Shoes & Pants

It turns out that the fat pad in my heel is inflamed and irritated from having been out of commission for quite a while in the boot and brace.  My normal shoes don't have a lot of padding, and I honestly don't love the sneakers I bought for wearing with the boot.  I went to DSW on Wednesday to try on sneakers that are actually COMFORTABLE.  It was a bonus if I didn't need to wear socks with them and another extra bonus if they were cute and feminine and summery.

I WON THE SNEAKER GAME!

I found these pastel sneakers by Naturalizer that are pretty amazing.

They have memory foam in the sole and the upper part is extremely soft and almost fuzzy perforated fabric.  I only could find the pink in the store, but I ordered the blue and black online.

I don't know if I'll keep them all, but I probably will be wearing sneakers quite a bit throughout the rest of summer and through the fall (and maybe winter, depending on how my ankle heals).

Update: I got a blister at Disneyland from the black ones and never wore the pink or blue ones, so I returned them.  They are beautiful, though!

Then I was watching a YouTube video and the girl talked about how great these sandals were for walking all over during her European trip.  I decided they were also worth a try!

I got black and pink.

Pink and icy blue are my favorite accent colors.

I am planning to try a half a size down because my toes were far enough back in the sandal that the front band was rubbing on my big toe cuticle and it made a little owie!
I hope the smaller size works because I really REALLY like these sandals.

Macy's is having a great sale, so I snapped up these two pairs of black pants that have been on my wishlist for a few months.  I love the lace/crochet details!

I will probably pass on some of my older pairs of black pants and replace them with these (assuming these fit as well as I expect them to).

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We are excitedly preparing for our upcoming trip to California

to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary!

We're driving there, so I'm working on cooking a bunch of meals for myself ahead of time and freezing them so that I can have them ready whenever I need them while we're there.  Eating out isn't that easy for me, usually.  I think it would be simple to find places with gluten-free vegan options on the California coast, but I will be eating with seven other people who don't eat the way I do . . . that makes things more complex.  

I'm planning to make

* mushroom stroganoff

*  veggie pasta

*  potato corn chowder

* blueberry pancakes

* chili macaroni

That should be a bunch of great meals!

I'll also have salad fixings and snacks (rice crackers, chocolate muffins, gluten-free pretzels, apples, bananas) with me, as well as smoothie ingredients, so I think I'll eat like a (healthy) Queen!