Walking Shoe FAIL

I've been back from France for 2.5 days and my tootsies are still recovering. I thought that I had some solid walking shoe selections going into the trip, but not so much.

I bought these ECCO Goya flats back in March.

They were like stepping on clouds. I excitedly saved them for my trip. On the first day of our trip, we visited the town of Beynac, France, which is basically a 45-degree angle made out of very old cobblestones. Then it drizzled and the town became a 45-degree angle made out of very old, SLIPPERY cobblestones. I did baby steps the whole way down while holding onto buildings for support and Andy occasionally backtracked to make sure I wasn't dead. I pulled these out of my suitcase again in Paris. Only one day of walking through the city of lights and I had blisters on the bottom of my toes and burning soles. These just aren't made for cobblestones.

I picked up these OTBT Springfield shoes a few months ago because I had a Groupon to burn. 

The soles are kind of like Birkenstocks, so I thought they'd be great for traversing cobblestone streets. For the first few hours that I wore them in Paris, they were a DREAM. I commented aloud that I couldn't believe that my feet didn't hurt after that morning's hike. A few hours later, I could barely walk. In fact, I "held it" for an hour at the Musee d'Orsay because the bathroom was downstairs and I couldn't face walking down and back up again. We ended up taking our only cab of the week that night because the thought of walking across town to our hotel was too much. The hard soles bruised my arches pretty badly. I wore these on Tuesday and my feet were still tender when I get a pedicure on Saturday night.

Thankfully, I impulsively tossed my dusty old PUMAS into my suitcase a few minutes before I zipped it up.

I ended up wearing these for 7 of our 10 days of travel. I was a little embarrassed by their condition and the fact that they didn't match any of my outfits, but I am pretty sure that my giant camera bag and the camera hanging around my neck already gave me away as a big, unstylish American! The shoes just sealed the deal. Incidentally, PUMAS also aren't made for walking on cobblestones. Your foot basically just bends around them like a bird.

Dear Blogger, Please Don't Crash After I Finish This Post.

1. Why do I always forget to save early/save often despite Blogger ruining so many posts on me?
   
   
2. This N-O-T an e-mail that a girl wants to receive from her hairstylist 45 days before her wedding.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   He was just assigned to do a show in Puerto Rico the day after the wedding. I am so bummed. Hair is hair, but he's my buddy, so I'm upset that he won't be able to come to the wedding. I don't even know how to describe my hair stylist. Put it this way, Naomi Campbell spots him in Topshop, recognizes him, and then gets him into clubs in Paris; he has a tattoo on his forearm that is a UPC code of a tampon box; and he'll do things like wear a beaver trucker hat on the day that I'm coming in, because I'd "get it." I just love him.
   
   
3. I think that the OOT tote bags are a pipedream. I realize that this isn't an issue to anyone but me, but now that I have them in my mind, nothing will compare to them. I'm trying to think of some cheap DIY alternatives. I can print my own iron-on transfers, but I use those all of the time and they come out just OK. Does anyone have a copy of this CD that I can beg, borrow, or steal? Paper Source has discontinued it, the 'old standbys eBay and Amazon don't carry it, and the distributor charges $65 for it. I don't like or need it that much.
   
   
   
   
   
   Images: Paper Source
   
   
4. When I saw these new J. Crew shoes on Pretty Pretty Paper today, my heart actually skipped a beat. These are EXACTLY what my rehearsal dinner outfit needs. Unfortunately, the $365 price is not what my RD outfit needs. Boooooooooooooooooooooo, J. Crew! Boooooooooooooooooo!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Image: J. Crew via Pretty Pretty Paper
   
   
5. This pretty bauble spotted today on Coco + Kelley would also be a dandy addition to my rehearsal dinner dress. I need to return to vintage jewelry. I miss it.
   
   
   
   
   
   Image: Coco + Kelley

Green Dress

Thanks for all of the shout outs on my green dress for my PS shower! I L-O-V-E that dress. I really wanted to wear it in my engagement photos, but we went casual. The green dress is from Banana Republic. It's not online anymore, but the paisley dress below is the same dress, with a pattern. I wish that I could find it in 10 more colors! I also wore the sandals shown below (but I only paid $25 for them!). The sandals are cute, but they were way too high for me. I'm 5'8" in flat feet and I was almost eye level with Andy in these. And they're not easy to scale walls or crawl around on the ground in either.

