All Activity

Indeed. It’s what I would call living dangerously

I’m a boots, jeans and jumper guy and will remain so. It’s nice that the English climate accommodates me so well although even when I lived in Australia it was still boots and jeans as a rule. It’s more fun still when the boots have a 10cm - and more exciting still, a 12cm heel!

The main problem with Keds is, while wearing them, a person is not going to get any better at wearing 12 or 13 cm heels. To be fair, this is probably not a wise endeavor when one is 8 months pregnant. To answer the question, and yes this is my bias, everybody already knows it: If it had been me, I would have worn some cute leather sandals with the sundress, same as I would with a Dirndlkleid for that matter. But that is a matter for somebody else's life, as I am destined to wear bifurcated lower body clothing for the remainder of my days.

I'm surprised you didn't get clocked on the head with a frying pan!

I don't remember foot changes with pregnancy with my wife, but I have heard of it happening. Interesting that they never returned to pre-pregnancy size though. I remember getting into trouble during that time period with her weight. I teased her and called her "whale belly" because she was into workouts and fitness when she got pregnant. I asked the OBGYN at the time how much weight a woman should gain during pregnancy, and he said between 15-25 pounds. I thought my wife looked huge, so I asked her how much she had gained and he said, "15 pounds". That was when I knew I was in trouble! 🙂 But I also teased her about the baby-weight not coming off after the baby. She wanted to prove me wrong so bad that after giving birth it was 22 days before she lost her baby weight. She had to modify her exercise routine, so she did not cause damage to parts of her that had passed a baby, but I thought 22 days to pre-pregnancy weight was pretty darn good.

We get plenty of wind here; I mean this is the third gale we have had this week, but being living on an island as far out to sea as we live, you cannot dry anything outside unfortunately. The sea air has too much moisture in it, and salty moisture as well. Salty moisture always feels like your clothes are damp so why everything has to be washed in fresh water. I saw a used dryer yesterday at my local appliance place for $150 USD and might consider something like that. Room is just so tight in this small house though so we shall see.

Washer Dryer combos always take forever. I had one before in my old apartment. And yes, the drying is the time consuming part. Because the system has to get all the water out first before it can dry your clothes. It always felt like it was faster if I hung my clothes to dry.

Crawling about the rocks in high heels would be insane. Sneakers are appropriate in this case. (BUT ONLY in this case.)

Well, I don't feel it is appropriate for me to judge, Nonetheless, sneaks would be fine, but definitely not a fan of the sneaks she is wearing.

Even though this is supposed to be a thread about durable heels, it seems like a good place to put shoe failures as well. I just had Shoe Failure No. 4 in 2025 last night. I really thought I was going to make it with just 3 failures this year. My BCBGeneration Queenie wedges yielded up the ghost. Funny thing is, I never really wore them all that seriously. They were pretty much just house shoes. I'm sure I wore them to the grocery store or other errands quite a few times, but I do not have any record of them having been part of my walking routine. I do not know whether I will attempt to replace them, since I have other mid heeled wedges that are less clunky looking.

Well done! I need to do the same!

OK, so I felt guilty about slacking, so I pulled out my highest regular heels for church yesterday morning. I actually had the morning off from musical duties, so I could sit with my family in the congregation like a normal person. These particular pumps are some off brand called Elisabet Tang. There is another brand called GenShuo that is exactly the same. They are inexpensive shoes, but appear to be well made for what they are. They are slightly higher than the similar Steve Madden shoes of that ilk like the Daisie, but still clock in at a mere 11.3 cm when translated to size 38. I thought I did ok in them. I didn't have to walk more than 30 meters at a time, though, so I can't give a real assessment. At the time this photo was taken, the wind had picked up to about 40 km/h, and everything was starting to ice over. Therefore, I switched to boots to after that to run errands.

