Footwear Gallery: October 2009

Exclusive Chance To Win Tickets To See the English National Ballet's Nutcracker

Win two tickets for English National Ballet's production of The Nutcracker!

And there is lots more interesting Ballet News at Elise' blog.

New Statesman magazine features a light-hearted column by Dominic Sandbrook which speculates about how things might have turned out differently. This week's column speculated on what might have been if Britain had voted not to join the EEC in 1975.

Aside from Tony Benn becoming chancellor of the exchequer, the article suggests that Britain would have developed very intimate relations with Iceland, Norway and Sweden. In this might-have-been world, Britain becomes like the Nordic countries a slightly dull but orderly and socially progressive country immersed in Scandinavian culture:

There are always those who think that we would have been better off staying in the EEC, and that today's Britain, with its environmentally friendly monarchy, its entrenched social democracy and its taste for meatballs, is all a bit dull. But it's surely a small price to pay for trains that run on time, redistributive taxes and the world's leading whaling industry. And who wants to be like Italy, anyway?

No doubt in such an imaginary world, Britain would be a nation of progressive people who always remove their shoes at the door, just like Norway, Sweden and Iceland.

Another Shoe to Match My Mood

Still not feeling like my regular cheery self. We're going on day 5 of no sun. Yippee! However, I did find this little beauty and it perked me up a wee bit.

Elizabeth and James - Linda

In a word. Stunning. The stingray upper is key. It truly makes this shoe. According to one of my cyber friends and fellow bloggers, stingray will be a key trend in the upcoming seasons. I"m not sure if you're familiar with this particular material but it is incredibly resilient. I've spent lots of time inspecting it while my husband shops for cowboy boots. The addition of the metal heel is pure genius and the shape is fierce. Seriously. These are crazy hot!

PF Flyer Delivery

Regional Ballet Nutcrackers - Support Your Local Ballet!

This looks like my longest post ever - but it's not, it's just the most lines. This is all USA. I'll need another week to get into links to some other countries....

Hey folks! Support your local ballet! Give Nutcracker tickets as presents, take your family or your Girl Scouts!

Here's a list of regional/smaller ballet companies and schools doing Nutcracker this year, in case you don't live near a major company.....

Tucson Regional Ballet

Virginia Regional Ballet

Utah Regional Ballet

Contra Costa Ballet, Walnut Creek, CA

Pennsylvania Regional Ballet

Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet

Ashland Regional Ballet

Nutcrackers In Ohio

Allen Civic Ballet (TX)

Arts Ballet Theater of Florida

Ballet Chicago

Ballet Concerto Fort Worth TX NOT THE NUTCRACKER, but take a look at their Holiday concert

Pennsylvania Youth Ballet with ABT guests

Ballet Theatre of New Mexico

Ballet Yuma, AZ

Ballethnic Dance Company Atlanta, GA

Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre

Bossov Ballet Theatre Pittsfield Maine

Brandywine Ballet West Chester PA

California Ballet San Diego CA

Canyon Concert Ballet Fort Collins CO

Cape Cod Ballet

Carnegie Performing Arts Center , PA

Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet

November Nutcracker with Chamberlain Ballet in Plano TX

The Childrens Ballet Theatre of Michigan

Company of Dance Arts Redbank NJ

Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania

Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique

Greater York Dance York, PA

Greensboro Ballet NC

Gwinnett Ballet Snellville, GA

Harford Ballet Edgewater, MD

Indiana Ballet Theatre

Irine Fokine School of Ballet

Ithica Ballet

Lake Arrowhead Classical Ballet Company

Madison Ballet

Media City Ballet Glendale CA

Mid Atlantic Ballet De

Midland Festival Ballet, TX

Mobile Ballet with Joffrey and New York City ballet guests - Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty

Mohawk Ballet

Mystic Ballet

Neglia Ballet Buffalo NY

New England Ballet CT

Nouveau Chamber Ballet Fullerton CA (with orchestra)

Nutmeg Conservatory For the Arts

Peninsula Youth Ballet San Mateo CA

Peoria Ballet

Placer Theatre Ballet They require a log in to view the site which I think is a big mistake...

Fort Wayne Ballet

Red River Dance LA

Rhode Island Ballet presents Nutcracker excerpts and Alice In Wonderland

Rochester City Ballet

Salt Creek Ballet, IL

San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet

San Pedro City Ballet CA

Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet

Sierra Vista Ballet, AZ

South Bay Ballet Torrence CA

South Dayton Dance Theatre

Southern New Hampshire Dance Theatre

Southwest Virginia Ballet

Saint Louis Ballet

The Toledo Ballet

The Tupelo Ballet

Virginia Ballet Company & School

Westchester Ballet Company NY

Westside Ballet Santa Monica CA

Wichita Falls Ballet Theatre

Woodlands Civic Ballet TX

Nike Delivery

Us Versus Them

Have You Met My Husband??

I just want to take a minute to talk about my husband, Mr. Benjamin Soto.

I'm almost 2 years into this blog and I still think of it as just a conversation between my friends and I. I often forget that there are countless strangers passing by, and though I truly consider my readers my friends- I realize that many of you don't know me in "real life".

That being said, you don't know much about my husband and I often just assume that you do.

Those of you who DO know me, feel free to skip this post because I'm sure you're tired of my gushing about Ben by now. ;)

Ben is a ridiculously talented ______. I don't want to say graphic designer or artist or t-shirt designer or inventor or painter... he's all of those things and more. He's currently working at Disney as the art director of a new cartoon show.

ANYWAY-

My Benjamin does things like this, just for fun:

He is so silly! I was in NY when he sent this little doodle over and it just made me so happy!

Then- he does things like this:

Yep. He takes pictures of his outfits every day. (hopefully he forgives me for showing this!)

He doesn't do it for blogging purposes, he just does it. I had no idea he was doing it until I heard the timer beeping on the camera one morning (he leaves the house super early while I'm sleeping) and went to investigate. BUSTED! He has tons of them too. Amazing.

Check out his website! www.benjaminsoto.com You'll probably be surprised at how much he's done that you'll recognize.

Just wanted to give a little shout out to my baby. Here are some of my favorite pictures of us...