Friday, July 18, 2025

All Fours by Miranda July

My SIL occasionally exchange book recommendations - mostly fluffy romances. Hey, read the newest Linda Holmes book, I sent her in May. So imagine my keen interest when she sent me this text:


All Fours by Miranda July is a National Book Award Finalist form 2024. In this book, our main characters is a dissatisfied wife and mother who says she is going on a solo cross-country road trip and then checks into a motel thirty minutes from her house and proceeds to cheat on her husband in a horrific way. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but there is a scene with a tampon that shall live in infamy. 

The writing was good. The characters, the plot, the general disgusting and raunchy focus on sex, and how truly disturbed I was by the whole thing was not. 


More clips from my text convo with my SIL. I clipped out things that mentioned personal stuff, so it's a bit choppy, but you get it. (Her bubble is white, mine is blue.)



Anyway, I didn't like this book, but the writing was well done and if this sounds like something you'd enjoy, maybe you would. I do think it would inspire an amazing book club discussion, depending on how open you are at your book club (maybe don't recommend it for the church or public library sponsored book club). After I texted with my SIL, my husband and I also had an interesting convo about it, even though he didn't even read it! 

I considered DNFing it many times (it was really gross at parts), but I'm glad I persevered so I could have these discussions about it. 2.5/5 stars

Lines of note:
Other people's relationships never make any sense. (page 4)
Sometimes I think this and sometimes I think some pairings make perfect sense. 

Our eyes met and I flashed forward ten years to a time when artificial intelligence allowed dogs' thoughts to become words. (It was easy, the scientists would say. They were nearly verbal already, we hardly had to use any AI - just a smidge to get them going.) They dogs immediately start speaking about all the horrific things they've witnessed - crimes, violations. Turns out they are a garrulous species, won't shut up, and have incredible memories. Unlike humans, who could never remember what they'd been subjected to as babies, the dogs easily recall events from their puppyhood. Smokey recounts this particular day - mimicking me with a cruel, uncanny accuracy. (page 163-164)
Such a rich text! Today Hannah was barking out the window and I could see nothing for her to bark at. We joked that there was probably a fistfight across the street in a house and she could hear, but thought we were dumb for not knowing. ANYWAY. I'd love to be able to talk with my pets. LOVE IT. 

In old sweatpants and a T-shirt I heaved black metal balls and barbells around, dumbly lifting and lowering however many times I was told to, my face bright pink with heat and embarrassment. Wasn't this basically what Hell was? People forced to endlessly lift and lower heavy things for no reason? (page 179) 
Right? RIGHT? (I mean, there IS a reason, but sometimes it's hard to convince myself.)

Things I looked up:
Blinken Prize (page 182), Love Estes (page 228),  Elsa Penbrook-Gibbard (page 275) - I think these are all fictional people or things. It's hard to tell sometimes!

Hedgehoppers Anonymous (page 188) - Hedgehoppers Anonymous were a 1960s beat group from the United Kingdom. They formed in November 1963 as The Trendsetters, and became The Hedgehoppers the following year. Jonathan King took over their record production in 1965, and added Anonymous to their name. Their most successful single was "It's Good News Week." 

Title spotting:
"Everyone thinks doggy style is so vulnerable," Jordi said, "but it's actually the most stable position. Like a table. It's hard to be knocked down when you're on all fours." (page 301)

Hat mentions (why hats?):
I'd left countless things in this park - my sunglasses, Sam's hat - and nothing was ever still there when we came looking for it. (page 147)

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Would you read a book like this? Have you ever had an extended text conversation with someone about a book? 

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Heartwood by Amity Gaige was one of Catherine's favorite picks of the year so far on a Sarah's Bookshelves episode. I can't remember what she said that made me pull over on a dog walk to order it from the library, but I have a vivid memory of exactly where I was when I did that.


A woman hiking on the Appalachian Trail goes missing and Beverly, a Maine game warden, must organize the search for her.  We follow Valerie, the missing hiker, Bev, and a woman in a retirement home who is also interested in the case. 

While we follow the investigation, we learn a lot about Valerie, Bev, and Lena alike. We learn how they came to be the way they are and what makes them work. They each have their troubles and pasts and I liked how Gaige wove a tapestry of characterization around each of them. However, this is not universally agreed upon. Consider these back to back Goodreads reviews:



It's as if those two reviewers read two separate books! (I liked the Lena parts, personally.)

