Best Online Shoe Club IMO

vs.  

I'm one of those people who loves LOVES shoes.   I have been using Shoedazzle for a few months now and have purchased 4 pairs of shoes and only 1 which I love. At first i thought it was a steal, i thought that nice shoe could only be purchased for $80 or more so with $40 at Shoedazzle I would get a pair shipped to my house, I thought it was a pretty great deal.  Now after a few months of intense shoe shopping,  I can honestly say that Shoedazzle's shoes are not the best deal... actually they're not a good deal at all.

Let's start with their quality.  To this day, Shoedazzle has NOT put out ONE pair of shoes which contains high quality materials.  All of the materials are man-made and every shoe I have received has had some sort of small quality defect.  Yes, small but still there and for $40, they should be pretty damn near perfect.  Now don't get me wrong, not all man-made materials suck.  I have plenty of shoes that are faux patent, satin, or faux suede.  However, there are some really great faux materials where you can barely tell that they're not real and there are others who seem like they don't even try to make look real!

The fact that they give free shipping and returns may seem like a great perk but in reality they should be giving you more than that!  They sell you shoes that cost them no more than $7 to make in some 3rd world country, sell them to your for $40, and then tell you you're getting free shipping just to make you feel like you're getting a good deal.  $40 relative to many other shoe brands may seem like a steal but also realize that Shoedazzle rarely ever has sales or deals.  This is because they're already selling at their "rock-bottom" price, they don't want to go any lower!  A while back they had a BOGO event and I bought 2 pairs of shoes that looked super cute.  When they arrived, I realized just how crappy the quality was and realized, yes this makes sense why they had BOGO, who's actually buying this stuff at full price! ah! (please don't tell me you are!!)  The stitches were crooked and the faux leather plastic dug into my feet horribly.  I tried everything with these shoes, I wore them in by walking around the house, using them for short trips to the grocery store, but nothing worked!  No matter how hard you try, if the shoe is crappy, it will never be comfortable (assuming you bought the right size and heel height for you!)

Enough with my rant about Shoedazzle, let's focus on some nice shoes now!

It just so turns out that i found this great site Sole Society, have you heard of it?
They are also an Online Shoe Club BUT the biggest difference is what? QUALITY, they have shoes that are made with REAL LEATHER not this Chinese equivalent similar crap.  I don't care how textured you make plastic, plastic is NOT leather!  And let's face it, if you want your shoes to last more than 3 months, you need them to be stitched up well made from durable materials --> leather shoes.

Sole Society has some great shoes for every style and like I said they're made with REAL materials!!  Are they still made in China?  probably.... but we have to understand that the quality standards in China are not the same throughout... they're good some places, ok in others, and just plain terrible in the remaining areas. 
Their monthly price runs a little more expensive at $50 instead of $40 (Shoedazzle) but I can't stress enough that the quality is FAR superior!!

yada yada yada.... ok so what's the deal??  Everytime I post a new rant/rave about something I hate/love there's always a deal involved or an alternative.

Have you heard of Plum District?  They're having a GREAT Black Friday sale!  Use code SUNDAY40 to get 40% off any voucher.  They just so happen to have a $50 to Sole Society for only $25 which makes it $15 after your 40% off code!! So here's your great chance to get awesome leather shoes for $15 SHIPPED TO YOUR HOUSE!! It really doesn't get any better than this!

So what are you waiting for? Try it out.. better yet gift it for Xmas! I know I would be ecstatic to get this as a gift!

Crochet Recycled T-shirt yarn Rug

Strip it up!

 I have had these great cotton t-shirts sitting around for the last 5 months!  I always said I was going to do something incredibly crafty with it but never really found any motivation... FOUND IT!!

Everytime I'm cooking or crafting or doing ANYTHING for that matter, my dogs always want to sit right at my feet.  It's cute yes but I always end up tripping over them and stubbing my toe or just completely falling on my face... not good!  I began to notice that they LOVE to sit on rugs though so I said I will make a rug for my craft room!!  That way I can put the rug on the other side of the room and they will lay there, only there and can no longer accidentally sit on my sewing pedal and scare the crap out of me (yes, it's happened)

I  made sure to keep track as I went just in case someone else wants to try this! I started by cutting the shirts in strips.  I used almost EVERYTHING even the neck part with the seams on it and stuff, it all gets put together and you can't even tell!  After you cut the strips, be sure to pull them so that they curl up!

The remnants of the 4 t-shirts

More strips all curled up!

Bottom seam of the shirt.  Cut in half and unfold the bottom (right in the pic) half.

I started crocheting like normal except I had a size Q hook (15.75 mm HUGE!!).  I used BACK LOOP SC the whole way around!  I love the way the ridge forms when sc goes in the back loop only!  I wanted to change colors for each round so I just went about my merry way.  To start, I ch 2 then sc in first ch (center of circle made).  Then I sc 8 into the center.  2nd round I did 2 sc  (inc) in each sc.  3rd round I did 2sc in every other sc (sc, inc).  4th round I did 2sc in every 2 sc (sc, sc, inc) and so on and so forth. 

