Pushing It

I think I might be pushing the season today by wearing a skirt, slip, and tights at work but it seemed like the thing to do. I have a new denim skirt and a cotton/cashmere sweater so I dug out some thick tights and a slip and I'm good. I do think I need to seek out some higher quality tights than the ones I got at Goodwill last fall, these fit kind of oddly. In fact, I have a pair of panties over the top of them to keep them up! The waistband's a bit, um, weak. My friend Lala convinced me to try wearing skirts last summer and I fell in love with them. I've always thought a skirt was too "dressy" for me but I sewed up a few in some nice prints I found in the "reduced for quick sale" aisle at the fabric store(s) and, paired with a t-shirt, they make an excellent wardrobe for every day. It was hard to put them away (they never did make it downstairs with the "real" summer clothes) and I'm anxious to start wearing them again. Hmm, maybe I'll visit a real store tomorrow for some tights that aren't uber-irregulars so I can start wearing them again when the weather cooperates. AND I can sew up the skirt I have cut out because it's my first swirly skirt and I've got a sweater that will look exactly right with it, also I'm waiting for all the linens to arrive at Hancock Fabrics so I can make a linen one or two. I love linen, don't you?

February 5--Horace Pippin, Lady of the Lake. So many painters came to Bedford. Professionals and amateurs set up their easels of cluttered the lakeside park sitting on every available bench sketchbooks on their laps. They'd squint at the hills across the lake and their hands would hover over the paper. Inspiration would strike and they'd bend to their work, frown lines growing between their brows. Some of the skipped the drawing and dove right into the blaqnk paper or canvas. Those were the ones I watched, those brave or foolhardy souls who believed that genius depended on spontenaiety, that preplanning or sketching would cramp their brilliance. Too often they flung their work away in disgust while the cautious ones worked carefully on their canvas slowly bringing the view to life. Or their interpretation of the view.

I'd like to be sitting beside a lake today, even a frozen one would do. The Clearing's summer season catalog came last weekend. I've found half a dozen classes I'd like to take. Now if I can only win the lottery or something, robbing banks is just too chancy these days.

--Barbara