Confession time. I started the FIMTSO series because I’m supposed to stop buying (shoes especially) in bulk. By bulk I mean more than one pair of a particular style…hence, the reference to Imelda Marcos. But the universe is doing all it can to help me keep Imelda’s tradition alive. In fact, the Louboutin post a few days ago was just a hint of the shoe disease eating its way through my wallet this sale season. Because here’s how it’s manifested itself once more…in the guise of some JCrew sandals:
Umm…if I had a black suede bag you’d also see the same sandal in black suede next to it because yes, I got 3 pairs of the same sandal. What’s with the number 3 anyway! But in my defense, I have to say I got a great deal on these sandals. A week of your Starbucks habit pays for my sandals. OK, maybe two weeks.
But you know, if I should get to the point where I can beat this shoe disease, there’s already someone else in my family to carry on Imelda’s torch. Check out my niece Lil A’s shoe bonanza. Her mom just got her 3 (or 5…the girls in my family don’t like to count) pairs of shoes from Daffy’s. I swear 3 is a magic number around here…
How cute is she tottering around in those open-toed sandals? If you’re 14 months and wobble like that you’re adorable; if you’re my age and wobble like that you’d be called drunk. Here’s a close-up of that delicious skin inside the third pair of shoes:
Tags: Daffy's, FIMTSO, Imelda Marcos, JCrew, Louboutin
The only person in the world who may not relate to what I’m about to say is maybe Victoria Beckham…or Gisele Bunchen. But if you were born with XX chromosomes there’s bound to be a day every few weeks when you wake up feeling bloated like a hot air balloon. I don’t care if you’re overweight, underweight, or happy weight. Icky I-don’t-have-anything-to-wear-because-I-want-to-hide-in-a-tent days are just one of the joys of being female. Enter the world’s greatest and worst fashion invention: the grey sweatshirt.
You know what I’m talking about. It’s the item your mother tells you to not wear out of the house unless you’re going running, but you can’t help it. It hides the extra few inches you tell yourself got added to your hips overnight because God hates you…not because you stuffed your face with TexMex food the night before. It’s the perfect companion when you just don’t want to slip into something less comfortable to get a few extra looks from the humans with the XY chromosomes. You’ve gone to the store, football games, and the monumental 15th date in it (it means he’s ready to see you looking low maintenance). It may make you look like a gym rat wearing it, but you love it. And by you in this paragraph I mean me.
Shall we see how I can FIMTSO a boring sweatshirt?
Test Item: grey short sleeve sweatshirt from the 2010P collection. Fine, I know Suze Orman would not approve this buy, but I got it on sale. Hmph!
Look 1: This look is basically me in a nutshell: luxe, watered down. The Chanel test item goes over a pair of el cheapo (no, that’s not a brand name….they cost $8) white linen pants I picked up in Hong Kong last century and grey Chanel sandals from 08C. Around my neck is a sheer silk chiffon McQueen scarf, which has been used before in another FIMTSO episode.
Look 2: I’ve often wondered where the line for business casual is drawn. And is it easier for women or men to get away with business attire in this new corporate age? The sweatshirt goes over a Tory Burch navy lawn cotton buttoned down shirt and Gucci grey plaid pants. The grey Louboutins revealed yesterday finish the look (come to think of it, the red pair would be fun with this look, too!):
Look 3: Are you still finding it strange to see a sweatshirt with short sleeves? Does it remind you of the bodybuilders hanging around your gym with their sweatshirt sleeves cut off to show off their guns? But it makes total sense to have one for fair weather that requires creative layering. On days when it’s warm enough to bring out this M Missoni tank dress…
…but still a bit chilly to wear it alone, I’d throw the sweatshirt over it. I slip on some black flip flops and I’m ready to go to the museum or run my errands…
This is wrong, isn’t it, unless there’s a Christian Louboutin canopy over my front door? But if you know me, you would know that twice a year, when sale season kicks into high gear, I “sometimes” (cough, cough) get a few favorite pieces in a variety of colors and then have to edit them down to the final keepers.
For some reason, this whole season I’ve been fixated on this Almeria style and truth be told, there are two other colors missing from the above picture, namely blue and black. I might have even seen a different shade of brown from the pair I have, but I only chased after these three.
So…it’s still wrong, right, to want to keep all three pairs? Here’s my reasoning (you say rationalizing, I say reasoning)… Espadrille wedges come back in style every few years so they’re technically “classic” buys. This style has lots of leather on the heels which to me is nicer than the usual espadrilles. And finally, at 40 off, the price is downright decent for Loubs.
No? Not convinced? How about if I submit these photo in my defense?
