Dem is dancin' shoes

When my wonderful friend Erin said she quit dance class because she didn't have any comfortable shoes I was inspired to try to remedy the problem. I didn't think the white leather would hold up so I ordered some blue dye - which turned out very bright.

Foxy!

For less than the cost of some "real" shoes I now have a huge grey hide. Let me know who wants to be in the shoe workshop to make a pair of grey shoes. I saw the fox design on a pair of baby shoes and thought it was so cute, but then I thought, why not put it on my next pair of shoes.

Julia and Blanky

Shoes for my Dad

For my whole life I have been the recipient of numerous beautiful handmade objects crafted by my Dad, so he was high on my list of someone I wanted to make a pair of shoes for after I learned how. His "QC" logo is on the vamp and my mother made the shoelaces on her braiding machine.

Becoming a Shoemaker

These are my latest handmade shoes that I made for my oldest granddaughter. I first got inspired by my youngest granddaughter showing up without shoes multiple times. I bought her a few pairs but she still showed up shoeless, so I looked on the internet and found a pattern for making soft soled baby shoes. After a making a few pairs I started to wonder how hard would it be to make regular shoes. The book that taught me everything I needed to know is called "Crafting Homemade Shoes" by Sharon Raymond. It is now out of print, but I was able to find a copy on the internet.

Waiting for the Parade

This is a painting of my granddaughter, Linnea, sitting on the curb - waiting for the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade to pass by.

Dorn

My Dad turned 83 today. One of his numerous hobbies is creating a family portrait gallery in his basement. Some of the portraits are by him and others are by me. He was bemoaning the fact that he did not have a picture of my brother Dorn, so I painted him one for his birthday. This is necessarily small (8x10) because he is running out of wall space down there.