Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today would have been my Grandma Sylvia's 99th birthday.  I've posted before how her birthday marks the beginning of Christmas for me and how those traditions are still foremost in my head this time of year even though it has been a very long time since we actually went to her house for Christmas.  This was one of the pictures I posted on Facebook this morning:

Is it weird for me to say that my grandma was kind of a dish?  And that coat is amazing.  In honor of that coat, tonight's shoes may or may not be vintage, and may or may not be from the time this picture was taken.  None of them are suitable for snow.

 

I love these.  I would wear them now.

I might not wear these now, but I am imagining the vintage outfits I would pair them with.  My imaginary closets are uh-maze-ing.

 

I would wear these too.  What a delightfully sturdy heel!

Ooooh, I'm not sure I could pull these off, so I'm thinking they'd have to go in the imaginary closet with some more fabulous outfits.

 

Love.  Outfits.  Closet.

A world of yes.  I want these  in real life AND for the imaginary closet!

Tonight I made an angel food cake to celebrate the birthday (yep, baking-fest 2016 continues), and I wore one of Grandma's shirts.  This shirt to be exact:

I miss this lady.

Yay, Women!

Today is International Women's Day.  As a woman who knows lots of amazing women, I say hell yeah to International Women's Day.  It could be argued that doing a shoe post to celebrate isn't very enlightened or feminist, but oh well.  I'm not insisting women should wear heels, I'm not saying all women love shoes, I'm just writing a silly blog post, not intended to offend or minimize anyone or anything.  If you want something with a little more substance then check out these young women dressed up as amazing women from history.  It's pretty awesome.  If I weren't so tired I would try to write a more substantive post, but alas, I will have to leave that to others tonight, most of whom are more than likely to be better written and/or spoken than I.  

According to Wikipedia, the first occurrence of  this day was in 1909, so I decided to look at shoes from each decade since.  As always, I make no claims that the dates of these shoes are accurate.

1909 wedding shoes!

1919.  The shoes are cool, but I especially like that this picture shows a bit of the dresses, too.

1929.  Not my favorite color, necessarily, but you know I love t-straps.  I like to try and imagine fun outfits that would go with these.

 

1939.  These are really kind of weird, but really interesting.

1949.  They're a little clunky, but also really fun.  Again, I'm imagining outfits.  And hair.  Really awesome 40s hair like Victory rolls.

1959. LOVELOVELOVE.

1969.  I chose this picture more for the tights than the shoes.  The shoes are cool, but those tights are amazingly crazy.

1979.  Crazy heels aren't a new thing, y'all!

1989.  Is that measuring tape?  I mostly chose this pair because the heel shape is so very 80s.

1999.  Had to go with a good, chunky heel for the 90s.

2009.  Where's the arch support?  But I like the colors.

2016.  I love these, too.  I'm not this pretty or dainty, but I still love these.

Thank you to women everywhere for everything they do, for those who have gone before to pave the way, and those who continue to work and fight.

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014. 

3 Things:

1. All of the fabulous women in my life:  Moms, grandmas, sisters, friends, aunties, nieces mentors.
2. Coffee with one of those fabulous women.  I needed some social time away from the office.
3. Some forward movement on potential moving (do you like that vague play on words?).

SB With The PF

I mentioned before that the Pinterest Friend is moving to Idaho this summer with her family.  I used to see her almost every day at the church, but as neither of us is there any longer, we decided to meet for coffee this morning to hang out a bit before we left.  Mornings still aren't my strongest time of day, but I made it up and out of the house in kind of sort of OK time.  I was only a little late, thankfully.   But then it was a lovely visit.  We're going to try to meet up again before they leave in a a couple of wees, but after that I will have to plan my driving trips to MT so they go through what will be her new hometown.  She's a pretty amazing person, although hers is not my story to tell.  I can tell you, though, what I know best, and that is how she interacted with the preschool kiddos and church staff.  She is always kind, always has a smile.  It doesn't mean she never has bad days, but she manages to maintain that kindness even then.  Hopefully some child-related place in Idaho will soon be blessed with having her on staff.  In honor of our Starbucks' date this morning, here are her latest choices from Pinterest:

These are from the 30s.  I love the color, the basic style, and the ribbon laces, but would like them better with a different heel and a closed toe.  But no one asked me.  Probably because I wasn't alive in the 30s.  And because I have exactly no fashion or design experience.

