On owning shoes

I own roughly 20 pairs of shoes. I haven't counted, but that sounds about right. Jason used to make me get rid of a pair of shoes every time I bought a new pair. He never understood that I NEEDED all those shoes. Granted there are some in my closet that I probably should get rid of that have holes or are broken, but for the most part, I think that there are a certain number of neccessary shoes, and for me that number is roughly 20.
There are:
Everyday shoes (Dansko)
Backup everyday shoes (Broken Dansko)
Hiking shoes
Running shoes
Black boots (New boots)
Dressy dress shoes in brown
Dressy dress shoes in black
Work shoes (which are sort of like dressy dress shoes only not quite as fancy)
Hiking sandals (which are currently everyday sandals)
Sandals (which I don't currently own because Bean at them when she was a puppy, but I plan on replacing this year, so I can pretend like I own them)
Summer Slip on shoes (Currently 2 pairs.. one broken pair of Keens and Sanuks)
Work boots (which are vastly different than work shoes. meant for gardening and snow)
Brown winter boots
Cowboy boots (of which everyone should own at least 1 pair.. i usually own 2)
Flip flops (2 pair).. for the beach, of course, and the shower.

As you can see, all these are absolutely necessary for different reasons. If I only had the Danskos, my everyday shoe, I could certainly dress them up for work or for a wedding, but what would I wear in the snow? I also won't wear a black shirt with brown shoes, but I'm weird about things like that. So.. I try to use this argument when trying to convince my husband why I really don't have to get rid of a pair of shoes, even though I just bought some. What if, something happened to my Danskos like.. one got lost on the side of the road. Wouldn't it be great that I had a backup pair that I could wear? PLUS Bean ate about 5 pairs of my favorite shoes when she was a puppy, so I feel in a way that I'm still making up for that.

New Shoes New Shoes

So I finally bought some new boots. Actually I tried to buy them about 2 weeks ago, and I apparently have no idea what my shoe size is. I thought I was a 37, but apparently I'm wrong. I thought my feet grew when I gave birth, but that actually might not be the case.

Anyway.. shoes, right.

I bought these bad boys on sale from Amazon.

(Only in black of course. I couldn't find a picture of them in black and I'm too lazy to point a camera at my feet.)

Everything I had read about El Naturalista is that their sizing runs small, so order larger than you normally wear. Well, I normally wear Danskos and I have to wear them in a 37. They are clogs, so you wear them a little large so they kind of fall off of your foot. I also have Miz Mooz in 37 that fit fine and Keen in 37 that fit fine. SO I ordered a 38 thinking I was playing it safe.

Turns out I made a wise decision in ordering these particular shoes because not only were there plenty of them in stock, but they kept going on sale. I originally ordered them at $118 in size 38. They were GINORMOUS. Like flippers. I very sadly and impatiently decided to return them.

Then it snowed. UPS was closed for 3 days. Bastards.

So finally I returned them. Waited very very patiently for the return to go through and ordered 37, signed up for Amazon Prime to get them faster and gave myself a high five for being so awesomely patient. ALSO I had to pay about $4 for return shipping, so I ended up getting $113 back. The second pair I bought for $98 because they were on sale further.

They came. I rushed to get them out of the box, threw them on, walked around and realized wow.. they are still too big. Like slippy and uncomfortable big. I wanted them to fit so so bad. I walked around and around and looked in the mirror, kept pressing my toes thinking, grow feet grow! But they never grew. I drove to UPS that day.

I didn't wait for the return to go through. I went ahead and ordered a third pair in 36. They came today!!! I'm still highfiving myself for my patience. They fit beautifully and are fabulous. AND AND AND.. they only cost $89. So in total I spent $8 on return shipping. So $113-8 = $105 and $105 - 89 = $16. I saved $16 because I have no idea what size shoe I wear.

Moral of the story.. Keep ordering and sending back until the price hits bottom.

Also completely unrelated, they look oddly like my son's size 5 Elefanten toddler shoe, which I can't find a picture of for illustration, but they are similar and I swear I wasn't trying to look like him when I bought them.

Jason said they look very "Jessie," so I'll take that as a good sign.

Full review to come later with pictures, once I'm not lazy.

The Kickers

Ok so I ordered some boots. The suspense I know is killing you, but sorry, you'll have to wait to find out what I bought. I'm glad that I didn't see these kickers before I ordered the ones I did though, cause I kind of like 'em.

Seriously though, that's the name of this shoe. Kickers.

I feel like maybe I'm starting to veer off track from my original goal.. (to find a suitable replacement for the Keen's I wanted to buy but were gone.. all gone.) BUT that's ok because I already bought a replacement, so I can look at other boots like this:

Or this one.. wait, it's not even a boot at all. But I really like it.

