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Hello! Happy New Year!

 It's great to get back after the holidays and see the new Spring 2013 shoes starting to pop up here and there.

I was reminiscing about the Louboutin Un Bout plexi heels from this past summer.    I'm still a bit sad to have missed out on these beauties.

 But it was good to see the style isn't going away.  Clear shoes and bright colors are going to be around again.  

Manolo Blahnik has the point toe Pacha pump in pink and silver for $645.  And I love this color pink too. 

And Gianvito Rossi has a plexi and suede version in a great cobalt blue for $625.  Another yummy color.

I've seen tons of perspex heels out there as well.  Looks like illusion is going to be big for 2013.

Le Sigh - Louboutin Picks & Co Potpourri Spiked Toe & Lace Pump

We all know that Christian Louboutin makes the best spikes. But they've been much more sexy than sweet.

But can spikes be sweet and classy.  Louboutin says yes they can with their Picks & Co. Potpourri Spike and Lace pumps ($1495).  I adore them.

Champagne lace, crystals and subtle studs. You have to love a shoe that combines "lady-who-lunches" with "a-lady-who'll-eat-you-for-lunch" 

Swoon!

Not taking NO for an answer

I love shoes with glitter, but amazingly, I don't own many glittery shoes! Ever since "The One That Got Away", I've been a bit traumatized, especially about red glitter heels.

But then I opened an email from Neiman Marcus and saw these:



Louboutin platform peep-toes in deep glittery red. Oh My!

They are truly delicious and I am a sucker for a red heel but then... then I saw this:

Deep marine blue glitter. More unusual than red and I've already proven that I adore blue heels. So this... this may be more irresistible than the red.

There was just one problem. While I got the email on Monday about these being a part of the Fall Pre-order (not shipping until at least July!) there were NO MORE blues in my size.

Now these are full priced Louboutins. They sold out on these in 12 hours?

Well, yes they did... because they ONLY ORDERED A SINGLE PAIR in that size! Yes, for the entire US website shoppers (maybe even anywhere NeimanMarcus.com ships, worldwide?) they only had a single pair in 35.5.

Are ya kidding me? Isn't that totally ridiculous?

At this point I was a little incensed so I decided I needed to speak to the buyers about this. After calling around the corporate office I got a hold of the online buyer and she confirmed that, yes, this is typical. No wonder my size sells out so fast! And worse, this shoe was only for online... would not be in stores... so I was probably totally out of luck.

GRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have to have these darn shoes. It's the principle of the thing, right?

Anyway, I have this buyer trying to order me a pair. If she does good I will let you know. If not, I will be very very cranky and I'm sure you'll hear all about it.

Neiman Marcus... will you come through??? And, P.S. start stocking more in the "fringe" sizes. I'm sure there is more than one of us out there!

Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit
I really need to take a picture of the actual cardigan I wore in the outfit. It's from target and buttons up to a crew neck but it has two panels of black lace applied to the front and is just gorgeous. I bought it to wear with a short and shiny silver skirt during the holidays. I wear the top buttons open so it gives a close v-neck.

I paired this with my dark denim pencil skirt and for a bit of edge, my Paraphernalia Anatomica Arm bracelet. I've said it before, but I love the "weirdness" of their pieces.



The Focal Point
My new Louboutins called out for the slim pencil skirt and top. They are sharp!



They're high, yes, but amazingly comfortable and not as slim cut as other Louboutins. I totally could have worn these walking around New York.



And such a cute peep-toe, right?



I did do the stupidest thing while wearing them though. The floor in our office is concrete and near the base of the stairway, has a rather wide seam. Yes, I managed to step right in it and get my heel caught! Aack! It did mess up the patent a bit right near the heel tap. It isn't too bad and you can't really see it, but I know it's there and it just kills me that I was that dumb.

Poor little heels!

New York, New York - Day 1

My first day in New York was quite a hectic one. It's been ages since I'd been back there. And it didn't start off well - I got off the plane and it was pouring down rain! Good thing I'd packed other shoes. I wore a black trench dress (which I'd had for a while but hadn't worn yet) paired up with my Jimmy Choo Buzz heels. I'd packed a ton of outfits, because you know you need options, and had all of my shoes in the carry on bag. I just don't trust checking them, ya know!



So, I got in around 8am and the friend I was staying with picked me up at the airport. We went back to his apartment and both took quick cat naps, since he works nights and I'd been up since before 5am. Then we got a yummy lunch in a local restaurant. I had a great ahi tuna-topped salad.

After that and since the rain had stopped, I decided to slip on some flats and take the N train into the city. Lucky for me, the train lets off right near Bergdorfs! First check on the To Do list.



I wandered around a bit and ended up in the cosmetics section. I've been looking for a replacement lipstick for this one special edition color that I just love. Sadly, I haven't found it exactly yet, but I did get a lipstick and a Glossimer. The lipstick is Rouge Allure #17 Emotion and the Glossimer is #197 Gazelle and both are a light pinkish-orange.



But the lovely surprise is that, when I wandered into the shoe department, they were having a big designer shoe sale. And it was a mad house. Ladies, shoes and sales reps were everywhere with piles of shoes in their arms. Shoes of every designer brand were out on the racks and started at 30% off. I grabbed a few to try on myself, because, you just can't pass up a sale like that, right?

After trying on a bunch of styles I ended up getting these two pairs. The first is a pair of black patent slingback peep-toes from Christian Louboutin. I had already been walking around in my flats quite a bit but slipping these on found they were so comfortable. I almost considered wearing them for the rest of my shopping.









