Fancy feets

You know that snowstorm that wallopped the Northeastern USA, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces on Monday? Yah, sorry about that. Mea culpa. You see, I bought some new spring shoes on the weekend, thus condemning us to at least six more weeks of winter (I’m far more reliable than Wiarton Willie or Punxsutawney Phil!)

I’m not really a shoe person. Mostly, I buy shoes because it’s not socially acceptable to pad around in my socks all day. Not terribly comfortable in February, either. So shoes are a functional thing for me. I have some black ones, some brown ones. I have a couple of pairs for work, one of which is good for skirts. I have my winter boots (new and a steal from Globo this year) and a pair of Guess backless canvas tennis shoes that have come a long way from their original white. I have a pair of sandals for summer, of course, and a kicky little pair of cream coloured dress sandals with kitten heels I got last summer to wear to work. I have a pair of Timberland hikers that I have worn within an inch of their lives, and a pair of Saucony runners that I paid a comparatively small fortune for, but I love them. My single foray into the world of fashionable shoes has been this adorable pair of navy ballet flats with orange and cranberry and emerald embroidery and (gasp!) sequins that I bought last summer.

(Aren’t they cute? And I paid a stunning TWELVE dollars for them.)

So I own probably ten pairs in all, maybe a dozen. It seems to me an excess of shoes, shoes for every occassion. They’re all very nice, very functional, mostly comfortable and (with the exception of my fancy little ballet flats above) terribly uninteresting shoes.

My skirt shoes (I really have just one pair, a staid black pump with a two-inch heel and a square toe) had worn down considerably in the four years since I bought them to wear to work after my maternity leave with Tristan had ended. So this season, I found myself in need – okay, in want – of a new pair of skirt shoes.

I was in the mall on the weekend looking for new pants for Tristan (post for another day = what the holy hell do boys do to their pants that is so hard on the knees?) and I just happened to pop into Payless on my way by.

I started off looking for something in a staid black pump with a two-inch heel and a square toe. What I found was a sassy little patent leather(ish) slingback with kitten heels and a flirty little bow. LOVED them! I haven’t worn patent leather shoes since I was six years old, but I immediately and deeply loved them. I had to have them.

You’ll be shocked to hear that I was then mesmerized into buying a second pair by the buy-one-get-one-half-price devilry of Payless. As I mentioned, to date all my shoes have been variations on a safe neutral palette and conservative styling. But I’ve been studiously taking notes while watching Friday night episodes of What Not To Wear, and Clinton’s exhortation to punch it up with a bold splash of colour was rattling through my brain when I set my sights on a gorgeous pair of (he says red, she says coral) strappy summer shoes with a skinny wedge heel.

Aren’t they lovely? Red, strappy shoes. I feel so fancy! And so thrifty, too, because I paid only $40 for the lot, including tax.

(insert smug and fancy grin here)

But can I just take a minute to say that taking pictures of your own feet is not nearly so easy as it looks? Oh sure, the taking of the picture is easy enough, but the not making your legs look like sticks or amorphous blobs? Not so easy. Props to Marla, whose carefree feet photos seem as effortless as they are adorable. She is an unacknowledged master of the foot-photo, and of the foot family portrait.

So, bloggy friends, having just endured an entire post about my feet, do tell me about yours. Are you a shoe person? What are your favourite shoes?

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

17 thoughts on “Fancy feets”

  1. Are you sure we weren’t separated at birth? I must show a picture of the red shoes I bought a few weeks ago! Good for you!
    Also, a little vaseline will keep your patent leather (or, um…pleather?) (you did say Payless right?) looking nice!
    You know, I have shoes I bought at the end of last season just waiting to be worn, and they’re in the trunk waiting for me to swing by the shoe repair to get the little protectors put on the heels…that’s a sign of spring too.

  2. Great shoes!!
    I am not a shoe person. In fact, I think you have more shoes than I do. If I had to choose, I’d probably wear flip flops all the time. I sit at my desk at work all day with my shoes off, and if I didn’t live in northern Ohio I probably wouldn’t wear any at all. I did just buy some really cute black, thick bottomed flip flops a few weeks ago… right before the weather got so cold after being in the 70’s-80’s for a couple of weeks. Of course the 2 yr old threw them in the toilet right after we got home……
    Um… where was I going with this?
    Oh yeah, great shoes!

