Shopping for Shoes, with a Purpose

Everyone seems to be in a frenzy about decorating early this year for Christmas.  And if there’s a frenzy going on, I want to be part of it.  So we have our boxes of roping and trims and ornaments and lights, and lights–did I mention lights and little lighted trees?

Next, as you might guess, we have discovered that we don’t have enough extension cords or timers.  Where do they go between January and November?  So I sent Better Half out to get the electrical necessities.

You’ll love one of the finds as much as I do!  It’s called “Extension Cord with Footswitch” by Orman.   And it says right on the wrapping that you (I) will no longer have to crawl under the Christmas tree to unplug it.   There, in the middle of a decent length of extension cord is a wide green push button.  Push it with your foot.

Orman “Extension Cord with Footswitch”
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

See it?  Ah, and “footswitch”—new word for the day.  Now, study the photo carefully as I did—I love advertising stuff.  Notice the SHOE that is merrily about to step on the footswitch.  Wow!  Was she dressed for a party?  Or does she wear shoes like that all the time sort of like June Cleaver?

I need new shoes!  I have nothing like these to wear.

These are fancy–maybe satin with embroidery?  Or white leather with gold embossing?  And that heel!  I’m going to try to get that same look.  (Thank goodness we can’t see what she’s wearing or we’d be here all night shopping.)

No, we’ll just look for shoes.  Our purpose—sort of the same look.
First I went online to Zappo’s.   Found three contenders there—the Vince Camuto, the Type Z and the Nine West.  All under $100–doable.  Here are the three:

Vince Camuto

Type Z–sparkly

Nine West –I suppose they’re too blue

Will keep them in mind.

All right, then I headed over to ebay and typed in “vintage high heel shoes”.   I thought they might have a nice wedding type of 1950’s thing that would have the look.  But really all I bumped into were retro vintage—-cute though!!!!!!!!!

shoe on ebay–polka dot

another cute ebay shoe

THESE are the kinds of shoes I am going to wear in my next life!

And then, somehow I came upon a really weird scenario—–you can BUY a PATTERN to make your own silver crochet shoes.  What do ya think?

can’t stop laughing

Let’s get serious.  Christmas will have come and gone before I have a decent pair of shoes to wear for the footswitch.  When you’re going to buy shoes, go to Neiman’s.  The contenders:

Jimmy Choo “mirror” leather pump $595.00

Jimmy Choo Lace Peep Toe–I love ’em $850

Miu Miu Silver pump–keep coming back to silver, but that’s not really what I want. $590

I deliberately avoided the snakeskin shoes—-they could easily mimic the look of the Orman footswitch photo, but snakeskin just doesn’t seem Christmas-y does it?
Aha! a selection that I could maybe actually wear for more than an hour— the Cole Haan glitter pump with a reasonable heel!

Cole Haan $178

And if you like a low heel, how about a NO HEEL?  No, I’m not kidding!  Here is the No Heel with ankle strap by Giuseppi Zanetti:

No Heel with Ankle Strap by Giuseppe Zanetti $850

But wait!  It also comes WITH a heel——————-for $100 less!!

Giuseppe Zanetti $750

Remember—you saw it here at booksandbuttons!

Speaking of ankle straps, this next one has a good (Orman) look to it:

Ankle Strap Pump by Manolo Blahnik $815

But how do you feel about ankle straps?  Kind of confining I find them.  Let’s look at two more pairs of shoes and make our decision.

Valentino Couture Bow Lace Pump $895

Goodness!  that’s cute—and it sort of has a bit of embroidery lace look to it.  (It doesn’t really look like the Orman shoe, and I know it, but this is so cute–and comfortable I’ll bet.)

And a last one:

Oscar de la Renta Sequin Mesh Pump $795

Quite nice, and the literature about them says that they go with skinny jeans or the LBD.   Since I don’t know and probably don’t have “LBD” I think I’ll pass on these — and besides, they don’t look Christmas-y enough.

I’ve decided—-have you?  I’m going to buy the Valentinos, put them UNDER the tree and the next picture shows what I’ll most likely be wearing for the footswitch!

my slippers