Shoe Karma

Last week started off with the great news that I won a pair of Starla Sandals courtesy of the awesomeness that is Stacy from A Girl's Guide to Shoes.


In all seriousness, I've been an avid follower of Stacy's blog for years. It's a constant source of shoe giddiness and delight all wrapped up in one neat package. Being that I have a limited shoe budget, I especially like that she highlights fantastic deals all the time. It gives my closet hope for brighter and future packages.

My mid-week got a boost this week when those blinged out sandals above showed up at my doorstep. I've been prancing around my house, blinding my dogs, and fantasizing about warmer (and drier) weather so that I can wear my shoes. It's only been a day, but in that short amount of time I can say that these sandals are going to get some serious wear and love this spring/summer and beyond because they're gorgeous and comfortable. My head is already spinning with how many outfits I can spice up with them :)

Thank you Stacy and Starla Sandals so much for the shoes. They are loved and will be continued to be loved by this red head.

And so, it is only fair that since I was gifted an amazing pair of shoes, that I gift an amazing pair of shoes to someone who deserves some good shoe karma. You see, I was out and about looking for a baby shower gift and ran into TJ Maxx to get more baby clothes when I found these lovely shoes just sitting on a table.



They weren't even in the shoe section! Someone clearly picked them up, carried them around, and then ditched them at the last minute due to a poor moment of indecisiveness. I instantly picked them up because their silver metallic patent leather just called to me. I saw that they were a size 7 and thought, "ugh, why don't they ever have cute shoes like this in my size?"


I flipped them over and here's the crazy part, they were marked down from the TJ Maxx price of $159 to $39. Yeah, my jaw hit the floor. Seriously, why were these in TJ Maxx and why on earth were they so cheap?



These are Guiseppe Zanotti mirror-like pumps. Yes, they're a few seasons old, but come one! These are designer Italian made shoes. These things are ridiculously expensive! They're Cinderella shoes.


I found these shoes from the 2007 Fall Collection and I think TJ Maxx held the conservative sister shoe.


Most importantly, my sister deserves some flash and sparkle in her life, therefore she needs these shoes. So they're in the mail and should hopefully bring my sister some happy shoe karma in a few days. I hope they fit her, otherwise I'll have to find another home for those beauties because they are not getting returned.

Isn't Carrie Bradshaw a size 7? It figures... when you find something adorable in a size 9, let me know.

He did it!

Well, he took a big step in the right direction.

One of my "big" goals for running this year was to get the hubs to run a sub-28 minute 5k. I figured that would be the time it would take based on his normal running pace to get him to run an entire 5k. Turns out he's never run an entire 5k before and that really bugged me. It's just weird because we do 5-6 mile runs together all the time, so a 5k should be a piece of cake!

We ran a St. Patrick's Day 5k together and I stayed with the hubs the entire time. I told him how far we'd run, what our pace was, where the next hill was, etc. I even volunteered to fetch him water so he didn't have to slow down in the water line! I think I was his personal trainer for the short race.

It was really funny because in the last half-mile I kept nudging him to go faster and he'd refuse. At one point he even said, "I'm good right here, you go on a head." Right, like I'm going to let that happen.

Then, a solid 20 feet before the finish line, my loving hubs darts between a group of people and charges across the finish line. As soon as we get across the finish line he has the dumbest smirk on his face. He knows that he can say forever that he beat me in that race. PRICK!!!

Fine. Whatever. It's cool.

Actually it's more than fine, it was really nice to hit up the post-race festivities, while noshing on bananas, chips, and beer (the runners diet!). The hubs was in a very good mood after the race and he was pretty stoked that he ran the whole thing. Of course, it certainly helped that we started the race with a bunch of our softball friends and the hubs was more than happy that he beat all of them. And they say that I'm the competitive one!

While he didn't finish in under 28 minutes, he did run the entire time, and he's looking forward to running more 5ks in the future. In the interim, I'm training for another half-marathon and the hubs is going to join me on all of my 5 mile and under runs, which will be very nice.

Enabler!

Seriously dude, you're an enabler.

Last year for my birthday I asked you to split the difference and chip in for my beloved Canon T2i.



Then, for our third wedding anniversary you gifted me with a fantastic Kelly Moore Hobo bag in Muted Teal. Okay, it's not technically leather, but it's clearly the thought that counts.



It even has a purple liner. If that isn't perfect for me, then I don't know what is!


For Christmas you went a head and bought me what I hope is the first of many prime lenses. She's fast, heavy, sharp & blurry and all loved.


