A Foretaste Of Fall For These Shoes

That title is so 'Before and After' on Wheel of Fortune.  I just have to take a moment to give myself a WOF shoutout.  I love that show.

Moving right along.  I got out of bed at 2pm today.  That's a bloody shame (only kinda seeing as I needed rest badly).  There's been just too much going on lately - some I've mentioned here and some, well, it goes without saying this is not the place to be my own personal Dear Abby so let's just leave it at that.  Okay let's not.  My birthday's coming up and I'm having a breakdown.  There.  I said it.

Now we can move on.  So anyway, last night I was totally exhausted.  I told myself I could sleep in until 9am.  Of course the telephone then proceeded to begin ringing at 4am.  Seriously?  Seriously??  Seriously.  Not amused.  And it did not quit until well after 10am so I just started answering in a complete and total daze.  I had conversations this morning the content of which I have little to absolutely no recollection of.  That's effective.  This hazy daze of mine was quadrupled by my loving cats who have recently decided to rekindle an old habit of theirs...galloping up and down the hall in the middle of the night, crashing into my room at top speed, running up to the closet door, opening it by pulling the underside with their little paws and then wrestling in the closet all night long.  This morning I woke up to a stray t-shirt in the hallway, a couple pairs of socks hanging out from under the closet door, a random watch I haven't seen in 2 years lying by the bed and a mumble jumble of shoes, belts and scarves strewn about the closet floor.  Presh, isn't it?

Can't say as I blame them though...I know what they were after.

  They're heee-eeere.

Truth be told, when I blogged about these last week I had no idea they would live up to and exceed any expectations.  You can never tell what you're going to get when you order online. When I opened the box I was elated.

 It's ironic that I'm standing on a 'Yield' sign because bikers, rollerbladers 

and walkers alike stopped and commented on them. 

They are absolutely perfect for now and for well into fall...meaning they are a completely justified purchase (not that I've really given much thought to that when it comes to shoes...).  Hel-lo transition!

 You can even scale walls in them.  Okay low walls, but still.

I wore them with a pair of my go-to Current/Elliott Boyfriend Shorts, an Alexander Wang Pocket-T and (don't judge) an Abercrombie & Fitch fabulous sweater I picked up last winter for next to nothing.  It was the perfect outfit for late evening just before the sun went down.

From the length of the drape on the sweater you can get an idea of how perfect the shoes will be with any dress.  I'm already dreaming of wearing them with leggings, harem pants and a pair of long lost military shorts I found during Closet Excursion 2010 this past Saturday.  

I kept it simple with a rope necklace and primarily silver jewelry, but mixed it up with the chainlink ring and the turquoise stone on one of the others.  I'm finding it's getting much easier to mix silver and gold - or at least a tarnished version of gold - which is growing on me every time I wear it all together.  

Before I zip off, here's another picture of the shoes.

And now there's some money fairies I need to catch up with...I've got my net out so there's no escaping me!

Outfit details:  Abercrombie & Fitch Sweater, T by Alexander Wang Pocket T, Current/Elliott Boyfriend Shorts, Dulce Amsterdam Clog, Club Monaco Necklace, Melinda Maria Rings, Dean Davidson Turquoise Ring, Nicole Miller Sunnies

Give 'Em The Boot

I don't know about you, but Monday seemed to go by, on the one hand, at a snail's pace and on the other hand at the speed of sound.  Due to far too many exhausting issues I found myself off in la-la land dreaming about a pile of boots I can't afford, but would sure like to if the money fairies would ever show up to drop off the dollars. *Girls you know we're in the middle of an over-the-knee boot fashion swarm - but I included some others as well.*

A girl can dream.

It's a good thing I can multi-task because as the sun dropped somehow I woke up back in line at Cold Stone just as the guy was asking what I wanted (miracle).  If you're near one of their locations - hey if you can just drive to one of their locations - I highly recommend the Key To My Heart key lime summer concoction they've dreamed up. It saved me from kicking my tv out the window tonight when I wasted 20 whole minutes of my life that I can never retrieve just to find out that Ali picked Roberto (bachelorette colossal waste of air time, my time, your time, anytime).  What-ever.  It was not the most shocking finale yet.  Yawwwwwn.  But I am glad Chris escaped her evil grip with his dignity intact.  Miracles happen every day.

You hear that money fairies?  Money fairies....??

Top Row (L-R):  Nine West-OnTheMoon, House of Harlow-Samia, Loeffler Randall-Riley Over-the-Knee, Elizabeth and James-Wrapped Wedge Over-the-Knee
Bottom Row (L-R):  Miu Miu-Tall Motorcycle, Chloe-Lace-Up Wedge Tall Boot, Stuart Weitzman-Wooden Clog Bottom, Gucci-Catherine High Wedge

Lost and Found. And Found Again.

