How I wore it: normalizing

Hi, all! Despite my mother-in-law's nasty cold/cough, we still ventured into the city to show her downtown Boston and some of the nicer sites within walking distance, like Newbury Street, the Prudential Center, and, of course, the Apple store. I'm sad that she'll be leaving tomorrow, but at the same time, I'm quietly eager for life to begin getting back to normal and quieter: no more daily running of the dishwasher (with all our guests and cooking and whatnot), no more big dinner parties (at least until the weekend...), returning to my dissertation, etc. I even went for a run today. Between the scattered patches of ice on the path and my general non-practice (my last run was on Wednesday, and my last run outside was...a while before that), it wasn't the best of jogs, but it was nice to start to get back to a normal schedule.

However, we are very sad that my mom-in-law is leaving [I got super-lucky in the in-law department] and we decided to have a quiet day around Boston, as I said. The weather was cooler than before, and got much colder quite dramatically as the day wore on. This is what I wore under my insufficiently warm coat:

You know that I love pairing red and black together, much like A-Dubs. But, as you've probably guessed in the almost-year that I've been writing this blog, I, um, kind of like pairing grey with everything. I've even worn this combo before, but it was the end of summer then. I winterized it with my beloved grey Fryes, a bottle-green cardigan, and my favorite scarf. 

I think one of my limitations in fashion/dressing - which carries over to blogging - is that when I find a combo that I like, I tend to stick with it instead of playing around with different elements and being more creative. I mean, if it weren't for the fact that it's winter and I had to dress accordingly, I would probably have worn this combo in the exact same way as last time. I've very consciously not done any of Kendi's 30 for 30 remix challenges, because I limit myself enough as it is - choosing different outfits from a limited selection and playing with how to wear them (presumably differently) creatively? That would make my brain explode, as good as it would be for me. Perhaps one thing I could try more aggressively with this blog is to hold myself accountable to wearing my limited, beloved, and tried-and-true outfits with more creativity and panache? We'll see. 

Rapidly changing subjects, though, I logged another purchase in my Great Leggings Obsession Journey. The grey jeans you see me wearing above (which are my absolute favorite pants) are ripping rather suggestively in the crotchal area (let's see how this affects my blog hits!). The rips aren't visible when the jeans are on, but when they're hanging on their hanger, it's a little alarming and depressing:

Yeah, those aren't safe to wear anymore. Let's see a close-up, shall we?

FAIL! So, yeah, these pants' time is limited. Since I found my blue jeggings such a successful alternative to skinny jeans, I decided to buy grey jeggings to substitute these skinny jeans:

Yes, another HUE purchase. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

So now that I have a viable alternative, it's time to say good-bye to my favorite jeans. I can't bring myself to throw them out just yet. I've taken them off their hanger and put them on my closet shelf because I don't know how to say good-bye to the dreamy light grey denim and the red-stitched accent on the back pockets (never highlighted here). Sigh. I mean, I can always buy another pair from the same brand (Urban Outfitter's Bulldog), but I've found all the other jeans I've bought since the grey ones quite flimsy, and I don't think I'll have the same luck that I had with these sturdy guys. 

It's okay. We'll get through this together.

Green cardigan: gift from mother, via Lord and Taylor, remixed

Checked scarf: Urban Outfitters, remixed

Red top: Tony's, a boutique in Old City Philadelphia, remixed

Grey skinny jeans: Bulldog by Urban Outfitters, remixed

Grey boots: Frye Paige Huaraches, by way of endless.com, remixed