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It's getting warmer here... and as I try to replace all the shoes my dog ate years ago, I realize I've been looking for the perfect pair of sandals for about 3 years. Bean ate the ones that I was wearing when I met my husband, and unfortunately from what I can tell from the internets, they are never to be seen again.. if they existed in the first place. I swear I bought them at Macy's circa 2004ish.. and I think they were naturalizer, but who really knows. So.. I hunt.

I really like this shoe, but I hate ankle straps. And I prefer everything in brown. Jason is in the market for new sandals too, and I have to say, his task is infinitely harder. Mens' sandals as a general rule are bad.

As a side note about sandals. This site is hilarious.

Red

I think I might need some new red shoes.

Now if I could just find an extra $300.

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?