New Year, No Fear: On Wednesdays We Wear Black

 Garden Glam Slam Necklace

Sweater: Mudd, Kohl's

Skirt: Material Girl, Macy's

Shoes: Ami Clubwear

Bag: Delia's

Yellow bangles: B Fabulous

Green stretch bracelet: Parade of Shoes

 Ruby Red Romance Necklace

Top: Bisou Bisou, J. C. Penney's

Yellow tee: So, Kohl's

Skirt: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: Penny Loves Kenny, Zulily

Clutch: Express

Belt: Apt. 9. Kohl's

Hot Hoop Necklace

Sweater: Kohl's

Skirt: Candie's, Kohl's

Shoes: Guess, DSW

Bag: Nine West, Marshalls

Belt: B Fabulous

Lime stretchy bracelet: Cloud 9, Ocean City boardwalk

Yellow bangle: Silver Linings, Ocean City boardwalk

For this post, I had my heart set on a black and red rose-print cold shoulder crop top from the Kohl's line for Disney-Pixar's hit Coco.  Not to be confused with, "You go, Glen Coco!"from that other hit movie, Mean Girls, which has its own impressive merchandise.  (I've got the "so you think you're really pretty" compact mirror to prove it, as seen below with my until-now-never-been-stripped-of-its-cellophane DVD.  There was no need, as Mean Girls is almost always playing on TBS, Comedy Central, E!, WE, Ion, Oxygen, Pop, and/or Animal Planet.  Just kidding about that last one.  Then again, there is that wildebeest attack dream sequence or whatever, so who knows?)  

Anyway, I wanted to team the Coco top with a yellow lace midi pencil skirt from J. C. Penney's Project Runway collection.  But, alas, that too was sold out, forcing me to renounce my mid-priced department store product placement-themed ambitions and make it work, Tim Gunn style, with some stuff that in no way resembled what I'd planned.  Such is the roller coaster that is fashion blogging.

Speaking of which, a word about stretch bracelets.  When the beads begin to separate, however slightly, you know that your beloved bracelet is on its way to becoming a necklace.  Well, I know it's on its way to becoming a necklace.  You may just know that you're about to unleash a shower of rhinestone slider beads out into the world, sending a pack of mall-walking grannies scrambling in front of a Wetzel's Pretzels.  This happened to me with a much-adored, much-worn faux diamond and ruby stretchy stunner just before Christmas (not the Wetzel's Pretzels part, the repurposing part).  So I gave it new life by making the above darling Ruby Red Romance Necklace.  I did the same with Garden Glam Slam, which is similarly crammed with costume jewelry castoffs.  Hot Hoop, not so much, although the pendants are vintage.

Finally, if there's anything that fascinates me more than color, it's the absence of color.  Which is why I used this ironically named Vanilla filter on my outfit pics to dart to the dark side:

I love how the grayscale really makes the details pop, kind of like a close-up of a closet in a black and white movie.  So, it seems only fitting to ask, "(Compact) Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fetchest of them all?"  Why, Ms. Addams, of course, and I don't mean Rachel Mc.  Indeed, the first daughter of darkness could have taught the Plastics a thing or two, both in sartorial savvy and scariness.

In closing (I know I just said "finally," but then, when have you ever listened to me?), no resolutions this year.  Because resolutions are just rules, and rules were made to be broken.  So, no rules, just right.

That's Outback.