Layering Necklaces: Turquoise

Chunky turquoise necklace: thrifted, Goodwill

Hummingbird necklace: hand-me-down

Long silver chain: thrifted, Salvation Army

Double-stranded black beads: thrifted

I got this funky turquoise necklace during a recent Goodwill excursion, mostly because it reminds me of this layered necklace I've been salivating over on Pinterest.

I've always been a fan of layering my shirts, and piling on tights under skirts, though I don't often try to layer up on necklaces. So I spent a good afternoon experimenting with combinations that I will share over the next week or so. 

Layering Necklaces: Earthy Stones

One of my favorite necklaces in this collection is what I dub the "dinosaur egg" necklace, pictured in the last photo. (Are there any other fossil nerds out there?) It's a Lia Sophia necklace, and was a birthday gift from a friend.

Fine Form: 5 Spooky Halloween Decorations Using Mannequins

For this edition of Fine Form, I found some festive ways to use mannequins and doll parts in your Halloween decorating.

xxmandarxx on Tumblr

1.  These head planters would look awfully spooky lined up on your sidewalk, but a single head in the window may be just as effective in sending shivers up trick-or-treaters' spines.

Ryan McFarland on Instructables


2. Force the guests at your Halloween shindig to scoop guacamole "brains" out of this lobotomy patient.





Yard Haunt

3. Freak out every kid on the block with this acid bath victim.



Bascombe Mania

4. Decorate the lawn with bloody body parts. 



Family Chic from Camilla Fabbri

5. Create your own mini mummies with this super easy, super cute tutorial from Family Chic.

My Favorite Fall Jacket

Jacket: hand-me-down

Rogue Wave t-shirt: purchased at concert (2008?)

Shorts: H&M

My grandma's daily uniform as long as I knew her was a crew neck sweatshirt and stretchy polyester slacks. (The woman had a rainbow array of each.) But inside her closet she kept a few relics of her time as a fashionable mom in the 1960s and 1970s. My sophomore year of high school, she let me raid her closet. I found silky high-necked cocktail party blouses, eyelet dresses, a t-shirt with a fierce leopard, and this quilted jacket, which will forever be my favorite. (Here's me showing off the jacket--but hiding my face--in my Senior Year yearbook.)

I could list you a dozen reasons why the jacket appealed to me (and 10 years later, still does). Here are just a few:

• I was immediately drawn to the rich colors--navy blue and red being two of my most frequently-worn colors. 
• The quirky use of plaid
• The cartoony flowers and shiny, painted buttons
• The even cuter rows of red buttons along the shoulders
• It's warm
• It really doesn't require many accessories to 'make the outfit'
• It reminds me of my grandma herself, because she was a quilter. 

While my mom has a tendency to poke fun at my ensembles, my grandma always said my style suited me. (I like to think it was a compliment.) This jacket reminds me of her every time I wear it.

Once Upon a Bust: Best Friends Styling Together, Part Two

 

Once upon a time, I babysat a dress form, and it was much more daring than I. Sometimes, its looks were styled with the help of my best friend, Aly.

One summer I snagged a couple of these frilly empire waist blouses for super cheap at Forever 21, but they were hard to style outside of jeans and shorts. (If you recall, I had the same problem with this empire waist shirt, too.)

Here's the full look, which is a little sloppy in execution. I love the individual pieces--especially the scarf and the shrug (which is a great layer over almost anything)--but the only element that's really working for me is the mix of colors.

Blouse: Forever 21 (old)

Shrug: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted, Unique Thrift Store

Necklace: Forever 21 (old)

Once Upon a Bust: Awkward Layering

Once upon a time, I babysat a dress form, and it was much more daring than I.

The black top is an empire waist from Forever 21 that I purchased the summer before my senior year of high school. (That was eight years ago.) This shirt gets a lot of wear because it has cute lace detailing under the bust and the neckline is flattering.

The one thing that's always bothered me: because of the neckline, this seems to me like a prime layering shirt. Collars belong underneath it! But the empire waist makes dressing tricky. With jeans, it's passable. With skirts, it looks dowdy. Shorts... I really haven't had the heart to try. The undershirt has to be fitted, and ideally, I like it to peek past the hem of the black shirt. It's hard to put together an outfit that meets all of these criteria.

I don't think I'd ever wear this one myself, but the colors on the skirt provided a lot of opportunities for mixing and matching with other tops

Black blouse: Forever 21 (old)

Blue blouse: thrifted, Unique Thrift Store

Skirt: thrifted, Unique Thrift Store

Necklace: belongs to a friend

Fine Form: Antique Store Displays

Some of the best potential bust displays are found at antique stores... but they're seldom for sale.

