Knowing Your Anatomy

If you ever wanted to know the difference between

the throat versus the vamp,

check out my guest post to day on shoe anatomy over at

Broke & Beautiful.

Thanks Miss Elle for letting me stop by!

We Are Overcome

Posts may be coming a little slow around here because we have become a wee bit distracted.

And this is the reason why....



Oh yes, I've discovered TrueBlood on HBO and am now obsessively watching the show on demand over and over.

It's disturbingly right up my alley. Yum!




So, if I'm slow with the writing then you will now exactly where to find me... plopped down in front of the TV, remote control in hand, ready to pause and rewatch the good stuff!

If you like a good romantic, mysterious, paranormal, flirty sexy show, then you might want to check it out. I'm resisting reading the books so I can draw the enjoyment out as long as possible.

Le Sigh!

Start Daydreaming

I want to give a warm welcome to any new folks who are visiting today. Some of you may have been pointed in my direction because today I was featured in an article in the News & Record (Do I come off sounding a little bit crazy and snobby and spendy? I hope not!). I hope you'll come back and I look forward to hearing from all of you! Every post has a link to submit comments, so please feel free to talk back. And my email address is just over there to the right.

You will also see that there are embedded links with some of the text. These will take you to additional or related info. Click on them but be sure to come back because we aren't done yet!

What is this blog all about and where did the name come from?

Well, the site does seem to have two names. "Hello, Lover..." is from SATC, Episode 66 "I Heart NY" where Carrie looks into the Louboutin store window and sighs those words to her newest infatuation. I too have felt this urge to coo at many of the shoes out there, some of which are in my closet.

The raison d'être of the site, and the Shoe Daydreams, is predominantly because I like to talk about shoes. Shoes I like, shoes I don't like, shoes I have or want, etc. I started this blog just over a year ago to help keep in touch with distant friends and to give my husband and co-workers a break. They just didn't seem to want to talk shoes and clothes all the time! I don't know why?

I like to mix high and low fashion and I don't feel anything is too precious to wear with anything else. Because I get bored with clothes easily, you'll see a lot of Target and Old Navy items in my wardrobe. But I love classic styles done in a unique way, so I tend to "invest" in some designer shoes and quirky clothing choices.

I think you can find something cute in almost any store, so one day I'll wear a pair of shoes from Payless and the next may be a pair of Manolo Blahniks. As long as I like them and the feel good, I don't care what their pedigree is.

One thing you may find a little silly is my pen name - Poochie. Where did that come from anyway?

Well, Poochie is a nickname between me and a good friend. Since Poochie was an adorable dog who went on adventures and loved pink, I thought it would make sense to keep using it for the blog. You can't resist a pup with pink paws and fuzzy pink ears. And don't forget her purple sunglasses!

In addition to talking about shoes, I like to write about all the other things I love - travel, vintage, Etsy, afternoon tea and crazy funny singers. Along the way we'll cover shoe searches and shoe luck; I'll probably ask for your advice and I'm happy to help track down some answers or options for you.

I also write Bubblegum Plastic, which is about jewelry, accessories and more, and The Daily Coop, which is about what happens when a city girl and guy try to raise some chickens!


Some of the big themes you'll see are:

- Ensemble du Jour - The outfit I wear for the day. I hope they'll inspire you to try a new combination or look at something in a new light. Most of the collages are created on Polyvore which is a fun site to play around with.

- Lots and lots of shoe pictures - often mine or on me or ones I just admire and pine for.

- The Eeeewwws!!! - some times good designers go bad. We have to let them know we won't just let it slide.

- Store and Designer Focus - There are lots of amazing designers, big and small, and some great stores out there. We can check them out together.

- Imitation = Flattery? - Being inspired by a design and interpreting it is one thing. Blatent knocking-off sucks! Get some originality, people!

- House Tour - And if you can't make it by for Tea, I'll still invite you in for a house tour.

My Favorite Posts

You'll see a lot of posts over there in the archive, so there is lots of reading you can catch up on. But here are a few of my favorite posts to give you a quick snapshot of what this site is all about:

- How Do You Wear Those All Day?

- You're Worth the Good Stuff

- Professional in Pink

- Professional in Pink at Work

- On a Scale of 1 to 10... They're a 20! - Limited edition Louboutins

- They're Here! They're Here! - The adorable Miu Miu Tea Cup heels

- Inquiring Minds Want to Know

- Back to Bespoke - You can also learn more about Hetty Rose here.

Now, go and read some more and then let me know what you think. If you have something you're excited about or a great pair of shoes that you just adore, drop me an email. I love to hear about the things you're excited about too.

Stop by everyday or add me to your RSS feed. I publish new content at least daily if not even more often.

