shoe-spirations: birthday shoes

Two years ago I made shoes for my birthday!!  My second pair.  I spent a couple of days back at The Shoe College with Tamera Lyndsay to make my birthday shoes.  We dubbed them "Bettie Cleaver's" since the fabrics used had a naughty & nice twist reminding us of June Cleaver and Bettie Page.  

The sketch, where it all starts.

Patterns were made, leather cut, as the process starts rolling.

Sweet birds for June & naughty patent leather for Bettie! 

Coming together nicely....

Wrapping & Tacking.

Too cute. Coming together brilliantly.

Vamp, Straps, & Counter have been tacked and glued.

Kinda lookin' like a shoe....

Cinderella.... They fit! Whew! I need a pedicure though. ;)

Another fun filled shoemaking experience complete!  Thanks again to Tamera for being my shoe guru and helping me get closer to my dream.  

Seriously, I can't wait to design and create shoes everyday.  Hopefully this blog will follow me through my schooling in London, everybody keep your fingers crossed! 

sshhhhhhh..... silent sundays: Boris pays a visit

birthday week recap....

So, the events of the week took over my life and made blogging impossible!  Sorry for the delay, I'm sure all four of my followers were distraught.  

Birthday berry cobbler from Chef Marielle!

I had a duo Birthday celebration with Dan (his is the 19th mine the 20th) at the Madrona with our friends.  On my day I had a smaller girls dinner.  Then the main event of Florence was finally upon me on Saturday!!!    

Birthday buddies... Dan & I!

Chocolate fudge b-day cake from Chef Frenchie!

I got my car in line for the 10:55am ferry & ran to meet up with Suzanne for the annual Firehouse Pancake fundraiser in Friday Harbor.   I could smell the pancakes blocks away at the ferry line.  The smells did not disappoint, it was sooo yummy.  

SJI Firefighters pancake feed!! Two of my favorite things...

Hellooooo pancakes.

Servin' up eggs & ham, too!

With full belly off to Olympia I drove to meet up with long lost friend Karin for the concert.  As a b-day gift Karin upgraded our tickets to VIP with a scalper, which got us four rows away from the stage!!

VIP status, free dinner and drinks on the patio. The evening was gorgeous.

Long lost Karin, it has been almost 10 yrs since we last met.

I had to dress up in my new sparkly dress! Got lots o' compliments on it too! 

So frickin' close!!!

Florence was stunning!

Oh... the harp!!!

Needless to say, the show was fantastic!!

proof is in the pudding...

I would like to give proof to the jury that, I Erinn, do need a better camera for my birthday.  Please, except the following explanation & exhibits proving said need....

Finally! I have seen whales off the west coast of San Juan Island where I have heard many tales (pun intended) of whale sightings.  I have been fruitless until yesterday.  We (Claire, Suzanne & I) decided to try again to see this mythical mammal.  The sun was shining and we felt we could wait it out until they surfaced into our view.  Wait, we did need to!!!  We saw them as we drove along the coast to the Land Bank Westside Scenic Preserve.  Holy poodles... my giddiness was vivacious! But my camera was barely capable of capture what I was seeing.  

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C.

Exhibit D.

As anyone can see there are minuscule specks resembling  whales in each sample.  These pictures make it seem as though I was too far away to see these creatures, when in fact they were quite a bit closer then shone by my camera. 

Here ends my case.

birthday wishes....

So, my Mother was interested to know what I wanted for my birthday.  Good question Mom.  Here is a collective of "wants/hopes" for my 35th b-day.

This adorable print from Etsy artist Orange Studio!

Having decor that can travel easily is key to living the nomadic lifestyle!  

Nikon COOLPIX L810 from Amazon.com

A new camera would improve my blogging pictures.  This Nikon has 16.1 mega pixels! My current has only 3.2, so sad. I bet if I ever see whales this summer I could capture them with this!

Any Hair bobble from Giant Dwarf would be dazzling!

Kinky Boots DVD! 

I have been in love with this film since I first saw it.  I swear I keep asking for it for my birthday but alas... still not in my collection.

These Hansa Mary-Janes from Anthropologie.

I had hoped to wear these to the Florence concert but since I broke my toe.... I highly doubt it. 

 humph...  :(

These ModCloth items are in my "loved items" list. They're all so cute!

Anthropologie has the best books!

This would be a helpful book to get me ready for becoming a Londoner someday! Soon I hope.

hello... birthday week!

My birthday is this Friday.  The big three five, woo-hoo!  

Thus far my week has had a bumpy start. I broke my toe yesterday on my, apparently very sturdy, bed frame and the weather has been very un-summery.  

Completely fogged in this morning, really it's July?!

There is NO way this will get me down!  I've got b-day plans, man.  Saturday I am leaving the island to go see Florence + The Machine with my long lost friend Karin. I will be hanging out with her in Olympia for the weekend.  Can't wait to escape for awhile.

Can't believe this week is finally here!?

Another bonus to this week... season 10 of Project Runway starts on the 19th.  Excited?! Over the moon actually.  Oh, how I love Tim Gunn.  I'm gonna put it out there... I'm excited to cheer on Andrea Katz & I'm kinda digging Gunnar Deatherage too.  Only time will tell what happens to them on the Runway. 

Oh, Tim!

sshhhhhhh..... silent sundays: beautiful faces to chase this rain away