New Year's Eve

Wow, the last day of 2013!  I can't lie, I won't be too terribly disappointed to see this year go.  There have been some definite high points, but it was also a year with too  many low points.  I'm ready for something new!  The calendar is being celebratory about the last day:

Sparkles?  Awesome!  Everything else?  Not so much!  WHAT is going on here, and WHY do they need to be peep toe?  Maybe they're cuter from the front?  Somehow I'm guessing no...

THIS is more of what I would have gone with.  Silver sparkles make me think New Year's, but these are just simple and pretty.  We don't need all of the WTH-ness of the calendar shoes.

New Year's Eve is also the 7th day of Christmas.  7 swans a-swimming:

Awwww....look at em swimming.

The Pinterest Friend sent me this.  It's...something.  Again, I must ask why some shoes are created and thought to be a good idea.

These are a *tiny* bit better?  OK,  not really.  These are stripper clogs with swans painted on them.

These aren't technically Christmas socks.  I know.  But I don't have 12 pairs of actual Christmas socks, so I'm trying to stretch things out here.

Happy New Year's!  Have fun!  Be safe!  Don't make resolutions that will only end up making you feel guilty!

Happy Anniversary!!

I can hardly believe it, but 1 year ago today I wrote my first post for this blog.  And now here we are, 365 days and 356 posts (357 counting this one) later.  The calendar cooperated with some really cute shoes:

I have no idea what color these are.  In some lights they look blue and in others they look purple.  Here they are blue, almost black.  But, whatever color, they are definitely festive and celebratory for the anniversary!

The first anniversary is paper, so here are some paper shoes to continue the celebration:

 Fun!  Not for wearing, but shoes that look like origami are definitely cute decorations of some sort.

Oooooh....pretty.  I like them.  I have no idea really why you would make paper shoes, but I'm glad someone did so I could put them in this post!  And there are lots more if you want to go check them out.

Ooookay...it's also the 6th day of Christmas!

Which means 6 geese a-laying.  The Pinterest friend sent me this:

Man, I don't get this.  Why does this goose have shoes?  Soooo many questions.

And yes, you've already seen these this year, but it's the 12 days of Christmas, and I'm wearing all of my Christmas socks.  Yay snowmen!  And Christmas!  And blogiversaries!

5th Day of Christmas

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 GOOOOOLD RIIIIINGS!  Ba dum bum bum!

 

 

Did you know that I have an assistant?  OK, not really, but the Pinterest friend is at it again, this time finding me stuff for my 12 days of Christmas posts:

 

 

It's not gold, but it's a shoe ring!  Man, this thing would stick really far above your finger.  You could totally clock someone with it.  But that would be wrong.

 

 

It's not 5 golden rings, either, but it is a gold, shoe key ring.  It's cute, too.  I'd use this key chain.

 

 

My back is still bugging me (grrrr) so I knew I wasn't going to wear heels today for church.  The Bean borrowed my saddle shoes for Halloween, and mom just sent them back with our Christmas gifts.  I saw them in the box last night and thought, huh...I'm going to wear those to church today!  I probably looked like I was wearing bowling shoes with my clerical and dress, but I don't care.  Lots of people still said they were cute.  I shall believe them and ignore any other opinion (sorry, mom).

 

After church I changed into the day's Christmas socks:

 

 

These are from the preschool director, either last year or the year before.  She has the same pair, so we are sock twins.  I love the polka dots.

 

I don't wear gold jewelry, so don't need 5 gold rings.  For this 5th day of Christmas I am "watching" football with the hubby.  Hope you're doing something fun!

 

 



 

4th Day of Christmas

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:  4 calling birds.  I couldn't find anything that tied 4 calling birds and shoes together, so I had to punt today:

 

Awwww....kiddo shoes with birdies.

 

No shoes, but this is adorable.  I think it's a card?  If all 12 days are this cute, I would definitely buy this set of cards.

 

I got these last year, but can't remember who gave them to me.  SKD says it wasn't her.  Maybe the preschool director?  She's good about socks, too.  They say Merry, in case you can't tell from the angle and the distortion from my chubby calves.

