Easter

Yay!  Easter was awesome!  3 services, starting at 6 this morning, then brunch with the hubby, and then a delightful 3 hour nap.  That was glorious.  Easter worship is always amazing, but that nap is a close second in joyfulness for me.  I got new shoes for the day:

 



 

They reminded me of Easter colors.  And I can wear them with darn near anything.  Of course, today I wore them with black, but what else is new?  I loved all of the Easter dresses the little girls were wearing, and there were some really cute shoes, but I HAD to take a picture of these:

 

 

The stripey ones totally remind of Easter eggs.  I LOVE them!  Sadly, she wears a bigger shoe than I do, so I can't steal, um...I mean borrow them.  Sigh.  I also love that her daughter got in on the picture.  They are so cute together, head to toe.

 

I hope you have a wonderful Easter, however you celebrated!  I'm going to go eat some chocolate now.





Holy Saturday

Man, am I tired.  Good day, just long.  Spring cleaning at church this morning, followed by a rehearsal for Easter vigil, then back to the church to finish stuff up, a quick nap and then off to celebrate the vigil at the Episcopal church.  Like I said, good day, but definitely time for bed so I can get up at 4 tomorrow morning.  But first, some shoes!  First up, the shoe calendar:

 

 

Do these say Easter to you?  I am undecided.  Of course, I love the color, but not sure about the shape.  The description says they are slingbacks, so maybe that makes me less favorable toward them.  Although, I actually wore slingbacks to the Easter vigil tonight!

 

 

Sorry for yet another blurry picture.  I don't know what's going on with my pictures lately.  So, these are the shoes.  They are my Easter shoes from 2 years ago, and I love the material.  Here's another view:

 



 

Oh look, another blurry picture.  I tried to crop it more so  you could see them better, but that just made it blurrier, totally defeating the purpose.  Maybe I need to hire a photographer for the blog.  And by "hire" I mean ask really really nicely.  At least you can see the shape here.  The don't slip too bad, which is why they are the only pair of slingbacks I own.  Tomorrow, new Easter shoes!  Oh, and the new life of the new creation in Christ!  Probably shouldn't bury that lead, eh?



Good Friday

I always think the weather should reflect Holy Week events.  Good Friday should be gray and cloudy and dreary, while Easter should be bright and sunny and cheery.  Looks like we're going to have the opposite this year.  The sun is shining today, and it's supposed to rain on Sunday.  Clearly, the weather did not get my memo...

 

So, onto shoes.  Today's selection:

 

They might be a little cheerful for a day like Good Friday.  Today I'm wearing all black, though, so I feel like I can get away with a little color on my feet.  I like that I can wear these shoes with almost anything because of their varied colors.  I also love the fact that I got them on sale for $8!  It's the simple things that make me happy.

 

Today is also my oldest niece's 16th birthday.  How the heck did she get to be 16?  She'll be getting her driver's license soon, she's a sophomore in high school, and it's all very strange.  She's growing up to be a beautiful young woman.  Here is how the calendar wished her a Happy Birthday today:

 

 

Eh.  Not my favorite.  Not horrible though.  I haven't heard the Birthday girl's opinion on them, yet.  They are from 1992, so I would have been 16 on March 29th of that year, since my birthday's not until April.  I like the symmetry!





Maundy Thursday

I think I was born in the wrong decade.  I love so many styles from different eras.  I'm sure I've babbled on about this before, but I love go-go boots, and poodle skirts, and Gibson girl styles, and flapper dresses, and on and on.  OK, I probably don't necessarily want to live in all of these eras.  I like things now, like the right to vote, the ability to be ordained, the fact that my marriage to man of color isn't illegal.  Oh, but the clothes.  I wonder if I could get a time machine and just go back to visit those times for  historical and clothing purposes of interest?  In the meantime, I just dress up for Halloween.  All of this leads up to today's calendar picture:

 

 

I  love them.  And why can't I seem to take a decent picture lately???

