March 24 - blue peeps need fashion advice

What:  size 8.5 nude peep toes with blue suede band and gold buckle
From:  Talbots (outlet)
Purchased:  fall '08
Cost:  Hmm.  $35

Last week I was writing about what I thought was the last of the shoes in the shoe wardrobe, but then these caught my eye.  So now finally here are the last of the shoes from my shoe wardrobe piece of furniture.  I liked these a lot from the spring '08 line at Talbots, and watched for them at the outlet.  The 8s were waaay too tight, and even these 8.5s pinch a wee bit on the sides, but they're definitely wearable.  I bought another pair of shoes from this line at super discount the next spring. 

Last week I wrote they matched a pair of pants that needed to be hemmed, and I was going to wear them, but big surprise did not get around to hemming the pants.  But I really thought I had the makings of a good outfit, so gathered it all up together.  Taupe pants, navy tshirt, and taupe jacket with gold thread (a 100% Talbots outfit, which I actually try not to do, but you go with what you have - oh I'd also wear gold jewelry and that's not Talbots, so whew.).  But now I'm not sure, so I need fashion advice.  The taupe of the shoe, the jacket, and the pant are slightly different.  (Taupe is a color that bedevils me and my trying-to-surpress-matchy-matchy mindset.)  I think the shoes might go with the pant (though it's a little questionable), and the shoe does go with the jacket.  But not sure the jacket and pant go?  

Maybe I need to hem the pants and put it all on and see?  Because they're all just neutrals that cancel each other out, letting the navy and gold pop?  Because if it does work it is a great outfit for Spring (hmm, Easter?).  I think it might work better (though certainly more casual) with jeans.  So if these pants aren't the right pants for the outfit, what would work?  Slightly more khaki-colored pants?  Not navy pants, then I'd need a different top?  What friggin' color would the top be, then, with navy pants?  (White dress shirt?)

What do you think of the outfit?  And if not that outfit, how would you wear these shoes? 

Bottom line:  shoes are keepers, though not sure how to wear

And a big PS.  I am starting to get nervous.  So by the end of February, I had shown 157 pairs of shoes + 24 days so far in March = 181.  The big shoe sort is scheduled for April 8, so 15 more days.  Will I finish going through the shoes in 15 more days?  I am not sure I will.  Off the top of my head I can count at least 12 more pairs, easy, and that's not all of them!  Do I have 200 PAIRS OF SHOES IN MY HOUSE??!!  Gulp.  Even with the 25+ already discarded, that is a freaking large amount of shoes.  I half-watched an author on the Today Show this morning talk about her new book, Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money.  I may have to get this book (from the library!). 

Ok, but when I think of this more calmly, I think of spending $600 a year on shoes, and in the grand scheme of things, that's not really all that terribly much.  Not chump change, but as TSM tells me, if this is my hobby, I'm not spending more than many other people on their hobbies.  And, given that I never get rid of anything, the accumulated piles should not be that surprising.  But it does make me pause in that we live in a 1600 square foot house (not counting attic or basement, which pushes it up to probably close to 2800 square feet).  I will get through these shoes, eventually.  And then I will commit to decluttering again.