Clouds. And shoes.

Look to the Clouds
8/21/12
“Suddenly I have this feeling
Tasting copper in my mouth
I look to watch the clouds for my last breath…”

  ~The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Copper Down

We've had some crazy good sunsets lately. I think it's the weird but lovely cool-ish weather we've had. KNOCKING WOOD HERE.  (Ok and yes, this Oklahoma girl is calling 93 degrees cool, but it's the truth.  WAY better than the 115 or better we saw this time last year and the year before. Lord, that's practically FALL temperatures).

Anywho.  Pretty.

I've been taking one picture a day for 16 days (well more than 1 on most days), some of which you've seen and several you haven't.  I added my flickr badge back to the right sidebar though, in case you want to follow along. I'm participating in the 365 Project.  (1 photo a day for 365 days).  I'm placing them in a set, so they're all in a nice, neat package of photos.  A couple of bad cell phone photos, but I've been having fun trying to come up with new and interesting things.

This is more difficult than it sounds since I spend most of my time looking at the sky and/or clouds when I'm outside.  Expect lots of cloud photos over the next year. ha.  

Also, I just ordered another pair of trail shoes, this pair by Salomon. I meant to get green ones (hot hot lime green) but hit "one-click purchase" while it was on the bright purple.  Whoops.  So...now I'll have 2 pair of bright purple running shoes.  These have more support and were a tiny bit more expensive than my last pair (which didn't end up having enough support in the arch).  TMI?

And...more Pretty.

Wow.  I just noticed that it's after 10 pm.  I'm back in teacher mode during the day but it sure is hard to retrain my sleeping habits, which seem to be stuck on SUMMER. 

Summer, how I loved thee.

catch up...

Just a little catch up post!  Last week flew by in a whirlwind of ...  oh wait. Nevermind.  I did absolutely nothing of import last week.

I haven't touched a project with thread and fabric in a couple of weeks, so.... I still have a maxi dress to finish (so close!!)  No mojo tho, unfortunately.

I've seen several blogs go silent the past year. Seems the sewing blogger baton is being passed to a new generation. Not sure how I feel about that, or what that will mean for me and my space here, but I'm just going to keep on keepin on until I have nothing left to say. 

In "it's about time to screw up a body part" news, I've been walking every day for several weeks and yesterday I decided to be adventuresome and rolled down one of the hills on my hike.   Oh, all right, it wasn't on purpose.  I got off lucky...skinned one knee, wrenched one shoulder, sprained one ankle and one wrist.  I think I need better shoes.  I ordered these yesterday:

See that little spike?  They're cross country running shoes, and I need that extra traction since I walk/hike over land.  (i.e. no pavement!)

AND... I've lost little over 20 lbs since April.  This is pretty exciting to me, and I've been keeping it close to the vest because I hate oversharing.  Maybe in the next few weeks I'll make something and you'll be able to see my progress in the photos.  I'm starting to see it in my clothes.

I've also read about 12 books the past 2 weeks.  I'm not even exaggerating.  I'm a Kindle FIEND right now.

I've written about 15000 words on my little novel that could, that's starting to take shape and scare me with it's realness.  (That means I regularly have panic attacks about it and wander around the house and yard mumbling to myself. The kids just ignore me. Well, they ignored me before the mumbling too, so...)

We have Olympic fever at our house.  Do you??

G and I have decided we are moving to one of those tiny countries that sends only a few athletes to the games to increase our odds of qualifying to walk in the opening ceremony.  We think we could probably swing a curling team.  I'll be the sweeper.

For London, though, we're Lochte fans. 

But then...who isn't?

Except maybe Michael Phelps.

Speaking of...here's another Call Me Maybe parody.  This time with water!

Re-Mix Vintage Shoe Sale: 50% off!

If you love vintage shoes you probably love Re-Mix Vintage, authentic reproductions of some really great 30s & 40s shoes.  I've never owned a pair, just coveted several, because they're also pricey.

Well-made (some in Mexico, some in Spain), super comfortable, lovely.  But pricey.

This morning I stumbled across an online retailer who must be liquidating all of their Re-Mix Vintage stock, DNA Footwear.  Every pair is 50% off!! 

