Shoe closet (tons of pictures)

I have challenging feet.

I do not self sabotage my body, including my feet/knees/hips/lower back/neck.

I broke a metatarsal in college. I broke a second one in the same (left) foot in 2012. I now have to have a broader, flat shoe which allows my foot bones to spread easily. So it is a bit like needing a wide shoe without having a wide foot. And I must have metatarsal support. So I need a closed shoe that presses down on the top of my feet. I need arch support pressing up too as that aligns my bones to protect my whole skeletal structure. The arch support protects my knees and hips and lower back. I am in pain almost immediately if I am not in the right shoes. In the right shoes, I have no pain. 

My feet are very slender (from the floor up). If my feet were a steak, it would be a very thin cut. My shoe guy has to pad many of my shoes. These are pads under the tongue. This helps. But I also (usually) need shoes that adjust (buckle, Velcro, tie) so I can get them tight enough.  Often we put layers under the shoe's insert to raise my foot in the shoe. Aetrex brand actually sends multiple, very thin, inserts to give fit options for each shoe.

My shoes are expensive. I have slowly built a shoe wardrobe over the last several years. EVERY pair of shoes I own is self protective. I do not have any self sabotage footwear.

I have custom inserts which I wear in some shoes (athletic and all my Aetrex). 

I have a couple pairs of store bought inserts which work in some boots and shoes also. These are not inserts from Walmart. These are inserts from my good quality shoe store.

Some of my brands can be worn with the inserts that come in the shoes. Comfort Finns for example. I LOVE Comfort Finns. I can wear a few Finns as they are made. Other Finns require my shoe guy to add an arch cookie under the insert that comes in the shoe. Finns also sell different inserts separately. So I have one pair of Finns where the inserts that came with the shoes did not work, but a different pair of Finn inserts did work beautifully.

I have a shoe guy who is MY GUY. You can see from what I said that it takes a bit of time to shop for shoes. We are looking for fit, which sometimes requires a special order. Then we have to work with each pair of shoes to see if anything needs to be customized (padding, arch cookies, extra layer of insert to make shoe more snug, etc). So, I buy shoes from (pretty much) one shoe store in town.

All three of my kids have challenging feet. They have thick feet (they would be a thick cut steak). Middle and oldest need a lot of arch support because they have flat feet. If either are in the wrong shoes, they have knee issues immediately. Youngest has high arches and needs support to have her feet actually touching the shoe. She also has tiny feet (size 4-6 depending on shoe) which are wide. We have to special order for her a lot. But all three of these kids KNOW how to shop for shoes. They wear self protective shoes also. And they have great shoe wardrobes. Seriously great. But it takes time and care (and money) to find the right shoes.

These are my newest pair of shoes. These are Finns (Comfort Finns from Germany). Really like 

them. There is a pad under the tongue to make these shoes snug enough for me (metatarsal support, you can see it in the second picture, you can't see it in real life). The inserts that came with the shoe is enough support for me. 

These (next ones) are from Naot.

Shoe store had to special order a couple sizes for me to try. I must be a common size because every time I was in, they were out of my size. Shoe guy finally said - let's just order. It was European sizing, which I have never understood, so not sure what sizes they ordered. The smaller of the two is the size that fit. The larger of the two made me look as if I were a two year old wearing dad's boots (according to middle), I was swimming in the calves and ankles. These also zip and are nice and slim through the foot, ankle and calf. Really love these. Shoe guy needed to add arch cookie under insert which came in boot and then they were good for me. I wear these a lot with leggings and dresses/skirts. Middle was with me twice (trying on the special orders) with these boots. The first time my guy was gone and another clerk did not know what to do with me when I said I needed more support. My guy (second trip) figured out how to put cookie in these boots and we were good to go. My guy is also THE GUY for both girls. He really understands all of our feet.

I have been wearing these (below) with dresses and skirts this winter. They are new also. They are some type of soft suede by Merrell. Really love them. Notice how slim fitting they are. They zip up the inside. I have to have a zip boot. Anything that is made to be slip on (for the rest of the world) is way too big on my ankles and calves.

