Study of Shoes and Stilettos

Black round-toe T-strap pump with 4-inch heel, by Hot Kiss.  Conservative meetings mean conservative footwear (mostly).  But, because this is me we’re talking about I decided to up my game with funky tights.  That’s just how I roll.  I have some pretty impressive bruises on my left knee due to a fantastic sledding tumble last weekend, so the dark purple tights are an excellent choice to cover up my black and blue body parts.

Gray suede sneaker by Puma.

Hi and Happy 2011!  I don’t have to go back to work until tomorrow (yay!) and have spent a lovely morning sleeping in and, um, sleeping in.  My most pressing tasks of the day including finding a pink or purple beanie and meeting a friend for lunch.  I love these lazy kind of vacation days!

Leopard print d’orsay* heels with sequin and lace embellishments, 4-inch heel and a peep-toe, by Steve Madden.  I don’t know if I can explain in how many different ways I love and adore these shoes.  I love the pony-hair animal print (not real pony hair, obviously), I love the sparkly bits, the peep toes…these are easily one of my all-time favorite pairs of shoes.  I wore these lovelies for 15-hours straight, from work straight to a holiday party, and by the end of the night I was still trotting all over the place without any kind of foot pain.  That, my friends, is the mark of a fabulous pair of heels.

*Vocabulary Lesson:

• A d’orsay (door-say) heel is cut away on the middle of the vamp from the toe-box to the heel so that the arch of the foot is exposed.
• The vamp is the center part of the shoe, the part that goes over/around your arch.
• Perhaps a bit more self-explanatory, the toe-box is the area where your toesies live.

Editors Note: Goodness, I never realized how many definitions it takes to explain something like this!  Huzzah for the mini vocabulary lesson!

Hello?  Is this thing on?  I would first like to thank the gaggle of guest posters who filled in for me while I was away.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!  I would also like to thank pinksuedeshoe for babysitting things here in my absence, best twin ever! (Yes, she’s really my twin.  Don’t freak out.)  I’d like to thank the Academy….wait.  No.  That’s not right.  At any rate, I’m back!  I spent a lovely week lounging in the sun and exploring the Mexican Riviera!  I managed not to take a single picture of my feet, because apparently the combination of tropical sun, absolutely no responsibility and a lot of fresh pico de gallo and delicious burritos will make me completely lose my head.

Espadrille/deck shoe in navy and cream stripe with thin rubber tread by French Sole.  I’m pretty sure these shoes are ambidextrous, or whatever it’s called when there isn’t a right shoe and a left shoe…there are just two shoes.  I have switched them up a half-dozen times and I can’t figure out which one, if either, is supposed to go on my left foot and which on my right.  Whatever, I love them.  They are comfortable and soft and over the course of the last week were well loved and often worn.  I’ll get back to “real life” today and tomorrow; you know, an 8-5 job, tackling the medium-sized mountain threatening to topple across the room, grocery shopping and vacation detox, but for now I’m trying to fend off the icy cold another day by shuffling around the house in these soft, stripey shoes.

CC has been leaving me some lovely comments and while she doesn’t have a blog of her own I think she’s off to a great start in her inagural blog post!  These shoes are adorable–and on sale!–I’m sure you could find a way to incorporate them in your New Year’s Resolutions.  Right?

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Hello Fellow Shoe Lovers,

CC here. Guest blogger reporting for duty. As you can see I won’t be guest blogging on any photography sites anytime soon. Taking pretty pictures is not my strong point which is why I resorted to this picture.

However, wearing pretty shoes is an area in which I excel. Who doesn’t love a pretty, little, pointy, gray, suede, kitten heel? That’s a lot of commas. They show the perfect amount of toe cleavage. Just enough to still be classy. These pretty things visited my dreams for a few weeks after seeing them in the store. One day, in celebration of nothing in particular, I decided to make them my own. To make it that much sweeter, my Target version is much cheaper than the Macy’s. Honestly, this love at first sight has lasted well beyond the honeymoon stage. So happy and so in love.

Buy them here, now on sale for $17.99! Mossimo Veralis Ruffley Flat

Today’s shoes are brought to you from across the pond, Mackenzi is one of my most favorite former students and I was thrilled when she volunteered to fill in for me from her outpost in London.  Miss Kenzi, you have a great start on some amazing style with these beauties!

