Labor Day Weekend BBQ

So the hubby and I had a party last night.  Originally it was going to be dinner with 2 of our friends, then 4 of our friends....and then there was a facebook e-vite and we ended up with 30.  Can you tell that the hubby is a giant, flaming extrovert?  It was nice, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  The hubby does know how to host a party.  As evidenced by our very frightening fridge:

 

 

Things didn't stay terribly cold because people kept opening the door to look at the perfectly lined up and color-coordinated beverages.

 

So the hubby is OCD and I'm the weird, socially awkward wife who takes pictures of people's feet.

 

 

The front 2 are our neighbors behind us and the shoes in the back are our next door neighbor.  I just loved that they all have gold, shiny shoes on.

 

These were really cute in person, but I didn't photograph them very well.  Very cute sandals, though, I promise.

 

These were adorable and totally went with my outfit, so I spent a good chunk of the evening coveting them.

 

There were other pairs of cute shoes, including another pair of super-adorable wedges, but I felt really weird about asking people.  As I mentioned, I'm socially awkward at parties anyway, and these were all the hubby's friends (who I feel like already think I'm weird due to my career) so I couldn't bring myself to ask anyone else.

 

Fine

OK, so I admit it:  I have too many pairs of shoes.  I haven't counted lately, but it's somewhere around 50, which could be a lot worse, but is definitely a lot of shoes.  I know this because the hubby invited a bunch of people over for a BBQ tonight and we've been cleaning the house.  My shoe rack has long since warped and dropped most of the shoes, so they've just been in a pile on the floor of the guest room closet.  Last night I put them into 2 huge boxes to get them off the floor and into the closet so the door would close.  This is not ideal.  Neither was the huge pile, but that was easier to dig through.  So storage is an issue.  I don't know where to put 50 pairs of shoes.  Oh, there are also 2 under-the-bed containers with my flats.  The closet just has heels and boots.  I guess it's time to purge.  I might have to cry.  I always purge when I move, but it's depressing every time.  Sigh.

 

On a non-shoe related note (because I am now in mourning) on Sunday at church one of my 4th graders gave me this:

 

She made me a wallet.  Out of duct tape.  But not just any duct tape.  No, this is awesome blue duct tape with tie-dyed peace signs on it.  Because she is the coolest kid ever.

 

Several Days in the Making

I have been thinking about writing this post since Saturday, but each day something else has popped up that I wrote about instead.  Apparently our anniversary has yet to be recognized as a national holiday or the shoe calendar would have given us something better:

 

These look lie a woodshop project. Now, there's nothing wrong with experimental shoe projects in woodshop, but considering weekends only get 1 picture, I had to look at this incredibly boring shoe for my entire anniversary weekend.  (I know...don't you just feel sooo bad for me?)

 

 

 

I love these.  I love the bright (mostly) primary colors and the stitching and the general fun nature of this shoe.  Until I realized, wait, is that?  Yes, that is the heel.  That's not just some random empty plastic ribbon spool that they propped the shoe on for artistic purposes.  That's the heel.  And it is ugly.  I want to rip the sandal right off of that thing, and flatten the sandal into a flat.  Then I would be happy.  See how everything is all about me today?

 

 

This is today's shoe, and I like it.  It's from the same time period as the Turkish shoes I posted in a recent handbag post.  I don't like this one quite as well, but I still really like it.  Love the detailing.

 

So, that's one thing accomplished in a very long list of things I am currently behind on.

 



 

Thanks, Hubby!

When I got home from church last night the hubby was all excited and told me he had something for me for the blog.  The hubby doesn't read the blog, so the fact that he found something, and was excited about it was already fun.  He said, "it's not shoes, though, so I don't know if you'll use it."  Are you kidding?  He made an effort and took an interest...it could have been something entirely random and I would have used it.  Turns out, I loved it:

 

Oh man, do I want a pair of these.  I have friends who knit, I'm sure they could whip me up a pair, right?  These totally crack me up.  Whimsical, but disturbing.  I love the little blood drop.  I would totally wear these with a skirt (just not on a day I was with the preschoolers...).  Does this mean I'm also whimsical, but a little disturbed?  Or just plain crazy?

 

I Remembered!