I also found the mystery of this propulsive. Would Bev find Valerie? Was it the husband? Why are those military guys acting so shady? I liked it, friends. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

And the moon. Who finds the moon comforting? A big rock with a dead man's face on it? The moon is a bystander who never intervenes. How many people have been silenced or violated underneath its helpful incandescence? (page 134-135)

My husband and I fight about this all the time. The sun is life affirming and life giving. The moon is stealing the sun's glory, as far as I'm concerned. 

The real mother, the mother that you get, you've got to love her, there's no choice. She is the mother you needed. She gave you strength, either because she loved you well or because she loved you poorly. She gave you your mission.

It's the dream mother that you have to let go of. The one you pined for, the one you thought your decency promised you. She's the one you've got to bury.

She's a mirage. She'll only break your heart. (page 273)

Um. Huh. There was a part of this book dealing with a mother on her deathbed. I found it simultaneously hard to read and somehow comforting. 

Things I looked up:

Katahdin (page 67) - the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Maine

strigiform (page 150) - owl-like

Title appearing in the book:

Sometimes, in your lap, I would press my hand against your chest so that I could feel the center of you - your heartwood, your innermost substance, like the core of a tree that keeps it standing. (page 1)

Freya, Atis, and Tim, you are my heartwood. (page 309, in the Acknowledgements)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He's a plainspoken, unexcitable Mainer, husky in build, large in hat size. (page 16)

He must mean a hat or a helmet. (page 109)

No hat, empty hands. (page 226)

She grabs a floppy hat but brings nothing else with her. (page 233)

...does not try to hide under her hat. (page 235)

At last, she takes off the hat and fans herself with it. (page 236)

She puts her hat back on. (page 236)

Monday, July 14, 2025

Kate & Frida by Kim Fay

I adored Love & Saffron from Kim Fay, so when I saw she had a new book out, Kate & Frida, I immediately ordered it. 

As in Love & Saffron, this is an epistolary novel. Frida Rodriguez is an aspiring war journalist living in Paris in the 1990s. She writes to a Seattle bookstore hoping to find a book and begins a correspondence with Kate Fair, a bookseller with ambitions to become an author. What follows is a peek into their developing friendship, a reminder of just how awful even what I think of as the pleasant Bill Clinton 1990s was, and a lot of book talk.

There are some mean criticisms of this book on Goodreads. But I loved it. There are some hard bits - one of the characters is a war journalist - but since I'm in my leaning into cozy fiction phase of my reading life, I have to say that this book checked all the boxes for me. The characters were believable and showed growth, the historical references (when I had to write "historical fiction" under the category for this book on my spreadsheet, I almost wept since the 1990s hardly seems like "history," but here we are) made sense based on our characters, and there is a callback to Love & Saffron, which tickled me. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Friends from school say I should do TV news because I have such a big personality but I think it's the words that will last. (page 13)

I think this is true. We don't really know who Shakespeare was, let alone what he looked or sounded like, but we do know the words. 

...there's an essence of the era of fountain pens about him. (page 57)

This made me laugh and read it out loud to my husband. Dr. BB definitely has the era of fountain pens about him. 

He thinks so much more than the average human being. I'm pretty much an average human being. (page 70)

This! This is my whole life. 

"...there's no shame in walking away from a war. There is more than one way to make a difference in the world." (page 129)

I thought this was powerful. We all do what we can do in this world. 

Sometimes I look up from a book a hours have passed, and I haven't thought about Bumpa once. He can't escape his situation. Am I a terrible person for escaping? (page 137)

This hit too hard for me right now. 

We owe it to people who are suffering to savor everything good and beautiful we have in our lives. Not that we should deny bad things or turn our backs on them. But if suffering is contagious, then why isn't joy? Which virus do we want to spread? We don't help someone who's miserable by being miserable - we only add to the world's misery. (page184)

Maybe this is too preachy? But maybe I needed to hear it. 

Things I looked up:

Martha Gellhorn (page 3) - Hemingway's third wife and an author in her own right. 