No refunds, all sales final.  But the price is much closer to "right" if you've been waiting to buy a  pair!

Not affiliated with DNA Footwear in any way... just thought I'd share the great find!  It was serendipitous, as I have been saving for a pair and only had half saved. Ha.  The green "Greta" wedge above is on it's way to my house!

Shoespiration: Made in USA

Think you can't buy cute shoes that are Made in the USA? Not true! Sure, it's different and you have to search them out, but there are still companies in the US (and our friends to the north) that make beautiful, high-quality shoes.

First up: Munro American, est. 1972

Staci

Pace

Sky

Journey

I love this next company, they have the funkiest, cutest boots!

Vintage Shoe Company, est. 1883

Molly Jump Boot

Bastrop

Jennifer Tanker

Talullah

Sbicca of California, est. 1920  Mostly summery fun shoes, but some boots and clogs too!

Elton

Liana

Reynolds

Spencer

 Lucchese Boot Company, est. 1883 and Tony Lama, est. 1911 For the cowgirl in all of us.

Lucchese N8665

Lucchese N8995

Tony Lama Vaquero Collection

Other companies manufacturing women's shoes in the US include Onex, Okabashi, Vivanz, and others.  The one area that I see lacking in women's shoes is dressy heels and pumps.  There are still many designers manufacturing in Italy too, such as Fratelli Rosetti, who has styles on Zappos that I love.

And I'm in love with these La Canadienne boots, made in Montreal: 

Blanche

Galaxy

I believe Remix Vintage shoes are made in Spain, although their website is very hard to navigate.  I'm just not 100% sure about every style...

Gloria

Greta

Kate

Picasso

Rita

Do you have any favorite American-made or quality import shoe stories to share? I'm always on the lookout for an alternative to outsourced manufacturing.  Are these choices more expensive?  Yes.  I think it's worth it though!

Speaking of weight loss...

Oh I wasn't?  Well, it comes after pie dontcha know?  Yummy pieeee.

Anyway.

I told Shannon I was going to make a chart for my fridge with all of my "rewards" for inspiration.  Blogger works too though.  Ouch.  Reinforcement strategies FTW.

First weight loss goal (in 11 lbs):

Miz Mooz

And, um, since I technically already purchased those... (they pinch my ankle the tiniest bit, which I'm hoping evaporates with that next 11 lbs) the next goal will be an anthro sweater of choice. (I'm rewarding myself at 10 lb increments). I suppose it will depend largely on what's still available, but here are several current ones I LURV:

Cute clothes.  The ultimate motivator.

 

Last, but certainly not lease...  Happiest of Birthday's to my best friend, my sister Desiree...

 

Crazy Shoe Lady

Amy commented on Saturday's post that the pantless model reminded her of those nightmares from high school, where she would show up and discover she was NAKED.  Oh noes!

Here's a funny (yet true) quirk of mine:  I've never had that dream where I show up somewhere naked or even in my underwear.

No, for me that nightmare is somewhat altered, but probably very telling:  I have always dreamed that I show up in public  

WITHOUT SHOES.

Apparently being shoe-less is a fate worse than public nudity.  (If you're a shoe ho like me, you can relate, amiright?)

In honor of Amy's (& my) greatest naked dream fears, I bring you Modcloth Crazy Lady Shoespiration for your Monday morning...

Enjoy!

Molten Moves Heel

 

Blue Corn Cooking Heel

 

Kick Start Heel

 

Stemming Style Heel

 

Dance Jam Heel

 

From the Heartland Heel

 

Woodland Wonders Heel

shoes, glorious shoes

I think the words to that song are somewhat altered.

Meanwhile...I have these shoes in various carts around the internets because I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT THEM.  Alas, I'm on the IT'S A HUNDRED DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS shoe fast.  So sad.

Especially when you see these...

 

Miz Mooz

 

Poetic License

All Black

And these are a little different but I've been yearning for some "penny loafers" for a couple of months.  Lo and behold, now I'm starting to see them popping up all over the net!  Naturalizer has what I think are just about the perfect pair:

 

Mind you, I need no shoes.  

I just want.  Sigh.