You surprised the daylights out of me on Valentine's Day (we don't usually do gifts) and gave me the futuristic looking and very groovy Joby Gorillapod tripod.


Finally, you went above and beyond the call of lust and presented me with Adobe Photoshop CS5 for my 28th birthday. I can now magic wand away the slight wrinkles that are starting to appear on both of our faces. You more than me, seriously use a night cream every once in a while!



So really sir, you have absolutely no one to blame when I pop up out of nowhere and take your picture. You're an enabler in every sense of the word and I love you for it.



Now, if you can not buy me a gift for the rest of the year and then plop down a 70-200 lens next year for my birthday... well I might just die and head off to Canon heaven.

Let's do this thing

I'm a bad runner. I'm currently in a lull or more likely a low-point with running as of late. If my Garmin 405 is accurate, it means I only ran 11ish miles in January. Yes, 11 miles total.

That's bad! Really, really, really bad. And February hasn't been any better!

It's kind of normal because I suck at running in the cold and it's nice to take some time off every once in a while, but it really stinks trying to get back into quasi-shape once the thermometer jumps over 45 degrees. Even though the Baltimore area just got more snow that darn St. Patty's day 5k is quickly approaching and I need to start running again.

Today is the first day for open registration for the Marine Corps Marathon, which is bittersweet for me because I won't be running it this year. Instead, I have a different October marathon on my calendar :)

Today is also just around 100 days until my first half-marathon of the year. Yes, I'm hoping to do more than one this year. The first half is going to be an old school college road trip of hopefully epic proportions, but I'm hoping to have a somewhat decent time. That darn time is goal is what is prompting me to publicly do the following!

Here they are, my "goals" or "to-do" list for the 2011 running season:

1. Track all runs. This one is kind of a no-brainer, but it'll still be good for me to see how much I actually run a year. At this point I really have no idea. Next year I'd like to say, "I want to run XXX number of miles this year" and actually have that be a challenge. Oh, the Garmin will be handling this responsibility and since I can hardly tie my shoes without my watch, I'm fairly confident I'll meet this objective.

2. Break 8:00 minute miles for a race. This will most likely have to occur in a 5k, but maybe I can squeak this one out to a 10k. A 10-miler or half-marathon would be amazing, but I'm not trying to kill myself in the first year of, "I know I can run the distance, so now it's time to get faster."

3. Run Topless. Got your attention on that one, didn't I? Not fully topless, but rather go on more than one run wearing just a sports bra on top. This is all about self-esteem, plain and simple. I'm scared to run in my sports bra because I'm convinced I, "don't have the body for it." Yes, I'm an intelligent woman with serious body issues, except my body issues aren't really body issues, they're more of "skin" issues.

How do I put this delicately? I'm white. I don't mean Caucasian, I mean, whiter than the blank white space on your computer browser. So white that my ex-boyfriend called me, "Casper." I'm that person you stand next to in a photo when you want to look tanner. I'm so white that whenever I would run around and my shirt would fly up people would shout, "my eyes! my eyes! I'm blind!"

And no, I'm not kidding on any of those... all true stories. Last year I managed to run 1 race in a sports tank top and I had to be talked into it by my bestie. She may or may not have said something like, "look skinny bitch, if you don't run in that I'm never speaking to you again." She knows me all so well :)

4. Get the Hubs to run a sub 28-minute 5k. This is going to be the most difficult of my goals because I can't make him run faster! Well, I do, but he doesn't like it. Apparently, the hubs has never run a 5k before. I mean "run" under the definition of "running the entire distance." He's always had to walk at some point. Granted, he's never actually trained for a 5k, but it still bugs me that he hasn't run the entire distance. We do 6 mile runs all the time. Why can't he finish a simple 5k? I figure based on our normal runs, a 28 minute 5k will ensure that he's running the entire time. *

5. Run a sub-4:10 marathon. I want to run a sub 4-hour marathon, but Baltimore is known for its hills, so I figure I better give myself a bit of a cushion. However, it's on like Donkey Kong.

Last year I came out of my comfort zone, literally and figuratively, and now this year I need to step it up a notch. Last year was all about the distance, whereas this year I want to start to focus on the times. I'll never be a competitive runner or probably qualify for the Boston Marathon. However, I want to constantly challenge myself and that's good enough for me.

*stopping to get water during the race doesn't count as "not running." Yeah, this is my dictionary, I get to come up with my own definitions.

