This New Year, not only did we usher in a new President; we said hello to what we hope will be a fresh start for us all.  Maybe it’s because I just graduated from college and I’m entering the work force full-throttle, or maybe there’s just something about 2009, but this feels like a monumental year.  This February will be a month of firsts:

• Attending the WSA Show in Las Vegas next month.  I’ve never been to Vegas, never gambled, and never been to a fashion trade show!
• Working for ShoeHunting.com as the community manager (and attending the WSA Show on their behalf, in addition to representing Shoe Smitten)
• Getting to chat with David Froment, shoe designer, over dinner at the WSA Show.
• Starting a blog with Mark Schwartz, shoe designer and artist.
• Spending a week in Boston next month, meeting Damien and the rest of the team from ShoeHunting.com, and meeting a few of my Twitter friends.
• Beginning an internship as a newsletter writer for The Shoe Club.

And all the while maintaining my sanity!  I’d say that, if all of this is happening in just one month, 2009 truly is a year of change.  What changes or opportunities have surfaced for you?

I can’t begin to describe to you how happy I am that 2008 is over!  Not because it was horrible, but because I’m really excited about what the New Year will bring.  But in order for my hopes and dreams to be able to come true, I know there are many things I need to do.  Here are my New Year’s Resolutions for 2009:

1. Exercise more.  I used to go to the gym every day, but now I’m lucky if I make it 3 days a week.  I’m not overweight, but going to the gym clears my head and lifts my spirits.  I think I will be more mentally fit and physically fit if I can exercise 5 days a week, in the mornings before work.
2. Blog more on Shoe Smitten.  I also wrote a list of my New Year’s Goals for Shoe Smitten.
3. Land a job at a company that values their employees and allows for upward mobility.
4. Spend more time with my family.  I’ve made too many excuses not to make the 3 hour drive to Wichita to visit them.  In 2009, I’d like to visit them once a month, unless my career takes me elsewhere, in which case I’ll visit as often as possible.
5. Take a class in fashion design.  I have been afraid to take a course in design up to this point because I believe that, while I have an eye for fashion, I have no real training or artistic ability to design shoes.  But how will I know for sure if I never give it a try?
6. Travel more.  I want to ride in a gondola in Venice, climb the Eiffel Tower in Paris, shop in London.  Even just take a vacation to California to soak up some sun.
7. Refine my wardrobe.  I have so many clothes and shoes.  In 2009 I hope to keep only the items that I wear at least once a month in my closet.
8. Keep a cleaner house.  I tend to let the household chores go when I find myself preoccupied with fashion and events.  This year I will take time each day to clean up a bit so that nothing piles up.
9. Participate in wine tastings, especially with @mmwine.  I really know nothing about wine, but I would really like to develop my taste so that I can intelligently explore the different types of wine and find ones I like.
10. Blog more on this blog!  I just started this blog, and I started it so I could express the daily happenings in my life.  In 2009 I resolve to blog at least 3 days a week.

I wandered in to Forever XXI today during my trip to the mall to scope out after-Christmas sales.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, except for a heavy black coat (which I didn’t find).  But I did find an adorable motorcycle jacket, a few nice tops and a satin skirt, and all for $87!  Waiting in line at the cash register took 30 minutes, but the great deals I found were worth the wait.

Pictured Above:

• Moto Jacket, available at Forever XXI for $32.80 (buy similar styles online here)
• Madras 641 Bubly Bustier blouse, available at Seeking Designers - M64 for $68.00 (owned this previously)
• American Eagle bootcut jeans, available at ae.com (owned these previously)
• Marciano ‘Tana’ Booties, available at Zappos.com for $205.92 (owned these previously)
• Evaline Satin Skirt, available at Forever21.com for $17.80
• Metallic Open Shoulder Top, available at Forever21.com for $22.80
• Fab SS Cowl Neck Top, available at Forever21.com for $12.50

Lately I’ve been overwhelmed with trying to keep up with all the social networks out there.  Besides Facebook and Myspace, I am also a member of many fashion-related sites.  In the interest of being more involved on fashion sites without going crazy, I’ve decided to try to cut down on the number of sites on which I try to interact.  Here’s a list of all the fashion-related social networking sites I belong to.  Which do you use?

