Calendars, Books, and Shoes

I really do have fabulous friends.  Today I opened the mailbox and  (with quite a lot of tugging and yanking, remind me to have a chat with our mailman) pulled out this:

The hubby saw it on the coffee table when he got home and said, "books, not shoes?  That's just not right."  The card that came with the gift also indicated that books were not my greatest passion.  I have to say that I write a blog about shoes because they are fun and pretty and silly, but books are, always have been, and always will be my bigger passion.  I love to read.  LOVE IT.  I can pass up shoes, but it is really hard not to buy most of the books I see.

True story!  I can be stubborn about books and will often read something long after I should have given up because it was just not a good fit.  Books are my escape, and if I'm escaping somewhere I hate, why bother?

How perfect are these?  Shoes, a stack of books, and cup of yummy tea?  Sounds like a perfect winter day.  So.  Books and shoes.  Instead of finding pictures online, I decided to create my own tonight.  Here are some of my favorite books and some of my favorite shoes.  You've seen all the shoes already, but you'll just have to deal with it.  Or you know, stop reading.  Utilize your free will.

Harry Potter.  Duh.   I've read the entire series many many times.  If you don't like Harry Potter then I'm just not sure I want to be friends with you.

The Percy Jackson series.  I only included the box set of the first series, but I love the Heroes of Olympus series as well.  Definitely a fan of the fantasy.

2 sets of books from my childhood that I then bought as an adult, Little House on the Prairie and The Chronicles of Narnia.  I was obsessed with Little House, and even dressed up like Laura for Halloween one year.  I didn't read the Narnia books until I was older, then I bought the box set while I was on internship.  I think it was Prince Caspian that I read in its entirety in the bathtub one night.

I first started reading The Hunger Games trilogy a few months after I moved to California the second time.  I was going through a major bout of depression from the transition and initially hated the first book.  It took me forever to get into it.  Then I got completely sucked in on a flight home to Montana and devoured the series.

I have a love/hate with this series.  I discovered it in High School and was obsessed.  I was like a drug dealer and would push it on my friends to get them addicted also.  There's time travel, so fantasy.  There are hot men, so yay.  There are hot SCOTTISH men, so even more yay.  As you can see, the paperbacks are definitely the worse for wear.  The blue one is actually the second copy since I pretty much destroyed the first.  And then the woman kept writing.  The 8th book just came out in June and she's still not done.  If she would stop describing everything in so much freaking detail and just get to the point, there would be half the pages and twice the plot.  There are now way too many character, way too much time between books, way too much everything.  But I keep reading because I eventually want closure.  It's been over 20 years and she's still keeping me dangling.  The BFF and I refer to the author simply as "that damn woman."  I could probably write the length of one of those books about all of my ups and downs with this series, but I won't.  Deep breath.  Moving on.

There are more than 20 books in this series, so I just grabbed a few instead of trying to fit them all into a picture with a shoe.  These books are hilarious and also involve  hot men.  2 of them.  Total love triangle.  They have gotten a bit formulaic in the process, but I still keep tuning in because they are perfect escape reading and I like to fantasize about Ranger.  Mmmmm...Ranger.   Yeah, deep breath.  

I love shoes.  But I looooooove books.  These are such a tiny fraction of the books I've read and loved.  I can't go to sleep unless I read, even if it's only for 5 minutes.  And these are just the fiction ones.  Some of my favorite theological books are currently packed away in the garage.  Maybe there will be another post.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to stop typing and start reading.

Books and Shoes

I finished The Book Thief today.  I sucked me in right away and I loved it from start to finish.  This morning I was so close and I just had to find out what happened. I HAD TO.  So I read, faster and faster, until...the end!  Ahhhh.  No wait, not ahhh.  Damn!  I finished it and I wasn't ready to be done!  I want to know more about the characters.  I want an epilogue that is 500 pages long.  I don't want to leave those characters behind.  I always have this problem with books I love.  It's hell to finish them because it's like losing a friend.  Lots of friends.  I don't want to start another book, because who wants to go through that again?  And of course it won't be as good.  But I always start another one and I generally enjoy it, and eventually I find another book that absolutely sucks me in and the cycle starts all over.  If I had to choose between books and shoes I would choose books, hands down.  I have loved to read my entire life.  So, it seems only natural to bring my loves together (again, because I've done it before, but hush and pretend you don't remember that).

