Shoe Customization: Corset Sandal

I'm kind of in love with these Alexander McQueen uber-tough ankle-tie heels. They're kind of scary but I would love to be able to add more toughness to my wardrobe with them.

But they're about $1000+. Sooooo, I'm not going to get them anytime soon, I don't think.



I wanted to find something that would have a similar feel but be easier on my wallet. Especially given the fact that they are not what I would call a "classic-wear-anywhere" shoe.

After some searching I found these corset style heels. They're actually a bit trashy (the brand is "Pleaser" for Pete's sake!) but since they were only $35 I felt I could make something out of them.



The style seems simple enough that they don't look totally trashy. My biggest issue was with the clear heel. I felt I could paint them and you'd be none the wiser.



So I dug into my pile of arts and crafts supplies and got my acrylic paint and paintbrushes out.



Before. After.



Not too bad, huh?





Not one to leave well enough alone, I thought it might be fun to add a contrast heel... and some glitter. Yeah, glitter might be too much but if it starts to look too crappy I can take off the paint and then just repaint them solid black.



Granted not the best lace up job here...



but I think they'll be pretty cute with this black sequined dress I just got.





Sexy, not too trashy right? The simplicity really helps.

Glitter!



Not a bad solution for the price.

There's No Place Like... Saks

Ruby Slippers collaged by Poochie

Oh My Goodness... Where do I sign up for this auction?

From Vogue -

Betsey Johnson is just one of the designers who will be designing a pair of ruby slippers to commemorate the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz next year.

19 designers, including Christian Louboutin, Diane von Furstenberg, Manolo Blahnik and Roger Vivier, will be using Crystallised Swarovski Elements for their shoes - that will be showcased at New York's Saks Fifth Avenue in September.

To raise money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the shoes will do a tour from Saks to the Bryant Park tents at New York Fashion Week before heading to Art Basel Miami Beach.

According to The New York Times, two pairs of each shoe will be produced for auction - while Betsey Johnson's design is rumoured to be a slipper turned into a high heel, Diane von Furstenberg's takes inspiration from her upcoming Wonder Woman collection and the Jimmy Choos are said to be red snakeskin pumps. Either way, we have no doubt they will all raise a lot of money when it comes to auction.

How much do you think I need to save up to get one of those shoes (any one) in the auction. Wait! What if they don't make them in my size???

Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit
I found these really cute flippy swishy skirts on sale at Old Navy so I got 4 of them. Two polka-dot ones in black and in cream and then a solid teal and black. Today I wore the black polka-dot version and paired it with a simple black knit top. For fun I have these sheer aqua leggings (No! Not leggings... sheer tights, that's it). To pull out the color I wore my vintage bubblegum necklace.



I was going to wear mary janes but ended up with these Tar-get peep-toes in black patent.



Not leggings, sheer tights... Right?



Don't mock me. I like them. I think they're cute.



The Focal Point
See cute polka-dots. Cute flippy skirt, sheer bright (footless) tights, shiny shoes.



Well, I have this skirt in two colors so you may see a similar combo again.

Oh alright, I'll probably wear regular tights next time. Geez!

; )

Pretty as a Peacock

I'm not going to use any cliche "blue suede shoes" lines for these beauties because they are just far to gorgeous for that.

I know I'm getting far to predictable with my desire for blue heels but I love peacock teal and I love this style from Manolo Blahnik.



For as much as I love this color, I don't have nearly enough of it in my wardrobe. Must get more!



If you love the Butterflo style but this color doesn't work as well with your skin tone, it comes in black as well. And who can't use another black heel?

Midnight Blues

I think I have a bit of an addiction to blue shoes lately. I went through a grey suede phase and now all I can see are blue shoes of all shades.

I love the deep dark shiny blue of these lillybee pumps. Wouldn't these look great with some bright or patterned (especially some black lace) tights for fall????

Hillary by lillybee at Simply Soles - $195

Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit
It's not overly fancy or anything but sometimes when you're tired or stressed you just need simplicity and comfort. And that's what this outfit has. A v-neck white knit top and a long khaki skirt. Just my watch as jewelry.



