Sunday shoe porn: somebody stop me!

This week, the shoe porn is all mine. Even by Llara standards, I've gone a bit shoe crazy in the last month or so. I've been too busy to blog them as they came into my life so I thought I'd round them up today. Ah, today. I'd describe what I've been up to today as "hunkering down". The forecasted "storm force" winds and driving rain landed in Edinburgh and it's been every bit as rough as predicted. So I cancelled thoughts of leaving the house and battened down the hatches. Quite literally in some areas - I have tissue paper stuffed around a point where a wire comes in through our window to hold back the leakage that happens when the rain pours!

And, so to the shoes. Last week, I showcased my beautiful Nicholas Kirkwood shoes. This week, all 6 pairs (yes, that does mean I've bought at least 7 pairs of shoes in the last month-ish. Some would be a bit disgusted by that. To them I say "bite me") combined cost less than that one pair so we're truly at the other end of the spectrum. And to really kick things off super bargain style, I picked up these shoes along with my grocery shop a few weeks ago at Asda.

I've always suspected that I was somewhat lacking on the snakeskin shoe front. That said, snakeskin shoes can often look really quite skankalicious and it's hard to find a nice pair that don't put me in mind of buckets of fake tan, too-tight shiny dresses and tranny style lip liner. However, the sweet almond shaped toe and mid heel on this pair struck just the right note for me: demure rather than manure, if you will. So in they went to my trolley. Want to know the best bit? They were £2 in the sale. That's a quid per shoe. 20p each per toe coverage. Insane. I can't walk away from a bargain that hefty. Powerless. So now they're mine.

Next up are these H&M stilettos. I've really gotten back into my stilettos again lately (and this time around, I will NOT sell them all on eBay! I will remember that fashion is cyclical and so is my taste and keep them for the future) and, once again had a sneaking suspicion. Which was that I likely needed a nice basic multicoloured glitter pair in my arsenal. So, imagine my joy when I stumbled across this twinkly pair for a tenner in the H&M sale. Woop! And I had a gift card - so, in fash-math terms, that means FREE.
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Next up, we have the most expensive purchase. My insane, sort-of-wedge-but-heel-less neon shatter boots from American site Nasty Gal. I saw a blogger wearing them some time ago. I can't remember where sadly. I'm sure I made some of sort of noise along the lines of "gnuarghhhhIHaveToHaveThem" when I first clapped eyes on them. Sadly, said blogger hadn't linked to them and could I find them anywhere? Could I buggery. But sometimes fortune smiles upon us. One of my colleagues was about to buy some shocking pink spiky efforts from Nasty Gal and asked if anyone else wanted to order anything and split the postage. Oh, and their shoes all had 25% off too. Donkey. Stick. Carrot. Other figures of speech that imply the ease with which I was reeled in. So, off I went, browsey, browse when: what should I stumble upon? Only the EPIC neon heel-less shoe boots that I'd seen on the blogger! I couldn't bloody believe it. And so, I was IN on the Nasty Gal spree! And on the off-chance that they're just SO your bag too, you can get them here. They don't call Little Scribbler helpful for nothing...

And so back to British shores. These shoes are from New Look. I'd admired them a few times but hadn't actually got as far as even trying them on. A plain black peep toe upper isn't really me (see the shoes above) but the watercolour-esque platform and heel caught me and I LOVE the shape of the heel - quite slim from the back but really wide from the side. It's got such a grace to its chunkiness which made me swoon every time I saw them. And, earlier this week I was in a New Look and they were down to £11 in the sale so it was rude not to at least try them. And they fit perfectly and looked awesome on. Done deal.

Next up, good old Topshop. Their shoes, by high street standards always feel at the upper end of the cost scale. That said, often they have really original stuff and you can see why they're pricier. I'd been eyeing up these stilettos for a good while but kept telling myself I didn't need them. I also kept not having £65 going spare so, really the conundrum "to buy or not to buy" was squashed right there. BUT (and spy a theme emerging here), they went in the SALE. Yay for sales! I was in my local store a few weeks ago and they'd gone down to £30. And then the ever so nice dude in the shop inexplicably gave me student discount too. I must have a studenty air about me. So I bagged them for £26, which I am most pleased about. The leather's so soft and glitter's so sparkly in such an understated way: it'll look a bit nothing-y, then the light hits and it twinkles like the night sky. Look at it twinkling away down there:

Lastly - yes, you're nearly at the end of this rambling and slightly obsessive collection of what now appear to be short stories. I thought the whole thing was going to be one short story. But no. I chattered on, as is my wont. Still, if you've made it this far, maybe you're enjoying the ramblings. And maybe, just maybe, you'll enjoy these shoes. I first clapped eyes on them in plain black in Urban Outfitters down in London. I tried them on but told myself to behave and that I didn't need spiked lace up creeper/flatform soled ankle boots. And I probably don't. But, I was online a week or so back and Urban Outfitters were doing 50% off their sale. Basically it was "please buy our dregs before the real winter sale starts". So it seemed rude not to take a look. Urban Outfitters' sale can be a magical thing. I got my neon pink Cambridge satchel from them last year for about £40 (they were still selling in Harvey Nichols for over £100 at the time) and one of my favourite pairs of ankle boots came from there for £20, down from £220. Yes you read that correctly - £20, down from £220. Insane. This time, I got a bra, a bumbag (no really. And, yes it will be up here at some point) and a hip flask. And these! £10, down from £55. That's 81.81% recurring, off, fash-mathletes! And they have leopard print on them! What in life is not improved with a splash of leopardy goodness? And, on that note, feel free to go forth and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Have a fabulous Chrimbo when it arrives!