I understand that foot size often changes during or after pregnancy. My mom said she used to wear size 5 back in the 60s and before. By the time I came along, all I can remember in her closet is 6 1/2 or better. And yes, I did try on her shoes when she wasn't around. My ex-wife's feet swelled up something terrible when she was pregnant with my older son. Luckily, it was summer, and she bought a pair of single band leather slides, and that's all she could wear for a couple of months. Amazingly, only a few short hours after giving birth, her feet shrank back down to normal size, and that's where they've stayed ever since, as far as I know. My current wife's feet increased a whole size after giving birth to my younger son. This was kind of disappointing to me, because we had gone to the great trouble of bringing about 50 pairs of shoes from Vietnam, most of them heels, and none of which fit her within months of coming to the U.S.

Absolutely, I can't imagine wearing flats all the time

I think regularly wearing heels is simply a great idea all around

Incredible to see that hhplace and some of it's members exists for so long! I was still a child at that time and the Internet wasn't even really a thing for me until the early 2000s. However I do remember that when first looking for information about high heels I found hhplace 🙂

So regularly wearing heels might compensate this growth so they stay the same size. So far I couldn't realize any change in size on my own feet. Maybe they would've grown if I never wore heels. Who knows, interesting thought at least.

Nothing wrong with combining a dress with a pair of flats, the particular one of your wife is a good combination in my eyes. And I totally agree on how it gives more of a formal or informal look. My personal view on this is that flats make a look more boring, and heels more exciting. And for myself it would somehow just feel wrong to wear a dress with flats. But for me it would generally feel wrong to wear flats for anything that isn't a sports or working activity 😉

Just as a follow-up we ended up buying an AI based washer/dryer combo. The jury is still out on whether we like it or not. It is far more advanced than I ever thought it would be. It can shut down for the slightest of reasons if everything is not perfectly aligned which can be problematic here with our water quality. But we like the small footprint of it, as we live in a small house, and how easy it was to set up. Just 120 volt, no special wiring required since it uses a heat pump, and no dryer vent to hook up, again because it is a heat pump. So we like that. And every load of laundry is clean and dry and comes out absolutely perfect, which considering the brackish water we have on this island, it is a true miracle. But... it takes an awfully long time to dry. It is a very small washer combo and it does not matter if it is a tiny load, or a small load, you put it in today and it will be done in a week. Well not quite that bad, but at least 4-5 hours. (By small load I mean what me and the wife would wear for clothes on a given day. Yes, that small) She put in 5 pairs of leggings... that was it, and it still took 4 hours to wash and dry just that! The washer part is fine; it is the dryer portion of it. We might wait and see how much room we have after we get our new water desalination system installed, and if we have room, we might just buy a conventional dryer.

I believe, too, that the bones in one’s feet do continue to grow too, albeit very slowly throughout life.

This may anger some on here, and it certainly is not meant too, but my wife switches often between wearing a particular dress with high heels and maybe sneakers. They are a specific type, what we call Keds here, but other call plimsolls in other countries. It depends on her mood because what she wears for shoes changes the whole meaning of the outfit. High heels just naturally look more formal, whereas the Keds give her a more youthful, informal look. I give her my opinion on what she should wear, but it's just a suggestion: I am not the Shoe Police that is for sure. Here is an example. She is wearing a sundress and Keds (plimsolls) in this photo. She thought Keds would look more informal because it was her maternity photoshoot for our daughter. I am in no way saying high heels would have been inappropriate, but it was one of those fashion decisions that she made. But she likes her high heels and will wear them too. Does the shoes work with the outfit for the scope of the photoshoot? Please: be the judge of that for yourself.

Yeah, that was why I mentioned what I had learned: I could see it going in both directions. Feet getting longer because of unsupported arches, and yet with strengthening and heel supports... like high heels... your foot could actually get shorter. I was glad I had my foot sized checked as I have been buying the wrong size sneakers for the past several years.

I was back a member in the late 1990's... but then left for many years. Not upset at anything or anyone, just lost interest. I recently came back but had forgotten my username and password so I started all over. I am not sure that counts anyway. But I do remember the early years!

Gosh, I wish I could be so casual about wearing 12cm stiletto boots ... I'll get there one day, I hope, but I've sure got some practicing ahead of me ...

Same for me. I wore my 13 cm boots at home a few times, but only out once. There was a lot going on before Christmas, so I didn't have quite the time to practice a lot. Naturally there were also many partys and events where I wore some 12 cm boots, so I'm not totally out of routine 🙂