Ha!  I remembered!  It's Handbag Tuesday, actually being brought to you on Tuesday!  Hey, I'll take my accomplishments where I can get them.  Today's number choice comes to us from our fabulous Preschool Director (I asked her to choose a number and she said, "why?" really skeptically.  My poor staff puts up with a lot from me).  Anyhoo, she chose number 65.  You are actually getting pages 64 and 65 since the picture took up both pages.  Woohoo!  2 for 1!

 

This is a beaded Art Deco evening bag from around 1920.  It's pretty.  I like the detailing.  It makes me think of scenes from parties in books like The Great Gatsby.

 

I also have a book called SHOES that sits on my shoe shrine table.  It was a gift for one of my wedding showers last summer.  I figured since I have it and I'm highlighting the Handbags book it might also be fun to show the corresponding page in the shoe book.  Page 65 in shoes does NOT go with page 65 in handbags (not that I really expected it to).

 

 

If  you can read it, the top of the page says The "Invisible" Sandal. I have to say, I'm not terribly impressed.  See-through shoes like this tend to put me in mind of strippers.

 

So there you have it...from glamorous handbag to stripper shoes!

 

 

Blast From The Past

I wrote about my Birkenstock phase recently.  Then as I was going through some pictures this past weekend I found this:

 

I think I was about 19 in this picture.  Maybe 20.  I was out with a friend of mine and she took this picture of me showing off my Birks. No idea if there was more of a backstory to this picture, but here you go...proof of my obsession.  I don't usually post pictures with my face in them, but since this one is almost 20 years old I figure it's not bad.  This could almost be anyone.  My mom made the overall shorts that I'm wearing.  I had 2 pairs, and loved them.  Ahhh...the 90s.  I miss overalls.  Of course, I looked an Eastern MT, corn-fed farm girl in them and would look worse in them now, but I loved them.  With hiking boots and flannel shirts. Is it any wonder I didn't get many dates in college?

 

Grave Shoes

I was planning on a different post today until my aunt sent me this:

This is the grave of my first cousin twice removed (my grandmother's cousin), who died recently.  My aunt visited the cemetery today and saw these shoes, filled with flowers, sitting on her grave.  I have to say, as much as I love shoes, I've never thought about this. I find it both endearing and a little odd.  I kind of want to more.  Were these her favorite shoes?  Is this a tradition of some kind for their family?  Was she a shoe fan like me?  I didn't know this cousin, so I might never know the answer to this.  Makes me think I might come by my shoe obsession naturally, though.

 

 

Cute shoes.  I hope no one decides to take them.  That would just be tacky and rude.

 

 

First Anniversary

Today is the hubby's and my first anniversary.  Hard to believe we've been married a year already, the time has gone fast.  A year ago at this time I was getting my hair done in preparation for make-up dress, a million pictures, a worship service, and finally a party.  I have so many great memories of that day.  Some are a little blurry, so thank goodness for pictures and an awesome wedding video!  It was so amazing to be surrounded by family and friends.  We each had 6 attendants (I wanted 3, the hubby wanted 10...we compromised at 6).  All of my nieces took part in the wedding, and all were incredibly gorgeous.   My sister was my matron of honor.  My aunt and best friend were bridesmaids, along with the hubby's cousin.  Said cousin is a body builder and hence in incredible shape and beautiful as hell.  We had 3 pastors do our wedding.  Yes, I know this is overkill, but I have LOTS of friends who are pastors (in fact, we had 7 pastors + 2 more almost-pastors in attendance, and several more were invited but couldn't make it), and I couldn't choose between the 3 of them.  So we had the BSF, my other seminary roommate, and the third who was my friend first in seminary and then during my first call in Montana.  We got married in my hometown in Montana and the day and the weather were absolutely perfect.  I can't thank my family again for all of the work they did to help us make the day what it was.  In addition to the pastors, I had friends do my hair, do the wedding video, read the lessons and be our accompanist.  I really loved having so many people I love be so intimately involved in the process.  If I had known I was going to be starting this blog I would have taken more shoe pictures, but here are a few.

 

 

My rehearsal shoes.  Loved them.  My dress was a really pretty blue, but kind of plain, so the shoes brightened things up.

