Anniversary

Sunday marked the 45th anniversary of the ordination of women in the predecessor churches of what became the Evangelical Church in America.  My Facebook timeline was full of stories celebrating this anniversary, including this cover from the Lutheran:

That picture was often placed alongside this, more recent, cover:

This is the first female presiding bishop of the ELCA, elected a couple of years ago.  At least it didn't take 50 years to happen?

So, what kind of red ordination shoes were around for the 1970s pastor?  Let's take a look!

I don't fully hate these, but I'm definitely not fond of the pattern.

These, on the other hand, I'm quite fond of.

These, too.  These are vintage 70s shoes evoking the style of vintage 20s shoes?

I feel like I should hate this more than I do.  It wouldn't be my first choice for an ordination shoe, though, that's for sure.

Whoa.  These certainly make a statement of some kind.  I have no idea what that statement is, though.

These are very similar to the 2nd pair, but in addition to being red t-straps, they are also suede and peep toe.  I'm thinking these are my choice for my imaginary 1970 ordination shoes.

It was fun on Sunday to see all of the posts on Facebook, but I didn't post anything myself, nor did I post here, because I had majorly mixed emotions.  I absolutely celebrate the women who forged the path for others to follow to become ordained.  I thank them for their work and their commitment.  But on a personal level I felt weird because they fought to give me the right to be ordained and now I'm not ordained any longer.  I'm still having a hard time putting my feelings into words, beyond the word "weird."  I feel weird.  Thank goodness SKD came over to  make snowmen or I probably would have spent the whole day crying instead of just part of the morning.  Overall, though, I am happy we have women pastors, so I will just focus on the amazing women I know who are pastors, thank the ones who helped to form my faith life, and be happy the anniversary gave me a chance to look up red shoes from the 70s.

Crafternoon

In October SKD, the hubby, and I spent a lovely afternoon painting pumpkins.  We had such a good time we decided we needed to do it more often.  And so yesterday we did.  It probably should have been a more Thanksgiving-related craft, but we saw a video on Facebook and had all of the supplies between us, so we went with snowmen, which we both love:

The video showed them with white hats, made from the toes of the same sock used to make their bodies, but SKD has a ton of mismatched socks (4 kids apparently can lose a lot of socks over time!), so we went with colored hats and matching scarves.  It was a lot of fun, and a nice, silly way to spend the afternoon in the midst of all the crazy-stressful-depression of late.

Because I am a dork, I dressed appropriated for the occasion with snowman socks and earrings.

Because I am a bossy dork, I also decreed that everyone was only allowed to drink out of snowman cups.

Because how cute are these?  SKD was a good sport about it, and the hubby drank one cup of iced tea, but then said since he wasn't crafting he was going to drink out of something bigger.  Silly hubby.  And I also completely understand.

OK, obviously today will be snowman related in terms of shoes.  Some of you actually have snow whereas we in California have to create our snowmen out of socks.

I've posted some of these before, and I'm not even going to apologize for it.  I love snowmen, baby shoes, and slippers, so of course I love the entire selection.  And the Olaf shoes are for The Bean, since she's a fan.

Maybe in January we'll do a turkey craft of some sort...

Muppets

The Hallmark Christmas movie marathon continues.  I actually tried to watch something else today while I was crocheting, but nothing really jumped out at me.  Plus, the Muppets Christmas Carol was on.  Clearly the universe wanted to tempt me, and of course it worked.  I love the Muppets, so now there must be Muppets shoes.

It's not easy being green, but Kermit pulls it off with aplomb.

These are very thorough in terms of characters, which I appreciate.

Kermi and Fozzi!  An excellent combination.

ANIMAL!!!!!!!

I know you know what I'm going to say, but I'm still going to say it. WHY are we stepping on their cute little faces?

 

I'm pretty sure those 2 are where I started to learn the joys of sarcasm.  And if you don't love the Swedish Chef then I just don't want to know about it.

 

Can't leave the band out.  There was a little girl in my hometown that I was convinced looked just like the bass player.  What is her name?

I have an afghan to finish, so I must leave you now.

Literary

I have one of my Facebook friends from St. Someone to thank for this recent bout of posting.  She recently posted this picture on my timeline:

Dishes shaped like books!  The hubby prefers white dishes, so maybe I could talk him into these?  So fun.  She also posted a link to a Google image search she had done for "literary shoes."  Here are a few of my selections from the results:

I really like these, but I'm afraid I would trip as I was staring at my feet while walking, trying to read what my shoes said...

What's not to love?  It's turquoise, shiny, a wedge, and literary.  Oh wait...stupid slingback.  Oh well.

These I would not buy.  I appreciate the theme, but I'm not a huge Edgar Allen Poe fan in the first place, so I definitely don't want him staring up at me from my shoes.  These also look like they have blood spatter on them, which, while appropriate to Poe, is not my first desire in footwear.

These I would be more likely to wear.  When I'm out solving mysteries, of course.

Did this movie depress the crap out of anyone else?  Cute shoes, though.

I haven't read Catcher in the Rye.  I suppose I probably should.  I've read Les Miserables, though, and enjoyed it (which is funny to me considering I was just complaining about how depressed Where the Wild Things Are and Les Miserables is WAY more depressing).

These are my favorite.  They're blue, they're  Mary Janes, they're literary!  I would totally make myself a pair.  First, though, let me just say that I would NEVER use the pages of an actual book unless the book was already damaged beyond reading, and then maybe.  I'd be much more likely to use a copy.  Don't abuse your books, people!  Second, I'm not sure I'd be able to choose what book to use.  I have so many I love.  I'd have to have a pair of shoes for every favorite book, and that's a ridiculous number of shoes even for me.  What book would you choose?

