Sunday, August 29, 2010

What is it with the Shoes?

That last post about Sea Star really took the wind out of me. Here I thought I’d just toss off something short and sweet about an often-overlooked mold, and it just about turned into my magnum opus. The darn thing had footnotes, at one point! Sometime the depth of my knowledge about Breyer minutiae scares me a little.

So after that, I decided to take a day or two off from pondering the mysteries of the Breyer Universe and just noodle around the house. I finished up some minor projects, did a little crafting, and tidied up the office a bit. I did a little retail therapy, too. Most of the pickings were rather modest, with one exception. Behold:


Disco Fairy Shoes!

A pair of rhinestone encrusted clear vinyl slingbacks with plexiglass heels, size 11 - straight off the clearance table of our neighborhood Salvation Army! I’m not normally that big of a shoe maven, but my recent experience has told me that when the Shoe Gods offer up the gift of garish footwear, it’s wise to accept it. I just wasn’t expecting to get started on my Costume Contest entry for next year this early ...

My favorite find this week, though, was a hardcover copy of the book Doodlebug, by Irene Brady. Because it had this interior illustration:


I decided to keep this book for this illustration, alone. More proof of the depths of my depravity, I guess. (Even worse: I think the Western Pony in the illustration isn’t actually a Western Pony, but the Kroll knockoff of the Western Pony. I need to pick up one of those knockoffs to confirm my suspicion, however. I’ve been wanting one anyway, but this sort of underlines and puts and exclamation point to my desire. Just one exclamation point, though.)

This book, like most horse books I find, was originally slated to be tossed into my resale pile. My bookshelves are also near maximum capacity, and I have to be extremely picky about what gets to stay. Like the actual horses, though, I feel obligated to "rescue" them from wherever I happen to find them.

And like the horses (and the pony in this particular book) I sometimes discover that one of my rescues is also a treasure in disguise. At least I can kinda-sorta justify this one as "research material."

3 comments:

Kirsten Wellman said...

I love Doodlebug! Such a sweet story. :) I always thought it was cool as a kid that the girl in the story had Breyers, too. I had completely forgotten about that illustratiuon though. Fun blast from the past!

Jan said...

I remember that illustration! I had so many horse books as a kid and Doodlebug was one of them.

Irene Brady said...

It's nice to see little Doodlebug still has admirers after all these years!

yrs. truly,
Irene Brady