Some friends of ours are moving out of state for a new job. I will miss them of course.
But I am surprised to find myself feeling slightly to envious. I have solid roots here. I love my home, my hometown and having my family and friends nearby. We have renovated nearly every part of our house over the last 15 years to make it our own. I can't imagine not living in this space that I have labored over; sanded, painted, torn up and put back together. All the seasons of digging, planting, watering and mowing have reinforced the bond to this place I call home.
Still there is a restlessness. The need for an adventure. Surely I am not too old to explore new corners of this wonderful world. Yet I am stuck like a barnacle afraid to lose the familiar and comfortable life that I know, attached firmly to the bow of my little boat. The hubby would jump at the chance to live in some warmer climate. So I may be scraped free of my floating vessel yet, and forced into some unexpected and delightful voyage. Time will tell I suppose. But where ever I end up I am pretty sure of two things. One, I will stay afloat and two, I will continue to make things.
I have had this old pair of Roper boots for awhile now and finally got around to doing something with them or more accurately one of them.
The first step when prepping shoes for painting, is to clean them with some alcohol.
I didn't have the completed idea in my head when I started but I did want to experiment with cutting them so I made a template from an old plastic lid.
Then I traced a pattern onto the boots.
And started cutting.
The lining needed to be removed from the side with the cut outs. It was a little tricky to reach but with scissors and a little patience I was able to get it cut relatively smooth.
After a long bit of cutting I was ready to paint. My plan was to paint them black.
Now here is my disclaimer. If you are a serious shoe painter you may want to stop reading. I know that they make all kind of paints and you may swear by a specific type or brand. Me well I have no such allegiances and the only black paint I had was chalk paint. So contrary to shoe painting opinion I painted my shoes or more accurately my shoe with chalk paint. Cuz I am fearless that way. (It's good to not be a barnacle about everything.)
After some internal debating and a little experimenting I decided to do a little more cutting.
I had some brown sued so I added some trim with E6000 glue.
I also have a lot of old watch bands from this bracelet project and this earring project. So I painted the watch band with the chalk paint and glued it to the shoe.
To detail the sole and heel I raided the hubby's shoe shine box.
Added shine and seal with a coat of polycrylic.
And laced it up.
Happy Upcycling,
Now I just have to do the whole thing all over again.
:-)
2-4-16 Update - I finished the second shoe! Here is a time lapse version of the process.