Not to worry friends! The shoe blogging will continue, and I'm going back to every day. I've got three pairs lined up for the discard pile, and have already worn two pairs this month that had never been worn before, so there's more to come. Somehow, though, I've just decided to do an extra 20 posts in October. Just for the fun of it. Hmmm. NaBloPoMo will be a piece of cake compared to this.
Plus I kind of said I was going to start real decluttering. Yikes. Pending unemployment has me stressed out.
So, I kinda on and off blogged/wore different shoes in September - 13 pairs, $413 total, average price $31.77.
I bought two pairs in September, and have worn both. (There are days I worry I am showing an alarming tendency to just acquiring shoes for the pleasure of owning them, not for wearing. Yet another step toward meeting my destiny of becoming a crazy hoarder!). Though, one purchase allowed me an extra discard.
Overall, I've been blogging shoes for 122 days (and yet no merchants are banging down my doors offering free samples yet! What's up with that?).
I've worn 83 pairs (almost half of my estimated total!).
I am keeping 68, trashing 1, donating 9, and on the fence about 5. (I need to go back and look at the fence ones as I think I later got rid of one of them. Also, I have got to get to the cobbler.)
That's 73 kept and 10 out of the house, so a cull rate of 12%. (I kind of have a goal here, and it's about 20%).
I estimate, over the past 15 + years, I've spent $2234.75 on these shoes, or an average cost of $26.92.
It's not escaped my attention that I've purchased 16 pairs of shoes this year, which is more shoes purchased in 9 months than most of my comment-ers own in total. (let's not even talk about the &^%*& pending unemployment thing, ok?)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Week 1 - Monday tilapia
Welcome to day 1 of my 4 week (weekday only!) recipe challenge. Last night's recipe was Roasted Tilapia, Potatoes, and Lemons. This was a good recipe to kick things off, except I don't like fish, so I cooked a couple of chicken tenderloins for myself. I briefly sauteed them on both sides for less than 2 minutes per side but finished cooking them in the oven, to ensure they were done at the same time as the fish. Step 1 - roast potatoes, lemon, thyme in olive oil in oven.
Step 2 - prep next step - add olives, fish, (optional chicken), sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper. Try not to splatter open magazine containing all the recipes.
Step 3: finish roasting everything
Was the recipe easy to follow?
Yes, super easy. The write up says total time 45 minutes, hands on time 10 minutes and that was a slight underestimate. I started at 5:50 and thought it was done at 6:38 (so 48 minutes) but not all the potatoes were cooked through, so we were able to eat but the pan had to go back in the oven. And I like recipes where there is downtime, to have a break to go check on the dynamic duo who might be wreaking havoc in the living room.
Did it taste good?
It did. A teeny bit bland, I'd say, but overall it was good. Roasted olives are yummy.
Kid-friendly?
Eh. Elizabeth likes fish so she ate most of her serving. Andrew said he was hungry before he sat down, but he didn't eat much.
Adjustments?
This was a mighty simple meal - white fish and potatoes. I had to add a vegetable, green beans. And adjusted a chicken tenderloin for me.
Would I make it again?
Eh. Maybe. Since I don't like fish I wouldn't have much motivation, except maybe during Lent. It was easy.
Tilapia is generally a decent seafood choice from an environmental and health perspective. Nearly all of it is farm raised, but the label on this fish says wild caught. Um, doubt it - more than likely farmed-raised in South America. Not a perfect choice, but not terrible.
Here's the Real Simple blogger's take. If I made it again, I'd go with her suggestion of broiling for an extra few minutes at the end to crisp things up, and I'd have to add a few minutes extra at the beginning for the potatoes. I never, ever find the time to roast potatoes to be accurate in recipes. Maybe my oven is not hot enough.
Monday, October 4, 2010
A new feature
So, when my parents were here, my mother told me AwwwClutter had become boring. Indeed. That didn’t stop her from from taking 4 pairs of shoes home, though, and she tried to cover herself by saying I had stopped posting regularly, but then my dad made some remarks about the bad pictures and overly long stories. When your own parents are bored, well, what can you do? I am going to continue though with renewed vigor, because I really do want to ditch a few more pairs.