The other pair were these sapphire blue satin Manolo Blahniks. They're a big big but with inserts they fit fine and I couldn't resist the gorgeous blue color.











I seriously wanted to take them back to the apartment with me and wear them during the trip but I knew I would never be able to fit them in my bags (and I would have been right!) so I had them ship them to my home. This actually saved me from having to pay NY sales tax which would have been more than the shipping.

From there I decided to make my way down Madison and see what I passed along the way. I didn't have too much of a game plan. What was amazingly helpful was that before I had left, I put all the places I wanted to go into my iPhone. I had a general idea of what places were near each other so I would just use my iPhone to map the location and see where I was going. Much better than carrying around a guidebook or map, plus I could call the locations if I had a question about their hours or where exactly they were.

I did pop into H&M since we don't have one at home. But, while I've seen some cute stuff from there on folks, I just didn't spark to anything. So, back out I went.



Next up was Saks and the 10022-SHOE shoe floor. They have an express elevator which takes you right to the floor (or just confuses the heck out of people when they aren't paying attention to the sign above the doors!)

I walked all around to see if there was anything I was really dying for, since they were also doing a sale, but no luck.



I did get an opportunity to try on the Gucci sandals that I really really wanted, but, alas, the size 6s were too big. I was hoping that I could get away with the 6s and they looked really cool but nope. I did have the look to see if they came in 5 or 5.5 at all, but sadly no. And they were on sale too. Wah!



From there I kept on walking and ended up spying this store filled with gorgeous gloves. And I love gloves. I'd even brought my vintage driving gloves and Italian black embellished gloves with me.

I didn't know that Sermoneta gloves were where WendyB had purchased her controversial yellow gloves (I say she wears them well).



I tried on a few pairs but didn't get quite as adventurous as Wendy. I was more interested in the driving glove looking ones and finally got these two-tone green and off-white pair. I was hoping for an orange-pink pair but no luck. I wear a lot of green in the summer so I think they will get a lot of use. I may wear them to work on Monday.



One of the other places I wanted to go to was Caron Perfumerie. They're owned by the same person who owns Phyto so it was a bit difficult to find. The Caron products are house on the third floor near the spa but they still have the gorgeous decanters of perfumes.



The lovely Diane Haska took a great deal of time letting me sniff endless strips of delicate scents to help me narrow down to a few perfumes to try on.



I tended to move away from their more floraly ones and gravitated towards some of the more spicy ones.



The other reason I wanted to go there was to get an adorable "poof" which come in three sizes and an endless array of sherbet colors. You can get scented powders to go with these but I justed ended up getting the poof. Can you see the huge pile of tester strips under there? Those are all from me.



I ended up with the medium light blue poof. For perfumes I bough a bottle of the Parfum Sacre, which has top notes of pepper, cinnimon and coriander. You can smell the pepper clear through the box. Here are a few reviews who describe it better than I ever could -

- by Bois de Jasmin
- at BaseNotes
- by Sweet Diva



Diane also gave me decants of the three scents you see there in the front. Since I liked the spicy, she gave me Tabac Blond, Poivre (more pepper) and a classic Nuit de Noel. They're all delicious as well. You can order decants through The Perfumed Court.

After all this I was just beat. So I headed back to, basically, crash. On Wednesday I had my work conference so got ready for bed.

Day two to follow.

On a scale of 1 to 10... They're a 20!

As I may have mentioned, I have a deep and abiding love for two words - "limited edition." And when they signify a truly limited item, not just as a marketing ploy, I get very interested.

That is the concept of the site 20ltd.



Each of the items for sale on the site are unique, special or limited editions. They are sourced by the founders of the site and each are created exclusively for 20ltd. It is a privately owned company and not affiliated with any commercial organization.

The site rotates the featured 20 items frequently and when they are gone, they are gone.



I've known about the site for a while but hadn't checked it lately. Imagine my surprise and delight when I recently visited and saw these amazing Louboutin Mouche Zeppa peep-toe heels as number 14.



They are made of a light turquiose silk and antique lace.



The edition run for these is only 35. That means there are only 35 made like these in the world.

And yes, my heart pined for them. I love the color, love the lace, love the height. I schemed for ways to get them. But, even though they are not priced above a standard Louboutin price, I felt that must resist.

But that doesn't mean that I still didn't desire them...



Imagine my surprise when the sneaky but delightful husband told me he had a surprise for me yesterday. He wouldn't let me know what it was and teased me about it for a day but when I got home he had me sit down and cover my eyes. When I opened them, he had placed in my hands a boxed tucked in a silk bag with the 20ltd logo on it!

It was the coveted shoes! Any they were spectacular. The even came with Certificate of Authenticity documents, also in their own 20ltd bag.

They are the most delicate shade of blue just a smidgen away from a Tiffany blue.

They are a little bit loose but I think I can fix that. The smallest size was a 35.5 so they are just a bit loose on the heel. They are not overly narrow either, as some Louboutins can be.

I had to think of what to wear them with today. It's not like I could hold out!

I really wanted to pair the blue with red, so I ended up wearing my Luella Go International jacket which has a small stripe in the same blue. The denim skirt grounds the brighter colors. I also added a vintage clear rhinestone brooch for some sparkle.

Talk about fancy girly shoes!!!

I am totally spoiled!

BIG smooches to my Sweetie!