Day 28- “New In…Attic”

I love finding shoes in the attic that I forgot about. Never before worn, still in the box, really cool shoes that hide in the attic are clearly the best. These were an online shopping impulse and I HAD TO HAVE THEM but seriously I don’t wear white, or linen, or beige, or gold BUT they did not come in Black so white, linen, beige and gold it is. They will work, eventually! These Wild Roses are not fairing well in the attic heat. So sad when fab shoes bite the dust in a wear or 2. One day I aspire to have a proper place to store my toys, in the mean time it’s survival of the fittest.

The appendages in the following photo don't look like they are part of the same person but they are... 

As for the ratings if I had one for “Popularity” so far these are #1 so far.

And and and I can’t verify it but I read vegan friendly somewhere on the topic of  “Wild Rose“ shoes.  Awesome if it's true!!!

Wear 1 *(Summer 2013)

Circa  2010

Cost  * Approx. $50

Comfort  6 (I’m sure that was because I wore them to work and I sit all day, but shockingly high rating for this style )

Pair #31

* =Best Guess

Day 27- “Oldie but Goody”

Love these cheapy, little, been around forever and through the mill babies…and yes I still wear ankle bracelets. I like them.

I painted a couple of toes black which looked Ok in person, it looks sort of weird/oddly injured in the picture…hmmmm

Wear ??? *(Summer 2013)

Circa- Old

Cost  * Approx. $15 (Back when Payless was always cheap)

Comfort  8.5 if we’re not hiking or doing the 3 Day or something

Pair #30

* =Best Guess

Day 26- “All My Clothes Are Dark= This Wardrobe Necessity”

Plain old Doc Martens. I was once told that you break them in and then they are soooo comfy. They are soooo broken in that the perfectionist in me actually hates to look at them and yet not soooo comfy. I spend more time polishing them than wearing them. I wore them to a festival and did several months and a bizillion dollars worth of damage to my foot just walking. They needed a mouse. No reason they just did. 

 Wear ??? *(Summer 2013)

Circa 2000

Cost  * Approx. $50 (Marshall’s)

Comfort  Starts at a 5 and declines rapidly

Pair #29

* =Best Guess

Day 25 “Nordstrom to the Rescue”

These are the boots that I wear every day, with ANYTHING, take everywhere and of course (yet luckily) had with me when I brought 2 left “fun, flat, work with everything for everything walking shoes” on vacation TWICE! I had to walk all over Vegas in 105 degrees and I walked all over Florida in May/June Florida weather in these. Yes, I find people are inclined to look at me like they know something that I must not know, but I find if I just own it/rock it/whatever it, it’s just Ok and acceptable and people feel that.

I looked for a long time for plain, comfy, slip on boots and in Winter 2012 I finally found them at Nordstrom by winter 2013 the boots were a touch worse for the wear and I needed another pair. Nordstrom no longer had them and again it seemed impossible to find a simple, flat, durable boot. The only logical thing to do would be take them into the body shop (shoe repair at the mall) and have them completely restored/remodeled/overhauled, whatever it takes to get them back in functioning order! So I did… but I had to have a substitute during their trip to the spa.

Day 14’s Story is about the shoes I bought to wear while these were in the shop (a reasonable and justifiable stretching of the rules) https://abbiesnotnormal13.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/day-14-stretching-the-rules/

Wear ??? *(All Of The Time)

Winter 2012

Cost * Approx. $90

Comfort 8 (varies depending on inappropriateness of use)

Pair #28 * =Best Guess

PS I walked a few legs of the Susan Komen 3 day in these.

Day 24- “Coach Rescue”

Everyone knows I rescue animals when they cross my path, lost, hungry, in need or in harms way. When I pick up dead possum with live babies in it’s pouch, take on mothering an insulin dependent cat, stop to assist a lost horse, chase a sunbathing snake out of the road, those that know me expect nothing less. It has, however, been pointed out that my rescue instinct occasionally spills over into other aspects of my life. A few examples of that friends perspective are these; before I found the perfect guy I tried to rehab an idiot or two, I bought a falling apart Victorian house and tried to "save" it, I once spent $75 on a $35 dollar watch because the alternative was to end the watch and so on and so on. It seems that it is just in my nature to save anything that crosses my path. That being said it should not be surprising that when I found these shoes being used as cleaning, mopping, yard work shoes I had to save them. I confiscated these from my mother when I found her bleaching the floor in them…I mean seriously Mommy have a little respect! They are Coach! For Crying Out Loud!

