The Closet

There were some requests to see pictures of my closet mentioned in the Shoes post. I spent this weekend cleaning the closet so it was presentable. As mentioned earlier, most of my shoes are in boxes with the picture of the pair on the box so I know what's inside. This helps me find the pair of many that I am looking for and has, for the most part, kept me from just throwing my shoes on the floor after wearing them. In the past there were mounds of shoes in my closet and I could never find the one I wanted, or if I could I couldn't find it's match. The shoe boxes were not my idea. I got it from Real Simple a few years ago. Here it is...

Close-Up of the Boxes

The Shelving from the Ceiling

The Shelving From the Floor

The Rest of the Shoes - Flip Flops and Sneakers

I know. Like I said, it's a sickness.

Vacation and Shopping Don't Mix

As stated in Shoes, I am the cliched shoe-a-holic. My favorite shoe shopping store is DSW. It is miles and miles of shoes; it's my "heaven" really.

Well, I'm on vacation right now, which technically started July 1, but I have been working on-and-off since then. I like to work and tend to get bored when I'm off for more than 2-3 days. Usually when I'm bored I go shopping. The problem with that is that during summer vacation I don't get paid. So why am I shopping? I think it's another addiction, really.

Last week, I had a few days free and found myself at DSW. Boy, did I shop. I found so many pairs that I wanted. I was able to cut it down to a mere 4 pair. Yah, that's right, I bought 4 pairs of shoes last week.

This is pair #1

This is pair #2

This is pair #3

This is pair #4 - my favorite of the bunch

Then this week Lisa and I went to Santee Alley downtown in the Fashion District. We shopped for knock-off handbags. My plan was to buy one, but I bought two. Two is better than one, right?

Here's bag #1

Here's bag #2

Here's a close up of the knock-off D&G label

Why do I do this? I think it's a sickness.

I need to go back to work.

Shoes

This post was actually written back in June, but I never posted it because I was waiting to take a picture of the shelves written about below. However, my closet is in such a state that photos would not be appropriate at this time. This is a prerequisite for a future post.

For some reason, my school did a high school-type end of year vote, like the ones we used to do as teenagers for the year book. With categories like most popular, cutest boy/girl, best athlete, etc. 20-30 year olds giggled as they quickly filled out the surveys so their vote would count.

Much to my surprise I received one of the honors...No, it wasn't most popular, most smart, or most likely to succeed. It also wasn't best dressed, cutest girl, or drama queen. No, instead, it was a highly sought out honor.

It was ...

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wait for it

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MOST SHOES!

Yes, I'm serious. Most shoes. Well, yes, I have always prided myself on the number of shoes I have. I do love shoes and have a lot of them. In fact, my closet is filled with them. When I moved into my new house, my dad even built several shelves for housing my many shoes. A couple of years ago, I read an article in one of my favorite magazines "Real Simple". (Just a funny side note on the magazine...My friend Robyn, who is kind of a hippy, read the magazine while visiting. She was horrified when the magazine had an article about how to make your life easier with chores and maintenance around the house. It sounded like a good article as she started reading it, but it quickly annoyed her that one of their "tips" was to "hire a maid". I don't know what she was so upset about. I think that is a super idea.)

Anyways, back to the shoe storage. Each pair of shoes is neatly housed inside a clear plastic shoe box. On top of that, I have taken a picture of each pair of shoe and attached it to the inside of the box showing through so I can see which pair of shoes is on the inside. Genius, I know! It is a shoe masterpiece if you will. Shoe storage that Carrie Bradshaw might admire, even though my boxes are not filled with Jimmy Choos or Pradas, but knock-offs instead.

So I have a lot of shoes. However, I was under tremendous pressure this morning choosing the shoes for my ensemble this morning. How can the girl who was voted "most shoes" wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row. You see, I am a teacher who is on her feet most of the day. Fancy smancy shoes are no good for standing all day long so I wear the same few pairs of cute, but sensible shoes, day after day. This morning, I felt bad almost about wearing the same pair of leather flip flops that I wore the day before and will probably wear again tomorrow. Oh, it's so overwhelming. I just want my supporters to know that I do, in fact, have a lot of shoes, even though I don't wear a new pair to work each day, and I will make myself go shoe shopping immediately, just to honor their support.