Is It Too Late For an Apology?

These are from the 80s, and remind me of a pair my sister had when she was in High School.  They didn't have the cutouts or the snakeskin, so they weren't exactly the same, but they still remind me of her boots.  She had this yellow outfit that she often wore them with:  yellow slacks; belted, plaid (I think?) yellow shirt; with the pants tucked into the boots, of course.  I thought it was the coolest outfit, and was totally jealous of her.  We are 6 1/2 years apart, so I had major sister envy.  One day I borrowed the outfit.  Without asking.  And I spilled something red on it.  Of course.  Thankfully my mom helped me get the stain out, and I returned it to my sister's closet.  I'm not sure if I ever told her, or if my mom ever told her, but it was wrong on all kinds of levels.  So, is it too late to apologize?  Hey, seester, I am really sorry I was a crap little sister in so very many ways.  I'll try to apologize for everything else later, but today I apologize for borrowing stuff without asking, and always spilling something on that stuff.  Thanks for being an awesome big sister and putting up with me for so long!

20 Years???

Today is the 20th anniversary of my high school graduation.  I knew it was Memorial Day weekend, because it always is, but couldn't remember the date.  So I dug out my diploma, which just said, "this MONTH of May."  How is that helpful?  Although, a friend of ours graduated this past Sunday and her diploma said 2008.  Way to go administration...nice proof reading!  My 8th grade diploma had a date, but that wasn't helpful, either.  I used to be totally anal about writing dates on the backs of pictures, but apparently not for graduation pictures.  I finally found a little laminated card that the bank gave us (why do I save this stuff??) that had the date of May 30th on it.  So I'm going with that.  I have no picture of my shoes from that day.  My mom looked for pictures (hi, Mom!) and couldn't find any with my feet in them.  She sent me a text saying apparently I graduated without feet. :-)  I remember it was really hot that day, so I know I was wearing sandals of some kind, but other than that I got nothing.  Clearly I was not obsessed with my footwear at the time.  Actually that makes sense as I went from wearing lots of different shoes with different outfits in high school to basically wearing nothing but Birkenstocks and hiking boots.  The mind boggles, doesn't it?  Apparently the calendar knew about the anniversary, as today's picture is from the 90s:

 

 

These aren't jumping off the page and screaming at me in joy or anything, but they are cute enough.  I definitely like a cute t-strap, and red is always fun.  They're Louboutin though, which means I would never ever be able to afford them.  Oh well...I shall now go back to contemplating how it could be 20 years since High School.  Not that I want to go back there, but it doesn't seem quite possible to have been that long.

 

Another Awesome Acolyte

The acolyte at our 5:30 service tonight came straight from riding, and hence was wearing these:

I wanted to get a picture while she was wearing her robe, but I wasn't quick enough.  I thought these were awesome under her robe.  I'm not sure her mother was as impressed with her acolyting in boots that have recently been cavorting in horse poo...

 

Easter Shoes (Even Though it's Nowhere Near Easter)

Many days I have no idea what I'm going to write about on here.  Today is one of them.  The calendar shoe is fine, but I don't feel like writing about it.  I searched a few options, and nothing jumped out at me, either.  Then I started going through the shoe folder in my pictures file to see if there was anything I hadn't used yet and I found these:

 

 

They're from Easter several years ago.  2007, maybe?  I was home, so I think it must have been pre-ordination.  Which just goes to shoe I've been photographing my shoes for awhile now.  I'm not even sure when it started.  The top picture is me and Flower and the bottom is me and my sister.  My shoes were really comfortable and even had a matching purse that went with them.  I no longer have them, though.  They were the victims of one of my many pre-moving purges.  My shoe collection is pretty much in constant rotation, which is why I only ever buy fairly inexpensive shoes.  Except for my day-to-day shoes where I want really good arch support, I never spend much on shoes so that I can a.) buy more, and b.) not feel terribly guilty when I give them to Goodwill after several years.

 

PS--I love that Flower is holding her dress up in her picture...just to make sure we can see her shoes!





They're Colorful?

These are painted silk and I love all of the colors, but once again they are a shoe with an identity problem.  They're a peep toe sandal trying to be a bootie.  Or a bootie that they ran out of material on so they just left a big gap in the middle of it.  I don't know.  We'll go with the positive:  I like the colors.  Now I have to go pick the hubby up at the airport.