The Focal Point
I wanted to wear a comfy, summery shoe with my long skirt and I don't wear my espadrilles enough so I thought I would wear these cute little wedge floral slingbacks. I always feel like I'm so tall in them.



Plus they have a cute little floppy bow!

Updates and Reminders

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to send you some updates on how Mr. Napoleon is doing. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and good wishes. Here's how he normally looks. As I mentioned, he lost almost all the feathers on his back and tail. Frankly, he's a bit of a mess right now. If you want to see how he's doing, you can click here.



But, he's still alive and that's what matters to us. Were working out a system to keep him calm and for giving him his shots and the meds. We decided to give him his pain shot in the morning so it calms him down during the day.

Yesterday, we had our webcam on him and I was able to peek at him throughout the day. He spent a lot of his time looking out from the porch over to the coop. When I got home I saw that the two girls were up next to the coop yard fence looking over at him. Sweeties! I know they miss each other but we have to keep him safe and clean right now. So they must be apart of a while more.

I also wanted to send a quick reminder that I'm still looking for your shoe story! The anniversary celebration is on through Sunday! So drop in a comment or send me an email at princesspoochie (at) shoedaydreams (dot) com.

Working at Cross Purposes

Remember my second favorite outfit from SATC: The Movie? What? You don't have that list memorized???

Okay, to jog your memory, it's this Proenza Schouler outfit...



I especially liked her sandals. A bit chunky, graphic, a little nautical in there, strappy but not delicate.



All of the images I've seen of these shoes are as above - with the ankle strap and instep strap configuration. But all of the movie images show them on Carrie as having crossed straps. This leads me to believe that they simply cross-buckled the straps. Top strap attached to the bottom buckle and bottom buckled to top.

Clever, huh?



Well, I'm going to test that theory out, because, while the snakeskin covered heel version is nowhere to be found, I did score the brown leather version on sale (thank you again, Barneys!)

Sometimes I love having an off shoe size!




I hope I don't scrape myself up on the heel studs.



I didn't expect the straps to be leather. They looked more canvas but I guess I was wrong.







I hope the straps fit in the cross pattern. It will be like having two shoes in one.

Please Send Good Thoughts

If you've ever looked at my profile you would have seen that I have another blog that I write called The Daily Coop. I'm not as good about updating it but it's all about my three chickens who we've only had about a year.

My main love is our rooster Napoleon. Napoleon loves me and I love him. He comes when I call him and he likes to snuggle down in my lap when I sit down. This is even more unusual as we have not had them since they were chicks.

Today Napoleon was attacked by a dog and hurt severely. I rushed him to the emergency vet and was there with him for hours. They've asked us to have him there for a bit and then call them back. I don't know what is going to happen with him. He's is so little.



Napoleon got hurt because he was bravely defending his girls (who were able to run and hide) from this large spaniel dog. The dog may have meant no harm but Napoleon is less than 5lbs and does not know that. He just wants to protect the two hens. They were unharmed but he was not.

Almost all of his feathers were ripped off and he has a puncture wound in his back. I was able to stop the dog, gather up Napoleon and rush him to the nearest after hours vet, which is actually not that near.

I'm sitting here in tears and covered with his blood. I know this is gruesome but please please please send any kind and healing thoughts his way. I don't' think I could bear it if he did not make it.

Thank you.

UPDATE: Napoleon is home right now. We have to give him pain shots in his chest every 2 - 4 hours. We have to give him liquid antibiotics orally. He has to stay by himself for a while too and not go into the coop. We're not sure for how long. We bought an XXL pop-up dog crate. It's soft and has good ventilation which will also keep out flies, we hope. We have him in the basement right now which doesn't have bugs and is dark and draft-free. He's out of shock but he's very very tired. We just left him in the cat carrier that we used to take him to the vet. We took off the door and put a towel over it. We're hoping he stays sleepy. I have the dryer going down there so maybe the noise will soothe him.

We'll keep updates going on The Daily Coop.

Saturday Shopping and Wardrobe Changes

I'll admit it, sometimes I forget the stuff I have, especially if I've never worn it or if it's tucked way back in the closet (or if it is in one of the secondary closets out of necessity).

