miscellany – Page 36 – erin morgenstern

this post is all about shoes

I’ve been trying all week to come up with something to blog about, to no avail. I’m not doing anything other than writing and making tea and while my tea is lovely and the writing is going better than I had expected it to, it’s not really anything blog-worthy. Tessa napped in the shape of a comma the other day, but of course she moved before I could get the camera so I couldn’t blog about that, either.

So yesterday I tweeted that I should just blog about my shoes, especially since I have new ones, and people (well, Liz & Rachel, who as far as I know do count as people) seemed to think that was a good idea.

So this post is all about my shoes. Specifically, all about my Fluevogs. If you have no interest in shoes or photos of shoes, I suggest you stop reading now. Though there is a kitten included in the photos, because I live with needy kittens.

Only the shoe people left and maybe some kitten fans? Good.

I have a confession to make, first, though.

I am not a shoe person.

I have never been a shoe person. I am thinking about the history of my life in shoes and can come up with nothing more than a few pairs of well-worn Doc Martens and a vague recollection that I had to wear brown shoes with my high school uniform, and I cannot recall what a single pair of those brown shoes looked like. I have never particularly cared much about my footwear.

And then a few years ago I started developing a fondness for shoes. Particularly boots, but shoes in general. I have big feet, so I never particularly cared for shoe shopping, and I can’t walk in thin or high heels so that always eliminated most of my choices. But probably due to the wonder of the internet I’ve been able to find more shoes that fit my style and my feet.

Today I will be featuring my Fluevogs, since I just got a new pair yesterday.

I discovered Fluevogs several years ago, likely via the BPAL forum, and figured I would pretty much never be able to afford them. I got one pair on clearance that the boy later inherited because they looked better on him. (No photo, they’re Angel Michaels. Just pretend the red bit is white.)

But now between gifts and savvy sale shopping I have three pairs and the boy has two.

These are the Fellowship Kathy Mary Janes that arrived yesterday. Tessa had to be in the photo because she’s a camerawhore.

They’re adorable and don’t seem to need much breaking in other than a teensy bit in the toes. I wanted a shoe that could be dressed up or down that didn’t have much of a heel and these seem like they’ll be perfect. No, I did not pay $239 for them. Google is my friend.

I love the Fellowship family, because of the heels. They’re big & low but but nicely streamlined, and the shoes are so fitted that they don’t look clunky.

These are my other Fellowships, the Jenna boots:

Please excuse my rolled up jeans. I learned today that it is very difficult to take photos of your own shoes. This one was actually accomplished by aiming my camera down into my full length mirror. I flipped it in PhotoShop because the backwards “f” on the heel (that you can’t even see) was making me neurotic.

I love these boots. They are comfy and fabulous. I’d thought the buckles would annoy me but they don’t, and even if they did they’re removable.

And last but certainly not least are my beloved Bellevue Libby Smiths:

Y’all should know by now that I’m a sucker for Victoriana, and one of my very favorite color schemes is black & white with a touch of red, so the buttons killed me and I kind of had to have these the second I saw them. I left them on after I took these photos, because I don’t have enough opportunities to wear them.

The whole Bellevue family is gorgeous, too, and the heel is actually sturdy enough for me to manage, which is brilliant because if these boots hadn’t worked on me I seriously would have cried.

And Fluevog is tormenting me now, because they tweeted a sneaky preview of these forthcoming Bellevues:

I’m kind of going to have to get those, too. I should start saving my pennies now.

By erin, 16 years ago

miscellany

i dreamt i went to manderley again

At one point this past Sunday night I was standing alone in a dark room full of artfully illuminated bathtubs. One of them still had a bit of blood in it, but my attention was mostly focused on the tub half-full of water in which a live eel was swimming counter-clockwise circles around and around and around.

A man in a white mask entered from a door across the room and walked toward me. He peered in the tub to see what I was looking at, watched the eel with me for a bit, and then walked out another door, leaving me and the eel alone again.

I was at Sleep No More again, of course. How I missed the eel the first two times is beyond me, but it gives you an idea of how much there is to look at besides the actors. I’m so glad they extended the (now sold-out) run, we have tickets to go again next month before it closes. I will miss it terribly when it’s gone.

I’m in revisionland at the moment, and I’ll hopefully have something resembling a new draft by the time I get to return to Manderley again. I have new text and old text in bits and pieces and divided up into different Scrivener files at the moment, but I think it’s going well. It’s more like writing a new novel with bits of the old one in it, rather than adding new bits to the old version this time, but I think that’s likely a good thing at this point.

By erin, 16 years ago

miscellany

solstice & snow & such

We don’t really have that much snow, but it’s pretty. That nice fluffy white snow that we didn’t get much of last year. I much prefer this to the ice & slush. Though it has made me realize that I need proper boots for snow, not sure what happened to my old ones.

I spent most of the weekend (waiting for the snow and getting snowed on) reading Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl on recommendation from my friend Liz. Remind me in the future to always take book recs from Liz, because she predicted quite accurately that I would dig this book, and I really did. It’s a book to fall into and not come up for air for awhile and it’s gorgeous. Moody and magical. Just in time to end up on my best of the year list, which I should probably write up sometime in the next few days before the year slips away.