My awesome pastors and our awesome shoes.  I am so very blessed to have these 3 women in my life.  It was worth the seminary debt just to meet them.

 

Our photographer took this while we were walking to take more pictures.  I love the pops of blue.  My sash was really pretty, with amazing detail that you can only partially see.  The shoes I basically created by choosing the style, dying them to match the shoes, and buying shoe clips to add some sparkle and fun.

I guess it's time to get back to the day.  We are already an old married couple as we spent the morning with me working on my sermon and the hubby doing his fantasy football draft.  So romantical!

 

 

 

Mmmmm...Chocolate

A friend of mine posted this on my facebook wall this morning.

By this logic I eat a lot of salad.  Actually I do tend to eat a lot of actual salad, but I'm liking this concept better.  If only chocolate were as healthy as salad and didn't make me gain weight.

 

So, chocolate and shoes, 2 of my favorite things.  Did you know there are lots and lots of chocolate shoes out there?  Well there are, and here are some of my favorites:

 

 

Some of these I would totally wear if they were actual shoes.  The problem I have with all of these is that they are chocolate, and chocolate should be eaten. But they are also so pretty, and I feel like they would make lovely additions to my office shoe shrine.  Eat them or look at them?  Although, while I didn't look into it, I fear that chocolate shoes might cost almost as much as actual shoes, so I would probably never buy any.  I would rather buy real shoes.  But if anyone were to ever give me some chocolate shoes, then the dilemma would apply.

 

PS--remember yesterday when I was annoyed with our IT guy?  Last night after I got home I totally figured out how to fix the problem he was so ticked off about.  I am not that techy, and this was a really easy fix.  I'm really not sure what to say about that.

 

What the...?

The calendar gave me this gem this morning:

 

 

The shoe is multi-colored, from the 80s, and may or may not be fine or hideous or blah.  What is up with the angle of the picture, though?  The detailing doesn't seem fabulous to need to be highlighted.  Was the photographer just bored of photographing shoes and wanted a different shot?  I feel like I'm staring at this shoe's butt, and it's a little awkward...

 

Then I went on facebook and SBP presented me with these boots:

 

 

Damn.  I hope these are more pliable than they look, because how would you walk in them?  Although, I do think they would be kind of hilarious under my robes at church. Like a secret.  But then if I wanted to show anyone I would basically have to flash them, and that would lead to all kinds of boundary issues.  So, more awkwardness...

 

In other news, the church's IT guy came today to get my new laptop all set up with the network and wifi and printers, etc.  Pretty sure someone peed in his Cheerios this morning because he was CRANKY.  He actually got annoyed with me and thought I should fix something he couldn't figure out.  Umm...isn't that what we pay him for?  What the heck do I know about it?

 

In other other news, my mom and aunt are visiting cousins in Portland this week.  Which is awesome, and I hope they are having a fabulous time (hi, Mom and Aunt!).  On the other hand, it means my mom's not reading the blog, and since she's almost the only one who ever comments, I am in comment withdrawal.   I wonder if I should see a doctor for that?

 



Handbag Wednesday

OK, OK...clearly I can't seem to remember this on Tuesday.  Maybe I'll switch it to Wednesdays.  Or whenever I remember it.  Today I hit up one of our church members, who was here fixing a broken door.  He chose page 10:

 

This is pre 1890; a Turkish bag made for the European market.  Sadly this was the best of the pictures I took.  A photographer, I am not.  Plus, my phone doesn't always take the best of pictures. Anyway, I like this one.  The detailing is nice.  I did a quick image search for Turkish shoes of about the same time period and found these:

 

 

I love these.  A lot.  I mean, they're blue, so that earns them points right away.  The detailing is beautiful, too.  They don't go with the purse, but I wasn't looking for a matching set.  I would definitely add these to  my imaginary shoe closet.

 



More HP

I know I threw a lot of Harry Potter posts at you in July, but here is another.  I usually reread the series every 12-18 months.  I know...I'm a dork.  This year instead of rereading I'm listening to them on  my ipod in the car while I commute.  I'm currently listening to The Sorcerer's Stone and totally sympathized with Harry while listening on my drive home tonight:

 

"Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment.  If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him," (page 119)

 

I actually had a good day, so this isn't specific to today.  It just struck me that I feel like this quite a bit.  Sometimes I can't think of anything I'm particularly good at, I just feel a little queasy. Like Harry, I always get "sorted" into the right place eventually, but man, did this resonate with me tonight.  So, because of that, you get some more HP shoes.