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (page 3) - a 1987 Booker Prize winning novel which spans the time before, during and after World War II

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (page 19) - Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia is a travel book written by Dame Rebecca West, published in 1941 in two volumes. The book is over 1,100 pages in modern editions and gives an account of Balkan history and ethnography during West's six-week trip to Yugoslavia in 1937.

aebleskiver (page 30) - spherical Danish snacks made from fried batter

Pinky Tuscadero (page 50) - the name of the character on Happy Days who was Fonz's girlfriend

Czeslaw Milosz (page 75) - a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Zabranjeno Pusenje (page 116) - a Bosnian rock band formed in Sarajevo in 1980. The group's musical style primarily consists of a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex storytelling.

Nasiha Kapidzic- Hadzic (page 116) - a Bosnian children's author and poet. Her first children's book, Maskenbal u šumi, was published in 1962. She has won awards for her works, and after death her house was declared a national monument, she was memorialized as a stamp. 

The Shipping News (page 187) - a 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by American author E. Annie Proulx  

Melanie Rae Thon (page 207) - an American fiction writer known for work that moves beyond and between genres, exploring diversity, permeability, and interdependence from a multitude of human and more-than-human perspectives

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

I pretended to tip a hat...(page 43)

We saw the Tiny Hat Orchestra at the Backstage after dinner one night...(page 61)

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What are your feelings on epistolary novels? Do you have fond memories of the 1990s or are you happy to be in 2025? 

Friday, July 11, 2025

Snapshot of My Day, Edition #14, 7/10/2025

I got the idea for this type of "snapshot" post from Stephany Writes who got it from To Love and To Learn. I'm a straight-up copycat of the format.

It's been more than a year since I did one of these! Stephany recently did one and it inspired me. 

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Edition #1 11/17/2021
Edition #2 12/22/2021
Edition #3 1/26/2022
Edition #4 3/9/2022
Edition #5 4/25/2022
Edition #6 6/23/2022
Edition #7 8/30/2022
Edition #8 2/25/2023
Edition #9 3/25/2023
Edition #10 4/25/2023
Edition #11 7/25/2023
Edition #12 10/25/2023
Edition #13 2/26/2024

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Time I woke up: 5:30am with the alarm.

First thing I did upon waking: I read some of The Chosen by Chaim Potok (look, maybe this is a  brilliant book, but it started with an interminably long scene of a youth baseball game, so it has my hackles up). I then went downstairs, brushed the cat for my usual forty-five seconds, and took the dog for a walk.

Today's weather: Perfect summer day. It was in the 60s when I walked the dog this morning and the highs got into the low 80s. I could not have asked for anything more. 

She is gorgeous, right? Even if she will never look at the camera.

An out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened today: The parking lot where I normally park at work is closed for repair work, so I had to park on the street. 



Last thing I read (not on the Internet): That book from this morning. 

Last thing I read (on the Internet): This article about a new study that shows dietary education in the United States is abysmal, but I guess we already knew that. 

Last text I received: Wednesday was the last time I received a text. LOL. It was from my doctor's office reminding me to check in before my appointment on Friday morning. 

Last text I sent: Lol. Do we need more eggs? - I sent this to Dr. BB on Wednesday when he said that he boiled five eggs for Hannah and only two of them survived the process. 

Last website I visited: Chewy. I had to adjust the date of the next autoship of Zelda's food. 

Deluxe lunch today. We had leftover soup and my delicious green bean salad. I'll be over here waxing poetic about soup and salad as an awesome lunch options, thanks.


Last show I watched: I watched series 19, episode 10 (the grand final!) of Taskmaster last night with Dr. BB. I'm sad that there won't be new TM shows for me to watch until the fall. (If you still haven't watched Taskmaster, I feel like I am not doing my job here.)

Last podcast I listened to: Look, it was the "Can't Stop" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers episode of 60 Songs That Explain the '90s: The 2000s. New fact: Flea was not born with the name Flea. His birth name is Michael Peter Balzary. I mean, can you imagine either calling Flea Michael OR choosing to go by the name Flea. (Also, I have to admit that I do not have the fondness for Nirvana or Hole that Rob has. I find the elegiac nature of the first part of this episode to be off-putting. Kurt Cobain may have been a tortured artist and his death was sad, but I was a teen in the '90s and it certainly didn't ruin my year, you know?) (Is it okay to put to parentheses together? Oh, well. Also, I do not know this RHCP song, but I enjoyed the episode anyway.)

