Inspiration Saturday: These shoes were made for walking

Ah, shoes.  Just like make-up, jewelry, and knitwear, I think of shoes as an accessory that can be used to jazz up an outfit.  At the same time, they are also very practical.  After all, a pair of shoes, unlike a pair of earrings, is actually required for walking out the door in the morning.

Friends and family may give you presents on your birthday, but companies give you coupons.  Which is more like a gift to themselves because it gets you in the door.  And once you're in, they're going to get you.  Particularly if the 'they' in this case means DSW.  On Friday, I bought not one, but two pairs of shoes.  This is kind of extravagant for me, I tend to always come from a place of choosing one or the other.  So after maybe ten minutes of hemming and hawing about which pair to choose, I decided to go crazy and get both.  After all, they were both in clearance, and I had my birthday certificate.  So I choose to be inspired by it rather than feel guilty.

First, the practical but pretty.  These brown wedges will be perfect for my brown-toned outfits, and the heel is still low enough that I can drive in it.

But what's also important to me is how I imagine wearing them.  And I imagine wearing these with a cute fall outfit, a satchel draped across my chest as I wander in and out of book and yarn stores, alternately.  The fantasy life of a pair of shoes is just as important as the one it will actually live.

Second, the slightly less practical, and a little more pink.  Zebra-print flats with pointy toes and pink details?  It's like someone out there knows me.

Okay, so the real life of these shoes will be in making black trousers and a black top feel fun.  These shoes that will make me smile when I look down at them during a meeting or as I trade them for my sneakers before working out.  But I also plan on wearing them with the pink corduroy shorts I bought a while ago, to quite possibly make a fun outfit entirely laughable.  But I won't care.  Sometimes you just have to dress like you're six years old again.

And just for the sake of keeping things knit, I also found something I hope to wear with some shoes, these Spiffy Spats by Breeanna Sveum:

Photo credit: stitchbrinnstitch on Ravelry

So cute!  More inspiration at Woolen Diversions...