Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Clever Clever Me

Sometimes I am so resourceful and clever that I even amaze myself. I'll let YOU be the judge here.

All I wanted was a nice little pair of Blue Shoes.

I say "nice" and "little" as in, I didn't want to pay over thirty dollars for them. In fact under ten would have been nice.
I have been searching the Internet trying to find a pair of dark blue shoes that
A. don't look orthopedic
B. aren't too dressy
C. aren't too casual
D. are flats
And
E. are CHEAP!

Wouldn't you think that with all of the Internet, that finding just the right shoes would have been a walk in the park?

HA! As if.

The other issue at hand is that I'm really irresponsible when it comes to sending things back. Even when they pay for it. I knew that this would most likely be a problem because I have a monster of a time finding shoes that not only fit, not only are comfortable, but that will also stay on my feet.
I honestly don't know why but with a lot of shoes, even though they might fit just fine, after the first step or two they will not stay on my heels.

It's like I take a step and the shoes don't.

I certainly can't keep putting my foot back into my shoes every two or three steps. Does anyone else have that problem?

Well, a few weeks ago, Payless Shoes teamed up with Oprah. For two days at the end of October, you could go to Oprah's web page and print out a coupon for 50% off everything in the store.
My daughter Heidi was the one who alerted me to it.

Thank you Heidi!

I got there an hour and a half before they closed. On the last day for the coupon. Things were sort of picked over. I did find a couple pairs of shoes, a nice purse, some socks and even a cute necklace though.

One of the pairs of shoes was a cute little black and white tweed number. For less than nine dollars even.
That was with the half off.
I wasn't entirely sure what I would wear them with at the time, I just thought they were cute and being half off made them even cuter.
Here is a picture of them.


Well, for the next few weeks I wore them only once. It just seemed like they didn't go with anything as well as some of my other shoes did. I started to feel like those sweet little black and white shoes were becoming the Elephant in my closet. I kept seeing them and feeling guilty for neglecting them but what could I do?
I certainly didn't want to take them back. How could I not keep them?
They had only cost me 8.50$.
This is when I started toying with the idea of somehow taking those nice little shoes and making them useful.
I couldn't help but notice all of the white on them. What is white mostly good for, I asked myself?
Why, to be colored any color you would want. I answered myself.
Hmmmm. Black and White shoes. A need for some dark blue shoes.
think think think think think
YES! I will color those little white sections BLUE!
Now for the
"Method"
I considered RIT dye.
Much too messy.
Also anything I have ever dyed has always bled onto everything else.
Not an attractive quality in a pair of shoes.
That's when I thought of my rather large collection of Sharpie Markers. Have you ever accidentally gotten sharpie marker on an item of clothing? Yeah? Just try and get it off.
If it won't come off when you accidentally get it on something then it certainly stands to reason that if you purposely put it on something it won't be going anywhere.
WHOOO HOOOO!
Problem solved.
Blue shoes coming UP!
I have to admit that it was hard to start. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I might just be ruining a perfectly good pair of shoes. That, of course, is the beauty of having a cheap pair of shoes that you've only worn once.
I mean, how bad could it be?
I started coloring. It was much easier than I had imagined it would be. Those shoes were practically begging for that color.
The only problem was that they started to look almost more purple than blue. The fact that I've also been after a nice pair of purple shoes didn't escape my attention. But NO! I was going to have blue shoes no matter what.
I finally decided to get my light blue marker and go over them with it as well.
You know? So as to increase the blueness?
It worked. That light blue added not only a little more blueness to those shoes but also a bit more depth and dimension.
Am I happy with the results?
Do dogs pee in the snow?
Yes I am HAPPY!
I now have me some lovely BLUE SHOES!
And I did it all myself.
So go ahead and color me HAPPY!
And now for the pictures
I've been thinking that some olive green shoes would be nice.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Do they make olive green sharpies?

14 comments:

Josephine said...

Genius!!! I think they actually look even cuter "sharpie blue" than white!

Jenn said...

They do make olive green sharpies - but you need to go to an art store. :)

bensfm said...

I never would have thought of using sharpies! Way to go!

Jennybell said...

cute,I hope you colored the 2nd shoe :)
I like Payless. I am not a shoe person, mostly because my feet are so big. But they have a good selection of bigger size shoes. I was just there looking for some fuzzy lined moccasins I saw, but they didn't have my size. I thought they'd be great to slip on to take Isaiah to school or Naomi to therapy. I'm all about cozy

Lisa Christine said...

I think you got your cleverness from your Dad.

And might I add that this idea was brilliant!!

And some great photography too! ha!

Jen A. said...

what an ingenious idea & they really do look better blue. Who da' thunk!

Heidi D said...

How very clever of you.

I like them both colors actually. I would wear them with anything. I wonder if they have anymore of them...

libbie said...

you are so freaking awesome! I LOVE this idea! It looks amazing! Who would have ever though? Oh . . . YOU WOULD!!

Amy J. said...

They do look cuter in the dark blue! I think one of the best feelings is taking something that you can't use and making it a favorite item!

John actually bought a pair of dress shoes that were around ten dollars and they had an orange pin stripe! We used black sharpies and he wears them almost eveyr day!

David said...

AHEM, no new post in over a week??

the shoes look great! very clever and non linear of you!

lisa says she's getting a real christmas tree this year and that you do not approve of real christmas trees lol

Jeanette said...

Very clever. I am still looking for a good pair of new shoes. I may use your idea if I find a pair and they aren't the right color!

Josephine said...

Avery's picture was a fish, so you won the cookies for your second guess :) In fact, your two first thoughts about the picture were the same as mine :) So if you email me your address I can send you the cookies (once I've baked them!)
josephineab@yahoo.co.uk

Marilyn said...

Wow! You ARE clever, I mean seriously, I would never have thought of that and it looks so good too!

dani said...

great minds think alike, suz... i've totally done that before;) cute, Cute, CUTE!!!