not sponsored (a post about new shoes, feat. nostalgia)

Um, so, I went a little overboard shoe-shopping of late... This is a chonky post, by the way.

For several months now I've been looking around online at boots. Within the last year or so, I've had to toss four pairs of boots. One was a pair of cowboy-esque boots from Target circa 2010. I actually posted about those when I got them, here! I loved them and wore them to literal shreds. Like, the insides of the boots started shredding! Another pair, also from Target, were my super-beloved black strappy booties that were eerily resminiscent of one of my favorite Blythe shoe molds. And finally, two pairs of combat boots that I got from Payless (RIP) in 2013. These I had in both brown and black. They served me well for ~10 years. Which, I guess, for Payless shoes, is pretty decent!

The crappy thing about "vegan leather," aka plastic, is that it disintegrates eventually. Unfortunately I've had several pairs of shoes as well as purses and bags just spontaneously burst into confetti, or so it looks, by the way flakes slurry off them and they just fall apart! So, this is what happened with all these pairs of boots.

(It's worth noting that none of these shoes were at all expensive in the first place. They were from Target and Payless! But I loved them and wore them till they could be worn no more! And it's tough to find anything but fake leather, especially if you want to spend less than $50 on a pair of shoes.)

I wear boots in the autumn and winter months, mostly, but when it's boot season, that's what I wear the vast majority of the time. As the weather's now cooling, I've been keen to replace my boots in particular. And I really felt I wanted a "historical" sort of boot. I had a particular vision in mind. You can see that vision in the image at the top of the post.

Keywords: historical, ankle, reasonable heel, laces, Kirsten Larson, Violet Baudelaire (book).

I ended up getting a pair of these Winterbury lace-up booties in black from Famous Footwear. I tried them on in the store and they were a) in the "historical vibes" style I wanted without being so old-fashioned as to be nearly unwearable with modern clothes, b) very comfortable, and c) on SALE! (Marked down from $90 to $45!) These do have zippers too, to which I was initially resistant, but which I now like because it's easier to slip them on and do up the zip than it is to have to tie them every time.

"Witchy," was a word the woman at the register used. My dad said, "You look like you just walked out of the 1800s." I showed them to my sister and she said the words "American Girl doll." Nailed it!!! Exactly what I wanted!!!

I've been wearing them every day since I got them, and I love them so much, and they are so comfortable (and also still on sale, at the time of my posting this) that I ordered them in brown too. When I really like a boot and it comes in multiple colors and is affordable, I will almost always get a black and brown pair. For options! And I wear both colors equally, depending on the 'fit.

But, my friend, I didn't stop there. Couldn't, wouldn't be stopped there.

At all the stores I went to on my boots quest, they had lots of Mary Janes. Mary Janes are apparently really in style right now and that makes me so happy! They're my favorite kind of shoe! They make me so nostalgic because I wore them when I was a toddler in the 80s and again when I was a preteen/teenager in the 90s. I can remember pretty much every pair I've ever had. The gray ones I had when I was a wee thing, which I slipped and fell in one day, and got a black eye from landing face-first into our rocking chair. The soft leather pair I got in fifth grade that I wore literally every day. The chunky black Skechers that were oh so Spice Girls that I wore regularly my sophomore year of high school. The pewter-silver patent leather pair my grandmother bought me for a formal dance, and which I wore to my formal every year after that! And which I still have! I still have two pairs of Mary Janes that are over twenty years old at this point too.

Okay, that's it, I'm digging out my old Mary Janes...

See? Haha. That first pair is the pair I wore to all my high school formals/nice events. Look at the shape of the toes on them. They're so bent up and scuffed and stiff with age, but I'll never part with them. The other two pairs are from Payless circa 2002/2003. They all still fit me, although I usually wear an 8 now rather than a 7 1/2. I love how round-toed the black quilted pair is. They're still extremely cute, in my opinion! So Alice in Wonderland! And the cutouts on the red pair are retro and charming to me, so of course I never got rid of them.

I did quite lately get a pair of Mary Janes (as I posted about here). I've been wearing them every time I go anywhere, with frilly socks! And I have another pair besides those, a brown leather pair that you can see in this post from last October.

Buuuut when I was out and about, I saw a pewter pair of Mary Janes that reminded me immediately of my old pewter Mary Janes! They were too expensive ($80) so while I picked the shoe up to appreciate it and bask in my nostalgia, I didn't indulge the idea of actually getting them. But I found myself thinking about them for a couple of days after that! I thought, "I bet I can find them cheaper online..." And I did. For around $50, most places, and on sale for $40 on Famous Footwear. But because I had Famous Footwear reward points from buying two gersh dang pairs of boots, I got them for $32. And because there was a bogo deal, I also got this other pair of black Mary Janes I also liked for only $13.50.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!