Yesterday for Yule I made eggnog ice cream with an ice cream maker that has been in storage since 2001. It worked surprisingly well, considering, and eggnog ice cream is officially the easiest ice cream ever to make. Quart eggnog. 1/2 cup sugar. Splash of vanilla. Mix & dump in ice cream maker. Ignore for awhile. Come back and scoop out ice cream. Serve with gingersnaps. It’s kind of awesome.

So for the rest of the week I have paintings to paint and revisions to work on and presents to wrap. But I have eggnog ice cream and snow and new incense to burn and beautiful new copper jewelry to wear. Feeling all wintery and hibernating.

By erin, 16 years ago

miscellany

shiny objects

I had these fabulous intentions of doing an Etsy-o-rama post, with lots of pictures and links to some of my favorite shops, for ease of finding wonderful holiday giftage from wonderful sellers. It was going to be epic!

And then I kept forgetting. And when I remembered again my list kept getting too long and the amount of images and html got daunting and then I’d forget about it again. And it’s December 10th already, you say? Fancy that.

So what you get instead is an Ode to two of my very favorite Etsy shops that both happen to sell shiny objects. And we all know how I love me some shiny objects.

First there is The Copper Camel, which I have mentioned here before. I internet-know (that sounds dirty) the lovely proprietress through the more writing-centric wilds of the web. Beyond making beautiful copper jewelery she is an extremely talented writer as well, and I aspire to someday have a wit as sharp as hers. There should be wit sharpeners that work like pencil sharpeners. Or knife sharpeners.

This week she made me do the dance of shiny object joy with these:

They’re DOORS. Incredibly detailed, hand painted with teensy tiny brushes etched copper DOORS. Look at the Moroccan one up close. I mean, seriously.

I want all of them, of course. But I decided to be good and I just got the castle doors for starters. I cannot wait to see them in person and I can tell already that they will be something I wear all the time and layer with other things.

Each door in the above photos is available individually in her Etsy shop. Do yourself a favor and read her brilliant descriptions for all of them, too. Go forth and buy shiny copper wonderments.

Go. Shoo. Because I almost don’t want to share the other shiny object maker. But it will probably be good for my shopping karma, so I will.

I started buying gorgeous recycled vintage jewelry creations from SavageSalvage just over a year ago, when I found and had to have this bracelet. I have since amassed something of a collection. My most recent acquisition is this piece:

Yes it is even more gorgeous in person. I wore it the last time we went to Sleep No More and the witches really liked it. It got pawed a lot. Not that I’m complaining, those are some sexy witches over there.

I kind of stalk Steph’s Etsy store like a stalky thing, because so many of her designs are one of a kind. Really, I’m still not sure why I’m telling you about them and increasing my consumer competition. Maybe because Steph is a sweetheart who I’ve actually been lucky enough to get to know a bit and I want more people to wear her stuff and receive her gorgeous gift wrapping. (Giftwrapping I have repurposed into paintings myself. It’s like the Etsy circle of life of Art. Or something.)

Currently I’m coveting this piece and this piece and this piece. Because I have a problem and I need some sort of shiny object program with steps.

You have plenty of time to get some gorgeous holiday giftage from either of these wonderful, talented ladies for the lovers of unique, creative shiny things in your life. I’m just sayin’.

By erin, 16 years ago

miscellany

miscellany & tessa in a bag

So far this week is all storybirds and sketching the tarot kings. I think I have strong sketches for all four kings now. I ended up starting them over and making them all a bit more modern and sort of formal yet casual and I think it works. I’m going to let them sit overnight and if I still like them in the morning I will start painting them tomorrow.

And then this long crazy tarot journey will be a happy squirrel and some detailing away from complete. Which is kind of baffling.

I am mentally dipping my toes back into revisionland again, though the holidays and the snow and something vaguely resembling a head cold are making it a bit difficult. I have Ideas. I am attempting to string them together into something cohesive. I feel like I’m deconstructing the old draft the way they deconstruct food on Top Chef and I’m worried that it won’t taste good but I can’t taste it properly until all the ingredients are on the plate. Someday I will be able to explain my writing process without metaphors but today is not that day.

Also, I got tickets to see Sleep No More a third and final time after the holidays. Sleep No More & revisionland are currently tied up in my head in this moody masquerade of darkness and tuxedos that smells like evergreen. There’s something in it that is precisely what the novel needs. If I can find a way to translate wordless immersive theatre into text.

But I’m trying not to worry about that too much yet. Here, have a photo of Tessa in a bag.

Kittens love the holidays. ‘Tis the season of bags and cardboard boxes.

By erin, 16 years ago

miscellany

life after nano

Things accomplished since the end of NaNo, an unnumbered list:

Read Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover in its entirety. Have been meaning to read this book for years. Lovely and heartbreaking. Totally made me cry.
Saw Sleep No More again. Definitely more magical the first time around but still amazing and wonderful and I found so many things that I missed the first time around. Also, witches gave me presents.
Started the epic rewatching of all 5 seasons of LOST. Season 1 seems like such a long time ago.
Brought out my notes for circus revisions and started poking at them, no actual writing yet. In my defense, my horoscope claimed today’s full moon was going to render me inarticulate or some such. I did, however, figure out how to possibly resurrect a very old section that I’d loved but had no use for in a different context, so that should be fun.

I am still somewhat in denial that it is December already.

By erin, 16 years ago