Storing my shoe collection - it's complicated

My shoe collection is pretty big. I haven't counted the pairs but it's safe to say there are a LOT. Ideally, I'd love a giant walk in closet a la sex and the city where the shoes are all out of their boxes and lined up beautifully and somehow staying dust free. That's the dream. Being that we're a little restricted space-wise and that I've spent all my money on shoes already, that's not really an option right now. Or maybe ever. However, this weekend, driven by desires to actually see my bedroom floor again and to not break my neck falling over rogue shoes, I decided to get it all sorted out. Here's how they all (just about) fit in...

Apologies for the truly shite blurry pic. I took it and didn't realise how bad it was until it was on the computer. And I am lazy! Technically, this wardrobe is Mr Scribbler's. However, I have wangled a shoe rack and a couple of jackets in there. This "hangy thing" came from Ikea and is ideal for squishing in flats and, to be honest, shoes that are maybe a bit past their best that you don't mind not being in boxes. You can get a prettier version here. At this point I should tell you that piles of shoes in the bottom of a wardrobe makes me cry on the inside and feel a bit sick. It's just so wrong! Care for thy shoes! Which kind of goes some way to explaining this...

The tremendous shoe cabinet of awesomeness. AKA the home of my favourite and designer shoes. I update the contents fairly regularly cause I'm fickle and change my mind all the time about my faves. If you've been reading a while, you'll have seen the cabinet before, so proud of it am I. If you haven't you can check out it's transformation from orphan rescued (for free! FREE!) from a rainy street, to tremendous shoe cabinet of awesomeness -> here. It's a touching story.

Observe though, that the storage above does not finish with the TSCoA. Oh no. We also have stackable transparent shoe boxes. These things are genius: they're clear(ish) so you can see what's in them, they stack and slot into each other so you can pile 'em high, they're smaller than a lot of shoe boxes so save space AND they fold so if you have spares they stash away neatly! Just google 'transparent stackable shoe boxes' or similar and do some price comparison. I think mine came through eBay in the end but do make sure you look for the ridgy ones that slot together!

Along with the TSCoA, I also do actually have a walk in cupboard that has boxes of shoes stacked up in it. It is called the shoe closet. Like the normal person's version of the SATC scenario. The washing basket lives in here too so it is a bit of a jam but it keeps this little lot out of the way. Some of the shoes aren't in their original boxes but in smaller boxes I have, with their name/description written on the front. Every centimetre counts! And so does ease of shoe finding. There's a shelf on the wall in there too that takes a surprising amount of shoe weight:

My, so tonal!

One of my latest storage solutions is this over the door (hanging into the shoe closet) hanging thang with pockets from Argos. It fits 10 pairs of shoes in (mine are mainly size 7s) but you could probably get pairs of flip flops or smooshed up flats in one pocket if you felt the urge. I got it today for £6.99 (here it is - man I am helpful with my links) and am pleasantly surprised by it as a few of the reviewers said it only fit kids shoes in. It doesn't. Yay! You wouldn't get heels in or anything but it does the job for flats.

 

And finally, in a rare glimpse into the man side of my life, here are Mr Scribbler's shoes:

Yup, he's nearly as shoe daft as me these days (which makes my habit SO much easier to justify) and I finally had to get him some more rack space. The ones on the left we got today in Argos. It's actually two stacked together and they were £4.99 each. Bargain! They're nowt fancy but totally do the job. And, as I type this, he's actually filled them up.

So, now we don't have shoes lying about the bedroom and living room but we do have them on racks in the hall, in the wardrobe in the spare room, in a cabinet in the bedroom, hanging over a door and inside the shoe closet. Neat, non? If you have any space saving shoe storage tips, feel free to share them with me. Otherwise, I hope some of this was useful for you if, like me, your collection is somewhat unruly!

Little Scribbler: gets her legs out. Warning - may contain blinding whiteness.

I don't get my legs out. They're big and they're pasty. However, owing to my slight weight loss and great gym action (bless you combat and rpm), everything's tighter and more toned than ever - except when I was a smooth skinned kid, obvs. Oh, make no mistake, I still have thighs like the peely walliest cottage cheese. But there's less of them these days. And so, one warm day, I decided that it was acceptable to get my pins (ha. HA. Pins - ten pins perhaps) out. And do you know what? They're not really that bad at all. I mean, no-one's ever going to be overheard wishing they had Little Scribbler's legs (ass, I'll give you. Who doesn't want junk like that?) but they're not horrific. So here's to celebrating bodies that aren't, in fact, that bad after all and having the confidence to get your bits and pieces out. Woop! I recommend that you all do it immediately.

Dress: Topshop, cardi: Primark, belt: M&S, shoes: New Look sale bargain!

Green toenails! Not gonna lie, I had to do a tweaky effect to cover the smudged bits on them. I am such a tatty thing.