Shoe Admiration

Hi everyone,
Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy every stop and shoe along the way.
My shoe obsession began at an early age with a pair of navy Bass Weejuns. It has only grown from there and this is just the tip of the iceburg...

My favorite new pair

My flip flops...the blue pair - coming apart, losing embellishments, but molded to my feet, absolutely the best for yard and housework!

the shoes I just wore to my brother's wedding...surprisingly comfortable, and very chic!
Cute, red, 'nuff said!

The comfies...slippers, sneakers, sandals!

Old stand-bys...

And last, but not least, my very comfortable new Josef Seibels...that my husband declares as "butt-ugly"! But I don't care because they are the most comfortable of all!

And a final thought about the joy of shoes...

When my mom passed away 9 years ago today, there was a lady who had just lost her home to fire. My mom was a size 5, and as it turns out so was this lady. The lady (I wish I could remember her name) had a hard time finding shoes, but apparently my mother didn't, because there were about 50 pairs that we loaded up and took to this lady who needed them, from a lady who no longer did. But to be able to pass that on to someone so ecstatically grateful was indeed a blessing...I hope that she is still wearing them well.

Don't forget to stop by Southern Lady blog who is hosting the Shoe Show. Happy shoe day to all!

Busy, Busy Week

Well, it's a very busy week at my house...work, cleaning and packing as we are getting ready to go to my brother's wedding this weekend. Since our mother passed away a few years ago and I am a few years older than he is, I get the honor of sitting in as surrogate "mother of the groom"! And I'm truly glad to do it. But making sure I have everything packed takes starting a few days early and making lists so that I don't forget anything. Suddenly a three day trip is turning into a two suitcase one. Most of the time I can pack pretty lightly, but special occasions call for extras...wish me luck that I remember everything.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

And on top of everything else, I'm getting ready for the Southern Lady shoe show on July 24. I can't wait; and I'm even thinking of getting my soon-to-be sister-in-law, her mom, my aunts, cousins and friends at the wedding in on it...Looking forward to seeing what we can come up with.

Serious Magazine Addiction

Hi! My name is Diana and I'm a magazine addict...

Not trying to make light of serious addictions, but my dear, sweet husband may argue that my addiction to magazines is quite the case study. To be fair (to myself), many publications that I receive are true trade publications that I get by free subscription for being employed in the design profession. Many others are offered at a professional rate (and I'm not one to turn down a bargain). But each month that passes finds me up to my derrierre in slick, glossy pages of decorating photos, images of beach houses and cottages, pictures of beautiful gardens and endless luscious recipes and food.

So several years ago, in an effort to hold on to the best of each publication, I started ripping out pages and painstakingly cutting out any inspirational images or any recipe that I thought sounded worth a try. Among them are flowers, seashells, jewelry, beautiful rooms, vegetables, and so on, and pasting them onto cardstock, creating my own version of scrapbooking. Nothing embellishes my pages, however, except for those sought-out special photos. They have become haphazard collages, sometimes grouped by theme or color. Sometimes they are categorized by room type, interior or exterior, etc. I have several pages devoted to doors alone! (Am I developing OCD?) I then put them in sheet protectors in a binder, to pull out and tack on my memo board when I need a spark of imagination.

And the recipes? In a binder, organized much like a cookbook, awaiting the day I find time to prepare them...and many I have prepared. I will share them here eventually.

The fact that this is a fairly time-consuming process that I go through each month does not deter me from continuing, but I have alllowed some subscriptions to lapse in an effort to try to manage my time a little more carefully. Maybe this will allow me to pursue some of the projects and cooking inspired by all of my clippings. However, I will NEVER give up my Coastal Living or Southern Living issues. Too much information that I don't want to miss.

Trying to be a responsible citizen (I'm no "treehugger"), I do recycle by sharing what is leftover with the assisted living center where my mother-in-law currently lives, as well as a clinic where my aunt works. If anyone has other recycling ideas, I would appreciate them.

So while my addiction will never be cured, maybe I can say I have it under control....sort of.