mlroseplant

9 hours ago, RonC said:

I feel for you.  I worked at home for about the last 10-12 years of working life, which meant I could wear heels much of the day while my wife was at her job.  Unfortunately, when I retired and was just starting to enjoy the freedom that afforded me to do things like shop for heels more often, she decided to retire herself.  So now I have basically no time to myself at home save for maybe a couple hours per month.  And I find myself frustrated that I am unable to lounge in heels, etc. any longer.  Heeling is limited to the few times I can go out for a little shopping and change into the heeled ankle boots I keep in the car.  I miss my home alone time greatly.

Which is exactly why I plan on building a shop in my back yard just as soon as I get my house paid off. Which will serve the dual purpose of home alone time, and we might be able to actually park cars in the garage again.

I have been busy lately for a couple of reasons, one of which is that we've gone to 10 hour days at work recently, so I haven't had a lot of time to go out of the house, other than to work. The other reason is that we've been having sewer problems, which is affecting my shoes and clothes, as I keep them in the basement. Don't worry, nothing has gotten ruined, it's just that they are harder to access now, as I've piled other things out of harm's way until we get this problem resolved.

As I have been spending more time at work, and my work is relatively physically easy, other than having to walk a lot, I am toying once again with the idea of getting a work boot with a bit of a heel on it. For several years, I've worn completely flat boots. So I've ordered these Timberland boots, and depending on what they actually seem like when I get them, I may wear them to work. Or I might return them. They are not really work boots, but given my situation right at the moment, it won't matter. It was rather difficult finding a pair of heeled boots without a side zip on them, which is a dead giveaway that it's not a work boot. They are supposed to come on Tuesday, so we'll see.

7 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Contentment is not really a natural state for me, I’m frequently looking for the next thing lol. 

Boy, can I relate to that! I suppose that's why I have a lot of skills, but I do not truly excel at any one thing.

As far as fashion goes, I can't really say I'm frustrated in the true sense of the word, but I'm not really content, either. I don't really know where I'm going with all of this, or why. After retirement (if I ever retire fully, and I have no definite plans to at age 52), the only limitation will be good taste, and my physical abilities. Hopefully I have the common sense to stay within the limits of both.

Great look, Cali! Although I must say, we all have our weird, individual hangups about things. I don't really see anything in this outfit that I wouldn't have worn three years ago, but on the other hand, I would never wear nail polish, even if I liked it! For me, that would be pushing it too far. But with your permission, I might steal your look, with the exception of the nails. Also, I think I'll skip the "headless" look.

I've got a pair of sandals in the same shade, and I rather like them. Very understated, yet somehow girly. I cannot, however, endorse the combination of track pants with way dressier clothing on top. Something's rather jarring about it, especially with the heels. The jeans to me look much better, although I will never understand the "distressed" style. I suppose I wasn't meant to. Doesn't matter. Overall you present a striking look, whether I like the individual pieces or not.

My wife has an interesting hangup in that if it's labeled "Women's size 9" she doesn't like it. If the same exact thing were labeled "Men's size 7" it would be ok. So when you say, "My wife allows me to wear women's loafers," a year ago I would have said, "Why did you bother to tell her in the first place? She would never know."

In the present day, I think I have answered my own question in that it's the idea she's getting used to. When I bought my young son a very nice pair of dress shoes (low heeled) for a very nice price, she could not really argue with the fact that it was smarter to go the women's shoes route rather than the boys' shoes route. I think a lot of it is simply the perception, rather than the reality. Just because something is labeled "women's" doesn't fundamentally change what it is. A lot of women (and men) ain't figured this out yet.

13 hours ago, MackyHeels said:

Seeing a great looking female wearing knee high 4 inch stiletto heels with grey leggings with shorter winter wool coat at costco the other day.  Wanted to tell her she looked great in them but instead glared upon her passing by with my cart  minding my business. Only because something i like and even want to wear myself i have second thoughts in opening my mouth to give out genuine compliment. Been observing woman in particular for months, never seen any in heels for long period of time going shopping etc.. Did find her very attractive and the heels just raised the bar and other things much more. While i try to stay subtle even jaded upon woman styles i couldn't stop glaring upon her heels and legs. She had the winning combination i adore tight fitting leggings printed in grey scheme in cotton or wool fabric perfect for winter. Added with knee high snakeskin boots but thin stiletto heels which complimented her lean tone legs looking marvelous.  

