Shoes, shoes, glorious shoes........

Maria Carey's shoe closet...bigger than my house? I think so!! Image from here

Warning, this is a post purely about shoes. Mr P you need read no more, nothing to see here. Honest ;0)

So it struck me this week that either I'm getting (a lot) older or Clarks shoes are getting far more funky. This has come about as I'm currently in love with about 5 pairs of sandals in my local store...Clarks for those who don't know are a shoe manufacturer and retailer that started off based in Somerset and were the compulsory brand for school shoes. I cannot tell you the suffering over the years enduring flat, brown, basket style sandals will haunt me forever. We even went on a school trip to their factory to see how these shoes were made!! (no trips to Alton Towers for my somerset school no siree it was shoe factories and the ballet - can you tell it was an all girls school??)

Anyway as usual I've gone off track, back to the point of this post! It was while I was out at lunchtime one day this week running some errands that I popped into my local Clarks branch, lured in by the summery window display. It was all sunshine and beaches and smiling tanned models wafting around flaunting their cool shoes instead of being like me in a chilly, grey, miserable mid work week wearing cosy boots...Once indoors I spotted all these beautys...and it was lust at first sight. I'm a sucker for a bright summery shoe, and if there's a wedge involved then I'm all over it. Being a midget I love a good bit of wedge action - makes me considerably taller but I can still walk without being crippled after 5 steps!

Now with an average price tag of £55 a pair these are not cheap shoes - certainly not compared to New Look/Debenhams/even Marks and Spencer BUT they are generally very good quality in my experience and they're just so pretty!!

Yellow shoes of joy

Ickle wedge = comfy, funky straps = cool

Super red flowery loveliness

Gorgeous daytime sparkle anyone?

The ultimate wedge?

Of course I'm on a shopping bag (of sorts) while I pay off my new car and the new barbie laptop plus save for a wedding so shoe shopping is not coming under my "essential only spending" mantra at the moment (apart from the yellow ones they are MUST HAVES surely???)

But then I can always reply when Mr P asks "is that a new pair of shoes?" with "What? These old things? I've had them FOREVER they were just lurking in the back of my closet. Honest"

Although - blogging about them with pictures probably means he'll see through that ruse....Darn it.

So dear readers are you feeling spring like with your wardrobes yet? What do you think of my current shoe lust list? Can you think of any justifications for a new shoe purchases? Or can you help me reign in my shopaholic tendancies?

Lx

The Shopping Challenge - the first fortnight, an update!!

Hello all it's been far too long between my posts but now my hectic social life is now well and truly over I have lots of posts stored up in my head ready to write. But first - how am I doing on CP's Fabulously Frugal challenge?

Well first up no handbags, Filofaxes, shoes or clothes have been purchased by myself - big tick.

On a recent trip away with my Mum she did buy me two tops (so pretty) and I wasn't going to get them as I'm participating in the challenge but she reckoned they were "so me" I had to have them apparently so hopefully you don't think that's cheating too much!!

I have however bought 2 books and a DVD BUT one of the books is the second Starbucks bio that is for a marketing course I am starting soon (great example of customer centric marketing getting a little waylaid) and the other is How To Be A Woman by Caitlyn Moran which EVERYONE seems to have been raving about recently and I love her columns so figured it would be a good read. Plus neither are fiction so I'm thinking that they are kind of ok?

The DVD I bought is Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred - this promises an extremely tough but super quick (20 minutes) workout which should be doable for me (well I say that I've had it 5 days and not managed to fit in a session yet!!) and as this fits with my other big challenge about getting fit and loosing weight I figured for £3 on Amazon it was worth a try!!

Other than a new tyre, shower pump and exhaust I've been really good (I think) I have however been very poor at joining in the Facebook group and I haven't done any of CP's tasks yet so I want to give those a try this week!!

So how are you all doing with life this week?

Lx

CP's No Shopping Challenge....

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One of my favourite bloggers recently wrote this post about shopping and mooted the idea of a no shopping challenge. This post eerily echoed some of the thoughts I'd been having recently about why I buy stuff that came out of a conversation with Mr P. Imagine the following if you will:

Me: ooh I'm very excited about my upcoming shopping trip with Miss L
Mr P: I don't understand why girls find shopping enjoyable? I mean why do you need so much stuff? Why does it make you so happy?
Me: Well it's a social thing as well as the pleasure of seeking out pretty things....And I just "need" them!
Mr P: Why? Are you not happy enough with me? How come you feel the need to buy more things to make you happier? And where are you going to put even more stuff???

