A year of adventuring:

January: Vikki shared her hobby with us, I went on my honeymoon 5 years after getting married and introduced you to various family members

February: Cjane introduced a lot of you to us and then you became gypsies. Liam showed us Fiji and shared a secret, Megan and I had a tea party and she shared some wisdom, Vikki played in the snow

March: Blue Lily was our guest and we started our photography challenges. Megan started her photo tributes and introduced us to loved ones, life was changing for me

April: Naomi of The Rockstar Diaries was our guest and I explained how The Gypsy Feet isn't about foot fetishes but adventures and my little sister shared a picture of her baby with 6 toes on one foot, Megan reminded us to believe and Vikki revisted her childhood

May: Xenia of Lime Crime makeup and Doe Deere Blogazine was our special guest. Megan shared her summer play list and Vikki went to an art gallery. I introduced you to my mum and we cheered someone up. We also had a foot hater share some thoughts.

June: Jasmine of Experiment in Poverty was a guest, Megan showed us how fun mum's can be, Liam showed us where he works and Brooke of Conversations with a Cupcake gave us a recipe

July: We were fascinated by the wagon masters boots, I had a Blue Lily adventure in Seattle, Vikki had computer trouble AND got engaged, J.Peri gave us some advice (and became one of my favourite bloggers), Megan enjoyed the journey

August: Things started getting quiet around here. Lindsay of Penguin Stand Alone showed us her skillz, I had the greatest road trip of my life during a very difficult summer, we met a princess and her guitar hero, Vikki made us drool and also taught us a lesson as did Katherine, Leigh and Sarah Nicole

September: Things got quieter still... Vikki went climbing (and might have inspired a Miley Cyrus song?) and got sick, I moved state, Megan and Vikki both inspired us, Lissa shared her love story

October: I met Lindsay of Penguin Stands Alone in person and now we're BFF's, Vikki introduced us to her DNA and went people watching, Carla showed us how she scoots, my big brother took us on a tour of our hometown

November: Gussy and Dionne were our special guests, Vikki reminded us to remember, I celebrated sisterhood and a birthday

December: Gussy came back and did a giveaway, my big brother and his girl friend visited me for Christmas, Vikki had a white Christmas, Rachel showed us some beauty, Megan told us a secret, we met a beard called Marcus.

What a great year. Thank you all for being a part of our journey. Keep an eye on us in 2010, there's going to be lots happening.

Here's to 2010 and fresh adventures!

We want to see all your adventures.
Send us your pictures and stories to:
wandering_shoes@live.com

Santa Cruz, you're not that far...

Yesterday we had a great day in Santa Cruz even though the weather was drizzly and gloomy - felt like home to me. I can't wait to go back to the Santa Cruz boardwalk in the summertime. I'm sad it'll be without my big brother and his girlfriend but going with the husband will be fine ;)

After our gallivanting in Santa Cruz we had pizza for dinner then went to the cinema to see Sherlock Holmes. The perfect end to a fun day.

2009 Gypsy Feet.

What a Christmas! I hope Santa is having a nice long lie in just like we did this morning. He deserves it! It's amazing to think of the distance we've come since last Christmas - The Gypsy Feet was just a baby, I was in Scotland...

Here's to another year of amazing growth and adventures. Make sure to include journalling your adventures in your New Years resolutions. They're very important.

Don't forget to share those special moments with us:
wandering_shoes@live.com

Happy (White) Christmas

Have a brilliant holiday time. love love love xxx

What the Elf?!

It only seemed appropriate to watch Elf the day I wore my yellow tights :)

Gone Green:

I took this picture on purpose but I never thought it would be this beautiful. I haven't been many places but I'd put money on Yellowstone National Park being one of the most beautiful places on earth.

-Rachel

Show us the most beautiful picture you've taken.
wandering_shoes@live.com

The Secret:

This picture is of the feet I used in high school.  Heels gave me confidence I needed. 

I was a comfortably dressed, happy girl until my boyfriend of three years suddenly broke up with me.  Overnight I became a modest fashionista.  I loved to shop.  I loved to find clothes that fit well and complimented me.  I’m pretty sure I was responsible for a large chunk of Kohl’s cleared sale items that winter; I changed my hair three times in the remainder of the school year; and best of all, the shoes multiplied: 10, 20, 30, 35 pairs.

