By the way, real Mainers can't afford to shop at LLBean.

And with Burberry and Nine West there who the hell wants to even look at a duck shoe anyway?  For real native casual shoes I will stick with clam diggers and weejuns.

A quick shoe primer:

Tan shoes off season:  Pumps, never, a seude slouch boot, okay.  Non-boot wise, try to go with richer browns or an ox blood.

White shoes still in?  They are a pita, but sometimes unavoidable...and spectator pumps are a must when trying to find a shoe to wear with dressy red, red is a bitch to match.  Have the red/white spectator pump on hand for this.  They are also good in navy/white.

Two tone shoes are good in general, because David Selby wears them, and that is reason enough (see, I am on topic here).

Heels....you can never have enough variance in heel inch.  Great fitting jeans are hard to find, hemming is bitch....so much easier just to have shoes to accomodate the length of the jeans.  For the vertically challenged, such as myself (I am way too short for my weight), a slim leg jean that is too long, but whose length is corrected by a stack heeled Nine West oxford is the holy grail.  I advise these Nine Wests in both black and chocolate brown with all the heel variation there is out there.  To keep to the LL Bean topic here, let me say that this is the perfect place to insert the following:  LL Bean sizing sucks.  LL Bean cut sucks.

Flats: Created for the sole purpose of wearing with leggings, which, fahion mavens be damned, will never be out of style if you have small thighs and butt.  Industry wants to dictate to the flat tummied, well I can't change that, but I can hold on to my leggings.

Black patent leather Mary Janes?  Not just for the parochial school girl anymore, wear them til your 90.

Flip flops?  For running errands, go for it, but for the love of god leave off the plastic doo-dahs.  Something with a sole that doesn't scream shower room at the Y is a given.

Burberry check slides?  Will everyone who has lemminged this pattern and made it trendy please move on to the next thing so that I can go back to wearing the ones I have had for years without looking like a charter member of the Oprah Book Club?  Thank You.

Boots....here you are financially screwed, because with real winters you have too many bases to cover.  Style and function tend to not over lap well....so you have to have both, and of course you need black, brown, neutral.  White...nonononono.  Not even good on majorettes. If you are not planning on dancing topless in a cage, do not buy white boots.  A cream or rich ivory is good, though.

You can trust me on knowing my boot thing, I was caught once not having the right boot....dark, but not frivolous, and definately not utilitarian a couple of years ago when I had a family funeral with snow on the ground.  Since if I had worn the wrong boot, I would hope to hell they would be burying me, I wore pumps.  I then was asked to be a pall bearer (ironic since this was the  blood relative I would l have least  wanted to put in a grave).

I am now boot ready.  Bring anything on.

I do not own a pair of Bean boots, and have not since 1978.  You need that good solid boot to shovel out the car or schlepp to the corner store, but give me a Bass shitkicker any day.

The final word on shoes:  Ladies, you must own a pair of FMPs.

Nancy

Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob....you have this to say:

"As far as Donna McKechnie goes, I also enjoyed her performance on the show. I think you might have hit the nail on the head with the jealously theory. HA HA"

And I have this to say:

PFFFFT

Seriously, though, I could not stand her from the git go, when she showed up with Tim Shaw. (Spoilers ahead) -

All that Di-A-MONDS Tim crap of hers.  I stand by my assessment of her as a mewling, opportunistic slut.  Women like that are disgusting - and, remember, I was raised in a time when some mothers (like mine) encouraged that dumb down and bat your eyes bull.  Make yourself look like a fool to get the goods.  Blech.

Nancy

Oh Quentin was THE ghost on DS.  You could tell the whole time he was haunting Collinwood that he himself was a very haunted soul.  Gerard was absolutely the more evil of the two, but Quentin the most effective.  Even his companion ghost added to the flavor....Beth was sad and poignant, Daphne, well, she was pretty insipid.

The whole set up to 1840 was a pale comparison.  The Quentin/Beth haunting was unparalleled.  And 1897 rules.

Nancy

Oh Bobubas has tried to convince me to go.....I am waffling.  I have a rep to maintain here.

N

I do enjoy Chistopher Lowell though.  He has great ideas, of course, we don't follow through on any of them

Catch Chritopher Lowell once in awhile.  I love the decorating shows, but with car wreck mentality it is the really god awful stuff that I seem to enjoy the final reveal of...when something is hideous beyond words.  

Even what I like...I've never done anything that I have seen on one of these shows.  Just did a complete living/dining and bathroom overhaul last winter...but not one thing that captured me from one of these shows.

Anyway....speaking of hideous  beyond words, and car wreck mentality...has anyone seen Matt and Sheri on Room by Room?  How did these two end up with a show??

n

doombuggy69's

I have a large collection of teen mags, and don't recall Craig being featured at all in "16" or Tiger Beat at the time.

Now I would have written about him, only because the temptation to give in to the name Slocum giving itself to rude "typo" would have been simply overwhelming.

n

One big problem:  It smears and smudges so easily.  HOW do you keep liner and mascara from smudging - even when you haven't had it on that long?

Avon Glimmersticks. Since turning 40 (several years ago) I have been hunting and trying everything in the eyeliner department.  A friend started selling Avon, and I had to do the obligatory buy from her, now I swear by this stuff.  Doesn't smudge, doesn't do the melt in hot weather thing.  I work 12 hour days sometimes, and the stuff holds up throughout.

Mascara I hate, and only wear it for the extreme dressy occassion.  If I get any more washed out looking, though, I swear I will try the lash dying thing.  

n

Midnite!

Happy Birthday, Happy Year and Happy Always.

N