Images: Banana Republic

More Ridiculous Shoes

I walked by this Christian Louboutins in Nordstrom the other night. Wouldn't they be perfect for my dress if they weren't nine feet tall and didn't cost $865?

Images: Bergdorf Goodman

Image: Venus Bridal

I Am Broke.

Here's why:

$100 on eBay:

($124 savings; I'll hopefully wear these for the engagement photos. I may bag the Francesca skirt and wear these to my family shower in September.)

Image: J. Crew

New Bridal Shower Outfit from Banana

Sale Alert: Banana has half off of sale shoes!

I bought this dress in green. I love it. Andy said that it makes me look hot and, more importantly, skinny!

Image: Banana Republic

And I bought these earrings to wear with:

Image: Banana Republic

I can't find the shoes that I bought online and I'm too lazy to photograph them. They are HUGE white wedges. If I wear them while standing on the rug in the kitchen, I am almost eye level with Andy in them. They were only $25!

New Wedding/Shower Dress

((20% off jcrew.com coupon) I am hoping that I dress it up with heels for a wedding we're attending on 8/10 and dress it down with flats for my Sur La Table shower. They didn't have the green in chubby sizes. :( )

 Image: J. Crew

Shoe Envy

I am so bummed! Gilt Groupe was selling kate spade shoes today. I went out to the sale as soon as I received the e-mail. The first pair of shoes that I saw were these beauties...

Image: Gilt Groupe

...which are cheaper and not as shiny as my J. Crews. And the only size shown available was 10! Rock on, right? Nope. Some stupid b*tch with big feet already had them in her cart when I tried to checkout. Boooooooooo! Oh well.

I stumbled upon this clutch today in Lori's Shoes. It would be perfect for a fall vintage glam bride, no?

Image: Lori's Shoes

It's 11:15 P.M. Already?

Holy sh*t, where did today go? I was so busy today that I forgot to call my brother -- who had surgery yesterday -- ON. A. LUNG. WTF? When I picked up the phone to call, I realized that it was too early and then I didn't remember until 9 p.m. I am going to burn. Maybe I'll tell him that I did call and he forgot because of the morphine. JUST KIDDING!

Here's what I did remember to do:

Address Label Maintenance

I received 35 responses to my Alchemy request for someone to cut the labels -- including one from a woman who went to Pratt! Isn't that funny? "Yes, I had a 4.0 at Pratt. As you will see from my resume, my most recent freelance assignment was chopping some chick's ugly labels for her wedding invitations." I spent a good hour declining bids. I always feel mean turning people down and try to look at their shops and say something nice in my decline message. So it takes time.

Anyway, we're down to four missing addresses on Andy's side and two on my side.

Pick Up the Swatch of My Bridesmaid Dress

Although I am thankful for my cheap dress, I so wish that I could have found it at a dress shop in the city instead of one that's 21 miles away. Contrary to what Google Maps says, it's not 35 minutes away. It's an hour away. The Kennedy sucks.

Also, while I was at the bridal shop, I held my gold shoes up against a dress that is similar to mine. They were OK. Definitely not perfect. I think that the texture of the leather is too much. Oh well, if I find something else, then I do, if not, I'm fine with it. I only have two friends that would notice and they wouldn't care at the end of the day. I can't give those gold shoes up. They're too comfortable!

Order Jewelry for My Bridesmaids

Thank God I made it into Sara Lenart's shop today. I haven't been in there in about a year so I didn't know that she's pregnant. I squeezed my custom order in just in time before her maternity leave. Even though I requested a September delivery date, I'm glad to have it over with.

Her new work is so beautiful. There is a GORGEOUS ring that I'm loving. We talked over the color scheme and some ideas and she's running with it. I can't imagine her designing anything that's less than fabulous. The girls will be wearing orange teardrop-shaped sunstones with a mix of gold and smokey quartz and some green accents. The image below is an example of sunstones. It doesn't do them justice though. Ironically, I am wearing moonstones!

Image: http://www.limabeads.com/

Print and Cut the Coat Checks Tags

More on this tomorrow...

*Blush*

I just came home from the gym (I am on vacation today) and saw all of the wonderful comments, re: the invitations. Hooray for Blog Friends! And thank you for some of the specific suggestions. I often leave very detailed comments on people's sites and often worry that I come off bitchy, but those are the comments that I find the most helpful on my own blog. Anyway, thank you so much! I don't hate the design anymore! :)

BTW, the bride featured on Style Me Pretty today has the green Christian Lou's that I was coveting a while back. Lucky her.

