Shoes.

I really love shoes.

My mom used to call me "Imelda," after Imelda Marcos- 1980's First Lady of the Phillipines, known to have owned over two thousand pairs. (She was also recently dubbed one of Newsweek's "Greediest People of all Time," so perhaps I should curb my fetish just a bit...)

I'll probably never have thousands of shoes (sadly), but I have discovered a new love:

baby shoes.

Tiny, adorable, itty bitty baby shoes.

A few weeks ago I discovered the most beautiful little pair of boots I have ever seen, and (lucky me!) the pattern to sew them. So I bought the pattern and made some for Madison.
And then made some more.
And then got a little carried away.


And although I would love to have a pair of boots to match every single one of my daughter's outfits, I thought it would be a little more practical to try to sell them. I've rented a booth in a Fall Farmers' Market near my parent's house a few weeks from now, so we'll see what the baby shoe market is like and if I can bring in a little extra grocery money (we can all use a little extra grocery money these days!).

If nothing else, it brings together an old love of shoes and a new-found passion for designing/ creating that brings me a sense of satisfaction and purpose I haven't felt in a while. Maybe it's silly to find so much meaning in shoes. But maybe it's important to have something outside of my daily routine that I love to do and will maybe give someone else a little joy, too.

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty." -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf