Anyway - the real story here is that those shoes - size 7 - lasted about 3 months... actually, the shoes themselves look great still - the boy lasted about that long IN the shoes before he hit a growth spurt! So, being the male version of a fashionista (is there a word for that?) he went and bought himself a few pair of Vans (knockoffs actually) for the new school year... cool designs - whatever, he liked them, and it all worked out... Just in case the designs were too much I purchased one pair of plain white shoes from a discount store which needs no further free advertising on my blog. I (having unbelievable foresight) purchased them a half size larger than the other shoes... just in case...
Then... another growth spurt and the boring white pair was the only thing that fit! T was okay with this until the first day he wore them and came home with them a little smudgy from the fact that we don't live in a sterile environment. Can anyone say OCD? T was a picky kid who wouldn't touch weird textures but we were hoping we'd gotten over it!
Did you know that White Shoes don't stay white very well? Even with bleach and washing... should I have tried Tang? (if you didn't laugh at that you either don't read my blog often enough - see prior post - or you need a new sense of humor... work on that!)
Our solution... add color!
Lots and Lots of color...
I'd be embarrassed about the filthy state of the shoes (inside) except that their HIS nasty shoes, not mine and hey... at least it's not smell-o-vision right?
He took some Sharpies to school with him a few days in a row and had friends add their art - A lot of them would ask "are you sure your mom won't mind?" - to which he answered... My Mom drew the alien... and the cookie monster... she doesn't mind! A few kids even asked him where he got the cool designer shoes...
The process took more time than we'd hoped, about 3 weeks total because he just wanted a few more people to get a chance at the shoes... before we finished them off at home... and then, how did we celebrate?
We went out and bought him a nice new pair of tennis shoes! These works of art are now ALSO too small for his gargantuan growing teenage feet!
7 comments:
Those are awesome shoes, and you are an awesome lady!
I'm glad you survived the book fair, too.
Tang? Who knew!
Those are great! You guys are incredibly creative! A hint on keeping white fabric shoes white (besides not wearing them) is to buy white shoe polish and apply it after washing the shoes, while they're still wet. It sounds crazy, but it really does a good job!
I must admit those are the best graffiti shoes I've ever seen. I think they look like you could sell them and make money off of your art skills. Except there might be a problem with copyright infringment or something since you stole Cookie Monster. But heck, I won't tell.
You can also spray white shoes with hairspray before wearing them. When they get dirty, wash them. They are new again. Now spray again and wear! Really works. I just keeping forgetting to spray after every wash!
Those are really cool shoes. So, he didn't care you drew an alien and cookie monster on his shoes?
That is cool he likes cookie monster. Now you have to design your own slip-ons to wear!
u were in front of me at SITS today...stopping to say hello. love the coloring on the shoes idea...althpugh wehn my kids did it, i was mad. if it looked that good, i would be happy!
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