My friend K. suggested I post pics of my entire outfit, but I’m not quite ready to upgrade my photography and more importantly, my pajama wearing, so no full outfit shots for now, though that might change.
But, I’ve also found myself with a little more open time this coming month, so the decluttering is going to pick back up.
And, more importantly, I am adding a cooking angle. I had a coupon for $1 off Real Simple magazine, and HT was offering double dollar coupons (love that!), so I bought a copy of October’s issue. Flicking through it, I noticed a feature story on a “month’s worth of dinner!”
So, why the heck not. I’m going to cook with Real Simple this month. One of my friends, TSM, has a grid she follows for, well, everything, including nightly dinners. The thought of a grid makes me itchy – I’m more of a free form, spontaneous person. And I do ok in the nightly dinner routine, with a fair amount of variety and diversity. But my parents also make fun of our cooking style (hi mom and dad! So happy to have you visit for a week!) – we tend to like to cook big batches of things, and have leftovers more than half the week. Love nights when I am just able to heat up something in the microwave. So this will be a change, cooking every night. We’ll see if we like it.
I’ll comment on the recipes probably the next day. Today, here are just my thoughts on starting the challenge. First, in the magazine and website, they talk about a full month, but really it is 4 weeks. But really, it’s Monday-Friday for 4 weeks – no recipes for Saturday or Sunday. Which is fine, but it really and truly annoys me that in the text they never address there are no recipes for Saturday or Sunday! They offer a shopping list and several times say this is all you need for a months worth of dinners, But THAT IS NOT TRUE. Annoying. Very, very annoying, actually. But it’s also fine as it gives us some leeway, I guess, for our own choices or for going out once a week.
Second, I tend to like recipes that are linked. Buy a whole onion, but use half in this recipe and half in recipe #2. Cook extra chicken breasts and use them in the next nights’ choice. Or whatever. That just seems more efficient to me. But no, this is 28 different meals.
None of the recipes seems to take more than 45 minutes, so that’s good for weeknights, but I’ve found in the past Real Simple timing can be quite off. So I’m watching for that.
I also like to cook seasonally – and by that I mean following the sales in the store flyers. So chicken when it is on sale, and beef when that is on sale, etc. So this could be a shock to our grocery budget. And finally, in looking over the recipes, while they say it’s a complete meal I think some of the nights are lacking in vegetables. So I may have to supplement.
The ingredients for this week cost $155, including the staples of milk, OJ, eggs, bread, etc. We typically spend about $100 a week, so already we’re over. We’ll see how it goes the rest of the month.
Wish me luck, let’s keep our fingers crossed the kids like the food, and we’ll see how it goes.
My friend K. suggested I post pics of my entire outfit, but I’m not quite ready to upgrade my photography and more importantly, my pajama wearing, so no full outfit shots for now, though that might change.
But, I’ve also found myself with a little more open time this coming month, so the decluttering is going to pick back up.
And, more importantly, I am adding a cooking angle. I had a coupon for $1 off Real Simple magazine, and HT was offering double dollar coupons (love that!), so I bought a copy of October’s issue. Flicking through it, I noticed a feature story on a “month’s worth of dinner!”
So, why the heck not. I’m going to cook with Real Simple this month. One of my friends, TSM, has a grid she follows for, well, everything, including nightly dinners. The thought of a grid makes me itchy – I’m more of a free form, spontaneous person. And I do ok in the nightly dinner routine, with a fair amount of variety and diversity. But my parents also make fun of our cooking style (hi mom and dad! So happy to have you visit for a week!) – we tend to like to cook big batches of things, and have leftovers more than half the week. Love nights when I am just able to heat up something in the microwave. So this will be a change, cooking every night. We’ll see if we like it.
I’ll comment on the recipes probably the next day. Today, here are just my thoughts on starting the challenge. First, in the magazine and website, they talk about a full month, but really it is 4 weeks. But really, it’s Monday-Friday for 4 weeks – no recipes for Saturday or Sunday. Which is fine, but it really and truly annoys me that in the text they never address there are no recipes for Saturday or Sunday! They offer a shopping list and several times say this is all you need for a months worth of dinners, But THAT IS NOT TRUE. Annoying. Very, very annoying, actually. But it’s also fine as it gives us some leeway, I guess, for our own choices or for going out once a week.