These are Finn Comforts. I actually bought them at a shoe store in the depths of Mayo in Rochester, MN (December of 2011). These are the shoes I mentioned (above) where we had to switch out on the insert that came in the shoe to another style made by Comfort Finns. The first insert was slightly too hard and inflexible. I tried wearing them (with the insert that came with them) for a few hours a day, thinking I would get used to them. But every time I increased the time, I had foot pain. So, I packed up all my Finn Comforts and went to my local shoe store and my shoe guy (fall of 2013 I think). I said - all of these are wonderful for me, what is different about this one (new) pair? And he said it was the insert. So, he put in new insert (also made by Finn) and an arch cookie (extra support under the arch). And I was able to wear them (successfully) for any length of time just like my other shoes.

Aetrex brand. Somehow I never seem to have occasion to wear these. I bought them thinking 'dressy skirts or dresses in shade of brown'. Honestly, with my surgery this winter, I didn't wear much of anything, so next year, will do.

Also Aetrex brand. Pads under both tongues and extra thin insert under my custom inserts.

I wear and wear and wear these. Aetrex Brand, black.

These are Aravon. They are foolers, in my opinion, because they look slender, but are not. I have plenty of width room in them. Yes, suede.

The Great Headband Project of 2014

This post, here/now, was the first one.

Headband post #2

Headband post #3



It started with a visit to a combination craft show, garage sale, flea market (massive in three huge buildings).

We found a headband stand.

I didn't buy one with the intention of using it for a pattern. Instead I bought one for middle (she was with me).

And then later in the day, I said - maybe we should have bought more.

And middle replied - They were expensive, I looked at how they did it, we can make them easily.

When I took a good look at it, I said - I can make them a lot easier than the way they did it.

This is the one we bought. 

How they made it was to turn the edges under once, stitching as they went, and then turn the edges under again, top stitching. 

What I did was to make a pattern from theirs, out of felt. The pattern was the finished size of the headband, NO seam allowance.

I pinned the felt pattern down the center of the right side of the fabric I was using.

Then I used the felt pattern as a guide in my serger. The serger finishes the edge of the fabric and cuts off the excess fabric as it sews.

Fresh from the serger, this picture shows the headband with the finished edges and seam allowance.

 This shows a close up of the serged edges.

Next step was to remove the felt pattern.

Then I put the headband in the regular sewing machine and turned the edges under, top stitching as I went. I have been sewing for a long time. I did not need a pattern or basting to turn the edges under evenly. I just free handed it as I went. A hint is if you are stopping to adjust the fabric or turn edge under, always stop with the needle DOWN so the headband does not get pulled out of allignment.

This picture shows the wrong side of the finished headband.

Here is a close up of the wrong side.

These headbands are tied at the back of the neck. That is why the pattern gets thinner at the ends. That is also why the headbands are only one thickness of fabric and not doubled, it is easier to tie.

I put trim/ribbon on some of the headbands.  To keep the ends easy to tie, the trim/ribbon does not go all the way to the end of the ties. I cut the ribbon at 18" and the length of the finished headband is 31". I did not turn the edge of the ribbon under on the raw ends. Instead, I cut the raw end with pinking shears (helps prevent fraying) and then used a zigzag stitch on those raw ends reversing several times (going back and forth over it several times).

Middle took all of these pictures (below) for you. She folded each headband so it is the way it looks on someone's head.

Original is in this picture with the rose on it.

 The majority of the fabric strips were in a bin, leftovers from a long ago quilt. I had a lot of ribbon in a box. So the majority of the headbands show were made from my sewing/quilting/crafts stock pile. I did buy a few things to match with orphans (had ribbon I loved, needed fabric to match  OR  had fabric but wanted ribbon for it.).

Working on classroom supplies

Middle and I worked on bulliten boards all last summer. As an RA she had four large boards in her hall (60 girls on her end of her floor, big dorm). There were a few boards which are really only appropriate for a girls/college/dorm floor (great naked yoga article, std's, getting along with your roommate, etc). The vast majority of her boards contained holiday, seasonal or general topics that would work for college or age 3 - snowmen, food, sunglasses, turkey, etc. She has a supply for a teacher's lounge board too - reducing stress, posture, Dr Mom Says, exercise, communication.

