Crazy

Is it just me, or is this year's Calendar crazier than last?  Maybe I've just blocked the level of crazy from last year, but this year, especially February, has seemed remarkably zany.  After the last calendar post things did not improve. 

This is interesting, at least, but still crazy.  I keep wanting to stick my fingers through the holes and drink tea out of it.

Ah...the 80s.  Always good for giving us very strange boots.  These are maybe kind of fun the more I look at them, but I still have to come down on the side of no.

Hey, look!  These shoes are talking to each other!  Do you think the eyes follow you wherever you go?  Oh wait, they're on your feet.  Of COURSE they will follow you.  Maybe they can stare at other people and freak them out.

 

So close!  They're blue!  They're T-strap!  And then a furry animal wrapped itself around the ankle and died.  So sad.

 

At least we finished out the month on a decent note.  These are kind of boring, but not bad.  Except for being slingbacks.  I guess I shouldn't hate them for that, it's not their fault I can't wear slingbacks.

Please let March be better!  Although I do like posting the crazy ones, I also wish they'd throw in a few to make me covet once in awhile.

Woohoo!

So, while most of the rest of the country seems to be floundering in 9 million feet of snow lately, California is experiencing its worst drought in a very long time.  If only there was a way to ship some of that snow here so we could throw it in lakes and rivers.  On the plus side, it's currently raining!  Not sure how long it will last, or how much it will help, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.  It's lovely to listen to.  Since I've already done a post on rain boots, tonight we'll look at rain shoes.

Look how cute these are!  They remind me of Danskos.   The BFF loves purple, and these actually look like her.  Not that they would currently do her much good in the sub zero weather and those 9 million feet of snow.

 

Also interesting.  I like the front one better as it's brighter, but the back one reminds me of Fall.  And I like Fall, so it's OK.  But I like the front one because I keep expecting a frog to jump out at any second.

 

These actually ARE Dansko rain shoes.  These two patterns should not be together, but it actually somehow works.  I love the blue, of course.  (See, Mom?  I didn't totally betray my favorite color)

Top and bottom are a little boring, but the middle ones are fun.  I wonder if they also come with the purple accents?

Yes, I know these aren't rain shoes.  But the Pinterest Friend is always awesome about finding and sending me fun shoes, and she loves owls, so these boots are for her.  I think she needs a pair.  The preschoolers would love them!

So there you have it.  Rain shoes.  I'm thinking more stylish and more comfortable (at least in theory--the Dansko pair definitely would be) than rain boots, which don't seem to have a lot of arch support in them.  And yet, rain shoes aren't going to do much to keep your ankles or the bottoms of your pants dry.  But on the whole, I think I am pro-rain shoes.

A Post About Nothing

As the title suggests, and as I'm going to tell you upfront: this post really doesn't have a point. Nope. Oh wait...besides shoes.  There's always that.  So I'm just going to give you some shoes I found today while paying on the internet.

So the Pinterest Friend sent these to me the other day.  Blue is awesome, they have an ankle strap, and they might be sparkly.  So far so good. But I can't quite put my finger on what about the front bugs me a little bit.  I don't hate these by any means, but something about the front just isn't quite right.  They're still way better than a lot of the stuff that ends up in my posts, though.

Yes, I just posted these the other day, but I ran across them again today and they are what started my me to finding my next discoveries.  (again I must say that these are really cute and I totally covet them)

Except for the first pair, all of the shoes in today's post were found in the same area of my image search.  I love these also.  I want them for Advent.

These would also be good for Advent.  I really like the pop of turquoise on an otherwise basic black shoe.

But these.  Be still my heart.  These are by far my favorite of the night.  They actually make me swoon a little bit.  Which is probably an indication that I really need to get out more.

