October 9, 2011
I'm pretty sure the last time I wore a mini skirt was to a high school dance, in my more rebellious and well... teenaged years.
I'm just not a mini skirt girl, ahem, woman. Till now.

In the past month I've added a half dozen pairs of black leggings to my wardrobe. And I'm now trying to figure out how to work these into my daily wardrobe.
Hum... that's kind of odd. Why would you own clothes that you aren't sure you'll wear? And seven pairs! What's up with that?
I blame this all on Damien. I love that my husband does gear reviews. I really do. He has saved our family hundreds (thousands?) of dollars on tents, shoes, and clothing. I can't complain.
His most recent review assignment, rather our most recent review assignment, is to test tights for hiking and backpacking. In part because I have a serious issue with wet pants flapping around my ankles, calves and thighs while hiking in the rain. I'm a sissy backpacker and I complained (quite loudly) on our Chignecto trip this summer that I was, to put it mildly, not happy to have cold, shivery, dripping wet legs.
He thinks hiking in close fitting tights vs. quick dry pants may help this and be good for other reasons. Always the analyst, researcher and engineer Damien wants to test this theory and write a comprehensive gear review.

she's still not embarrassed to dress similar to mom (smile)
And he wants me to participate. Fair enough. I'm the one with the "pants problem".
What this means practically is that I have over six pairs (I've stopped counting, it embarrasses the wannabe minimalist in me) of black tights in my clothing stash. And I must say some of them are really gorgeous, high quality clothing. We're talking Icebreaker, Ibex, Arc'teryx, and others.
So now have way more pairs of tights than is decent for one person to own. I intend to only keep my absolute favorites at the end of the review but until then I'm trying to figure out how and if I can work these pieces of clothing into my "every day" wear. I'm actually going to be testing and writing about them for Backpacking Light.
One of these otherwise wonderful pairs of tights (one of my favorites) is slightly see-thru because the weave isn't as tight. For the woods this is perfectly fine - you might be embarrassed to see what I tromp around in out there. But for around the house or in town slightly see-thru is not cool.

Enter the mini skirt. A trip to Frenchy's last week yielded a short and sweet denim skirt that I feel perfectly comfortable wearing with black leggings underneath.
I never thought of myself as a mini skirt gal - more of a flowing gypsy skirt girl. I must be turning over a new leaf, or maybe it's just a mid thirties crisis.
