I am not a person who usually approaches strangers to ask questions like “Where did you get those shoes? What brand are they?” but when I saw someone wearing a pair of sparkly sandals on Oahu, I could not stop myself. I had to know if these shoes could be found, purchased, and worn by me. Knowing I am a magpie who loves sparkly things, this should not come as a surprise – If you saw these shoes in person, you would be stunned at just how sparkly they are. :)

Of course, living in the world we live in, 99% of the time we know gorgeous and sparkly will likely = incredibly uncomfortable. But not in this case. If that had been the case, I would have tried them on and then sadly made the decision not to buy them, as I have with so many shoes.

I found these shoes at the Ultimate Foot Store on the 3rd of November 2013. We went to the Ward Warehouse on Oahu as they were having a special event shopping day. The place was packed – mostly with locals making the most of the bargains to be had. We’d had a really fantastic shopping day thus far, and I was super excited to find this store stocked Fitflops.

The moment I put these on, I was sold. I’m telling you, these are in the top 5 of most comfortable shoes I own. The straps are backed with a microfibre suede like fabric that feels amazing against the tops of my feet. It is like wearing fluffy pillows.

The one downside is the indentations in the foot bed, because these fill up with sand, dirt, and probably dead skin cells from your feet. The photo above is taken *after* I cleaned them, apparently not as well as I thought. However, when you are wearing them, the foot bed cannot be seen. What can be seen is a sparkly paradise. The photo below might give you a better concept of just how sparkly these are.

See the reflections thrown onto the wall by these shoes when placed in a tiny bit of sunlight?

These are the shoes I get the most comments about. It is pretty hilarious to watch people react to them. If they are a magpie like me, people go all deer in the headlights, all social norms fly out the window, they approach with a look in their eyes I know very well myself – it is the I must know more about this look. And they ask me, where did you get those shoes? What brand are they? Can I get them locally?

Aussies, never fear, you can buy them – in Australia, Dstore currently have them on sale. David Jones have a different version. Fitflop is also stocked by Athletes Foot. They have an Australian website. And if you want to get an idea of what they look like in action, here is a cute little video. I warn you, even the video does not do these shoes proper justice.

These are not beach shoes, at least not for me. These are fancy casual shoes. These go to Bunnings from time to time. These go to the shops on a sunny day. These stroll down the main street while running errands. These go out to a restaurant with a pretty dress while on holidays. These certainly could hike as they are incredibly comfortable, but they have not hiked yet. They have done a reasonable amount of walking.

I do not remember how much I paid for them, though my mind is telling me it was somewhere around $100. I think I would still have bought them if they’d told me some ridiculous number like $300. They are that comfortable, *and* that sparkly.

I bought a second pair in beige, which has not been worn as yet. They will get their own shoe post. ;)

Tell a story about your shoes on your blog, and link up below!

get the InLinkz code

One of the more difficult things about travelling is choosing what to take with you. In 2011, I travelled to Hawaii with only hand luggage, and we’re not talking about one of those suitcases on wheels. I took a small tote bag with one change of clothes for the day we arrived, because I knew I would be buying a lot of awesome stuff while there. I wore a pair of old – and I mean old, I’d had them since the 80’s – leather shoes on the plane flight over and threw them away because they were way too worn to donate..

In 2013, we had planned a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii so the star-obsessed other half could visit the Mauna Kea Summit at sunset, and then do some star gazing a little lower down the mountain. This meant we would not be shopping right away and therefore I needed to pack items to suit two completely different situations.

The heat of Hawaii at sea level, which is like a hot summer day in Australia, and the super cold conditions on top of Mauna Kea at night time. At the time of year we were visiting, it is not unusual to see snow there and it would be below zero at night.

I chose my good friends the Steve Madden Batell Combat Boots which are super comfortable, I can hike in them and my feet are not tired at the end of a long day.

These shoes gave me an amazing and unusual experience during our trip to the Mauna Kea summit. Our tour stopped at a lava flow for a closer look and a geology talk. While standing on the lava, just after taking that photo above, under my foot I felt a piece of the lava break off. I bent down and picked it up.

Looks like just some crusty black stuff, right? Wrong.

When I flipped it over, I saw a sparkly paradise. It was like someone took a rainbow and embedded it in the lava. What if I had not turned it over, and just put it back down?

I so wanted to take that rock home with me but we have this life rule –

take only photographs, leave only footprints

I called the other half over and we took a lot of photos of that rock and I hoped that maybe one of them could do it justice. However though you get an idea of the beauty of it, not a single photo comes close to the amazing brilliance I held in my hand that day. Sometimes the rules we live by are difficult to keep to but we have to live by them. Sure I could have made an exception for this but where would that end?

And for this experience, I have to thank my favourite combat boots. Nobody else had this experience happen to them on the tour, with their sneakers and flip flops.

Where have your shoes been?

Write a shoe post and link up here! ;)