• 2Threads
• Avenue7
• Beautiful! Fabulous!
• Chictini
• Creative Butterfly
• Fantastic Toe
• Fashion Inudstry Network
• Fashionising
• iVillage
• Kaboodle
• Modepass
• MyItThings
• OSoYou
• SheKnows
• ShoeHunting
• Shoe Network
• Stylehive
• Stylelist
• Stylemob
• The Classy Closet
• The Purse Forum
• TeamSugar
• Urban Fashion Network
• YouLookFab

Fashionable Eye by ShoeSmitten

@HipMom tagged me in this list of fours.

The Rules:
1. Copy/paste the questions
2. Type in your answers
3. Tag four people in your list
4. Don’t forget to change my answers to the questions with that of yours.

4 places I go over and over: Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness, Endless.com, Style.com.

4 people who email me regularly: @mmwine, my mom, my dad, my aunt

4 of my favorite places to eat: Olive Garden, Thai Place, Cactus Grill, Blue Moose Bar & Grill

4 places I’d rather be:

1. Boston (to visit @PinkOliveFamily, @shoehunting, and my other Twitter friends in Boston) - what a neat place!
2. Anywhere warm and on a beach!
3. In bed (I never get enough sleep)
4. Shoe shopping in Italy

4 TV shows I could watch over and over: How I Met Your Mother, How Do I Look?, House, South Park

4 people I think will respond (let them know you tagged them): well, hopefully

@RebekahReidy, @KellyOlexa, @JaimieH, @Marifer

Okay, now before I tell you 10 people I love following on Twitter, you need to keep in mind that I follow over 1,000 people, so this wasn’t an easy task to select just 10.  But here are the 10 that first came to mind, and why.  I will be writing many more posts about the people I follow on Twitter, so hang tight if you didn’t make this list! 

1. @KellyOlexa - She loves Starbucks coffee as much as I do, and she’s into social media and marketing, and fitness (a few of my favorite things)
2. @mmwine - Matt is a wine expert, and an all around good guy - he’ll help you out when you need it and his tweets are entertaining.
3. @LizWebPage - This chick is totally fun, and she motivates me to get to the gym even when I’m half-asleep (she’s a personal trainer).
4. @KatBron - Kat is a full-time ad agency professional and four-time proud mom. I admire her energy and cheerful attitude, and she is almost always first to comment on Shoe Smitten.
5. @RebekahReidy - Rebekah is a college student like me, a marketing specialist, personal trainer, and fashionista.  I follow her because we are kindred “soles”.
6. @BlogWellDone -Food writer, cook, proud dad, productivity pro, the ORIGINAL Food Divo. Chris is the first person to poke fun at me, and the first to make me smile.
7. @beckymochaface - Becky is a marketing coordinator and writer, and she is oh-so-sweet!
8. @PinkOliveFamily - I got to meet Susan in Boston.  She is the person I go to first to bounce ideas off of, and she is involved in some really cool groups with similar interests as me.
9. @Almostalady - A fashionable chica and fellow shoe fiend…must I say more?
   
10. @mhood1776 - My best friend (I’ve known her since high school).
    

So if you like my blog and you follow me on Twitter, you might want to follow these stellar peeps as well. 

I’ve been playing around recently on Wishpot.com, a free social shopping service that makes it easy to save and share interesting things you find in stores and online.  I’ve created a Christmas wish list for this holiday season, in hopes that Santa Claus will see it. 

If you’d like to send someone (ahem, anyone, not just me) a gift from their list:

1. Click on the item of choice.
2. Click on “reserve gift” to the right of the item:

3.   Decide whether you want to keep it a surprise:

4.   Once you reserve the item, you can buy it:

If you’d like to send a Christmas letter/gift to me (heehee) you can send it to my PO box:

3965 W. 83rd St. #306
Prarie Village, KS 66208

Thanks!

So it’s official - I will be going to Boston for the TJ Maxx/Marshalls Overnight Event!  Today I got my agenda and travel plans, and now I just need to make sure I’m prepared.  It’s been more than a year since I’ve traveled anywhere, so I’m well overdue for a trip.

