Belt buckle transplants and a really awesome dress

I really like belts and currently own several tons of them. In fact, one of my nifty little belt/scarf closet hangers just broke from the weight. When it comes to this particular item, I'm mostly talking about the waist-cinching style. Those thick elastic ones that don't hold your pants up, but do help to create an hourglass figure and draw attention to your best feature. Well, my fave feature. So, look at this slightly tacky but necessary for my wardrobe belt:

Ooh, it's a large, blue bird...birds again?! Yeah birds. I got that at Savers awhile back for $2. Anyway the white belt may have worked ok: it didn't look terrible. It was a little dingy, though. No prob, I'll just remove the belt buckle and put it on a more practical belt. Here's one:

There they are, side by side. That black belt had an interesting...texture? It also had a dated knot glued to the belt buckle that I could do without. So, I removed both belt buckles from their elastic belts. Then I gave that black one the bird (te he).

That works!Yea, black with blue bird belt. And then...

I have this green belt with an ugly, 80s, snakeskin looking, double circle buckle. Another transplant. I easily separated those round things from the belt. Now, to find a better buckle.
I just happened to have a spare one; the outdated knot piece that I removed from that black belt. Luckily, the fabric knot was held on with glue, which I ripped right off. This left the hook hardware that I needed. Unfortunately, it didn't match so well with the other end which it would hook into. Easy solution: glue something on it. I have many buttons. I would glue a button on.

As you see, it's a brown buckle and not black and I like black. I think that button was just the best flat and fitting one, and rather than being picky about color, I fired up the glue gun. Wait. I got more.

Look at that cool fancy, old-timey buckle. And yes, all of these "before" pics were taken at night, so they look bad. I don't care much for the quality of the "before" shots. I find that buckle quite striking and I love how it attaches together at the center. The belt itself is kinda lame. It's like a regular elastic piece covered in some saggy, scrunched up casing.
I could either amputate the whole piece from the fancy buckle or rip it open, exposing the unseen elastic underneath.

Or I could do that. I just stretched the aqua material. I removed one side of the buckle and pulled the casing part until it was tight around the elastic part. I cut off the excess, sewed the raw edge and then resewed the buckle back on. That was one easy refashion.
Want to see these pieces at work? I'm not really asking, my vain self already got some outfit pics. I will now take the opportunity to show off an incredible thrift store dress find.

Look at that. Do you know what that is? Well, it's a 40s inspired, black and white, polka dot dress from the clothing label called Stop Staring. It fits perfectly! No alterations needed. I just Googled image searched and didn't see any pics of my dress. It's a really cool label featuring beautiful clothing that costs an arm and an ass. ( I wanted to make it an alliteration.) Really; click the link and get a look at them highfalutin' rich folk prices. Or look at me!

Thrift purists may scoff at the standard $6 price for dresses, but as I twirl around in this, I'm reminded that you can sometimes find something well worth 5 bucks and some change (with the Goodwill discount card.)
Here's the green belt:

I turned the floor standing fan on, as it was a warm afternoon. Got a little windblown effect going. The fancy buckle aqua belt didn't match polka dot dress. So I threw on something from my closet.

Oh, this old thing? I just pull this disco dress out, slap on some makeup, and pose in front of a fan with it. Then I hang it back up.
Thanks for looking and not leaving snarky comments!