Giving the Boots the Boot: My $400 Collection I Paid $110 For

I don't/won't post about fashion-related things very often, because it's not really in my nature to put that much attention into what I wear. It's not that I don't want to look good, but I've always been so frustrated with my financial situation that I could never justify getting new clothes, even though the majority of the items in my closet are legitimately from 2006-2008. I take really good care of my clothes and am really OCD about the way I wash them (I won't even mix yellow with green or brown with black). But recently, I been really feeling a push to update my wardrobe and simplify it. Although I can confidently say I do wear everything that I own (another OCD thing), I have a large number of items that I wear begrudgingly. I ultimately want less clothing, but a closet full of things I LIKE wearing and that suit my lifestyle, career goals, faith, and personality.


I've spent the last couple of months doing inventory on what I have and what I would like. I gathered pictures of people, celebrities, and TV show characters that I wish to model my style after, just to use as a guideline. I'll do a more thorough post on my exact process of closet-cleaning some other time, so today I'll just mentioned one of the things that came out of it. When I was going over my shoe and boot collection, I realized that many of my pieces were not Vancouver-appropriate.

My collection is small because of two main reasons: 1) Footwear is usually much more expensive than clothing. 2) I have trouble finding shoes that fit. My feet are size 4.5. Really. Many stores do not carry shoes in smaller than size 6. Some styles, like a boot, I can get away with a 5.5 by wearing thick socks or insoles, but pumps and flats I just walk right out of. You would not believe the amount of times that a shoe salesman has tried to talk me into purchasing a size 6 or even 7, that clearly didn't fit, by insisting they could fix it with insoles, which of course I have to pay for. Good grief... Nice try but give me a break!

We are all aware that Vancouver rains a lot, which means closed-toe footwear are needed much more often than open-toed. Whenever I go out, I always struggle with what to wear on my feet. It's usually too cold to wear one of my two pairs of open-toed heels, so I'm left with casual tennis shoes or boots. I had seven pairs of boots sitting in my mudhut - three of which were unwearable, two of which were very weather-specific, one very occasion-specific, and one pair of super casual Uggs. Since it's "boot-weather" 75% of the time here, I decided that was the first area of my wardrobe I needed to really address.

First things first - purge the clutter. I found an organization in Vancouver called the Quick Cobbler, who will repair old shoes and redistribute them to the less fortunate. The three pairs that I deemed unwearable are going there for examination. One might be worn beyond repair, but another are in great condition. They just have a tiny rip in the front because my calves are so large that it put too much stress on the front seam. The other pair are in perfect condition, but are way too small in the calves and cut off my circulation.

Goodbye Boots!

That left me with a pair of cowboy boots, a pair of Uggs, my rain boots, and my snow-boots. The rain boots are just cheap WalMart ones but they have served me well over the last six years of living on the West Coast. The Uggs come in handy for slipping on in the morning and evening when I am taking the dog out for a walk around the block - I rarely wear them beyond that. The snowboots and the cowboy boots went away into storage. I know cowboy boots are kind of trendy right now but mine are real riding boots from my horseback riding days. That means the heel is tapered, so it doesn't get caught in the stir-up, but it also means they are NOT meant for walking on pavement with. I have tried to wear them out but have slipped or almost slipped way too many times. Also, they chafe my legs SO bad if I wear them with skirts/dresses - they are really meant for jeans to be tucked in. They are in good condition and worth keeping, but not worth taking room on my shoe rack.

Next step was to decide what it was I wanted to accumulate. I knew black, flat-heeled boots were a must - they go with most of what I wear, but I also "need"  a lighter color to go with my pastel dresses. I could make due with those two colors, but if I found good deals, I also wanted to replace my gray ones as well as a pair of dark brown ones. I based my colors and shades off of my bottoms, jackets, and purses, since I most often will be seen with the three together. I also browsed around on websites to have an idea of what styles I liked and didn't like and what boots are going for nowadays. I knew I didn't want slouchy, because I know they make me look shorter and more bottom-heavy than I would like, and I didn't want anything stiletto or with a crazy heel - my life is way too busy for that.

My go-to store for footwear is, and probably always will be, Winners. They have a clearly-marked 5-5 1/2 section with the boxes and everything out in the open. That saves me a lot of time and disappointment. I can immediately see what they offer in my size and I don't have to deal with pushy salespeople trying to sell me something ill-fit. I set my budget of $50 per pair of boots. Since I planned to wear them a LOT and mostly likely often in damp weather, I didn't want them to be flimsy or cheap-feeling. I don't mind having to throw out $10 flip-flops after a month, but boots I want to last me several years. Every time I am by a Winners, I pop in to see what they have, and low and behold - I found a pair of black leather boots and a pair of light brown suede heeled boots each for $40. Score!