I had to do a few errands (including going a bit crazy at Old Navy - more about that later...) today and remembered that I had this silk bustier top from the Proenza Schouler Go International line. After wearing the dress from the line, I thought this might be safer as a weekend item. Probably not so much for work. I love the top but it's a bit too loose and a bit too busty for the office.

Anyhow, I decided to pair it with my denim skirt and, for modesty's sake, I wore my white cropped cardigan with it.



To tie the colors together a bit, I decided to wear these little kitten heeled white slides from Hype. These are more of the girly little slides that I like so much and used to wear so often.



My fa-vor-ite part of these adorable little shoes are the two buttons on the strap. Super cute.



Then, tonight we had a neighbor's party to go to. I was a bit tired but knew it would be fun, so I pulled it together. I wanted to be cool and comfortable as the party was an outside BBQ/potluck. I ended up wearing a dress I bought today from Old Navy which I had bought because it just looked so fresh and felt so comfy.

Yeah, I know, who is stupid enough to wear white to a BBQ? That would be me.

Actually, I felt the risk was minimal because we had had a late lunch so knew I probably would not be eating a lot. The dress is an adorable white cotton with red smocking and needlepoint stitching.



For some reason this isn't on the Old Navy site yet. Maybe it's too new.



Cute detail, huh?



It was warm out, but a bit buggy. I covered up from the late day sun with a straw hat and the same white cardigan from earlier today. I had a Chinese paper fan to keep cool and wore my favorite classic Keds sneakers. No fancy shoes when you are traipsing across the street, walking in gravel and standing in the grass.

It was a lovely night. My neighbors are all so great. We're lucky to be where we are.

The Devil's in the Details

Friday night we went out with our good friend Miss C for her bday. It was going to be a pretty casual group and we were going to a non-fancy restaurant, so I didn't want or need to get too dressy. Also we were going right after work so I wouldn't have a lot of time to change.

But even though I was not dressing up, I still wanted to have some very "me" items since I would be meeting some new folks. So, I went simple with the clothes, just Gap jeans and a scoop-neck black top.

But I jazzed it up with some red "details"...



Of course I picked the shoes first - the red sequin Manolos (luckily I didn't wear my red double-strap Nine West mary janes - Miss C wore hers). Then I wore my Paraphernalia heart necklace. To keep with the red but a totally different style element, I switched into my (80s?) vintage clutch.

Maybe a little matchy but because the styles and textures were all different, I think they played off of each other in a fun way.

Oh, My Giddy Heart!

In spite of some of the Stella McCartney craziness we saw from her this past season, I was totally smitten with these platform sandals. I was browsing the Barney's sale (why? why? why???) and saw them. There. On sale. For a huge amount off.

OMG!

Luckily they didn't have my size.

But never one to let a shoe get away I thought, well, maybe I'd just see if there were any in my size in the stores. Now, these started at 6, per the Stella site, so I probably won't even have the option.

Yeah, no, they had a 5.5 and it was the last one left.

Dear Reader, I got them.










I hope they are as beautiful in person as they are here. I think they are going to make me 10 feet tall! There's still plenty of warm weather left to wear them, right???

Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit(s)
I'm still catching up with capturing the outfits I wear. It's been a crazy week at work so I've been hit or miss about it. On Wednesday I wore this new dress from Target. It's a modified trench/shirt dress with a neat seam and flare towards the bottom. Yesterday I wore my dressy denim pencil skirt with my aqua argyle cardigan over a paler aqua cami.



The pattern on the dress are these very graphic circles and I decided to wear my new lillibee Jessica peep-toe heels. The large stitching goes well with the pattern and the large buckle and peep-toe style matches the vintage-y yet modern style.



Yesterday I actually brought two pairs of shoes with me since I had a client meeting but was also going out later. For about half of the day I wore my pale aqua Mizrahi driving mocs from Target.



Then later I wore my Isaac Mizrahi slides (not from Target, but on sale from Zappos a million years ago). They are very delicate suede. My favorite part is the darker whip-stitching in aqua leather.







I used to buy a lot of these girly little slides but haven't really found many I like recently. Most of the ones I see coming out are heavier or a more somber color. Maybe it is switching from Florida. I like this style because they are so perfect in summer and great with dresses and skirts. I'm going to have to do a quick search and see if they really are disappearing or if I'm imagining it.