What to do when you want to save money and...

...you love Manolo Blahniks, I love these magical shoes by the maestro, but didn't have the original £700+, or even the £300 second hand to splurge on shoes I would probably never wear.
And so I had great fun making my own....

 Shoes £3.99 from ebay...

 foliage free from some old silk flowers which were looking a little the worse for wear...

 Superglue doesn't bond well fabric to fabric, thank goodness for the plastic straps

 ta da! they fit and are very comfortable

 Fingers are the casualties, but as much as I love a perfect manicure on others, for me it makes me feel a little sad like a life half lived, no danger of that for a while....

home is where the heels are

Since I am tall, and have gone through very large periods,  shoes make me anxious. I have a deep rooted fear of high heels which stems back to an 18th ball, where suffering from laryngitis, I was seated next to a good looking young beau, shortly after our hellos, he  asked me in all seriousness, 'Are you a man in drag'?
Today, I could take this on the chin and laugh with my friends at the faux pas, but as an overweight, awkward 18 year old, with swimmer's shoulders that were larger than any man's, it cut me to the core and shaped my shoe habit from there on.
I adore really high heels on everyone else, and marvel at anyone's ability to totter on anything higher than 3 inches for hours at a time.  But for myself I gravitate to fairly low and ladylike.
My shoe fantasy is fulfilled by Rene Caovilla, I also love the fact that tracking them down is like sniffing out truffles and seemingly there are no Chinese imitations (yet!).

These are my black 'going out' shoes, notice the interlopers at the end, that are actually by Coast, but I like to think, nearly my dream Caovillas!

These are the sparkley Caovilla's that I wear for weddings, racing, christenings and anywhere else where there will be lots of standing around.

And for work.....sensible Chanels.