We continue to add to her stash (great Olympic stuff on sale after they ended earlier this winter).

She has a wide variety of teaching clothes and shoes too. I worked very hard on this last fall.




Middle did not know it, but I started picking up classroom stuff a couple years ago.

I gave her these things over spring break, because she is in the classroom more and more. If you are trying to remember - duel early childhood ed (ece) and early special ed (espce) major.

She has a bin with larger size, plastic mammals, bugs, reptiles.

She has funnels and measuring cups/spoons for science experiments.

She has finger puppets.

She has three sets of animal dominoes.

Etc.




While she was home over spring break, we hunted through a great resale shop which is run by a local church.

We found a pair of large (1 1/2") dice, and Junior Boggle and Junior Yahtzee.

We found a tunnel. It needs a little sewing, but is good otherwise. She has a second tunnel we got (new) with a 40% off coupon.

We found the deal of the century on a Cranium Super Fort. We paid $44.99 for what we have seen
listed from $250-350 on ebay and amazon.

The pictures below are of her actual pieces. They came in four large totes that originally came with the set.

60 red ball joints
80 red C clamps
23 blue feet
4 purple square walls
5 blue panels
3 green panels
4 purple panels
4 orange panels
3 red panels (larger)

78 poles, the yellow ones are flexible, the orange ones rigid

these were the only broken pieces out of the whole thing -
6 poles (end connectors are broken) she is saving them for other uses

We also found this gem at a local store on clearance -

Preschool catch - where ever your thumb lands, you make the sound of that animal. They come in all different topics for many ages and are called THUMBALLS,

There is a huge flea market/garage sale event in our area (geared towards families) later this spring. We are going to attend and hunt carefully.

Also, long ago, when I packed up the kid's books, I packed up all kinds of things for middle to use as teacher reference materials - craft books, science books, lists of reading books, etc. There are two huge bins of them. I also saved actual projects the kids made in school. There are some great things in that bin too. Middle did not realize until last week that those bins existed. They are a wealth of resources too.

Foam Roller

 You might have caught my note that Middle is currently doing preventive knee physical therapy.

This is with a quality sports physical therapist.

If you have not heard me say this in the past, here it is again. Physical therapists come in different levels. There are those who are geared toward people getting on and off the toilet and in and out of the car. Then there are those who are athletes themselves and work toward that end with their patients. The same way I would never go to an over weight nutritionist, I would also not go to an out of shape physical therapist with poor posture.

Middle's therapist has her doing high level, effective, training type work.

He has her using a foam roller and ankle weights for some of her moves.

We bought both at Walmart. They actually had a very good selection.

I believe her foam roller was 18". There were larger sizes available.

Her ankle weights were 3 lb. 5 lb were also available.

I am attaching a full copy of the sheet that came with the roller, because when it is all in the package at the store, you can't see the moves.

ADDED LATER - this is a very thick, short, pool noodle I have used in a foam roller type of way. In comparison to middle's (green, below) it is not as good. Hers is thicker. Her shorter length is easier to roll. Hers is ram rod straight and mine has a natural curve to it. 

This works really well for jammed vacuum cleaner hoses

I am not sure if I have talked about this previously, might be a repeat. I queried on "PVC" and nothing popped, so I suspect not.

I had the pieces out and grabbed pictures, hence this post.





I have a normal length vacuum cleaner hose, the longer one (shown below), and then a super long one  we rarely use.

The short one came with a vacuum. The longer two I bought separately from a vacuum shop. The shop is where I buy vacuums and do repairs.




The middle hose (shown below) is long enough to make it all the way up the first/long part of the stairs.  So I can leave the vacuum on the floor by the first step and use the hose with a foot attached, to  get each step.   REALLY HANDY.  Very safe.







As you know hoses tend to get jams. Reaching a jam, in any hose can be a problem, long hose even more so.

