Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

poem-shared November 27, 2020

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:41 pm
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It starts with a shoemaker:

distinctive shoes

loud shoes

not for hiding shoes.

It grows with friends:

shared shoe styles

shared eccentricity

shared creativity.

It rests in comfort:

not alone.

Celebrate unique soles

together.

.

.

.

My Nikki Knox collaborator, Nikolette, also a teacher, and I are feeling rather stressed these days as the second wave of the pandemic strikes with rising numbers in schools. We are consoling each other by wearing the same Fluevog shoes this week (we have several pairs in common). Though we are 800 km apart, we are in each other’s hearts and soles. 🙂

 

Poem- I love your way of being in the world February 6, 2020

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 8:07 pm
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Your best feet forward

heels tapping

vamp it up

booting out negativity

sole savouring

stepping out

high kicking.

Squeal all together now:

“I LOVE your shoes!”

.

.

(for Flummunity)

.

.

.

.

.

.

(please ignore any ads WordPress puts here)

.

.

.

.

 

 

Fluevog addict? May 2, 2013

Filed under: anecdotes,fun,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:55 am
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Apparently,

someone arrived at my blog

yesterday, having used

the search term

“Fluevog addict.”

Ouch.

 That seems a little harsh.

Addict?

Really?

Couldn’t we just say

“aficionato?”

or “connoisseur?”

Addict?

Come on now.

That’s definitely over-stating.

Seriously.

.

Um.

Did I tell you?

To celebrate my Master’s placement

I have Prepared Hi Steadies coming ?

Steady (Yellow)

Aren’t they gorgeous?

Way cheaper than a party to celebrate,

and I get to enjoy them for ages!

years!

Rather than a single evening.

That’s not addiction.

That’s just…

happiness.

😉

Oh, and

John Fluevog thinks I’m awesome!

So there.

.

(Well fine, he probably thinks you’re awesome, too)

.

.

.

PS>

Fluevog liked this poem so much, that they sent me a mug!  Yay!  🙂  They know how to feed their addic…  >>cough<< …fans.  Many thanks to Preet at the Vancouver Granville Fluevog store, who takes good care of me, AND sends me presents!  (If you look closely, you can see that the mug says “Juan Fluevog”  I think that’s hilarious.  Vog humour.  HA!)

ShawnVogmugsip

 

graduate school: it’s in the mail! February 24, 2013

Filed under: Teaching,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:48 pm
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I love learning. I like researching and writing papers. I like developing programs and evaluating them. I like coming up with innovative ways of doing things. I love the satisfaction of successfully meeting a challenge.  In short, I’m a nerd.

This also means, I probably should have applied for grad school years ago. It was first suggested to me by a teaching assistant in a Women’s History course I did back about 1989. At the time, in a one income household with a toddler and baby, it was just something to sigh about and say, “Some day…”

I did apply for an extremely competitive Creative Writing program at an eminent university two years running. They have very, very low acceptance rate, but I figured, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” As it happened, I received the second rejection the same day I got my first royalty cheque from Grace, and somehow that told me that it didn’t matter. Most people enter that program so they can get a royalty cheque. I was ahead without them. I will continue to develop those skills working with amazing authors, attending conferences, reading, and being challenged by my editor and friend, Vikki.

I still want to learn though, and I want the credential, because it will open other opportunities. Today I dropped two grad school applications in the mail. Ideally, I’m going explore the Finnish education system and how it can be adapted for use in B.C. I’ll focus on some sort of curriculum development, either in the traditional class room or via distance learning. Both options offer all sorts of exciting prospects, so I’m eager to see where I’ll end up.

Should I confess that my biggest fear is that if I end up in a program that requires weekend study, that it will impact the May 2014 weekend when Diana Gabaldon will come to be presenter at the Shuswap Association of Writers’ Word on the Lake Festival of Writers and Readers? The grad school will have to do without me that weekend, as I’ve already booked it off! My kids aren’t allowed to get married that weekend either. I have my priorities.

And how should I celebrate this new adventure? Some would raise a drink with friends, or take their honey out for dinner. I’m celebrating with new Vogs, culled from the collection of the ultimate Vogger, Rebecca in Winnipeg.

Welcome to the family Fluevog Second Miracle Cascades…   (See if you can find them in the group photo of Rebecca’s shoes, in the link above!)

FluevogSecondMiracleCascades

 

Fluevog addiction August 22, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:53 pm
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It is no surprise to any of the regular readers of this blog that I’m very fond of beautiful shoes.  I inherited this penchant from my mother, who had a huge shoe collection while I was growing up (and still does, though unfortunately, not my size!).  In the last year or so, I discovered the shoes of Vancouver designer John Fluevog.  The designs are fun and interesting, and they are well made and very comfortable.  Most of my Fluevog collection is shown in Auntie Bright’s Pinterest board.    (Except the Prepare Scout clogs/mules which are not Auntie Bright’s style, but are mine. 🙂  Proof that she’s not exactly like me, no matter what my friends claim).

This lady in Winnipeg, however, leaves me in the dust, and I am rather jealous of her one of a kind samples!  🙂   The way I’m going, I may just have this many eventually.  So far, I have a mere seven pairs of Vogs, but check out Rebecca Harasym’s huge collection of wearable Fluevog art!  My husband is going to quake in his un-Fluevogian boots when he sees this!  🙂  If she started collecting in 2006, it looks like she averaged something like 20 pair each year…  With shoes running $150 to $200 a pair, and boots in the $350 to $400 range, this collection is probably worth $20-30,000.