I spotted this gal at Treasure Aisles Antique Store here in St. Louis, and made the mistake of falling gleefully in love it before noticing the 'display only' sign fixed on her back. I find this situation comes up a lot when I'm browsing for display pieces, and I suppose I can't blame the sellers. If I snagged a decoration this charming, I wouldn't want to give it up, either.

Favorite Dress #3: Teal Splash

  

Dress: Needle & Threat at Francesca's
Cumberbund: thrifted

Necklace: Mom's!

This is a pretty versatile dress for special occasions--I've worn it to a wedding, comedy show, and an after-party for the Salvation Army's Garbage Bag Gala here in St. Louis. (Plus or minus a black blazer or gray short-sleeve cardigan.)

With the abundance of colors, what I'd really like to do is find ways to pull it off as an everyday dress. It's too pretty to stay in my closet!

Here I try to make it a little more day-friendly with an Urban Outfitters t-shirt and thrifted belt. (In college, I used to have this tee in six different colors. Too bad I didn't keep more of them around.)

How would you style this dress?

Check out my other favorite dresses:

• One of my best rummage sale finds for fancier occasions
• Orange eyelet

My Obsession With Stacked Bracelets

Beaded cuff: purchased at Paisley on Main in Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Silver bracelet: mother's
Green flower bracelet: gift from mom
Orange bracelet: Vera Bradley
Gold bracelet with green accents: gift from friend

Do you ever get overly attached to wearing something? I certainly have infatuations with blouses and dresses, but there are certain combinations of jewelry that I can't put away.

Most of these bracelets were purchased two summers ago, and I wore them in this combination a few times a week for a whole year. The green floral bracelet was added last Christmas. The green and gold one is my newest acquisition.

Another favorite jewelry combination of mine: wearing too many silver rings at once (my favorites are shown below). I don't wear them all on the same hand, and sometimes it feels excessive, but why buy jewelry if you don't enjoy staring down and admiring your treasures throughout the day?

Once Upon a Bust From: Mixed Prints in Harmony

 

Once upon a time, I babysat a dress form, and it was much more daring than I.

This is another outfit I styled with my best friend, Aly. It was our interpretation of business casual, before either of us had to actually show up somewhere in business casual attire.

If I still owned this shirt today (re-donated), I'd consider this look a little too shazam! for most of the lunches and meetings I attend as a reporter. But I will admit: the ensemble has grown on me in the four-ish years since we conceived it. Back then, I'd yet to fully embrace high-waisted skirts. Rather, I hadn't embraced wearing high-waisted skirts in my proper size. If I bought them, I wore them on my hips (possibly looking more dowdy than I feared). Or I wouldn't tuck the shirt in.

The rich colors won me over, though. I love how the red and gold weave through the two patterns. If that "belt" weren't actually a head scarf--that is to say, if it actually fit around my waistline--I would be sporting that scarf/belt combo weekly.

Blouse: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted
Necklace: thrifted

Gold belt: mother's hand-me-down

Scarf (fashioned under belt): thrifted

Rock n' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, Or, My Favorite "Story Behind the Shirt"

AC/DC shirt: thrifted, Strange Cargo in Chicago, Ill.

Skirt: thrifted, Value Village

Cardigan: Forever 21

Necklace: thrifted

Bracelet: gift

Booties: Urbanog

I put together this outfit to show off a new skirt I found at Value Village last week, but the piece that pops out most to me is the AC/DC shirt. It's been a beloved wardrobe staple for the last seven years, and it's the item in my closet with the best 'story behind the buy.'

The opportunity to buy the shirt came serendipitously as I was checking out at Strange Cargo in Chicago. This tiny blonde swooped through the door in a pile of fury and dumped out a brown grocery bag full of shirts onto the countertop. I tried not to stare. I tried to make smalltalk with my own cashier, but you couldn't help but overhearing every few words. "parking lot handie... four other girls... vacation in Jamaica..."

At that point, I was attentively staring at the girl and the pile of shirts. They were some pretty choice concert shirts--a few from AC/DC, Journey, Bon Jovi. Some, I'm sure, my mom owned in high school.

"I'm getting rid of him, but first, I'm getting rid of his musty dumb t-shirts," she said.

The cashier explained they weren't a resale shop.

"You don't want 'em? That's fine," the girl said. "I'll give them to homeless people! Yeah! That'll really fuck with his head, seeing his favorite shirts on homeless people!"

"I'd actually like to buy one of those," I said.

Seven seconds later, I had plucked this AC/DC baseball T from the mass, and handed her $30. She definitely looked like she could use some wine.

Whoever you are, cheating guy whose shirts got sold off, thank you. At least one of them is being put to great use.