FlipSlips - - Affordable and Comfortable Shoes For On the Go Teachers

You'll understand this.  As a teacher, we are on our feet ALL DAY LONG!  More often than not, I'd go to work in heels and within a couple hours I will have kicked them off and thrown on a pair of flip-flops I have stashed under my desk. But it never fails, the minute I do that, in comes our Admissions Director with a prospective family. Every.single.time.

I've invested in the super cute ballet slippers that many teachers know about....but they do hit the pocketbook quite hard. And well....I am on a teacher's salary.  So when Esther from FlipSlips reached out to me and told me about their versatile ballet slipper, I was definitely willing to give it a go. I didn't know much about them. Except that they had the ability to fold in half, so I could easily throw them in my bag when it was go time.

I was super excited when the box arrived and I opened it up to see a nice pair of black ballet slippers along with three interchangeable straps.  Upon closer inspection, I saw that these ballet slippers had a slight cushion on the inside and the fabric they were made with appeared that they would be super easy to clean.  Since I was headed to Arizona on Spring Break the following day, I figured it would be the perfect place to give them whirl, as I knew I'd be on my feet running around with my family.

To say these shoes are comfortable would be an understatement!  I wore them for about 13 hours while we did a variety of activities (all which seemed to involve walking) and the one thing that made all the difference in the world from my normal ballet slippers was the fact these were cushioned. I liked it so much that even when we got home, I kept them on.  Walking around in the desert dust didn't ruin them either. All I had to do was take a damp rag and wipe them clean.

        

Let's break down the pros and cons of these shoes.

Pros:

• SUPER comfortable and cushioned
• Interchangeable ankle straps in different colors and lengths
• Fold in half so you can easily carry them in your purse
• The price!  I'm used to paying easily 4 times the amount for my other name brand ballet slippers I buy.  So the $50 price tag on these is EXTREMELY enticing! 

Cons:

• Current available color is only black. Don't get me wrong - I love black. But I love also wearing a pop of color on my feet too.  But the good news is, they are working on that and will soon be releasing their rainbow collection in a variety of colors
• The straps - I like them. But you have to find the perfect fit or they can start to rub your ankles the wrong way.  Once you figure out the appropriate setting on the strap you are good to go but it make take a few times of wearing them.

I really encourage my fellow teachers to check FlipSlips out!  You may just end up buying a pair in every color once they are released. :-)

Be sure to check out their Kickstarter Page.

Shopping for Back to School Clothes....for Me!

I was at the mall today with my two girls, and just about every store I looked at were advertising a Back to School Sale. I wanted to run into each one and scream "NO - not yet!" but instead I just calmly walked on by - trying to convince myself that our August start date wasn't that close. That is until I came to The Limited. No where did they mention Back to School savings but instead had a big window display that showed clothing on sale as low as $6.00. Now that is my kind of sale!!!

When it comes to buying myself clothes, I don't do it as often as I once did. It seems like a very long time ago that I used to go out shopping all the time for clothes but now with two little girls any shopping I do for clothes is typically for them.  I'm all about buying Kenzie (who just celebrated her 2nd birthday on Monday!) and Kaidyn the most adorable outfits.....but for myself - not so much.  I'll let you all in on a little secret.  I'm very concious about my body now.  After giving birth to two beautiful and healthy baby girls, as recently as 3.5 months ago, my body is no longer what it once was.  I'm still working to lose the baby weight that I gained for my youngest.  I'm down to the last 8 lbs.  And when I say I'm "working" to lose it, what I really mean is I'm hoping it will just disappear.  I mean, who has time to work out?  I'm busy chasing a two year old and carrying around my 3 month old who weighs in the 95 percentile!  I mean come on!  Shouldn't that alone be enough to get the weight off?!?!

I know....I know. I have to work for it, if I want it to go.  I'm working up the motivation. I did buy the Post-Partum workout videos. I've "looked" at them.  But whenever I have time to do the workouts, I find other things to do.  Like nap. People always say, when the baby sleeps, you should sleep. I still follow that rule. :-)  But anyway I digress, my lack of working out is another conversation for another day....or not! ;-) What I want to talk about today is what I DID BUY FOR MYSELF!

My style is not really one of the latest fashions but more what looks cute and most importantly feels comfortable (and is easily cleaned since the chances of my little ones rubbing something disgusting on me is pretty darn good!).  I especially love stores like Banana Republic, The Limited, The Loft and NY and Company who offer teacher discounts!!!  Teacher discount is like music to my ears.

So I did go into The Limited today and found some really great stuff all for only $49.  They were having a 40% off sale on top of their already discounted clothing.  Plus I then got an additional 15% off of that (yes - they will give it to you even on sale items).

I don't typically like to put up pictures of myself but wanted to share my purchases. Just excuse the poor lighting, my super white legs and junky photography.  :-)

White V-Neck T

Black V-Neck T

Front of dress

Love this dress!

For work I like to get staples that I can dress up or down depending on the circumstance.  So stretchy V-neck T's are fabulous in my opinion.  So of course, I scooped up three of them today in black, gray, and white.  All for only $10 a piece.  Then I needed a dress because my little girl, Kaidyn, is getting Christened this Sunday so I found this awesome green dress for only $18 (originally $98!).  This dress will be prefect for Sunday but also for Back to School night too I think.

A week ago, I hit the Outlet stores in Arizona while I was visiting family. I got there of some great button up dress shirts from Banana Republic and a light weight white sweater there.  Also all of that for under $50 too.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my finds!  Where do you shop for Back to School?  Any great stores that you know of that offer discounts for teachers?