Fashion Flashbacks and Black Week

I'm doing fine in my no-new-clothes-in-2012 resolution thus far. I count it as a month, since today is January 31. I went to Target yesterday, and forced myself to take a right into the shoe section before I was enticed by any cheap, faddish clothes on my left. I love looking at the little boy shoes, but I didn't buy any of those either.
Shiny week was a success! I wore something sparkly, shimmery or shiny each day. Mostly satiny tops, one sequined top (with a gray suit, so it toned it down), and a shimmery scarf.
I think that this week is black week, which is a gimme for me.
(mini rambling flashback alert)
In high school, I loved to get dressed. I mean, we were in the late 80's/early 90's...it was the era of tight-rolled jeans, big bangs, vests, palazzo pants, and black hats! I had a sort of rule...I would only dress down if it were raining...that's when I wore my jeans, "duck" shoes, and some sort of NHS sweatshirt or sweater. Otherwise, I was pretty much "business casual." I don't know why. I've just ALWAYS enjoyed being dressed up. Maybe it's outward compensation for low self-esteem, but that's another post for another time. :)

Anywho, my senior year I was one of about four girls to sign up for weight training. We confused the boys' club, including the coach, because it was a "class" for the football team. I didn't know this. I thought it was a class. I mean, they taught us muscles and exercises and all about weight training, but up until we signed up, it had only been football players. I actually didn't even know there were other girls signing up. I just thought it would be a good way to get a daily workout in.
Of course, this led to the girls in the class bonding pretty well. Two days a week, we got to go upstairs and do Denise Austin aerobics while the boys did football stuff. The other three days, we all did weights. On my very favorite days, we would go run on the track outside, and I would pass all the stocky football players who kept telling me to slow down 'cause I was making them look bad. (if you know me now, you are having trouble understanding this fitness-Shelley. Just remember, I'm competitive no matter what I'm doing)

One day, these girls told me that they kept tallies of how many days in a row I wore black. Really!?!?! I was up to 11 straight as my high.

So, this week, in honor of high school Shelley, I wear black. It's easy. It goes with everything. My black shoes are all my most comfortable. If I'm feeling saucy, I have red shoes I can throw on. And, it's really just a short step away from clean/ironed week as a theme--which will probably happen before too long. And if I have a particularly rough week, we might settle for "major body parts covered and socially-acceptable" week. The point of all this is not to create more work or stressful mornings, but to inspire me to USE what I have and to be creative. Always remember, a splash of color brightens up any black ensemble. And there is not a color that doesn't work with black...except maybe navy blue. That would just be a splash of bruise.