Ah September, my old nemesis. We meet again!
I’ve never been a fan of September. Part of it I think harks back to the old ‘back to school’ days and the sense that the fun and carefree months of holiday had come to an end and humdrum was about to return. When I look back, all that stands out to me are memories of shivering at the bus stop in the early morning gloom, the sky all grey and full of drizzle and the air full of the smell of damp, mouldy leaves. Ugh. Somehow that slight sense of despair has stayed with me, and I never relish the end of the Summer.
This year though, things feel a little different. Normally an avid sun worshipper, I’ve struggled a lot with the heat this pregnancy, and as much as I’m never going to get excited about Winter descending, I can’t pretend the little nip in the air in the mornings right now isn’t rather welcome. And while I’d generally much rather be wafting around in floaty frocks and sandals most of the time, the thought that the impending birth of the twinnies will bring some much loved style choices back to the table – oh how I’ve missed having a waist! – is doing a lot to keep at bay that depressed feeling I get when I start thinking about bundling up in trousers and jumpers. But most of all, that sense of dread as the dark nights roll in isn’t there in quite the same way this year. Nesting mode has well and truly found me, and and in a complete departure from my normal self I’m actually finding the thought of curling up in front of the fire with my tiny babies with the perfect excuse not to go anywhere rather appealing. Hibernating is, of course, not particularly conducive to good shoe saving though, so the race to get those remaining shoes worn before the end of the year is officially on! Here’s how last month went…
First things first, there has been another new addition to the collection… I have no real excuses for this latest pair, other than that I loved them, and they were beyond a bargain, but I can’t for the life of me think of a way of justifying them as a ‘necessary’ purchase (and believe me, I’ve tried!)
I stumbled across these (ok, that’s a lie, ‘Boden shoes’ is, in fact, one of my regular idle searches on eBay & Vinted so there was nothing accidental about happening upon them…) rather gorgeous bejewelled slipper shoes on eBay, listed for the crazy low starting price of £5 due to one of the beads being missing. I figured they were something I could quite easily fix, and at worst they would still look pretty lovely if I removed all the other matching beads, so decided to take a gamble by bidding on them and a few days and no other bods later, they were mine! I managed to track down some very similar beads, also on eBay, for another £2, so with the postage costs thrown in I’ve spent less than £10 and potentially saved these beauties from the scrap heap, which is never a bad thing in my book! In this picture I’ve only swapped the beads on one of the shoes – I’ll get around to changing them on the other so they perfectly match in due course, but not bad, huh??
I did decide though that since this was a very frivolous buy, another pair were going to have to be retired to make room, and sadly, these are the ones to go:
I mentioned early on in the challenge that I had fears these wouldn’t make the final tally and the time has come to face up to the inevitable. I love them, but I just don’t wear this platformed style often enough and there were others I felt were more wearable or more special to cover the occasions I do, so it’s time for them to be added to the Vinted pile. Hopefully someone out there will pick them up and give the the love they deserve!
Now onto the saves….
Given that I’m now approximately the size of a house, flats are now inevitably the thing most often seen on my feet. I’ve never really had any worries about getting through them, but it’s still nice to tick a few more off the list. My favourite way to wear them this month appears to have been with a comfy, stretchy dress!
Thanks to another couple of warm spells I’ve also managed to save most of the rest of my sandals, and just in the nick of time it seems! There were a couple of pairs left that I’ve thankfully managed to save in the dwindling sunny days of September but more on that next month!
And of course that leaves the heels! With only the one real ‘special occasion’ of Bailey’s birthday to use as an excuse, my chartreuse coloured satin heels from Zara made the cut fairly easily, but I had to get pretty creative with the rest! Heels aren’t easy (or safe!) for me to wear for any long period now, so I mostly used my work from home days to get the others worn, and tried to push myself to think outside the box when it came to styles and colour combos to make sure I was focusing on the harder to wear pairs! It paid off and I was able to get some of the glitter and peep toes I knew would cause me problems done and dusted, but I still have a challenge ahead of me on the final stretch as there is a hell of a lot of sparkle left to get through by December 31st!
Save of the Month
This month’s favourite save are not one of my favourite pairs, nor a pair I’m particularly sentimental about, but I decided they deserved the top spot simply because of how hard I find it to wear them! The ‘Dolly’ court by Kurt Geiger is such a classic shape, and this is one of 7 (yes, 7!!) of the same design that I own, but the multi tonal purple stripes of this colourway make this pair a little awkward to style. I took a gamble pairing them with this red and purple vintage skirt, because I wasn’t sure if the shades were quite right and if the print clash would be a little garish, but I was actually really pleased with how the whole look turned out! I’m obviously thrilled that they live to see another day in the collection, but more so that with a little more thought I was able to put together something a little different instead of just reaching for the same old things, which, let’s face it, was the whole point of doing this challenge!
So, another month down and we’re into the final stretch! Another 15 ticked off the tally means I’m still on track, and while it will be a little tricky around the twins arrival I’m still feeling pretty optimistic! Though there are one or two pairs of those tricky platforms left, so we’ll see….
As always, you can also keep track of my journey at the following Pinterest boards:
Shoes still to save! – 38
Saved shoes! – 145/183
Love,
Picking the Day 