Creamsicles

Apparently this weekend is made for SKD.  Yesterday I went with green shoes, and today is National Creamsicle Day, so I'm going with orange shoes.  PLUS today is Color Book Day, which I did last year, but she also loves to color, so this is really the perfect weekend for her.

I like creamsicles OK, although I haven't had one in forever.  I really like creamsicle flavored yogurt.  I really really like the color of creamsicles.  The following shoes capture it sometimes and sometimes not so much, but they are what came up when I typed in creamsicle shoes:

These are from the 40s.  You know I'm picturing a fabulous retro outfit to go with these.

Canvas shoe collection!

I love these.  Very cute.  (Hey, Mom...we need these for the 50th anniversary pictures!)

These are from the 70s. Hmmm...the outfits I'm picturing aren't quite as cute as the ones from the 40s.

Awwww...the PB could be an adorable little creamsicle baby!

Happy Creamsicle Day!  Now I might have to go out and find myself a creamsicle to celebrate.

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?).

Fathers--Yay!

Facebook has been full of all sorts of great pictures of great pictures of all of my friends' fathers today.  I have some great dads in my life, starting with my very own daddy.  He's awesome.  He's human, so of course he has flaws.  In fact, he doesn't read my blog, so I could tell you all of them and he'd never know.  But that would be rude.  And I love him with all of his flaws, like he loves me with all of my flaws.  We're cool like that.  I hope you have/had a great dad in your life, whether biological or something else.  

So.  Father's Day shoes.  My own dad isn't that much into shoes.  Give him a pair of sandals in the summer and some comfy shoes in the winter, and he's pretty much good.  Instead, we'll look at some shoes from the year he was born:

Yeah, mens shoes don't change much, do they?  At least not the classic ones.  These are from 1942, but the hubby has some shoes right now that are pretty similar.

 

Another fabulous dad in my life is my brother-in-law, Flower's and Laughter's dad.  He was born in 1969, when shoes weren't quite so classic.  These are awesome.  You know, in a dated, kind of horrible way.  I love the red buttons.  Wonder if I could talk the hubby into these?  He and my BIL are 3 days apart, so same birth year.  And yeah, I know I couldn't talk him into these.  Definitely wouldn't be able to talk the bro-in-law in to them. 

Finally 1971, the year my brother was born.  He is DJ's, Double A's, and The Bean's dad.  These completely crack me up.  They are such grandpa shoes.  I'm going to get them in all of these colors for the brother for Christmas.  Because, you know, I like to torture him.

Happy Father's Day to all of you!  Whether you're a father or the child of a father, however that relationship came about, then I hope you celebrate those relationships today and every day.

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)

40s

It's another one of those days off where I feel like I've gotten a ton of stuff done and nothing done at all.  I have gotten a bunch of stuff done, but I feel like there is soooo much that should be done that I'm not getting to.  So I'm taking a few minutes to write instead of fretting over what I should be doing.  I haven't done a specific decade since April, so today we head to the 40s.  The 40s had some awesome fashion, and some awesome shoes.  Sadly, the 40s also had WWII, but let's just look at shoes, shall we?

 

 

Ankle straps, t-straps, saddle shoes...is it any wonder I love the shoes from this period?  I also love the hair, but that's another subject.

 

Not my favorite, but I like them in general.  I don't like the aerated look, but the little bows and peep toes are cute.

I think these are cute?  From this angle they seem very cute, so I'm just going to go with that.



 

 

How cool is this shape?  I wonder if that pointy part chafes or pokes you in the ankle or anything?

 

Ooooh...I was just thinking about how I would love to have some of the above for the imaginary shoe closet, and what kinds of outfits I would pair with the shoes for life in my imaginary musical, when it occurred to me that CLEARLY my shoe closet needs sections devoted to each decade.



Ode to My Mama

Today is my mom's birthday.  Hi, mom!  In honor of this very special day, here are shoes from some of the different years of her life.  (Side note:  Please note that none of these shoes are hers and my  mother would probably never wear any of them, so don't hold any of them against her!)

 

Mom was born in 1947.

 

 

Then she was a  kid and did stuff (I don't know...I wasn't there...).  I hope it involved saddle shoes at some point.

 

 

In 1965 she graduated from High School.

 



 

 

She went to college, met my dad, and they got married in 1967.  It was the Summer of Love.  Except that my parents got married in November, so I guess it was the Fall of Love.  I couldn't find any wedding shoes from that year for some reason, but Mom's were exactly like mine except not blue, or peep toe, or with an ankle strap.  Or a shoe clip.  So you can picture them, I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

My seester was born in September of 1969.  These shoes are both awful and adorable.  They're awforable...

 

 

My brother was born in 1971.  I think most people had to be high to survive the 70s...

 

 

Her favorite child was born in 1975!

 

 

In 1984 Mom started working at the school in my hometown (yes, there was only 1.  Well, 2, but I went K-12 in the same building)

 









 

 

Somewhere around 1990 Mom began doing daycare.  She counted recently and has taken care of almost 30 children since then.  Because she's awesome.  She definitely did not wear these shoes while running after small children.

 

In 2001 she and my dad and my brother bought the movie theater in my home town.  How cool is that?

 





 

Obviously this is only a teeny tiny itty bitty portion of my mother's life.  There is so much more.  But since we're already at 11 pictures for 1 post, I'm thinking that's enough for now.  I like the linking of shoes with different years, though, so be prepared for more like this.  Happy Birthday, Mom!  Love you to the moon and back!



 

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Lent is the season in the church that leads up to Holy Week and Easter.  It's considered to be a contemplative time in the church, and as such, many people use these (aproximately) 6 weeks to give something up (meat, TV, swearing, facebook, sweets, etc.) or to take on a new spiritual practice (regular bible study, more prayer time, charitable donations of time or money, etc).  It's a season that reminds us that we don't need so many of the things we think we must have in our lives, and a season that encourages us to strengthen our relationship with God and neighbor. 

 

I traditionally give up chocolate.  I love chocolate more than I love shoes, and could gladly eat chocolate every day, multiple times a day.  Lent is a reminder that I can go through life without it, no matter how much I might crave it.  This year I'm giving up chocolate and coffee.  I gave up caffeine a couple of years ago and have done fairly well at staying off it, but now I think I'll give up coffee, especially those expensive trips to Starbucks that I seem to be taking more than I should lately.

 

I'm also going to try to take something on this year.  I've been missing yoga and haven't done it in forever, so I thought I'd try to make it a regular practice to do some yoga and maybe spend that time in prayer and contemplation.  I'm also going to try to break out my flute and play it more regularly.  So, wish me luck.

 

Some day, if I'm feeling really "spiritual", I'll give up shoes for Lent.  I'll just wear the same pair for 6 weeks.  But not this year.  Nope.  I've got purple shoes that need wearing, the first of which you'll get to see on Sunday.  In the meantime, here is today's calendar pic.  They are from the 30s and woud be cute if it weren't for that crazy back.  Makes my ankle chafe just looking at them.  But the hilarious part is that they also have a lipstick holster!