 

Today, as the post title says, is Maundy Thursday.  Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, this Sunday is Easter, which means we are smack in the middle of Holy Week.  For pastors, this means lots of services.  From last Sunday to this, I will be involved in 9 different services.  From a lighter perspective, it also means I get to plan shoes with lots of different clerical outfits.  Today I went with these:

 

 

These are some of my favorites.  At my first congregation I had one woman who would always complain when I wore "boring" shoes.  For her, that meant shoes that didn't have color.  I like the simplicity of these, and I love the ankle strap.  Besides, I'm wearing a green dress today with a big pattern of black and white flowers, so I think simple shoes are probably better in this case.  I've had these shoes for a long time.  I was thinking 5 years or so, until I realized that I wore these shoes at the bean's baptism, and the bean is going to be 10 in July.  Yikes.  So now I'm trying to remember if I bought these when I still lived in Texas, or if I bought them my first semester of seminary.  Oh well, 10 years on and I still like them.





More Things I Don't Understand

I don't get booties in general.  I rarely find a pair I like, but these I just don't understand at all:

 

 

I don't understand the color scheme, and I certainly don't understand this new heel thing that just looks like someone would fall over if they tried to walk on them.  Granted, I haven't tried on a pair, so I can't speak from experience, but still.  These aren't even that extreme, I think it's more the angle than anything else that makes them look like they have less of a heel than they actually might. I've seen some shoes that look more like a hoof from their lack of heel.  Like these:

 

Source
 

 I would fall on my face.  And then there are actual hoof shoes:

 

Source

 

Those are Just.  Insane.  There's more where those came from if you want to take a gander. 

 

Know what else I don't get?  Spikes.

 

Spikes are everywhere right now, on all varieties of shoes.  I can maybe understand them in small contexts, but they are EVERYWHERE.  If you need to kick someone, then these are the shoes for you.  Frankly, though, I'd probably just end up scratching the hell out of various body parts with shoes like this.  Why is this necessary?  No, really, feel free to explain it to me.  Visit here if you want to see more (and more and more and more) spikes.



A Day of Bad Photography

Neither of the pictures I took today turned out well, despite trying a couple of times on each.  I've decided to blame my phone.  I'm sure the problem is actually user error, but my phone can't fight back.  First up is today's calendar shoe:

 

Helloooo, 70s!  I actually like the colors of the stripes, but these are just way too clunky for me.  A coworker saw this today and said she immediately pictured a polyester pant suit and a fabulous 'fro.  Nice!

 

I'm wearing my one pair of Easter socks today.  I know it's not Easter, but they actually kind of go with the shirt I'm wearing, so I went with festive socks during Holy Week.

 

 

My mom bought these for me several years ago, and I think they're adorable.  Love the colors, and the polka dots, and the chick.  Sadly today I noticed the beginning of a hole in one sock.  I guess I will have to look for new fun socks.  Or learn to darn, which is the better choice, but not the more fun choice.

 

Lest  you think I'm wearing a polka dot shirt with a chick on it...

 

 

And yes, I did take this as a self portrait while sitting in front of my computer...







Easter Shoes on Holy Monday

It's one of those days where I had no ideas what to talk about.  So I googled Easter Shoes.  I wasn't that impressed by what I found until I scrolled down to these:

 

Source


Ohmygosh, how cute are these?  I totally want some even though I don't have even the prospect of a baby right now.  Adorbs.  Totally made me smile.

 

And then I found this picture

 

Source



That is the foot of an Episcopal priest, and while I don't know her, I have decided we should clearly be best friends.  Best shoe friends, that is.  I don't want the BFF to kick me.  No wait, I already have a best shoe friend.  I don't want her to kick me, either.  Well, clearly she will be my very best pastor shoe friend that I haven't and probably will never meet.

 

There are other cute pictures, but you will just have to go peruse them yourself.  I mean, I can't do all the work for you, now can I?

