Don't Be a Heel

I would hate for someone to look at my shoes and say, 'Oh my God, they look so comfortable.'

So, are you ready to take on the challenge?

Week #41 LIFE'S simple pleasure - shoes

SHOES: item of foot wear intended to protect the human foot, while doing various activities.

SHOES: meant to enhance your outfit or help you to compliment a costume!!  Ha Ha

I don't wear any of the above shoes anymore, but I did.... once.

Why I still have them? Because they bring back fun memories!

 

Sadly, I can no longer fit into these cowboy boots.  I think I bought them in the early eighties when country was cool.  They are a size 7 (pre-babies).  They are so back in fashion right now!! Both kids actually wore these at part of cowboy outfits for school dress up.

 

I still love these shoes.  They fit!  I feel tall in them.  But, they are actually part of my hippie costume.  I have really big bell bottom pants and I bought them at Goodwill years ago to help make my costume complete!

 

 

LIFE imitating art.  Costume shoes once again.  They are also pre-baby and I believe purchased at Kohl's. And by me saying pre-baby, that's more than 20 years ago and 2 kids later.... my feet actually flattened out and became a size larger after the kids were born.  These shoes were part of my Theatre Guild costume for the play 'I Hate Hamlet'.  I was some funky girlfriend in the play wearing a long skirt, puffy shirt and crochet vest.  Look like shoes from the twenties, but then got popular again in the late '80s.

 

 

The higher the heel, the closer to heaven!

 

These still have the Goodwill sticker on them.  And for the life of me.... I can not remember what they were for.  I probably had some formal event needing dressy black shoes... and why not spend $3.99 for a pair of shoes to wear once and look all fancy?

 

Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world ~ Marilyn Monroe

If the Shoe Fits

Since all great journeys start with a single step, you should probably have on a cute pair of shoes.

Week #41 LIFE'S simple pleasure - shoes

"Oh, I don't need another pair of shoes" said no woman ever!

This week on my blog I'm going to talk about shoes.  Although it's not a FREE simple pleasure, I'll bet most woman think that getting a new pair of shoes brings them a lot of joy, happiness and pleasure. 

I think I have started a new tradition buying myself a NEW pair of shoes for my birthday. Instead of a birthday cake and some flowers... just help me pay for a new pair of shoes.  Check out this post from a couple of years ago Birthday Shoes.

 

 

Shoes: item of foot wear intended to protect the human foot while doing various activities.

 

Fun fact: the foot contains more bones than any other part of the body.

 

LIFE is short, by the shoes!

Everyday Home

Home Uncomplified
adj:  not complicated: simple

 

 

Homegrown.... look what I planted by bulb or seed and see what happened a few months later!

 

Homecooked Meals

 

Homemade Crafts

 

Hometown : Racine, Wisconsin

What I love most about my home is who I share it with.

 

Week #40 LIFE'S simple pleasure - home

 

Home is the place we love best and grumble the most ~ Bill Sunday

Click Your Heels

There's no place like home!

 

Ah, the perfect 'house' warming gift?  A little sign that says:

 

Home

Sweet

Home

 Week #40 LIFE'S simple pleasure - home

 

You could build your dream home.  You could have a home cooked meal.  You can go back to high school for a Homecoming game.  Things you get from me are homemade.  We've all had homework.  That mat in front of our door says Welcome Home.  There is a cute movie made about 20 years ago based in a Chicago suburb called Home Alone.  We all have a home town.  Some people even work from their home office.  We go to Home Depot to buy paint and we go to Home Goods to find things to decorate our home.  We can read the Country Home Magazine.  During the Olympics Phillip Phillips song Home was played over and over for the girls' gymnastic team http://youtu.be/HoRkntoHkIE 

 

Don't get me started on things that have a house in them....

 

And if you are ever stuck on a computer, hit the home button.... more than once!!!

 

When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home - Thorton Wilder

Isn't that what Dorothy wanted in the Wizard of Oz?  To get back home... all she needed to find out was that she didn't have to run away to find her heart's desire!

Home is wear you hang your heart ♥

 

 

Welcome Home

When you finally go back to your old home, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood ~ Sam Ewing

Echo Lane

 

If you are new to my blog, welcome! 

 

'Old' friends and family, thanks for taking the time to stop by!!!

 

I hope that you come back again.  I also hope that you will scroll down through my blog posts and see what I'm all about.  I'm a recent empty nester and am going through the changes and stages of this new twist on my LIFE.

 

In 2013 I set a goal for myself to find LIFE'S simple pleasures and to document them each of the 52 weeks of this year.  A simple pleasure is something that we tend to forget about and yet it is mostly free.  It is something that brings a smile to your face and good feelings of great memories to your heart.

