This week’s outfits:

1-2: Burgundy velvet skirt, polar bear tee, light blue duster cardi, burgundy stompy boots. I wanted to try this long cardi with a skirt, but it turned out that my favorite aspect of the outfit was the sock-tee combo.

3: black corduroy skinnies, plum tunic sweater. Very simple and cozy outfit for an intense writing day.

4-5: herringbone wool pants, charcoal reindeer cardi worn buttoned up as a top. This is a *leeetle* bit dishonest as I did not leave the house after getting dressed. But I wanted to try the pants with my suede lace-up ankle boots, even if just for a photo. Verdict: love it. Will do this again!

6: mid-wash skinnies, lavender pintuck tunic, dusty plum cardi. I’m sorry that I just *cannot* capture the colors here in the lighting conditions that prevail in my house. These are purples — not black and white — I promise!! I do really like the dusty plum shade of the cardi but I am OVER the open, flimsy, floppy cut.

It’s really interesting to notice the difference between being off something and being done with something. I have been kind of off my jacket-y cardigans lately, but when I put one on last week (with this same top, as it happens!) I thought — “oh yeah, this is actually a great piece.” I may not be particularly in the mood for that style at the moment, but I feel pretty sure I’ll come back to it and I’m glad to wear it every once in a while in the mean time. Whereas this open cardi pictured here — the whole day I just felt like “no, do not like, do not want.” So, I’m moving this one out of my wardrobe.

7: teal velvet skinnies, light blue pintuck tunic, light blue-gray vintage cardi. Yet another iteration of the teal + light blue color scheme. I wasn’t super happy with this outfit. It’s possible that I’m off the “short over long over lean” formula, but even more likely I think is that the high v neckline of the cardi kind of forces the shirt collar closed and the result looks too…corporate? Masculine? In sum, I continue to love this sweater but find it difficult to style.

8: lavender velvet skinnies, black Heattech, white short sleeve sweater. Taking advantage of a warm day to wear this sweater. I didn’t really love this ensemble — the black of the layering tee seemed too harsh (I have other colors of Heattech but this is my only extra warm and I need that heavier weight with the short sleeve sweater). Now that I’m looking at the photo I think a more intentional use of jewelry could have helped — earrings and/or a necklace with some black in them could have tied the black tee in a little better.

9-10: black skirt leggings, black/white/blue Nordic pullover. I ALMOST broke my rules today, at first I put this sweater on with my navy velvet jeans, not realizing I had already worn that combo. I have worn the outfit pictured here before too, but not this month so it’s allowed!

Overall verdict: Even at the end of four weeks, it has not been too onerous to avoid repeating outfits. Yay! But, to be honest I am feeling a little bored with my jewelry. I have been limited to earrings and rings because of some skin irritation on my neck that makes necklaces uncomfortable (I could play with scarves, but I almost always have some kind of ointment/cream residue on my neck so I’d mostly rather not). And I’m gravitating to smaller earrings because they’re more practical for at-home and less likely to get caught up in face masks when I’m out and about. So all of that means I’m working with a quite limited number of pieces. I did try to get a little creative today and went for this labradorite ring (it’s a little big for me right now which is why I haven’t been wearing it much) and this salmon wrap ring which I haven’t worn in AGES but it turns out I still really love — will definitely be going into the rotation.

That’s it for now. Three more days! I will update at the end of the month with a wrap-up and what I’m going to do next…I am already plotting for February.

Thanks as always for reading and I’m happy to hear any comments or suggestions you care to share.