A couple years ago I went to the hardware store/lumber yard looking for a hose jam solution.

I walked up and down aisles, looking carefully.

There was a huge selection of PVC pipe.

Some was straight, I found a section that was curved.

As I write this, I am pretty sure I actually took the medium hose with me. And I tried various types of PVC pipe on the hose, standing in the aisle.

I think I told a clerk what I needed and showed him the hose. I think he helped me dig through the
PVC racks.

And when we found this one (below) he cut it to the right length for me.

If you look carefully at the hose, you will notice one end is very bent/curved, we start the PVC at that end. And as we feed the PVC pipe through the hose, we keep the hose at a gentle curve (like the PVC pipe). The PVC pipe is very strong/firm, so if there is a clog, it allows firm pressure to be applied. It makes a good ramming rod (if you will). I don't think I could ram a hole into the hose with the PVC pipe. But keeping everything at a gentle curve insures the pipe stays in the middle-ish of the hose.

I have no idea how much the PVC was, but I do not think it was expensive. I don't remember how much the extra long hoses were either.

Yoga poses for people who hunch forward a lot during the day

Some of you will smile when you click over to this link because the header is poses for nursing moms.

But as I read, I realized nursing moms tend to hunch, so the poses are good for most desk workers.

One thing I would like to elaborate is Sphinx. You do NOT push back against the floor. Instead you pull your torso forward, through the arms as if you were trying to drag yourself forward. Any pose with this general type of positioning has a forward pull element to it. Up dog for example, you are not pushing body back from the hands, you are pulling body forward thru the arms to extend.

If you are looking for poses for other situations, such as lower back pain, here is the link. My suggestion, if these poses are new to you, and you have any type of health condition, is to start slowly. Not one a day, but yes, one a week. Then if you have a reaction, you will know the trigger.

Vision Boards

Jennette Fulda (formerly known as PastaQueen) wrote a post about a Vision Board Party she attended earlier this winter.


Really fun (I think) that this is an annual event for this group of women. This would make a great non-food, traditional, holiday activity for an extended family too. Perhaps New Year's Day during all the games (for example).






If you remember middle is a RA in college this year. Part of her job is to have activities for her floor. She and the other RA's usually double up on these programs so it is half the work and a good turn out of attendees.


As soon as I read Jennette's post, I knew it was something middle would love. I wrote to Jennette to see if middle could borrow Jennette's Vision Board picture for middle's announcement signs. She said "yes". Since we have a colored printer, I printed a stack of these pictures so all middle had to do was add the date, time, place.

Youngest and I, on one of the few warm days, went dumpster diving for magazines (for middle who was at college and had no access to magazines). Believe it or not, I mentioned this to another mom, and she just stared at me. It turned out that when her kids needed pictures, she went and bought magazines for them to dissect. .  .


Our recycling center is very clean. Magazines (and the like) are put in two large bins. The bins are about about 4' tall and probably 4' across both ways. So these are huge bins. Luckily they were mostly full, that day, so it was easy to dig. If they had been nearly empty, youngest would have had to climb IN them to reach magazines for us.

We had to dig through a lot of catalogs and phone books, but found a wide variety of really great magazines. There was a horse one, athletic, house, gardening, etc. We collected several dozen magazines that day. Middle is actually going to keep this collection so as a teacher she has magazines for kids to use for projects.

I had a 20% off coupon and also a $5 coupon for our local art store. I bought 12" x 18" heavy weight tag board for middle. This is heavier than construction paper but thinner than poster board. In my opinion the 12" x 18" size was perfect because it made the project doable in one sitting and is a nice size for hanging on a college door or bulletin board.





Her dorm would have picked up the cost of the paper, but then the leftovers would have been theirs. I bought a mega pack for $8 (with my coupons) and then she had lots left for other projects.

This is not middle's board. It belongs to a friend. Middle's (still in progress) is very similar. They decided to just use words. The friend finds/cuts words and middle arranges/glues. They just happened to finish this one first.

Here is Jen talking about Vision Boards (2013).

Here is Karen (2012).

Here is Jane on her Inspiration Board (2011).