I'm far, far too happy right now! I'm kind of a shoe girlie anyway. I am always into shoes over any kind of other piece of clothing or accessories, when it comes to myself. And I get very excited about doll shoes too; my girls have so many pairs of Mary Janes. But I am just particularly stoked on these purchases. Since I had to toss four pairs of shoes this last year, I'm replacing those, sure. But sometimes my personal taste doesn't at all line up with what's on the market. So I feel like, although fashion cycles are going a lot faster than they used to, I need to stock up while I like what's out there!

• Winterbury lace-up booties
• DV Dolce Vita Mellie Mary Jane flats
• LifeStride Cameo Mary Jane flats

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video rec: Babbity Kate's American Girls videos

Bringing you something a little bit different today! I wanted to post about a couple of really delightful videos made by YouTuber/TikTokker Babbity Kate, who makes content about about a lot of varied stuff, it seems! Disney Princesses? Bella Swan's Khaki Skirt? Taylor Swift? "Subscribe," said I -- but particularly because I really loved her deep dive on Kirsten Larson, the American Girl character/doll.

Words can't express how much I enjoyed this video! Babbity Kate covers the Kirsten books, as well as the doll and accessories that go along with the books. She talks about the all-important historical aspects, the appeal of the products (doll, clothes, books, and things like the paper dolls and activity books), and some Pleasant Company history. It's a deep dive indeed. She covers short stories I didn't know existed, and even talks about the Pleasant Company catalogues and the experience of reading them, of admiring the dolls in them!

I was super hype when she dropped a Samantha Parkington deep dive a few days ago! Or, at least, part one of a Samantha deep dive!!

(The thumbnail on this one is glorious.)

I find these videos really well-balanced. Although long, I think they are very digestible in smaller chunks due to how she rotates between topics. She will cover a book, then an outfit, then talk about history or another fun but related tangent, then return to covering the next book in the series.

In my opinion, Kate has a good sense of humor. The deep dive videos have some running jokes and I appreciate that, and she knows how to lightly make fun of things. But, very importantly to me, the humor factor doesn't ever outweigh the joy and appreciation of the dolls/books/products. The way she speaks about everything still respects the magic of these dolls and beloved characters. I think the word I'm searching for is "sincerity." Kate's ability to find humor in the books and her ability to point out what historical content is flawed or outdated is never at the expense of sincere enjoyment of the subject matter. The American Girl/Pleasant Company nostalgia is respected, not lambasted. What deserves criticism is touched upon, but as a review, that is never at all the crux of the videos.

Like, I can't say how often nostalgia content accidentally wanders too far into territory where it either overhypes the topic at hand, sometimes undeservedly, or criticizes it too much. Especially if it's something for kids. Reviewing kids' stuff as an adult is a tricky thing to do, I think, and some people don't know how to strike a good balance between critique and appreciation.

I myself, as a child in the 90s, had a major, major American Girl phase! I talked about this a long time ago now, in 2010, here in this post about Christmas gifts I got as a child! I would carry the catalogues everywhere with me. I pored over them just about every day. I memorized the text and looked at every single detail of the photographs. The historical girls (which were the bulk of the catalogue then) held an endless appeal to me. All my life I have loved historical fiction and this aspect of American Girl was a major part of that appeal. I was not interested in the modern "just like you" dolls, when they started doing those. To me, the most interesting and exciting things were the historically inspired clothing and accessories and furniture, and the characters of the historical girls.

Anyway, I had both Samantha and Kirsten, and several dresses and little accessories for each of them! Although I was out of my American Girls phase by age 13 or so, Pleasant Company being acquired by Mattel was still a big turn-off for me. I could see the difference in quality and aesthetics between what Pleasant Company produced and what Mattel produced. But I also didn't pay too much attention, beyond some disappointment at some of the newer Samantha clothing they came out with post-Pleasant Company.

I'm absolutely not up on American Girl! The releases, the changes in branding. Whatever the kerfuffles in the AG community are. No clue about any of that! So, getting a bit of an update from these videos was really interesting to me, as a former collector and someone who loved (and still loves) Samantha and Kirsten. The characters! The outfits! The flavor texts of the old catalogues!

That love and nostalgia was really reignited for me by these videos. If you're into American Girl, have any nostalgia or curiosity about them, or just really like deep dives, I recommend these videos!

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deliver me from evil

Talking about this has been in the back of my mind for some time now! I don't mean this in an "anti-haul" or anti-consumeristic way, although I suppose that's part of my feeling on it... But, being interested in cute stuff and knick-knacks and the like, the internet hawks me these things all the time. And I refuse. I REFUSE!!!! To even START! To even CONSIDER! Collecting anything else!

... That's a straight-up lie. I face constant temptation in the forms of these little kawaii little hunks of plastic.

But, thus far I remain strong!!!

SANRIO ANYTHING

Here's the thing. I love Sanrio!!! I collected it as a child, in the late 80s/early 90s, before Hello Kitty was as ubiquitous as she is now! I've loved it all my life. As a child my mother would reward us after a difficult experience such as the dentist by taking us to the mall, where there was a gift shop that had a Sanrio shelf. She would let us pick out an item, and my sister and I had an impressive combined Sanrio collection. I'd really love to post about some of the items we had sometime!