 

I'm sure you can all fill in the comment section for this picture.  Of course I love them.

I like these, but maybe in a different color?  They're just a little too pastel for me.  Blue would be good, but I would take them in a variety of other bright colors (honest!).

 

I want to like these.  They are bright and have a bold pattern, which I like.  They would drive the hubby crazy (because he thinks I should always wear black shoes, crazy man), which is another added bonus.  But they're just a little off, and I'm not sure why.

 

Less in more, people.  Less.  Is.  More.

Take away the spikes and I'm in.  Is this green or turquoise?  I'm going to go with sea-foam green.  Which is the color of an old truck my dad used to have that was insanely fun to drive.

 

This has nothing to do with shoes, but it's perfect and makes me smile.  I agree...why do so many things have to be group activities?  Can't we all just hang out (in the same room if we have to) with our own books and be happy?  No?  Fine then.  Rude.

Imagination

Generally I'm not that keen on booties,

but I actually kind of like these.  Probably because they are from the 30s, which then gets me to thinking about my imaginary shoe closet, and my imaginary, vintage, outfits that go with the imaginary shoes.  Both of these closets are getting quite well stocked.  Thankfully, imaginary closets expand with no problem to fit as many outfits as possible.  Good times.

 

Not much to report from today.  I slept in and then spent a good chunk of the day watching Buffy and working on a wedding present.  I also finished my sermon and worked on my bible study for tomorrow, so I suppose it was productive even with all of the sitting.  Of course, now my shoulders are all kinked, but I might actually finish this project before the couple has their 25th wedding anniversary.

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.

30s

I didn't have any "brilliant" ideas today for a post (not that I actually believe any of my ideas are brilliant, but some come easier than others), so I'm headed back to my shoes-by-the-decades concept.  Today we are off to the 1930s.  Again, I'm not sure if these are actually vintage, actually from the 30s, or what, but here's what I liked:

 

 

So fun!  I would wear any of them, except maybe the last pair.  I like those, thought they were visually interesting, but not sure I'd actually wear them.  I suppose it would depend on the outfit.  Although, my usual joy about picturing the imaginary outfits I would wear with these shoes is dampened somewhat by remembering that the 30s were the time of the Depression, so shoes and outfits weren't exactly the top of everyone's list of priorities.  But, since I am picturing imaginary outfits paired with shoes from my imaginary shoe closet, does that mean I can ignore the history major part of myself and just imagine away the Depression?

 

Tired

I am crazy tired today.  I fell asleep at 8:30 last night, then woke up at 11:30 and couldn't figure out why all the lights were on.  I brushed my teeth, turned out lights, went back to sleep, and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning.  And I'm STILL tired!  I'm back at church for a few hours today and it's a struggle to stay awake.  Oh well, let's talk about shoes.  This is from the calendar today and I LOVE it:

 

 

This is from 1933, but I've seen some similar styles that are out now.  I would definitely wear the retro version.  I'm picturing these shoes with a fabulous suit (with a skirt, obviously since it's the 30s), and an awesome hat.

 

Sometime this week (who knows when, it's all a bit of a blur), one of my fabulous camp volunteers brought me this:

 

 

It's a book about purses through the decades.  I'm not into purses as much as I'm into shoes, but there are some amazing purses in here.  The BFF LOVES purses, so I might just have to take this home with me and let her flip through it and drool.  I've only flipped through it a little, but there was some really cool stuff.  I definitely like the retro purses better than the more modern ones, though.  Don't worry, I'm not going to start another blog about handbags, but I might put a few of them on here once in awhile just for fun.