 YEARS AGO: Sex Of A City
