Wednesday, March 26, 2014

All That Glitters...

I was mail stalked by a J. Crew catalog the other day and these killer shoes whispered soft nothings into my ears.
Yowsa! $228 for these? I don't think so. 

Then, about a day later, I was electronically stalked by Anthropologie with these dangling in front of my face. Seriously, I need some sort of retail restraining order!
Pretty darned slick little kickers! The asking price? Going for $40, marked at 50% off from $80. Meh.

I have a ton of shoes sitting in my closet. No need to buy more. The more that I justified NOT buying new shoes, I began to realize that I have retained shoes for years that I no longer wear. Why? Well, they were damaged in some form or fashion. I suppose the thrifty side of myself thought that I could repair the shoes somehow.

The moral of the story? This retail stalking had evolved into another Cheapskate Tip!

I had an old pair of oxford shoes that I probably paid less than $20 for at Payless many moons ago. The material was composed of the worst synthetic elements because the top layer peeled off in small bits each time they were worn. Frustrating, huh? Glitter is course enough to cover up that business!!!
I taped off the edges with painter's tape so that the Mod Podge wouldn't dribble into the areas I did not want the glitter. Simply brush on glue with a paint brush, dust with glitter, allow to dry. Repeat these steps multiple times until even throughout and heavily glittered. Finish with 1-2 coats of Mod Podge to lock in the glitter and create a final seal.
Cheap shoes glammed up within a couple of days and $2 of supplies I already had on hand! I'm officially addicted.

I had another pair of shoes that could use a glitter treatment. I wore this pair of heels years ago when I was MoH at my bro and sis-n-laws' wedding. By the end of the night, the heels were ruined due to my heels sinking into the ground while we were taking photos outside. The light-colored silk heels had mud stains that I could not remove. I was so excited to get my glitter on that I forgot to take a photo of these heels to demonstrate what they looked like before. 
Here they are after the glitter treatment! I was happy with the results! The glittered heels match the glittered front strap. Looked like I bought them that way for $200, but I spent nothing!

Cheers to getting more wear out of our shoes!