Grrrrr....

Watch out, I should be wearing these shoes today:

Can I complain for a moment?  You can stop reading now if you would like.  I went shopping today.  We are headed to MT next week for the wedding of one of my favorite people in the world, and I wanted something new to wear, so off I went.  Blah.  I love shopping for shoes but I really hate shopping for clothes.  There was a period of about 5 minutes last year when I almost enjoyed it because I had lost 40 lbs and I was looking pretty good.  Then I got sick.  And I got sick again.  There were antibiotics and more antibiotics.  There was stress of various levels.  The drugs made me bloated.  The stress made me eat.  I've gained all of the weight back and some more.  I'm at the heaviest I have ever been and it sucks.  So I hate shopping.  I hate fluorescent lights and 3-way mirrors.  I hate that things look cute until I put them on and then they lose any shape whatsoever.  I'm cranky.  I'm pissed.  And I want to kick things.  I did buy a dress.  It's fine.  Whatever.

 

I'll stop now and show you some boots.

 

 

My aunt sent me this picture today; she found the boots in an antique store.  I think they are fun.  Don't think I'd wear them, but I can appreciate where they are going.  Plus, I love that my aunt sent me a picture for the blog!

 

If you've made it this far, through all of my bitching, here is several minutes of baby giggling to cleanse your palate.  It made me giggle a lot yesterday and will hopefully make me marginally less pissy today.

 



Source

 

1918

I have been distracted by other shoes lately and haven't posted much from the calendar.  These are from almost a week ago, but I really liked them, so didn't want to skip them entirely.

 

Like the post title says, these are from 1918, and while they are not at all in style now, I think I would still wear them.  Maybe only in my imaginary shoe closet with long skirts from that period.  But I kind of think I would even wear them now.  Since I liked these, I decided to go see what else I could find from that year.

 

 

These are from Paris, and they're gorgeous.  I don't think I'd wear these, but I definitely love them as vintage shoes.  Just think of the outfits these could go with!

 

Probably closer to what the average woman wore.  Definitely serviceable, if not terribly eye-catching.  Although, if they had a slightly more rounded toe, they would be right in style with some of the shoes I've been seeing of late.

 

 

This is a page from a 1918 catalog.  Check out those prices!  If only I could get shoes at these prices (and NOT have to adjust for inflation) my shoe closet would be very impressive! 



 



Blue Polka Dots

Today was an errand day with the hubby.  We did a lot of running around, but topped it off with sushi and a movie, so that helped make up for all of the errand-ing.  While the hubby went to Verizon to see about getting is phone fixed, I went to DSW for some browsing.  I didn't buy anything, but I found the cutest pair of navy blue peep-toe pumps with white polka dots.  And they were on sale.  So cute.  Soooo much will power to walk away.  These aren't the shoes, but they are pretty close:

 

 

Since I didn't buy them in reality, I went virtual shoe shopping and gazed at even more blue shoes with polka dots.  There are tons if you want to go peruse.  Here is a sampling of what I found.

 

 

I covet these so hard.  I don't think any of my pastor friends read this, so they can't absolve me from my coveting.

 

Not my favorite, but I was going for a variety of styles.

 

I love these, too.  They say summer to me.  I'd still probably wear them in the winter, though, considering I live in CA.

They even have them in t-straps!

 

I tried to restrain myself as I could have posted so many more.  See?  I'm all about the will power today.





More Sandals

There were more cute sandals in church this morning.  I refrained from asking for pictures.  I do compliment people on their shoes though.  Many of them are obsessed with my footwear, so maybe it's OK that I notice theirs as well.  I went searching for more cute sandals today, but this time I searched specifically for T-straps.  Because I love T-straps.   And also because the hubby and I saw Showboat on Friday night and all of the dancers were wearing awesome t-strap shoes (as dancers in musicals so often do).  So here is another smattering of sandals for you.

 

 

I love cute flats as much as I love high heels (not that all of these are flats).  If I could have a pair of cute flats for every summer outfit it would be awesome.  I really need to talk my father into building an extra room on our house that could just be for shoes.  And then we need to win the lottery so I can up my shoe budget by approximately 10,000%.

 

Ruined?

It's possible that writing this blog is ruining me for public settings.  It's just as possible that I've always been weird/crazy.  I can't go anywhere without checking out people's shoes.  I've always done this to a certain extent, but it's definitely more prominent now.  And now I have conversations in my head about whether it's possible to surreptitiously take pictures of shoes I see, or how I can ask without coming across as completely crazy.  Tonight I was at a parishioner's house for dinner.  We have a missionary visiting from Rwanda who will be in church with us tomorrow, so tonight was a nice dinner in her honor.  Both the missionary and the woman sitting next to me were wearing really cute sandals.  I did not take pictures, nor did I ask, but I thought about it while gazing adoringly and longingly at their shoes and thinking about this blog.  One more reason I clearly need therapy.  Instead of traumatizing parishioners and random Rwandan missionaries, I decided to go to Zappos and look at sandals.  Here are a few that caught my attention.

 



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!



 

Architectural Shoes

A friend of mine sent me this link recently.  It's an article about an architect who also designs shoes occasionally.  Such as this:

 

I find them both crazy and oddly compelling. And they come in different colors!

 

The lighting isn't terribly helpful, but here is a picture of someone actually wearing them in case you are like me and have a terrible time picturing it.

 

I don't particularly want a pair but I do find it fascinating that these were designed by an architect.  They are definitely visually interesting.  Go here if you want to read more about these shoes, and the architect, Zaha Hadid.  These shoes are from Melissa, who has worked with other architects.  Remember these?  There is a whole list of architects that they work with listed in the description.  It's all rather interesting, and more than a little strange.