 

 

 

That last one has nothing to do with the book, but if you are a dork like me, you'll get it!

 

 

 



Not Connected

In my day off productivity today I came across a card from a dear friend of mine from seminary:

 

I don't have the expensive underwear so much, but I love the card, and the part about the fabulous shoes.  And how the girl in the picture just looks so very serious.  This card made me smile when I got in the mail almost a year ago, and it made me smile again today when I found it again.  I have the best friends.

 

On a completely unrelated note, I just like these shoes from SBP today:

 

 

They're sassy and sexy and somehow demure all at the same time.  If I weren't too Norwegian to compliment myself, I'd say that pretty much describes me, as well.  (I AM demure, DAMMIT!)

 

 

Yes, I am a Slacker

It was a busy weekend.  I wore shoes.  I didn't write about them.  There, I said it.  I haven't been keeping up the last few days.  Hopefully the internet has provided you with many many many more things to read.  Today was church, of course, although church with ice cream and a face painter after, so that was fun and different.  I even got my face painted, but I didn't have anyone take a picture of it.  The hubby and I were invited over to our neighbor's house tonight for hors d'oeuvres, which was lovely, and we got to  meet another neighbor (well, I met her, the hubby had already met her, but doesn't know her well).  So it was a good day.  I'm tired now, though...lots of extrovert time this weekend, which always makes me want to hibernate for awhile.  That is much harder to do now that I have a flaming extrovert for a husband.  No matter how sturdy I build the pillow fort, he always manages to find me...

 

Since it's Sunday I decided to do an image shoes for church shoes and mostly what came up were shoes for men.  I have nothing against men's shoes, but what, women don't wear church shoes?  So then I typed in church shoes women and a lot of the pictures still looked like men's shoes.  What the heck?  I also noticed that a lot of the so-called church shoes are of the spectator shoe variety.

 

 

Hmmmm....Maybe I'm doing it wrong?  Nah...clearly my church shoes are the best.

 



Still Waiting for the Third Thing

So Wednesday afternoon my laptop died.  The screen went black and it wouldn't turn on anymore.  Our IT guy basically said I was screwed and to get a new one.  I know, helpful, right?  It's my church laptop (actually the only one I have since my personal one hasn't been used in quite some time due to major issues).  Fortunately I was able to get a new one, but getting the hard drive transferred over turned out to me more of an issue than I ever would have thought.  Is there a special class for computer people to take that teaches them to be that amazingly unhelpful?  So that was the first thing.  Then 2:30 Thursday morning I started throwing up.  I'll spare you the details, but as you can imagine it wasn't fun.  I spent yesterday recovering and trying to get my new laptop up and running with everything I need on it.  So, at the risk of sounding like the dog ate my homework, that's the reason for no post yesterday.  They say things tend to come in threes, so I'm waiting for that 3rd thing to hit.  Unless I can count the fact that 25 hours after I started throwing up the hubby got the bug.  Can I count that if it didn't happen to me?  Maybe I should.  Otherwise, as I posted on facebook yesterday, I'm going to get a helmet and go build a fort out of pillows.  Anyone want to join me?

 

Tonight the hubby (thankfully both feeling mostly better) had a dinner to go to.  It was a nice night, lots of good conversation and laughter.  There was also a 2 1/2 week old baby there.  She was so adorable.  She decided to be fussy right when her mom was trying to eat.  Since I had finished eating and had just washed my hands, I offered to take the baby.  She fussed for about 10 minutes, then snuggled into my shoulder and fell asleep.  Mom said I was the baby whisperer and wouldn't let anyone take her from me since she was so content.  I held that little bundle for probably an hour and a half.  It was heaven.  In honor of the cuteness, I'm posting this picture that I found on Pinterest the other night:

 

 

I can't sew, but surely my mom would make these for any future baby we might have?  Even if it's a boy...? :-P

 

Oh man!  I just realized I lost my shoe picture folder when my laptop died.  Rude.  I realize they're mostly all on the blog, but they were all nicely consolidated in that folder.