Gold Shoe Update

The J. Crew shoes arrived today and I A-D-O-R-E them! The heel height is perfect (my dress is a little short on me) and, as God is my witness, they feel like slippers. They're awesome. They're shinier in person than online, but they are still perfect. Rock on. I don't know if I could get myself to return them if I did find some d'orsay heels.

You should see the shoebox. It's fuschia with gold lettering. And it's a very sturdy material. What's up with J. Crew? They so want to be J. Couture.

Gold Shoes

After trying on my dress, I have decided that a simple gold shoe might be way to go for me. Although my dress is plain, the tiers make it kind of busy. It is so hard to find cute heels in that 3" sweet spot. Everything's either flat or 4 1/2". I've ordered these from J. Crew. We'll see how they work out.

I really wanted a d'orsay heel, but haven't had much luck finding one. I still have 60 days to find one and return the J. Crew shoes, if I wanted. :)

If I were rich, I'd get these "just to have."

I was able to get most of the newspaper stains out of the other J. Crew shoes that I got in ebay. They'll be cute with jeans next summer when Andy and I finally can afford to go out to dinner again.

P.S. I was fiscally irresponsible and bought myself a necklace the other day. I was all, "I'll make it up in lunches." Then I was promptly punished by having to cough up $300 for a new external hard drive and a f-ing new CD drive. KARMA IS A BITCH. I could have lived without the CD drive if the Type and Paragraph windows wouldn't have suddenly disappeared from my Illustrator in the middle of invitation design week. I could just cry. I am so pissed. This happened a few weeks before my warranty ran out and I didn't have time to deal with. And now I'm screwed.

P.S.S. I wonder if I am also being punished for buying expensive shoes? These are over three times the cost of my original ones.

Orange with Envy

The orange shoes arrived today! I love, love, love them! Everyone in the office agreed that they're just perfect. But I must say, my size 10 Volkswagens look HUGE in orange.

Image: The Paisley Petunia ebay Seller

The ivory satin shoes arrived last week...WRAPPED IN NEWSPAPER. I am not even kidding you. The seller literally packed WHITE SATIN SHOES IN NEWSPAPER to protect them during mailing. He told me to try Woolite to get stains out, but I've been too busy to try. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm going to be so p*ssed if it doesn't work.

So...

...I just bought these on ebay for $50:

They're kind of boring, so, I think that I will dye them the salmon color from my invites or the color of the orange circles in Andy's tie.

The low-price means that I can buy these for the party:

...and still come out $562 ahead of the green Christian Louboutins!

I think that it's so apropos that my wedding shoes will have the brand name marked out to prevent return. I'm such an ebay whore. All but two pairs of boots that I own were purchased from ebay. It always makes me laugh to see my shoe stash under my desk with the brand names blacked out. I am like a Reverse Label Whore. Ha. Ha.

(fingers crossed that the satin shoes workout!)

trix, how cute are these red shoes? don't they just scream "let's go to field's for salads?"

Images: 1-2, ebay seller, stunning_styles; 3-4, j. crew

Water, Water Everywhere Yet Nothing to Drink.

I didn't feel like going to the gym after work tonight, so I went for a walk. And I got a slurpee. And somehow landed in the shoe section at Nordstrom. And chatted up a very nice salesperson. Who talked me into trying these on, in green, for fun. I hate her.

Images: Bergdoff Goodman

These cost $200 more than my wedding dress. And I love them. Despite myself. They are ridiculous. The heel's too high for an all-day affair, but they are green. And open-toe. And they have a round feather. And the woman from the Bobby Brown counter walked by and said, "OMG. Those are you." And, for once, I didn't care when someone said that to me, because the "me" item was f*ckin' awesome. And the shoe guys called them the "sickest bridal shoe ever." F*ck. F*ck. F*ck. Just once. Just once I want to be that girl that buys luxury. Just one time in my life, I want to make a frivolous purchase and not think "That's a student loan payment," or "That's two months' rent," or "What is their return policy?"

But, you know what? It's OK. Because I am marrying someone patient and funny. And doing so at A New Leaf. In the fall. Just like I always dreamed.


P.S.: No, I didn't buy the shoes!