Between the two pairs, I knew I could get through the fall and winter seasons fashionably just fine, but I still wanted to replace my gray suede boots. So I waited until February when all the boots go on sale to make way for spring and summer stuff. Earlier this week my stepmother came to town. She offered to buy me something as a gift with a budget of $60, which is very kind of her. We went straight to Aldo. I found three styles of gray suede boots that I liked and only one of them came in a size 5. I tried them on and they fit perfectly. Shirley loved them too and insisted I get them. They were regular $110, but we paid $61.40 for them. I'm ecstatic.

So there you go. I didn't know it was possible to write such a long post on footwear, but y'all know I can be long-winded anyway. So that's how I accumulated a $400 boot collection for only $110.

Old Strife to New Life

My view from work on a late January day

Groundhog Day. I realize it's silly and that the groundhog's predictions have only been about 39% accurate throughout the last 125 years, but the always-cold part of me still anxiously awaits Phil's prediction, and hopes that he tells us winter is over. In the history of Groundhog Day, that prediction has only been made 17 times and this year was no exception. Six more weeks of winter for us.

Fort St John winter

Then I remembered how lucky I am to live in Vancouver. For those of you reading my blog for the first time, or who just didn't know, I'm originally from Northern BC. In my hometown, we would get six months of solid winter. And when I say winter, I mean snow-up-to-your-knees, ugly snowsuits, warm-up-your-truck-15-minutes-prior-to-leaving-or-else-the-door-will-be-frozen-shut, -40°C kind of winter. Our summer was nice. Similar temperature-wise to Vancouver, but our fall/spring was almost non-existent. Fall was this season that started at the tail end of August with the first frost that kills everything living, turns the leaves brown, seemingly overnight, and fall to the ground in a matter of days - much faster than anyone could rake them up. Then we would get a dump of snow usually mid-September and it would be cold until middle of April-ish. Temperatures would rise to slightly above freezing. Just enough for the snow to turn to black slush everywhere and for the dog poop that had been frozen and hiding in the snow all winter to thaw out and stink up the town. The yucky, slushy stage lasts about 6 weeks before the last of the snow finally dries out, exposing all the brown leaves that we were too lazy to rake up half a year ago, and allowing the dead, brown grass to begin to revive itself in time for two green, much-too-short summer months. 

Vancouver winter

Fort St John winter

Girls go ape-shit over fall here. We put away our stupid high-waisted, ass-bearing shorts and gladiator sandals and trade them in for tights and ankle booties because we aren't ready to fully let go of the fact that our asses, tits, and legs (aka the things that we think guys like) will be hibernating under baggy clothes all winter. We don't want to be cold though, so we put on "layers" of long shirts and sweaters and an obnoxiously big scarf to overcompensate for the fact that we're not wearing pants on our lower half. We run to Bath & Body Works to be the first among our social circles to burn the 3-Wick Apple Flowers candle that would apparently be inappropriate to burn at any other time of year and then go grab a mediocre latte from Starbucks that we would normally freak out over the amount of calories/sugar/dairy we're consuming that no longer apply because it's PUMPKIN SPICE. We crammed so many holidays and events between the months of October and January to distract us from the cold, winter months. We start with going back to school, which affects us even if we don't go ourselves, then Thanksgiving, Halloween, thinking about Christmas, getting excited for Christmas (and new seasonal Starbucks drinks), preparing for Christmas, almost getting sick of Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Years, and then trying to stay true to our New Years resolutions, which we give up on right around the time we can start anticipating Valentine's Day and starting to notice that the weather has been kinda shitty for the last few weeks. Then we get ONE day resembling spring and we go all season-crazy again. We start purging and cleaning our houses, watching HGTV for DIY ideas, and pulling out our cute dresses and skirts, realize they no longer fit, so we take up running again and give up eating gluten (or whatever it is that makes us fat this year). 

I'm a summer person. I realize that it's not exactly an original thing to say. According to gallup.com, 37% of people prefer spring, 27% prefer fall (probably mostly female), 25% summer, and 11% winter (probably mostly male with a few female snowboard enthusiasts). To me, spring was always just the overture before the real symphony of excitement. Summer is really the only season you will catch me outside being "active" and its the only season where I can wear jeans and a tank top and not be cold. I'm sad that I lose my excuse to stay inside curled up with a good book, but then I remember that avocados, berries, and tomatoes are in season and all is forgiven.

This spring in particular, however, does excite me. There are a lot of new, exciting changes happening in my life right now. Some are sad, but forever an optimist, I'm trying to view even the negative as a window of opportunity that I could use for the better. Spring represents new life and that's exactly how I'm feeling right now - that I am getting a new life. I made a commitment for 2015 to write more regularly so welcome to Emily Finds Bliss, a blog about a young woman's journey to find sincere joy in her life. As spring turns into summer, the pastels will brighten, the food will ripen, and the exciting electricity of the season will explode into a beautiful, hustle-bustle of energy, I too plan to brighten, ripen, and explode in my love for Christ Jesus. I have found a new identity and hope to use this blog to document that. Not everything on this blog is religion-centred - I promise to write about all things that I love and want to share. For now, I will leave you with this quote that I love from Albert Camus that I feel describes my life quite accurately from the course of the last few months:

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus ~