Stardust | BBRBF Book Club + Outfit

Welcome to January's edition of the BBRBF Book Club. This month we read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I was really excited about this month's choice because I absolutely adore the movie and Neil Gaiman is always a good time. If you haven't heard of Stardust the summary from GoodReads.com is below.

From GoodReads.com:

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing, not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman comes a remarkable quest into the dark and miraculous—in pursuit of love and the utterly impossible.

The book had a lot of similar elements to the movie that I enjoyed. The world Neil Gaiman has built is this wonderful left of center fantasy world that uses iconic fairy tale elements mixed in with grown up wit and satire. It's a quirky combination which leads to a totally unique fairy tale experience and while I immensely enjoyed the world, the actually story was a bit flat for me. Tristan always just seemed like a bit of a childish fool who never develops much as a character and I never actually felt Tristan and Yvaine, the spirited and caring fallen star, fall in love. It was almost like Yvaine fell in love with him purely because he was in the proximity of her.  Problems like this don't seem to bother me in movies, but when reading a book I need to feel the love not just know of it's existence. That's what makes reading a book the better experience.

I do see a lot of merit in this book and I'm glad I read it. But, it's not a show stopper. It's just pleasant. 

Obviously I had to wear my star print dress in honor of Yvaine, but I have worn it several times on the blog and wanted to put a new spin on it. I chose to take inspiration from the witches and add some dark fairy tale vibes with my mesh corset from Orchard Corset. I love how drama it adds to wear a corset over any outfit and I always feel like a vampy villain when I'm rocking mine.

Make sure to check out all the BBRBF babes and their reveiws of Stardust.

Circle Skits & Petticoats

The Eyre Effect

In a Nutshell,

The Miss Information Blog

Decorating for Halloween | Outfit

All holidays are a good time for me. I will take any reason to celebrate and be festive, but Halloween has a special place in my dark heart. There are a lot of sweet and innocent reasons to love fall. Crunchy golden leaves, brilliant blue skies, the slight chill that makes snuggling into a warm scarf heavenly. But, nothing compares to thrill of Halloween.

My tastes run towards the chilling and haunting. The question of shadows that appear firm until you turn to meet them. The creak of movement in an empty house. The crackle of energy that moves up your spine while sitting with your back to darkness. I could live in this state all year round, but in October the whole world unfurls into the same mood that wants to fills my head and I can sink deeply into my eerie and gothic delights.

In particular, I've always held a fascination with witches. I went as a witch for Halloween 5 years in a row when I was a kid. My favorite movies always seems to be about witches. Hocus Pocus, Rosemary's Baby, The Craft, and the newest addition to the list, The Witch. When I was a teenager we stumbled upon a Wiccan celebration while camping and I was completely spellbound (pun so intended). Basically, I like them a lot and they are always the source of my inspiration for Halloween.

Elegant, unearthly, and an easy, unshakable sense of power. Witches call to me.

Maybe it's because witches draw my love of granny chic and subtle sexuality into one stirring and unsettling image, but not only do I want to fill my house with this feeling, I only want to dress with a witchy woman in mind for eternity the next month. Autumnal, dark, and moody. I want to live deliciously.

What inspires you in fall? The feelings of harvest and plenty? The ghoulish breath of cold air on your skin? What brings you to life this time of year?

Cardigan: Target (similar in plus) | Shirt: Passive Juice Motel | Skirt: Target (similar in straight sizes, similar in plus) | Tights: Target (similar in plus) | Socks: Torrid (similar) | Boots: Modcloth (similar) | Lips: Colourpop's Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick in Tulle

Polka Dots and Fruit Print | Outfit

There are so few purely good things in life. Everything seems to come with conditions and agendas and side effects. But, when you come across one of these moments in life, a good friendship, a kind act, a compliment from a stranger, you need to use it to fill yourself up with it's good and simple energy. Breath it in. Radiate it out. Live it. 

Stop hanging on to the hardships and negativity because when you do, you become it. Being hurt makes you hard. Being hard makes you mean. Don't let that pain take ownership of you and instead take in and foster kindness like it's nutrients.

I experienced one of those really great moments recently. I'm not sure if the other person wants it broadcast to the world, so I will just say that it was exactly the kind of moment that will nurture the good bits of my spirit for a long time. I hope that someday soon I will be able to repay the kindness and fuel her spirit in the same way.

You know what else is always good no matter the season? Polka dots and fruit prints! Although my lemon print dress might not make it into fall and winter, this wonderful print with it's bright, saturated colors and monochromatic polka dots is a classic for all year. I had a blast wearing it to one of the final music festivals our town does weekly in the warmer months. Styled with black accessories and the hallmarks of fall (socks, tights, and boots) and a lip color that is in the same color family as the watermelon, but a darker, richer version for fall, the dress was perfect for the festivities and the gentle chill in the air. I was happy to bid Friday Night Live a farewell in this dress.

Dress: Gift (similar) | Tights: Sock Dreams | Socks: Torrid (similar) | Hat: Boohoo (similar) | Boots: Modcloth (similar) | Lips: Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Unicorn Blood.

