New Year's Undress

Not as exciting as it sounds. Merely indicates that my outfit for New Year's Day was more along the lines of pajamas than clothes. We had breakfast at our friends' house in Denver (breakfast pizzas using the dough leftover from grilled flatbreads the night before - you crack an egg on top a couple of minutes before they finish baking, and then you have a sunny-side up egg on your pizza, which we had made with Muenster cheese and crumbled bacon). I wore:

• Heather grey scoop neck ribbed cotton T with lace cap sleeves, from Gap Body ages ago;
• Chunky knit, asymmetric zip, pale blue sweater from Wrap London, a gift from my Grandmother-in-law two years ago;
• My recently reclaimed favorite sweatpants from Anthropologie, several years old. They are caramel colored with a thin black stripe down the outside of each leg, slim through the hips and very wide-legged. They'd been spotted by a red shirt in the wash last year, but I couldn't bear to part with them and figured they'd be knock-around pants. I pulled them out of storage last week (finally got around to switching my summer and winter pants) and washed them in our new washing machine - they came out pristine, all traces of the red stains gone. I really can't say enough about front loading washers - besides being more energy and water usage efficient, they actually clean clothes better and more gently. And they gave me back my pants!

I put on real clothes for my Mother-in-law's New Year's Day dinner:

• Pale grey cashmere and angora sweater dress with a fold over bateau neck, long sleeves, loose-ish straight fit, and tea-length hem, from Filene's Basement designer room in Boston, a few years ago;
• Smoke grey tights, CK from Filene's Basement in Boston, also several years old;
• Black boots with cream topstitching from a Clark's outlet in New Hampshire - I think the style was called Kyoto, they have a high, square heel, almond toe, and asymmetric shaft that is almost knee high on the outside of the leg, and mid calf inside. My Mom got them for me because it was impossible to pass up size 5 boots for $10!
• Black ribbon necklace strung with matte black leaf-shaped beads and torn black tulle.