The truth.

I should have called this blog "Shoes that I can't afford, but would love to own."

The love

So .. every time I do a broad search for women's size 7 boots in black, I always stop on the same brand and then kick myself. I wish there was a way in the search mechanisms to say show me all the boots except this particular brand. El Naturalista.

I love love love these shoes, but they are always expensive, so when I pause to look at them, I immediately think, those are perfect, then realize what they are and kick myself. The average cost is $250 for a new pair of boots. Their clogs are often on Ebay, but it's hard to come by the boots at a discounted price.

However, Amazon is having a sale on boots right now.

Did I mention I love these boots?

The Envy

Priced between $300-$400, there's no way I could ever afford Cydwoq boots, although I do look at them occasionally and drool. They appear on ebay occasionally and they always bid high. It's crazy that people (including me) would pay over $100 for a used pair of shoes. But these shoes.. oh they are a work of art. Seriously.

If I had a million dollars, what would I do? Very high on the list of things would be to buy these boots.

Words cannot even begin to describe how much I love love love these shoes.

OTBT

Another company that I like with cool shoes is OTBT shoes. They are made in Virginia and designed for 'travelling.'

I like these in brown but not so much in black:

The grey ones are ok too, but I think they just look better in brown. I like how they look like the traditional hiking boot, but are just a regular boot.

I'm also really starting to like this boot:

I originally thought that I wanted a pull on boot. But as I look around, I'm liking the lace ups more and more, and a lot of the pull-ons seem almost too biker babe-ish.

The decision (or not)

So I thought I had it narrowed down between 2 pairs of boots. I emailed Jason to see which ones he liked better. It was between these:

These are Miz Mooz. I own 2 pairs of Miz Mooz and find them to be very stylish and wearable and a good brand. I once spent 3 days in New York City looking for a pair in my size. This was before you could find shoes easily (or not) online.

And the other pair was these:

These are Keens, which were what made me go on this hunt from the get go. They are a little bit bulkier than I had wanted, looking more like a snow boot than an apres boot, but they are waterproof and I like them.

So I sent a link to both to Jason and at this point I was leaning more towards the Keens. They both are priced very reasonably and below $100. I was excited to finally find some boots. Jason immediately said no to the Keens. He didn't like them and said they were too motorcycle-ish. He liked the Miz Mooz. This totally messed me up because I was expecting for him to lean towards the Keens as well and then the decision was made.

I like the Miz Mooz. I really do, but they are a little bit fancier than what I had in mind. I could never hike in that shoe, and the boots I already own by Miz Mooz haven't really stood the test of time very well. Don't get me wrong, I'd buy them again in a heartbeat, just I'm not completely sold on these particular ones.
So I'm still searching.

The New.

In my search for boots, one of the things I have done in desparation of finding the perfect shoe that I know is somewhere out there is go through a list of about 2,000 boots on Amazon by narrowing it down to black, mid-calf, boots in women's shoes. It's a tedious annoying process and not much comes out of it except for a deeper dislike of Ugg boots, but I did find a new brand that I'd never heard of called Groundhog. And while I probably won't buy their boots this go around, it's a brand that I'd like to remember for future purchases.

Jason and I both would have liked these if wasn't for the scrunchy part in the middle. I think we both stared at them for about ten minutes going.. well.. they are nice.. The sole is good.. but that one little part.. hmm.

But aren't these lovely?

And these, oh my! I used to have a similar pair in pink that I bought on sale in Chicago, but these are a lot of fun. Makes me wish I was buying shoes, not boots.

Their philosophy is nice as well. The soles are made from cork and latex which are renewable and environmentally friendly. They use vegetable oil for tanning, and bamboo charcoal for the interior. They strive to be as environmentally concious as a shoe company can be. I can stand behind that.

The Campers.

So I decided to look at the shoes I always look at when I want to lust after a shoe. I've never personally owned a pair of Campers. While I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on shoes before, it's never been a pair of Campers for some reason. I guess it's just never been the right shoe at the right time. I do love how comfortable the shoes look, and how unique their designs. They are consistently different. So there's these which I love:

But at $175.. and unemployed.. I really couldn't justify spending that much money on a shoe that wasn't exaaaactly what I wanted.. Plus they are red and black, and I live in a town where that is unacceptable unless a member of tri delta. The price ruled out a lot of their other options as well. Like these:

I liked a previous season's incarnation of this shoe better anyway. I check ebay fairly regularly for their shoes as well because you can find a decent discount and sometimes some decent used shoes, but there was nothing in my size. New from Amazon or Planet Shoes or Zappos, they are really hard to find for under $150. So, once again, it wasn't the right time or right price for Campers. Maybe one day I'll get to see how comfy these "walking" shoes actually are.