Entry No. 6

I had to use the flash so you could see the dark red velvet bows.

This is another pair of fashion show shoes. They remind me of Minnie Mouse, so I'm going to call the girl from the show Minnie, even though that isn't her name. I don't have permission to write about her, so we'll just keep it casual.

I wasn't wearing them in the show. Another model was wearing them - Minnie. I was not in love with any of my shoes at that year's fashion show, but I wanted to walk away with one pair as a memento. So, I asked Minnie what she thought of the shoes and if she was planning to keep them after the show. She said she liked them, but she wasn't going to keep them. They didn't fit her. They were too big.

So I tried them on. I tried them on with my back on the ground and my feet in the air. Everything usually fits me pretty well, so I thought that was a good enough sampling to know whether or not they would fit me.

All the same, Minnie definitely had smaller feet than me, so I stuffed the toes with ankle socks and had her try them on again. That worked. So, she wore them down the runway with black socks stuffed in the toes, and I got to keep them afterwards. It was pretty sweet.

Except, now I know that they don't fit me either. They're simple shoes. Just from Walmart, but they are very cute. I can't fit a whole ankle sock in the toe to make them fit, but I can shove a knee-high pantyhose. It's smaller and takes me the rest of the way to making them fit.

I wish I knew how to fix the crumbling interior of these shoes. If anyone has any tips, I'd be pleased to hear them.

So, one of my friends was visiting from out of province, and I took her up to my closet to show her my shoe collection. Showing her all my shoes took over an hour. It was crazy. But I have also heard one of my sons refer to my shoe collection as the tourist attraction of the house.

Anywho, I was somewhere else for a few minutes, and my friend was chatting with my family about shoes and how she needed a pair to do something, and my husband offered her a pair of mine. She said they were the wrong size because they were too big, and my husband told her to stuff a sock in it. You know, to make them fit.

Sometimes, you don't think your husband is listening to a word you say, or that he's not interested, or that he doesn't care. My husband clearly listened if he gave that advice to my friend.

So, what dress do I wear with these velvet dreams? Welp, it's that dark red. It's a gown with a velvet bodice of an almost identical color to the shoes. It's pretty because it has a brocade pattern down the chest. It does not have great sleeves. I have to get my own if I want sleeves. Sometimes I do black lace sleeves, and sometimes, I do that trick where you elastic a scarf to make poofy sleeves for yourself. The dress has a high/low skirt with a sheer metallic glint. I like a high/low skirt, particularly because you get the elegance of a full-length gown without hiding the shoes.

I bought the dress at Bellissima. It was an amazing buy because it was clearly a winter gown. I bought it in August, knowing that winter would come again. It was originally $210, and I got it on mega clearance for $24. This was several years ago, but that exact dress was in style again this winter, and I ran into it all over the place.

The shoes were the price of friendship and good work in the community, which costs, but it also gives.