Succulent Print Skirt | Outfit

You want to know what one of my biggest insecurities is? One of the biggest things that holds me back from taking advantage of opportunities and making connections with people? The thing that makes everything in my head go "pop, fizz" when having a totally average conversation with someone? It's the fear that I have nothing of value to add. It's the fear that who I am as a person is so sub par that I do not benefit the people around me. Even when I do something right and I am applauded for it, I am filled with a terror that I will have to find exactly the right combination of steps to repeat whatever good thing I did over and over again because now I've created an expectation!

I avoid situations that might lead to me being required to contribute and when I can't avoid them, I work so hard and put so much effort into contributing something decent that two things happen. I completely burn myself out and I go so over the top that I often get accused of being an overachiever. After I graduated college, I actually had a teacher tell me that they were dramatically reducing the expectations of our final portfolio presentations because of students like me who took it to extremes. I felt so utterly deflated. I had worked so hard to show my value and I had somehow broke the whole system? What?

I've grown to understand that it's an unreasonable fear because it's impossible to be valuable to every person and situation I encounter. Sometimes I will fail and sometimes I will succeed. I know this. But, it's a matter of feeling this, as well.

Last fall I made the decision to be more open to people and opportunities that come my way and I think I've done a good job. I started this blog back up, I said yes to so many things that I would have hid from before. But, it's also made me keenly aware of why I hid from so much. Not being good enough sucks! I feel rejection to my core and I take on every situation like I'm taking on a charging bull. With the hard expectation of critical failure.

So, at the precipice of another autumn, I'm pledging something else to myself. I will see my own value. I will value my time. I will value my talent. I will value my intelligence. I will value the entirety of my parts and what that allows me to offer to other people and at the same time I will accept that it is ok if someone else doesn't value me the way I do. 

You can fail a test. You can fail at a game. But, you cannot fail at being a person.

That means I am not going to point out all the ways that these photos make me feel like a failure. I'm going to try to see all the things in these photos that are the exact opposite of failure. Yes, it was raining and I was rushed. Yes, I was struggling with a remote and getting the camera to focus on me. But, why would I let those things eat me up when I went out and did any of this in the first place? I was brave enough to dance around in front of a camera while people watched. I was skilled enough to make my own skirt. I took the time and effort to style this outfit and package up my creativity into this blog post and I am happy to put all those good, valuable things out into the world.

And I want you to know all the same things about yourself! You are wonderful and valuable and there is good in everything you feel like you failed at just because you did it and you did it like no one else could.

Skirt: Handmade (similar fabric, tutorial on making a gathered skirt) | Shirt: City Chic (similar in straight sizes) | Shoes: Modcloth (similar) | Necklace: Charming Charlie (similar) | Scarf: Kohls (similar) Lips: Colourpop's Liquid Lipstick in Scrooge (similar)

Fangirl | BBRBF Bookclub + Outfit

This Month's BBRBF Bookclub choice was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell selected by Lyndsey. I want to preface this review by saying that this book didn't start on a fair playing field with me. Young Adult fiction is not my thing and the concept of this particular book never interested me. So, bear with me here.

Synopsis from GoodReads:

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Despite the fact that I loved Landline by the same author, I could not get myself to enjoy this book. There was nothing egregious about it. I could feel snippets of Rainbow Rowell's humorously true-to-life style scattered throughout the book, but it fell flat with me. The story was too simple and I never felt challenged or excited about anything that happened to the characters. I will not say it was a bad book because I bet I would have really enjoyed it at 14. But, I'm not 14 anymore and I want to read books written for adults.

I will also admit that I am not into fan fiction and a bulk of this book exists in that curious world of fandom. There were fake excerpts at the beginning of every chapter and parts of the book where Cath read her fanfiction aloud and every single time it made me grit my teeth. I have zero investment in these fake books. I don't need to break from the story to read about a half imagined Harry Potter knock-off.

What I did enjoy about the book were a few lines that were the pure Rainbow Rowell observations that I fell in love with while reading Landline. My favorite was how she noted that the difference between nerds and other people is that nerds will always love a fictitious world more than the real one. My husband is definitely a nerd and while I enjoy much of the same media, I am decidedly not a nerd and reading that was a real moment of realization for me. I also connected with how she said love doesn't happen in the heart, it happens in the stomach because, yes, that's exactly how it feels!

And the one solid compliment I will give to the book is the mother's character. I was expecting to have that story line wrapped up in a nice little box, but it wasn't and that was so real. Often times books will give in to the fantasy of having an estranged parent return and all wrongs will be righted by their undying love. But, that's just not life. Most of the time parents who abandon their children do it because they are deeply flawed and a few years isn't going to change who they are as people. Allowing Cath and Wren to experience that difficult truth was a big gold star from me.

If you haven't noticed already, my outfit was inspired by Cath's outfit on the cover of the book. It was exactly the kind of outfit I would wear to read at the coffee shop so it was pretty much perfect. I added the killer heels and grey lipstick as a nod to the toughy, edgy Reagan, who, in my opinion, was the best character in the book. 

Make sure to check out the other BBRBF Bookclub babes for their reviews of Fangirl, including two brand new book-loving fashionistas and a brand new blog name for Kristina!

Circle Skits & Petticoats

Dressed in Mascara

The Eyre Effect

In a Nutshell..,

The Miss Information Blog

Next month we will be reading We are Pirates by Daniel Handler if you want to read along!