 

Week #40 LIFE'S simple pleasure - home

 

Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes.

 

As you can see, I can put a twist on my topic and I even have a creative greeting card for most every one of LIFE's simple pleasures.  I love pretty things and clever words!

 

Home:  It is generally a place to provide safety and is used as a center from which people or animals base their daily activities

 

The picture on the top of this post is my childhood home.  Isn't it cute? 

 

In discovering LIFE'S simple pleasures, I found that it is important to sprinkle these simple and favorite things throughout my day, and I try to almost EVERY day.  

 

LIFE is too short.

 

Shouldn't we all sip a favorite beverage, raise our face to the sun shine, look forward to a FuN MaiL day, smell the roses, honor our country, sit and swing a spell, go on an adventure, listen to the sounds that are around us, and enjoy our home?

 

When I was at home, I was in a better place

~ Wm Shakespeare

Midwest Living

What I  love most about my home is who I share it with.

 

Week #40 - LIFE'S simple pleasure - HOME

 

Travel east, travel west but at home LIFE is the best.

 

I truly think we all need to leave our home, to really appreciate what we have. 

 

We went on a mini vacation staying in someone else's home, and it was a good experience!  Well, actually it was a Bed & Breakfast, so it was a welcoming home that is REALLY open for strangers to come and stay.

This is a doctored up photo, but it is the front of the Victorian bed and breakfast we stayed at.  Quite 'homey' - don't you think? It has been a while since we stayed in a bed and breakfast, but it really is someone who opens up their actual home to strangers.  There were chickens in a coop in the backyard and a pond filled with catfish in the front.  Each room in the house was uniquely decorated to fit an old Victorian house.  It had a loving warm feel.  The proprietor had a passion to build her home and add interesting touches to every nook and corner.

 

We stayed in the Theatre Room and even had a secret passage to our own 'private' screening room.  And each morning after waking from a very private & comfortable room with luscious soft bedding and a cool brass framed bed, we had a delicious 'home' made breakfast with fresh fruit, hot breakfast casseroles and eggs Benedict!

 

I enjoyed our mini vacation and liked the chance to glimpse into the day of a LIFE of someone else and their home. It has given me a new perspective, and opening my own front door when we got home, gave me a new sense of appreciation for the house we made into our home.

 

A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

I can smell Autumn
in the breeze
the sweet chill of
pumpkin and crisp
sun burnt leaves

Have you ever been to pick your own apples? 

 

Jeff and I tried to remember if we had ever done this as a couple or as a family ... and we don't think we have.  Oh sure, we have been to pumpkin patches and to Fall Festivals with corn mazes and hayrides, but never to a pick your own apple orchard.

 

Last weekend while Geocaching (we were 6 for 6 by the way) we passed a parking field filled with cars.  As we slowed down to let traffic in and out we saw that it was apple picking time and a local orchard was opening that day. 

 

We decided on our way back from Geocaching that we would stop and check it out.

 

Week #39 LIFE'S simple pleasures - fall

 

There are some certain simple pleasures that are seasonal.  Apple and pumpkin picking is one of them!

 

 

 

When we pulled on to the field some teenage kid in a bright green and orange vest kind of pointed us to a direction where we could park our SUV with all of the other SUV's and Vans.  We saw all kinds of people... young couples with the girl dressed in a sweater and scarf and her man carrying bags of apples.  Families with babies in strollers with bags of apples falling out the storage bin on the bottom.  Families with each kid carrying a full bag of apples.

 

We had to get the lay of the land and went into the free Farmers' Market first. There were apple pies, apple jams, apple salsas, apple ciders and much, much more without the word apple in them.  The prices were more on the gourmet side than the corner apple stand side.  Then we made our way out an open door and found a field of excitement with hayrides, farm equipment to climb on, pumpkins, interactive watering spots and apple orchards.

 

So, you tell me... is paying $10.50 per bag to pick your own apples a reasonable price? 

 

I would say on average the bag could hold 6-8 apples depending on the size. It looked like a shoe bag size with small holes to let air ventilate and a draw string top.  The particular orchard that was open that day had specific apples that were almost the size of softballs.

 

Guess what?  We're cheap, we didn't do it.  Oh, it looked fun and all ... but as empty nesters now... we can't eat 6-8 apples.  I can't believe we saw some families bringing 4 bags of apples back from the orchard.... that means they spent at least $42 on a bushel of apples??

 

All for the experience I guess!! It was a beautiful day and it was fun to see all the family commotion on different parts of the field, but I guess I like to pick apples from my grocery store at $.79 a pound.

 

 

I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

William Hazlitt

 

PS: I know that none of my pictures have anything to do with apples, but I do have some very nice Fall decorations around the house!