mlroseplant

For the first time in six months, I actually got some new shoes. It was long overdue. I'm done buying more brass instruments and vintage lawn mowers for a while, and I got some overtime at work, so I decided to update the collection a little. First pair that caught my eye a long time ago was the Diane Von Furstenburg DVF (I assume the initials denote that it's the cheap line) clogs in a sort of gentle olive green. Model name unknown. That's a new color for me, but it is still very neutral, so I would say it will go with just about anything. The ebay seller has been trying to unload these things for several months, and the price came down from something like $60 to $23, so I decided to buy. Heel height is right at 5 inches with about an 1 1/8" platform. They seem comfortable, but I haven't really worn them, so we'll see. At least they fit. Second pair is something called Michael Antonio Studio, model name Tedrick. They are a medium gray color, also a first for me, at least in leather. I have some gray fabric shoes, but nothing in a leather sandal. I gave a whole 8 dollars for these, plus shipping. The exact heel height on the mules is somewhat difficult to determine due to the design, but is definitely somewhat in excess of 5 1/2", possibly 5 5/8", but maybe not quite that high. Platform is 1 1/2", which is a little thick for my taste, but is not ridiculous looking. Probably because a lot of that height comes from the deeply lugged soles, which is kind of like a mini logging boot sole, and a good portion of the platform is covered by the attachment points of the sandal straps. If it were 1 1/2" of solid wood, I think it would look way too clunky, but it looks all right. These fit me very well, have a soft cloth lining, and I really wanted to take them out for a short spin last night, despite having pulled a 13 hour day at work, but it was pouring down rain, so I didn't instead. Edit: The photos keep displaying in a random sort of manner, but you'll figure it out.

I don't really hate these shoes, but I also don't love them. I assume you wear U.S. Women's size 12 by your comment? Unfortunately, these are U.S. Women's size 9. If they fit you, I would just give them to you, because I know you love oxfords of all stripes.

No, you don't--outside of the Pleaser-type realm. These are the highest oxfords I've ever run across that don't look sort of fetish-y. If I were willing to accept wearing a 3 inch block heel, I would have endless choices of oxfords. I guess that's the one area where I must be practical. I would go to Disney World in ridiculous heels, but I wouldn't be cold doing it. I guess I'd make a terrible Korean chick. In Korea, there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a skirt that's too short, and they seem to wear them all winter long! Even with tights, I couldn't do it.

A short update--my "special" project at work is not yet finished, but some of it has been postponed. I am glad to be home at a normal hour these days, but on the other hand, I wish they would hurry up and get it over with. It is somewhat frustrating to tell the family, "I won't be available to do much of anything but eat and sleep on such-and-such days," only to discover I'll have to make that sacrifice at a later, unspecified date. The overtime money is certainly appreciated this close to the holidays. I haven't bought any new shoes for nearly six months, so I'm trying to make sure I'm wearing the more neglected members of my collection in addition to my favorites. I have had these Bakers Reissa oxfords for several years, but have never worn them in public. I have taken them for a couple half mile spins around the neighborhood early in the morning/late at night, but the fact is, I can't walk in them properly. There's basically a 5 inch difference between heel and toe, and my graceful limit is about 4 1/2". I can walk in them functionally, but it's not pretty to look at, and I can't go around looking like that. So I'm trying to expand the top of my height range, and I've started wearing them around the house, despite the fact that I absolutely hate wearing fully enclosed shoes at home. OK, I hate wearing fully enclosed shoes anywhere, but especially in my own house. Nevertheless, if I'm going to keep these shoes, I'll need to learn to walk in them, and that's not ever going to happen if I don't wear them. The other problem with these shoes is that they have a very short, rounded toe. I'm not a big fan a-them witch toed shoes, but I wish these shoes had a slightly longer, more pointy toes. The reason is that at this height/steepness, there is not much horizontal real estate being taken up, and you have to wear the slimmest, skinniest pants with them. Otherwise, with any flare or fullness at all to your pants, it looks like you have no feet, or that your toes have been chopped off. As an aside, I have bought some new leggings. I have yet to try wearing leggings out by themselves, but I use them both for my yoga practice in the winter, and for long underwear underneath basically everything all winter long. I admit to being cold-blooded, and that extra layer on my legs makes a huge difference to my comfort. My trusty three pairs of Hanes leggings are all looking raggedy and terrible, so I ordered two new pairs in a cropped length. I chose the cropped length because I have very short legs, and I was somewhat frustrated by the leggings sticking out the bottom of my skinny jeans when wearing no socks, an unattractive look in my estimation. So I took a chance on these Jockey cotton cropped leggings, size small. It was a good gamble. They fit perfectly. I wish they were a little tighter around the ankles, but I'm not going to fuss about it. I think they are actually supposed to hit you mid-calf, but as you can see, they hit me a little lower, which is exactly what I wanted. I can now wear clogs with skinny jeans and wear these underneath, and nobody is the wiser. I can still use the three old pairs for work, because who cares? I have to go to wool longjohns if it gets really, really cold. That's when fashion goes completely out the window, when I want to come home with all the fingers and toes that I had in the first place.