Last thing I said: Katie's birthday is Sunday. The card won't get there on time, but we'll send one anyway. 

Last thing I ate: Some curried chickpeas and rice for dinner. 

Queen. I wish I could sleep as much as she does. 

What I was doing an hour ago: Eating dinner. 

What I will be doing an hour from now: Taking a shower, hopefully.

Current whereabouts of the other members of the household: Dr. BB is reading on the couch, Hannah's in her bed in the room with him, and Zelda is sitting on the floor next to me under a dining room chair. 

One thing I crossed off my to-do list today: I emailed back a faculty member about a question they asked earlier in the week after doing some research. (If anyone cares, my boss is willing to override the last fifteen credit residency requirement, as long as the student meets all the other residency requirements. However, the registrar's office will not allow a student to apply for graduation or release their official transcripts with a financial hold. You're welcome for this delightfully particular and niche information.)

Can you spy the kitty?


7/10/2025 at 8:10pm

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What is the last text you sent or received?

Wednesday, July 09, 2025

2025 Q2 Goals Update

 Health

1) Spend 1000 hours outside. 
April: 51 hours, 37 minutes - I am not going to even get to 500 hours at this rate. LOL. 
May: 56 hours, 53 minutes
June: 53 hours, 28 minutes

2) Do something in the yard every week. 
April: Yeah. I did it!
May: Yes!
June: It's sort of shameful how often "do something in the yard" was "put birdseed in the feeder," but there you have it. 

3) Do at least five yoga poses a day. 
April: 30/30 days!
May: 30/31 days - I'm counting this as a win. 
June: 30/30 days

4) Go to a new-to-me fitness class. 
    Accomplished in Q1.

5) Drink 20 ounces of water a day. 
April: 30/30 days
May: 31/31 days
June: 30/30 days

6) Exercise for 30 minutes at least 80% of days. 
April: 22/30 (73.3%)
May: 25/31 (80.6%)
June: 25/30 (83.3%)

7) Only eat dessert Thursday - Saturday (or special occasions like holidays and birthdays). 
April: Lol. I didn't even bother tracking this. Let's call it 0%.
May: Lol.
June: 5/30 (16.7%) 

Connection

1) Message my accountability buddy every day and M/T/T at least once a week. 
April: 100% with M/T/T, but my accountability buddy is too busy for me. Maybe I should get a new accountability buddy.
May: Same as April.
June: My accountability buddy reached out and said she did want to continue, so let's call it 10/15 (66.7%) days at the end of the month. I messaged T&T every week. Things with my mom are not ideal, so...this has been a hard goal for me. 

2) Do two Cool Blogger Book Club sessions.
    Did one session in Q1.

3) Send at least one fun piece of snail mail every month. Track snail mail. 
April: 24 postcards, two birthday cards
May: 7 postcards, a birthday card, a Mother's Day card, a couple of bills, a couple of condolence notes, and a graduation card for a total of 14 items (I also hand-delivered four birthday cards and a graduation card)
June: Three postcards, two birthday cards, one bill, and one hand-delivered graduation card for a total of seven items. 

Adulting

1) Figure out a will or whatever. 
April: You all know the answer to this is no, right?
May: As if. 
June: You know the answer. 

2) Order new checks. 
April: I still have a few, so I'm not too worried. I probably should order some next month, though.
May: I ordered them! I got a pack for $30. I am going to track how long a pack lasts me. 
June: I have them!

3) Limit my clothes buying to the following: two new dresses/season, new mary janes, anything that was on my Christmas wish list that I did not get, necessary bras/underwear/workout gear/replacement leggings or tights (one-to-one replacements on those).  
April: I purchased two new dresses and a new pair of sandals. 
May: No clothes this month!
June: No clothes this month!

Home

1) Paint the porch and garage. 
April: Too cold and rainy for that. 
May: Still too rainy.
June: SO MUCH RAIN. Also, I'm not home enough for this. 

2) Hem the stupid pants. 
April: The pants are still MIA. 
May: I should find those pants. He probably wants to wear them in the warmer weather.
June: LOL. He has an appointment with a tailor to get them hemmed. Someone's going to hem the pants. 