Suppose the spike heel boots came as pleasant shocking surprise to me. Thinking if i were to compliment her she would take it entirely wrong manner believing i'm perverted or way to interested in her more then just enjoying her great sexy appearance. So i stayed mute, yet knew she glanced upon me knowing i had my eyes on her slim legs, tight bum, and killer heel boots. Could see she knew i was looking and therefore her style was successful in gathering my attention.  Don't know if she just noticed my shiny black Moncler puffy jacket and found it stylish herself.  Feel it would be to awkward for me to make a comment of her heel boots, telling her "loving it" while she was bending over the frozen chicken wings.  Later on, in the store noticed one other lady in heels yet much older and heavier. Felt the winter months kept many woman stopped wearing heels, so they decided to put them on to feel better or sexier than plain flats they often wear. Rarely see woman shopping in heels no matter the time of year guess they find it overdoing it or less comfortable for the surroundings. 

Feel if i did compliment the first attractive  woman i seen at costco it would make her feel good although doubt she needs any encouragement to look sexy or has self doubts about her beauty. Would make me feel better that if i communicated a compliment even though it may of came out awkward or to forward. Either way heels do make people feel better ones who observe others wearing it knowing it makes a statement we care how we look or style ourselves from mundane boring flat bottom shoes styles.

At the time wasn't wearing any heels just flat uggs in skinny jeans. So any compliment given by me, woman wouldn't assume i like there heels for myself which would come as a shock or joke to them if i mentioned it.  Regretting not wearing heel booties myself who knew i would encounter few woman in the store wearing heels.  It may have changed my persona slightly observing the woman maybe smiling at her noticing both our stylish outfits

 

I'm going to project my own thoughts on to this little story, to kind of tighten 'er up. The way I see it is this: If you had been actually wearing heels yourself, you could probably have gotten away with complimenting the attractive woman, and the less attractive woman if you'd been so inclined. If you had been wearing heels, you would not experienced feelings of jealousy at what the woman was wearing. If you had been wearing heels, both you and the the two women you encountered would have had better days, if incrementally. Conclusion: Wear heels! It makes the world a better place.

11 hours ago, maninpumps said:

WOW , this is an old post topic . 

Funny about that. Usually, when somebody does that, you sort of groan (and maybe out loud at the computer), but in this case, it has actually worked out rather well.

I can remember back in the Jenny days (before HHP existed, circa 2000) that if you admitted you liked platforms it was like admitting you were tacky. People were vehemently against platforms at that time. Of course, that's probably because what was available before the height explosion of the 2000s wasn't particularly attractive in any way. Ten years later, in 2010, platforms were everywhere, and many of them became lighter and trimmer, though many did not. My point is that we got used to them somewhat, and they didn't seem nearly as evil as they did before. I suppose it's like anything else that's trendy. It will eventually fade, and probably come back a few decades later. Kind of like this post.

16 hours ago, CAT said:

I have both single soles and platforms.   I do like both.  What drives which one to wear depends on the outfit.   Leather miniskirt and fishnets 5 or 6” single sole is the heel of choice. Other longer skirts leggings, or jeans I will go to platforms with a 5-7” heel.  Depends on the event or item as well.   
 

I am a bit of a hiatus right now as I am doing physical therapy for my left knee total replacement and am heading to the right total knee replacement in 3 weeks.   Hoping to be back in heels by May 1,,, that’s the goal at this point in time.   Hoping to be in my 6” single soles again for the summer!!! 

I wish you a speedy and successful recovery. May 1st should be just in time to wear all them short skirts without freezing half to death!

22 hours ago, Pierre1961 said:

Totally  agreed.  Also hate these thick platforms and no steepness 

it seems I am lucky enough to walk in 5’5’’ easily. Anyway i don’t know what you mean with negotiating everyday life. If it is walking 5 hours on uneven sidewalk,then I can’t neither 

What I mean by "negotiating life" is being able to walk normally from Point A to Point B in a reasonable amount of time without looking like an idiot. At the present time, I can't do that in 5 inch single soles. Can I physically walk in them? Sure, but I do not like the way I look walking in them. I have no grace in them. The limitation for me is ankle flexibility. I'm Size 9/39.

10 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

The piano is a Weber, a nice, but not particularly expensive brand. I'm a life-long, adept guitar player, but just tinker around on the piano, though I'd like to get better. My daughter plays it well. 

Cellist here. I play AT a lot of instruments, but only play a handful competently. Shoes are Steve Madden "Barbb."