 

 

I've made all of the nieces afghans, so this year I thought I'd make them for Tink and Pippi.  This one is Tink's.

 

And this is Pippi's.  The photos don't really do them justice to the fun colors of the yarn.  I thought they turned out pretty well.  Hopefully they get lots of snuggling out of them.

 

Today was lovely.  My back is still bugging me, but the hubby and I had a really nice, relaxing day.  Of course, this is perfect for me, while driving his extroverted self crazy.  We have issues in this area.

 

3rd Day of Christmas

I forgot to mention yesterday what a delightfully relaxing day it was.  I got to sleep in!  The hubby and I went to lunch, but other than that we didn't do much, just hung out together and watched a little TV.  I crocheted 2 projects, but other than that, didn't really accomplish anything.  Partly it's because I woke up with my back spasming so I spent a lot of the day with the heating pad.  It was pretty good when I went to bed last night, but bad again this morning. I'm currently hanging out at church with my friend the heating pad.  The hubby says I'm going to slowly cook my flesh off, but I kinda like it.

 

So, today is the 3rd day of Christmas, which means 3 French Hens:

 

 

Clearly this hen is French because she is wearing a beret.  And saying Oh la la.  Fancy Nancy would approve, I think.  I also think her little shoes are cute.

 

The shoes don't do much for me, but the chickens crack me up.  I'm easily amused.

 

 

For the 3rd day of Christmas I am wearing another pair of socks from SKD.  These were a set with yesterday's pair.  Technically they are both winter socks rather than specifically Christmas socks, which I like, because it means I can wear them longer.  But since I don't think I have 12 days worth of Christmas socks, they will be included.

 

 

The nieces got hats, the staff got cup cozies and matching washcloths. It was kind of a random present, but I thought they turned out fairly cute.  My grandmother always made washcloths like this (although she could knit and I can't), and they are my favorite kind.  The hubby thought I was insane for giving these as gifts.  Oh well.  I made a couple of washcloths for my mom about 10 years ago since the ones my grandma had made were starting to get a little ratty.  She decided they were too pretty to use, though.  She says she's saving them for "when the queen comes to visit."  I keep telling her I will make her more when those wear out, but they were still in that drawer, unused, last time I looked.  Silly mom.

 

 

 

2nd Day of Christmas

A lot of people think the 12 days of Christmas refer to the 12 days leading up to Christmas, but Christmas is actually a liturgical season that starts on December and goes until January 5th.  January 6th is Epiphany, which is when we celebrate the arrival of the wisemen visiting the baby Jesus.  So, the secular world might be done with Christmas, but we here at Shoetopia have another 11 days to enjoy.  The 2nd day present is 2 turtledoves.  (I really don't want any of the 12 days offerings, but the song is still fun).

 

 

The shoes are "turtle" dove gray.  Clever!  And fairly cute as far as shoes are concerned.  I like the card above, too.  Like the color combination, although the turtledoves look more like crows for some reason.

 

12 days of Christmas also means more time to wear Christmas socks.  SKD gave these to me for Christmas this year.  I love snowmen...

 

Now that the day of Christmas is over, I can post some of the crocheting I did this year.  These are 5 of the 8 hats I made.  For some reason, I didn't take pictures of the other 3, which is weird.  These are the hats I made for the nieces.  They turned out cute, I thought.  Dad sent me pictures today of the present opening yesterday, and it looks like none of the hats really fit very well.  Sigh.  I tried.

 

Enjoy your day of turtledoves!

 

Merry Christmas!

Aaaah....it feels nice to be done with the Christmas church stuff.  Since Friday I've had 7 services and done 4 sermons, plus other, non-church stuff.  Last night we had 3 different church services, so I thought, what the heck, I'm going to wear a different pair of shoes to each service.

 

 

I wore these for the first service, which is the family service, and has a lot of kiddos.  These might be my favorite shoes that I currently own, and they strike me as whimsical.  So, since I was doing  a puppet show as the gospel reading and sermon, whimsical seemed the way to go.

 

 

2nd service lessons and carols and is much quieter and calmer than the family service.  These seemed like a nice choice for that atmosphere.

 

 

For the 11:00 service?  The one that goes all the way to midnight and Christmas itself?  Well, gold sparkles of course!  And, these go  best with the white and gold paraments.

 

 

 

I was at church all day before the services, so I was wearing practical shoes and Christmas socks.  I think these are awesome.  Red and green snow flakes, stripes, and possibly poinsettias!

 

 

 

I also preached this morning.  I was tired, so went with low-heeled, but festive red boots...

 

 

...with blue Christmas socks.  The preschoolers gave these to me on Friday, and I think they're adorable.

 

Merry Christmas!  I'm going to watch The Sound of Music and then sleep and sleep and sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve!  I've been at church for 10 1/2 hours so far today, with another 4 or so to go.  We'll get back to shoes tomorrow, but for tonight.  We celebrate God's light coming into our darkness:

 

 

I now have to get back to finishing tomorrow morning's sermon (and tracking Santa on Google) before the 11:00 service.  May your Christmas be blessed!

 

Nutcracker

The hubby and I went to see The Nutcracker at the Sacramento Ballet today.  It was beautiful and I'm so glad we went.  We had total nosebleed seats, only one row higher than us, but it was still so much fun.  It was the last show of the season, and a matinee, and there were lots of families there.  I loved seeing all of the little girls in their fancy dresses and sparkly shoes.  It was a fairly awesome day all around.  Here are some shoes inspired from the day:

 

 

Yowza.  The detail is incredible, but these are not my first choice in holiday-themed shoes.

 

Artsy.  The nutcracker's hair cracks me up.  So fluffy!

 

No idea if these last 2 have anything to do with The Nutcracker, but I don't care because they are so very pretty.

 

The Nutcracker reminds me of 2 things (well, probably more, but 2 for now):  First, my brother loves nutcrackers and has over a hundred of them.  Or more?  Second, the ballet reminds me how uncoordinated and not graceful I am.  I love watching the dancers, they are so amazing.  I would love to be that graceful.  Toe shoes would definitely make me fall on my face.

 

Advent 4

Sigh...today was the last Sunday of Advent, which means another 11 months until I get my favorite blue season back.  It also means that Christmas is right around the corner.  Eek!  Here are the last of the 4 Advent shoes:

 

I actually only wore these for the first service because I just wasn't feeling the heels this morning (I know...who AM I?)  I love the 2 shades of blue on these, and the strap across the foot.

 

The BSF gave these to me for Christmas this year.  Blue AND dragonflies.  She is awesome.

 

This is the scarf she gave me for Christmas 3 years ago (I think).  Did I mention she is awesome?

 

I preached today and taught Sunday School.  Tonight the hubby and I did night 2 of driving around and looking at Christmas lights.  One house was my absolute favorite, and the crazy people invited us in for a tour of the inside!  I think the hubby might be in love a little bit.  He was definitely coveting their decorations.  To be honest, I was coveting their amazing nativity myself.  Most of the big light houses are way too over the top for me.  I like a little more simplicity in my decorations.  Now I must finish laundry and go to bed.  Such is my exciting life.

Boots Sighting

I saw peep toe boots out in the wild today.  They are just as ugly in person as they were in the pictures.  And the BSF made a good point:  generally you want to wear socks with boots for comfort issues (and sweating).  So you go barefoot?  Or you cut the toes out of your socks?  So weird. 

 

The BSF and I had lunch together today.  Yay!  We met halfway, had lunch, had a walk, had coffee (tea in my case), and went our separate ways.  I hadn't seen her in forever, so it was great to catch up.  I probably should have stayed home and finished tomorrow's sermon, but a girl needs some BSF time in the midst of Christmas craziness.

 

In honor of the ugly boot sighting, and because Christmas just keeps barreling ever closer, Christmas boots:

 

 

I like boots.  I like candy canes.  Ergo, these are cute.

 

These are not.  These are insanely hideously ugly.

 

What is it about the fur that makes these look slutty?

 

Way too much going on here.  Yikes.  But hey, they aren't peep toe...

 

Cute.  I don't thin I could pull these off, but I still think they are cute.

 

Sadly, that sermons isn't going to write itself, so I'd better go finish it.  OR I could take a nap...