Happy Halloween!

Lots of pictures tonight as it has been a very busy day.  Have fun scrolling through the Halloween awesomeness!

 

Tuesday's Halloween socks

 

Wednesday's Halloween socks

 

Today's Halloween socks.

 

 

The Bean's awesome poodle skirt with her auntie's awesome saddle shoes.

 

 

 

Selections from today's SBP offerings.

 

 

Even the shoe calendar got into the spirit (the buckles are skulls...not sure if you can tell from the picture)

 

 

 

My car at the church's Trunk or Treat event.  I can't lie, it turned out pretty awesome.

 

 

Darth Pedro

 

It was definitely a Star Wars theme at our house tonight.

 

Hope your Halloween was fun, involved the candy/treat of your choice, and came with awesome footwear!

 

 

 

 

Gold and Black

It's Fall!  Fall makes me think of boots!  You already know this if you are a regular reader.  I should link to other boot posts, but...I don't wanna.  I trust in your ability to click on the "boots" label at the bottom if you want to see other posts.  Anyhoo, 2 pictures of boots that have caught my attention this week:

 

 

These were on SBP, and I like them.  They are insane and kind of look like Pirate boots, but I like the side view, and I like the coat/dress/whatever.  I would never wear the boots, let alone the whole outfit, unless it was a costume of some kind.  But I would enjoy the hell out of that costume if I ever had a reason to wear it.

 

These SKD posted on my facebook wall today.  I'm amazed at how much they evoke the top picture for me.  Except that these take the crazy and jump right off the insanity ledge.  All of these weird, hybrid boots just flabbergast me.  Why?   Although it would be kind of fun to wear these under my alb one Sunday just to see what people would say.  But only if someone loaned them to me...and even then I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation as being a wearer of cute shoes.

 

Fall is supposed to mean CUTE boots.  Not CRAZY boot thingies.  Where do I send the memo?

 

Ooops!

First off, thank you to everyone for the encouragement about the 5K.  I'm fairly freaked out about it, especially since you all know about it now, but it definitely feels better with the support.

 

Today for a little frivolity I am heading back to the very neglected shoe and handbag books.  I asked the hubby for a number this morning when I was on the phone with him, and very kindly obliged, but I accidently told him to choose a number between 10 and 500 and the handbag book doesn't actually go up that high.  So of course he chose 500.  Silly brain and it's lack of proper memory of page numbers.  Anyhoo, it turns out page 500 in the shoe book is quite entertaining:

 

I know I've seen this shoe before.  Not sure if I've ever had it on the blog.  We're at almost 300 posts (!) so I can't remember every shoe.  I could go search, but I figure maybe you won't remember all of the shoes, either.  The fact that this is a giraffe shoe is interesting in that there is a riddle thing going around on facebook right now where if you answer the riddle incorrectly you have to change your profile picture to a giraffe for 3 days.  I'm not sure why a giraffe.  Wonder if I could use a giraffe shoe instead?

 

Just so the handbags book wouldn't feel left out, I flipped it open to a random page:

 

 

The picture doesn't really do justice to how cute this purse actually is.  The sequins are actually pink, and the whole thing is a bit shinier in the book.  It's from the 50s.  The imaginary shoe closet definitely needs one of these.

 

 

Corresponding page 349 from the shoe book.  Yawn.   I mean, red and shiny and ankle strap are all good, but this shoe is still kind of blah.  It's from the 70s, so it's perfectly appropriate for the era, but sadly it's also now back in style.  Thankfully we have random giraffe shoes to make our days complete and to make up for blah platforms.