What an old thread that lives again!

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually prefer a platform of 1/2 - 1". Some of my favorite shoes have about a 5 1/2" heel with a 1" platform. I like the look of the super tall heel, but there is no way I could negotiate everyday life in 5 1/2" heels and a single sole. On the other hand, I hate "flatforms." That is, shoes with a very thick platform and not very much steepness. In my opinion, the thicker the platform, the steeper the angle has to be in order to keep it from looking funny. Most "stripper" shoes do not pass my personal aesthetics test because their heel to platform ratio is not high enough.

13 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

I was anticipating responses about the footwear or clothes, but not that. Specifically. what peaks your interest in the piano? 

I am interested in any musical instrument, as I have a house full of them! What make is your piano, and do you personally play? Piano is not really my forte (ha ha), but I've got one anyway. Mine's an ancient Kimball 6' 3" grand that's in bad need of a rebuild.

On 2/5/2020 at 4:41 PM, Bubba136 said:

Was it you wearing your high heel boots that was responsible for the mass confusion in counting candidates votes ?

I'm sure that was it! There IS power in high heels, after all!

I would like to submit a couple more selfies of some stuff I've bought while my wife has been gone. I got this mint green sweater by Leith. Don't know who "Leith" is, but that's what it says on the tag. Again, the purpose of buying this was to experiment with wearing leggings as pants. I bought this sweater on Poshmark, and I think it was brand new, there were still tags and stickers on it. It is labeled "small," but it's not terribly small, feels more like a medium. Oddly enough, I got another sweater labeled "small" that I basically couldn't even get on, so you just never know--that's the breaks when shopping online.

So two things I didn't realize about this sweater is that number one, it's purposefully longer in the back than it is in the front. Number two, it's quite loose around the bottom. It's OK, but in a perfect world I would have the whole bottom edge be the length of the back half, and have it be considerably tighter. It's almost as if this were made for a petite woman with an enormous ass. Maybe it was. At any rate, my misgivings about the garment did not prevent me from wearing it to choir rehearsal, where one of the members immediately complimented me on the color and wanted to touch it.

With it I wore my longer Jockey leggings and my new Miu Miu shearling mules, which are quite noisy on hard floors, by the way. I also wore my new shortish gray peacoat and my new mauve stylized stocking cap. Kind of a mishmash of colors, but I didn't have a great deal of time to think this all out. It was hard to miss me, anyway. I didn't get out in the general public like a grocery store, so I can't really gauge reaction of people who don't actually know me.

6 hours ago, fashionablefun said:

Here's my latest purchase. Aldo, size 11. I've worn these shopping for new glasses (where I got a "I like your boots" comment) to the class I teach at the university, to restaurants and just about everywhere. I think, despite their pattern, that they are not terribly unusual looking. They remind me of snake skin cowboy boots.

Although there's a lot to like about that outfit, including the boots, I'm way more interested in that piano.

6 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I doubt if wearing heels, or anything else, makes anyone a better person, but being open, at ease, expressive and comfortable in yourself will certainly allow for a greater generosity of spirit, and a fuller expression of those good qualities that are already there

You understand, of course, that the title of this thread is a bit of hyperbole for the sake of.  .  . fun, I guess. I do tend to spin a yarn every now and then.

11 hours ago, Shyheels said:

High heels would seem to be the least of things that were flustering the caucus in Iowa last night....

Actually the suspect "app" you might have heard about worked just fine for us, but that may have been due to the fact that we are a small precinct, and we finished our proceedings early.

I suddenly had a memory from long ago, when I was in my early 20s, a male friend and I were taking one of those magazine surveys that was something to the effect of "What kind of girl is right for you?" I don't know why I just thought of this after all these years, but one of the questions was, "Do you prefer a girl in high heels or sneakers?" Of course I said "high heels" without even thinking about it, but then my friend argued with me.

He said, "Yeah, yeah, but the problem with that is, all the chicks I know who wear high heels always complain about how much their feet hurt. Would you really want to put up with that for the rest of your life?"

At the time, I couldn't really argue with that logic, but it tends to dispute my assertion that high heels improve one's personality. Even then I figured there must be a way to wear heels all the time without it making you miserable, especially when heels at the time just simply weren't all that high. Piece of cake! However, it does seem that 95% of the women do bitch about their heels, so my assertion might only apply to some very special people--like us.