This conversation got me to thinking...can you hear the cogs whirling? Why with a wardrobe bursting at the seams full of clothes, shoes, bags and of course Filofaxes do I feel the need to shop? Is it that I think this dress/bag/flip flop will suddenly mean I loose 3 stone/grow taller/become more fun? Can it really be true that without said item my life will be an less fulfilling or complete?

I often think about the scene from Sex and the City when Carrie realises that she has no savings, property or assets other than her wardrobe full of expensive shoes....glamorous but not especially useful when one is trying to secure a mortgage! Is that me but with £40 not £400 shoes?

I am lucky enough to be at a time in my life where I really am very happy. I have a wonderful man, a lovely home, a fabulous job (something is bound to go wrong soon I'm sure as this is all far more than I deserve) but clearly there is something wrong inside for me to need to buy things as regularly as I do. So inspired by Caribbean Princess here is my homage to her no shopping challenge. I will be fully participating in her challenge group and here are my not to be purchased rules from July 1st:

1) Any non work essential magazine subscriptions/magazine purchases other than She and Red. No more of the monthly/weekly glossies telling me what I "must" have so it will in fact be a double winner - saving money for not purchasing the magazine and then also not being tempted by the items within said magazine.

2) No clothes, shoes, bags and Filofaxes. I have more than enough of all for my whole street it feels sometimes and far more than fits into my wardrobes/cupboards.....unless it is something for an event that I really don't have in my wardrobe (fancy dress theme for example) nothing new!!!!

3) Books - I'm a bugger for buying new books and then not reading them. So until I have read the whole backlog of novels I have stockpiled at home no more fiction for me. And then I'm going to join our local library and try reading some for free!!

4) CD's, DVD's and mp3 downloads etc. I do tend to buy music quite a bit whether a song or album I've heard on the radio or decide to liberate a film that might be in the DVD bargain bin. But I have so much it is about time I revisited some of it and found out why I fell in love with certain albums/bands/films again!

5) Accessories - beads, bangles, scarves and earrings. Another thing I do is buy new accessories to spangle up an outfit. You can never be having a fat day where your favourite earrings don't fit!! However this is something else that I buy and rarely wear, I have my favourites for sure but I probably only wear about 10% of my total collection so time to dig out some of my older pieces and start enjoying them. That goes for my "posh" jewellery too - the special occasion stuff that I don't wear in case I loose/break it. Time to enjoy that too otherwise it will never get worn!!

6) Random, non essential kitchen items. I do get carried away sometimes and buy shiny new kitchen items that never see the light of day (yes slow cooker I'm talking about you) so no more - unless of course the kettle/toaster/coffee machine blows up and needs replacing!

7) Nik naks - fridge magnets, memorabilia, souvenir pencils the list is endless of the junk that I collect and bring home to lie in a drawer never to see the light of day again. No more! Without buying a considerably bigger fridge I have very little room left for any more magnets....

There are however several areas that I will not be including in my shopping embargo list:

1) Ski wear - in January my first ever ski trip is planned. I'm gatecrashing Mr P's ski buddy group which includes the very lovely Mr T and several other gorgeous boys. Now on this trip I will be happily at (utter) beginners ski school leaving the boys to carry on as normal with their ski holibobs as while I've never skied before they are all quite seasoned pros. But of course I have none of the gear yet - so I shall be hunting out some bargains I hope in my local TKMaxx/outdoor store/eBay for my first ski kit.

2) Birthday presents and the like. I have so many lovely people's birthdays coming up in the second half of the year and I love shopping for gifts for people so this will help alleviate the shopping pangs hopefully.

3) Vital replacements - by this I mean items that have actually broken/worn out and are essentials only. This will mean said broken item is recycled/thrown away though! An example would be if on my winter coat the sleeve ripped off....

4) Core beauty products. Not frivolous lip glosses or eye shadows but replacing the essentials (shower gel/hair dye etc etc) that without which I would turn into a bedraggled witch.

5) Furniture - we are looking to purchase some new furniture for our spare bedroom potentially so that is excluded from the embargo - it will just help with being able to access all the stuff I already have much easier!!

6) Kitchen appliances - I'm living in hope of getting a new bigger fridge and possibly even a dishwasher...I can't cut that dream off just yet ;0)

7) Car....I do believe in the next 6 months that I will need to be purchasing a new motor of sorts as I think I have nearly killed Mr P's lovely car with the amount of miles I do to work and back everyday. So having stolen that for the past year and half it is about time I coughed up some cash and purchased a new one to replace it. See here for more on that....

So there it is...can I do it? Mr P certainly isn't convinced!

Lx