 

grey boots February 27, 2012

Filed under: Commentary — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:29 am
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As promised in the “Narrative of the Grey Boot Quest,” here are my awesome, amazing, brilliant, gorgeous, comfortable, and dazzling grey boots.  My Fluevog Logans are posing with OJ the standard poodle, who has boots, but they aren’t nearly as cool as these.  He’s so jealous he can’t even look at them.

 

When I put the boots on for the first time and saw this stamped inside, I knew they were fated to be a writer’s boots.  Well, fated to be THIS writer’s boots.  “Words said in faith change lives.”  How true that is.  Saying words in faith can change your own life, let alone how the words impact those hearing them.  These boots are empowering.  I feel like I can change the world when I lace them up. (and up.  and up.  and up.  These are not the footwear for days when you’re running late for work!).

It may be shallow to get so much delight out of footwear, and I know that this particular passion causes heads to shake, but it is truly a simple joy to wear art, and if you’re going to wear art, your feet are as good a location as any!  People find satisfaction in different ways.  I don’t understand people who drink or smoke away their money, with nothing to show for their hard earned efforts except cancerous growths or nasty odours.  Shoes are a very benign addiction in the greater scheme of things!  One can also luck out, and inherit.  My mother shares this addiction, and a shoe size.  I am still wearing some shoes that I wore in high school, several decades later, so I don’t feel very guilty.  I wear my artistic addictions with pride.  😀

 

The narrative of the Grey Boot Quest January 29, 2012

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:45 am
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I stroll the mall, and check all routes

in search of perfect, tall, grey boots.

Store by store I search them all

On tidy shelves and crowded stalls.

I search the net in desperate state

At Fluevog.com The Boots await!

The perfect shape.  The perfect heel.

The shade of grey, that’s dove not steel.

Alas, at five hundred bucks with tax,

My happy heart’s cleaved with an ax.

I check the site from time to time

To see if cost has dropped a dime.

But one sad day, the boots were gone

My face grew sad, my mouth was drawn.

.

The Grey Boot Quest began once more

Fruitless, I wandered store to store,

Til a clearance ad came to my in box

and now I can enfold my socks.

My Fluevog Logan boots, were on sale

A happy ending to the tale!

A single pair was in my size,

I quickly clicked, ready to BUY.

Soon from the store in Montreal

My boots will travel, pushed and hauled.

The first miracle was an end to the quest

The Second Miracle Logans are the best!

A week from now, or maybe two,

I’ll pose in those grey boots for you!

.

Logan

 

Lucky boots January 28, 2012

Filed under: anecdotes — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:02 am
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Sometimes you just get lucky.  Unexpected discoveries, simple pleasures, a wish fulfilled…

Three years ago, I started looking for the perfect pair of grey boots.

My criteria:

  • real leather
  • under $150
  • tall
  • cute

I found the Second Miracle Logan’s on Fluevog.com and drooled big time.  They met all the criteria except price.  Unfortunately they were 3X the budget, and there was no way I could talk myself into them.  >>sigh<<  Every once in a while I’d go back to the site and stare dreamily at them.  Then this fall, they were gone.  I let go the dream that those were my dream boots.  I kept searching for grey boots, but despite the odd ‘grey boots only’ shopping events, I remained empty handed..ur…bare footed?

Today, I was at the Fluevog site and clicked “Clearance.”  There were 3 items in my size, and guess what was there?  ONE pair of my Logan boots!  AND they were so discounted that with tax and shipping they STILL met budget!  My boots are in Montreal.  Fantastique.  Soon they will be here.  My quest for the perfect grey boots has finally ended.

It’s a simple pleasure to have a goal achieved.  Is this a lesson on the value of perseverence and patience?  Perhaps.  Lacing them up is definitely going to require perseverence and patience!  (No kidding- there is no zipper in these).

I decided that I can’t buy a single additional bit of footwear this month.

Good thing it’s the 31st.

No wait.  It’s the 27th!  That’s 4 days to remain new shoeless!  Wow.  That will be hard, but I will fight my base urges and restrain myself.

 

 

Bright boots… February 20, 2011

Filed under: Commentary — Shawn L. Bird @ 8:28 pm
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Every once in awhile I feel obligated to draw to your attention a fashion source that Auntie Bright would love.  I confess that Fluevog Shoes, based in Vancouver, is so fabulous that it goes beyond the adoration of my fictional character, and I love it, too!  John Fluevog is a Canadian shoe designer who creates amazing, unique, retro, delightfully Bright shoes.  If you like the weird, wonderful and unique, go wandering through the on-line store at http://www.fluevog.com 

When you’re studying the various lines of shoes,you can probably figure out that Eris has the LA boots, and Bonnie loves the Wearever collection… 

These Libby Smith boots are coming home with me and Bright, but I’m sure you’ll find something you love as well… 

PS.  While you’re at Fluevog.com don’t forget to check out John Fluevog’s beautifully restored (and slightly reinterpreted) antique Jag  “The Flueguar” under “STUFF.”  What a car!

 

 
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