Up and Down

Life has been more than a proverbial roller coaster in our happy little rental household the past month.

We met with a realtor to discuss our house buying plans and charged up that monstrous first hill.

Then Nana, the hubs's grandmother, passed away which brought us tumbling down low.

We're both hoping things look brighter, but in the meantime we're laying low and staying in.

And during our downtime we're trying to figure out a way to run back to Ohio and dognap this guy:


I almost left the hubs out there just so he could roll around with that pup and smile a bit more.

Oh, Flor how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

I need a small area rug for our entry way. That's over-reaching it just a tad, I need an interior door matt because the hubs and I are trekking water, salt, and slush all over our hallway and kitchen. I'm really grossed out to think that all that junk used to just get mashed down into our living room carpet. YUCK!



Of course once I started looking at rugs I would find the gorgeous 8x10 or larger rugs. Then I'd I start dreaming about what they would look like in my house. At this point I'd have to snap out of it and say, "WOAH! This isn't your house and hopefully you're moving again this summer. Calm down!"




But, in all seriousness how awesome would this rug look in a mancave. Yes, I'm totally appealing to the male demographic in the house because if I can swing this rug for him, then it's just all to easy to design my own custom entry way area. That's a totally logically leap of faith, right?




Sigh... I should go to HomeGoods, use a coupon and buy a generic area rug for $25. But, a girl can dream right?

Anyone order a rug from Flor? I'm thinking I need to keep this one earmarked for when I finally buy a house.

Taking fashion advice from a metro-sexual man...

might just work out in my favor.

My hubs isn't really a true, "metro-sexual" as he isn't into hair gel, skinny man jeans, murses, skinny ties, designer duds, or almost anything at Banana Republic. Well, the last one is only true because his massive and broad shoulders barely fit in their polo shirts, never mind any of their fitted shirts! But, my hubs is somewhat a connoisseur of quality shoes.

Flash back six years ago and the hubs had just picked up his first pair of Johnston & Murphy dress shoes. I think he got them on sale at an outlet for close to $100. I thought he was kind of nuts to be dropping that amount on a pair of plain Jane men's dress shoes, but that was my own personal opinion. If I had a $100 to spend on shoes I would have tried to get two or three pairs of Nine West shoes from an outlet.

Spring a head six years and take a peak in our separate closets (yes, you read that right! it's a key to marital bliss in our house) and the hubs still has the same pair of brown shoes whereas the vast collection I had compiled during college and graduate school of Nine West and Bandolino shoes has diminished to just a few remaining pairs. And the ones that have survived... they weren't my "favorites" by any stretch of the imagination. The survivors are those shoes that I don't wear all that often either due to comfortableness or they're strictly special occasion type shoes.

So in my corner was well more than $150 spent on shoes and almost nothing to shoe for it. I used to buy on average somewhere between 4-6 pairs of non-athletic shoes a year. Say the average price tag was $50, (way too low, but easier for math) and I was spending between $200-$300 a year on shoes. And they wouldn't last! The hubs, on the other hand, would buy maybe 1 pair of nice dress shoes a year. He was spending less money a year on shoes and his shoes were outlasting my shoes.

Two important things happened this summer that led me to drastically review my shoe purchases.

1. I started running a lot and I expected a whole lot more comfort from my shoes. Plantar fasciitis then dictated that my shoes be extremely comfortable. I was totally screwed when I only had one pair of flats in my closet and had to plan my wardrobe around flats and flip flops :(

2. The hubs wished for a pair of Allen Edmonds "Park Avenue" shoes for our 3rd wedding anniversary.


They're cute and all for men's shoes, but they're $325. Yes, $325 for a pair of plan shoes. There's no fancy heel, no cool embellishments, no frills, zilch, nadda, nothing! Of course, us being us we found them on sale at Jos A Banks for $250 and used a huge Ebates credit to make them much more affordable, but still! That is a lot of money to spend on ONE pair of shoes.

Well, wouldn't you know that when we were discussing the shoes the hubs went over to his closet and pulled out those ol' Johnston & Murphy shoes and said, "these have lasted for 6 years and I've beat them to hell. Those Park Avenues are the same shoes Obama wears and I bet they'll last longer than 6 years."

I hate it when he's right, especially about shoes. He loves his Park Avenues and for Christmas I gifted him with two more pairs of Allen Edmonds. Don't worry, I found them on sale!

So, in preparation for further bouncing along on this thing called "being an adult" I'm slowly going to upgrade the shoes in my closet. The greatest part is the hubs is fully on board. :)