Palm Sunday

I almost spaced out posting today...no reason, just didn't do it earlier and then forgot until now.  Today is Palm Sunday, and we always have a parade at church where the kids decorate their bikes or scooters or trikes and then process them through the parking lot and into the sanctuary.  It's a lot of fun and the kids love it.  You've seen these shoes before, but they seemed festive and fun for a celebratory day.

 

 

These are the shoes I wore for our wedding rehearsal and I love how bright and fun they are.  I decided they "sort of" look like palms.  OK, not really, but they are the closest I had.  Use your imagination and humor me.

 

Tonight I am relaxing and watching Singin' in the Rain.  I adore this movie.  I love love love it.  Gene Kelly always makes me smile.  Tonight, though, I'm paying more attention to Debbie Reynolds' and the other dancers' shoes than I usually do.  Wouldn't it be fun if our lives were a musical?  Of course, I couldn't dance in the shoes I normally wear, or I'd break my neck...

 

Tired

I am crazy tired today.  I fell asleep at 8:30 last night, then woke up at 11:30 and couldn't figure out why all the lights were on.  I brushed my teeth, turned out lights, went back to sleep, and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning.  And I'm STILL tired!  I'm back at church for a few hours today and it's a struggle to stay awake.  Oh well, let's talk about shoes.  This is from the calendar today and I LOVE it:

 

 

This is from 1933, but I've seen some similar styles that are out now.  I would definitely wear the retro version.  I'm picturing these shoes with a fabulous suit (with a skirt, obviously since it's the 30s), and an awesome hat.

 

Sometime this week (who knows when, it's all a bit of a blur), one of my fabulous camp volunteers brought me this:

 

 

It's a book about purses through the decades.  I'm not into purses as much as I'm into shoes, but there are some amazing purses in here.  The BFF LOVES purses, so I might just have to take this home with me and let her flip through it and drool.  I've only flipped through it a little, but there was some really cool stuff.  I definitely like the retro purses better than the more modern ones, though.  Don't worry, I'm not going to start another blog about handbags, but I might put a few of them on here once in awhile just for fun.





Arts Camp, Day 5

Yay!  I survived another camp!  It was a lot of fun, and the kids cracked me up on a regular basis, but it is always sooo nice when it's done and things get back to "normal."  Today the kids did a program for their parents with dances they learned, skits they worked on, and camp songs from the week.  I think my favorite part was the 2-3 grade skit.  Every line was followed by the kids saying, "coool," or, "buuumer."  It totally made me giggle.  So, one final day of camp shoes before getting back to regular posting.

 

 

OK, so these aren't shoes.  But this girl wore crazy, mismatched knee highs all week, and I finally remembered to get a picture of them.  I love her sense of individuality.

OK, fine.  THIS isn't shoes either.  Geez, cut me some slack, would you?  But seriously, how cute is this purse?  It belongs to a 6th grade girl and she said her grandma made it for her.  I had some serious coveting moments today when I saw this.

 

 

Here are my feet today.  I generally hate things between my toes, but when I was shopping for some black sandals for our honeymoon last summer, these were all I could find.  I was trying to be a little more pastoral and dressed up today for the program since parents and family would be here.  I definitely sacrificed comfort, though.  My feet missed my comfy tennies.  Pretty sure I have a couple of blisters on the bottom of my feet from running around in these all day.  A smart woman would have worn different shoes up until the time of the program and then changed.  Clearly, after a week of camp, I am not a smart woman.









Arts Camp, Day 4

Holy buckets but I'm tired!  It's been a good week, but for some reason, this time the kids waited until Thursday to let loose with their Wednesday craziness.  We had meltdowns and injuries and cliques and tattling, and all of the rest of the usual stuff, just multiplied by what felt like about a million.  My volunteers are tired, I am tired, but the kids act like we fed them a huge bowl of sugar for both snack and lunch today.  Oh well.  One more day, and tomorrow is their program, which is always fun.

 

I only took pictures of tennies today for some reason:

 

 

I love the colors of these, including the socks.  This picture says spring to me.