I’m leaving Nov. 17th and returning on the 18th, so I won’t have time to explore Boston, but I know I’ll want to go back for a longer stay.

I’m looking forward to meeting a few of my favorite bloggers:

• Angela, The Budget Fashionista
• Katja, Style Hive
• Ike, My Fashion Life
• Angela and Greg, You Look Fab
• Stephanie, Adventures in the Stiletto Jungle
• Lindsay, Broke & Beautiful
• Diana, The Budget Babe
• Adriana, Fashion Bomb
• Wendy, Nitrolicious
• Lauren, Second City Style

We’ll all get to meet the brand teams at TJ Maxx/Marshalls, and have an interactive session of Meet the Corporate Teams to learn about brands, customers and off-price fashion.  Then we’ll go on to see a Splurge vs. Steal Fashion Show, participate in other fun interactive sessions, and go shopping at the stores.  It’s going to be a wild ride, and I’m so honored to have been invited by Ogilvy PR to participate!  Of course, I will have a detailed report of the trip (and all the fab shoes I see/buy) on Shoe Smitten.  Wish me luck!

I bought a Merona plaid wool jacket that I just love at Target.  It is allover black and white plaid, and it has a belted waist and four buttons down the front.  After spending a reasonable $50 on it, I resolved to wear it as often as possible.

So, I wore it to church the day after buying it.  I couldn’t believe how stylish and comfortable I felt wearing it!  On my way out the door, I heard something hit the ground, and then I saw what I thought was a Quarter spinning.  I kept walking.

It would take me a few hours to realize what had happened - the middle button on my precious BRAND NEW jacket had popped off!  Now this was a dilemma, because I hadn’t grabbed the button off the floor earlier, so I have no matching button for the jacket. 

To make matters worse, the next day at work I was minding my business typing away on the computer, when I hear an all-too familiar sound of something hitting the ground.  Sure enough, another button had decided to break loose.  This time, I recovered the fallen soldier, slipped it in my purse and continued on with my day.

That brings me to today.  I decided to wear my jacket by tying the belt at the waist.  Hey, who needs buttons, anyway?  I was in the restroom tidying up when, lo and behold, the third button fell off!  So now I’m finally down to just one button hanging on for dear life.

This wouldn’t upset me so much if I hadn’t just bought the thing last Saturday, and if I knew how to sew…

…maybe it’s time to invest a little more money in a better-made jacket?

 

What better day to launch my new blog than on Election Day?!  So for my very first post, I would like to discuss this day in history, and what it means for our country’s future.

Today I cast my vote, along with an estimated 130 million Americans exercising their democratic freedom.  It’s humbling to be a part of such a pivotal moment in history.  The polls are still open at this moment, and the election is still in the air, even though many people, including Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief of staff (aka “Bush’s Brain”) predicts a landslide win for Obama.

No matter who wins the election, we will make history.  If Obama wins, he’ll be the first African-American in the White House.  It McCain wins, he’ll be the oldest elected president, and we’ll have our first ever female vice-president, Palin.

With such a polarized nation, civil unrest is a possibility, and according to upi.com, police stations across the United States are beefing up plans to prepare.  I heard on the radio that Kansas City police are preparing for whatever might happen.  Some of the people here in Kansas that oppose Obama strictly because of his color scare me - I know one person in particular that calls him a terrorist and a socialist, and claims that he will be the downfall of our country.  Not for one second can I begin to understand where those accusations come from.  There is no truth to them!  It’s people like this that will tear our nation apart.

I, along with 62% of voters in the exit polls, see the economy as the top issue facing our nation today.  I have personally experienced the raised credit card interest rates, job losses, and higher cost of living.  I feel fortunate to have what I do, but as a college student working only part time, I have felt the strain.  However, I’m more optimistic than most in thinking that our economy will turn around much more quickly (especially if Obama is elected).

So, I’d really like my first post to be interactive and show the perspectives of my readers as well.  Would you please answer the following questions in a comment (you can be anonymous if you choose).

Questions:

1. What do you consider to be the top issue facing out nation today?
2. How do you think we can turn the economy around?
3. Who would you like to see be elected president, and why?
4. Do you believe there will be civil unrest?
5. Other remarks?