Indulging My Inner Imelda

May I take a moment to discuss my love affair with shoes? There's a very nice piece in one of Marian Keyes' books about how women fall into different categories (nice underwear women, beauty products women etc). I'm firmly with her in the Imelda camp. To say that we love shoes may well be an understatement.

I have shoes that are too beautiful to wear - willow pattern ballet pumps, come forward and take a bow. You know I love you, I just don't want to get you dirty. I have shoes that are too painful to stand up in for more than about 10 minutes - green suede skyscraper heels, I mean you. You are reserved for restaurants only. I have shoes that I just can't walk in - beautiful teal flip flops, why do you make my toes bleed? It's just not fair, yet still I keep you. I have shoes that are far, far too big - snowflake pattern knitted beauties, that would be you. Two pairs of insoles solve the problem, as long as I don't walk too exuberantly.

And those of you that aren't Imeldas probably read that last paragraph and thought "Is she actually mad?" I probably am a little bit. In my defence, I don't spend a fortune on them. A bargain pair that doesn't fit is better than a full price pair that doesn't fit, surely?

A few new additions to my collection:

I am smitten with Irregular Choice shoes. So deliciously colourful and patterned and unique. They're not cheap, but ebay comes in quite handy - all these pairs were bought from there! The dotty pair were a birthday present from my lovely Mum, the green and gold sandals were a birthday present from my big brother (all organised by me, I doubt he'd recognise a pair of IC shoes if he fell over them) and I treated myself to the other two pairs. Don't ask me to pick a favourite pair - I love them all!

And one of the most glorious things about them? The soles are almost as beautiful as the rest of the shoe:

These two pairs were both picked up in the Office sale and are just what I need for spring and summer. You know my love for florals and these super cute espadrille type wedges were only £10 so I couldn't resist them. And every short girl needs an abundance of wedges in her wardrobe so I also grabbed this strappy pair.





And the final pair are my bridesmaid shoes. Would you believe that I don't have any "normal" heels? I think I wore them all out and got rid of them at some point because there was nothing suitable in the wardrobe when I came to have a proper look. I had such trouble trying to find the right pair! I appealed to the ever helpful MSE girls in the end and this pair was suggested. I'm still not entirely sold on the metallic heel but they're so comfy and the heel height is just about right. Best of all, they should have been £80 but were less than half price in the sale!



Hmmmm, that's actually quite a lot of new shoes, isn't it? Whoops!