  3. Whew! Glad to hear Monday’s storm was your fault. For a while there I was worried that it was residual fallout from me taking off my snow tires.
    Cute shoes. I need some sandals for summer, I’ll have to check out Payless.

  4. I’m not a shoe person; never have been. I’m happiest with a good pair of winter boots and a pair of dressy boots, of which I have had neither for several years. I get by with a pair of decent sneaks and flip flops in the summer.
    The shoes you got for $12 are divine! I really like them.

  5. OH LOVE THE SHOES!…. I haven’t walked into the world of wedges yet. AND patent leather is the IN thing this season. I just bought a cute pair of Black pumps at The Shoe company. I must take a picture. Since I don’t buy clothes (I sell them as you know) I buy shoes. AND I’m a boot horse. OH how I love boots. I have 6 or 7 pairs of boots and I have tons of shoes but eachone is bought because I juat had to have them.
    I’m so going to try wedges now…yours are hot!
    Great job Dani!

  6. See, that’s why I can’t go to Payless. I always succumb to the BoGo. And unlike you, I am a shoe girl and have many, many, many pairs in my closet. I’m lucky if I make it out of payless with only two pairs!

  7. Yeah, I’m all about Payless. Peoople always ask me where I get my shoes from and they are shocked when I tell them.

  8. The birkenstocks I’m wearing now. Can’t wear them to work, but when I get home, they make everything good.
    I hope you don’t mind, but I tagged you with a meme. Enjoy. Or don’t. Cheers.

  9. Those are very nice shoes.
    I’m a shoe person, because my feet are pretty. I fall in love with shoes quickly and tend to buy there and then, I’m not a ditherer. Himself and I went shopping just after Christmas, argued in the car park, and I marched straight into Dolcis, bought a pair of shoes and was back out again before he’d even finished pouting. They are black flats with a bar across. I wear them practically every day.
    I’m not very good at heels. I much prefer flats, especially ballet or t-bar ones. My favourite pair of shoes at the moment are a pair of silver flats. With sequins. I wear them for work. My colleagues laugh. I’m also known for red shoes, because I adore anything red. I think my shoes make me stand out, a lot of the time.
    I have a pair of Roberto Cavalli strappy sandals that my mother bought me for my 18th birthday. They sit in my wardrobe, in their box, softly nestled in tissue. I adore them.
    My wedding shoes were ivory slingbacks with an inch heel. I got fed up of them and by the time we had the music on I was wearing a pair of white flipflops.
    I looooove flipflops. I wear them all summer and always end up with at least one pair by the end. I rarely spend a lot on them. I like them leather, plastic, sequinned, bright, with straps, without straps, etc etc. My feet suffer the abuse so I do have quite a good footcare regime. I also have some really ugly scars on my feet too 🙁
    So yes. I’m a shoe person.

  10. Love your new shoes :). I love shoes and have too many to mention or count here. And most of them are heels, which I don’t wear as often as I would love to because well, pushing a stroller in pumps just isn’t for me. But, I bought a pair of Born wedges last year, that I wore all summer, they are probobly my favourite shoes of all time, they are still in great shape (Shoe Company) and hope to find a few more pairs this year.

  11. So I’m guessing none of you are size 10W. Harumph! The makers of pretty shoes try to appease the size 10’ers by making versions of their strappy and small-heeled beauties a lot LONGER .. but still only 1.5 inches across. It’s a mockery. Window shopping this time of year is like being in the 5th circle of hell: I’m Tantalus salivating over the cute sandals that are endlessly out of reach…. (P.S. I hate you all) 😉

  12. Oh, thank goodness I’m not the only one! I also have 10W feet with really wide toes. While I love looking at shoes, I can’t buy them because my feet are shaped so weirdly. Sometimes even the 10Ws aren’t wide enough.
    I have two pairs of sneakers and one pair of heels (Penneys), one pair of sandals that are sort-of dressy and one pair of adjustable everywhere sandals (wal-mart). That’s it.
    5 pairs. Kind of sad, actually.

  13. I am SO not a shoe person. Hate buying them, hate wearing them. I’d wear socks or go barefoot all year round if I could.
    That being said, I do own quite a few pairs of sandals. Love those…and from May to September they are all that I wear.
    Cute red shoes, I must say.

  14. Got sucked in by BOGO myself last week. Yes I am a bit of shoe freak, but I manage to keep in under control for myself. Abby is a whole other matter. At four she already has a serious shoe addiction that I may encourage, just a little bit.

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