I’ve probably mentioned (several times) that it’s been unseasonably hot and dry here in the Pacific NW this spring. For all intents and purposes, we skipped spring, if spring is defined as the mild few months of rain before summer begins on July 5th. Not this year! We have had record high temperatures and almost non-existent rainfall in May and June. Our 2 months of summer (July 5th – Sept 1) looks like it’s going to be at least 4 months this year. The mountains have already lost almost all of their snowpack and the grass is dormant and tinder dry, as if it was mid-August rather than early July.
It’s a good thing I found some cute shorts! Because I need them.
The star pieces in my wardrobe in June were: blue print cotton knit dress, turquoise shorts (formerly known as aqua shorts, but they’re really turquoise), capri pants, black v-neck short sleeve tees, layering tanks, pink Loft cardigan, and a grey lightweight sweatshirt. A few of those things are obviously from before it got stinking hot a couple of weeks ago. You might also notice that a couple of those items are plural – I count 2 identical black tees as one item, and my 4 layering tanks are also listed as one item.
That blue cotton dress is wonderful when the weather gets hot. It’s cute and very easy to wear. If I could only have one dress this would be the one. It would be perfect if it only had POCKETS! But unlike my pocketed sundresses it has a good amount of coverage in the shoulders and back, so I don’t have to wear so much sunscreen. One day women will be able to have it all… pockets in every dress… ;)
I have a lot of items that didn’t get as much wear as I would have expected. Plenty of zeros and ones on my tracking sheet as usual. Some pieces have been removed for the rest of summer since it’s obvious that I’m not going to wear black skinny jeans in 90F weather. I don’t spend much time in air conditioned spaces and I would rather not wear jeans on hot days when I could wear a skirt or shorts instead. I’m pretty satisfied with my wardrobe right now. I have about 32 pieces of clothing – not too many, not too few. But I’m always reassessing.
I’m not likely to need a cardigan much in the next 8 weeks, but when I do need one I usually have a specific one in mind to work with the rest of my outfit, so I’m leaving my 4 favorites in my wardrobe. The pink Loft cardigan is my favorite – I tend to wear it like some people would wear a robe, around the house, over a nightgown, or when there’s a chill in the air. Maybe next week when we get some normal 78F weather I’ll be able to wear it in the mornings.
Right now I can’t even imagine that. The inside of my house has been 77-86F for the last 3 weeks or so, which is awful! It’s been over 80F and up to 93F outside, with a lot less overnight cooling than we are used to. I wear shorts and a tank or a loose cotton dress in this weather. As I said at the beginning of this post, I’m so glad I found some cute shorts this season. They have been working out really well. I don’t always feel like I look good in shorts, but in this heat I really don’t care.
(You know what they say about how to get a bikini body? Put a bikini on your body!)
Which reminds me – I haven’t quite found a place to swim yet, but when I do, I am ready. I bought a cute basic tank swimsuit and a couple of half-price beach towels. Now I won’t be scrambling around embarrassed if I get invited to a lake for a dip. Swimsuits are tricky, but I think the one I found is a good compromise, and it was on sale. At the very least I’ll need it for Thanksgiving with family in Hawaii (!!) but I’m hoping to make friends with someone with a pool.
Why doesn’t anyone around here have central air or a pool?! Oh yeah, because our summer usually lasts 60 days…
Well anyway. I’ll stop complaining about the weather, especially since I actually LOVE summer. I’ve made a new list for July 1 – Oct 1, but it’s really just the same things I have now, without all the extra cool weather stuff that I needed back in March. You can find my list (32 clothing items I think) and tracking sheet here as always.
Thanks for stopping by.
Jo:)
adventures in the here now 