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!

The People Have Spoken!

Okay, now THAT was a blowout, and I am not talking about the football game. Between the blog entry and my query on YLF, I believe the final score was: Internet Voters 30498547557349384, Frye Boots 2.

(Kendra, I still think they are cute too, and I have no problem with the western style. But the width and the fit bothered me; they didn't look right with any dresses or with jeans. So back they go!)

Instead, I have ordered the Melissa style in bordeaux:



We shall see if these are the ones in a couple of days. I like the styling although it is a little more riding boot than western, but they're a lot sleeker and the pull-tabs don't appear to be as widening. I do wish they were grey, but the bordeaux is pretty gorgeous.

What I found fascinating in all the replies was the resounding response that the Billys were 'not my style'. The consensus here and on YLF seemed to be that I should go for a sleeker boot, I think to match my dressier business casual days. Which is a fair statement, except that I already have two excellent pairs of tall boots to fit those outfits: a rich brown flat riding boot from Franco Sarto, and a black wingtip-slash-cowboy tall boot from Vince Camuto.

My goal with the Fryes is to find something fun and more casual; something that I can wear under bootcuts or with my casual dresses on the weekends. Ankle boots aren't quite working, and I don't really want the edginess of an Engineer or Harness look. I am looking in a way to shake up my style, which was the opposite of where everyone else seemed to want me to go. Maybe it was just the extreme of the cowboy boot that provoked the responses; they do tend to be a love-em or hate-em style. (I am in the love camp.) I'm not yet convinced these Melissa will be the fun boots I am looking for, but maybe that shouldn't be the goal. Maybe a perfectly styled boot is the better fit for me, even on the weekends.

Anyway, I appreciate all the honest feedback. The Birthday Frye hunt continues!

Birthday Frye Hunt: Billy Talls

Okay, I returned the blue Miz Mooz ankle boots -- they were much too wide at the ankle and the blue was not as complimentary with jeans as I'd hoped -- and I have started the search for a good pair of Fryes as a birthday present to myself. :) So far I've tried on the mid-calf Harness style and hated them: too wide and the length chopped my calf off at absolutely the wrong place.

Yesterday I tried on the Billys ankle and tall versions, and came home with the Billys tall. I LOVE the grey color, but I am not sure if they are keepers. Hubby says no; he doesn't think I am a cowboy-boot kind of girl (or "cowgirl" as we've been joking) but I would like to be if I could pull it off.

What do you guys think?

Here are close-ups, front and from the side:




I love the way they look from the side, but I think they look like a weird V from the front. They definitely fit, there's no gap around my leg. But the pullup tabs widen the line out quite a bit.

Here they are with a dress I am most definitely returning:



(See how the store left the tag in? NICE.)

Here they are with the outfit I wore out to dinner with Hubby last night:


As a comparison, here's the same outfit with my black Vince Camutos (which is what I did wear for real):


What's the verdict, internet: Keep or return?

Saturday: Shopping at Macys

My friend Jessie and I met up at the Macys on State Street downtown yesterday; for the die-hard Chicago fans, it's still referred to as "the old Marshall Fields", but I'm from the East Coast originally. Macys was the fancy department store of my youth; I don't begrudge them buying out Fields.

It's a really beautiful store, with vaulted ceilings and huge open spaces where you can look out and see all six floors of shopping. There's a fountain on the first floor, and up on the seven there is the Walnut Room and a couple of other sit-down restaurants. Jessie and I didn't get to the Walnut Room this time -- we went for a glass of wine, lobster rangoon, and brown sugar cheesecake at the lobby bar at the Hotel Burnham -- but I think we will go next time. Hopefully it's less crowded when it's not the holidays.










I've haven't shopped at this particular store since I lost weight, but I definitely want to go back. There's just so MUCH to see and try; the shoe department alone took up nearly half of one floor -- and the store is an entire city block in size! We met there so I could try on some Frye's, just to start to get a feel for how all the styles look on me. I tried the mid-calf Harness, and they were a no-go. The height was all wrong for my shape, cutting me off at the wrong place on my leg, and the calves were way too wide for me. So I can cross those off the Birthday Fryes list!

When we met up, Jessie said the nicest thing to me. "While I was looking for you, I just kept looking for the impeccably-dressed women." That made my whole day, let me tell you!

I liked yesterday's outfit, both what I wore and then how I bundled up in my outerwear. It wasn't quite rain, but it was wet in the air and not quite freezing, so for the first time in a month I didn't have to wear my white puffer! It was nice to be able to switch it up.



The outfit: white Lands End turtleneck, navy Navajo-patterned oversize Gap cardigan (my $2 deal!), brown Target belt, gold J Crew Outlet locket, black Daisy Fuentes ponte skinnies, and black Vince Camuto boots. What I like about a look like this is that it is completely versatile, and appropriate for everything I did yesterday: my WW meeting and weigh-in, grocery shopping, clothes shopping downtown, drinks in a hotel bar, and then out to dinner with my husband. Didn't have to change a thing for any of it!



The outerwear also worked for the weather and the occasions. Black Anne Klein lined raincoat, grey Gap scarf (Hubby's), black Kangol hat, mustard Tignanello crossbody, and black Coach gloves.



I didn't find anything at Macys, but I did pick up an adorable Suzi Chin by Maggie Boutique dress at Nordstrom Rack, a turquoise (the color for this spring!) sheath with a pretty ruffled collar. I also found the perfect pocket-watch pendant necklace I have been wanting, at Urban Outfitters. Both pieces are going to be great additions to my wardrobe; look for them to be featured soon!

Today is raining and slow; I'm doing laundry and prepping some fruit and food for the week, but not much else. We're going to a minor league hockey game this afternoon at the Allstate Arena; it'll be casual attire all the way. Yay jeans! :)