 

5th Grade boy shoes.  See?  I can like boys' shoes, too.  The color didn't turn out well, because these have really cool lime green laces and details. 

 

Twin shoes!  Not shoes that are twins, but shoes on the feet of twins.  The yellow socks are actually tie-dyed.  Which is awesome.



Arts Camp, Day 3

Wednesday is usually when the kids get totally squrrelly and crazy.  They were wilder than yesterday, but not as bad as they've been some camps.  Wednesday is the day when they have gotten comfortable at church, but they aren't tired out yet.  Tomorrow they will start to be tired, and by Friday they are pretty exhausted.  Here are a couple more shoe pictures from the day:

 

Those boots completely crack me up.  How awesome are those?  And the plaid, canvas shoes are adorable.

These I was kind of coveting.  Good thing they are too small for me or I might have tried to steal them...

 

Today's quote comes from the same 3rd grade girl as yesterday.  They were talking about water and what we use it for.  Her comment was, "My brother once used the toilet to wash my cat!"  I have no idea if her stories are real, or just part of an amazing imagination!

 

Arts Camp, Day 2

Day 2 is going very well.  The kids are a little wound up, but not as bad as they usually are on Wednesday.  It's calmer for me, too.  The first day there are always a million details to straighten out, and then things calm down as the week goes on.  I still run a lot, but not as bad as that first day.  The kids have some great shoes, though, so I took some pics today while we were outside for lunch.  They all thought I was crazy when I asked them if I could take pictures of their shoes, but no one told me no.

 

The color didn't come out great, but I loved the contrasting turquoise zipper on the gray tennies.

 



 

The pink and black belong to the feet of one of my favorite kiddos of all time.  I know I shouldn't have favorites, but on this one I just can't help myself.  She is awesome on mulitple levels.  Her friend in the boots is awesome too.  Who wouldn't be with great boots like that?

 

 

I love feet in circle pictures.

 

Oh, and here's my favorite quote of the day so far:

 

3rd grade girl:  "Pastor Sarah, we were just talking about a cookie in the shape of a witch that my grandma made me!"

 

Me:  "That sounds really cool."

 

3GG:  "Yeah, my dog ate it.  My dog's dead now."

 

Whoa...knowing this child, I'm pretty sure those 2 incidents aren't related, but dang, kid!

Arts Camp, Day 1

Today was the first day of Arts Camp at church.  Our school system runs on a modified traditional schedule, which means the kids get 2 weeks off for Fall break, Christmas, and Spring break, with a fairly short summer.  The church does a camp the second week of Fall and Spring breaks.  Arts Camp is usually the calmest camp, and the smallest (I'm sure the 2 go together).  We have about 50 kids regiestered this year, which is smaller than the last 2 years.  It sounds pretty impressive (which it is) until you realize we get anywhere between 180 and 300 for Vacation Bible School during the summer.

 

As the director, I run a LOT.  I got to the church at 6:30 this morning, camp went from 9-3, and I might have managed to sit down for an hour if I total up all the little breaks.  The kids are gone now, so I'm sitting, writing this, and then taking care of everything I need to do for tomorrow.  I usually sleep REALLY well during camp weeks.  Camps are a lot of fun, but as I said I am on my feet most of the day, so I thought I'd break out the new tennies and see how they did.  I've worked out in them, but this is a bit more extensive.

 

 

I think they did pretty well, all things considered.  They definitely have a a lot of good support, and felt great while I raced up and down the stairs 7,000 times.  They were even good during the Hippo Song!

 

I didn't personally get any great quotes today, but our parish nurse told me about 2 small girls who came to her with headaches and then proceeded to tell her all about the black aliens with red eyes who live in their minds and give them headaches.  She told them not to watch that kind of movie right before going to bed...



