It’s cardigan weather now. It’s LA so it may get warm again in a week or so, but for now, I’m enjoying eating soup and wearing my boots and cardigans. Because we have so little cool weather here in LA, I have considered giving away one of my five pairs of boots, but now that the temps are dropping, I may not be able to part with any of them. Unlike with many other belongings, I can justify owning and keeping each and every one of them. The brown riding boots were a miracle find at a sale at Macy’s two years ago – I was meant to own them, and they’re my favorite. The dark brown, faux suede fitted boots aren’t going anywhere – I always feel elegant when I wear those. Then there are the sexy, high black ones. I don’t wear them that often but when I do I feel tall, fancy and kind of powerful, so I’m definitely keeping them. Then there are the lower-healed, slightly frumpy black ones, which I wear more than the sexy ones. I don’t feel powerful in those but they’re more comfortable and practical, so I can’t really get rid of them. Finally, the thigh-length purple suede ones I found last winter in a resale store. I have only worn them once, but I’m not giving those away. They are too fun and haven’t realized their potential yet!

Now when it comes to cardigans, it may be easier for me to let a couple go. I must have about ten of them in different styles, colors and degrees of chunkiness. Though I always think of cardigans as very British (they were named after the 7^th Earl of Cardigan, the Major General who led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War in the 19^th century) and used to associate them with gloomy British weather. However, because LA rarely gets cold enough for coats, cardigans are actually perfect LA over-wear. In fact, they go very nicely with boots. But despite my love for these open-fronted sweaters, I realize that I perhaps don’t need so many of them, so today I parted with one – a short, olive green wool one that I’d bought thinking it would go well with my khaki skinny jeans. It didn’t. I now realize that I need the long baggy cardigans with the skinny jeans. In fact, yesterday, I went out wearing my boots, skinny jeans and long, flowing cardigan, and no sooner had I stepped out of the car than I saw two women walk past me also wearing boots, skinny jeans and long cardigans. For a fleeting moment, I felt like I was dressed right for the world. That’s only happened to me about three times in my life!

The olive green cardigan found a great home though. Our son Theo’s piano teacher Bella (see July 15) arrived today looking super-stylish, as always, wearing skinny jeans, sneakers, a short mustard-colored cardigan, brown leather jacket and a patterned red scarf. Ha, I thought. There’s someone who could rock that little green cardigan. As she settled onto her piano stool beside Theo and asked Theo to play the songs he’d been practicing, I fetched the cardigan and gave it to her. We talked for a few seconds about how fun it is dressing for the cooler weather. She told me that she’d just ordered two pairs of boots online and she couldn’t wait for them to arrive. Oh yes, I thought. I know exactly what you mean…