awesome NY mini vacation (part 1)

Image via Wikipedia

What a great trip! I got my hair cut on Wednesday morning in downtown Denver, took the bus home, then watched some TV and ate lunch before heading out to the airport where I had a GREAT smoothie. (Seriously, you have to try Jamba Juice’s new-ish Apple n’ Greens, yum!)

I was really lucky to make every connection smoothly throughout my entire trip. Once I got to LGA I got my (gate checked) bag and went out to look for the “guy in the green shirt” to catch the Airporter shuttle to downtown. Then I bought my first of two or three $10 fare cards and hopped on the subway to Brooklyn! I didn’t get to Andrea’s apartment until 8:45 (I’d hoped to get there about 45 minutes earlier), and then we went to her awesome little local Italian place a few blocks away. I’ve learned my lesson, Andrea, I will always order the special. Mmmm, her creamy tuna pasta was a bazillion times better than my home made whole wheat pasta with fall veggies (though mine tasted better reheated the next day).

Thursday morning I woke up with Andrea at 8 in the morning and cleaned her apartment for her after she left for work at 8:45. An hour later I was back underground, taking the subway to Park Slope, to pick up Ben’s hannukah present! We ordered 25-30 lbs of frozen, organic, pasture raised, kosher meat from Grow and Behold. I wasn’t able to arrange for it to be dropped off at Andrea’s house (scheduling issues), so I picked it up from Naf and Anna’s house/HQ. We chatted a little about the Colorado Hazon Mini-Conference, and then I was on my way back to Andrea’s apartment to change into more appropriate city clothes and go wandering in Manhattan.

Thank goodness for my Freezer Tote, because without it, that meat would have been a goner. Seriously. I locked myself out of the apartment! I grabbed TWO front door keys and no apartment key. Doh!

So, I left the tote bag of rock hard, frozen meat in the hall, just outside Andrea’s door and called around to see who wanted to meet up for lunch. My cousin MiMi, who works for Ted Baker, met me at her store in the Meat Packing District and then took me out for lunch in Chelsea Market. Mmmm, sushi. Thanks, Tanta Sara, for paying for us!

Image via Wikipedia

After lunch I went back to Midtown and met Andrea in the lobby of her office to get her set of apartment keys and then WALKED 23 blocks to Bloomingdales, where I tried on EVERY SHOE in the girls shoe department that came in my size (4.5 kids). I bought a pair Michael Kors’ walking shoes for $16! (Plus $14 for Dr. Scholl’s inserts because they didn’t have an arch and my feet got REALLY tired the next day.)

I didn’t get to meet up with Nigel, from Hazon, because we never did get in touch with each other and I was paranoid about getting swept up with the protesters on Wall Street.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I did have my point and shoot camera in my purse ALL WEEKEND and 100% forgot about it because I kept lamenting not having brought my big camera. I am a dope.

Read Full Post »

more shoes

So I’m now deciding between two pairs of shoes. In the perfect world, I’d combine the two. I like the toe of one, and the heel strap on another. Bah.

I love the toe area of the Calyx Satin Flower Sandal, by Caparros and the ankle strap part of the Danni, by Caparros. In my perfect world, I’d be able to combine the two.

Danni, by Caparros

Read Full Post »

ISO Wedding Shoes

So I somehow got it in my head that it will be easier to pick out the silks for my wedding dress once I have shoes, since it’s more difficult to match fabric swatches to online photos. This meant that last night I spent almost $500 on 8 pairs of shoes. Yes, that’s more than I try and live off of each month in my current state of employment.

I’m hoping that of the 9 pairs of potential wedding shoes I ordered, at least 1 will make me feel like prancing around in the kitchen all afternoon. Once I have my dress and shoes and veil, it’s going to be difficult to stop myself from prancing around in my wedding outfit. I had a hard enough time staying out of Mrs. Lady Bear’s fluffy pink veil, back in July.

Many things were learned in my EPIC HUNT FOR WEDDING SHOES yesterday. Here’s my ranking of stores at the Flatirons Mall in Broomfield, CO.

