November 20, 2023
As soon as she saw these bracelets, she thought of water, and the sky, and grass, and leaves, and soil… all of the things of nature that she loves the most!
She wants a small, versatile wardrobe to pack when she visits branch facilities of her composting company… These are the perfect colors!
Their driver staff – who go around the city and pick up the full buckets of compostable materials from customers – wear green and brown. That’s where she started, and she still feels at home wearing those colors…
Jungle green sweater – J.Crew; earrings – Talbots; scarf – UGG; jeans – L.L.Bean; bracelet – Fierce Lynx Designs; fleece jacket – L.L.Bean; tote bag – Madewell; boots – SoftWalk
She usually spends a day riding with one or two of the drivers and a day hanging out at the actual massive composting facility. The staff there wears WHATEVER THEY WANT – knowing they will shower and change before they go home! Composting is gratifying work, but it can leave you smelling a bit… gamey…
So she doesn’t want to wear anything overwhelmingly dressy – just enough different from everyone else to be recognizable as the boss. No more emptying decaying food out of big plastic buckets for her!
Tropical jade merino sweater – Kettlewell; beige earrings – Kendra Scott; blue stone earrings – Anthropologie; toast Donegal cashmere sweater – Lands’ End; chambray shirt – J.Crew; soft khaki knit cords – L.L.Bean; warm tawny brown shirt – Lands’ End; brown chinos – Lands’ End; crossbody bag – Longchamp; sneakers – Ryka; blue scarf – Gerinly; green scarf – Guest In Residence; loafers – Alegria
She will also try to meet with at least one or two of the agricultural groups who are taking the compost to use – at some point in the future, she would like to flip the economics of composting so that the farmers will pay (less than they pay for fertilizer) and the households can compost for free…
As with all travel, she has to deal with unexpected weather, as well as the possibility of an unseemly spill. Spilling “stuff” that comes in to be composted can be really disgusting… So she likes to be certain that her travel capsule wardrobe offers her a range of possibilities!
The squirrels? She arranged her largest facility around a bunch of oak trees so that the relatively rare species of squirrels in the area could continue to thrive.
All part of being sustainable, eh?
Do you compost? Belovedest and I pay to have two big plastic buckets of food waste picked up each month… It gives us a good feeling…
love,
Janice
Like this wardrobe? Save it to Pinterest!
This is a sublime capsule for me! I’m having a serious look at the green Kettlewell v-neck and the beautiful brown chinos. I would go all in with a bright blue, add some cream and grab a spark of tangerine because I can!
Yes, yes we compost. Most of our scraps & yard trimmings are picked up weekly by the city’s compost program, but some is dug back into the raised garden beds we tend. I put all my coffee grounds and crushed egg shells into the beds as well. (Helps wil drainage,
Here’s my compost story and I am not making this up: scientists from Oregon State University, in cooperation with Tillamook County, tweaked the county’s compost formula of materials to the point where they can break down a cow’s carcass. Don’t try composting animal bits at home, though. No meat scraps in our city’s program!
Cheers, everyone. May your gardens/ plants thrive!
Taking this to an extreme, there are places (also in Oregon), where you can choose to have yourself or your loved ones composted at the end, instead of cremation, burial, etc. Just sayin’…
I absolutely love this! The Earth does so much for us, why not give back in the end?
There’s a company called A Better Place, from whom you can actually purchase a tree in a protected forest, under which your ashes (and those of at least 3 other people!). There will be a small brass marker at the base of the tree upon which you can have engraved some brief text, names, dates etc.
We own a tree at the forest near Rock Creek – a pig nut hickory! It’s a genius idea…
love,
Janice
I have a green and blue Fierce Lynx bracelet I got years ago… I wear my emerald greens with navy bottoms. I’m not sure if I like this shade of brown or not…. I do really love that green fleece jacket. Do I need a green jacket? Probably not, but it looks so warm and cozy. Nope, don’t compost. Have a great day ladies.
I really enjoyed looking at this selection. I could travel in these clothes. Composting is not available in my area. I don’t want to subject my neighbors to the smell. Maybe some day…
Putting on my Master Gardener hat to share information. Composting should not smell; if it does, it’s too wet and/or needs a better balance of components which are: green stuff (e.g., kitchen scraps), brown stuff (e.g. fallen leaves) and inoculant (e.g., used potting soil). Lots of how-to resources online.
It’s the stuff we SEND to the compost that smells – it’s our food waste for a month! 3 week old leftover Chinese food is going to start sending up signals to other planets…
hugs,
Janice
Janice,
I’m in love ! With this post and these colors ! Basically, you are looking at my Winter wardrobe ‘s colors ! With a bit of burgundy added in also.
No composting allowed here in our senior residence individually, but we do have an organic garden that supplies our dining room with fresh produce and composting is done there.
