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

Wrap Dress and a Fur | Outfit

I've heard that when one feels anxious about life it is common to make drastic changes to hair to create some illusion of control. As I have never been able to do more with my hair than just feed and pet the beast and hope it behaves well enough, I don't do much experimentation with it. Once I find something that works I'm always so afraid of making it angry again. But, when it comes to style of dress, my experiments run a little wild and certainly make a plaything of the idea of cohesion. It occurs to me that crafting a new style, not yet accomplished, is my way of recapturing control of my life. 

I feel adrift; tipping off the precipice of great change. While I go free falling into a life that has very little do with the life I carefully crafted for myself, my immediate reflex is to fling my arms out and grab onto a style that exudes strength, grace, and attitude like rambling branches sticking from the cliff face. It's meager and the likelihood of it saving me is slim. Yet, what else is a falling person supposed to do besides cling to the tiny things within one's reach?

Dresses and shoes...fur and velvet do nothing to help my situation, but when put together in the right combination, black floral wrap dresses with daring bits of exposed skin, boots that ride high on the legs, and furs that drape like cats give me tiny reminders all day long. I am strong, I am spirited, I am worthy, and I do not allow others to dim my light.

Dresses that wrap around my body with care and furs that draw attention are small gestures and yet they are just a mere representation of the power that exists within me.

In this interim of life, I feel myself throwing down the happier, more innocent elements of style that have marked the last few years. Bright colors, sweet prints, girlish details are all falling away like dead skin to reveal something darker and more brazen. Something that combines the tawdry and the elegant in an apologetic way.

I've taken to stalking new style crushes on Instagram, (spookyfatbabe, jaglever, margotmeanie, etc) and my brain is working through ways to combine the dark elegance and glamour of Dita, the witchy vibes of Stevie, and the trashy, vintage, rock n' roll quality of rockabilly girls.

You can see my newest style inspirations on this Pinterest board riiiiiight here.

This outfit has a lot of Dita flavor in the classic style of the wrap dress and the dramatic fur stole. I can tell you all right now, prepare yourselves for a lot of black floral dresses because that is the epitome of my current mood. In fact, prepare yourselves for a lot of black. Black is my friend. Black is coming.

This Eshakti dress is going to get a lot on the body time because it possesses so many elements that I am looking for in my clothing. The wrap dress style is one of the best items a woman can own. It hugs and floats in subtly sexy, magical ways to extenuate the female form. And while this is a delicate and floaty crepe fabric, the dress is fully lined which will allow it to stand up to the viciously cold Wisconsin winters.

And this faux fur stole from Torrid? Can I sleep in it, guys? I'm going to be throwing this on top of everything because I need a little extra diva in my life right now. Nothing puts some sass in my step like wearing something outrageous with a smile and "so, what?" attitude.

So, loves, tell me in the comments, what major fashion changes have you made recently and why?

Dress: Eshakti | Stole: Torrid | Tights: Target (similar in plus) | Boots: Charlotte Russe (similar in wide calf) | Lips: Colourpop's Liquid Lipstick in Tulle

Merry Christmas! | Novelty Print Skirt and Faux Fur

Merry Christmas world! I hope you are finding your day full of love and support. I hope you have found peace from the chaos of the retail world. I hope you find grace and goodness in the warmth of you're loved ones. Also, I hope none of your presents bomb and your outfit is on point. 

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It's always good to have the grind of the Christmas season wind down. It feels amazing to be able to put on your favorite festive outfit, be it fuzzy leggings and novelty sweaters or fun and fancy pin up reproductions. That's your key to get a drink and kick back to enjoy the spoils of your labor. 

I splurged on this Hell Bunny skirt last Christmas and I can't even begin to count the times I have worn it since. It's the perfect novelty print to morph for any season and I'm loving the pin up vibes with my first attempt at bumper bangs. The bangs are just the perfect amount of pin up sass to add to the sweetness and the novelty of the Hell Bunny print as I can feel my style subtly changing to include darker, edgier elements. 

It's entirely possible I will be buried in this skirt because I adore it and it could probably be appropriate for a funeral too.

And let me just say, I truly hope your Christmas outfit includes some fur somewhere. I poached this faux fur collar off a printed wrap that just didn't thrill me anymore and I've been wearing it every day since. It's so easy and cozy just to throw on like a scarf. I know exactly how I'm going to surviving this winter; wrapped in dramatic furs and dosed in red lipstick because yum.

Shirt: (dress worn as a shirt) Kohls | Skirt: Modcloth | Shoes: Modcloth | Socks: Sock Dreams | Belt: Target | Fur Stole: Target | Scarf: Thrifted | Lips: Nyx's Liquid Suede Lip Cream in Kitten Heels

Swamplandia! | BBRBF Book Club + Outfit

Welcome to December's edition of the BBRBF Book Club. This month we read Swamplandia! By Karen Russell. And by read I mean didn't read. At least for me.

