Brie TV

Every Hot Dog Has its Play Necklace

Top: Wet Seal
Skirt (a dress!): Modcloth
Shoes: Chase & Chloe, Zulily
Bag: Nordstrom

Belt: Marshalls 

 Oh What an Oval Necklace

Sweater: Wild Fable, Target

Skirt: Amazon

Shoes: Chase & Chloe, Zulily

Bag: City Streets, J. C. Penney's

Scarf: A. C. Moore

Sunglasses: Target

Gnome: Target

Four Feathered Friends Necklace

Dress: Candie's, Kohl's
Top: Vylette, Kohl's
Shoes: Worthington, J. C. Penney's
Bag: Lily Bloom, J. C. Penney's
Belt: Belt is Cool, Amazon
Red bangle: B Fabulous
Yellow bangle: Silver Linings
Lime bracelet: Cloud Nine
Purple bracelet: Etsy

Um, Brie TV?!  Yeah, Brie, that fancy cheese baked with honey and candied walnuts and other gourmet gooeyness.  As opposed to something more basic and chemical-choked.  Like spray cheese.  But we'll get to that.  

If you're thinking that there's something different about these pictures, then you're right:

Outfit #1

I used the Windows photo editor to draw on the dress, which is something I've never done.  The peplum got lost in the light, and I thought, I have a fix for that!  One tangerine line later, and this ruffle was ready to rumba.  

Outfit #2

The off thing here is the gnome.  The outfit needed something else.  Why not let that something be a small man dressed in pastels?  

Outfit #3

This one doesn't have anything weird going on.  But it does boast the only brand-new piece in this post, namely the lime turtleneck.  

Which is no small thing.  Because new clothes mean good times.  

If there's a baby shower you don't want to go to or a test you don't want to take, then wearing something fresh off the rack makes you feel better.  Or, at the very least, distracts you by giving you something cool to look at.  "The Big Bang Theory's" Penny said it best: "You know, sometimes when I'm feeling all stressed out about something, I go out and buy a cute top or a fun skirt, and I have a whole new outlook on life."  Of course, then Sheldon said, "Don't you eventually realize you're the same stressed-out person in a cute top or a fun skirt?", forcing Penny to deadpan, "Yeah, that's when I buy shoes."  

Oh, Sheldon.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: TV has so much to teach us.  On the cheeseboard of life lessons -- for yes, there is a cheeseboard -- it's the aforementioned and beloved Brie.  

See?  I told you we'd get there.  

A couple of weeks ago, I heard this golden nugget (or maybe I should say artisanal cheese curd) on "Single Parents."  Miggy (Jake Choi) starts temping at Angie's (Leighton Meester's) office and, to Angie's horror, likes it.

Angie: "What about the small talk?"

Miggy: "I love it!  Small talk is the busy work of conversation."

Busy work and small talk appeal to Miggy because he doesn't have to think about them.  They're so empty that they're effortless, and that, of course, is the joke.  But Angie has no time for such nonsense.  To her, weather chitchat is a tedious pretense requiring energy better spent on emailing exes.  The takeaway?  Some people are not people people.  

Even soap operas have wisdom.  Take "One Life to Live."  Despite being a show that I've never watched, it has a name that all but bludgeons us with a reminder of how precious time is.  Not unlike "Days of Our Lives" (I missed this one too; I was a "Guiding Light" fan).  Everything I know about "Days" I know from "Friends."  Specifically, that it made Joey spout off a deep thought after watching it for his audition.  It was something about how the characters on the soap are living the days of their lives while he and the rest of the Central Perkers are living the days of their lives.  Anything that makes Joey think about something other than sex and sandwiches is worth its weight in cliffhangers.

Not so smug are we now, Learning Channel?