It may seem like a vain preoccupation, but I prided myself in dressing smartly and to my body type rather than to the trends.  I learned to love myself this way.  And the shoe always made the outfit.

There’s something wonderful about the connection between shoes you wear and where your feet are taking you.  My feet carried me to college, where many of the clad heels and bowed flats became secondhand to tennis shoes and lots of walking.  Both styles fit my life in different ways.

The secret is to dress your feet well and let them carry you where they may.

-Megan

Where the Wild Cake is.

I went to see Where the Wild Things are last night on a girl date with my friend Claire.

The last scene of the movie has a huge slab of chocolate cake, so it was only natural that afterwards we locate hot chocolate and a large slab of cake.

cake is what friends are for.

When I photographed the cake I tried to get as much of Claire's foot in the picture as possible. We have about 70% of her boot, but no foot. It was there though, I swear.

The best seat in the house...

This time of year is so magical - was there a greater adventure ever than the birth of Christ? I think not.

I'm so excited to be "hosting" Christmas this year for my big brother and his girl friend. That's a first for me and I love it! There's a lot of fun to be had at this house :)

See the Gypsy Feet mission statement here.

Send us your adventures by emailing us: wandering_shoes@live.com

And the winner issssss...

Comment #50...

Llamabean said...

"Love the bags, especially the gingham work bag on etsy.
Lovely stuff"

Maggie will contact you to work out your prize with you. Well done!

Thanks everyone for joining in. I'm hoping to have another giveaway soon - if you'd like me to host a giveaway for a product you have let me know :) This was fun.

Rufflelicious Giveaway!

Remember this special guest?

Well, she's back! YES! The wonderful Gussy is offering one very lucky Gypsy Feet follower a $30 store credit to her online shop right on time for Christmas! All you have to do is leave a comment (a wonderful one!) on this post - make sure you have contact info on your blog profile or leave an email address in your comment otherwise I'll die and you'll not win a thing. No-one will and it'll be all your fault... *ahem*

How lovely would one of these be to take on your Gypsy Feet adventures?

If you're drooling over those you might want to enlist the help of Karma by following Gussy's blog, twitter and whilst you're at it follow The Gypsy Feet too. Go ahead and heart her shop as well ;)

Karma knows... Karma knows...

The winner will be chosen on Saturday.

Good luck and Happy Christmas!

(Whilst you're in the winning and commenting mood head over to Decclo for their first giveaway too!)

Go Beard Go.

A while ago from now... let's say about three years. I told someone that they had no other friends but me and that I was their only real friend and that I was their super best friend. This of course was one of those lame, over confident, non-real jokes.

Little did I know that I would actually become super best friends with that person.

Late last night he informed me that three people had literally e-bullied him that day. So, being the Glaswegian that I am I set about the three of them in an electronic manner. This actually lasted most of the day, and I somewhat baffled them rather than fought with them. In my opinion I won because my objective was achieved.

Alas. This foot blog today is called an Ode to Marcus and his beard, which I defended.

In true gypsy feet fashion here are his feet:



And his beard:





The reason I have a photo of his naked foot is unknown to me. I think he took it himself in the summer when I was visiting Salt Lake for my friend Toni's wedding, who is also a friend of Marcus'.

I can tell you that that night, on that screen, behind his foot, we watched, sang to, and danced while watching Mama Mia. I'm not a huge abba fan, but that movie is awesome.

Give it away, give it away, give it away now...

Hey Followers!

Tomorrow we're doing our first giveaway on The Gypsy Feet. It's going to be a quickie too so check back and spread the word! It's going to be GREAT!

Happy Christmastime to you!

-Laura

The adventurous lives of exchange students.

When I saw this at the park it reminded me of my hometown and how it's twinned with Luzarches, France. How cool would it be to be the exchange student from Japan coming to California? Or from France to Scotland?

Have you ever had an exchange student live with you? 

Were you the exchange student?

If you could be an exchange student where would you want to go?

Shake it!

I'm in a rut so it's time to switch things up a bit.

I want to see pictures of the most beautiful things/places/faces you've ever had the chance to take pictures of. Send it to us at wandering_shoes@live.com and tell us how you ended up taking the picture.

