New School Shoes (Aug. 30, 2012)

School started today and along with the new crayons, pencils and folders we brought, today also involved a new pair of shoes. The shoes are mine, actually. You may have thought I was talking about shoes for kids, as they were the ones starting school today. An easy assumption. The kids have newish shoes today, but I’m here to blog about my new shoes.



After

Before



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo on the left shoes the shows before their makeover. White shoes are fine, but they’re really not me. I need color, and I prefer polka dots. I wear lots of pink and red clothing so the idea came to me that I should paint some shoes that would add some extra punch to my red, pink and polka dotted wardrobe. Shoes that really reflect my personality.

 

It’s pretty hard to find polka dot shoes, in case you’re wondering. Actually, it’s pretty hard to find shoes that work for me. I have a joint issue in my feet and can’t wear super high heels. I also have an accident-prone issue in my body so super high heels are not a good bet for me anyway. I wanted something supportive but also cute, and let’s face it, these are often mutually exclusive categories when it comes to shoes. The supportive, comfortable ones may look like clunky, padded shoeboxes, and I do have my limits about how strange I’m willing to look. There’s fun-strange and there’s bag-over-head-strange. So I was happy to find some (on clearance!) that were comfortable and also gave me room to put my own stamp on them.

 

I’ll bet you’re wondering if I had to use special paint on shoes. Why, yes. Since these shoes were canvas, I thought I’d just use regular acrylic paint, but after walking around for an hour the paint was cracking where my feet bend. So Plan B was in order. I found fabric paint at Michael’s, and that is working better. I think this paint is designed to have more flex to it when it dries, since fabric stretches. Sadly, they had a more limited color selection than I’d like but this pinky red is almost as red as I’d like.

 

Obviously, these shoes are not for everyone. Some might find them clownish, but that doesn’t bother me. Hey, clowns make people smile (or run screaming for the exits). Clowns are colorful and full of life. There are worse things than being a tad clownish.

 

I’m on a one-woman mission to bring color and fun to grown-up clothes. Why should kids have all the cheerful-looking clothes? Shoes deserve a little fun, too…