12 Months 12 Outfits - August Assignment: Do I really want to do Fall yet?

Heaves a big sigh as the reality that it is August 2nd slaps her face...

Here are the August outfits over at Vivienne Files.   Janice stayed with the pattern in previous years, but this month she built the outfit around tall boots.  Last year's August picks included a range of boot styles, but this year it's all about the tall boots.  And every outfit includes a skirt, a blouse (woven)(ETA -- no, there is one Eileen Fisher t shirt in the mix.  I thought it was a soft woven until I clicked through), a sweatery cardigan, with a ring and a brooch for accessories.

Now, I will be straight up honest with you; anticipating this, I was already preparing my little commentary of how, in Alabama, we don't need fall clothes until October.  When my kids were growing up, I didn't even do the seasonal clothing switch until Fall Break...which was usually the first full week in October.  Didn't buy new clothes for the school year until I saw what still fit...and what didn't...from the previous fall/winter season.  There just wasn't any point in it if the temps in the daytime still made it up to at least 80 degrees most days.

But my arguments have dissolved in the face of those tall boots.  See, I have Very Wide Calves, and tall boots that will zip all the way up are like, the Holy Grail of shoe searching.  I bought some a few years back; the style was kinda stodgy but they zipped so I just worked with them...and I really didn't wear them that much.  But, despite the fact that they were made by Maine Trotters, which is supposed to be a high-quality shoe, they have not held up.  The leather is tearing along the stitching lines...just like a perforated piece of paper.  One of the decorative tabs on the back has come off, and the zipper guard is flapping on one of the boots and really won't last much longer before it tears completely off.  So, after last year, I told myself I would need new black boots for this year.

About two weeks ago, looking through Zappos site, I saw that the sandal selection was dwindling.  Several of them I had flagged as favorites were no longer available in my size, or were only available in a few colors.  Suddenly, it hit me that if I wanted the best selection of boots...maybe I should start looking now.  I cruised through and found one style with a wide foot...and what looked to be a reasonably wide calf, although it wasn't marked as a wide calf boot, there was a significant gap between the boot and the calf of the model in the video.  And it did have elastic gores in the back.  So I put it in my favorites to watch.

While writing some reviews for shoes last week, I went to my Favorites page and saw that those boots I had put in the Favorites list were on sale for less than $100.  So of course, I ordered them.  Immediately.

They have arrived and I have tried them on.  I had to WORK to get them zipped, but they just. barely. did. zip. I was wearing moderately thick socks; if I were to wear thin socks or tights it wouldn't be so bad.  The wide width foot fits well and is cushy...I'm just now trying to decide if I want to keep them and wrestle to zip them.  I may try another pair with a wide calf...but there are only a few in my size and price range.  So I'm likely to need to order quickly.  At least it doesn't cost anything to try them on, other than the hassle of returning the ones that don't fit.

All of that is to say....maybe it does make sense to build an outfit around tall boots in August despite my earlier plans.  Even if I don't wear any of it for two months, lol.  So I will be pondering the skirt/blouse/cardigan options while I make up my mind about the boots.

Summer Fun

1. Summer Fun Shoes
2. Summer Fun Giveaway


As promised, here's the 'new sandals w/ a little heel' that I got to make my 'wear with boots' jeans wearable in the summer. They came from Shoe Carnival, in one of the perpetual 'buy one, get one half price' sales. The grey ones are 2 1/2" heels, the brown ones measure 2 3/4". Not at all serious heels, in this day of six inch spikey instruments of foot agony, but, given my tendency to back trouble and the fact that these are worn for church choir...which can easily be standing for 45 minutes to an hour or better...they are my LIMIT for heels ;) Plus, they're both wedge/wide heeles, which is much more secure on the top riser than little spikes (says she who has more than once looked down to see half her heel hanging off the back of the platform...)

But I've worn both of them for choir now and, while my feet weren't in blissful comfort, they weren't in agony, either. They'll do.

The grey ones are even a bit of a fashion stretch for me; I'm not used to blingy feet ;).

But...there's another 'Summer Fun' item to post today. I started the idea of 'Fun First Fridays' back in April, then promptly took the hiatus and missed it in May, so to bring it back, I'm gonna do a giveaway.

Actually, it's just a way to make up for a goof on my part. Hancock's had Vogue patterns on sale last month for something like $3.88 each and I bought a bunch. But when I got home, I discovered I had purchased Vogue 2907 in the wrong size range. (4-6-8, hips 31 1/2" to 33 1/2"...approximately my WAIST measurement...). I thought about just hanging onto it and morphing the details onto the other Vogue alice + olivia pants pattern, which I was alert enough to purchase in the correct size range, but since I got back to Hancock's before the sale was over I decided to just get it in the right size and give the small one to someone who reads the blog.

So...if you're a thin little thing, or if you have a daughter who's a thin little thing, or if you're a whiz at grading patterns or if you'd just like to have the pattern as a collectible, just leave a comment on today's post: Tomorrow, for the Fun First Friday, I'll draw a name from today's comments and send this ridiculously small...er, um, very interesting pattern along with my blessings ;)

Red Shoes!

(They really are dark red; on my monitor, it looks kind of dark fuschia...but then, we're having image problems)

I guess it was November when I decided that I needed red shoes in my wardrobe. I'd always thought of red shoes as, well, sort of frivolous. But a revelation hit me that,if I accessorize right, I could wear them with black, grey, brown, blue, and suddenly what I had thought was a frivolous notion sounded downright practical. So I began looking for red shoes.

But my foot needs a 6 1/2 or 7 WIDE shoe. Tough enough to find in basic black, let alone a funky color like red. And forget anything that has a heel more than 2"...even 2" heels aggravate my back. But I kept looking...and last week, I found the Pretty Good Red Shoes.

Now, these are not exactly what I had in mind; my Perfect Red Shoes would be more the color of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, only without the sparkle, and they would be a little less pointy in the toe, and they would be real leather, not fake. But these Hush Puppies were less than $40 from Zappo's, and they're dressy with a nice low heel. And, believe it or not, they're just a hair big, even though I got the 6 1/2; I'll have to add some toe cushions, I think.

At the least, they're good enough for me to find out if red shoes really are a wardrobe necessity. If I wear these a lot, I won't feel so frivolous spending a little more on shoes that are real leather ;).

Preppy Shoes

DS2 needed some new sneakers, so while we were at Shoe Carnival I decided I'd look for the 'classic Keds' I wanted to wear as the overbooked wife of the overbooked husband in the skit for the Saturday night Uplink service...and lookit the Keds I found:



Aren't they a HOOT! And the best part was that they were on sale...and w/SC's 'buy one get one half price' thing, they ended up costing me all of $5.

I may even wear them after the skit's over... :P