 

Handbag Tuesday: Wednesday Edition

It's handbag Tuesday!  And yes, I know it's Wednesday.  I posted about something else yesterday, OK?   So shoot me.  Sheesh...you're so particular.  Anyhoo...today our trusty admin chose the number 13, so here is page 13:

 

It's an embroidered, drawstring bag from 1820.  I don't love it, I don't hate it.  It's kind of leaving me a little meh.  Not it's fault, I'm just not feeling it today.

 

The calendar picture for today, on the other hand...

 

 

Holy insanity, Batman!  My first response was what the hell IS that?  Then I read the blurb and it was described as a "Lady Gaga" boot.  Oh.  Of course it is.  This thing is hideous on so many levels.  I would have to scrub my feet 7 million times after wearing these just to make them feel less icky.

 

 

Lunch Date

A friend of mine took me to lunch today.  (It occurs to me that this friend needs a blog name since I mention her fairly frequently...hey friend...any thoughts?)  This wasn't your typical lunch date, though.  Actually, it was originally just going to be a coffee date, but when she picked me up from at church she had snacks in the car.  We still got coffee, then went to a really lovely and quite spot by the river to eat our lunch.  She was very sweet and brought me all of my favorite fruit AND Reese's peanut butter cups!  She is awesome and we had a really lovely time eating and chatting and watching the river.  It was just what I needed.  I had originally planned on taking a picture of our feet by the beautiful river, but like a dork I forgot.  So I took one the parking lot at church.

 

 

First, this is a terrible picture.  Second, it would have been way more fun down by the river.  Third, even though they look pink here, the friend's toes are orange and the color is called My Chihuahua Bites.  Which is hilarious and perfect, because she has a Chihuahua that bites.  Anyway, today was a reminder that it is good to have good friends who give you river-side lunch dates when you didn't even really know you needed them.

 

Birkenstocks

I've been alluding to my Birkenstock phase for awhile now.  So here's the story: When I was 19 the parents and I took a 3 week trip in which we drove to Washington DC, southern Illinois, and finally TX to visit my aunt.  We decided we needed really good shoes for all the walking we would also be doing, and decided to try Birkenstocks.  (side note:  my dad never goes sock-less so I made him buy short white socks so he wouldn't be wearing socks and black sandals on our vacation)  My first pair looked something like this:

 

Once I got them broken in I loved them and I started wearing them pretty much every day.  I wore them with shorts, jeans, skirts, dresses, you name it.  I took 2 1/2 years off between high school and college and did daycare.  It cools off a lot in MT at night, so in the mornings I would wear shorts, shirt, sweatshirt, Birkenstocks, and socks.  Yep, I was stylin'.  But I loved them.  I loved them so much I almost never wore other shoes.  I went into a shoe rut.  But I didn't have just the one pair.

 

After I got these I found the Papillio line and loved that they were patterned.  I couldn't find the exact pair I had, but these are sort of similar:

 

 

These became my "dressy" Birkenstocks.  After I got these, I became obsessed with getting a pair of slingbacks, and I really really wanted a blue pair:

 

 

I wore these 3 pairs of shoes until they all completely wore out.  In fact, I didn't give the blue pair to Goodwill until last summer (I had pretty much replaced them with my blue Keens, but I was nostalgic and couldn't get rid of them before that).

 

So I was obsessed.  Once I went to college I feel like all I ever wore was Birkenstocks and hiking boots.  I also stopped shaving my legs for about 3 years.  In fact, when my brother got married he had 3 stipulations for me being in the wedding:  I had to shave my legs, wear "normal" shoes, and dye my hair a normal color.  People who know me now probably wouldn't recognize the girl I was in college.  My family probably wishes they could forget her.  The BFF would hopefully just smile with memory.  Sometimes I miss that person.  It was a lot easier.  Although, my hair really did go through some unfortunate color choices.

