first of all, part of me is always torn about spending time and money on clothes at all – I mean seriously, is that what life is really about? well obviously, NO. not to mention all the millions of people in the world who have like one outfit and bare feet… at the same time, there is no question that we have to wear clothes, and in the MidWest it is also not really an option whether or not we wear shoes at least in the winter, and most stores and other public places.

so then yeah, how many pairs of shoes do I really need? technically the answer would certainly be one for summer and one for winter. unless I would just wear tennis shoes or something, in which case, two birds with one stone! I’m a pretty big advocate of all things practical, so why not? ok, how practical would it be in various scenarios?

tennis shoes with a dress, for example…? some people do it. I believe they call themselves Beachy Mennonite (Beachy Amish? I’m not so well edjamacated in all that, but the Menno part is sounding wrong to me, lol) around here. and why not, really? who says it’s not ok? who says how we look even matters at all? we’re talking big picture here…

{I just did a quick google image search to see if I could find a picture, and I had to do a double-take because I thought I saw someone I knew, haha, but no. also, pictures of people with marker scribbled all over their face??? what that could possibly have to do with it I have no idea. I did come across something of interest, though, a site selling plain clothes. particularly intriguing is the fact that some of their stuff was in the Italian Vogue – check it.}

(yes, this post really IS about looking for boots,
I promise I will get all materialistic shortly)

I am seriously torn, at intervals, about reducing my wardrobe to 1 basic look
and wearing the same thing all the time.

but here are some things I ponder which have kept me from being quite so drastic:

1. God is a God of creativity
2. God is a God of beauty.
3. God is a God of diversity.
4. What we surround ourselves with affects us.

I will let you draw your own conclusions about those four points other than one little tidbit I find interesting, which is that God had very ornate instructions in the construction of the temple. and now we’re his temple, right? hmmm. but “man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” wait, that is in relation to not discrediting or prejudging someone based on appearance…

the point is, while I am always bothered by excess time spent on appearance, and do my best to avoid it – as many have probably noticed ha HA! (I do my makeup, and often hair, in the car on the way to events, people. lucky for me I almost always have a handsome chauffeur – I do NOT advocate doing anything else while you are actually driving =) I do still believe there is a place for individual style and looking nice (which is certainly subjective, but not completely without decorum).

thus leads me to my search for boots! the very verbose path to this point is what happens when all these thoughts rattle around for excessively long amounts of time without the outlet that this blog now affords me =) lucky you if you happened upon it.

there are some things about which I have very particular tastes… the two main components which inform many of my decisions, however, are practicality and cost.

in this case, I was attempting to procure a pair of brown riding boots which would work well with black because there was a short pair of black combat boots that I also wanted to obtain – and practicality and money both say versatility is key.

I searched long and hard, let me tell you, to the point where I certainly considered more than once the monetary value of my time… unfortunately, what I initially believed to be a simple quest turned out to be anything but. if only I was a boot dr, I would frankenstein something together.

this was the boot I found that probably came the closest to what I was originally seeking
that was ALSO in a somewhat comfortable price bracket.

however, the highly attractive elastic back kept me from getting it

this one I would have actually gotten if David had approved,
which I would have gotten him to if I hadn’t found the much better deal I ended up settling for.

along the way I came across all of the components I wanted, they were just all in different boots and/or for the price of a cheap computer or old car, neither of which I am interested in wearing on my feet. at some point I decided to start trying to be more open-minded, but it wasn’t working because I had reasons for what I wanted. most of all, though, I was focused on “cognac” or “whiskey” colored boots that were clean and classic looking.

here is a sample of a few other boots I got distracted by on the way
click the pic for more flat brown riding boots roundup
for the record, a few places I have on my list with a good combo of price and style include
(all clickable):
zooshoo (free shipping!), lulus, dollhouse, charlotterusse, and gojane
I was initially using ShopStyle because I like being able to search a large database visually,
but ended up and stayed at Endless.
because, it really is. ^
and designers that stuck out to me as consistently fitting my style were
Steve Madden (as always), BED:STU!!!, FRYE, and Miz Mooz

so I identified a few possibilities and then searched for the best prices.
6pm.com had SWEET sales during the biggest shopping weekend of the year,
and I ended up with 2 pairs of tall boots.
for $57.97, shipped. price gets me almost every time.

I’m not in love with these and I realized after the late-night moment when I finally finalized the purchase that since I was getting tall black ones also I could have gotten a darker brown and it would have been fine – these aren’t really cognac like they were listed, they are darker than the bottom picture, but I wish they were that color.

I usually prefer to get something a bit more badass for black boots,
but these will be decently versatile I think.
below are what I really wanted in a black boot this year, but I want to pay the $33 or whatever it was forever21 had them at, not the $60+ from Steve Madden… I don’t know if they’re going to come around again or not, though.

so there you go. a bit of a look into my conflicted fashion sense. God help me.