I love how these colors come together in the bracelets, and I do like each of the colors of the wardrobe individually…but for some reason, I am not as enamored of the (lovely) cool browns with the (also lovely) grassy/woodsy greens. The brown footwear/bag with clothing in the other colors looks good, but the brown clothing + green clothing looks just a bit off to me. It’s interesting – I would not have expected that to be the case! It’s possible that with time my eyes would adjust to the combination or that seen on the right person, the combination would make sense…and it’s also possible that I would personally substitute in greens that are more in the sage-to-olive range.
It was interesting to see our heroine mixing gold and silver jewelry in this capsule and in the sample outfits. I like the mixed metal look so I approve! I would personally throw in a mixed metal bracelet or two to wear with the stone bracelet set because I like that little touch of intentionality even if literally no one else notices.
The bracelets definitely are on point with their natural, earthy feel. Seeing that this sustainability-minded heroine likes bracelets, I would be certain to show her my paper bead bracelets made from upcycled catalogs and magazines! And I wouldn’t hesitate to put these stone bead bracelets and my DIY paper bead bracelets into the same stack.
Love love LOVE the fleece jacket . . . especially since the lighter green color is on sale :-) Lovely color combos.
xoxoxo,
J
We have acreage and a big compost pile. It is great when I need a bunch of dirt for a planting box or something. My husband just digs up from the bottom with the tractor and viola! Beautiful dirt! I love the colors in this capsule. The greens and browns, and denim! Janice you know my heart loves denim. :) I am very interested in the Chelsea boot, it looks like it has arch support. Which has been hard for me to find in a cute ankle boot.
I added potatoes to our compost heap and now find beautiful big potatoes in the compost. The tops of the potatoes appear in summer.
There’s a reward for doing the right thing!
hugs,
Janice
I used to compost at home, but I didn’t know what I was doing! Now, once a week, I drive my bucket of food scraps and other compostables along with my glass recycling (our curbside recycling doesn’t accept glass) to a neighborhood convenience center. I’m happy to leave this to those who know what they’re doing!
This post made me happy. All of it. I agree with the comment that it was sublime.
We don’t have a system for composting here in the South Carolina Lowcountry, sadly. Or at least not that I’m aware and my yard is the size of a postage stamp so that’s a no can do for us.
We are lucky enough here to have curbside composting so we have three bins- trash, recycling, and compost, in order of size. Our compost bin takes yard waste, all food waste including meat, and food-soiled paper. We love it!
My goal has been to keep yard waste in the yard, and just let it degrade itself down quietly, which includes dumping produce scrap back in the garden. Our Village is just getting going with composting, so we’ll see if it makes sense to add a 5th bin (trash, paper/glass/aluminum, plastic film, and hazmat already have their own)…
This post was a valuable reminder to me to check my taupe vs camel basics collection. Now to track down some sensibly priced wool pants in either one… or preferably a pattern with both. Doesn’t seem to be popular with retailers right now…
My take on this are teal green/ seagrass tops/shirts/jumpers, taupe/brown trousers and navy wax jacket and hat. I wear navy strong boots.
We’re recycling and composting masters in our house thanks to local council collections and facilities. The food waste (including meat), paper, cardboard, plastic bottles/food trays, tin cans, used foil and other dry waste is collected by refuse lorry. Soft plastics, like bread packets, we can collect and put in recycling bins at local supermarkets, though I’m not convinced that it is worth the effort. We could pay £65 for the privilege of having garden waste collected once a fortnight but instead my husband loads up the car with sacks of pruning and grass cuttings to take to the local recycling centre. This centre is amazing as it is all under cover. Vehicles drive in and park inside to drop off anything that can be recycled into separate areas – garden waste, glass, plastic, wood, furniture, metal, batteries, light bulbs, clothes, bedding, paints and solvents, white goods, electricals, books, DVDs etc They even have an area where you can put things that could still be used. These are revamped or mended then sold for charity. Mind you, we usually take clothes, books, toys and household goods direct to charity shops.
I adore this capsule. The only tweak I’d make would be to switch out one of the pairs of khakis for a pair of dark green cords. This is a very wearable group of pieces in very wearable colors.
We have almost an acre so we do have a compost pile. We recycle everything possible. My personal goal this year was to eliminate unnecessary mailings. (Catalogs can be viewed online.) My sister has a rainwater collection barrel; that is my next project!
This simple wardrobe is inspired. The colors say the heroine is part of the team while the style elevates her to her role in the company. Not my colors but this small capsule is one of my favorites. By swapping out the neutral and accent colors for those in your own palette, this could be a foundation for building a business casual capsule. Or you could swap out the colors to reflect your company’s branding. The capsule reminds me of what the staff at my bank wears – a unified look for the branding but lots of options for what works for each person.
On another note…nice that so many in this group are into composting.
Incredible post! The vivid exploration of nature colors, starting with a sustainable Lynx bracelet by Fierce Lynx Designs, adds a delightful touch to fashion. Thanks for the inspiring share!