Summer Sandal preview

Along with the Kickass Kohls dresses, I have been stocking up on spring/summer sandals and shoes. The Birthday Frye hunt turned out to be a bust, and I had no better luck with ankle boots, so those searches have been shelved until the fall. But sandals, OMG, I have been doing great on those, and much of that success is due to Angie at YouLookFab. She has a knack for finding the most attractive and comfortable shoes out there! My sandal collection was in desperate need of replenishment this year so I tried on all the ones she has been posting about and scooped up my favorites.



First, we have the Franco Sarto Tazers. These will be perfect for work with so many of my dresses, and fill that nude shoe gap I had been lamenting just recently. (I will probably want one more pair of nude shoes in a dressier heel to complete my collection.) They are ridiculously comfortable too; to test them out in the store, I not only walked all over the place, I ran! Hee.



Next we have the Clarks Raasas, in a lovely slate blue. These will work with some dresses (when I am going for the casual end of the business casual spectrum), pants and weekend wear. I just picked these up with my friend Laura65 on our last shopping trip, and I think she was eyeing a pair for herself by the end!



These Alfani Voyage sandals are long gone from the Macys site, but I did find a pair a few weeks ago in the store while out shopping with my friends A and K, and I grabbed them while I could! Very comfortable, very casual -- for weekend outfits with dresses or shorts, or on the most casual of days in the office. I actually think my new office is going to surprise me in how casual they go in the summer; I remember seeing my VP and Boss in sandals, bare legs and sheath dresses many times at meetings last year. So these might get more wear than I think!



When I saw these Franco Sarto Creeds at the downtown Macys while birthday shopping with my friend Jessie, I was skeptical. They just seemed a little over the top, a little too many trends at once: snakeskin, gladiator/cage, wedge, espadrille, platform, OMG pick just one already!

Then I put them on, and both Jessie and I swooned. You guys, these are HOT shoes. I don't really own hot shoes, but I needed to own these. They are also way more comfortable than they seem like they could be; as I learned from a couple of pairs of awesome espadrille Clarks I owned the last few summers, the platform and wedge heel just make you taller but don't put any extra pressure on your arches or the balls of your feet.

I don't know if I will have the balls nerve to wear the Creeds to work, but I can totally see wearing them to sit out on the patio at The Yard House and drinking sangria with Shopping Friend this summer! I suspect we will then toddle off to Von Maur to do a little tipsy pre-fall shoe shopping...hey, maybe I will find my ankle boots on that trip!

It's the circle of life, my friends. :)

P.S. I also just ordered this adorable Hobo clutch, using an Amazon gift card from my sister. I saw it at Von Maur the other day, and was mad for the roominess of it (I could totally fit my iPhone, Blackberry, small wallet and keys in it) and the super-awesome hand strap in the back, but I did not love the colors at the store. Amazon had it in this lovely maple, which is exactly the kind of warm neutral I have been looking for.





I have now doubled my clutch collection. LOL!