#125 - of shoes, of ships, of ceiling wax

I've never really ever had an interest. All I desired was one for fancy, one for too hot, one for snow, and the everyday. Maybe it's because I feel more womanly/feminine/adult, but I'm all of a sudden in love with shoes; especially high heels. The bright colors, the adorable styles and the way they make me feel. It's as if I've instantly transformed into, "Fancy-attractive-knows what she's doing-on a mission-confident-older-woman-lady" and I like it.

I stick to my favorite, tried and true, brands when it comes to the everyday comfortable/durable shoes. Fancy shoes though... those I can imagine having a lot of fun with!

For the everyday, I'm sticking with: Chuck Taylor's

and Vans:

But I'm loving the wide world of heels and pumps!

#124 - a brighter way to live

They are small, square, sticky and every glorious color you can imagine. Fond memories of elementary school prep; going to the store with my mom for the "back-to-school sales" and going down my 3rd grade check list to make sure I was ultra prepared for whatever Mrs. Smith could throw at me. The best part was coming home, dumping out all the bags and labeling "Vanessa Park" on everything with a black permanent marker. Loading up my backpack with all my clean, new, shiny supplies... I couldn't wait for the first day of school. I think, because it was so exciting and new, I have never lost my obsession and love of office supplies. Top on the list: Post-it Notes and Sharpies. I adore them. There have been multiple occasions when I have asked for those two items for birthday presents, which I can image, made my parents more than happy since they total a few bucks. I would post-it everything! Whenever I walk through the school bookstore, I stare longingly at the large, spiral stacks of bright, multi-colored post-it notes... wishing I had a few dollars to spare for an office supply splurge.

Then, I came across this video.

The perfect combination: Love and Post-it notes... a dream for me.

#54 - pretty pretty

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm a sucker for cuteness (for the purposes of this blog, the focus will solely be on things that want my money). I've been trying really hard lately to scrimp and save my money: sticking to the "western family" brands, looking for sales, fixing broken things instead of buying new ones, little things here and there. The caveat is the aforementioned statement... if it comes in a new bright color, a funky cool shape, or has a cool/funny name, unfortunately, I'm sold. Like I said, I'm a work in progress, and hopefully someday my self control will be something to be admired.

All of this is building the foundation for my most recent find: it's called a "kachingle". Cute right? It's a website with the slogan of "sprinkle change on the blogs you love". I'm overwhelmingly confused by this statement, but continue reading, purely because I want to play the kachingle game!!! (whatever the heck that is...).

First, I didn't know it cost money to have a blog, so why would I give people money. It's weird to me to get money for something like that... Second, how do they get the money? What do they do with the money? Why is this happening? If someone could learn about the fancy "kachingle" for me and let me know, that would be very helpful.

#32 - clothes make the man

I was finishing up my Christmas shopping yesterday, and in doing so, walked around Best Buy. While I was there, I saw a sales rep talking to a woman about external hard drives. I'm guessing he was either just starting his shift or just finishing because he was holding his bright blue "I know things" Best Buy shirt and had on a, normal people, Hurley shirt. I was listening to their conversation and then I realized: I was subconsciously questioning every word out of his mouth; he didn't really know that much about external hard drives... It was because of the shirt. Those blue shirts give them power: "He knows, he's wearing blue." "He must be right, can't you see his shirt?" Even though he was still clearly an employee, the absence of his official uniform made me see him as just some punk guy. Shopping is all a big mind game - and if they look official, I'm a sucker all the way.