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?).

Mishmash

Several people have sent me things recently, so I thought I would share them with you.

First, SKD sent me this article about the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and its collection of shoes from the past 50 years.  It's currently in storage, but the collection has over 5,000 pairs of shoes.  Sounds fun to me!  I went to the Met once, but it was so insanely crowded I almost had an anxiety attack (note to self, DON'T go on Thanksgiving weekend).  You should go read the article, but here are 2 of the pairs I thought were interesting:

You know how I feel about flip flops, but these are amazing.  I would wear these.  Or decorate with them.

 

And of course I love the flower power boots from the 60s.

The Pinterest sent me these the other day.  I'm not exactly sure why except that they are insane and hilarious and therefor awesome.  Who wears these?

 

She also sent this.  It's shoe are!  It's empowering!  Hooray!

Aaaaand she found nerd socks.  This was totally me as a kid.  Go outside and play?  OK, how about I go outside and read?  Does that count?  This are also a nice segue into the fact that today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. 

Is it me or do these look like bunnies with squirrel tails?  Whatever.  The PB could wear them on Squirrel Appreciation Day and be adorable and appropriately themed.

Finally, Mom sent this picture of Flower's adorable snow boots (with a shoe photo bomb by Laughter).

Finally finally, today is also National Hugging Day.  No shoes, just an invitation to go hug someone you love.  You could also hug someone you don't love, but that might lead to all kinds of awkwardness.

Another Happy Anniversary!

Today is the hubby's parents' 49th anniversary.  Yep, our parents got married less than a week apart in 1966 - how crazy is that?  Which means next year we have to be in Montana and Ohio over the course of a week to celebrate the 50ths!  Should be fun.  Since I covered the traditional 49th Anniversary gifts in Mom and Dad's post, I'm going with shoes from 1966 for Mil and Fil's post.  (Sheesh...they could have at least gone a year apart so I had different stuff to post on...clearly they weren't thinking about MY needs...(heehee)).

Ooooh...sassy!

Am I the only one who thinks of the Google logo when they see these?  No?  Just me then?

When The Bean was younger she would have referred to this color as "foosha," which is how I still say fuchsia because it's more fun.  These shoes are pretty fun, too.  A little odd, maybe, but still fun.

I like all of these except the red one.  I don't even fully hate that one, just not fond of the attempt to make a man's shoe into a woman's shoe in this case.  I do like its jaunty bow, though. Also, what's up with the fishnets?  If either of my moms was wearing fishnets in 1966 I think I don't want to know about it.

These are bright and fun and need a bright and fun mini dress to go with.

So Happy Anniversary to my (other) mom and dad!  Did I already mention that I got lucky in the in-law department?

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.

Time

In some ways I can't believe it's already December 7th.  Time flies!  In other ways, how can it only be December 7th?  I feel like I've done a ton of December stuff already.  Time is weird.  It was a good day, though.  The hubby and I took SKD out for breakfast and then she and I had our toes done.  I'd show you, but my feet are currently encased in tights and I'm not willing to strip down to take a picture.  Sorry.  Anyhoo, then I was home for a couple of hours, the hubby and I ran an errand, and then I drove to church for the Christmas dinner fundraiser that the Youth put on.  It was nice, good group of people, lots of fun stuff for the raffle items.  I'm ready for bed, though.  December is tiring, y'all.  Since this is post kind of about time, I thought I'd give you the week's calendar offerings:

 

 

I like these.  I think I might like them better if the heel weren't patterned, but that's a minor detail.

 

Really like these.  They are from 1885, which only makes them cooler to me.

 

And then the 90s had to come in and ruin things with a slingback.  These are fine, they just remind me that I am bitter over not being able to wear slingbacks.

 

80s boots.  Yikes.

 

Stripes!  From the 60s.

 

These are my favorite of the week!  They are from 1925 and for once I'm actually glad I get to look at the same shoe for 2 days.  Usually they put the most god-awful ones on the weekend.  So rude.

 

Happy Saturday night.  Off to bed now.

 

Aaaargh

So the crazy stress-related klutziness is happening again, and it seems to be worse than usual.  I have mysterious bruises (nothing new there), and I'm running into and tripping over things as usual, but I'm also back to breaking things.  Last time it was 2 lids and one of the hubby's dishes.  This time I can't even remember what started it, but I broke something (candle holder, maybe?).  A few weeks ago I came home and as I walked into the house a picture fell off the wall, knocked over a vase, which fell on and broke 2 candle holders.  Not my fault that time, but still scared the crap out of me.  On Sunday I picked a basket of fruit up off the table and managed to knock another 2 candle holders off so they shattered.  This morning I was cleaning the kitchen, picked up a pitcher, and apparently hit a bottle without meaning to.  I swear I didn't touch the damn thing, but down it went.  I think there's one more incident, but now I can't remember.  Apparently they're all blurring together and I'm blocking them.  I have swept up so much glass since moving into this house, it's not even funny.  I sweep and sweep and sweep and sweep some more, but I still find it every time I turn around.  If you ever come over please leave your shoes on so you don't cut your feet.

 

After my grumpy morning of sweeping glass I went to look at the calendar for today.

 

 

This picture elicited a series of thoughts:  "Ooooh....green!  I know someone who would love this color!"  "These are hideous.  Hate the heel, hate the vinyl."  And then I looked at the date (1968) and immediately started picturing outfits.  Maybe something along these lines.

 

 

I can't get that top one to rotate.  Just turn  your head to the side.  After picturing the boots with possible outfits, then I decided that yes, of course I would put these in my imaginary shoe closet, in the 60s wing.  I'd also put that 2nd outfit in there.  Totally retro and cute.



 

Handbag Tuesday

Remember way back when I got this book from one of my Arts Camp volunteers?

 

If not, don't feel bad.  It took me forever to find the original post because I couldn't for the life of me remember when I had written it.  Anyhoo, when I got the book I said I would occasionally post from it for a bit of a change of pace.  That was over 4 months ago and I haven't done it yet.  Today I am remedying that with Handbag Tuesday.  It kind of stinks that there isn't a day of the week that starts with H so I could have alliteration, but whatever.  Tuesday is just arbitrary.  I won't necessarily do this every Tuesday, but hopefully I'll do it again before another 4 months pass.  As part of the process I popped into the front office and asked our admin person to choose a number between 10 and 439.  She totally thinks I'm weird(er) now, but she was awesome and threw out 368.  Here is page 368:

 

 

This is a "tapestry and sculpted chenille bag with satin lining" from the 60s.  I'm not mad at it or anything, but it's not a purse I would choose for myself. 

 

Since this is a blog about shoes, I then went and did an image search for tapestry shoes.  There are so very many; you should definitely go check out the wider selection.

 

 

I just can't with these.  Holy cow, my eyes.  Don't get me wrong, I loved me a good tapestry vest as much as the next person in the 90s, but these shoes are a new level of crazy.  Especially that last picture.  How many cat tapestries had to die to make those ugly-ass boots?

 

Thank you to my fabulous front-office lady for helping me try something new today.  Next time try to pick a page number that doesn't lead to me needing to scrub my inner eye with a louffa... :-P

 







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!