 

 

 

 

We Might Be Crazy

Soooo...the hubby has been trying to get me back to the gym for awhile now.  I've written before about how hard it has been for me the past year or so, with being sick and being on icky prescriptions that make me gain weight.  We've talked before about trying one of those couch to 5K training schedules, and today we decided to register for a 5K, most likely in January, and get our butts in gear.  I've always kind of wanted to be a runner, but have never gotten into it.  I know people who love it.  The few times I've tried it I've had mixed feelings.  I'm putting this out there because I need some accountability.  It helps to have the hubby in this with me, but I figure the more people who can keep me on track, the better.  So you, friends, are my support team.   You know, if you want to be.  These are the shoes I have currently:

 

 

I wish they had more blue, but I like them and think they are bright and fun.  Hopefully the bright colors will give me something fun to look at while I stare grumpily at my feet.  For other sources of inspiration, I looked up some blue running shoes.

 

I love this color combination.

 

These are both fun and weird.

 

I don't think I would buy these, but I'm very drawn to the orange accents for some reason.

 

These are kind of the opposite of the ones I already have.  Strangely enough, even though these have more blue, I like mine better.  For some reason these seem more pink than blue.

 

Well, there's my inspiration.  Now we just have to see if the hubby and I can actually pull this off.

 



 

Reformation Sunday

Today is the day in the Lutheran church when we celebrate Martin Luther and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.  At St. Someone's it also means we are encouraged to wear red and that after church we eat bratwursts and jello.  One of the choir ladies looked at my shoes after 2nd service and, sounding all disappointed, wondered where my fancy shoes were.

 

 

Granted, they aren't my fanciest shoes ever, but come on!  They are shiny red patent leather with cute straps!  I also have a soft place in my heart for these shoes as they are the ones I wore for my ordination.  I wasn't the only one wearing cute read shoes this morning.  I snapped this during lunch after church:

 

 

The wearer is 3 and thought it was absolutely hilarious that I took a picture of her shoes.  She then climbed me like a jungle gym.  She might have had a bit too much sugar.  I think these are adorable.  Not fancy, either, but really cute.  Especially since she was wearing them with a red Elmo shirt.

 

And, just to be thorough for you, o readers, here are some Elmo shoes:

 

 

As  you can imagine, there are a million more out there if you need more of an Elmo fix.  So there you go:  From Martin Luther to Elmo.  Just a typical day here at Shoetopia.

 

 

Preschool Harvest Fest

Today was the annual Halloween celebration for the church preschool.  It's my 4th since starting this call, and it is so much fun to see the kids all dressed up in their costumes. They get to play games, decorate cookies, do crafts, have their faces painted, etc.  The staff does a great job of setting everything up and making sure everyone has a great time.  I never used to really get into Halloween until I started here and started dressing up for the Harvest Fest.  My first year I was a go-go dancer (sort of) and had awesome white boots.  The 2nd year I went the poodle skirt route (yaaaay saddle shoes!).  Last year I had a Renaissance dress.  This year I went as a flapper:

 

 

This is the dress, although the I didn't accessorize quite the same.  I even already owned the perfect shoes for the occasion:

 

 

I bought these a few years ago for a wedding. You can tell they aren't new by the lovely marks on the side of the heel.  Anyway, I knew I had cute burgundy t-straps so I got a black dress and a burgundy boa.  The boa turned out to be more purple, but oh well.  At least I have another year to figure out the next costume.  Or I could just go back to the poodle skirt; as long as The Bean sends me back the saddle shoes...

 

 

Why???

I was just going to go to bed and not post tonight as I have both too much I could type, and also no good words or ideas for an entry.  Then I checked my e-mail one last time and found this:

 

WHY????  Please, someone tell me why this is necessary. Is it a Pinterest project gone horribly wrong?  I'm all for recycling, but come on, people.  This is just ridonkulous.  I might even have nightmares.

Wait...You DON'T Dress Your Bear Up For Halloween?