And if you want even more Poochie-ness, especially on those in-between times, make sure to follow me on Twitter - click here then click the "Follow" button. Are you not on Twitter??? You should be! I could give you a whole slew of reasons, but I'll let another advocate tell you all about it. Check out what the CEO of Zappos.com has to say and get started.

Also, while I try to add lots of pictures to my posts, I have even more on Flickr. If you add me as a contact you'll see the latest and greatest as soon as they're added. Or just stop by and leave a note.

On the right there, you'll see some other great, smart and funny bloggers, check them out as well!

Hope to see you soon!

Luv
Poochie

Shoe Daydreams 1 Year Anniversary Celebration

Pink Explosions by tzatziki

Today is a very special day around here because today is the 500th post and the 1 year anniversary of Shoe Daydreams!!!

I can't believe that a year has already flown by since I did my first post. Back then I had been reading several blogs and was inspired to try my own. Little did I know how much I would enjoy it.

Part of writing this blog came out of my sheer love and enjoyment of shoes and fashion. North Carolina is a great place to live but, where I am, is not a high fashion capital. And, frankly, I think some of my office mates were getting bored with all the shoe talk!

Online I found some amazing friends who are great writers, hilariously funny and amazingly inspirational all around, not just in the fashion department. Just a few to mention are:

Manolo was very supportive and added me to his blog roll right away. I was so excited.

Miss WendyB has made me laugh my ass off and taught me a thing or two about crazy monarchs, something I already loved but now know lots more about.

Winona has also been so funny it's almost wrong. I've embraced by shiny addiction with Martin's support and learned to fear what five guys could be thinking about some of my crazier choices.

Style Spy is too ready of an enabler and entices me to get more red patent leather in my life... as if I needed more!

Susie Bubble - Her layered masterpieces and overseas selections help me keep my eyes and mind open.

The Queens' style has made me want to add more toughness to my selections. And more adorable jewelry choices.

Lady Coveted's vintage selections make me wish we lived closer so I we could share closets.

And Miss Gala - it was great to meet her in person and I'm glad she's online so I can get my fix each day. I'm sure there are tons of loyal nonpareils who feel the same.

Of course these are just a few of the people who keep the blogosphere running for me. I can't say how obsessively I check back to all of my favorite sites (and Tweets and Flickr) because it might be a little scary. Only their analytics programs know for sure.

I also love love love that you all come by to read my ramblings and listen to me babbling about new shoes or a designer I just found. I love the comments I get on here and via email. It totally makes my day like you would not believe.

To celebrate and to show my love and appreciation for you all, I'd like to give a little a little present back to YOU!

Since I love to hear your stories, send me a story (or a photo or a collage or anything) about your favorite/funniest/most mortifying/happiest shoe or fashion-related moment. You can send it to me either in the comments here or to my email (see up there to the right). I'm on Flickr, Polyvore, and Twitter - so any contact method is cool.

And what sort of a prize will we be having for this Celebration??? Well, you have two choices -

Option A: $50 Zappos Gift Certificate

Option B: Two amazing books - Manolo Blahnik's Drawings and Blahniks by Bowman book of photos.

The Shoe Daydreams Share Your Shoe Story Celebration contest will run through July 20th. I'm looking forward to some fun stories for everyone. I'll have this button up on the left so it will be easy to check back.

If you want to share the contest with anyone, please feel free to do so. You can grab the image here or I can even send you the html code - just drop me an email.

Thank you all again for being here and for making this so much fun. I was asked when I started this if there was really that much to say about shoes and all, I would have to say, resoundingly, YES! And I can't wait to keep going into the next year.

Luv,

Poochie

Poochie Has No Clothes

You may have noticed that this week has been a little light on the outfit of the day posting. The hubby has been out of town since last week fishing which means that I've had to try and keep up with taking care of all the pets, the house, getting ready for work, schlepping the dogs to the doggie day care, going to work and then some community meetings in the evenings.

It kind of sucks.

But he's having a nice visit with his Dad and cousin and uncle so that on the positive side. And I get to go to New York in a few weeks so, he'll have to pick up the slack then. I guess that makes us about even.

Not that anything I've been wearing this week is too awesome or anything. Since I've been carting the dogs to and from the day care place I really haven't worn anything too nice because my older pup likes to lay on my lap while we're driving. And even when they both stay in the passenger seat I still manage to get dog hair all over me. I had to put the lint roller in the car with me because I was so covered. Plus, as the week progresses they get kind of stinky. I can't wait until Friday night when I can wash them. Pe-ew!

I did pull out some more older shoes which were kind of cool but he has the camera too! So I am sans pictures. Once he gets back I'll have to take pics of the shoes I wore (if I can remember that far back!) and post them up.

After this week we'll be back to our regular programming with some added fun of trying to figure out what to pack for the City.