Thanks, MW, for the inspiration!

More Buttons

The other day when I was looking for button shoes I of course found the ones that I posted, but I also found button-up shoes.   The kind that need an actual button hook to fasten:

 

I've always been fascinated by both the shoes and the hook.  I remember my mom showing me a pair somewhere (Grandma's, maybe?) and showing me how the hook worked to fasten the buttons.  It's possible the conversation came about because of my fascination with all things Little House on the Prairie (I've read the entire series roughly 30 times).  It might just be that I was a weird kid with weird fascinations.  How many elementary-aged kids do you know who were obsessed with Gibson Girl brides?  Oh well, I'm probably still weird.  Let's just look at shoes, OK?

 

Blue!  I would totally wear these now if I could find them.

I really love this style with the higher ankle.  I'd wear these, too.  And red - how fun is that?

Not my favorite.  I think I'd like them better if they were all one color, or the white accents were done a little differently.  The white might actually be stuffing to keep the shoes upright, in which case the lady's stockings would have shown through.  Seems a little risque, don't you think? :-)

 

Ooooh....these would have worked for a wedding!

I love vintage shoes.  Yes, OK, I love shoes in general.  Shut up.

If you are happy with button shoes and don't want to get any deeper, please feel free to stop reading now because following I'm going to let off a little emotional steam, and you're welcome to opt out.

First, 3 happy things:

1. Last week we got to watch DJ graduate from Navy Boot Camp!  Soooo very proud of her
2. Yesterday was Flower's birthday and her giggle always makes me smile
3. The Nephew lost his first TWO teeth last week!

I'm trying to remember that there are happy things in my life, even when it's crazy-stressful-depressing.  Opening a new business is no joke.  I knew it was going to be hard and stressful, but I didn't realize that it was going to kill my soul one small piece at a time.  Melodramatic?  Of course.  But some days it's how I feel.  If there were some happier work news it would help, but dear God, it just seems like it's one piece of bad news after another.  I'm trying to stay positive, and things have always worked out in the past, but I'm so insanely freaked out at the moment I can't even begin to describe it.  I'm currently suffering from a crying hangover for finally giving in last night and sobbing for awhile.

Because of the stress the hubby hasn't been eating like he should, which means his blood sugar has been out of whack.  He's needy when he's stressful, and uber needy when he's sick, so he's been clingy like a toddler with separation anxiety lately.  I get it, and I try to be patient, but damn, sometimes I want to be the one getting taken care of.  And as a introvert sometimes I just need him to leave me the hell alone.  Then the Lutheran guilt kicks in.

Because of all of this I keep having fantasies about building a pillow fort, climbing in and pretending the world doesn't exist.  If only that would work.  My escapes have been crocheting, reading, and Christmas movies.  I asked on Facebook for book recommendations the other day because I need something to distract me.  Something enjoyable and not too heavy or dark.  I also started watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel the 2nd week of November, which I NEVER do. Christmas is AFTER Thanksgiving.  But this year I need the sweet, sappy escapism of movies where everything always works out and Santa or Christmas in general saves the day.  Can Santa please come and make everything work out?  Is that too much to ask?

In the meantime I will go back to my mantra of happy thoughts happy thoughts happy thoughts, as well as the only prayer I can formulate right now which is pleasegodpleasegodpleasegod.

Happy Birthday, Flower!

Today my Flower turns 10!  Which is absolutely crazy because it was last week that she was a baby.  She is growing into a beautiful, wonderful, funny, and smart person, and she was definitely a bright spot in my day today and put a smile on my face.  Last year I was home for her birthday (and this is the beginning of 6 weeks of statements beginning with "last year I was home for..."), but this year we got to talk to her on the phone a couple of times, which was nice.  She thinks her uncle is absolutely hilarious.  

In honor of Flower and her birthday, here are 10 pairs of purple shoes to help celebrate:

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Oh, friends, I've missed you.  It might not seem like it considering the giant gap in posting, but I have.  I compose posts in my head on a daily basis (sometimes I do it with sermons, too), but never seem to find the time/energy to actually write them.  And things have been crazy and stressful and I haven't wanted to write a whole series of crazy-stressful-depressing posts.  But I should have written on Halloween, and the hubby's birthday, and the seester's birthday, and a whole bunch of other non-crazy-stressful-depressing posts.  The other day a Facebook friend posted a link on my timeline to inspire me to maybe post.  I'm going to post with some of those pictures soon, but today I'm posting what I started working on yesterday when it was Button Day.  I have no idea why Button Day is a thing, but you know I'll look for shoes.  So, here we go, for the first time in a couple of months.  Hopefully I remember how!

I love these.  I think they came like this, but there's no reason someone crafty couldn't make a pair to their own design and colors.

Hmmmm...is it time to take out the ribbon laces and find some cute buttons?

I'm not a huge fan of the shoes themselves, but I do love the color (duh) and the smattering of buttons. 

Don't be freaked out, those are doll legs, not creepy baby legs (which is what I thought at first, because I am a dork).  These are cute for a doll or a baby!  Although, a little baby...not one who could yank off the buttons and eat them.  Right, Mom?

 

Not as cute in the adult version.  Is it the buttons they chose?

For you fleep-flop fans!

I think these are my favorite.  So simple, cute, and classy.  Could someone make me a pair, please?

And while you're at it, could you make me a pair like this, too?  Maybe in black?  I need a cute pair of black flats for work.  Which reminds me:  I'm wearing a lot of flats these days.  Sorry to disappoint those who live vicariously through the heels.  

Alrighty then.  I feel better.  Hopefully I will talk to you again soon!