Explore CLE: Taste Cleveland Food Tours

For Christmas last year, our dear friends Dave and Jessika gifted us a Cleveland Food Tour. Since we had been waiting for nice weather, they joined us a few weeks ago as we actually took the tour. Taste Cleveland Food Tours offer three standard tours: The West Side Market, Little Italy, and Tremont, however they offer custom tours as well. Each tour pairs local restaurants with a look at the history and architecture of the neighborhood.

I had heard about these tours in the past, but since we had never tried one before, we decided to stick with a standard tour of Tremont. Nick and I used to live in Tremont, and being an architect, Nick knew a lot about the history and architecture of Tremont, so we weren't exactly expecting to learn anything new, but in fact, WE DID! Our tour guide was very knowledgable and led us around parts of Tremont for 3.5 hours.

If I were to summarize the experience, its like a walking tour meets progressive dinner. We met the group at 4 pm in Lincoln Park, and from there, we stopped at 4 restaurants: Prosperity Social Club, Parallax, Ty Fun, and Lilly Handmade Chocolates, although the stops are subject to change with each tour. In between eating delicious food, we learned about how Tremont came to be, and some fun facts about the neighborhood as well as the restauranteurs. Alcohol was not included in the standard tour but was available for purchase, although you can do a custom tour that includes alcohol as well.

Overall, a very fun experience, and one that I highly recommend. This would also be a great gift for Father's Day, or in general a fun gift for someone who has everything. You can make your tour reservations here.

As I mentioned previously, it is a walking tour, so comfortable shoes are key. Unfortunately, I have plantar fasciitis, so walking for 3.5 hours in flats will absolutely destroy my feet. Lucky for me, I found this pair of flats that are not only cute, but offer the kind of arch support I need.

At $99 they are a little expensive for flats, but they are worth it considering I will wear them all summer with zero pain!

So there you have it-- a lot of food and a little fashion to get your week started off just right!
XO
~ Shibani

Which Red Shoes?

So, if you read clefoodgoddess' blog, then you know that she's getting married in the Spring. She's having a little shoe dilemma for her wedding day, and asked me to help. We both decided that it may be fun if we got all of you involved too, so here goes. Please help clefoodgoddess pick her shoe for her wedding day. Her criteria are as follows:
1. Must be Red
2. Cannot be too high (nothing above 3")
3. No peep toe
4. Below $100
5. Something fun and funky

Here's what I've come up with:

1.  Diba Babs

2. Kamik Ellie

3. Chinese Laundry Kasha Python

4. rsvp Leeann

5. Onex Asha

6. rsvp Floria

7. Unlisted All Natural

Please put your preferred shoe in the comments section, and we'll see what gets the most votes!

Reviewing the Compassion from Fashion Event

Remember when I blogged about the Compassion from Fashion Event? Well, it happened on Saturday, and I attended with the contest winner Jess. It was a really fun evening, and most of the stores offered special discounts just for the event. There was a fashion show (that we missed), and food stations catered by Maggiano's: my favorite was the antipasto station- I seriously LLLUUURRRVVVEEE roasted veggies!!!

I had planned to make some progress with my Christmas shopping, and, to be honest, I was pretty successful!! I still have a lot to do ofcourse, but I was happy with my start. It should come as no surprise that I did a little shopping for myself, and of course, it included a couple of J.Crew sweaters (OBSESSION!). But, beyond my sweaters, my favorite purchase from Saturday was these beauties:

That said, I REALLY need to focus, and stop doing my usual "one for you, two for me" holiday shopping routine!! Do you end up buying more stuff for yourself during the holidays than you do presents?!

Faux and Fabulous!!

I have a huge magazine "problem". As in, I have a lot of subscriptions. As I flipped through one of them yesterday (ELLE, August 2010), I noticed that it looks like luxury is making a BIG comeback this fall. Part of it includes fur. As an animal lover, I fundamentally can't condone wearing "real" fur, but I absolutely LUURVE faux!!!!

I'm especially enamored with the idea of a faux fur vest for the fall/winter. I came thisclose to buying one last fall, and I'm kicking myself for not going through with the purchase last year. Luckily, I've found some SUPER cute options this year (I'm a big fan of the cropped jacket), which I will share with you below:

$88, fossil.com (unusual, I know! Not the first place I expected to find this) I LOVE this length!

$98, express (I apologize for the quality of this picture; flash does not like to be copied)

I'm probably going to wear these with a poufy skirt, maybe even a bubble skirt, and some super cute shoes like these:

rsvp Jaceline $88 zappos.com

Promiscuous Daena $63, zappos.com

The outfit possibilities are getting me really excited for fall!!

For the love of shoes

As you know, I luuuuuuurrrve shoes. What I haven't told you yet is that I have a really hard time buying shoes. I have ridiculously sensitive feet. Except for sneakers, every single piece of footwear has given me blisters, at least the first time I've worn them. My mom has the same problem; we've just accepted it as the price we must pay for our shoe-love.

Then, last year, I developed plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis is the straining/tearing of the ligament that supports the arch of your foot that results in severe heel pain. IT SUCKS!!! There is no real cure; its the usual ice, rest, stretching, massage routine. Most of all, its important to be kind to your feet, mainly by wearing supportive shoes. And that my friends, is my big problem. My plantar fasciitis is a lot better than it used to be, but is by no means "gone". Its mostly my own fault; I just can't bring myself to buy or wear ugly orthopedic shoes! I mean, seriously, I'm in my (late) 20s! I just can't do it!!!! In the winter, I wore boots, which really helped, but the summer brings cute but flimsy sandals, flip flops, and flats, ALL of which are TERRIBLE for my feet. So, last week, I spent some time looking for a supportive but cute shoe that I could wear this summer while I walk around sunny Cleveland.

Look at these beauties!

The Keds Rapture Boat Shoe. $45 at zappos.com.

These shoes are super comfortable and supportive, but most of all, SO CUTE!!

On a completely unrelated note, I took Otto for a walk this afternoon; look at the fantastic view of downtown Cleveland!

Shoes Shoes Shoes

I've never met a woman that doesn't like shoes. NEVER. (Do they even exist?) After a college phase that involved NUMEROUS pairs of black shoes, I've used the past few years to branch out across the rainbow. Since N and I are moving to our new home soon (yay! homeownership!), I've been sorting through my shoe collection in an effort to trim it down. See, N and I are going from separate closets, to sharing a walk-in, which while being well designed, is a little small. So far, I've brought myself to donate 3 pairs; pretty good, I thought. And then, I "accidentally" found these beauties...

Nine West Karoo, available at zappos.com

Reasons I luuurve these:

1. They're RED!!!!! Bright, candy apply red!!!!

2. Platform under the footbed= heels that feel like flats

3. Ridiculously comfortable

Although, I will warn you, if you're going to be walking on slippery tile, you should probably have a non-skid sole added.

I guess we're just going to have to buy more shoe racks....