These are awesome.  Not sure what that thing on the back is, but I love this shoe.  It's footwear that you can read!

Cute shoes, but get off those books!  Sheesh, find something else to stand on, lady.  Books are not step ladders.  You need to love them and cherish them.  And occasionally smell them.

I'm guessing those are books of Fairy Tales.  Of course, actual fairy tales are usually gruesome and scary, but let's go with this version, with the fun crown and the cute shoes, 'kay?

 

Those tights do not go with those shoes, but at least she doesn't appear to be using those books as a footstool.  She might actually be a hoarder judging from the size of that pile.  I'm OK with that.

 

After yesterday's post, I'm not going to claim this as completely true, but they certainly do bring a certain amount of joy into an otherwise dreary exisitence.

Speaking of yesterday, thank you all so very much for your words of encouragement.  I have felt surrounded and buoyed buy love and good wishes.  The hubby says (and he's right) that I am terrible at accepting compliments, but I am doing my best and taking your words and nurturing them so that they stay and grow and help me as this process continues.

Apparently I Need Pictures

Today, in addition to being the day AFTER Easter and the day BEFORE DJ's birthday, is Children's Picture Book Day!  You may have gleaned over the years that I'm somewhat fond of books?  So of course I was excited when I saw this as a holiday, and began thinking of my favorite childhood books.  There are a ton to choose from, and I started to think about a series I used to love called The Betsy-Tacy Books.  I started looking at the books on Amazon, I looked to see if there were any themed shoes that were appropriate (nope), I discovered that there is a Betsy-Tacy society in Mankato, MN and informed Mom that we needed to take a road trip, I found shoes that weren't about the books but still tied in, and THEN I reread the name of the holiday and realized it's Children's Picture Book Day.  Oops.  Maybe if there were pictures instead of words I would have understood it better?  I really can read, honest.  Oh well, I already went down a rabbit hole of nostalgia and am going with the original post.  And, the Betsy-Tacy books do have pictures, they just aren't picture books.  Anyway, if you haven't read them, you should check them out.  I think I will be rereading them soon to see if I still love them as much as I did as a kid.  Here are my Betsy-Tacy shoes for you:

We start with the Betsy shoes.  These would be cute if they bows weren't plastic or rubber or neoprene or whatever and once they have feet inside so I can's see that crazy pattern.

I've posted these before, but don't remember when or why.  I like them.  They are bright and cheery and say spring to me.

 

Hmmmm...maybe?  I like all the parts (except the pattern) in theory, but less all together.  Or maybe it is just the pattern.  I'd like them a lot better in solid brown with the red accents.

 

Oooh...sparkly and turquoisy.

Here is where the Tacy shoes start.  Also sparkly!  And strappy.

Like the color, not terribly fond of the shape.  But it gets points for being bright and potentially cheery.

What's up with me and the hot pink shoes tonight?  I like this also.  And I think Betsy and Tacy might appreciate coordinating but not matching shoes.

Damn.  That is one tall boot.  I'd wear it if it were shorter.  I don't like over the knee boots.  Free the knees!

Despite my inability to read properly, at least I got a lovely childhood memory and some interesting shoes out of the deal.

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

Books 2 and 3

My journey through the Harry Potter audio books continues.  I finished Chamber of Secrets this week

and started Prisoner of Azkaban immediately after.

 

As I'm sure you've gathered, I love these books.  I've read them a lot.  Before each new book came out I would reread the entire series, and since the last one I tend to read all 7 about once a year.

 

Chamber of Secrets is the book where we are introduced to Dobby, the house elf.  Did you know that there are shoes with Dobby on them?

 

 

You do now!  Despite these being Gryffindor shoes, and therefore awesome, the half of Dobby's face peering out of the left shoe just creeps me out.  I'll just wear the right one and hop around on one foot.

