I love my postman

Just a quick post to share the deliveries I received yesterday!

I hope everyone has a fun weekend & those of you near a Westfield shopping centre expect a crazy day as it is 'Super Saturday' http://www.westfield.com.au/au/gifts/2012/christmas/super-saturday

X

A great incentive not to buy shoes

Back in May, I decided that I was spending too much money on shoes and buying too many pairs. I thought up a great plan to reward myself for not buying them.

I opened a Smart eSaver account with BankWest, it is an account that pays higher interest if you make regular deposits as oppose to next to no interest if you make withdrawals during the month. Being an accountant this appealed to me because I knew if I touched the account I wouldn't receive interest on my savings and that would make me sad!

The basic premise of my reward system, was to build up my savings account to pay for my shoe allowance during my 2013 trip overseas. These are the rules:

* Each and every time I control myself and DO NOT purchase a pair of shoes I must transfer the price into my savings.
* If the shoes are on sale and I purchase them, I must transfer the difference between the original price and sale price into my savings.
* No money can be withdrawn until I book my overseas trip.


Since opening the account in May, I have over $1,000 saved. Such a great feeling to know despite being a Shoeaholic (confessed here in an earlier blog post) I slightly curbed my shoe buying habits and have something very exciting to look forward to with my reward.

Do any of you out there have something similar in place? How would you suggest I rejig this system to maximise my saving potential?

100% One of a Kind Shoes

It has been a long standing dream of mine to create my own pair of shoes, I recall when I was 14 and decided it would be a great idea to paint my expensive netball shoes blue and yellow (The Parramatta Eels colours). Needless to say my mother wasn't too impressed, and I have barely dabbled in shoe artistry since :).  
Having my foot in the shoe world door and with the help of Facebook constantly 'showing' me shoe pages I have come across two really awesome shoe concepts that would be great for aspiring brides to be.



1. Shoes of Prey
This is an online shoe experience, where you get to choose the style of shoe, colours and fabrics.
This is my creation, what do you think?

 

2. Figgie Shoes 
The shoe detail is custom designed (by you and with assistance if required) and hand painted to create a piece of artwork. You get to pick the shoes (potentially through Shoes of Prey) and send them off to be hand painted. This one of the many beautiful designs from their website.

Link to album

After checking these out I know whenever the wedding bells begin to toll in my life, I will definitely be providing room in the budget for designing a one of a kind, 100% unique pair of shoes for my trip down the aisle.
Speaking of weddings, it is my little sister's wedding this weekend and I have the pleasure of being a bridesmaid in a pair of awesome heels. 
Moo, I hope you have a spectacular day full of love, smiles and laughter x 

Addiction: When 4 pairs of the same shoes are almost enough

My name is Grace and I am a shoeaholic.
Most people associate addiction with various vices in our community (alcoholism, gambling etc). Not to make light of a serious topic, but I can admit that I too suffer from addiction.

After being complimented on my fluro pink open toed 2inch wedges for the umpteenth time on Friday evening, I decided I had to buy another pair in a different colour. I had been on the hunt for another pair before Friday, but they were still full price in Rubi Shoes which was only $29.95 but I couldn't justify another pair of the same shoes for the same price. A few weeks passed by and I checked in Rubi Shoes and all of the 2inch wedges had disappeared, I assumed they had been sent to their factory outlet stores. However, after not seeing them last weekend when I was at Market Central (view my previous blog here) I started to worry slightly.

Yesterday I was at Erina Fair, and wore the famous but elusive pink open toed wedges. I went into Rubi Shoes, hoping for a sighting of the rare creatures and after wandering around I asked the sales assistant if they had any of these <pointing to my shoes> she said yes but she would need some time to find them. 

After searching for a minute or so, the sales assistant found them hibernating under the sale table, in boxes, covered by table cloths. There they were in fluro pink, fluro yellow and silvery goodness. The price was even more exciting than the sighting! Only $15 a pair! I was contemplating on which colour to buy, decided on fluro yellow (check them out here with free delivery on most orders in Aust, US and Asia), then I thought 'why not get the silver too, it will match with heaps of stuff and could be worn in all seasons' so I gathered a silver pair as well. Then I said to the assistant 'maybe I should get another pair of pink, my current ones are almost at replacement stage? hmmmm?' not that I needed outside encouragement to buy shoes but she said "get them, I always buy multiple pairs of the same shoe if I love them, they often sell out or don't stay available for long". Great advice!!!!