What say you? Which color would you pick for me?
Tags: Almeria, Christian Louboutin, espadrilles, sales
What were you doing at 3am today? Probably sleeping, I hope.
Unfortunately for me, I was in the back yard, in pitch darkness, with a large flashlight in my hand. I’d run outside because of all the noises on the patio. I couldn’t see anything from my bedroom window because for some reason the motion-sensored light in the back did not come on when it should have. I heard loud, ferocious animal noises and snarling and rustling (something was definitely chasing something else) and tons of whimpering. Immediately I thought of Coco and her poor babies. Could it be a raccoon, coyote or maybe the boogeyman coming to poach the little ones?
Anyway, I was half awake but full of adrenaline, so I shouted Hey, hey! and tapped on the window to scare the animals away. Apparently I didn’t do animal speak well because they continued, and by now the whimpering was intense– and that totally lit the fire under me. I grabbed my glasses–it dawned on me that I couldn’t see anything outside my window because I didn’t have my contacts in!–and flashlight and ran to the back. Is it always this dark at 3am?
When I was outside, the noises were still there but I saw absolutely nothing. I might have made some snarling noises of my own…I’m taking the fifth on this one, come to think of it now. I scanned the back yard with the flashlight clutched against my chest and saw no movement. I turned it off, waited a few seconds, then turned it on again, thinking I would catch something by surprise. Nothing. Then I had an epiphany and rushed back inside.
The last thing I needed was to have my neighbors call the police about some crazy boogeywoman in a flimsy nightgown shouting at invisible animals. It occurred to me that in the pitch black, I might have just lit myself up with the flashlight for all the neighbors that I’d wakened with my shouting to see. Geez, do I really need to be this crazy all the time?
So I tossed and turned and finally drifted back to sleep, the whole time preparing myself to find cat carcasses on the patio in the morning. But a new day began today with birds whistling just like all the other days in quiet Pasadena. There were no vultures circling the air over any dead cats. Most likely it was Coco defending her territory against whatever animal that probably came by to eat the food I left for her.
I haven’t seen her or her babies since the day I saw them for the first time. It will be tough to find them and take them to the shelter, so we’ll see what happens.
Meanwhile, I think I should invest in pretty pyjamas for rough nights like this one.
PS: here’s a video I made of Coco and her baby. You can see my mellow Shogun watching the rugrat trying to attack him from the other side of the glass door.
There’s a good reason why I’m not a mom. Apparently I have absolutely no clue about anything remotely maternal in nature. A few days ago I blogged that I thought my stray Coco was pregnant. At least I got that part right, but either I completely missed the fact that she had an extended belly during the few weeks of her gestation period or she had the shortest pregnancy in cat history because look who showed up yesterday with her:
Four cats scattered when the sprinkler system came on yesterday evening. By all indication there are 3 little ones, two completely black and one completely gray. At first I thought, how strange, why does Coco suddenly have an entourage? Then it sank in. These are not her peeps…they’re her babies! And they seem to be around 6 weeks old already. One of the black kittens took off as soon as he saw me. The gray one hid in a patch of succulents to watch me, and the other black one came bouncing down toward me with not a care in the world. I suppose it saw that Coco didn’t fear me and followed her instincts toward me…and food.
My two cats are gray. I have a weakness for gray bags. The walls in my house are various shades of gray. I think I heart the gray baby–I’m trying to not name it so that I won’t get attached. I’m going to try to get a picture of it if today if it’ll let me. S/he didn’t come out till it got dark last night, but it was quite a treat to watch the two little ones roughhousing each other on my patio after they snacked on the food. There’s really nothing cuter than a couple of hyper furballs playing with each other.
So now, what next? I plan on taking them to the shelter because I don’t want 3 kittens to multiply to 10 in my backyard. I should be able to catch the one that’s not scared of me…but what do I do about the gray one? If I want to adopt him/her, I won’t be letting it go back outside. So would it be cruel for Coco to see her baby inside the house and never having contact with it again? Do cats have separation anxiety? Surely I will develop a major case of cat guilt if I see Coco looking in at her baby? I guess I should take Coco to the shelter as well? What if no one adopts Coco…but she’s too long gone at this point to be an indoors cat…am I better off just getting her spayed and then releasing her back to nature? Though she’s awfully cute and should get adopted relatively quickly, right? What to do, what to do…I can’t have 4 cats!
So many questions and so little time. Kittens grow up practically overnight so I know I need to take them in now that they seem to have weaned off Coco already….
Hopefully in the next entry about Coco’s family I will have some better news. Hey, does anyone want a free kitten?
Tags: Coco, kittens, Project FSK, stray