Pedro's Halloween costume came in the mail today!  So...it's a long story, many of you know it, but the hubby and I have a bear named Pedro.  We started taking silly pictures of Pedro and sending them to each other.  Then, when I proposed to the hubby, Pedro helped me write a book about our relationship from his (Pedro's) perspective.  He has also written a book about our wedding and another about our first year married.  Some people have kids, we have a bear.  A bear for whom I buy outfits.  Last year Pedro channeled my Scottish ancestry for Halloween:

 

 

This year Pedro is going the superhero route.  He's...Batbear!

 

 

I of course had to put his outfit on him as soon as it came in the mail today.  And he's just so stinkin' cute that I then had to post the picture on Facebook and blog about him.  Yes, I need therapy.

 

OK, off of my Pedro obsession and on to my shoe obsession.  In honor of Batbear:

 

 

 

I think the hubby and I need to get us some Batman shoes so we can take our bear out trick-or-treating.  Then the men in white coats will come and take us away...

 

 

 

I Can't Believe They Didn't Ask Me To Do The Christening

I have a voice today for the first time in 3 days.  It's not terribly strong, but at least it's there.  Yesterday was the worst, with me only being able to speak in a whisper for most of the day.  Of course, now I'm coughing delightful, yellow stuff out of my lungs; I kind of think I might prefer the voicelessness.  Today was a day of meetings, worship, and office cleaning.  I got other stuff done, too, I think, but for some reason it's kind of a blur.  My office is still pretty much a disaster, but I'm starting to make some headway into the mess left over from camp and then being gone for most of last week.

 

One fun thing I did today was to look at pictures from the christening of HRH Prince George.

 

Source

 

How adorable are those cheeks?  I just want to squish them!  He seems supremely bored with the whole thing in all of the pictures I saw, which just made him more adorable.

 

I've done baptism shoes on here before, but in honor of little Prince Chubby Cheeks, here are some "boy" baptism shoes:

 

 

The prince's christening gown was too long to know if he was even wearing shoes, which is too bad, because random Lutheran Pastor Shoe Bloggers want to know...

 

 

Book 6

I started listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Sunday.

 

 

One advantage to being lost is that I got extra listening time in.  The problem with being on book 6 of 7 is that I now don't want to only listen in the car.  I want to listen when I should be working.  I always get this way toward the end of the series:  I want to find out how it ends (as though it will end differently than the first million read-throughs), but I also know I will be all sad and bereft when I am done.  Thankfully this isn't a graded paper, because I can't come up with a decent transition between the book cover and the shoes, so I'm just going to tell you I'm transitioning and show you the shoes:

 

 

There.  Now you've seen the shoes.  Which should look entirely familiar if you spent even a tiny bit of time looking at the book cover.

 

Harry Potter, as I've mentioned before, has been my car book for the last couple of months.  I also have several other books in the mix as well:

 

 

I've been reading this one on my phone.  It's the book I read when I am waiting for stuff.  This one happens to be number 5 in a series that apparently will never ever end.  There are currently 7, with an 8th one coming out in March.  It was supposed to be done 1 or 2 books ago, but the bloody woman keeps writing.  I'd just give up, but it's been a 20 year commitment and I want some closure.  I am trying to reread them before the next one comes out because at almost a thousand pages a book, it's hard to keep the details straight.  I'm not going to make it if I only read it in small snatches, though.

 

 

This is also on my phone.  I read it when I just can't do the other one.  I've been slogging away at The Fiery Cross fairly well lately, but it's nice to have a back-up waiting book.

 

 

I should actually be done with this one by now, but I've been busy and tired and haven't been reading as much before I go to bed as usual. This is the book I read at home, usually at bedtime, but whenever else I can sneak in a few pages as well.

 

 

This is technically on hold until I finish House of Hades, but I'm in the process of reading it, so I'll count it as another back-up. 

 

I'm guessing you don't really care what I'm reading, but it's my blog, so I'll blather about whatever I want.  And, just to bring the blog full-circle and back to Harry Potter, I will leave you with this:

 

 

And also this:  If I could just get a paycheck and benefits for reading whatever and whenever I want, that would be fan-freaking-tastic.