It’s been a very busy Oct/Nov!  My original reason for dropping off YLF for Oct was that I spent the month focusing on being more mindful in many different areas of my life and decided to back away from YLF as part of that (although I did browse almost every day).   The being mindful thing was a wonderful experience, and also very humbling. My personality and modern life in general push me toward too much multi-tasking and jumping from one thing to another without much thought and it was wonderful to slow it all down and think about what I really wanted to be doing. It’s not something easily “mastered”, more of a lifelong practices like yoga, even if you become a monk and spend all your time doing it. Now that I’m retired I find it way too easy to fill my days with things that are not necessarily what I really want to be doing, but are habits, so I wanted to begin to investigate that cycle.

My laptop finally came back in mid October after being in two different repair shops and out of commission for 3 full months. I limped along with an old Windows Vista system during that time. Everything was fine until 10 days after it arrived, and then the original problem recurred. I said a lot of very bad words that day Back to the Miami repair place it went under warrantee for one more chance. If this repeats again I’m buying a new one and switching to the Apple ecosystem.

We FINALLY found a buyer for our Maine vacation house, after having it on the market for 3 years off and on. We have owned it for 11 years, with the first few being wonderful and the last few having too many aggravations around renters and repairs plus not getting to use it enough. The house was fully furnished with second-hand stuff that we didn’t want to keep so we planned a long weekend yard sale Nov 4 – 6 followed by taking everything left to the nearby goodwill store. Some friends were lined up to bring small pickup trucks etc to help us. To make matters interesting, on Oct 30 there was a huge windstorm in the Northeast US causing downed trees and power lines, with power outages for literally half of the households in Maine, including our house. DH spent a few days there prepping for the yard sale without any power, internet, or cell phone service, although he did turn on the propane generator from time to time to power the refrigerator. He bought canned food and camped out and still talks about how strange it was. By the time I arrived a few days later the power was back although it took over a week to be restored everywhere. We are doing one more weekend yard sale, then will transfer it to the buyer on Nov 14.

On the fashion/wardrobe front, I used a mindful approach, and focused carefully on every outfit I put on, to see what I really LIKE to wear. I listed to my feelings, and if there was anything I didn’t like, I changed it quickly without too much deliberation. I tracked everything. I also did a more detailed assessment of my lifestyle activities and what types of clothing I want for each. I ended up with a much better idea of what I have and how I feel about it (per Angie’s advice that it’s really helpful to do this). I demoted a lot of things to the holding zone, donate pile, the needs replacement pile, etc . I have done this type of exercise before, but never in such a focused manner somehow. At the end of the month I had a noticeably smaller working wardrobe that meets all my needs, but is feeling a bit dull and boring. It also has a few too many pieces that that are only suited to one outfit and therefore not very versatile. I also want to go in a slightly different wardrobe direction but I don’t know exactly what, so I’m slowing down and “sitting with it” to use an expression from the world of mindful living. lisa p’s recent posting on a similar topic really resonated with me and I plan to read it again... https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....what-to-do . In Sept and Oct I’ve bought some accessories and sweaters, replenished cold weather under layers, filled a few small wardrobe holes, and otherwise not bought much.

I also finished a first pass through “Shopping Brake” by Lisa. What an awesome book! There are SO MANY great suggestions, and highly worth reading even if you don’t follow every one of them. It’s great for anyone who wants to analyze their patterns for buying cloothes and putting together a wardrobe. So far it has led me to realize I’m spending far more time on shopping/wardrobe activities than I had realized and I want to cut it all back, that I need to put more time into building outfits especially when buying new pices, and that I would be better off for a while shopping almost entirely from a planned list. I need to read it again and take more notes  

So, to start off a new chapter in terms of style, I am trying some new skin care products once they arrive, got a slightly shorter and more layered haircut, and have been painting my nails a bit more often (instead of only for special occasions). I’ll post haircut photos separately.

Photos:
1 – sunrise at our house in Maine first week of November, looking east across the New Meadows River. This is like a bay or large cove. We’ve never been there this time of year before since we always had a winter tenant from September thru April. I got to look at this spectacular sunrise, probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen there, on my morning walks! .

2 – DH taking his chain saw to the one tree that blew over on our property during the storm. It was originally across the driveway. A guy that came to the yard sale agreed to take away the tree chunks. We were so lucky to only have ONE tree down and lucky that it did not land on any power lines