Orange is the New Black Widow

  First up, dear readers: if you're interested in entering the Couturgatory giveaway, leave a comment in this post with a valid e-mail address. I need an e-mail address to contact you if you win! If you forgot to put one, just leave another comment, and of course if you're not interested in entering but just want to say hi, you can leave it out. :D

  You can enter until Saturday, November 9th 11:59pm Pacific time. Then I'll draw the winner!

---

 We've had some November sun breaking through the cloud layer the last few days, and I am loving it.

Shirt: Rennes (cheap junior store)

Vest: Last Kiss (same junior store)

Trousers: Cop Copine (thrifted)

Bracelet: Foreign Exchange (old)

Boots: ALDO (thrifted)

  I got the shirt and vest at the same cheap junior store in Colma that was going closing up shop. I never thought of wearing them together until now. I think the shirt looks a little like a shop apron in front, and I really like how the backs layered over one another:

  I feel like a black widow spider, except of course I don't kill and eat my lovers, haha. (:

  I merely lay my eggs in their bodies so that when they hatch, my larvae consume the organs and eat their way out of the thoracic cavity. Technically, my hands are clean.

  Last Kiss is kind of a macabre brand name. Last kiss of what? Of death? Of fate? Of the dragon? (Go with that last one. I had a professor with a huge crush on Jet Li. I approve and she's an amazing teacher, to boot.)

  I mentioned making a Facebook life event before to commemorate hemming some complicated pants. These Cop Copine ones are the second pair I was referring to. They look simple, but the cuffs are sewn in place with an invisible stitch, and I was worried when I cut the fabric that I wouldn't leave enough to fold under, hem, then fold back up and invisible hem. You can still see the line where I pulled the cuffs back to do the stitching.

  I've been wearing these ALDO platform boots a lot, and I never have a good, close shot of them. Reader Sue mentioned having wide forefeet, and when she mentioned squished toes, man oh man did I relate. I found these at the thrift shop and although they are only M width, the squared high toe boxes fit great. They're my go-to boots now for when I need to be on my feet for a few hours.

  Sometimes "wide shoe" labels can be misleading, because our feet have so many dimensions. People can have collapsed or high arches, high insteps or flat ones, edema or bony feet, wide forefeet and/or midfeet, or anything in between. I've learned through trial and error at 6pm.com that Naya width C is the exact width as Fitzwell EE, for example. (I have multiple pairs from both companies, and placed sole to sole, they line up perfectly.) They both run a little narrow for me, but because they are all leather they stretch out over time. Or around a big rock, which is what I use when I get impatient/uncomfortable.

  And since my feet are very wide at the toes (think bear claws) but bony at the heels and skinny on top, David Tate WW shoes are comical on me. It's like someone blew up a balloon around my foot and I have a fascinating empty space all around between me and the shoe. I'm assuming those fit feet that are wide in the up-and-down sense as well as the side-to-side. They *were* one of the only sandals that ever let all of my toes roam free, though. Sigh. Maybe I could buy them again and inject them with foam that would harden around my feet and make the perfect fitting, if really ugly shoe.

  My friend Ally has mentioned difficulties finding size 12, and I have the opposite problem where many companies carry 6-10, and I'm 5.5. What are your shoe fit problems?