sandal farm

It's getting ridiculous. We have a front hall the size of a roller rink and nowhere to store our shoes. (Our household observes the Japanese custom of having separate inside and outside shoes, to be exchanged at the front door. J and I even have basement shoes. You would too if your laundry were in our basement. That's one – no, several – corner(s) of my home you'll never see. No, don't beg. We're not going to the basement and that's final.)

On the subject of shoes, I would like to make a pair of Bitty Booties from Heather's pattern for a baby that is going to be born soon. This babe is known to be a boy, which I think makes the embellishment aspect of the project a little more challenging. With a girl, it is so easy to fall back on the never-fails, ever-malleable botanical theme for something cute, in the pretty sense of the word. Not that there's any reason a boy shouldn't enjoy flowers, too, in my world – and any boy we might produce will certainly have plenty of opportunity, since we have no intention of redoing the nursery just because Someone flashes a penis during the ultrasound.* But you can't count on others to share this view. And I am constitutionally opposed to the generic boy motifs of cars, trucks, trains, and reptiles. Also, whatever I do has to work with the colors of felt I have in the house because the Gargantuan Fabric Superstore closest to here has tragically closed and getting to the next-nearest one involves a driving expedition way out into suburban nowhereland.

So, I guess I have just set myself some parameters. Now the creativity comes from working within them. Hmm.

*No, I am not pregnant. Just in a contemplating state of mind.