"Living in the past is a full-time gig"

Credit: Karsten Moran for The New York TimesLove this article, slideshow, and video about a man whose lifestyle is inspired by the 1920s. A couple of his comments really resonated with me -- "There is a lot of craft living the way that I do" and "You've got to to create your own party." Watch and enjoy!

Sad sandals revitalized (briefly)

My second shoe painting project involved an old pair of Dansko sandals.

I had worn them on several trips to India and they were faded and stained; I rarely wore them because they looked so dingy. I needed a pair of light-colored sandals to go with a gray and white summer dress, so I decided to paint them with Lumiere Pewter. I wanted them to be more versatile so I opted to do alternating metallic colors. For each strap I mixed my own colors.

I didn't mixed enough of a single color, so each strap was slightly different, with one strap looking bronze and the other more rose gold. I was going to a performance of The Great Gatsby at Wilton’s Music Hall and needed to whip up a 1920s-inspired outfit.

I combined a 1990’s Vivienne Tam dress with a black skirt with a ruffled hem, a black lacy shawl I used to wear for belly dance class, shimmery off-white stockings and my new painted sandals. I needed a flapper fascinator and didn’t have time to shop or sew. So I safety-pinned a feather from a hat I had and an embroidered and beaded ornament I picked up in a button and trim shop in east London to the cut-off hem of a pair of blue velveteen jeans (it helps to never throw anything out).

Unfortunately, it was the first and last outing for my new painted sandals. By the end of evening, I started to feel a bit wobbly on my feet.

Later I saw that the rubber soles of my sandals had cracked and started disintegrating. Very sad that I won’t get to wear them with the dress I painted them to go with.

I have two more shoe painting projects to share!

Just to make a point that I rarely throw out things I love and will always be able to use/wear it again. The top part of my flapper dress above was a dress I bought new and shortened to wear in 1994.