Waking up at the crack of noon usually allows me to ease into my day, reading email while I sip that first cup of coffee. But this morning, after a New Year’s Eve that kept me up until 4ish, I was abruptly jolted into action when my sleepy eyes landed on an email announcing that Sergio Rossi and Georgina Goodman shoes were on sale at Gilt Groupe.

For those of you who have yet to register for sample sale notifications, let this be your wake-up call. Stop. Do not pass ‘Go.’ Do not collect $200. Make haste to enroll before you even finish reading this post. Although there’s no charge to participate, you have to be invited to join. Consider yourself invited by Shoe Diva—click here to get in on the action. And I suppose Shoe Diva owes you an apology of sorts: I’ve known about these amazing deals for a while, but the competition to bag a fabulous item at an unbelievably good price is so intense, I didn’t want to make it harder on myself by letting too many people in on these somewhat secret sales. But today I finally scored not one, but two amazing shoe steals, plus a beautiful Cynthia Rowley bag, and I’m so excited that I just had to share the news!

Here’s how it works. Basically, it’s the same deal as an in-person sample sale, the kind those lucky ladies in NY and LA have been privy to for generations. That means the time is limited, the merchandise is all first-quality, recent collection items. But instead of being trampled by the hordes of women scooping up armfuls of stuff the moment the doors open, you sit at your computer and fight off the competition.

There are definitely some things you need to know to better your odds. First, if you like it, or think you might like it, click it into your bag. Don’t stop and think about it, or research it, like I did the first few times I showed up at one of these sales. If you do, you’re doomed. There isn’t a chance that item will be available by the time you decide you’re interested. So click now, think later. You’ll have ten minutes to decide whether you actually want to check out the items that you put in your cart. They even have a countdown timer to let you know how much longer you have to stress over a potential buy.

I remember when I first started buying on eBay. It was a rush to watch the clock countdown and decide if and when you wanted to raise your bid. But that’s nothing compared to the adrenaline that coarses through my body when I’m in the throes of a good Gilt Groupe sale. During that time Shoe Diva has to research sizing—Sergio Rossi runs 1/2 size long, on average; Georgina Goodman runs true to size, they say—and consider how much shoe money I can reasonably part with at this very moment.

Most, but not all, items can go back for store credit if returned within 14 days, so it’s not like you don’t have options. Today, I had this lovely lavender Sergio Rossi pointy toe pump in my cart in two sizes. Why not? That way you can try them on and get the best fit. But in my research rush, the ten-minute timer expired and I lost them both to another shopper. Aurgh! I hate when that happens.

But the good news is I got some completely fabulous footwear from dynamite designers for a pittance. In fact, today goes down in the Shoe Diva record book as the second best shoe shopping day ever! I just saved $1036, before tax and shipping, more if you add the extras in. Here’s the breakdown:

Georgina Goodman Felicity peep-toe pump in black patent - Was $720, I paid $278
Sergio Rossi Ivory Shantung Platform Pump with Gold Trim - Was $475, I paid $98

And although it’s not shoes, bags are the shoe’s best friend:
Cynthia Rowley Lillian Nappa Large Black Leather - Was $365, I paid $148

This is my first pair of Georgina Goodman shoes, and I am pumped! She is one of London’s fastest rising designers, hailed as “the future of footwear” by Manolo Blahnik. Check out the artistically constructed heel composed of individually conjoined sections, including a stunning gold plate just above the notched heel. Like Blahnik, her designs are truly sculpture for the feet. There’s another shoe of hers that I really want in this sale, too. It’s called Rosa, and it’s a Black Patent Peep-toe Slingback Pump with cut out detail, and a 4.75 inch heel with 1 inch platform height. Was $725, now $248. Oh, I need more shoe money! I know a few years from now when all her shoes are four-figure fantasies, I’ll be kicking myself for not picking up this pump today. I can’t believe they still have my size!

It’s New Year’s Eve! Time for shoes to boogie down. Down to Nashville, where Soles4Souls is planning to break the world record for the longest chain of shoes. Their mission is simple: To impact as many lives as possible with the gift of shoes. Changing the World One Pair at a Time™.

Soles4Souls, the international charity organization that provides free footwear to those in desperate need, organized the event, and will attempt to break the Guinness World Record™ for the “Longest Chain of Shoes” at Opry Mills Shopping Mall. No word yet on exactly how many shoes they managed to string together, but they estimate 24,000-30,000 shoes have been collected since the shoe drive began on Nov. 5.

They’ve all been piled up inside a 12-foot-high tower constructed with clear plastic sides to allow shoppers to view the shoe donations accumulate in the giant bin that resembles a city water tower. Tonight, Soles4Souls staff, along with volunteers, lined up and tied the shoes together around the interior corridors of the mall. The record to beat: 10,512 shoes. Set nearly six months ago by National Geographic Kids Magazine at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC, the current record-holding chain spanned 8,700 feet.

The idea behind gifts of shoes is nothing new to the Soles4Souls team. They have coordinated relief efforts for the Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Rita, handling more than 1 million pairs for these disasters alone. Initially operated as www.katrinashoes.org, they were originally comprised of several churches that partnered together to collect and distribute the shoe donations.

