A Creative Post About the Topic of My Choice

Dear Friends,

I think I should more carefully plan these blog posts, as I just had to refer to yesterday's blog post to see what topic I am to write about on Thursdays. Boy I wish I was kidding, but that is real life right there folks! Nonetheless, I think I have a spectacular post topic that I think about half of my readers will love and the other half will hate. So, without further ado, I bring you my first ever blog post about...

Shoes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF3ywukQYA

I know my dearest mother, Maiden Jane, is one of the haters of this post. I'm sure she will comment below that I have too many shoes and I need to get rid of them. She once tried to impose a shoe rule on my sister and I: For every new pair of shoes you bring into the house, you must remove one. I bet she regretted that when we threw all of her shoes in the garbage...Okay, that didn't really happen, but she did indeed suggest this rule to us in the hopes we would see the common sense behind it. Well, Mom, I understand. I see the common sense. I just don't like it. After all, don't I have enough common sense to get me through the more important things in life?

I will forever maintain that I do not have too many shoes. Compared to some of my wonderful friends, I have very few shoes. I would say I own approximately 15 pairs of shoes, plus or minus five shoes depending on the season. I wear them until they have holes and I rarely ever purchase shoes that are not on sale. I also believe your shoes tell a story. There are so many quotes related to shoes, feet, and walking.

Shoes are important. They carry us through our life, quite literally. As I mused about this blog post, I realized my shoes tell quite a story about myself, and my life. I thought it would be fun (mostly for me :D) to share some of my favorite pairs of shoes with you, and in doing so, share a little footprint of my life as well.

Being the perennial organizer, I have managed to find a way to keep my personal collection of shoes nicely ordered and stored under my bed in this handy contraption.

My mother is not a fan of heels in general, and she especially does not like my collection of stilettos. "Mom, they aren't that high" is a frequent utterance from my mouth as I parade around in a pair of heels. This pair of black patent leather stilettos was my first "real" pair of heels. These shoes have carried me through countless Singing Angels concerts, high school band and choir concerts, and dressier events that require I elevate myself a few extra inches off the ground. These shoes have lasted me four years and, though they are quite beat up, I plan to wear them as long as I can!

Homecoming and Prom were two additional sources of grief for my poor Mom (I am making her out to be a great martyr, I know. Relish it, Mom.), as it involved a new dress, pair of shoes, jewelry, hair styles, corsages, makeup, and the like. I am very lucky to have a skilled seamstress for a mother, and she either made or changed nearly every dress I wore. This pair of shoes carried me through some of the most beautiful nights of my life. I went to prom with my best friend two years in a row and had an incredible time with him! He is still and always will be my best friend, and these shoes are a little reminder of that. They are on their last leg after so many dances, but I can't bear to throw them out just yet!

Scratched, bruised, and missing a few gems!

The next set of shoes commemorate another fanciful night celebrate this past July. My beautiful cousin Mary and her fiancee Eddie got married after being together since college! Given my crazy, huge, wonderful family, it was sure to be the event of the summer. All the ladies were giddy about the prospect of new dresses and shoes, and I was no exception. I settled on this classic nautical-style dress for the wedding ceremony, where my friends Brian and Paige shared their beautiful voices for the Mass. 

Due to the red belt, I paired it with these red high heels! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Ri8GY57SI)

For the reception, I wore this 1920's flapper-style dress, a gift from my "Fairy Godparents." (Don't worry if you don't know who they are, that's a whole separate post!) I purchased the one shoe-splurge I have ever engaged in with these nude Vince Camuto designer pumps. Needless to say, I love them!

This blog post is turning out to be quite lengthy, but I only have a few pairs of shoes left. Female shoe code dictates that I must share them with you!

This summer, I began running, with the help of the "Couch to 5K" App downloaded from the iTunes Store. My Mom successfully trained for a 5K using this program and I figured I would give it a shot. I purchased a new pair of tennis shoes after buying an awful pair of running shoes the summer before that left my feet screaming in pain. These shoes have now run their first official 5K, the "Run Jane Run" race at Edgewater Park in Cleveland! I have managed to injure my ankle, but once that is healed, I will be hitting the pavement once again in these guys!

Now for a bit of a change...I am a hopeless bargain shopper. I love sales, deals, and stretching my dollar. One of my favorite stores to shop at is Marc's, a local grocery store. Marc's also carries about ten aisles of random, funky closeouts that they buy up from other stores. Recently, they have been purchasing a TON of Target merchandise. I have purchased a great many Target-brand shirts from Marc's, as well as a few pairs of shoes. These two pairs were $3.99 and $5.99, and I simply could not pass them up. Are the impractical? Incredibly. Do I love them? Absolutely. 

Last, but not least are these knock-off Toms shoes I purchased at Big Lots (yay bargain shopping!). These are going to be my next craft project once I dig up my sister's fabric markers. I will be taking these shoes and decorating them from front to back in my favorite quotes. I have seen a variety of different decorated shoes on Etsy, and I absolutely love them! I am not the greatest artist in the world, but I think I can handle the written word, which is perhaps what I am best at!

Well friends, there you have it. Shoes can carry quite a bit of meaning, albeit sentimental and sometimes cheesy. Shoes are a blessing we are apt to forget. Many people in this world do not have the simple gift of a pair of shoes. We must also remember to spend some of our time running barefoot in the grass, letting it tickle our toes. I won't bother to make a relevant, but trite metaphor here about how we should live our lives in such a way as to allow ourselves to "run barefoot" sometimes and live freely. Shoes are important, and they literally carry us through our lives. However, I must never forget that we come here to this world with nothing and take nothing with us the day we leave, shoes included. 

Words Truly,

Maggie