St. Patrick's Day

I have shocking news for you today:  I DON'T have green shoes for St. Patrick's Day!  What is wrong with me?  OK, back up.  I DO have some green shoes if you remember my post from last week.  What I don't have are green HEELS for church.  I knew this, I guess, but didn't really think about it until it was too late to do anything about it.  I used to have the cutest pair of green velvet heels, but they died a sad death one Christmas Eve while I was on internship.  I'm still in mourning for those shoes.  I thought about just wearing festive socks for church...

 

...but figured that might be a little much.  It's one thing to kick my shoes off when I preach where no one can really see my feet.  It's another to just run around in my stocking feet for 2 services.  The kids probably would have liked it, though.

 

At any rate, I ended up wearing my gold shoes.

 

 

They seemed festive for the day.  Rainbows and pots of gold, right?  These are actually the shoes that appeared in my very first blog post, and they have very high heels.  My assisting minister and I were standing in the back of the sanctuary this morning while the senior pastor did announcements and she said to me, "Man, you get tall when you put on your church shoes!"  Which is true.  I am taller during church than at any other time!

 

Hope everyone has had a great holiday, however you celebrate.  Today I'm missing being home with my family and eating corned beef and cabbage, despite the fact that I don't really like either of those things.  It's tradition, and I miss it when I'm not home.  I could make my own, but so far haven't.  Oh well, I leave you with my favorite St. Patrick's Day cartoon:

 

 

 

Adventures in Wine Tasting

Today a group of us went to Amador County for a friend's birthday.  The last trip to Amador was more of a casual outing, but this time we went specifically for wine tasting.  We hit 5 wineries and tasted some really yummy wines and some not-so-yummy wines.  I prefer white to red, so tasting for me is an exercise in the various faces I make while drinking red wine.  On the plus side, since I don't like reds, I don't tend to drink enough to get tipsy.  Anyway, it was a fun day with a very nice group of people, and we came home with a couple of bottles of new-to-us wine.  Here are the shoes that went wine tasting with us (well, the women anyway).

 

The brown sandals look flat in the picture but they actually have fairly high cork heels.  My flowered sandals have been on here before.  And the birthday girl was wearing the cute brown shoes.  She tried to protest by saying they were just on-sale shoes from Target, but hey, I love Target!  And on-sale is even better!  Shoes don't have to be fancy to be cute.  Everyone's favorites come in lots of different styles from lots of different places.

 

From Food to Furniture

A friend of mine sent me a picture earlier this week of his daughter sitting on a shoe-shaped chair while waiting for her piano lessons.  I didn't post that picture for privacy issues because it had her beautiful, smiling face on it, but I thought it was a cute concept. Then this morning when I was on facebook and saw this on Shoe Box Porn:

 

The one my friend sent me was a kid version of these, but basically the same idea.  I'm not a huge fan of animal print, but I think the basic shape is cute.  I can't imagine where I would put one in my house, and I'm pretty sure the hubby would never approve.  Hmmm...I wonder what people would think if these were the visitors' chairs in my office? :-)

 

 

Jelly Memories

Hey, remember these?

 

Source

 

I used to have a purple pair.  I have fainted once in my life, and pretty much the only thing I remember is waking up and staring at my purple jelly shoes.  At any rate, the first thing I thought of when I saw the calendar this morning was jelly shoes:

 

 

They are sturdier than jelly shoes, kind of the grown up version maybe.  But they still look like they would make your feet sweat. Out of curiosity I googled them to see how much they cost.  They might be plastic, but I figured they weren't cheap, and I was right.  The original price was $120 on the site I looked at.  The site also had quite a lengthy description:

 

"This is the perfect shoe for the fall, mixing practicality with sensual style and is perfect for day or night. The slash detailing, hidden platform and side Velcro closure make it the perfect comfortable shoe that you can wear anywhere.

Like all Melissa shoes, the Believing bootie is crafted in Brazil, using the unique Melflex technology. This injected thermoplastic easily molds around your feet to give you the most comfortable fit possible.

Each style is also completely hypoallergenic and water-proof. Plus, they are recyclable, making them great for the eco-conscious.