Another Good Day

Today was nice.  I was solo at church since the senior pastor took a vacation day.  I got to baptize an adorable baby.  She cried when I poured the water on her head, but then we snuggled, so maybe I'm forgiven.  After church I met a friend from seminary who is visiting from Colorado.  The BSF was also able to join us, so I had 2/3 of my wedding pastors in one place!  Yay.  If we could have made it 3 for 3 it would have been even more awesome, but I don't think the 3rd would have been willing to drive down from Washington.  Bummer.  I was going to take a picture of our feet because we were all coordinating with blue somehow.  The BSF  had on blue flip flops, DKA had black sandals with blue toenails, and I had blue sandals AND blue toenails.  But we all know I have a small addiction to blue.  It's just small, though.  I can stop any time I want!  I also forgot to take a picture of our heads.  Dang, I hate it when I don't document stuff.  I love pictures.  Maybe too much.  Maybe as much as blue.  Anyway, setting my weird addictions and my increasingly bad memory aside, here are my feet:

 

 

These are the other shoes I got on major sale the other day (along with the lime green ones).  I love sales.  So, I was wearing these shoes this morning before church for the running around portion of my morning.  I started worship, and it wasn't until I was starting the sermon and about to kick off my heels when I realized I'd forgotten (uh oh, memory again) to put on the heels.  I had multiple people comment on my lack of "fun" shoes after church.  Seriously, I should be able to write them off on my taxes with as much as my congregation gets invested in the silly things!



Whew!

I had turned my computer off and was getting ready for bed when I realized I hadn't even thought about posting today.  It wasn't a hectic day or anything, I apparently just spaced it.  Actually, it was quite a lovely day.  A friend and I went to the farmers' market this morning, and then spent time in our lovely backyard.  After she left I had a nap, did some housework, and finished my sermon.  So now I'm slipping this in with almost an hour to spare!  So, to the calendar:

 

 

After really liking the 2 days before, I was less impressed with these.  I'm not mad at them or anything, I actually think they're cute, mostly.  I just don't like the handkerchief part for some reason.  Not even really sure why.

 

Also not my favorite, although I like where they were going.  I don't like the platform on this particular shoe.  I do like that it's a spectator pump, though, and I like the pop of color with the yellow.

 

These are just ugly.  Apparently the camera thought so too, because this was the best of the 3 pictures I took.  These are from the 30s again, and I like that it looks like a mandarin collar.  Unfortunately the cuteness of the idea is ruined by the clunkiness of the overall shoe, and the horrible rubber soles.  Unless it's The Beatles' Rubber Soul, I guess I'm just not interested...

 

Adorableness

As promised, here are shoes from yesterday's preschool graduation, in which I first played the part of the pastor, and then played the role of the weird adult who takes pictures of kids' shoes.

 

They're blue, so of course I love them.  They were paired with an equally adorable blue and white dress.  Also, sparkles!

 

Yep.  Those are John Deere Boots.  How awesome is that?



 

Little sister wanted me to take a picture of her boots, too.  How can I say no to adorable red boots and the adorable toddler wearing them?

 

Middle sister wasn't wearing boots, but she wasn't going to be left out of the action.  I love these 3.  They are so sweet.  They are the same sisters from the last picture from Hawaiian Day, and there middle sister is wearing pink boots.  I kind of want to adopt all three of them.

 

Who Can Compete with Preschool Cuteness?

Today was preschool graduation.  We have 32 students who are transitioning to kindergarten next year, so we had a celebration in the fellowship hall.  They were so adorable in their mortar boards and dress clothes.  I have some pictures of cute shoes, too, but they will have to wait until tomorrow.  For now you can see the shoes that I wore, as they are they only ones I've uploaded so far.

 

I was dressed neck to ankle today in black, so I thought a nice pop of lime green would be fun.  I found these shoes recently on an extremely good sale and thought they were cute and different.  Not as cute as the kiddos, but not much is.

 

2 in a Row

While these are completely different than today's calendar selection, my reaction is the same:  Love.  These are from the 30s, but with the right outfit (I'm thinking pencil skirt), I would totally wear them.  I think they are adorable.

Love

I love these.  They are a brighter green in real life that I am sad didn't show up well in the picture.  They look insanely uncomfortable.  Even with the platform they still look really high and like the angle between heel and toes is not good.  Still, I'd at least try them on.

 

 I decided to look them up to see how much they were.  Surprisingly they were "only" $260.  This is insanely high in my book, but compared to some of the other shoes I've looked up from the calendar this is relatively cheap.  So I might try them on, but I definitely wouldn't buy them.

Nothing Deep

It's Monday, my day off, so I spent the day doing laundry, running errands, paying bills, etc.  Apparently in the midst of my productivity I pretty much spaced today's post.  So here it is, but I'm not feeling terribly inspired.

 

This is a shoe with an identity crisis.  It's a peep-toe pump that wants to be a bootie.  I'm not terribly impressed by any of it.  Not a fan of animal print, and I have my own identity issues, I don't need my footwear to be confused as well.  There you go.  Nothing deep because I'm tired and I'm off to bed.

 

Pentecost

Today is Pentecost in the church calendar.  It's the day we celebrate the "birthday" of the church.  It's the day, 50 days after Easter (hence the penta), that the Holy Spirit came to the disciples, and to us.  Last year I set the baptismal fount on fire.  Don't worry, it was on purpose!  And it was awesome.