I walked out with 3 pairs of the same shoe, a new understanding of my shoe addiction and a great new perspective on life - remember to pull aside the table cloth, you can discover hidden treasures, or occasionally some secret shoes on sale ;-).

Pony Hair Shoes! or are they?

I was checking out a newish shoe shop that opened in Erina Fair, it is a discount shoe shop that has some prices that seem too good to be true.

I picked up one pair that was furry leopard / giraffe kind of print that looked interesting with a very sensible heel height, I checked them over and threw them down in shock as I read on the sticker "Pony Hair". I felt bad not only because I had a slain Pony in my hand and had considered to buy them before I knew their origin, but because I also threw a shoe that wasn't mine.

All afternoon I was making myself sick by reading various posts on Pony Hair, until I realised people in yahoo questions really don't know the facts. I got in contact with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) just to confirm if my readings were true or not.

This is what I was told "“Pony” hair is typically cow flesh without the fur removed, which companies then market as an exotic item. We recommend always avoiding pony hair and other types of skin, and choosing cruelty-free alternatives instead." This basically means it is cow hide that has been dyed.

This made me wonder why in my own mind buying leather shoes were ok, but buying something that I thought was pony hair, which is actually in essence leather wasn't ok?
I think in my mind I made it ok to purchase leather shoes as leather was a byproduct of the meat industry and I never fully related the word 'leather' to a living creature as in our society it has no relevant link to the name of the animal it was coming from 'Cow', 'Pig', 'Sheep', so it was almost like I forgot that leather came from animals!

I read through some further posts on the PETA website about Fur and Leather in shoes and clothing and their articles are horrific to say the least. But extremely informative. From what I can gather, PETA are not a group of vegans that say don't eat meat (although they do have many articles on how living a vegan lifestyle is healthier), they are more about the ethical treatment of the animals used for clothing and food in slaughter houses etc.

How do you avoid buying shoes and clothing from animal sources? Or are you like me and didn't relate leather to being an animal so never thought about it?

I guess if we continue to buy animal based products, all we can hope for is that the animal was killed in the most humane way possible and skinned as a direct result of being slaughtered for the meat in the first instance.

What are your thoughts?

Grace xo 

Sydney Shoe Safari

I am not long home from another awesome weekend away, this time in Sydney with my boyfriend. The main reason for the trip was to see Cirque Du Soleil. However, amongst many other touristy things, much to my boyfriend's delight we embarked on an impromptu shoe safari.

Saturday morning the safari kicked off at the unlikely place of circular quay. I saw a woman sightseeing in a pair of 6inch stilettos, a man wearing fluro orange joggers and I overheard a woman heading off on a wedding water cruise say "My feet are already hurting" It was only noon, If only she had read this previous post before organising wedding outfit! 

The safari continued at QVB where I found a great little shop Freelance Shoes and I was happy to find out that they had multiple stores including an online one that has free shipping!! Yipee! I had my eye on an awesome pair of heels but they didn't have my size :( so I just purchased them online hehe.

We continued through Pitt St mall and Westfield checking out a few shoe shops along the way and then I saw the biggest stiletto I have ever seen, surely the chick that this fits does not need any extra height?

Now onto George St, we had brief look through Novo and Wittner clearance stores, and I apparently spent the whole time saying "Oooo i have those and those and those and those".



Day 2 of the safari saw us at the cheaper end of town - Paddy's Markets and Market City. It was here that I made my first official purchase on the shoe safari. Massive purple wedges from Rubi Shoes for only $10. These shoes are possibly the highest I own, it is like a whole new world up there, I saw the top of my fridge this afternoon and I didn't like what was up there!

Rubi Shoes has one of the funniest advertising slogans I have seen, I initially saw it in Singapore last year, and it makes me giggle everytime I see it now.

Another clever shoe advertisement was on the front of the centre directory map at Market City - what do you think???.I go bananas for shoes!!

I then purchased these babies from Shoe Box, my mum will attest to this, that Shoe Box has been a favourite of mine at Market City since I was about 11 years old. Shoe Box also has a great online store with free shipping aswell!!!

