Anxiously awaiting the spring

Can you believe I haven't posted an OOTD since December!? There are many reasons for this lapse, among them being: I was busy writing my year in review; I was traveling to Texas for Christmas; and I was creatively exhausted after a month of dressing for the alphabet. But the biggest reason for certain was simply: It's too darn cold!

The past week or so, the temperatures have hovered around 30°F (about as cold as it ever gets in my part of Maryland), and I have lacked anything resembling the motivation to find outfits that somehow look cute yet still manage to cover any hint of exposed skin—let alone the motivation to get undressed and try them on in my frigid house! Since the day after Christmas, I've basically been sporting a uniform of pants, boots, and sweaters.

Yesterday, with the heater on and a little free time to do some planning, I vowed to find something that I'd be proud to wear for Monday. I started with this basic grey sweater dress, since it's new, long and warm, and neutral enough for some artsy layering. Sure enough, my teal ribbed vest looked pretty cute over the top of it, and a woven faux-leather belt looked cute over them both!

What to wear to cover up the bottom third of my legs proved to be a tough decision, but ultimately I went for a newish thrifted pair of black slouch boots—they hit just at the bottom hem of my skirt, to keep out the worst of the wind, but still allow for a little gap of skin so one can see I don't have elephant legs.

Try as I might to be creative and fun, all the colors in this outfit were dark and subdued—depressingly typical of winter. But fortunately, I had a pair of earrings waiting in the wings to brighten everything up! They are cute silver leaves ornamented with a tiny blue bird and a wire nest with a pearl egg! These absolutely adorable earrings were a gift my boyfriend brought from Thailand, and they might be my favorite gift from him ever! In an unexpectedly appropriate twist, my hair itself even looks like a bird's nest, thanks to my having tried to curl it yesterday.

With tiny bird nests and leaves dangling from my ears, I couldn't help but feel a little more cheerful. This is the coldest week of the year (statistically! I checked the weather charts at Weather Underground!), so it can only get better from here!