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Back in flip flops. In our super glamorous summer house kitchen.

On my first trip back to New York  some of my girlfriends and I loaded ourselves into cars and headed to the upstate New York outlet mecca that is Woodbury Commons.

It was a cold blustery March day buy armed with giant coffee cups and a really big dose of humour we fanned out and conquered.

At the end of the day it was remarkable to see the differences in how we had tackled the outlets. Some had strolled around and happened upon different stores at random while a few of us had carefully crafted itineraries aimed to maximise value.

Either way it was a really, really great day. These Hillfiger flip flops were an unplanned but not bad acquisition of the day. Too bad they dye my feet a little blue when they get wet…

Took a break this evening from flip flops and rubber boots. Despite the jarring clash with my surroundings my feet feel good in Jimmy Choo!

These red peep toes were the very first pair of designer shoes I bought. I had walked by the Jimmy Choo shop on Sloane Street for months and looked n the window but never dared walk inside because I didn’t feel like I belonged. So I window shopped and planned, and after a loooooong time of saving I opened the doors and stepped in. Shoe heaven! I fell in love a little that day and grew more than the 8.5 cm the new heels gave me.

Plus, “investing” in quality pays off. 12 years later they still look, and feel like a million dollars!

Not much to write about today. I have been working most of the day while my boys went to a local shopping centre to buy metal cutters (lots of random barbed wire around), new life jackets and some additional clothes.

Activities of the day included dry land fishing (practice for the real deal), tinkering with ancient moped (Mr. K) and lumbering around in slippers – Me!

The promise of vacation; of lazy days by the beach/pool/boat/lawn with piles of books and magazines and endless cups of coffee. The reality of course is hours spent at the bank/builders/DIY store.

I have to say though, there’s something very special about walking in to the bank and being greeted with a hug. Not having to produce ID, and having the assurance that they will email and let you know when the paperwork is finished. Or possibly stop by your house to let you know on the way home. That’s what you get for having grown up in a bank family and for keeping all our accounts at the very small and very local SEB branch in Hunnebostrand.

Shoes of the day are flats from Burberry. Bought in the flagship store in Knightsbridge in London.    Our weekends in London were often spent in one of the parks on a lawn chair with a newspaper and some coffee (or Pimms on a really good day). And then a stroll trough Knightsbridge and Chelsea on the way home. With or without a shopping bag in hand…

I was wrong yesterday. I was also  a little drunk as I had had a glass or two of cava on an empty stomach. THESE are the last of the bargain basement bargains. Candy striper open toe dancing shoes from a sample collection of Marc Jacobs. If you look closely you can see stains on the fabric, one or two scuffs on the leather heels and a couple of tears along the seams. These babies have seen their fair share of partying!

Thank you Century 21 for allowing me to fill my closet with designer shoes at a fraction of the cost. In other words 5 for the price of 1!

Last of the bargain basement bargains. Dolce & Gabbana New Year’s Eve shoes from Century 21 the last time I was in New York.

Good for working on loooong report but also great for drinks with bestest co-workers!

Tired today. Last full week of work before heading on vacation and much, much more than a weeks worth of work that needs doing.

Confirmation from well meaning colleague that I look tired. Trying to camouflage by strategically looking to the side in shoe-pic. Not sure it worked.

Shoes of the day #1. Leopard print high heeled loafers. Not usually my thing but fun to add a little unexpected pattern to an otherwise rather plain outfit.

Shoes of the day #2. Last person at the office. Flats now. Falling apart Gucci ballerinas that were the number one reason I occasionally felt glamorous during pregnancy #2. They are remarkably bouncy and expanding.

 

 

I was at a beautiful winter wedding in the small Swedish town many years ago and needed a pair of black heels that were sturdy enough to stand/walk/dance in but still looked fancy. A friend of mine was wearing a pair of perfect suede platforms that looked effortless, timeless and super elegant.

I actually still remember feeling slightly uncomfortable in my own pointy heels. And when I saw almost the exact same shoe as my friend had worn some time later at LK Bennet I jumped. They weren’t massively expensive but really well made and still fit really well over 10 years later.

Today’s program included a couple of meetings, prepping for a sales pitch, brisk walk to lunch with an old friend and a few more meetings. Looking good my friends!

It’s perfectly normal for a 40 year-old mother of two to go grocery shopping in 9cm boots with sparkles, right? On a Sunday afternoon in June to boot (pun intended).

When I set myself the 100 days for my shoechallenge I based it on a quick counting through of my shoes. I also figured I’d give myself a nice round number with some extra days of padding for those days when something came in the way of using a new pair. What I forgot is that on the 3rd of July we are heading for our cottage on the west coast. The car will be crammed as it is and the house is tiny so bringing a whopping 25 pairs of shoes is pretty out of the question. This coming week will be my end all be all on heels and then I’ll pack as many as I can get away with. Which means that potentially anything I don’t manage to wear this week will have to go. Panicking a little and hence shopping in not the most appropriate footwear.

Midsummers day and 27 degrees hot in Stockholm. These are not words you often hear in the same sentence.

I quite regularly suffer from acute fear of wasting my life away paired with overachiever angst over the fact that everyone else seems to have a more perfect life/more successful career/better work-life balance. So pulled our collective couch potato out and booked a table for four at a very small and relaxed restaurant on a tiny island outside Lidingö where we live.

It doesn’t happen often for us but this afternoon everything just fell into place. The boys were well behaved, the taxi boat was charming, the weather was perfect and emergency use of Apple devices was down to 0%. And my glass of rose overlooking the water was – perfect!