Boot Dilemma

Dang gi-normous calves! I ordered some awesome riding boots online right after Christmas. I was so excited, they were on sale and the shipping was free. I ordered the black out of necessity for black boots but the brown were so cute - I decided to order both. Perfect! So far, so good. I was only going to have to wait a few weeks for these babies because they were on back order.

I've been planning outfits for weeks now thinking how cute everything was going to look with my new boots so I was super excited when they finally arrived last Wednesday. I pulled them out of their packaging and immediately went to try them on when low & behold...a zipper. ZIPPER!?! Boots with zippers never fit me & I don't remember the description of the boot ever mentioning a zipper (I double checked, it doesn't). Once on my foot, I was hoping & praying the zipper would glide right up the boot with a little room around my leg so my skinny jeans would fit perfectly. Not so much. About 3/4 of the way up my skin was pinching underneath the zipper. I tugged and pulled at the zipper and with a ridiculous amount of effort I was able to get the boot zipped all the way up. It was so frustrating. I knew I could not keep these. Not only were they super tight and I don't have 5 minutes every morning to mess with a zipper - there is no way any pants were going to tuck into these boots.

Over the years, I have sacrificed too much pain for amazingly cute shoes that didn't fit quite right that I decided these boots needed to go. As cute as they are, I cannot have another pair of uncomfortable shoes. DAMN!

Luckily, my friend, Julieanne, was online shopping with me when I ordered the boots. She really liked them and when I told her they didn't fit she wanted to try them on. They were so cute on her (and fit her nice, slender calves) so she decided to buy both pair from me. I'm happy they worked out for her and I didn't have to pay shipping to send them back but I'm really sad they didn't work out for me. DAMN!

Here they are. So cute but unfortunately not my calf size.

Sew What?

I finally did it! I signed up for a sewing class. It's been on my bucket list forever and a New Year's resolution for the past two years.

For some reason I never took sewing in school. How I graduated from junior high & highschool without any sewing skills is beyond me. My best guess is with my other extra curricular activites I could never fit sewing class into my schedule.

I had originally checked out a couple classes at some of the local fabric stores. Most were 1 or 2 day classes that taught the very basics of sewing. While I understand you have to start with the basics, I also want to know how to make more than a pillow case or pajama pants. Luckily I found a class through Salt Lake Community Education. It's an 8 week course with a fabulously funny instructor. This class teaches the philosophies, the mechanics and the how-to's of sewing. Last Wednesday was my first night and I'm so excited. My 1st assignment is put together a sewing kit (I already have quite a bit, thanks to my Aunt Ruth) and to pick a beginner pattern. I can't wait to get started!

I'm not looking to be a contestant on Project Runway or become a master seamstress but I do want to learn and create and have fun. My thoughts are this: Sewing is a great skill to have & probably one we should all learn. Whether it's to hem a pair of pants, create a Halloween costume, piece together a baby quilt or make some new throw pillows for your couch - sewing is extremely helpful, creative and crafty.

Twenty-Ten

Seriously. Where does the time go? It's weird to me that Christmas was almost 4 weeks ago but it seems like it's been forever. I didn't post much around the holidays - not for a lack of events or meaningful, post-worthy items but because I simply could not find the time to sit down in front of our computer and write. Since the beginning of the year, my schedule has dramatically improved and I've had a lot more time to spend at home. I'm enjoying my time not spent at work and I've had a much needed break from the retail world.

Work break has been great, but I wouldn't necessarily use the term "relaxing". We have a new addition in our lives that has been requiring lots of our attention and she doesn't seem to enjoy being pent up in our computer room long enough to let us check our emails, let alone blog.

I have wanted a dog of my own for a while now. Cardy loves dogs too but always felt our schedules were not accomodating for the dog lifestyle. I don't know what changed but he surprised me a couple days before Christmas with Zoe! She's a beagle/border collie mix and she's now 12 weeks old (and doubling in size!). We're in love.

She's a lot of work and demands almost 100% of our attention but she's worth every second!

Here a some cute facts about Miss Zoe:
-She has the cutest white legs with black polka dots
-The tip of her tail looks like a paint brush (black with a white tip)
-She is extremely smart and Cardy comes up with new challenges and tricks for her everyday
-She is almost potty trained and she will go down and entire flight of stairs and wait by the back door
-She LOVES to be outside
-She loves to chew - bark and sticks are her favorite but are usually left outside the back door
-She extremely sweet in the mornings and loves to cuddle. I love how much she yawns
-She loves to sit in my lap while she's playing with her toys
-She gets really excited when the door bell rings or the garage door opens (and is easily tricked by similar noises on the TV). She loves visitors
-Her best friends are Maddie, Sadie, Owen, Mr. Bentley & the nice labradoodle in our neighborhood

Here are some pictures of her from a couple weeks ago. I'll post some new pictures to show the difference in size. It's amazing how much puppies grow in a couple weeks.