21 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Well, I don’t have any boobs to show lol.  I don’t have any hair on my chest, but yes I agree I don’t feel right wearing it out unless I wear a shirt underneath.  

Haha, I guess I meant "you" in the collective sense, not "you" specifically. Language is an imperfect vehicle.

I attended my precinct caucus last night. I wore basically what you see up there with the Morton Salt Girl, only with jeans instead of leggings, and lace up heeled oxfords instead of knee-high boots. And oh yeah, a cherry red cap instead of a black one. I am 100% sure there are now pictures of me out there somewhere on the internet, though I doubt that any of them were taken for the purpose of photographing me personally. The whole process took about two hours, and I was standing the whole time. Luckily, I chose well and didn't wear anything too crazy, I barely noticed my feet.

20 hours ago, pebblesf said:

It's nice to have some time to yourself every once in awhile....Hope all goes well when the wife gets home....

It looks like the weather might actually cooperate (knock on wood). They come back on Saturday. And thank goodness they are not flying in from China.

7 hours ago, Shyheels said:

You both look nice! If it were me, I’d combine the styles and wear my boots outside my jeans.

4 hours ago, maninboots said:

Same here 

Me three! Outside the pants would be great!

Did anybody at church comment upon your matching boots?

15 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Glad to hear that your family is safe and well in their travels!  

It’s funny how experimentation works.  I also had the idea to try some shirt dresses and wear them as a top layer, and wound up trying something longer and liking it enough to keep it too:

 

Same thing happened Friday when I was out looking for an overall-looking layer... I’ll take some proper pictures of them later.  
 

Man bags are in.  They can really complete an outfit.  Just for fun, I grabbed a camo bag to use in this photo to match the jacket, and I think it makes a statement!  
 

 

 

 

 

I'm spending a rather long time looking at the first picture (with the dress), trying to decide whether I like it or not. I mean, for myself. You look just fine! I think my objection, and this is a difficult one to overcome because of what's generally available, is that the neck opening is way bigger than I would wear. In this particular case, you would be showing boobies if you weren't wearing a shirt underneath it. Many of the women's tops I like have this same problem--I can't wear them unless I put something underneath like you have, and that's not so great in the summer. In my case, it's because I'm too hairy, and I don't really care to add YET ANOTHER thing to shave. That's why you will always find me in crew neck shirts, even in the summer.

As far as the bag goes, I'm kind of with @Cali on this one at this point--I don't want to carry something else with me if I don't have to. Sounds like something I would accidentally leave laying someplace.

I don't have much ruminating this week, but I do have news, and that is that my wife and younger son will return home from Vietnam in just a few days. I kind of went a little nuts while they were gone, buying a lot of stuff on Poshmark that I'd wanted to experiment with, but hadn't really wanted to deal with all the static from my wife about why was I wasting all this money on silly stuff. So I feel somewhat guilty about that, but you know, it's really small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, and I have discovered some interesting things.

No. 1: I have been looking for winter hat ideas for years. It seems there is nothing so utilitarian for keeping one's head and ears warm as a stocking cap, but it's a very casual style that doesn't go well with nicer coats and heels. I managed to find a couple of alternatives that are acceptable. I bought a wool beret that can be pulled over the tops of one's ears, and that's ok for short periods. But more significantly, I found a lined sort of stocking cap with a hard bill/visor in front that pretty much serves the same function as a stocking cap, but with a much more polished appearance. I have gotten several compliments on it, as pictured several posts above. I now have the same cap in bright red and mauve as well as black.

No. 2: I now own a couple of what you might call dresses. They don't seem like dresses in the usual sense, they're basically really long sweaters. My intent was to get a couple of sweaters long enough to reliably and consistently cover my private area so that I could wear leggings as pants out in public without creating an image I don't care to create. 'Nuff said. However, what I wound up getting in a couple of cases is something considerably longer than necessary to satisfy the aforementioned requirements. And you know what? They don't look bad! As long as I pay attention, stand up straight and engage my core, that is. I'm not saying I'm fat, because I'm not, but my abs aren't what they once were, and it's very easy for me to look 4 months pregnant. Maybe I'm just nitpicking myself in the mirror, I don't know.

No. 3: I now need to figure out whether I'm going to become a handbag guy. My latest purchases have no pockets, and although my pocket requirements are very minimal, zero pockets ain't gonna work. It may be that I will decide to dial back everything because of this pocket problem. I am not at all sure that I really want to go where I'm heading, 'specially once the wife gets back. There is always that to consider in the grand scheme of things.