 

 



The BFF

Today is the birthday of my BFF.  It's sometimes hard for me to believe that we have been friends for 17 years, but other times it feels like we have been friends for much, much longer than that.  We met in college when she was living in the dorm where a friend of mine was her RA.  We both had not-so-great roommates that semester (my 2nd, her 1st) and ended up living together for the spring semester.  We pretty much clicked right from the beginning, sharing a love of movies, The Beatles, Target, and many other things.  We quickly developed our own inside jokes and language about stuff, and right to this day we can set off on a giggle-fest that lasts for hours and completely baffles the people around us.  Sadly we live way too far apart now and I don't get to see her or her son as often as I would like, and I have yet to meet her new husband.  Thank goodness for cell phones and Skype. 

 

This morning I texted her and asked her to send me a picture of her feet.  She and her husband are enjoying a music festival so have been camping this weekend.  So her footwear is appropriate:

 

 

If our feet were the same size I would totally borrow these.  Like I said, these are completely appropriate for what they are doing this weekend, but these are also the BFF's style.  She is much more practical than I when it comes to shoes.  Oh yeah, another thing we had in common was our love of Birkenstocks (don't judge...we went to a liberal arts college in the 90s).  The BFF wears totally cute shoes, but they are much better for her feet than some of the ones I am drawn to.  Anyway, Happy Birthday, to my BFF, my life is so much better with you in it!

 

Nothing

Yesterday I had a decent excuse for not writing.  Not great, but not bad:  I was busy at church during the day helping our admin person clean out closets and office (man, we save some weird stuff in random places), I had a meeting at 3:00, went immediately from there to running errands, then home to get ready for date night.  The hubby and I went to see The King and I and it was fabulous!  So much fun.  It was theater in the round, so I'm always fascinated to see what they do with the sets and entrances, and the directions the actors face, etc. etc. etc. (did you see what I did there?).  It was definitely my favorite of the 3 plays we've seen this summer.  Now I want to go back and watch the movie again.  After the play we stopped by to spend some time with some friends of ours, and by the time we got home it was already today and I'd missed my window.

 

Today's excuse is just plain not writing.  I slept in, we did some housework, had a Big Brother marathon to catch up what was on the DVR (I know...I can't believe I'm watching it either), hung out, and then when the hubby left for the evening I enjoyed some introvert time, did some more housework, putzed around on the internet...basically just not writing.  So.  Here it is.  Today's post.  Which should involve shoes of some sort.  Shoes...hmmmm...It's not like when we saw The Wizard of Oz and I could post about ruby slippers.  The calendar today isn't that spectacular.  SBP isn't doing much for me lately.  In short.  I got nothing.  Aren't you glad I took the time to write today?  But now I feel bad.  I should be able to find  you one picture, right?  I mean, it's a blog about shoes.  What the heck?  Are you even still reading?  Surely you have something much more interesting you could be doing right now?  Fine.  I'll just go randomly google something and post a picture.

 

 

Whew...hopefully we all feel better now.

 

Confused

I know I've lived here for 3 years now so it should be getting better, but the school schedule still confuses me.  School started here on July 26th, which is crazy early.  So school is going, the church preschool started the following week, we are doing all kind of Fall programming stuff at church.  But it's only August 8th.  Some schools don't start for another month.  My brain keeps thinking it's Fall, and then I look at the calendar and remember it's actually Summer.  I read things on Facebook and wonder, why aren't those kids in school?  Oh right...they don't have our crazy early schedule.

 

When I was little we would go back-to-school shopping, which meant several new combinations of outfits for the new year.  My poor mom had to deal with my whiney self, but I loved getting new clothes, and planning which outfit I would wear for the first day of school.  Whenever I ask the nieces what they are wearing for the first day they usually respond that they don't know yet, haven't thought about it.  WHAT???  How can you not have that planned?  Apparently this is just one more example of how I was a weird child.  I can't actually think of any of the outfits that I wore for a first day, but I do know they were awesome and fashionable (at least in my own head).

 

Things I remember about shoes growing up:  When I was getting ready to go into Kindergarten the teacher told me I needed to learn to tie my own shoes.  Apparently I informed her that I needed to do no such thing because I would just wear my buckle shoes.  They would have looked something like this:

 

I generally had a pair of white or black Mary Janes for dress shoes.  Of course, kids now wouldn't have to worry about buckles as they have Velcro.  I remember when Velcro shoes became popular.  They were definitely boxier than they are now.