3) Consult an architect/contractor for our bathroom remodel.  
April: In this economy? 
May: Lolz.
June: We did talk about this. I need to consult with my friends to find a good architect. 

4) Clean and organize my closet and dresser and keep them that way.  
April: Lol. No. 
May: *sigh*
June: I need to be home. I will be home at some point, right?

Fun

1) Learn three new hairstyles: French braid, an elegant low knot, and something else TBD. 
April: I actually watched some videos on a low knot and bought some supplies - smaller hair ties and bobby pins. This is progress. 
May: I wore a knot to work! This seems like success.
June: I'm stalled on this. 

2) Have one day a quarter where I take off work with no plans. 
April: Not at all. 
May: I took a day off work when I got a mammogram and did other life chores. So half-credit?
June: Absolutely not. 

3) Watch at least one makeup tutorial every quarter. 
April: I watched a video on putting on makeup for video conferencing
May: Nothing. 
June: *sigh*

4) Go on a girls trip. 
April: No, but Bestest Friend and I planned one for this summer!
May: I bought tickets for a long weekend away with Bestest Friend in July!
June: Next month!

5) Go to at least four new-to-me museums. 
April: Anne and I went to two museums on the UW-Madison campus. One of those museums is way cooler than the other. 
May: Nope. 
June: Anne and I went to Old World Wisconsin. It's a living history museum, so that counts, right? We also went to Black Point Estate. You guys! I think Anne and I did this!

Geology museum, Physics museum (zzzzz), horses at Old World Wisconsin, Black Point Estate


6) Once a month dates with my husband. 
April: Not at all. 
May: Went to a museum gallery opening with him!
June: I barely even saw the man. 

7) Actually train Hannah at least three times a week. 
April: Hannah was trained FOUR times TOTAL this month. No wonder she rarely listens to me anymore. 
May: I wrote down credit for six days. Poor neglected Hannah.
June: Nothing. Not a single day. It's a good thing she's a good girl. 

8) Read big books over 500 pages 
    May: The Last Magician
    June: Night Film and Seraphina

9) Make six new-to-me cookie recipes. 
April: No, but I did make a plan
May: I made peanut butter blossom cookies! They were fine, but didn't taste as peanut buttery as I wanted them to. 
June: Nothing. 




10) Do a 30-day project each month. 
    April: My project was to send one postcard every day. I managed to send twenty-five in April, but then I sent the rest in early May.
    May: I did two minutes of core work. 22/31 (71%) days. Not bad. 
    June: I couldn't be bothered to even come up with a goal. I just wanted to survive. And I did. 

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When was the last time you went to a museum/historical site? If you have a partner, do you do regular date nights? 

Monday, July 07, 2025

What I Spent: June 2025

As a reminder, my husband pays the "big bills" like mortgage, phone, and electricity. I pay for groceries and the pets and that somehow evens things out.


Eating out ($20.46, .9%) - This was just coffee a couple of times and lunch once.

Entertainment ($86, 4%) - I started a Spotify subscription, so we'll see if I keep that. I also had a couple of adventures with Anne, and bought an audiobook.

Bills ($133.36, 6.2%) - Home and car insurance.

Personal care ($142.54, 6.6%) - Mostly makeup.

Savings ($200, 9.2%) - It is what it is.

Cars ($217, 10%) - New tags for one of the cars and way too much gas. 

Gifts ($251.30, 11.6%) - Grad gift, stamps (PSA - First-class stamps are going up in price from 73 cents to 78 cents on July 13, so stock up now)

Pets ($358.91, 16.6%) - Food, litter, Hannah's $$$ probiotic. It's just costs so much to have pets.

Groceries ($754.64, 34.9%) - This isn't all of it. Dr. BB did the Costco run and he ran to the store twice while I was out of town. 

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How much do you spend eating out each month? 

Thursday, July 03, 2025

My Summer Wardrobe - What I Wore Last Week

Who wants a roundup of the clothes I wear?! If not, no worries. Skip this entire post.