Team Last Name

Some days I don't have a clue what to write about.  Today is actually the 25th anniversary of my maternal grandfather's death, and while I loved him dearly, I couldn't think of a thing to link him with shoes.  I mean, he wore them, but I'm guessing he pretty much just wore basic men's dress shoes.  Can't think of him wearing tennis shoes, although maybe he did.  And he had house slippers (I think).  He died when I was 13, so while I have lots of memories of him, I wish I  had more, and what I do remember might be more family stories than actual memory.  A few things I do remember:  he yawned like Santa Claus (ho ho ho).  I though the liver spots on his hands looked like the dark spots on lefse.  He used to torture us on Christmas morning.  He used to pretend to throw rocks at me when I would get into his raspberries and strawberries.  He would sit in his chair in front of the living room window, in plain view of people coming up the walk, and absolutely ignore them when they rang the doorbell if they were someone he didn't want to talk to.  He was gruff and grumpy and always groaned when I hugged him like I was squeezing the stuffing out of him.  I loved him dearly, and still do.

Since I couldn't find anything to tie the above paragraph to shoes, we're just going to pretend there was a logical transition in there somewhere, and move on.  As I was searching for inspiration I randomly typed in our last name, followed by the word shoes, and came across these:

Except for the red ones, these are all kind of quirky.  A basic, cute Mary Jane, but with lots of visual interest.  They remind me of Lala Loopsy dolls, actually.  I kind of like the shoes named after us, actually, and I think I need several pair to be part of my official Team Last Name uniform.  Now...can I talk the hubby into wearing them as well?

Calendar Stuff

Except for Valentine's Day, I have been sorely neglecting the shoe calendar in February.  I look at it every day, of course, but I have been lazy when it comes to taking pictures and posting them to the blog.  Here are a few I selected from this month to share with you:

I love these.  So classy and elegant.  And see?  I can like a color other than blue!

These are crazy, so I had to include them.  I love all of the colors, they are so bright and fun.  But there is a LOT going on with this shoe.

 

February 6th is the BSF's birthday, and she and I both agreed that these were not the best birthday present.  I like the blue and I like the strappy, but really don't like the snakeskin, or the gold accents.  Even the platform has blue snakeskin.  Again, a little too much happening here.

 

1940s.  You know how I love shoes from this era.  I definitely want these for my imaginary, vintage shoe closet.

 

OK, first I love a green shoe and now this is going to be the second blue shoe that I'm  not fond of.  I love sparkle, but this is not good.  I don't like the giant platform, and I really don't like the sequined heel.  It feels like all of the sequins are going to fly off at any minute.  Sigh...don't mess up the blue shoes, people.

Oh man, I love these.  I don't even have words for how much I love these.

Then we move forward to the 19th, which is both the Seattle Friend's and my auntie's birthday.  Seriously, they both deserve better than this.  This is just ugly.  And it makes my toes hurt.

This is also awful, but in a way that is hilarious to me.  Holy buckets, is that much fringe ever necessary?  It's like a leather bird attacked this shoe and then just stuck around.

 

And now we are caught up.  I like the colors, although not so much the shape.  Finally some blue that I can enjoy without my eyes crossing.  And green!  These shoes are perfect for me and Double A to get and be twins!  (If only they weren't slingbacks.  Oh, and  I have to get Double A to like heels)

Balloons

The hubby was gone for awhile this evening, so the puppies and I watched part of the movie Up.  OK, I watched it, they napped snuggled.  If you aren't familiar with the movie, it gets the title because one of the characters attaches thousands (millions?) of balloons  to his house and flies it to South America.  In case you haven't guessed, it's an animated children's movie.  Another part of the movie has dogs with collars that translate their thoughts into English.  Not sure I really want to know what the puppies are thinking most of the time.  At any rate, tonight's theme is balloons, so let's get started, shall we?

Fleep flops with water balloons attached. I don't particularly care for them (although I do love how colorful and floofy they are), but there were approximately a million pictures of this idea, so some folks out there definitely seem to enjoy them.  They just seem like one of those projects that comes out of boredom and too many leftover somethings.