In high school (this was in the late 90s for me) I still collected! But I mostly loved stationery items, which I actually used a lot, so I don't have most of it now. I do actually still have a few Landry things from ~1998. Landry's not super popular. But I had a lot of Chococat and Badtz-Maru stuff! To this day I have an appreciation for Sanrio characters other than Hello Kitty. My favorites continue to be Badtz-Maru, Chococat, Landry, Keroppi, Marron Cream, and Little Twin Stars.

I wish I had endless money to dump towards cute Sanrio blind boxes and the like, and the space to display little figurines. But I simply don't, so I only allow myself to enjoy pictures of other people's Sanrio collections!

(But in the interest of honesty, amidst all these other things, Sanrio is what I have the most emotional connection to, so it's a case of "I would if I could!")

SYLVANIAN FAMILIES

Just super duper cute. So cottagecore. So kidcore. What would be the harm in attaining just one? Or one little family...? I do wonder...

POPMART FIGURES

These anger me so much because I like them so much. I'm talking about the Skullpanda Warmth Series specifically, because these muted/cool pastel colors are so BEAUTIFUL to me! But I like a few other Skullpanda figurines too. I've looked these up on eBay and Etsy in moments of extreme weakness. But I've never pulled the trigger. I ask, "Will this really make me happy?" It's like I have an itch in my brain that I feel like I can soothe with one of these. But I'm sure it'd make absolutely no difference in my overall wellbeing, so this gives me the strength to close the tab whenever I find myself tempted!

SONNY ANGELS

These also make me want to derisively curse. I love 'em. I hate 'em. I love 'em. I know these are extremely extremely trendy, which means that -- sort of like Funko Pops, in my opinion -- they're going to strike everyone as a very dated and irritating thing to have a whole mess of in the future. (Of course, I don't believe in letting something stop you from enjoying what you sincerely enjoy. Sonny Angels and Funko Pops make a lot of people really happy and I love that!) But thinking of them this way helps me not give into the temptation to start collecting these dust-catchers. Even though they're so cute in a little display case that I could scream.

Of course, I am not beyond my little collections! Here's what I do collect/what I am allowing myself to have:

TAMAGOTCHIS

I have six Tamagotchis and have built up my collection slowly over many years now! (I first/last posted about Tamagotchis in 2015, almost ten years ago now.) 90s nostalgia is of course all well and good, but I love the more modern Japanese Tamagotchis that have color screens and minigames! I have the iDL (still my favorite), the P's, the 4U, and the Meets. I would love love LOVE to expand this collection! But it's a cyclical phase type thing for me. I'll get really into running a Tamagotchi for a while and then I won't be in the mood to do the constant maintenance aspect of it again for a while.

Tamagotchis have long-running characters such as Memetchi and Kuchipatchi. The fact that there's specific characters adds an appeal factor that's not unlike Sanrio for me. They also often have Sanrio-themed Tamagotchis (or pierces, in the case of the P's).

Also, people make cute crocheted Tamagotchi cases, and this is SO up my alley!

THESE SPECIFIC STITCH FIGURINES

Stitch is, unfortunately, what the kids call my "comfort character." (I sorta got a douche chill just saying that, though.) In other words, he's a long-term favorite of mine, and I have a big emotional attachment to him. I have a stuffed Stitch that I sleep with and a couple of other little Stitch stuffies. I am always having to talk myself out of buying Stitch plushies. This is kind of a humiliating thing to admit, haha.

But, look at that little trio I have! I think this is a great way for me to indulge my bizarre autistic Stitch love without having Stitch stuff out the wazoo. There are four more little figures in this particular series and I would really like to have them all eventually, but I'm not focused on attaining them.

I also really love these because I got a couple of them from my little sister for Christmas. She knows me so well!

TAROT DECKS

I used to study tarot back in 2015/2016, before I had a huge mental health crisis and stopped being able to engage with all of my many hobbies. I have yet to pick up my studies again in anything longer than small spurts but I retain an interest, and every now and then, I am gifted a new tarot deck (most of the decks I have were gifts). I have ten decks total.

LITTENS

I got all my Littens in one fell swoop, as you know!!! Here are pictured just the figurines as they sit on my shelf. But you know I have a little gaggle of plushies. A litany of Littens. And I love them so freaking much. I would absolutely accept more Littens into my heart/my bedroom.

OTHER COLLECTIONS I HAVE BUT DID NOT MENTION HERE (BESIDES BLYTHES OBVIOUSLY):

• Animal Crossing Amiibos/Amiibo cards
• a huge hunk of the Sweet Valley Twins series, which I at one time was actively collecting (I posted about them here)
• BL Metamorphosis, the one manga series I have actively collected (it's only five books)

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