Wednesday, June 25 - It's hot, friends. I regretted the sleeves almost immediately. Weird day. I started out with a dentist appointment and ran into the office for about an hour and a half. I spent the rest of the day working from home and dealing with a dog who wasn't feeling well, so I had to take her outside approximately eight times. 
Dress: Toad & Co. (purchased on extreme clearance in the off-season and is no longer on their site)
Shoes: Mephisto Helen


Thursday, June 27 - Still really hot. We had an orientation event at work, so I was meandering everywhere on campus. No bueno. Also, my hair stayed down for approximately two seconds. ALSO ALSO the computer lab was SO HOT that I almost melted into my students. (I did not wear the flip flops to work. I wore the sandals I wore yesterday. I wore the flip flops to walk the dog because the rain makes everything wet.)
Dress: Happy Earth Midi Dress from last year (no longer on their site)
Shoes: Vionic flip flops


Friday, June 27 - The floors in our office are being waxed, so it's a work from home day for the entire office. No makeup, no jewelry, my hair hasn't been washed in four days, and my husband is STILL IN MADISON for his conference, so I officially DGAF.
Dress: Wool& Ava Fit & Flare - Lovely dress - very cool and flattering. Unfortunately, it is too low cut for someone with my assets, so I have to wear a cami under it to wear it to work which makes it less cool and ruins the lines. Perfect for a WAH day, but not ideal if I'm going to meeting in person with anyone. 
Shoes: Mephisto Helen (in black instead of brown)


Saturday, June 29 - Adventure day with Anne! It was actually a really nice day for our adventure, which was a fun boat trip on Lake Geneva, along with a tour of a lovely old summer "cottage." I slathered myself up in in sunscreen and it was fun. 
Dress: Toad & Co. (another one I ordered on super clearance in the off-season and is no longer on their site) - This dress has an annoying slit, so while I would like to wear it to work, I do not because it frequently shows too much leg. Anne suggested I tack it down with a well-placed stitch or three. I might do that!
Shoes: Mephisto Helen 


Sunday, June 29 - This was the one and only time I left the house, which was to go to the grocery store to buy sweet potatoes, which I needed to make for the dog.  This dress is too short for work and doesn't have pockets (all the rest of the dresses shown DO have pockets), so it's reserved for days like today when I all I was doing was making sweet potatoes and granola, doing housework (mostly laundry and vacuuming), and catching up on my blog. 
Dress: Mata Traders (years ago - they do seem to have more offerings with pockets these days)
Shoes: Mephisto Helen


Monday, June 30 - The thermostat in my office says 74.5, but it feels closer to 88 in here. I forgot to take a photo before I left the house this morning. 
Dress: Happy Earth Lily Midi Dress (Paradise is the print)
Shoes: Mephisto Helen


Tuesday, July 1 - Back in my office because the morning light was harsh this morning. It's still hot, but it didn't feel punishing on my walk with Hannah this morning.
Dress: Happy Earth Isla Midi Dress (pattern is Les Fleurs) - I like this dress, but wish the V-neck wasn't quite so deep. I have to wear a cami under it and I don't love that look. Oh, well. The dress is cream/ivory and I only have white camisoles and the white makes the cream look dirty, so I have been wearing a brown one. I'd like to get a green or cream camisole, but I think you all know that I'm not going to actually take action on that. 
Shoes: Mephisto Helen



Wednesday, July 2 - Back in my office because I forgot I was doing this. I only have one more daily summer dress in my closet - it's a way too short sheath dress without pockets I've owned since high school. It's perfect and I love it, but it really is reserved for days when I stay at home. I have a couple of cocktail dresses that are summery, but you're basically looking at my whole wardrobe.
Dress: Boden - This is from several years back. I fell for Boden's greenwashing and purchased this dress thinking it was an ethical purchase. Boden is terrible to its employees, though, so I wouldn't buy it today. However, since I already have it, I am going to wear it until it falls apart.
Shoes: Mephisto Helen


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For the wedding I am going to in early August, I am considering wearing one of the Happy Earth midi dresses (Thursday or Monday) with a duster I have. You can see the outfit I wore for our wedding anniversary when I'm wearing one of the dresses with this duster.


Thoughts? Do you have a preference for which dress would be more wedding-y? Should I try to find something else? (I am not opposed to buying a new dress, but if I want to do so, I should get started looking now.)