I tried. I even started the book a whole month ago. I. Just. Couldn't. I wanted to. I still might. But, holy cow is it a slow read. I got a few chapters in and everything just seemed so bogged down in details. The world building seemed to be the the bulk of the novel. But, it still seems like it has potential, so there's a good chance I'll give it another try. Maybe the rest of the novel will be heavier with story and lighter on unnecessary detail.

Given that I didn't actually read the book I probably should have bowed out this month, but I just loved the cover so dang much. I literally chose this book off the library shelf because it was so dang cute. I really wanted to interpret it in an outfit. I guess this month you get HALF of a BBRBF Book Club review from me. 

I chose to imitate the black and white outfit of the male character on the cover with my thrifted black and white dress. I added red and cream details to incorporate the lovely color scheme of the book. Had I had the right pieces, I would have every single color in my outfit because they're all so lovely together. But, much like the book, I couldn't. Woo. Good month!

Make sure to check out everyone else REAL reviews of Swamplandia!

Circle Skits & Petticoats

The Eyre Effect

In a Nutshell..,

The Miss Information Blog

Plaid Skirt and Yellow Tights | Outfit + Real Talk

In all my time on this earth, I have learned one thing; life is fragile and everything can change in an instant. You'll be walking down your path holding your basket of goodies, your jams, your muffins, and your sweet fruit, and out of no where you'll trip on a log and come crashing down. Throwing all your goodies up and away forever. 

And sometimes that's ok. Sometimes the fruit was going bad and the muffins were stale and you're better off with an empty basket. But, it doesn't change that having a full basket one moment and an empty one the next is a cataclysmic shift in your universe. 

Empty. All you had planned. Empty. All you knew. Empty.

It might take some time to get back up, grab your basket, and move on from your fall, but you will persevere. You will find new treats to fill your basket. Maybe entirely different treats than you had before and you'll learn something entirely new about yourself. Maybe you'll lose those treats too and have to start all over again because that's life and it happens.

But, no matter what, you can get back up and you can move forward as many times as you might need because that's what it is to be human and we are as enduring as life is fragile.

I have been absent for a while because I have experienced one of those cataclysmic shifts and it has required my full attention to pick up the basket. All I want to say for now is that everyone is healthy and safe and it's for the best. One of the fruits that was thrown from my basic was the ability to easily take blog photos. So, if the next few months are not as creative as the past, just know that I will always be working towards bettering this space. I may have hit an obstacle, but I will endure and edit and re-work until I get it right because I need to put this fruit back into my basket.

Let me know in the comments your best coping strategies for those moments when life leaves you hanging because I could use a few ideas.

Shirt: Modcloth (similar) | Skirt: Thrifted (similar) | Belt: Torrid (similar) | Tights: We Love Colors | Shoes: Thrifted (similar) | Lips: Colourpop's Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick in Bumble

Witch of the Wood | Cheap and Easy Halloween Costume

Happy Halloween, loves! I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween weekend and that today is a spooky and festive holiday despite the Monday drudge. Our weekend was full of good friends and family and even a visit from my sister and her brood from Georgia. Originally, we were going to have a year off from Halloween costumes as our usual party was relocated to Vegas. But, circumstances allowed for a last minute party and I was scrambling to come up with an easy and cheap costume that looked anything but easy and cheap and held up to my usual standards of Halloween awesome.

First step was finding my inspiration. Usually, I pull my costume from a movie. I've been Edward Scissorhands, Ursula, the Mad Hatter, The Wicked Witch of the East (house and all), etc. And since this year was all about my throwback love for witches, I decided to come up with a character inspired by the movie The Witch. For the most part the "Witch of the Wood" in the movie is naked or unseen, but I wanted to come up with a stylish version of a witch who could have existed in folklore from the 1600's because being naked in public is, you know, illegal.

This costume was incredibly easy and can be pulled together with makeup, a long black dress, a headpiece, and a quick and cheap DIY project.

Any long black dress would make excellent witch attire. Details like lace or flowing, billowy fabric are a bonus and baring skin in daring places adds a spirit of hedonism and empowerment that witches exude like a thick vapor. My headpiece was created by tying a pelvis bone to a headband. I chose it because it looked like the skull of some deformed and demonic creature. Antlers or horns would also make a great reference to hoofed animals who are notoriously in league with the devil and many people have weird objects like this hanging around, especially if you know some hunters. Ask around and you could probably borrow something from a friend. If not, Amazon or costume stores carry the fake kind for around fifteen to twenty dollars.

My claws were created by following this simple tutorial and took only a glue gun, scissors, and black poster board. I painted my arms with cheap Halloween body paint and in this case, the messier the application the better because I was trying to give the illusion of doing some dark and dirty in the deep woods.

Gethe really heavy handed with the conot our, eye makeup  and blood red lips, and you've got yourself a cheap, easy witch costume that is stylish, sultry, and haunting.