True to my word I spent this weekend taking several naps, folding laundry and OD'ing on Dateline, 48 Hours and 20/20.  On Saturday I had grand plans to get up early, do some light cleaning and later spend the day outdoors.  Instead I got caught up in a vacuuming frenzy during which time I thought I had burnt out the poor machine entirely when it made the most odd whirring noise.  In a panic I called on the Chef (who was in the other room watching baseball while I toiled away - where is the justice in this wicked, wicked world??) who carefully removed the vacuum from my white knuckled grasp only to disassemble it and find a sock stuck in the hose (a sock I've been looking for too btw - thereby debunking the whole dryer eats sock myth).  

Interestingly enough I don't even recall seeing a sock in my path.  

Anyway, having gotten myself all worked up I decided to open one of the closets (damn fool) and was inevitably sucked into a tornado-like swirl of shoes, boxes, more coats than I know what to do with and a few items I barely even recall purchasing (she admits sheepishly).  Thankfully I emerged safely a couple hours later with a pair of heels and 2 pairs of boots that are basically foreigners to me, and a dress I knew I had, but had been saving for warmer days. Forget that nonsense.

Remember this lovely lady from the H&M Garden Collection?

It sold out faster than you could get down there and pull someone's hair out for it.  I called in pronto when the line was released and all the liner-uppers had robbed me of my dreams of wearing the dress while riding a unicorn over the rainbow to the pot of gold (or something like that).  My heart sank as I spoke with the girl on the telephone.  We lamented, patted one another's telephone shoulders (she had wanted one too), and felt sorry for ourselves before she held some additional items for me and then exited the conversation.

Later that day I stopped by to check out my held items.  The person who had helped me on the phone had left for the day, but her shopgirl colleague said, "Ohhhhh you're the one with the Rose dress," as she walked into the back room to get my stuff.  I thought, "Wow I must have really been a pathetic mess on the phone if they talked about it amongst themselves afterward.  I need to reel it in."  As I was finishing up this thought she came walking around the corner with none other than THE.DRESS.  I swear I heard the heavens open and a choir of angels burst into song!!  My shopgirl had saved a returned dress for me!!  What are the odds of one getting returned the very same day??

I ran off into the fitting room, zipped it up, and the rest is history...history in my closet until yesterday.  The Chef had said to me, "It looks great, but I don't think you're going to wear that thing."  Met with the withering look of a girl in her newly recovered, coveted dress he sweetly re-adjusted with a grin, "Okay, where are you going to wear that thing.  With what?"  And I said I'd wear it everywhere.  Around the house vacuuming, watering my plants, to the store with flip flops, and maybe to a friend's afternoon bridal shower - pretty much wherever I wanted to (does this sound familiar?)  All he said was, "Yeah sure you're going to wear it casually around. Suuuuure."  So I bought it. And then I found it in my closet. And then I wore it all day yesterday.  Ha Ha Chef!

I wore it to Petco to get a treat for my cats.

Then I wore it while I waited patiently in line at Cold Stone Creamery.

The journey continued while I strolled around in the dress eating Key Lime Raspberry ice cream.

I wore it with a pair of my favorite flats.

 

Another thing I remembered I had in the closet; worn sparingly and with love.

 When the ice cream was gone I continued to window shop in the dress.

I came out of a pink door in the dress.

I looked around some more in the dress.

And having torn up the town, I walked home in the dress.

Right after I had him take a close up of its exquisitely feminine features.  

I'm so glad I challenged myself to buy and wear it.

The dress is so pretty and I felt like such a girl in it.  

My favorite part was the knowing smiles I shared with other women
who walked by.

Us girls, we love a cute dress.  It can make our day.

In recent years I have begun to make more pointed purchases like this.  Before I would have shied away for reasons similar to those expressed by the Chef - and there's nothing wrong with those reasons in and of themselves - but I got to thinking.  You know, I'm only going to live once.  And if I keep on putting these types of purchases off, there will come a point in my life when it won't be age appropriate to wear things like this anymore.  And I will look back with regret having missed out because I played it safe.  Life's too short.  Every day can be a garden party dress day - even if you're just running to the post office or grabbing a can of catfood.  Or simply vacuuming up your sock. 

Happy Monday everyone! Hope your weekend was grand! 

Outfit details:  Tom Ford Sunnies, Martin + Osa Denim Jacket, H&M Rose Dress/Garden Collection, Arnold Churgin Flats, Sorial Handbag, Melinda Maria Rings, Melinda Maria Cuff.