And just like that it was August!
I know I regularly prattle on about how alarming I find the rapid passage of time, but it seems doubly true this year with the arrival of the twins now firmly in the ‘could happen any time’ window! It dawned on me last week that even if they stay in for the longest sensible amount of time, we’ll still be parents of two newborns plus a toddler within the next 10 weeks! Eeek! And in case you hadn’t guessed already, I’m feeling completely unprepared for that, so rather than pull my finger out and get organised I’ve thrown myself head (or should I say feet?) first into my shoe challenge!The bad news is, we have reached the stage where it is far harder to feel like I’m making a dent in the total to save as the numbers of ‘sensible’ shoes dwindle. But the good news is that spares you of having to scroll through a billionty photos, so without further ado…
First things first – the new shoe total. Yes, I have once again acquired new shoes! While I could never argue that any of my footwear purchases are ‘necessary’ I am feeling very good about my latest additions, so not dwelling too much on the fact that my total has now jumped up by one! Here they are in all their glory:
The first pair were somewhat of an impulse purchase, inspired by the weekly FridayFeet hashtag on Instagram. Early one July Friday I logged on to spy the most gorgeous pair of nude studded sandals from Linzi Shoes and found myself wondering why I didn’t have something similar! I’ve been lusting over studded sandals for quite some time, resisting mainly because I didn’t have any obvious gaps in my sandal collection to fill, but these beauties made me realise that I don’t actually own any flat nude sandals, and suddenly I couldn’t think of a reason why! Nude shoes are such a great neutral, flat ones have the added bonus of being perfect for throwing in a suitcase for holidays without adding too much to the load, and the pretty studs just add that little extra something that stops you feeing ‘boring’ on a flat shoe day, so as far as I could see it was a sensible investment! I was determined to stick to my no buying new policy though, so before the end of the week I’d tracked down a similar pair on Vinted and they were on my feet in time for the next FridayFeet! Which makes me wonder why I am such a chronic procrastinator everywhere else in life if I can turn around a shoe goal this quickly… probs best not to ponder that too deeply! The second pair, those delicious strappy tan sandals from Zara were actually brought in to replace my broken old tan wedges. When the strap snapped for the second time last summer after a pretty shoddy attempt to fix them the year before I knew I’d have to finally replace them, but as they’re such a staple I counted them in the total anyway because I knew wouldn’t get through the summer without wanting to wear them! When I spotted these on Depop I fell for them completely – they weren’t wedges, obviously, but I decided that chunky heel would do as good a job, so they have now taken that spot in my total count, bringing us to 183 altogether. Now, onto the saves…
We were blessed with a crazy heatwave in July (I say blessed, but when heavily pregnant with twins 30 plus degrees isn’t as much fun as it normally is…), which gave me a great opportunity to make a big dent in my sandals, with all my flat ones (including the newbies!) now saved, not that I thought I’d ever struggle with those. My higher heeled sandals were the ones I was more conscious I needed to get through, so I was thrilled to tick my beloved J Crew gingham ones off the list as they aren’t easy to style, but always worth the effort I think you’ll agree!
The warm dry weather also meant a few pairs of my flats got worn – not as many as you’d probably think given that I’m entering the final trimester, but since I know the closer I get to giving birth, the more I’ll be turning away from heels I figured they weren’t really a priority for now! I can’t picture getting to the end of the year and realising I never had an opportunity to wear them so I’m not all that bothered, though I have at least been trying to focus on those which won’t fare well in the Autumn/Winter – namely peep toes and suede! Still a couple of those left on the list too so will have to get a wriggle on and save them during August before it’s too late!
The heels, though. That’s what everyone really wants to see, isn’t it! Given that I can’t wear anything crazy for too long now I’m feeling pretty pleased to have managed another 6 pairs this month, especially as bar those last gold ones, none of them are all that straight forward to style. I had to get pretty creative with some print and colour clashes to make sure my other Boden ‘Alice’ polka dot shoes and my two pairs of Ted Baker courts got worn, and aqua glitter on a random weekday was a bit of a stretch I must say, but the whole purpose of this challenge was to get me to think outside the box a bit more to get wear out of them, so thats no bad thing! Here’s to more weekday glitter, I say! (I’m actually not kidding, because while I do expect to wear a fair amount in December, I now have more sparkly pairs than can realistically be worn in Christmassy daytime outfits, and they will be mostly daytime outfits since I’ll be mum to three under three by then!!)
Save of the Month
I’m giving myself extra kudos for managing to save these black and tan Carvela peep toes! I don’t know what it is about them – I just love them. Always have, though they have only been worn a handful of times. They should, in theory, be easy to style thanks to that neutral colourway, but the gigantic platform means that sadly they tend to get pushed aside for less vertiginous options these days. I knew I would have to put in a special effort to get them saved this year, and it came in the form of an at home date night, which also happened to be the same time we filmed our faux gender reveal, so deserved something a bit special!
So after working out at the halfway point that I’d need to be saving at least 10 pairs a month in order to hit that all important total by NYE, I’m feeling pretty chuffed with July’s 12 saves! Hoping very much I can keep up the momentum – there may need to be a few more of those at home date nights on the cards!
As always, you can also keep track of my journey at the following Pinterest boards:
Shoes still to save – 53
Saved shoes! – 130/183
Love,
Picking the Day 