mlroseplant

You had to have known when you posted this that your explanation was incomplete. Perhaps this was purposeful in an effort to get some more traffic on here. Soooo.  .  . I will be the first one to take the bait and ask exactly how you accomplished sticking several heel tips together like that. Did you remove the original nails and add a single, longer nail? Please elaborate.

Secondly, and this is not really a question that you can probably answer, but I wonder if the manufacturer got a little lazy or cheaped out on the original heel? Perhaps the original heel, unmodified, would be correct, or at least closer to correct, in my size (USW 9).

I approve of the heels, but I cannot in good conscience condone those super square toes. I just knew there was something wrong with square-toed shoes.

Evidently, I'm getting a pair of thigh boots soon. It's a rather long story as to why, but I guess they will show up on my doorstep any day now, just in time for spring. I will let you know how that turns out.

There are occasionally times when nobody has anything to say all at once.

Well, that and the fact that there was a period in the mid 1990s when country music was incredibly popular, and so was the clothing that went along with it. So much so that even people like me were wearing cowboy boots. That bubble was bound to burst sooner or later, with or without help.

I am currently having an inner debate about whether to purchase another couple pairs of shoes. One pair in particular seems attractive to me for a couple of reasons. They are these orange colored True Religion mules. Those of you who have watched my video know that I already have two pairs in other colors. So why the orange? It just so happens that I used to have an orange pair way back when I was first starting my collection. I don't remember for sure why I rejected them, but I do remember they were incredibly tight and hard for me to walk in. Not only that, they were orange, and when was I ever going to wear orange shoes? Fast forward 10 years, and that model of shoe has become one of my most durable and comfortable, and I'm kind of nostalgic for the orange ones, because, well, now I will wear orange shoes with no hesitation when the occasion is right. The only issue now is the price. Was the price. I just got an offer from the seller substantially reducing the price closer to something I'm willing to pay for something I really could live quite nicely without. I'm thinking the solution is to shoot them an even lower price and see what happens.

I've got the same situation going on with another pair of shoes, which happen to be red. I really like them, but I really don't need them, and I certainly don't need to pay 75 dollars for them. Maybe it's time to offer them about half of that, and see what happens.

It is already the last day of March, and I am happy to report that my goal of walking an average of 20 miles or 32 km per month, along with some other lifestyle changes, has resulted in some significant improvement in my physical self. An unintended benefit of this is that I can now fit into pants that I should have given away a long time ago, while still being able to keep everything from before--they just aren't quite as sausage casing-like. It may not seem like much distance to some, but it's evidently doing something! For reference, after one quarter of a year, so far I have walked more total distance in 2023 than I did for each of the entire years of 2017-18-19. Also, I have walked a major fraction of what I did in 2020-21-22.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about high heel walking. I don't do flattie walking on purpose, and even if I occasionally do, I certainly don't record it.

One can always put some spin on anything to make it not sound so bad. For example, the value of my shoe collection is a fraction of the value of the cars my family drives. However, the value of my musical instruments and related equipment exceeds the value of our cars by a factor of more than two.

19 hours ago, ohnoberty said:

Although in the last couple of weeks I ended up on ego.co.uk and they are definitely pushing the platform angle, and if I dare say it some are not that awful 🤣

I agree, there are some that are not so awful. See my extended answer below.

17 hours ago, Cali said:

Well I'm wearing my new black Jessica Simpson knee high with a platform today. Another rainy day and I waterproof them.  I have and wear  MANY heels with platforms. 💜 my platforms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Well, there are platforms and then there are PLATFORMS. Generally when I think of platforms, I am not thinking about Jessica Simpson boots with a one inch platform that is basically there to give you the look of a 5 inch heel without actually having to deal with a 5 inch heel. When I think about the Return of Platforms, I am thinking about the shoes and boots that are designed to look absolutely massive on purpose, which is a look that is at once inelegant and problematic to walk in.

2 hours ago, kneehighs said:

Any update on finding the back story for this? Great find.

I found out that my friend used to see this family regularly pre-pandemic, but hasn't since, except for social media. I actually talked with my friend as some length a few days ago, and can you believe I forgot to ask?

It would appear that platforms have actually come to Iowa, at least in a small way. This is bad, because if they've made it here, then they're basically worldwide. The hope is that the trend has already burnt itself out in leading fashion places, but these days there is not all that much lag between when something becomes fashionable in London or New York, and when it gets here as there used to be.

The black, rubber-soled plats are all over the place here (female only, of course), which is not totally surprising because there is not much of a learning curve with such low-heeled shoes. BUT, I actually saw a pair similar in shape to the red pair out in the wild just two days ago, being worn by a young woman at a shopping mall. They were a fabric floral pattern instead of the red, though.

I kind of like this general style, except for one thing: I am not all that crazy about the very long toes. Witch toes, I tend to call them. Therefore, my vote goes to the YSL boots, which have a reasonable length toe. On the other hand, I have been guilty of going to the other extreme, which is equally bad. If you wear pants with any sort of fullness to them with round-toed high heels, it looks like you have no feet! The struggle for balance is real.