 

 

Crocheted Dobby is way cuter!  I kind of want to find this pattern and make my very own Dobby.

 

Prisoner of Azkaban was definitely my favorite book for a long time.  It might still be, although I think Deathly Hallows may have edged it out.  I like that we get to learn more about Harry's parents in this book, especially his father.  We also learn about Harry's father's friends, who created the Maurader's Map, a magical map that looks like a blank piece of parchment until activated (with the words, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good") and then shows all of the school's secret passages and where each person present in the school is located as you are looking at the map.  Little wonder this map also appears as a theme on shoes.

 

 

Edited:  I realized after I posted that I had included this picture.  Clearly these shoes do NOT have the Marauder's Map on them.  But they're still fun.  And since it's a map of the castle, these sort of kind of work.

 

I know I've been showing a lot of baby shoes lately, but these were too cute to pass up.

 

 

There must be a baby in my life who needs these and a crocheted Dobby toy...

 

I'm listening to books in the car during my commute.  Sometimes I find it difficult to get out of the car when I get to church or home because once I start I want to keep listening, even though I know exactly what is going to happen next.  So, that's my car book.  I also always have a book on my phone that I read while waiting (Dr's appointments, etc.), a book on my nightstand, that I read before bed or when I have a spare moment, and a book (or 2) on my desk at church that I never seem to have enough time during the day to read like I should.  Being in the middle of 4 books at once is awesome.  I'd have more if I had more time.

 

 

Shoe Books

As you have probably noticed, I like shoes.  (If this is a shock to you, welcome back to the world after your time living under a rock!)  I also love books.  My mom says that when I was a kid she used to have to force me to go outside in the summer because I could easily spend the whole day curled up with a book.  Sometimes I would take my book out onto the front porch and read.  Win-win!  I was thinking of shoes and books and remembering a book I had as a child called Ballet Shoes.  So I went on Amazon to look for it and totally fell down a rabbit hole of shoe books.  I'd forgotten that there was more than one book by that author:

 

So then I just typed in shoes under the book search option and came up with all of this.  I didn't buy any.  I thought about it.  I have surgery coming up this week and need something to read while I'm recuperating, right?  But, no, I was good.  I didn't buy any.  And I won't.  Really.  Honest.  Will-power...







I Heart Books

If you've met me then you know that I love to read.  I would rather read than do almost anything else, and often I wish I could read while doing other things.  I read novels, mysteries, memoirs, historical fiction, fantasy, and I have a whole list of favorite authors.  One of these authors is Jane Austen.  I love her.  Charlotte Bronte, too.  Emily not so much.  I struggled through Wuthering Heights, and wanted to slap every character in it.  I have read the Jane Austen books multiples times, especially Pride and Prejudice.  I even read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies just for kicks.  I've read some of the Jane Austen fan-fic stuff, too.  Some of it is good, others not so much.  I bring this up, because the other day I was on Pinterest poking around (I still have no idea if I'm doing it "right") and found this:

 

 

Which, I thought was really cool, but it was filed under the Jane Austen section, and these dates range from 1890-1920.  NOT the right era.  But still, we all know how I love a good button hook, and the shoes to go with them.  I would totally wear those boots.  And I've posted some similar shoes to the ones in the top row, before.  I'm sure those decades had some lovely books attributed too them as well.

 

Too Late

So, I've made a few changes to the blog.   Blogger had some new background options, so I thought I'd give the books a try.  I know, it's a blog about shoes, not books, so maybe this is weird, but I also love books.  Is it too weird?  I also added the the Follow button off to your right.  If you want to know when I've done a new post, you can click on the follow button, put in your email, and the blog will send the post right to you.  Or maybe I'm being presumptuous that you will want to follow.  Gaaaah, now my blog is weird AND presumptive!

Moving on to what is hopefully neither a weird nor presumptive post.  It's a post about fun ideas that come too late.  The other day a friend posted the following on Facebook:

Dang!  3+ years too late!  The Bean, Flower, and Laughter would have looked sooo cute wearing my shoes with their  flower girl dresses.  Somebody needs to get me a Tardis so I can go back in time and fix this.

