January has been a grey, stormy bleakness. We're on the other side of winter solstice but with the clouds, it certainly hasn't been getting lighter outside. Yesterday evening there was a break in the clouds right as the sun was setting and I was finally able to get some outfit shots in. Luckily I had also gotten dressed yesterday, which hasn't been the norm as I'm on the tail end of a cold and living in sweats. But, yesterday I felt pretty good, which was nice because I was giving a presentation on blogging at the University of Puget Sound for their professional development conference!
Being sick, I wasn't feeling very motivated to come up with something creative to wear, but obviously needed to ditch the sweats, so I just wore the same outfit I'd worn to a wedding last Saturday. I've been wanting more long cardigans because I love how they're more flowy and bohemian than normal-length and cropped cardigans, but still give that warmth which is definitely necessary this time of year. I've been searching at thrift stores for the past couple weeks and found this perfect, slouchy, crocheted one last week.
How's January going for y'all so far? I hate to admit that my lack of motivation could be weather induced, but I'm feeling like such an unmotivated hermit these days and I know the stormy, gross weather certainly isn't helping one bit. I've been using the Headspace meditation app and one of the things they mention off the bat is how blue skies vs. grey skies make us feel, and trying to realize that even when the sky is grey there's still a blue sky up there somewhere, beyond the clouds. Still, the ubiquitous grey can certainly demotivate a person, even one not particularly susceptible to SAD. A lot of people ask me if the short days of Alaskan winters are hard to deal with, and I never felt that way, even on the shortest days when the sun is only up for 5 hours. At least there's sun! And the moon reflecting on white snow often makes for brighter nights, too. But the constant grey does get to me. The days that never really seem to fully illuminate because the clouds are so thick. Over the past couple years I've learned that it's the worst here in the upcoming few months (I'm pretty sure March is verifiably the actual worst). I have some fun indoor activities planned for the next few months so hopefully that will keep me going until the sun comes out again.