1. Dillards had the most helpful staff (I was being assisted by their shoe manager, that may have had something to do with it). But, not a whole lot in the store in ivory and I hadn’t pre-perused their website because I don’t have a membership thing with them and just never thought about it.
2. DSW was the black sheep. I somehow forgot how awesome they are! OMG, they had half of shoes I ordered online last night (only $200). Most o them, they had in the store to try on, if only in black or some other pedestrian color. Sadly, my favorites are no longer available in ivory.* I also bought the most amazing, make me smile, happy Deena, ballet flats. How can you not love these?** ->
3. Payless had lots of trendy shoes that didn’t fit poorly! I’m always amazed when I can find something there, and I usually do, but then talk myself out of it. I did buy these (but am returning them after wearing them around the house for 20 min, in exchange for these mary janes) and seriously considered ordering these Lila Rose shoes, but the heel just seemed a tad far back on the shoe/foot to really feel balanced in. The shoe part fit beautifully and the custom dyed-to-order satins (for x2 the white pleather in-store version) felt and looked really nice.
4. Nordstrom’s shoe sales people seem a bit shy. But, they have WEDDING DRESSES! OMG, I knew they had them online, but I forgot that you can return them to the stores. My body double (with smaller boobs) ordered a whole bunch of dresses and returned them. In petite sizes! Do you people know how hard it is to find petite sizes?! The lady in the Specially Occasions dress department even went hunting for (and found) foundation garments for me to try on under the dresses.*** Sadly, none of the dresses fit me well enough to seriously consider, even for only $175 (or the woman who ordered them originally either).
5. Macy’s has lots of shoes, but they don’t carry all the colors of each line, check online before going. Their sales staff also seems less reliable, though maybe I just got the new girl and her indifferent and matronly compatriot. It IS however a good place to go and try things on because they have SO MANY SHOES. Even if they did manage to loose the right foot of the only size 6.5  pair of these shoes they had.

Zappos isn’t in the mall, so I can’t rank them. I’ve never ordered from them before, but I’ve heard people gush. I ordered 4 pairs for shoes for almost $300. Their prices were the same as everywhere else for the shoes that I saw elsewhere, but they didn’t have as many of the lower price range evening shoes in ivory. Here’s a smash-up of the shoes I ordered from zappos, plus some other fun stuff too:

ISO wedding shoes by violarulz on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Calvin Klein Kaden, $98
Coloriffics Nola by at Zappos.com, $78
Caparros Danni, $73
Caparros Zora, $69

Oh, you want more shoe porn? Me too! Too bad DSW doesn’t let polyvore grab pictures. Here are links and short descriptions to the shoes I can’t grab photos of:

• I tried these gorgeous ruffly ons in black and they’re beautiful and fit perfectly. I hope the ivory rocks too!
• I ordered these rosette sandals too, although they’re not available in stores to try on (in 6 and 6.5).
• These strappy/knotted front sandals look a lot like my prom shoes from BP in high school.

*I emailed zappos and DSW’s customer service agents to try and hunt them down for me. Neither one could find them, but both gave the same reason why: those shoes haven’t been made in ivory since 2008. Zappos did go on to tell me that the shoes came out in 2006 and are unlikely to be revived, though they’ll let me know if they find a pair.

**Oddly, the sparkly shoes are NOT Jones New York, they definitely say Nine West in the shoes and on the box. I got them for 40% off and had to buy jelly arches for them because they have NO support and I had to buy them a bit on the smaller side to fit and have been prancing around the house in them for the last 24 hours.

**note to self- when trying on wedding dresses a good strapless bra and spanxs are a must. Kelly green lowrise briefs are VERY obvious under white chiffon.

Read Full Post »

pretty shoes

I’d never wear those, but they’re so pretty :). Maybe if they came in ivory and were closed toed. I’m afraid to wear open toed shoes with so many people around…. My toes don’t need anymore torture.

Read Full Post »