By the time you read this, tonight’s shoe party will be over. But there’s still time to join the Soles4Souls cause. To donate your shoes, visit their site and locate the donation center nearest you. “Because shoes matter” is the tagline for Shoe Diva’s Ruby Slipper Society, so you know I’ll be delivering shoes to my local collection center. Join me! What better time to clean out your closet and send your unworn shoes on to bless someone else.

You know the story. In her haste to leave the ball before the clock strikes twelve, Cinderella loses one of her shoes—a glass slipper. The handsome prince—men have always been mesmerized by women’s heels—will not rest until he has located the beautiful girl whose foot fits the glass slipper.

The fairytale repeated itself this month in Dublin, when a single size 3 Chanel heel was found in the back of a taxi. Black patent leather, it was, with a discreet gold Chanel logo running up the heel. So the hunt is on for the lady who lost her shoe. This time it was a woman, Aisling O’ Toole, who discovered the lost unmatched heel. A fellow shoe-lover, O’Toole believes that every girl has a passion for shoes, and desperately wants to reunite the shoe with its owner. “She clearly loves them. If I lost a Chanel shoe I’d want it back, too,” she said. She says she feared the owner would be devastated at losing such a classic and expensive shoe, right before the Christmas season of parties and festivities began.

Sadly, a woman did phone the offices of the taxi firm shortly before the shoe was turned in, but has not called back since. Shoe Diva cannot comprehend how no one got this woman’s contact info, in case the shoe was eventually found. Meanwhile, local newspapers and radio stations continue to search for the modern day Cinderella. A Christmas deadline has been set for returning the shoe to its owner. So, Shoe Diva wonders, when the clock strikes Christmas, what will become of the Chanel? And how, pray tell, can a woman exit a taxi without noticing that she is missing one of her precious shoes?

I would want to live in a luxurious lavender apartment, designed by someone who truly loves and cherishes shoes. And I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have design my regal residence than Sommer at ClosetFetish.com. Someday, I’m convinced, this woman will become the patron saint of shoes.

My birthday was this week, and I was fortunate to be gifted with a multitude of magnificent couture shoe boxes designed by Sommer. Talk about fabulous! My shoes must be the happiest shoes in town. I won’t extend that claim to all of Florida because Donald Trump’s wife lives one county north of me, and I understand she has hundreds of these boxes lining her shoe closet. But I will say that my shoes have never been more cosseted and cared for than they are in these beauteous boxes.

Beneath each luscious lavender lid, a deep purple chamber envelops my beloved shoes between wearings. When I take them out for a day of play or a night on the town, they embrace their adventures with confidence, knowing that they will soon return home to their lovely abode. And they aren’t the only ones crazy about their new digs. I’m thrilled. Since the boxes include a built-in 4×6 photo frame, a quick glance is all it takes to find exactly what I’m looking for. Getting dressed has never been so easy, or such fun.

Here’s how to spot a Shoe Diva, according to Sommer:

She knows…
1. Less is well, just less!
2. Minimalist is another word for too cheap to buy more stuff
3. Coach is a handbag not a way to travel
4. 250 pairs of shoes is a good start..
5. Your thread count is always higher than your IQ
6. Real shoe diva’s are allergic to stores ending in MART
7. Boring and conventional is for nuns and matrons, for us its fabulous all the way!
8. Sensible means boring
9. Retail therapy is more fun than spending it on a shrink, darling
10. Great shoes maketh the Diva!

Q: How many pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes could you buy with $5000?

A: Who knows? But wouldn’t you love to find out?

I know that’s answering a question with a pair of questions, but let’s not get technical. You could be the lucky one, the winner of a $5000 Louboutin giveaway. Bergdorf Goodman is going to jump start some Lucky Lady’s Loub wardrobe…Why not yours?

Winner to be announced just in time for Valentine’s Day. Shoe Diva can’t think of a nicer way to inject some color into your shoe collection. Get clicking!

Never mind what your mother told you about keeping your shoes off the table.  Here’s a quartet of shoe books guaranteed to turn the tables on coffee table etiquette, just in time for your holiday cocktail party.

Stiletto by Caroline Cox - This exciting new book by an international fashion authority presents the story of the stiletto for the first time, illustrated with new and vintage photography to explore the stiletto’s long relationship with sex, power, femininity, and fashion.

Blahnik by Boman: Shoes, Photographs, Conversation by Eric Bowman - In these breathtaking pictures by Blahnik’s longtime friend, photographer Eric Boman, the shoes take center stage in a dazzling array of intriguing and often lighthearted scenes and settings. Boman’s unerring eye and oddly keen understanding of Blahnik’s creations make for spellbinding pictures, full of wit, playfulness, and sole.

Shoes: Objects of Art and Seduction by Paola Buratto Caovilla - Authored by the wife of Italian master cobbler Rene Caovilla, this book is a whimsical flight of fancy through the world of shoes, including history, the art of shoemaking, and fashion shows. Gorgeous illustrations.

Vintage Shoes: Collecting and Wearing Twentieth-Century Designer Footwear  by Caroline Cox - The ultimate guide to the most exemplary women’s shoes from the turn of the twentieth century through the present day. This beautiful book offers breathtaking images, stunning fashion photography, and exquisite period footwear designs from the most fabulous and collectible designers.