It was while I was purchasing these, that I looked over to find my boyfriend resting, he was obviously all tuckered out after our super fun weekend away and the awesome unplanned shoe safari. I look forward to future shoe safaris and I am sure he does too ;-)

And the winner of a +$90k Lexus is....

Amy Robson is the winner of the 2012 Myer Fashions on the Field, and she collects a massive prize pool (mentioned in a previous post here) for all her hard work. Apparently, Amy and her grandmother made the majority of her outfit (Newspaper Article)

Link to newspaper article and pic

What do you think of her outfit? And most importantly her shoes? I agree with her choice of going with plain black, but think the outfit would look nicer with a classic pair of Mary Jane's with a modern twist (wedge!) like these Black Wedge Mary Jane's. Plus the wedge is races friendly :)


Let me know what you think!
Grace x

If you enter Fashions on the Field, be prepared to look a gift horse in the mouth!

I thought before judging women that I don't know on what they wear at the races I should learn more about the fashions on the field.

After a quick look at the 2012 Myer Fashions on the Field tab on the Melbourne Cup Carnival website, it explains that at each major race meet in Australia there is a Fashions on the Field competition - that the majority of entrants preregister for - then each state's winner advances to the National Fashions on the Field competition that is held on Crown Oaks Day (Ladies Day in the Melbourne Cup Carnival). There are 20+ conditions of entry which includes 'No Commercial Involvement' meaning entrants must purchase and choose their own outifts and cannot receive any money or goods from a third party for entering. After discovering all these facts it was evident to me that the Fashions on the Field was a big deal and some women (and men) spend months planning their outfits. I then checked out the prize list and discovered why the entrants put in so much effort and adhere to all the conditions - $91k Lexus, $6k Myer shopping spree and a $4k watch amongst many other prizes for the winner!!

Melbourne Cup day Fashions on the Field winner was Lauren Andrews, in the middle of the picture below. What do you think?

Link to picture article

I am surprised that Lauren won, I thought that this year the Melbourne Cup would be full of colourful and contrasting outfits. I also learnt in my reading today that Lauren wore the same outfit on Caulfield Cup day and did not make the final "I figured it was too nice not to wear again, I liked it too much to not give it another go,” she said...." The other two women in the pic are the second and third place winners.

My favourite fascinators for the day are these two:
                Link to picture article Link to picture article

Let me know what you think about the winner's outfits and the fascinators and please share with me who your best dressed was for the day!

Keen to see the finalists on Ladies Day :)

Silver Lining of a High Heel Death Wobble

I am not going to pretend that I know what 'Gangnam Style' is or claim that I have it, all I know about it is it can be extremely dangerous to have when you are wearing platform stilettos.
A few weeks ago I was watching XFactor when Mel B (Scary Spice) was asked to do the Gangnam Style dance with Psy (the creator of Gangnam Style), check out this video and see what happens to her ankle at 50 seconds http://au.tv.yahoo.com/x-factor/video/-/watch/30876608/epsiode-22-mel-style/

My most recent near fatal death wobble occurred in Melbourne at my cousins wedding. Of course she had a kick ass DJ, and he played Gangnam Style, it was almost like all the guests younger than 35 hit the dance floor and covered it with Gangnam Style even though none of us knew what it was or knew the dance properly. When I heard the tune start to play, I had tonnes of time to kick off my heels but being a classy lady I left them on. On any normal day without the celebratory champas I was consuming I would have known that this was a bad idea...

I proceeded to do the Gangnam Style dance with my stiletto platforms, gathering as much height as a 5ft1 ish tall chick could with each epic pony jump. As I landed one of the said epic pony jumps my right ankle got a death wobble that caused me to fall forward violently!! With help from my pilates instructor (he wasn't there but I used skills learned in the class haha) I managed to catch myself before eating the floorboards whilst adding a splash of interpretative dance, which enabled me to turn my fall from Grace into my own Gangnam Style dance of which one of my cousins began to imitate enthusiastically!! Such a great outcome when seconds before I was inches from death!!!
 
Tell me when have you had a catastrophic death wobble? Was it in front of a live TV audience, on a dancefloor at a wedding or just in front of some local townsfolk at Coles?

Grace xo