Melissa is known for creating shoes that work as both highly comfortable footwear and great pieces of art. In the past, the company has worked with acclaimed artists, designers and architects including Jean Paul Gaultier, Zaha Hadid, Thierry Mugler, Vivienne Westwood, Karim Rashid, Gaetano Pesce and the Campana Brothers. Their work has provided Melissa with unique and innovative collections.

The company is dedicated to respecting its customers with business, social and environmental harmony, making all of its shoes from 100 percent recyclable plastic and are produced without waste. Melissa also works with non-profits and several social programs." (Source)

 

I still think they aren't terribly attractive (despite my fond memories of fainting in my jelly shoes), but I do like that a lot of thought went into them, and it's cool that they are recycled and recyclable.  I'm still betting they make your feet sweat, though.

Yum!

Another picture from a friend on facebook:

I've been posting a lot of Yeesh kind of shoes lately, so I thought a positive post might be nice.  And this one comes with a sugar rush (even better, a sugar rush that won't go straight to your hips)!  I think these are adorable, and could come in lots of fun colors.  But are they too cute to eat?

 

On another note, parishioners who mostly see me on Sundays are usually shocked when they see me during the week and I'm wearing flats.  Flats are just so much more practical for running around all day.  Doesn't mean they can't be cute though.  Here are the green ballet flats I'm wearing today...please ignore that my pants are too long.

 

 

Finally, the news in the world is that there is a new pope.  Which of course begs the question, what kind of shoes does the pope wear?



Oh Good Grief

For every shoe I find adorably irresistible, it seems, there are 10 other horrifying ones lurking, waiting to jump out and scare the snot out of me.

 

I suppose these aren't scary so much as just insane.  Why is this necessary?  The platforms are one thing, but good grief, people, this is ridiculous.  And then there are these:

 

 

 

Another example of a platform.  These aren't the most fabulous shoes in the world, and on their own I would probably never wear them.  But on the ridiculous spectrum, they are completely normal compared to the above.  Also, sorry they are so blurry.  The picture seemed fine when I took it.  I could take it again, but I'll just mess with  your vision a little bit today (you know, if the red shoes didn't already sear your retinas).

 

What the Heck?

A friend sent me this yesterday.  I am horrified.

I honestly have no words.  Why are these in existence?  Why would anyone wear them?   Please tell me no one actually wears them...  Oh wait, they come in black, too!

 



And these are for women!  I could have my very own pair of ugly-ass Boot-flip-flop monstrosities!  These are almost enough to make me renounce shoes all together.

 

Another friend posted this on my facebook wall recently.

 

 

If this is true, than those boot thingies above are saying, "I hate feet.  And ankles.  And shins."

Lent 4

Once again the lighting in the room at church with the full-length mirror strikes again, making my purple shoes look brown.

 

You would think I'd just photograph them at home, or some other logical alternative.  But apparently I prefer to continue taking not-so-well-lit pictures.  I did take another in my office so you could see the color.

 

 

 

You probably noticed that these are much shorter than my usual Sunday heel height.  I actually bought these several years ago (can't remember if it was when I was still in seminary or during my first call), before my heel height started creeping incrementally higher.  Regardless of the heel height, though, I always take my shoes off when I preach.  Unless of course I'm wearing boots or something more complicated that I can't just slip out of.

 

 

Isn't our orange carpet beyootiful?  We have orange pews, too!  Anyhoo, I like to preach in bare feet whenever possible.  The acolytes who sit behind me usually think it's funny.  People in the congregation who notice think it's funny when I shrink several inches during the process of saying, "grace and peace to you in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."

 

That's it for purple shoes.  I only have the 3 pairs, although there is more of the season of Lent to come.  I will have to repeat or not match my shoes to the liturgical color of the day.  Either one is fine with me.  I'll probably go with not matching as I don't like to wear the same pair of shoes too close together.  Yes, I do know that I need therapy for my shoe weirdness. :-)