Thursday 2 September 2010

Shoes or spinning? Please help me decide!

You may remember, I have taken the Wardrobe Refashion pledge. It expires at the end of October. I am allowed one get out of jail free card in case, ooh I don’t know, I get distracted while mooching along and somehow end up in TK Maxx just keeping a weather eye on things and some Carvela stilettos fall into my basket and my credit card falls into the credit card reader and my hand slips and punches in my number by pure coincidence.

Shoes! So I must invoke the Get Out Of Jail Free Card:
Wardrobe Refashion

But. But. Must I, though? Because: I get my shoes home, I get them out, I try them on, I look very cool. I congratulate myself on how immensely practical these shoes will be, given that a/ I can actually walk in them (honestly), and b/ they will do for winter as well as will go with tights. And then doubts begin to creep in.

Readers: the shoes were not absolutely ruinously expensive. They were £50. (I hope you are admiring my honesty. I hope you aren’t thinking, £50 on shoes, £12.50 on cheese, a fool and her money, hmm). I have things I can sell on ebay to recoup the cost. I have not bought shoes for many, many months. But, as I stood looking at the shoes which I can assure you made my ankles look very slender, I did begin to think: that is £50 I could spend on something else. I could spend it on other shoes, for example these green ones:

Or – I could spend it on a beginner spinning kit. Or on a patchwork-cutting-out kit. Or on both, if I don’t do anything bourgeois like take postage into account. I never thought I would see the day when I would prefer a spinning kit over very stylish stilettos, but, possibly that day is here. Am I now middle aged? Is this the beginning of the end? Is it all downhill from here and will I spend my days from now on nodding in agreement to Woman’s Hour while adjusting my Slanket and wondering when the man next door is going to trim his side of the hedge? What should I do? Should I take the shoes back and buy the spinning kit, or should I keep the shoes, because they are lovely? (Please don’t say, take the shoes back and don’t spend the money on anything because you have got to have a new bathroom. I have mentally moved that money into my spent compartment, although if you have read Bleak House you will know that that kind of thinking only leads to misery and quite often death).

So here is my question: shoes or spinning? Which road do I take? I think I’ve reached a critical life point. Please let me know what you think!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Followed you here from wardrobe refashion. I could be mistaken, but am pretty sure the rules exclude underclothing and shoes! So, I say, enjoy them without guilt.

resa said...

Oh, this is hard. Those shoes are amazing. But spinning is fun. But shoes. Those shoes.

Keep them. Or possibly send them to me.

Selina said...

Shoes don't count, so wear them without guilt! If shoes were included in the pledge I never would have signed up, there is something just so wrong about wearing secondhand shoes(in my opinion anyway, but then my opinion probably doesn't count cause I think feet are just so wrong too!)

Mumma Troll said...

I'd love to be able to wear shoes like those, you lucky, lucky thing. So enjoy them guilt free. Make the next purchase the rotary cutter and you can make lots of money in your Etsy shop to make up for it,hehehe.xxx

Susie said...

OK, so the Slanket and Woman's Hour can wait a bit then, can they do we think? Jen, I must say, I like your clarity ;-). Mumma Troll, you are quite right, off to save up for rotary cutter.

I didn't realise shoes were exempt! (This is how good I am at reading rules). This is dangerous knowledge which I am going to try to forget ;-).

Anonymous said...

Keep The Shoes! One day you may only be able to wear orthopedic shoes and you can warm yourself with their memory.

nikkishell said...

Shoes are not part of the pledge, otherwise even I wouldn't be able to take part! Haven't yet done that shoe making course i have on my list of things to learn ;)

Annie said...

It's really easy to make a drop spindle - you don't need to buy one :-) In fact, if you have either a post office box or believe that I'm not a weird stalker and give me an address, I'll send you the stuff to make one - I did it as a craft with some schoolkids in a museum day earlier this month... Length of dowel, cup hook, several CDs. That's it - honestly. Make it yourself and feel happy with your shoes!

Susie said...

Annie, I definitely believe you're not a weird stalker, and that's a really kind offer, thank you very much! But your website won't load so I can't get in touch - if you could email me on uselessbeautydesigns [at] gmail.com I'll happily give you my address :-).

Nikkishell, thank you for letting me know (a shoe making course does sound fantastic, though ;-) ).