Birthday shenanigans

OK, I try to avoid blatant vanity shots, but this outfit was just too good. The idea was to mix up contemporary goth with dolly kei. Today's my birthday (26, if you're keeping track), so why not mix two of my favorite things? We got a little silly. Well, you'll see that in a sec.

The dress is from Target. It's my favorite kind of LBD, because it's just so customizable! I don't remember where I got the tights. I've had them forever. I wore the dress over a thrifted black henley T, because it was FREEZING on this day! The gloves are thrifted, the armwarmers are so old I don't remember where I got them, the hat is from Hot Topic (Yeah, I know, shush), and we'll get to the necklaces in a little bit. And surely you recognize the Betsey Johnson belt.

Continuing with a mighty she-woman roar!

Closer up to show off the gloves.

And the necklaces! I love these. I made the tassel-bottle necklace. I thrifted this random bottle of flower seeds, and I bought one UGLY table runner to get the tassel. Good thing it was only two dollars. There's a little blue cross, a bit obscured by the tassel, that came from a necklace I got in, like, 7th grade.

The key is something I fell in love with at Cactus Flower in Bloomington.

I wore the hat backwards. The veil in front just seemed like a little much, and I LOVE the asymmetrical, swooping line created by the feathers.

Yeah, yeah, gothy-wothy, soul of doomy darkness, blah blah blah.

Finis!

DIY necklace project via The Fashionate Traveler

I love this woman. I've lurked on her blog for a lil' while. (*lurk lurk stalk stalk* Dun dun DUUUUN!)

This stylish Aussie trots all over the globe, so squares like you and I don't have to. She's always dressed to kill, and quick to share her secrets of fabulosity. And, it would appear that the necklace that intrigues her also intrigues me:

This is a Tom Binn exclusive that retails for over 600 pounds. Needless to say, the way our dollar has been dropping of late, this would be a HEFTY chunk of change for those of us stateside. But it's sooo dreamy. What's a gal to do?

Follow the FT's tutorial, of course! I'm not going to spill the beans here b/c I'm not a content-scraper like that, yo! You'll have to go to her own site for the goods. Her version starts out with more necklace-strands, fewer gemstones, and a lot more blinged-out skull charms. Enjoy, and I hope it inspires.