Years went by that I did not own sneakers and though I am not sure these qualify as “sneakers” they were upgraded from a very tough existence as mommy’s housework shoes to a super easy existence as my gym shoes. The fact that I did not own sneakers should clue you in as to my work out habits, if the fact that I call these (no support having, likely crazy expensive, basically brand name bobo’s) gym shoes did not clue you in. My new Coach shoes felt right at home at the posh gym (Hockessin Athletic Club, not a facility I would ever recommend BTW) to which I had been gifted a membership. Turns out little Coach sneakers are perfect for walking into the building, checking in, going to the café, getting a beer and watching a game show or two while sitting on an exercise bike then back to the car. After I got the worst customer service ever anywhere I left the gym for good and my “sneakers” got an early retirement.  Better they sit safely in my closet and just be Coach than ever see the likes of bleach again.

Here they are pictured in pillow pose.

Wear ? *(2014)

In 2012 they came to me

Cost  Free to Me

Comfort  8

Pair #27

Day 23- “A Picture is Worth 1000 Words”

There is really not much to say about these, I opened a catalog, saw them and heard Angels singing. I’m not even sure I’m kidding. Seriously see the bottom?!? I am running around showing everyone (who will look) the bottom of my shoe! AND AND AND they are sort of comfortable!!! It pains me to see they have also been affected/fallen victim to the temperature in the closet in the attic and are starting to crack. Whimper whimper whimper…

Wear 3 (Summer 2013)

August 2009

Cost  * Approx. $50

Comfort  6

Pair #26

* =Best Guess

6-19-18 Wrecked shoe box

Day 22- “Can you say EMBARRASSING?!?”

This story was going to be about my clunky, style suited for Herman Munster boots, which I bought to make me tall enough to pull off a fabulous pair of jeans I got at Nordstrom’s (with a gift certificate from a BFF). The jeans were so much too long that normal heels were not going to help and they could not be altered or hemmed due to the design on the bottom. This story is instead about a day hoping no one was noticing the trail of shoe crumbs I was leaving everywhere I walked like some modern day Hansel and Gretel. It was soooo embarrassing. Most people might be embarrassed to wear shoes that are giant, clunky, ugly boots for which no matching accessory has ever been made but I am good with all of that, however trail of shoe parts in my wake constitutes a problem. Unbeknownst to me these boots were among the multitude of footwear stored in the attic that could not handle the extreme temperatures. The morning I decided these Circa 2004 (yes 2004 not 1974) were my way to walk above the puddles created by the never ending downpours, I had no idea I should start video taping the decay that was about to occur, it would have been too funny in elapsed time. When I put them on in the morning I tried to shine them up and buff off the only small scuff I could find on them before heading off to work. By the time I got to work they started to crack across the ankle and by the end of the day every time I looked down they were missing another chunk of the beige colored shiny coating I was leaving a trail of shoe crumbs. They were disintegrating before my eyes. What’s really screwed up is that the shoe hoarding issue that lives in my head took over because instead of putting these shoes that have literally self destructed, which is obviously the universe telling me there is not room on the planet for this much ugly, straight in the trash I am now thinking about bedazzling them. They went to the craft table instead of the dumpster because there must be a way to refinish my “Herman Muster”, “made it possible for me to wear those cute jeans”, (the ones that will never fit properly or be back in style) funky 70’s kind of shoes. If there is a way and I figure it out these boots may have a second entry and stats in this blog.

Wear *? But Not Many *(Summer 2014)

Circa *2004

Cost  * Approx. $20

Comfort  4

Pair #25

* =Best Guess

Wrecked shoe box in basement June 2018