Heehee. This one just made me smile.  I've always been impressed with people who can make balloon stuff. But then, I'm fairly easy to impress.

 

 These are really sweet.  The picture didn't say if these were children's or women's, but with the right outfit, I think they could work either way.

Ooooh. hot air balloons!  I've never been in one, but I'd like to some day besides being absolutely terrified of heights.  Which makes no sense.  The picture indicated these were from the 18th Century, and since the internet is always right, it must be true!  But they are old, so maybe.

 

These are women's shoes.  I thought for sure they would be children's.  Nope.  Man, these are twee.  All they need is a unicorn and you're set to go. I don't think I could pull these off.

 

Oh come on, you knew they were coming!

I almost didn't find any heels, but then I found these.  Not my favorite, but they do fit the theme.  Maybe I could wear them when the hubby and I go on our romantical (and mind-numbingly terrifying) hot air balloon ride.

Good Peeps

Today was blah.  I just felt off all day.  Nothing was wrong, I actually felt pretty good physically, but I was just blah and off all day.  The hubby kept asking me what was wrong and I kept saying nothing, which was both true and not true.  A couple of weeks ago we could have passed this off as just a moody day, but now that you all know what's going on with me, we know the source of the blah-ness.  If that makes any sense.  Who knows?  Thankfully, I have fabulous friends who send me shoes to cheer me up.  First, from the Pinterest Friend:

These really should have gone in the sweaters post.  Sooo...your ankles get to be warm, but your toes don't?  I think the PF said something about these being shoes with an identity crisis.  Yep.

 

And these are just cute and blue and covet-able.  Excellent work, PF!

These are from a friend who is a total Disney Freak.  I can't tell if they're a pair and supposed to be slightly mismatched, or if it's one shoe from a pink pair and a blue pair.  I kind of like the mismatched idea.  These remind me of the Pink!  Blue! scene from Sleeping Beauty.

My cousin sent me this, and how fun are these planters?  Instead of giving away my shoes, I could just plant stuff in them and put them all over the yard (and then watch the hubby's head explode).

Hey, remember these?  Another friend sent this to me recently, and I like that you an actually see them on a foot.  They don't look quite so cray on, but seriously is there ANY arch support in these things?

OK, so this last one isn't shoes, but it is still from a fabulous friend helping to cheer me up.  I absolutely agree...some days it seems like it would be easier to slay the dragon.

Thanks friends.  I couldn't do any of this without you.

Pedro and Tennies and Bears, Oh My

I've written about our bear, Pedro, before.  Actually several times, although I only put in the one link.  Pedro is awesome, and he features in lots of fun ways in our lives, which is probably weird, but we decided a long time ago that we didn't care.  He is currently dressed up for Valentine's Day:

 Yes, that is a tux he's wearing.  He wore it to our wedding.  He doesn't currently have a Valentine's outfit, but the tux seemed appropriate.  So, Pedro is the inspiration for this post, but it went in a direction I never really expected.  I typed "teddy bear shoes" into the image search.  I figured I'd get lots of cute kid stuff.  I got this:

Those aren't slippers, folks, and they aren't for kids.  Nope.  These are adult tennis shoes by Adidas.  Pink, teddy bear tennis shoes.

 

And they come in brown.

And Panda.

And gray.

Holy buckets, they even come in camouflage.  Clearly I need to get these for DJ since she is currently into camo.  This bear even gets a little hat.  There were more colors.  Lots of variations.  But I will just show you one more for now:

I love these colors.  The shoes are still crazy, but in a totally fun, psychedelic, cracked out kind of way.  I would wear these under my alb...

 

They come with a matching child's jacket!  You and your child can be matching!  (I could actually see that working in certain situations, like Halloween)

Lets clear our palates with some nice, calming baby shoes, OK?

These are really more what I was expecting.  Simple and sweet.  And for children.