These pictures were taken when I did this post.
The sparkle and glistening of the glass table top after the rain makes me feel so thirsty! The colours are so dreamy. The table top alone was almost celestial (like Edward's skin, no? haha!) and then...

a quick change of perspective makes a surprising difference. Lying under the glass table and looking up at the sky.

It's like the whole point of The Gypsy Feet: It's up to us how we look at the world. And it's up to us if we share it.

Have you ever accidentally captured something amazingly beautiful on camera?

Show us!

wandering_shoes@live.com

A letter to the passing season.

Dear Autumn.

You come and go so quickly, and when you leave you only leave behind bitter cold and despair. You are wonderful at what you do. You make death and change into the prettiest most magnificent thing ever. I will see you next year.

Join hands and hearts and voices, voices, hearts and hands:

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving this year. We don't have space for left overs, nevermind counter space to actually make food - with two squares of counter one for the microwave and one for drying dishes, who's idea was that anyway?!

So instead of the traditional dinner that we didn't have space (or money) for we decided to treat ourselves to our favourite food. Indian. As with a normal Thanksgiving meal we were eating it for about three days after the big day. I know! It took up less space though.

Mr Laura got to spend a lot of time in his jammies and played games over the internet with family. I did my usual but enjoyed it more having my lover home.

How was your Thanksgiving? 

Where did you go?

Was it lovely?

San Diego is for Lovers.

Two people fell in love and took this picture in San Diego.

A year later there were three. 

And they went back to that same spot and took the same picture. -Chelsea

Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy...

... I'm so happy today.

That's the song that the clown from Liar Liar sings as a birthday song.

I'm a day late in my weekly post so that I can give a happy birthday feet blog post to our most awesome wonderful Gypsy Feet creator.

Laura. You are the awesome best. Yes.



Twenty five was (possibly) my best year. It's a good number.

Happy New Week to YOU!

I knew this week was going to be good before it started. When packages and cards begin to arrive it means I'm about to age one year. That's usually good. This year I'm ready to hit that milestone number.

Our guest room is being cleaned up because it'll have it's first occupant this week so our Christmas boxes came out. The tree box was just sitting there... waiting... all alone - all alone because I already unpacked the Nativity scene. I had decided not to erect the tree until there was something to put under it but just couldn't resist the new enormous lights husband bought for it. He put the tree up this afternoon.

I love the end of the year! Why wait to be happy?!

My journey to 25.

This little token makes me officially very close to ending my journey to 25.
That little blue sticker is my fave. It means it came from home.
I knew who it was from just by the handwriting even though I haven't seen it in years!
I think this is the first card he's ever sent me that our mum hasn't bought for him to sign.

I love you biggest brother. Thanks for remembering me :)

(Did mum tell you to send that?)

All Gussy'd up!

Hey all! In my journey to support the little guy this holiday season I stumbled upon one of the friendliest and sweetest Etsians ever! Get to know her through this little post (and her twitter)- read on to the very end because she's got a special treat just for you! You're not going to be able to resist... I couldn't!

My name is Gussy and I sew ruffles. I started sewing one year ago and it's been a crazy love affair ever since. I had this wild thought one night. I'd like to learn how to sew. The next time my husband, Zack, and I visited my parents I asked if I could borrow their sewing machine. Little did I know I was about to have the time of my life.

I was supposed to bring the machine back on our next visit, which was a month later, but you know what? I kept it. I kept it and secretly hoped they would be OK with it.

And they were! {whew!} 

 

Since the sewing machine was mine for a few more weeks I decided it was time to check out thirty books from the public library. I flipped through most of them, as if I knew what I was looking for. At the time I didn't, but I think deep down I was looking for myself. I spent countless nights learning how other women sew. After browsing the pages and watching many online tutorials, I had come up with a plan.

By the way, for all you curious readers out there, I really did check-out about thirty books from the library. 

I began to sew. I tried to sew in a zipper without a zipper foot, and I did it! I had succeeded. I had found a way to sew that was most comfortable for me!

A few months went by and I decided my sewn items needed a name. I thought, I shall call you Gussy. {Because my mom calls me Gussy.} And so the Gussy brand was born, and I was happy. 

Very happy :)

I started sewing a ruffle on everything I made. Soon enough all my items were named: Ruffle Gus, Charming Gus, Mini-Gus, Lovely Gus, and Shady Gus. I'm not afraid to admit there are even more items. But no need to sound absurd, right? :) 

Then I thought, What if I do my ruffles like this? And, What if I sew it together this way? And then my ruffles became even more beautiful. It's true: I love my ruffles.

