Yesterday I felt worse again, so I wanted super comfy clothes. I grabbed this soft cosy pullover/jumper out of the closet, since the weather's slowly cooling off (it's a wool blend so not as warm as full wool) and, thinking of Aziraphale's post (http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....d-the-ugly), my 100% cotton, super soft and comfortable jeans. I thrifted these a couple of years ago, and I remember trying them on in the dressing room and understanding for the first time ever why people call jeans comfortable! hehe They do grow a bit with each wearing, and since they were about due for a wash I had to belt them to keep them up. In an attempt to make this look more like an outfit and less like pjs, I did a semituck (which I almost never do, so I doubt I've masted it yet) to show off my map print belt. Both the sweater and jeans are slouchy and super casual and plain (although the sweater does have adorable shoulder buttons), albeit cosy, and I hadn't paired them together before, so it didn't quite feel like me. Then I added hand knit socks and this long pendant necklace; my mom gave it to me on my 12th birthday and it has a watch hidden inside. The sentiment and little secret the necklace contains somehow made me feel more like an orphaned urchin-y tomboy a la the movie Hugo, which then made me feel better about it. I have no clue why I feel happier when my outfits have certain mental associations, but I just go with it and humour myself.

I went for my walk in the morning, when the weather was crisp, but I wanted to stick to a quiet neutral palette. So I added a lightweight taupe-ish blazer (whose hemline competed with the belt so I just pulled my jumper down), the grey hat I knit last month, and my light taupe ankle boots. I got these last fall, because I really wanted something to bookend my hair (can we talk about how taupe shoes are always suede? which drives me nuts since it's so much more delicate than leather), and they were the start of my ankle boot obsession. Until then, I'd avoided booties, but the laced ones made me fall in love!

I'm feeling much better today and think the worst is behind me, thank heavens. This might sound strange, but putting on real clothes, even casual, cosy ones, makes me feel a bit better about being sick than staying in my pjs all day (I don't have separate loungewear). And being dressed already makes it easy for me to go for a walk when I feel up for it, which always improves my mood.

Leaving aside my sickness, does anyone have suggestions to improve this outfit? It was so comfy and well suited for my park walk I'm tempted to repeat it, but I'm not sure if it needs tweaking. To remind people, my style inspirations include gamine, vintage, and English countryside looks (as well as a bunch of other things I listed in my profile). I think I need to come up with a style descriptor as shorthand for when I'm asking for advice! My 'style statement' from the book of that title was cultivated nostalgia, but I'm not sure that's useful to anyone but me. And it drives me nuts that the book puts the 80% word as an adjective and the 20% one as a noun, since I think that gives more weight to the 20%.