Following my previous post, I wanted to share photos of my new favorite shoes! They are my super special birthday shoes that Woodley bought for me at my most favorite clothing store in Oslo.
The shop is called Noa Noa and is a Danish brand that isn't available in the states. I discovered Noa Noa after a day of wandering around the Karls Johans Gate shopping district in downtown Oslo back in December of 2009. Woodley was busy checking out the PhD program so I had the day to myself and I was on a mission to find the perfect brown dress to wear as the maid of honor at my best friend Nicola's wedding which was to take place right after we got home. I spent several days scouring all of the shops I could walk to from our hotel in Oslo searching for brown dresses. I found 2 total and neither of them were very nice. Apparently, brown wasn't in style in Oslo that winter (I ended up ordering several brown dresses online and eventually settled on one from J. Crew that worked very well - the others all got returned).
But, what I did discover after my days of shopping was Noa Noa! As soon as I walked in the door I knew I had found my new favorite clothing store - a sweet, whimsical mix of fun colors with a vintage flair.
After so much disappointment in the brown dress department I felt I really ought to pick out a couple of things I loved to take home with me - to make me feel better about not finding a brown dress of course. : ) It turned out to be pretty easy to find things I loved there and I came away with several more skirts than I should have - but I figured, who knew when I would be back to Norway!
Three weeks later, back in California, I found out I was pregnant... So, I only got to wear my lovely new skirts for a few months before I got too big to wear them. And now I wonder if my tummy will ever be small enough to squeeze back into them. (Silly baggy post-baby skin!) But I guess that means I'll have an excuse to buy some more lovely Noa Noa skirts since we are back in Oslo with easy access to them!
But back to the shoes! They are such a lovely color. I think this mint green is currently my favorite color. It is the theme shade of my kitchen back in Bellingham - well, this green as well as a clear sky blue and a light grass green. I didn't expect to find such cute, old-fashioned looking shoes in it though!
In truth, they aren't a very practical pair of shoes for me - although they are super comfortable. It will be several months before I can think of retiring my winter snow boots and I don't want to wear them to much around the house because I'm usually carrying Mary and going up and down the stairs with her scares me enough as it is, without adding in 2 inch heels. Sigh... At least I can look at them and try them on for a few minutes every few days around the kitchen.
Wait... But what's that you ask? Why do they look scuffed already if you haven't even been able to wear them out of the house? Actually, they come that way. I was shocked when the helpful lady at the store told me that the shoes come pre-scuffed and that the pair I was trying on weren't just dirty because they were the sample that everyone had tried on.
Apparently some designer thought it would be a great idea to pre-scuff them so that they look truly vintage. Hmmmm... I think I'd rather do my own scuffing. I mean, shoes get beat up enough as it is - at least mine do. I almost didn't buy them because of the scuffs, but the color won me over. I wasn't sure if I'd ever find such cute vintagey shoes in this shade again. It did remind Woodley and me of an article we read a few years ago about the rage for worn out jeans. Apparently some company sold very expensive jeans that were previously used by "real cowboys" from somewhere in the southwest. They were reported to be very trendy. I never thought pre-worn out jeans were a good idea and I'm not a fan of the new pre-scuffed shoes look - designers, please take note! : ) But you can't deny, they are super super cute!
~ElizabethRose~
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