Sounds like what I call "puffy feet" - ie. water retention. You wouldn't notice it first thing in the morning when you put your shoes on, but throughout the day - your feet might be swelling up a bit, causing chafing/irritation that you hadn't experienced before.
Causes for this sort of thing? Traveling, hot weather, increased intake of high-sodium foods throughout the day, increased refined carbohydrate content in daily meals/menus, decreased vegetable intake (veggies are very good for sloughing off water weight), drinking more sodas/Diet Coke recently, not drinking as much water and so on.
In short, there are a lot of things that cause water retention throughout the day, and I'm thinking that the reason your shoes aren't fitting as well as you remember is because of plain old water retention, and it could be anything from sodium to not eating as many salads/veggies as you might have in the past. Could be something as simple as drinking more Diet Coke to being so busy lately that you're not eating as many vegetables as you normally do. Maybe not drinking enough plain water - that sort of thing.
It's happened to me before - put on shoes, everything's fine, but then somehow - at the end of the day, my formerly super-comfortable shoes aren't so comfortable anymore. For me, it boils down to retaining water.
Not sure if this helps - but this is what came to mind when I read your post.
Remedies? Drink more water, ditch high-sodium foods/ processed meats, eat more vegetables and fruit, nix diet pop/soda for a short time (replace with real brewed plain iced tea if you need the caffeine lift), eat a bit more celery and asparagus (water sloughing veggies). I'm thinking this is a temporary problem - nothing to do with skin issues or what have you, but that you might be retaining more water than usual throughout the day for whatever reason - because of this, you shouldn't get rid of your perfectly good shoes - it's more likely that this is a totally temporary situation.
In the meantime, although I haven't posted/participated much, just wanted to say that I have the same green/marble MK draped neck dress as you do - in fact, you looked so good in that thing that I snapped one up immediately (quite awhile back).
I'm still working on "the last ten/twenty pounds" (after losing over a hundred already), but the thing is - you've given me the inspiration to just go ahead and be/feel beautiful anyway, right now. Gain ten, lose ten, puffy feet or no puffy feet, job stress, family stress, whatever - why not look and feel good now?
Sorry for the off-topic tangent, just wanted you to know what a great influence you are
Here's hoping you solve the shoe problem.
PS - traveling tomorrow, and so this is kind of a drive-by post - if I don't respond to anything, it's because of my absurd schedule. Only mentioning this because I don't want to seem rude just jumping in on a post and then not being here again for awhile.
