I feel like I just wrote up May's thoughts, and here we are, halfway through the year.  This month's thoughts:

1. Same old, same old. This year has been a blur, with none of the usual markers of time passing. With the lockdown and our family all far away, we didn't really celebrate Easter. Finals week and the last day of school for college-kiddo didn't change anything about the rhythm of our home. No Memorial Day cookouts. Visits from out-of-town guests have been scrapped, and our own vacation plans stopped in their tracks. I know this has happened for everyone, but this being our first year in a new location, it feels like a double whammy of missing our usual life and not really being able to create a new one. When socializing is limited and fraught with peril, "making new friends" isn't high on anyone's priority list.

Which all has nothing to do with clothing, except to say I've been wearing the same things day-in and day-out. Photo 2 is a pretty good example. No socially-distanced reunions with family or friends on the schedule, because we didn't have the opportunity to get to know anyone here before the pandemic hit, and we can't yet travel to/have visits from the people we left behind.  Plus, things are looking worse, so I wouldn't be surprised if lockdowns were reinstated soon.

2. HEWI essential search. I've always had a pair of olive bottoms in my wardrobe, and am past due for a replacement pair (the old ones have already gone to textile recycling). I've had the image in Photo 1 on my style mood board forever, and would love to find a pair of slouchy olive pants I could use to create a similar look. I ordered and returned one pair this month, and have generally  been having a really hard time finding anything in my size that I think will work. It'd be great to fill this gap soon, as I'm tiring of summer dresses and skirts.

3. Speaking of essentials... I revisited my list in the course of writing a blog post this month, and came up with the graphic in Photo 4. When I'm bored (as i am right now), it helps to remember how, with a good base in place, small additions can unlock all sorts of possibilities.

4. On the way. I do have two new slow fashion purchases still on their way to me. The sleeveless Elizabeth Suzann dress and the woven tee from Jamie + the Jones should both arrive sometime in July. Those two things will bring my total 2020 purchases to 7 items, all shown in Finds. By my rules, I've purchased 5/10 of my statement items for the year. The J+J tee was definitely an emotional purchase. I got a swatch of this "plus" fabric from them earlier this year (Photo 3) and was disappointed when I missed the first release, so I jumped on it when they got another batch in stock.

Thanks for sticking with me through all this meandering! It's nice to get my thoughts in order each month and look back to see how I was feeling about getting dressed earlier in the year.