 

With my Swiss Cheese brain, I totally forgot I did it until this morning.  Not that I necessarily would have repeated it, but I can't believe I spaced it out.

 

Anyway, the color of Pentecost, as you can see above, is red.   Which means I get to break out my ordination shoes for the occasion.  I asked the acolyte (also the Sr. Pastor's daughter) to take a picture.

 



 

I love it.  She set the camera right smack on the floor for the shot.  Cracks me up.

 

 

The Sr. Pastor is no fun and won't let us buy him red, shiny shoes for Pentecost, but at least he wore fun red socks.

 

Even the shoe calendar got into the spirit today.

 

 

I'm sure it's just coincidence, but I like that they are red.  They are from Europe, around 1850, which is cool.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go research mid-19th Century outfits to go with these boots, and then maybe find something to set on fire.



 

So Very Many Shoes

I had a meeting at the church this morning at 8:30.  It was early on a Saturday, and my brain was less engaged for the getting dressed process.  I decided to wear a dress because it was comfortable and I didn't have to iron it.  Then there was the matter of shoes.  My flowered sandals would have gone nicely, and I have worn them before with this dress, but I wasn't in the mood to put up with the thing between my toes.  So I went with these:

 

 

I've had them forever, they are comfy, they are cute and casual.  They don't really go with the dress, though, I just chose them as the best option for my parameters today.  And therein lies the beauty and the annoyance of shoes:  There are just so darn many of them.  I kept thinking how cute a pair of coral, navy, turquoise, or green sandals would look with this dress.  I have none of those.  And truthfully, I don't really NEED any of them, either.  I'm not going to buy a pair of shoes for every possible outfit or color combination  Sometimes, though, I have an image in my head of the perfect shoe I want for an outfit, and it kind of sucks when that shoe isn't in my closet.  Now I just need a Star Trek replicator that will produce that shoe on demand.

Syttende My Ordination

Yeah, OK, the title of this post is an extremely bad pun.  Today is Syttende Mai, or Norwegian Constitution Day.  I am Norwegian on my mom's side, but we didn't acknowledge this day in any way growing up, and I really didn't know much about it until I set my ordination date for May 17 and got inundated by comments from Norwegian friends.  Today is the 5th anniversary of my ordination.  Because the BSF is awesome, and because I had a shoe thing even then, she took this picture on the day of my ordination:

 

I was doing some kind of foot twirly thing.  Who knows why.  I love that skirt.  I can't remember whose feet are next to mine in the black sandals.  It was an awesome day, but a lot of it is a bit of a blur.

 

Now for the other part of this day.  Here are some Norwegian-inspired, Norwegian-adjacent, and maybe even actual Norwegian shoes.  Or not.

 



 

Ooooh, Fun!

A friend of mine has a daughter who is graduating from High School this month.  (I haven't started having kids, and I have friends with children who are graduating, or already in college.  I can't decide if I should feel weird or old about this)  Since the daughter has several parties and events coming up in the next few weeks she got to go shopping for dresses and shoes.  Her mom sent me these yesterday:

 

 

I like the gold.  Metallics are a neutral, so they will go with everything, and I love me some strappy shoes.  But I REALLY like the green ones.  Cute cute cute.  I'm also like the orange-y colored wedges you can see in the background.  Now I'm trying to remember what shoes I wore for my graduation.  Flat sandals of some kind, but I can't even remember the color.  I wonder if there is a picture somewhere?



Preschool Feets

There were a lot of cute shoes at Preschool chapel today.  There always are, but I had my camera with me because it was Hawaiian day today and the kids looked stinkin' adorable.  If it weren't for privacy issues I would share more than just their feet, but alas, you will just have to take my word on how cute they were.

 

 

Blue sparkles!

 

Pink Sparkles on really wiggly feet!

 

Pink and orange.  And Plaid!

 

Silvery blue sparkles!

 

Stylin sisters!



Green

OK, one more wedding shoes post.  I've already done blue and red.  I also looked at green, and these kept popping up.

 

 

Maybe these are all from the same wedding, I'm not sure.  Although the top and bottom pictures don't look like the same dress.  There were also lots of other green shoes, of course, but the reason that I noticed these, is that I used to have this same pair of shoes!

 



 

Terrible picture of my legs, but there are the shoes.  I bought them for my installation at the church here.  It was during the green season, so I wanted green shoes to go with the paraments.  I don't actually have the shoes anymore because they pinched my toes something horrible when I wore them for any length of time.  They went into last year's church rummage sale, and hopefully they found a good home.  Maybe someone wore them in their wedding!

Legos!