No 4: I'm going to have to figure out where to put all my new shoes. I don't have enough room presently. And my new sweaters. And my new coats. And my new hats. And my old hats. Right now, they're sitting on the basement floor. That is not a great place to keep them, especially once the spring rains come. Looks like I will be building more shelves soon.

Have a great week, everyone! Thanks for tuning in.

21 hours ago, Cali said:

I broke the bearer of wearing visible high heels at work over 5 years ago when that was the only type of shoes I could walk in. Since then it has be normalized for me to be in heels to the point I get asked why I'm NOT in heels on the few occasions . I go everywhere in heels.

Technically, it doesn't actually say anywhere in my company's handbook that you are not allowed to wear heels to work, but I am quite sure I would end up on the losing side of that battle, were it to occur. It's not worth it, especially since every once in a while I have to do something where it would be a really bad idea to be wearing heels. Nah, not happening.

I have more shoes to show you! Since the wife is gone for three weeks, I have gone kind of nuts, and it's a good thing we're going to overtime at work starting tomorrow. There will be more to show in the near future, and then it will kind of taper off after that.

This is my third pair of BCBGeneration "Sarong" thong wedges. Unlike the previous pair of shoes I showed you, the Vera Wang loafers, I have bought three pairs of these for a completely different reason: The other two pairs didn't last very long, and I really don't expect to have much better luck with these. To be fair, the first pair I had I wore so much that they just got trashed after a while, to the point where they really weren't presentable out in public. Eventually the sole split completely in half transversely, and I binned them. I found a second, identical pair I believe on ebay, and I was thrilled. Unfortunately, since this model is quite a number of years out of date, the material that they are made of kind of self-destructed rather quickly. I've heard that certain kinds of fake leather deteriorate simply by being exposed to the air, and surely that was what happened to the second pair. Within a couple of short months, they too were not presentable in public. They were also binned.

Enter the Poshmark era. In general, I think they have nicer stuff on there, and it hasn't done my bank account any good. I've gotten into some other stuff besides shoes as a result, but that's another story. Anyway, I found yet another pair of these beloved yet despised shoes, only this time in white. And also I took a chance on buying size 8, rather than 8 1/2 because they seem to run a little big. That turned out to be a good gamble, because these actually fit better than the 8 1/2s. But really, how much of a gamble was it for a mere $15? I have never owned a pair of white shoes (other than tennis shoes, and I do mean tennis shoes) before, and I don't know how that's going to look in the real world. It feels more girly than what I've done in the past, but we'll see.

Specs on these shoes are 4.0" heel, 0.5" platform, all man-made materials. I am now down to only two pairs of "thong" style high heels. They're getting harder and harder to find in the style and heel height I require. Maybe someday I'll have to go the Peter Chu route.

11 hours ago, chesterx said:

 As I was driving home I thought about how kind of odd it was that she asked if I was breaking them in, as I had never been asked that before. It lead me to ponder women's remarks in general. I'm of the mind that women are not so much in "love" with my heels, as I tend to wear classic styles. I don't recall ever hearing women compliment each others heels so much when they are wearing simple classic pumps, but I get that a lot. I think they are just fascinated by a guy wearing heels. If I ever get a chance to hold a descent conversation with these women then I intend to ask them about that...

That is an odd question. I wonder what prompted it? I cannot speak to the classic pumps thing, as I don't really own a pair of classic pumps, but I think many women are, in fact, fascinated by a guy in heels, and it's not necessarily just younger ones. I know the old ladies at my church are always checking to see what I'm wearing on any given Sunday. I try not to repeat too often for this very reason!

I was in the grocery store the other day, in my work clothes. Normally, if I have to visit the grocery store, I will go home, shower, change my clothes to something halfway decent, put on some cute heels, and then go to the store. However, on this particular day, I was in a big hurry and didn't have time to do all that.

At this particular store, they always ask you if you managed to find everything you wished to purchase. It drives me slightly crazy, but I know they're instructed to ask that, so I gave up giving a smart answer years ago, and in any case, the smart answers were usually completely lost on the mostly kids who work there. Anyway, on that day, standing there in my work clothes, the cashier asked me, and I just grunted something in reply. As I was walking away, I realized that when I come there in heels, or anywhere really, I'm a much more pleasant person. I smile more, have a nicer tone to my voice, and little things bother me less.

Does anybody else experience this as well? I'd like to hear about your experiences.