There comes a point in your life when you have to indulge in a deep longing; we all have them, our own deep rooted longings and mine happened to be Red Shoes.
I can recall when my fascination with red shoes began too, it was many moons ago when I was a child and saw the famous film 'The Red Shoes' where the beautiful Moira Shearer danced her socks off in a pair of the most captivating red ballet slippers I'd ever clapped eyes on.
Now 38 years young, I decided it was high time to indulge one of my lifelong whims; no, I'd never be Moira Shearer but I could and would find a pair of bright cherry red shoes which would delight and excite that little inner ballerina of mine.
And I did.
I cannot begin to describe the joy as I opened the box - I happened upon something of a bargain too as this pair cost far less that it should have!
And of course, you can't wear red shoes with boring old socks, no that would never do! Stripes are the order of the day, and each time I glance down at my feet I feel absolutely ditzy with glee!! Red Shoes and Stripes!!!! Hurrah for indulgence!!
*A little note on indulgence, in case you think it's completely frivolous and unnecessary: I'm reading the fabulous Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, who observes that the days are long but life is short. How right she is too! I've really begun to think about how I spend my time and live my life - how to inject more Happy Moments into it and live as fully as I can in every moment - it's proving to be an interesting project.
I'm not really a person for blowing huge amounts of moolah on clothing or footwear; to be honest if I ever go shopping for myself it's usually clothes of the smaller size that end up coming home with me for my daughter! Reading her book gave me a bit of a permission slip to do something for me - and it's quite difficult to be honest, when you're used to mostly doing stuff for everyone else.
Talking of doing stuff, I've decided to tackle the over-cluttered chaos that is my house. Gretchen's book also covers an inspiring section on de-cluttering and oh my, if anywhere needs it, it's my house! My bedroom, which by rights ought to be a sanctuary of relaxation and tranquil surroundings is currently more akin to a charity shop, piled up with old baby toys, books and clothing. It has become a veritable dumping ground for Things That Don't Have a Home or are no longer useful or useable. Going to bed in this chaos has long been a bit of a nightmare, and I've put off tackling it due to the sheer enormity of the task. This is just one corner:
I was also more than delighted to stumble upon this post by dear Lucy over at Attic 24, and this one here at Domesticali. Heartily inspired, I ordered the book Ali wrote about and got busy reading.
Things now seem achievable, and I'm actually feeling pretty positive about getting stuck in. I've already made a start, and have three large bags to give away to charity shops from Just ONE CORNER (not that one above either, another one!) It sounds horrendous, it is - was, but I'm getting there, in just 15 minutes a day which is mightily do-able in my scheme of things!
I will share a picture of this corner when I've tackled it - rather than seeing it as a nasty chore, I'm trying to adopt the attitude of Home Loving instead and it does seem to slightly increase the feeling of wanting to keep it nice rather than not.
Right, that's me for now - I have a date with my wee girl to go and find a big pumpkin this afternoon, so we shall venture out into the grey gold wet day that has descended upon our corner of South Yorkshire and go hunting for a good one.
Sending you love,
Julia x x x
**Edited to add - the shoes I got are these ones by a company called El Naturalista :)