Today's calendar picture is whimsical:

The shape is not terribly attractive, but that's a wedge made out of legos!  Who doesn't like legos?  Well, except for when you step on them in the dark...  But, you know what comes next, right?  Yep!  I did a search for lego shoes!

 

 

These are even uglier than the wedges.  Fun to build, not attractive to wear.

 

Considering they are Crocs, I actually think these are really cute.

 

Awww...girly shoes!  I would have liked to see them in more than just pink, but I think they are cute.  There was a picture of what were probably boy shoes, too, but it was really tiny and you couldn't see the detail very well.  So there you  have it.  Lego shoes.  Maybe the hubby needs some for his upcoming trip to Ohio...

 

Acolytes and Bishops and Puppets and Preschoolers

The evening seems to have gotten away from me, so I'm sliding today's post in just under the wire.  It was an exciting day at church as the Bishop from the Lutheran Church in Rwanda was visiting us.  Our synod has a companion relationship with them, so the bishop was here for Synod Assembly last week, and then we were fortunate enough to have him visit our congregation this morning.  After church the hubby, the senior pastor and his wife, and I took the bishop to a local winery where we had a really wonderful picnic lunch.  It was great to have a chance to visit and get to know him a little bit.  My 2 favorite parts of the day were during the 2nd service.  First the preschool choir sang 2 songs for the congregation, and they were adorable as always.  After that Gabby the little blue puppet came to talk to the bishop.  Gabby had a blast, and the bishop was a really good sport to talk to a hyper-crazy puppet in something other than his first language.

 

In shoe news, here are more acolyte feet:

 

The acolyte on the left took it in stride, while the one on the right said, "really?  You're really going to take a picture of my feet?"  While her mother rolled her eyes and said I had a foot fetish.  Ahem...I have a SHOE fetish, thank you very much.

 

Seeing Red

Despite the post title, I won't rant again today.  After yesterday, I thought I would go back to a lighter subject.  When the hubby and I got engaged, I knew I wanted blue for the wedding color.  Blue is my favorite color, so I got a little carried away with blue dresses, blue flowers, blue shoes, blue ties and vests for the men.  It was probably a little overboard on the blue, but I was glad I had a color in mind because when I started planning the wedding and looking at ideas I saw so many fun color schemes.  If I hadn't already wanted blue I'm not sure how the heck I would have chosen a color scheme, because there are so many really pretty, funky, adorable, etc combinations out there.  The other day when I was looking for blue wedding shoes I also looked at a few other colors.  Today I present to you some of the red shoes I found:

 

 

I still like my blue better, but I love these ideas for others.  I just think having some fun, colorful shoes in a wedding is awesome.  And I'm starting to wish we had done a shoe/dress picture like some of these.  Of course, my dress didn't have lace or crinolines or anything fancy, so maybe it wouldn't have had the same effect.  I love the lace on the third picture, and the floof in the last picture.  So many fun combinations!

 

Excuse Me While I Rant

The calendar shoes lately have been fine, but nothing that's really blown my socks off one way or the other.  Until today.

 

Those are FOOT BINDING SHOES.  This is a calendar celebrating fun, whacky, crazy, beautiful, and lots of other kinds of shoes.  These are not a celebration, these are a representation of torture.  Now, if you want, you could make the argument that a lot of shoes are a bit like torture devices, and we don't do our feet or our backs and legs any favors by wearing them.  But I wear those by MY choice.  There's an element of social construction of beauty in why I wear them, but again, it's my choice to shove my feet into a ridiculous pair of shoes and walk around in them.  These shoes represent no choice.  They represent breaking the toes of a young girl and binding her feet to ensure that her feet be as tiny as possible, because tiny feet were considered the most attractive.  And not just breaking those toes once, but over and over, continuing to wrap the feet tightly to cut off circulation until the toes usually rotted and fell off.  This is not a ceremony I want to celebrate.  As history, these shoes represent something that we should all be aware of.  They represent ridiculous ideals of female beauty and male patriarchy.  As beautiful as the workmanship is on these shoes, they will never inspire anything but rage and disgust when I look at them.

 

Thus endeth my rant.  If you've made it this far, please return to your regularly scheduled internet browsing.

 

Fleep Flops

I very rarely wear flip flops unless I'm getting a pedicure.  Which I did today.

 

I like my  blue toes.  The color is called Very Groovy, which is kind of boring in the name department, but the color reminds me of summer blue skies.  The flip flops are from Target.  I tend to buy an inexpensive pair to have on hand for pedicures, pools, whatever.  I really hate wearing them, but like having them when I need them.  The thing with flip flops is that they are frequently colorful, but you can't see the colors because they are under your feet.

 

 

The last pair I had were tie-dye but you couldn't see most of it.  Sadness.  And yes, this was a totally random and blathery post.  I had a migraine for a lot of the day and I think it might have scrambled my brain a little bit.