And again, I was happy. 

I have a blog, Gussy has a lot to say, and it's only most-appropriate that I share my ruffles on there, right? I think so.

Do I have another job, you may be asking? I do. I work at a large advertising agency. I'm a proofreader by day, Gussy sewer-girl by night. I work a lot. I love my work. Gussy is the most fulfilling job I've had to-date. Granted I'm young... but it's the truth. 

I believe it's because Gussy is me, and I am Gussy. I am the girl that loves to sew. Sewing is this new talent that I became incredibly comfortable with. It happened almost overnight. It's for sure, hands down, a God thing. He gave me this talent. I am so thankful. 

Sewing has gotten me and my husband through many tough times: long stretches of unemployment, long stretches of being in a new city and state, long stretches of transition where I desperately need something familiar in my life.

Plop me in my sewing room with my sewing machine, my iron, and my radio-player, and I am ecstatic. 

Life is about changes, and it is about doing daily what makes you the happiest. To me, life is about the journey and the feeling of hot fabric after a recent run-over of the iron. It's about hearing my sewing machine sing to me, it's about watching ruffles be completely themselves as I sew them onto fabric. 

Here at Gypsy Feet, life is about where you wander to and the ruffles you thoroughly love while sewing along the way.

Get your own Gussy from her shop and type "Gussy15" in the message to seller box and she'll give you 15% off any one in-stock item!

Thanks for playing along Maggie, it's been a treat! - Laura

Remembrance

In a few countries around the world 11th of November is a day to remember the end of World War one. It was the day that a ceasefire was announced and is commonly known as armistice day or remembrance day.

In the UK it is always publicised for weeks before, people show their support, appreciation and gratitude towards the service men and women that died fighting in that time. It has also come to be a day to remember all soldiers that have died in all wars.

To show support people wear poppies on their jackets because after World War One had ended the fields where several dead bodies fell and still lay grew poppies.

You seriously only have to watch 10 seconds of the ceremonies, united silences and services that were held today to feel emotion and instant gratitude for the lives lost.

This year is also the first year that there have been no survivors left to attend the services. The last three servicemen died earlier this year. Radiohead wrote a song to commemorate and remember the last World War Soldier alive called In Memory Of (Harry Patch).

11th of Novemeber is also pretty incredible because it's 11/11 and I love 11's.

So no feet today, just 11 of my very own shoes, with a single poppy.

What time is it? Girl TIME!!

I'm so thankful for the good relationships that seem to just fall into my lap.

I'm thankful for:
The girls who will drive me places - like the showing of Top Gun and August Rush in the park.
The girls who visit me just for fun.
The ones who have left me treats and care packages.
The angels who text me to tell me something funny or exciting that's going on.
I love hearing my phone chirp letting me know that a special someone is trying to chat with me on gmail.

I love sisterhood!
What an adventure you girls make my life!

Fighting a life of grime.

A clean floor cheers me up when I'm feeling crumby.
Fresh hoover lines on the carpet make me smile.
Taking my frustration out by hoovering makes me relaxed.
Pink Dyson greets me every day from the hallway and makes me feel happy and at home.


I enjoy being a housewife.

What's your favourite chore?

What a Guy!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Park Life.

I've been financially frugal for years, but even more so in the last few months, so when I do spend money it hurts.

But when I spend money, that in hindsight was a complete waste, I hate myself.

I spent £45 today to stand in a park for 90 minutes and be cold.

I won't go into the details but it involves my ever money eating car.

On the happier side of things I got to spend some of Autumn in the park. I love the park. The light was nice, the air was wet but fresh, and the park was beautiful. It was a fantastic day minus the forty five pounds.

While there I did play on various child designed park toys like the swings and this elephant that rocked back and forth. The elephant looked incredibly sad for being an orange elephant and it had a terrible word (by UK standard) scratched into its forehead. I can only imagine the the elephant's tears are caused by the apathy, and ill behaviour of the children that used to be entertained by rocking but now need more thrill and excitement so vandalise public property with obscenities.

I used to go to this park with my mum, sister and next door neighbours when I was younger. I had vague memories, and I liked that I, in essence, got to say goodbye to something I would never have said goodbye to otherwise.