Rounds 1-5

Round 1-8

Shelby loved it!

I will definitely be making more of these!! This is my new OBSESS!!

Coupon Savings = Fuller Yarn Stash :-)

I haven't done one of these in a WHILE!  It wasn't too bad of a week this time around especially considering that I got a bunch of stuff I needed for Thanksgiving and not necessarily just what was on sale.

I paid $80 and Saved $100 :-)  It's always nice to save at least 50%!!

The bf even got lunch (which you can see him holding in the bottom right corner of the pic).  There was a $2 off a Turkey/Cranberry Publix sub combo so he lucked out because apparently that's his favorite sub during the holidays AND we had a coupon... love when that happens :-)

Some of the highlights were FREE Rachael Ray dog treats, FREE publix eggs, super cheap shredded cheese, free Dr. Pepper, 30 cents for each bag of Alexia frozen breads and super cheap evaporated milk for all of the baked goods that are coming!

I'll do a break-down if needed just let me know!

My friend told me about this yarn store in Orlando that I never heard of before!  It's called the Black Sheep, have you heard of it??   It's one of the 2 LYS here in Orlando so I'm very excited to go scope it out tomorrow especially since we saved $100 that were going to go to groceries :-)  Maybe I will splurge on some of this amazing Noro that everyone is talking about?

Or maybe I will get some organic cotton to make myself a pink version of the celtic beanie I designed for the bf!!  Only time will tell :-)

Queen Anne Lace Scarf

 

I don't really know who Queen Anne is but she must have been a really popular lady!!  This scarf is a super easy project and it stitches up beautifully!

I used Caron "Country" yarn (merino/acrylic blend) and it feels so nice and warm on my neck, I just love it!  I got lots of lovely compliments from buddies at work so that definitely made my day!! :-)

I got the super simple pattern from Ravelry... while you're there be sure to check out the hundreds of other Queen Anne scarves, they're simply wonderful!! SO many colors and the beauty of this scarf is that no matter what material yarn you use, it will still look stunning!!

I will be stitching up a few more of these for Xmas time... maybe some lucky work buddies will get one for their secret santa present :-)

I think I'm a bit obsessed with scarves right now especially being that winter's coming up and quick!! I feel like everyday I step outside, it gets just a little bit cooler... and I love it!!  It really just gives me an excuse to stitch up more gorgeous projects...

Right now, I'm finishing up a little something for a little baby in my life!  I'll post it when I'm done and after I model it on his little baby head

Hope you had a wonderful day!! Think warm thoughts!

Celtic Knot Beanie for the bf

Hello!! Thanks for stopping by!!

I finally finished the super secret project I was working on for the bf... whaddaya think?
I've always wanted to crochet him something but could never find anything that was "manly" enough... I always saw patterns that he said were cool but wouldn't actually wear.... *sigh*

I was looking through Debbie Stoller's "Son of Stitch N' Bitch" and saw this awesome design for a hat:

But it was a knitting pattern!! BAAAH!  It's times like these that make me so jealous of knitters! There's so many more knitting patterns and books out there than crochet.... oh well!!

This only made it a bit more of a challenge.... NO, I didn't learn how to knit to do this pattern but instead I converted it into a Tunisian Crochet project :-)
I made it from a bunch of wedges starting from the top center of the hat to the rim.  Then I stitched up the sides and voila!!

For the yarn, I used all Vanna's Choice in colors: White (don't remember the label name for white) and "Charcoal Print"

At the rim of the hat, I went around and did 1 round of front post single crochet and then another round of normal single crochet, this pulled it all together and gave it a nice rim.

I love love L.O.V.E this hat!! As soon as I finished it, the bf said "Awesome, this is perfect"  What better words could a mad crocheter hear after finishing a masterpiece!!  I love that he loves it so much but I'm thinking I might just have to make another one in pink for me!!! How cute would that beee?!??!

tempting, very tempting.... but I have so many other projects flowing through my head that I think I will do those before repeating a pattern :-)

I have oodles of other projects to share I just haven't gotten a chance to post them... Also I realized that I really hate the quality of my pictures on this blog! GAH!! I always take them with my phone and well they just don't come out so good :-/

This black friday I will make it my mission to find a sweet camera so i can take some better pics... until then, you're stuck with pics like these

MORE Joann Coupons!! Better ones :-)

Have them sent to your IPhone or Android phone instead of printing paper, GO GREEN!!

Free Shipping at Joann Fabrics = New Crochet Book!

AWESOME! Joann has ONE DAY of free shipping on EVERYTHING!!  Only today Nov 17th though...

They have amazing books, yarn, crochet & knitting supplies but by far my favorite are the BOOKS!!  Michael's does NOT EVER discount books so whenever there's a coupon for Joann's I go straight there to get my crochet books!  Paying full price for those gets expensive quick as I'm sure many of you out there know...

AND Books are 30% off right now!! waaaahoooooooooooooo!!

Joann's has a HUGE variety of books MANY of which are ONLY available online so I went ahead and snagged this one for about $15 shipped :-)