This is a big problem for me.  No matter how many pairs of socks I wear, my feet are often cold.  Cold feet, I’m cold, no fun for hubby! Merino socks have provided some kind of help… but they needed to be paired with a good boot!

So knowing we were travelling across Siberia during the winter, I set about researching good options.  I needed boots.  Warm. Dry. Light. Funky. Boots.  A challenge.  I mean everyone has a place when planning the trip right?  Dean was busy taking care of visas… filling in forms… dropping off passports…. all the fun stuff really?!?!?  So I decided my place was to take care of our shopping needs, and no better place to start than with boots.

Well the options were flooding in, but I kept coming back to two pairs.  The Ugg Adirondack boot  (don’t judge – this is no ordinary Ugg) and the Merrell Winterbelle boot.  If you know me, you know I like purple.  I have systematically transformed my husband’s wardrobe, to the point now where he actively chooses purple, so these boots were the obvious choice…  however there was nowhere to try them on.  Or so I thought.

So I set about a day-long mission to find the Ugg’s.  Well I found them… but in the wrong colour.  They were warm (and probably would still win the prize for the toastiest) and they were practical, but a nagging voice in my head was telling me they were just too valuable to take away.  What if someone pinched them whilst on a train somewhere?  My decision was made when the Ugg website and stores were sold out of my size for the 6 weeks prior to our trip, so that was it, they were out.

Then one random Thursday evening, Dean and I were wandering around ‘Street’ – a  shopping village near my Somerset base.  Bingo – there was  Merrell store (the only one in the country) and in it were my boots.  I put them on, and even Dean, who had been somewhat sceptical about the need for more yet more purple, stated with a wry smile that they were “pretty cool”.  So my Christmas pressie left with me and they are all ready to go.

So whoever said you can’t combine practically and style was wrong.  So far I have worn them around Somerset and they worked well.  Now the real test is about to start…..

Natalie