I have always, always, always wanted to own a pair of red patent leather heels. They are sassy, classy, and seriously hot.  However, I have never found that pair that is just quite right. Then I found these beauties. They are everything I ever wanted in a red shoe; skinny heel, peep toe, shinny, eye popping color, these ladies are the complete package. And the best part? Only $20. I’m in love.

All I want for Christmas is Peace on Earth and really cute shoes.   –Wise Proverb

Hello, e. here from pinksuedeshoe.  A few months ago I found these perfect red plaid rainboots on clearance at a Texas TJ Maxx for all of $12.  It was a happy happy day.

[ Available at zappos, but for much more than $12, unfortunately. ]

I wasn’t hoping to use them until the Spring.  I have a great red raincoat to wear them with.  But, mother nature had something different in mind.  It’s been pouring buckets of rain in my neck of the woods for days.  Days and days.  I’m hoping for a cold snap tonight so that maybe we’ll have a white Christmas.  Maybe.  I’m going to a Christmas Eve program held in a barn near my mom’s house tonight.  And I think that these boots will be a a festive way to help keep the mud and barn-ness off my feet.  Merry Christmas, if you are celebrating.  If not, Happy Friday!

Shannon is all-together lovely and charming and all those things you look for in a friend who lives in your computer.  Plus, she does awesome things like send me pictures of  shoe ornaments (as in, things that go on a tree).  Clearly, we are meant to be friends.

Howdy from Texas! (No, we don’t always say that, but it’s a good distinguisher from the other substitutes thus far.) What a wonderful opportunity we shoe-lovers have here to share while The Shoeologist is off getting sand in her toes.   In the southern part of Texas, our Christmas weather currently has a high of a nice chilly 78 degrees. Which is why I can still wear my favorite pair of shoes just a few days before Christmas.

This pair of gray suede peep toe slingbacks are from my favorite designers, Elie Tahari. Now, if you are familiar with Tahari, you might be with me and consider her a luxury designer… I shop sale racks only. But, during a quick trip to Marshall’s to look for a dress, I saw these shoes. And it was almost an “angelic” moment, for I could hear a chorus. (Maybe it was the background music, but go with it.) I tried the shoes on and they fit perfectly. They spoke to me and said, “We are coming home with you.” So, of course, they did!

One of my favorite aspects of these shoes is they are probably one of the most comfortable pair of shoes I own! I have worn them to work, and then social functions that evening, and it was only around the 12-hour mark that my feet started questioning my sanity.  Now, I fear these shoes were on such deep discount ($50) because they are no longer available…I cannot find any place on the internet to guide you to these lovely beauties. However, if you are at one of your local discount shopping stores, you never know what type of luxury shoes you can find at not-even-close-to luxury pricing.

Sharon has this incredible sense of style I have admired since we met, and I am so glad she graciously volunteered to guest post for me!  Today’s lesson: thrifting shoes.  This is something I’ve never been brave enough to do, so I will be taking good notes here.

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There is something great about second- hand-shoes.  Before they came into your life, they had a completely different existence full of adventure.  Although you may never know their past stories, that doesn’t mean you can’t add a few more chapters to their lives.  Here are a few of my favorite second-hand-shoes.

These boots were purchased at Deseret Industries for $7.00.  Before they came to me I believe they belonged to an Almost Rodeo Queen. You know, the one with blonde, curly, way-too-poofy hair. She probably only won Miss Congeniality (pity award) in her local city’s rodeo and gave up on Rodeo-Queening for good.

I scored these duds at my favorite thrift store, St. Vincent de Paul, for $3.99. I think an older lady, probably about 63, had these before me. Her name was Bonnie and she was still hip in her older age. I am also guessing these bright, salmon colored shoes were only worn for mall-walking or getting the mail. They were in mint condition when I got them; luckily for them, I wear them all the time.

I actually do know the story behind these lovely, lovely rain boots. I found them when I was helping my husband’s grandmother clean out her attic. I tried them on and asked in my sweetest voice if she was planning on keeping them. She told me they were hers when she was my age, and she wore them every day. She grew up in Finland so they truly have had an adventurous life.  I am so glad they are mine now, and get a lot of use in this rainy, rainy, state (Washington) I live in.

XOXO

Second-Hand-Sharon