Mixing black and brown

Mixing black and brown is not something I feel comfortable with despite having seen many many examples of this done well. I cannot do this well. In general I like to wear dresses because I don't have to worry about proportion or matching like I do with separates. But i live in a cold climate, rely on public transportation, etc and must wear pant in winter.

But when I shop, I have a search and destroy mentality. I grab anything that attracts my eye, size doesn't matter, and take it all to the dressing room. Inside, i try everything on, sometimes twice and slowly whittle down my selections to what I'm going to buy.

For some reason I'm unable to think it terms of what my wardrobe lacks, outfits I could make, etc and so I always end up buying weird random things. And since I grab whatever attracts my eye, i have a closet full of bright colors and patterns, not always very conducive to making outfits.

So behold....




This is my attempt to mix black and brown which I have done so very unsuccessfully. I've also managed to mix many textures and possibly patterns if you consider lace more of a pattern than a texture. Ugh.

As this unfortunate close up reveals, I am wearing black and tan check plaid pants (H&M how dare you!) , a cream lace blouse with black attached ribbon, and my brown corduroy vaguely military-esque jacket.



The worstthing is, I'msick of taking pictures in front of the white mantle in my living room but the teal walls of the dining room and the plum walls of the bedroom are murder on my poor pictures. they always turn out terrible and I don't think there is anything my poor digital crap camera can do about it. Suggestions?

sorry my bedroom is such a mess, another reason I prefer the white mantle.