Hatty Road Trip
I cannot figure out why I favor my little H&M black straw hat. Is it all the pins that advertise my every pet cause (ranging from Lifesource to railroad safety) to my hobbies (crochet, travel) and foods (White Castle). Or is it just because it's darker than dark and it goes with everything?

I think it's the latter. My white straw hat with the baby-blue ribbon doesn't seem as versatile, although it would be much more comfy when the sun beats down mid-day. WIth that hat, I feel like I need to coordinate the blues and whites in the hat with what I'm wearing. So that fedora is much more likely to stay at home and make friends with the dust mites gossiping in every corner.

It's funny how one hat can become such a favorite. It's like a much-loved food and how you never tire of it. Right now, that's fresh pesto sauce for me. I can eat it every day, and I often do because I'm working in my home office where no one has to encounter my post-lunch breath. Much like that H&M find, my favorite skirts are in a pile on a bedroom dresser. I hardly ever go into my closet - not even to grab another garment. Everything I don most often is within arm's length or in a cedar closet nearby. I daresay the wardrobe could disappear in a poof of firecracker smoke and I might not miss it. Not the belts I've made with grosgrain ribbons and vintage 1930s buckles, nor grandmother's baubles, not even the 1940s platform shoes purchased at antique shops and vintage shows. What I'd shed tears for would be for the apparel and shoes that gets the most wear: all versions of New Look 5671, my Victoria's Secret bras, the Born Drilles with their interchangeable velcro leather flowers.

At times I feel more lame than a woman with a pair of crutches that I wear the same clothes day in, day out and week after week. I haven't figured out the percentage, but I'm betting what's on my body in a given 7-day period amounts to less than 10 percent of the clothing I own, not accounting for the growing stash of fabric amid the dresses, tops, skirts and pants in the aforementioned closet.

What are your favorite clothes and hats?

(By the way, the picture above? It was taken outside a gas station in Beverly Shores, Ind. yesterday. Admire the old railroad depot, still in use, in the background.)