Second, I tend to like recipes that are linked. Buy a whole onion, but use half in this recipe and half in recipe #2. Cook extra chicken breasts and use them in the next nights’ choice. Or whatever. That just seems more efficient to me. But no, this is 28 different meals.
None of the recipes seems to take more than 45 minutes, so that’s good for weeknights, but I’ve found in the past Real Simple timing can be quite off. So I’m watching for that.
I also like to cook seasonally – and by that I mean following the sales in the store flyers. So chicken when it is on sale, and beef when that is on sale, etc. So this could be a shock to our grocery budget. And finally, in looking over the recipes, while they say it’s a complete meal I think some of the nights are lacking in vegetables. So I may have to supplement.
The ingredients for this week cost $155, including the staples of milk, OJ, eggs, bread, etc. We typically spend about $100 a week, so already we’re over. We’ll see how it goes the rest of the month.
Wish me luck, let’s keep our fingers crossed the kids like the food, and we’ll see how it goes.
September 29 - new black sandals
What: size 8W black slide sandals with stitching trimFrom: Naturalizer outlet
Purchased: September 24, 2010
Cost: $12!
When my parents and sister were here, we decided to hit the outlets, and I checked out the discount racks at Naturalizer. There wasn’t a lot (thank goodness), but I snagged these (yikes, that makes 16 this year alone!). And guess what? I filled a black sandal niche. So, getting rid of these. Love 80% off!
Bottom line: keeper
September 28 - not quite gold wedges
What: Size 8.5 3.25 inch platinum wedgesFrom: Talbots (outlet)
Purchased: September 17, 2010
Cost: $24
I couldn’t resist them. I had a quick work trip to Virginia Beach September 16 and 17th, and while a group of us drove down from DC, the others took flights back to their respective cities leaving me to drive home alone. I stopped in Springfield to pick up a bunch of party supplies for Elizabeth’s birthday, so of course I also made my way to the Talbots outlet. These were on the 50% off rack, so I had to have them – my 15th this year. Except, all this time, I’ve been coveting based on the online picture, which is clearly gold. These were labeled platinum, and you know what? They are not gold. I had the perfect outfit picked out, slipped on these shoes, and thought, oh crap, these are really more silver than gold. Darn platinum. Still wore them, but don’t love them quite as much as I thought I would. Still need gold sandals! The search continues.
Bottom line: keeper
September 21 - brown grind
What: light brown size 8 kitten heel pumpsFrom: LOFT
Purchased: 2006
Cost: $30
These are great shoes that I like and wear a lot. So much so, the right back heel has totally worn to the nail stub – something I forgot when I grabbed them and hurriedly rushed off to a meeting downtown. Imagine walking on concrete on a nail head. Excruciating. You can feel the nail head grind into the concrete with each step, plus hear it make a nail on concrete grinding noise. Then, after concrete, you walk on tile – and you worry that with each step you are going to crack the tile floor, plus the grinding noise and feel that works its way through your leg.
Basically, wearing these shoes meant I had a crappy afternoon fretting over that nail head. But, once I get a new heel doohickey thing put on for a few bucks these will be fine. I’ve worn them so much the front is getting a little beat up, but they’re still ok.
I bought these with another pair of LOFT shoes with a similar look (the light brown, with darker brown accents) but in a higher heel t-strap. I spent a lot of time in the store deciding which shoe to get, and in the end bought both. I really wanted the t-strap, but thought the lower heel would be more practical. I’ve not worn the t-strap once – they are in a box somewhere. So maybe they will finally make an appearance this fall!
Bottom line: Keeper, with repair
September 15 - sort of penny loafers
What: size 8 brown penny loafersFrom: Easy Spirit
Purchased: ’03-‘05
Cost: ?? 35??
Hmm, I don’t remember much about these shoes. Fairly unremarkable loafers. I needed a basic pair and this is it. I don’t wear them that much, but they are good to have as a basic shoe, so they’ll stay.
Bottom line: keeper
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