 

 

But they were oh-so-cool.  No laces!  Cool ripping noise!  The above were not my shoes.  Again, I can't remember exactly what my Velcro shoes might have looked like.  I had a wonderful childhood, and have still managed to block large chunks of it.  I do remember jelly shoes, though!

 

 

I had a purple pair during the phase when purple was my favorite color.  And I think I wore them with purple corduroy pants?  Looking back that seems like an un-seasonal combination, but I was a stubborn kid.  In fact, I think it was a whole purple outfit:  purple jellies, purple corduroy pants, and a purple eyelet shirt that my mom made me.  The shirt was belted, of course.  I'll have to go look and see if I can find a picture of that particular combination.

 

Anyway, whenever you start back to school, I hope you or your kids or nieces or nephews have an outfit already planned.  Oh, and maybe buy some school supplies.  Whatever.

 

 

 

 

Aaaargh

So the crazy stress-related klutziness is happening again, and it seems to be worse than usual.  I have mysterious bruises (nothing new there), and I'm running into and tripping over things as usual, but I'm also back to breaking things.  Last time it was 2 lids and one of the hubby's dishes.  This time I can't even remember what started it, but I broke something (candle holder, maybe?).  A few weeks ago I came home and as I walked into the house a picture fell off the wall, knocked over a vase, which fell on and broke 2 candle holders.  Not my fault that time, but still scared the crap out of me.  On Sunday I picked a basket of fruit up off the table and managed to knock another 2 candle holders off so they shattered.  This morning I was cleaning the kitchen, picked up a pitcher, and apparently hit a bottle without meaning to.  I swear I didn't touch the damn thing, but down it went.  I think there's one more incident, but now I can't remember.  Apparently they're all blurring together and I'm blocking them.  I have swept up so much glass since moving into this house, it's not even funny.  I sweep and sweep and sweep and sweep some more, but I still find it every time I turn around.  If you ever come over please leave your shoes on so you don't cut your feet.

 

After my grumpy morning of sweeping glass I went to look at the calendar for today.

 

 

This picture elicited a series of thoughts:  "Ooooh....green!  I know someone who would love this color!"  "These are hideous.  Hate the heel, hate the vinyl."  And then I looked at the date (1968) and immediately started picturing outfits.  Maybe something along these lines.

 

 

I can't get that top one to rotate.  Just turn  your head to the side.  After picturing the boots with possible outfits, then I decided that yes, of course I would put these in my imaginary shoe closet, in the 60s wing.  I'd also put that 2nd outfit in there.  Totally retro and cute.



 

Handbag Tuesday

Remember way back when I got this book from one of my Arts Camp volunteers?

 

If not, don't feel bad.  It took me forever to find the original post because I couldn't for the life of me remember when I had written it.  Anyhoo, when I got the book I said I would occasionally post from it for a bit of a change of pace.  That was over 4 months ago and I haven't done it yet.  Today I am remedying that with Handbag Tuesday.  It kind of stinks that there isn't a day of the week that starts with H so I could have alliteration, but whatever.  Tuesday is just arbitrary.  I won't necessarily do this every Tuesday, but hopefully I'll do it again before another 4 months pass.  As part of the process I popped into the front office and asked our admin person to choose a number between 10 and 439.  She totally thinks I'm weird(er) now, but she was awesome and threw out 368.  Here is page 368:

 

 

This is a "tapestry and sculpted chenille bag with satin lining" from the 60s.  I'm not mad at it or anything, but it's not a purse I would choose for myself. 

 

Since this is a blog about shoes, I then went and did an image search for tapestry shoes.  There are so very many; you should definitely go check out the wider selection.

 

 

I just can't with these.  Holy cow, my eyes.  Don't get me wrong, I loved me a good tapestry vest as much as the next person in the 90s, but these shoes are a new level of crazy.  Especially that last picture.  How many cat tapestries had to die to make those ugly-ass boots?

 

Thank you to my fabulous front-office lady for helping me try something new today.  Next time try to pick a page number that doesn't lead to me needing to scrub my inner eye with a louffa... :-P