Liqueur, Anyone?

Today was a good day. First, it's been raining off and on all weekend, which for drought-ridden California has been delightful.  Second, I had lunch with some dear friends from St. Someone's whom I haven't seen in way too long, and that was even more delightful.  Third (and this is really only for segue purposes and not so much why today was good), it's National Liqueur Day.  I don't drink much at all anymore, so it's not that terribly exciting, except for this:

Liqueurs in shoe shaped bottles!  I have no desire to drink the contents, but think how fun these would look on a window sill.  Someone else can drink the liqueurs, an then I'll just fill them with colored water and use them as decoration.  Who wants to work on that for me?

Thai

I had lunch with JG and Sunshine's grandma today, which was just what I needed.  I've been a little down since the family left (and for a variety of other reasons that I won't go into just now), and having lunch with 2 of my favorite people was a fabulous pick-me-up.  They absolutely brightened my day, and we had lunch at my favorite Thai place where I finally got to indulge in the Pad Thai I've been craving for about a month.  Because of this, I decided to a search for "Thai shoes" and see what popped up.  Like I know anything about Thai fashion.  But here is what the internet shared with me and I now share with you:

These are both from a collection by a woman named Caroline Issa.  I love the colors and designs, although could do without the puff ball thingies on the heels.

These are from the same collection, for all of you who don't think you can wear heels.

Colorful and sparkly!  Why the spider, though?  I'm not sure, but while I don't have an issue with spiders, really, this one could go hang out with the puff balls and I'd be OK with that.

Pretty!  These were labeled as embroidered shoes from the Hmong culture.  I think they're beautifully made.

Hmong baby shoes!  Very sweet.

Maybe these also have a spider somewhere on them, but since I can't see it, I like these better than the ones above.

Today I got to hang out with fabulous women, and have a yummy lunch that inspired me to find some fun shoes.  Not a bad day.

Rings and Shoes

I've always loved rings.  Even as a kid I wore rings, and loved trying on my mom's wedding rings, and playing with the rings in my grandma's jewelry box.  I still love trying on rings of all kinds of shapes and sizes, although since getting married I mostly only wear my wedding rings (gaining weight has something to do with that, too).  Anyway, one of my birthday presents combined 2 of the things I love:  rings and shoes:

Sunshine's grandma gave me this cool shoe-shaped ring holder at my birthday party last weekend (and yes, I have managed to stretch this birthday thing out for almost 2 weeks), isn't it pretty?  The top ring was a gift from St. Someone's preschool director.  It's paste sapphire and diamonds, so goes with my wedding set (I love costume jewelry...I live in fear of losing my wedding rings).  Next down is a ring that belonged to my mama (don't worry, she gave it to me, I didn't swipe it from her jewelry box).  And second from the bottom is my grandmother's class ring that she gave me before she died and which is very dear to my heart.   The others have stories as well, but those 3 were gifts.  I have other rings still in my jewelry box.  I really need to start wearing them more.

So I went in search of more shoe shaped ring holders, and found plenty.  I love these with the polka dots and color coordinated bows and insides.

 

I'm not much of an animal print fan, but some of you are, so these are for you.

Oooooh....plaid!  And rickrack.  There's not enough rickrack in my life.

Very princessy.  In fact I love how all of these look like stairs.  I can just picture Cinderella running down the stairs and losing her shoe.  Is that too weird of a leap in thought process?

 

These last two are exactly the same only different.  Does your family say that?  They're very sweet and girly.

That's my story for the night.  Oh, and my "news" for the day is that I went to the gym for the first time in approximately 2,743 years.  It was time.  It sucked.  It wasn't that bad.  I hated it.  I'm glad I went.  I have a love/hate relationship with the gym.  Thank goodness for audiobooks that make the treadmill more bearable.

Oh, one final thing:  Sunshine's grandma is way more than just Sunshine's grandma (it's just an easy way to identify her).  She's my friend and a wonderful supporter from St. Someone's, and pretty darn fantastic in just about every way.  The fact that's she's Sunshine's grandma is just a delightful bonus.