Congratulations on your recent purchases! They all look great, and I'm sure you'll get a lot of use out of them. I really like the thinner heels, at least for myself. In my fantasy land, I would wear nothing but super thin stiletto heels. In the real world, these slightly thicker, higher-than-almost everybody-else, but lower-than-fetish heel height is so practical and comfortable.

Hi folks, I'm still on a bit of a hiatus, but I thought I would allow myself to pop in and see what was REALLY going on. I also feel compelled to share a story very quickly before I go off to another 12 hour day at work. It snowed yesterday early morning. It was our first substantial snow of the season--not a lot of inches, but enough to require snow removal, and enough to cause accidents on the highway. So I got this text from my wife saying that we had bought my 10 year old all these new clothes and shoes, but had forgotten about snow boots. he evidently couldn't even get his foot into the ones we bought him last year. He said, "no problem, Mama, I'll just wear your boots for today until we can get some new ones for me." Evidently, he actually wore these things to school. Although I came home very late last night, you'd-a-think if something really awful happened, I'd-a-heard about it. These are not particularly exciting, but I'm thinking in my day, if a boy wore those to school, it would have been social suicide. If I hear anything more, I'll let you know.

Guys (and the occasional gal), I think I'm going to have to take a break from HHP for a while. I've got a special project coming up at work soon which will consume most of my waking hours. It's not like I'm swearing it off like a bad habit, I'll still be around, but I cannot allow myself to spend this time here every day as I have in the recent past. I shall miss you all for a little while. It's not all bad, I could really use some overtime before the holiday season. I shall miss my family as well. Luckily, it's for a finite amount of time.

See, I'm just the opposite. I just cannot abide that style. In fact, I bought a pair of sandals last year that were in that same genre, and I just don't like the way they look on me. If you wore size 8 1/2, I'd just mail them to you. I think you'd totally dig them.

This brings to mind a situation a couple of years back when I wore heels to an "extracirricular" activity (meaning we were at a bar) with my coworkers at the time. Only one coworker commented, and the boss made no comment at the time, or ever. I heard that people were talking about me the next Monday, but it seemed to be rather limited and never came to anything. Hopefully, this will be the case here.

I guess my thoughts on that are, yeah, you're right, but yeah, huge flatforms like that just look terrible on the harsh daylight of the street, off of the stage. I do not think that short shorts necessarily exist to show off your shoes alone. I have figured out that wearing shorter shorts with high sandals makes my legs seem like they're actually long and nice looking. That's a calculation that goes beyond just the shoes themselves. Boots and shorts? You may be right, because a high boot will cut your legs right in half, eliminating any elongating effect of the shorts. I would never wear such a combination for that reason alone. If a person already has naturally long legs, he might get by with it and look OK.

Oh yeah, THOSE are cute!

Yeah, it looks great just the way it is. Not to be a jackwagon, but what is the "costume?" Looks like normal clothes to me.

Very nice outfit, but you're going to have to do some serious surgery to those shorts. They look seriously stretched out along the inseam. HA! In other news, it has snowed here overnight, and the temperature has dropped well below freezing. It's too early for this. Time to dig out the longjohns.

Oh, nothing all that impressive--a few months maybe? I was just expressing my frustration at how many MK failures I've had.

As a short guy with short legs, I have to be very careful with ankle boots. They tend to cut off my line and make me appear even shorter. I prefer ankle boots which are not quite at tall as the ones pictured in the original post, bordering on being shoes. Of course, if they're under boot cut pants, it doesn't much matter the exact height of the shaft.