Out of the blue, a friend sent me this picture, which was posted by this young man's mother on social media. I have very inexpertly blotted out his face because I don't know any of the people involved, although the post was set to full public. The caption to the photo set read, "[Young man's name] absolutely slayed his senior recital! And in 4 inch heels. He worked so hard and we could not be more proud."

I shall have to find out the back story, but it is encouraging to see. I believe my friend sent me this because doesn't this general style look a little familiar? Only on somebody younger, taller, and better looking than me. This is at a fairly famous music school, too, so this guy is no hack.

Just out of curiosity, in what way did they not fit? I am also curious about how those very thin straps work in the real world, but since you sent them back, I guess that is something we'll never know.

Actually, it isn’t! But it will be by the end of today, for about three different reasons. 

Oddly enough, I actually wore knee high boots yesterday, mainly because it was like, 9º yesterday morning. That's -13º for the rest of the world. So, I decided that since they hadn't been dug out all winter, I'd better take my BCBGenerations boots for a spin. Model name Sassafras. I wore them with a suit and tie and skinny pants that are not technically part of the suit, but were complementary. The poor quality snapshot you see here is a screenshot off of a livestream. Sorry, it's all I have.

I will not pretend that people didn't notice. I appeared to get a lot of notice, both overt and covert, both at church and at two different grocery stores afterwards. Of course, the rest of me didn't really blend in, either. It's not never, but it's somewhat unusual to see somebody shopping in a suit and tie these days, and it's also unusual to see anybody wearing heels this high these days. Put them together, and well.  .  . I didn't feel any negative vibes, though.

14 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Kinda bizarre. She didn’t seem to walk any better on a wooden floor than she did on the slack line! 

Doesn't it look to you like somebody needs to hack about an inch off the heels to get them to sit right? See 0:42 - 0:46. The whole thing is somewhat impressive, but has zero visual appeal.

20 hours ago, Shyheels said:

It always astonishes me that St Patrick’s Day is so much bigger a deal in the US than it is in our side of the pond.

I always figured it was because we have hardly any national holidays in the U.S., so we adopt random ones as an excuse to consume alcohol to excess. Next up is Cinco de Mayo.

5 hours ago, Mr. X said:

I got these recently from a local online buy and sell.  The brand is Jewel Badgley Mischka.  They have a 4.25" heel

Those are super cute! I have thus far shied away from buying this style or similar because I always wonder what those thin straps are going to feel like after a couple of hours. Let us know how they wear in the real world at some point, wouldya? I understand that it may be several months before the weather is cooperative.

I do not believe that it is ever an all-or-nothing situation, or at least rarely. Who among us suddenly decided one day, "Hey, guess what? I'm wearing heels today! And I'm going to make sure everybody knows I'm wearing heels!" Maybe somebody did that, but very, very few. No, we thought about it for a long time--maybe years--and then we eventually ventured out wearing 3 inch block heeled booties under flared jeans, feeling great, but at the same time wondering how people were going to react to us. Complete confidence towards the world does not necessarily equal freedom. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are certain things I don't worry about at all that I probably should, like the state of my retirement pension.

10 hours ago, bootedbloo said:

Thanks Puffer. A great article! 

I especially like the way he breaks the tension with people who stare & gawk: 

He added: 'If I sense someone is taking a longer look, I'll joke and say 'take a picture if you want' and it usually breaks up any tension.

I can sort of do that now, although I haven't really had any reason to for quite some time. There's no way I could have been that comfortable about it when I first started heeling. There is a certain confidence level one gains from years of experience.

Hello Jim, my oldest pair of heels is a little over 10 years old, they still look pretty good, and I still wear them (at least in the winter). Someday, I shall have to do a feature on them. Even if I did not have many other shoes to choose from, I would not think of getting rid of them.

21 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Well done. My basement is cluttered too.

I've never done a YouTube video, maybe someday. Hope you do more with your shoes. I looked through your main YouTube video posts, didn't see this one in there. Does YouTube take a while to open them up for general viewing if one doesn't have a direct link?

I've got this video "unlisted," as I was merely using Youtube as a convenient way to share it with y'all. Let's face it, Youtube is a cruel, cruel place. I don't need that kind of abuse.

18 hours ago, pebblesf said:

Glad I found your youtube channel!  Love those lawnboys and that cool international truck

Alas, the International has not been with us for over 10 years. However, the Lawn Boy collection still is. As my son has taken it over, it has become populated with much older mowers in general. As you can see, it has been a long, long time since I made any videos of any sort.

I just rediscovered an old hack I'd forgotten about by accident. When I came home from work, I decided I had the energy to wear one of my higher pairs of stiletto mules to prepare supper. I move around a fair bit doing that, but nothing serious. The pair I selected is nothing crazy, at about 4 1/2" heel height. Did a little bit of light cleaning after supper, and a bit of this and that, so I was in these shoes, mostly standing and moving for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours.

So here's the hack: Because the weather was so much nicer than I had anticipated, I decided to take an evening walk. For this, I selected a sturdy pair of clogs with 4 inch effective heels (5" with 1" platform). After having been in the higher, minimalist sandals for a while, the clogs were like butter. I won't say they felt like flats, but walking in them was no effort at all.