Share the Love: It's about to get Hot{ter} this Spring

Now that mother nature has been busy redecorating the trees with lovely bursts of color and the prevailing winds have shifted toward sweeping in milder temperatures, I decided it was time to pack away the thick, cozy winter boots, coats and hats and do some redecorating of my own with a new spring wardrobe.

Because it's been such a tough winter for our family, I have been more than ready to welcome a new season filled with warmth and pretty colors both outside our front door and inside my closet.

Normally, I don't give myself permission to welcome a new season with a new wardrobe, but John and I decided it was necessary for me to buy new clothes if I want to go out into public, you know, clothed. Having lost around 25 pounds during this the past year, most of my old clothes now hang on my frame.

So we went shopping, and to say I had fun picking out new threads is an understatement. While I was super excited to offer a new home to these new clothes, I realized also that during my weight loss my feet scaled down a size, so new shoes were in order, too.

Oh, darn. I'd said to John, trying to disguise a sly smile. I guess new shoes are in order, too.


After having fallen in love last fall with a pair of soft gray Pixie boots from Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes, I headed straight to the Hotter site and began drooling over the spring line of shoes, searching for a pair that would easily carry me from an afternoon spent at the park straight into date night with just the quick change of a shirt and jewelry.

Because I know from experience that Hotter shoes are extremely comfortable, I browsed all different styles, not shying away from heels. {I broke up with hellish-on-the-feet shoes last fall after discovering Hotter and finding shoes could be stylish and comfortable.} But once I spotted Damson Bliss Shoe, I knew I'd found a chic shoe that could easily transition from day-time to night-time wear.






When the Bliss shoes arrived, I immediately tried the pair on and found that my hunch was right; these lovely ladies could rock both the daytime t-shirts and the evening-wear knit sweaters in my spring wardrobe all while putting a little spring in my step.





Overall, I love my Hotter Bliss shoes; they definitely live up to both names. The quality is superb, and I love the intricate detail of the embroidered flower on the straps.

I do have to mention, though, that because these lovely ladies are worn without socks, I did spend an evening transitioning my feet into these warmer-weather shoes.

There were no killer blisters nor was there limping involved, but I had a tender spot by my heel and near my toes during that first jaunt out in the Bliss. After that initial wear, however, the Bliss have provided the comfort level I expect from Hotter shoes.

Do you need hotter shoes than what you're currently sporting for your spring wardrobe?

Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes has graciously has offered to give away one pair of shoes to one of my friends here AND to one person who matches a pair of Hotter shoes to our favorite spring outfits posted daily on the Hotter Facebook page this week! {How awesome is that?!} 


CHECK OUT TODAY'S OUTFIT AND MATCH A PAIR OF HOTTER SHOES by simply placing a link with your shoe choice beneath the outfit on their facebook page!

 And to be entered into the contest here, simply click on the Rafflecopter entry form below! a Rafflecopter giveaway Trust my review and just want to order a pair of Hotter shoes {or provide hubby with a highly appealing Christmas hint}? Here's a 10 percent off coupon code provided by Hotter for new customers and free p&p on the first order valid through April 23, 2012: PFAUSB



Disclosure: I only work with brands I absolutely love and respect; it's a pleasure to review my second pair of high-quality Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes. Hotter provided me with the Bliss shoes for review. As always, all opinions are my own, and I only share products that we actually use in our own home.

Bigger Picture Moment: Listen

Rain spits from an angry-looking sky.

I turn down the volume of music to see the road more clearly spread out before our car.

Lost in a storm of driving concentration and thinking, it was at first buried amid the plops of rain hitting the windshield, the spinning of tires rumbling beneath our car and loud whipping gale of thought in my mind.

And then clearer, from the back seat:

"Goh goh goh oua avenure a hinga ie uup eee aweeaay!"

I don't understand at first, but I listen.

I listen. 

And I discern his song: "Go go go go! On an adventure! The thingamajigger is up and away!"

My youngest, his blue eyes smiling in the reflection of the backseat mirror, voice excitedly filling the car with a much sweeter song than the sounds of road and weather and grown-up thoughts.

My very own songbird singing music to my ears, long awaited words from his lips come flowing from beneath a lack-luster sky.

****

My feet kiss the cold floors at 7 a.m. and wandered downstairs with my little boys. My heart hopes for the sunshine we'd seen yesterday morning instead of a continuation of the rain and dreary that spread across the sky during afternoon and evening hours.

My body misses the sun, the warmth in which we bathed during a Flordia February.

The grumbles set in as I prepare oatmeal and set out to conquer the mess that has become my kitchen.

The sound it meets my ears.

The happy chirping of a songbird seeps in through the cracks of closed glass patio doors.

I abandon the pans and pots and leave the oatmeal simmering on the stove.

I throw open the back door, cold air against warm skin and listen.

I listen. 

And I hear the reality of beauty amid the gray, the promise of spring on our doorstep.

Share a picture, words, creation or list; just come to the table with the beauty in the simple moments of the week.. 

Live.
Reflect on the blessings that were apparent to you this week.

Capture.
Harvest them!

Share.
Link up your gleaned moment this week at Sarah's! Please be sure to link to your post, not your blog. Your post must link back here or have our button in your post or the link will be deleted.

Encourage.
Visit at least the person linked before you and encourage her in this journey we call life.

Everyday Life: Songbird

There is this songbird heart tucked inside my chest, that's always beckoning me to fly away in search of more.

More beauty.

More lovely.

More warmth.

There is never an open arm embrace with dwindling day light and my heart; I never fall gently into cooler days turned cold and colder days turned gray.

So I fly.

When winter spreads itself out across the gray of skies for months on end, I fly away.

I fly hard and far and deep, straight into heavy sunshine, thick like honey oozing from its hive.

Every February, I fly and land safely in the nest of my snowbird-grandparents aside the gulf waters in Fort Myers and I breathe out the cold and let color seep onto my face beneath wide open blue skies and wide open turquoise water.

A friend said February always brings out the restless in her heart, too, in a different but oh-so-same way, I think.

Her words gave clarity to what I've been doing each winter for the past six years as I make my cold-weather exodus to the promised land.

As much as I love home, family, friends, the life we've built, my heart always must be dragged away from the warm oasis by the sea by an equally unwilling body stuck with a too-reasonable mind that whispers that I cannot join the branches of the other warm-weather birds who hold out until the warmest of sun beckons them home.



Because the Son beckons me back first.

He calls me back to the everydayness that is interspersed with sweet frustration and overwhelming fullness and crazy-running-into-spring cold snaps that melt into blooms.

We traveled two entire days through the south, watched tropical bloom fade and signs of midwestern spring blossom before our very eyes before we landed at my mom's house in countryfield Illinois late last night.



Cold winds still sweep through the midwest, rustle barren trees.

But the sun is stronger than when I left three weeks ago, lighting up the prairie longer each day.



I am an early songbird returning home to the grass-and-snow-checkered ground, my song singing of the colors creeping north and the daylight seeping into more and more of the dusks and dawns.

This songbird heart sings of spring spreading out over taking the winter from branches of naked trees.

But it sings of spring, nonetheless, because it's coming.