A day or so after this was posted the Pinterest Friend sent me a link to this article which contains, among others, the following pictures as possible wedding shoe pictures:

I hate those shoes first off.  But the picture is kind of cute.  I doubt I would do one like it, but it's a fun suggestion.

 

I suppose I could actually do this picture now since I do still have the shoes and the rings.  Would it be weird to do it 3 years later?  Yes, probably.

 

I think this is adorable.  And I don't have to be sad about not doing it because I didn't wear tennies and neither did the hubby.  But I do wish I'd gotten a picture of our feet together.  As his shoes were rented, we can not recreate the opportunity.

 

Who climbs a tree in their wedding dress?  This is crazy.  And I also would totally do it if I thought I could get away with it without ripping my dress, getting it filthy, or falling out of the tree and breaking something.

 

Again...rented shoes.  BUT, I could always do it with some every day shoes.

This one is my favorite.  I really wish I'd gotten a picture with the bridesmaids and their shoes.  Sadness.

Dangnabbit, people, don't post stuff many years past the time when I need good ideas!  You're supposed to be my friends and help me out in the creativity department.  Please try to anticipate any possible shoe-related picture that might arise in the remainder of my life and send me those ideas in a timely fashion.  Thank you.

Books

Guess what?  My awesome mom found the book!

 

Peppermint the snail's mom tells him not to go exploring because he might get lost.  But of course he does go exploring, and ends up getting purple paint splattered on his peppermint shell.  When he finds his way back home (he does get lost), his mom tries to get the purple off, but it's darn good paint.  So she says she'll have to call him Purplemint.

 

After the search for this difficult to find book, I started thinking of other books I loved as a child.  There are probably a million +, but here are a few:

 

 

Little Monster is awesome.  I had other books, too.  One of my favorites is where the monster has an upset tummy and sighs all day.  Literally, when he sighs he says, "alllll day."  Turns out he has an upset tummy because he swallowed a boot.  See?  I can work shoes in anywhere!

 

They build a HUGE sandwich.  With cranes and scaffolding.  They also crawl all over it, which is rather disgusting.  As are all the different layers they include.  I remember reading this to my mom as a kid, and trying to figure out how to sound out the work OK.

 

The title pretty much sums it up.  Little Rabbit tries all kinds of things to get that tooth to come out, but if finally falls out in her chocolate ice cream.

 

I thought the movie was really cute, but I LOVED the book. It was so goofy, and the illustrations were just a little bit creepy to me as a kid.  Made it even better.  I was fascinated with the idea of my food coming from the sky like weather.

 

Like I said, those are just a few.  There are lots more.  Apparently today is more of a book day than a shoe day.  I'll get back to shoes tomorrow.

 

Stars

I mentioned on Facebook yesterday that I can't believe I've never read Madeleine L'Engle's books.  I read A Wrinkle in Time this weekend and really liked it.  My dad said she is one of his favorite authors so he can't figure out why I never read her books.  The BFF also loves her and has often talked about her books throughout our friendship.  All I knew is that I had a vague memory of not wanting to read them as a kid.  As I was puttering around on the internet today I remembered why:

It was this cover.  It completely creeped me out, and yes, I judged a book by its cover.  I judged, freaked out, and refused to read it.  30 years later, a different cover, and I've finally remedied the situation.

So, since the book involves travel to different planets, tonight we're going with a stars/galaxies theme.

I didn't realize space was pink.  Heehee  But I like these shoes.

I don't like the style so much, but love the stars.

Nice!  It seems to be a series of galaxy tennies in different colors.

Blue.  Yay.  Still can't pull off high tops, though.

Wouldn't it be fun if space looked like this?  Weird, but fun.

Awww...the PB and I could have matching blue star shoes.

For you green fans out there.  I couldn't find a whole green pair, but this pair is very pretty.

Ooooh...if the PB had an older sibling we could ALL have matching shoes!

I really like these.  Not my usual color scheme, but you know I'm a sucker for an ankle strap.

Good night.  Please don't dream about that cover.  I don't want to be responsible for the nightmares.