Mwahahaha! Before I say anything else I MUST say that, I am SO super happy right now!
That's kinda why they are called my "Happy shoes" (You get instantly happy when you put them on, may only work if you are the owner of thy "Happy shoes", unfortunately.).
I started prancing around the house like a fluffy rainbow unicorn once I was FINALLY (I took 3 lazy days, maybe around 4-5 hours per day to complete them! Huff-puff!) done and Mommy called them "Happy shoes" so that name got a bit stuck and after all they ARE my "Happy shoes"! *Insert humongous smiley face here and by here I mean right HERE*
So, long story not-as-short-as-I-thought-it-would-be-short..
One fine afternoon in Klebang, Ipoh we decided to have some Indian banana leaf rice.
While waiting for the "Other" (Sorry, I don't enjoy using too many names in my blog posts.) people to arrive we found this oldish antique shop, the oldish toys caught Parpar's eyes so we decided to take a look inside and guess what?!
We ended up going on a crazy shopping spree! And most of the things (Correction, EVERYTHING.) we covered in dust! We bought anything from pink flower umbrellas to err.. Ultra-man figurines. I told you it was crazy..
I bought a HUGE red-ish (Not to be mistaken for radish.) wood "Congkak" (I have ALWAYS wanted a congkak set, I just love feeling the marbles in my hand and the sound when you drop the marbles into the wooden holes! Me and Fai spent the entire night playing Congkak once we got back home!) set complete with dusty marbles, a pair of cloth cutting scissors (I have a thang for cutting up old clothes and it ain't easy with kitchen scissors I might add.), this round wooden thing that is used to stretch your cloth so it's easier to sew (Sewing WITHOUT that thing isn't all that fun.) and..
A pair of white school (I am wearing school shooooooooeees! ..For the first time in 6 years! Yes, indeed! This is something to brag about!) high-tops.
I never planned on buying shoes, let alone WHITE (I have a tendency of getting white stuff grey/black in no time at all because I have clumsy feet that enjoy kicking stuff or just plain stumbling over themselves..) school shoes..
So it kind of went like this-
Parpar: "Heey! I used to wear these kinda shoes to school last time and they lasted me a good 3 years! What happened to your army (They were my absolute favorite pair of shoes!) ones?"
Me: "I outgrew them."
Parpar: "Alright, Little miss big feet.. Want another pair?"
Me: *Evil-ideas-on-what-to-do-to-them-once-I-get-home-brewing-in-head* "Sure!" *Insert evil grin here, make sure it looks evil.*
And THAT'S how I ended up with a pair of school shoes.
So the moment I got home (Since the trip home was pretty long it gave me PLENTY of time to daydream about IDEAS, only too bad once I got home somehow they were all erased from my head! Drat, shouldn't have dozed off!) I pulled out my crafting tool box (May I add that it can't seem to close since half of the space is already taken up by felt in any color you can think of?) and started digging for materials I could use for my little "Project".
I ended up with black fabric paint (I used this for my Masquerade mask only I have no idea why..) and Sharpies!
I bought them Sharpies to enter a competition only the "Entry" never got "Entered", poo.
So, since my mind was totally blank (I TRIED doing some research and found some good ones but I didn't use any ideas I found for this project, I am a terrible copycat.. There's something in me that says that every artwork of mine must be ORIGINAL, nothing less. That's kinda why I hate stencils and everything of mine is drawn/painted/molded freehand.) I started off by thinking what I enjoyed drawing and they were basically swirls, curvy lines (I can NEVER, EVER draw a straight line and I absolutely hate using a ruler for my art.. I feel somewhat guilty after using it.) and circles!
I started of with that little strip at the back first since it was err.. Small and easy to fill up.
The first thought that popped into my head once I drew my first purdle, I mean purple line was "Oh em geez! Shoooowtt! It SPREADS! *Eyes bulging out of their sockets and starts stomping feet*" so once I finished with all the so called "Rainbows" (Since they are missing a few colors.. I NEED more Sharpies, Humans!) I used the black fabric paint (I diluted it in a little water since I found it rather thick and hard to paint.) to outline (I used just one #1 brush from all the painting and outlining in this project. My trusty #1 Squire's Kitchen brush that could never be qualified to enter a kitchen EVER again!) random parts of the rainbow and VOILA! It's neat and tidy!
Not long after I thought it was kinda boring to just have ONE pattern/design (What's the difference, eh?) throughout that little strip and since I liked circles, I painted.. Bubbles! Mommy calls them rocks though..
Then I discovered this two long little strips running down the shoe and decided to highlight one of them lime green and the other purple to make stuff less dull since I hate dull and purple and green just POPS AND it reminds me of a purple monster that has green slime and sliver so.. Yeah!
And after that I asked myself (Since this was MY new pair of shoes, I ask myself kinda a lot of questions on what makes ME happy!) what my favorite Sharpie color was and it was the blue and turquoise-ish color.. So blue/turquoise + swirls and curvy lines = WAVES and the OCEAN. Yeah, I know.. I am a mathematics whiz! So that kinda settled it for THAT side of the shoe and at first I didn't exactly think of drawing/painting (Whatever you feel like calling it.. I think "Dranting" should work, yeah?) the "inner" side but it looked incomplete and since the colorful-ish waves kinda followed the "Rainbows" on the little strip I decided to do some simple Dranting on the inner part so it kinda completes the whole look and makes it come together!
So for the OTHER shoe I had a tough time deciding if I should copy the EXACT design or do a whole new look!
Copying the exact design would make me die of boredom so that got tossed into the bin and a whole new look will make be rather weird, at least to me so I decided to go for something in between!
The same-ish concept but a different scenery and since I had the "Above water", the next shoe was "Under water" and the only underwater animal I knew that was naturally "Swirly" was a Kraken, no not octopus.. It sounds WAY cooler this way!
Once all the Drantings were complete the white shoe laces (Seriously?! White shoes and laces?! Poor school people.) looked a bit.. Boring.
Sooo, the next day I went for a crazy shoe lace hunt in Seremban and just before I gave up, I found a Converse outlet and my, my there were SOOOOO many colors to choose from!
I couldn't decide between green and purple so I bought both! (Converse shoe laces on a non Converse shoe, hmm..)
And across it was this shop that sold laces too! For HALF the price and there were even more to choose from, so I ended up getting another two from there!
The minute I got home I started lacing my shoes the "Normal" way only to find out that the laces were too short! Urghk!
So I ended up lacing them shoes.. MY way.
-Karen Kraken Kake
