On New Shoes

I love getting new shoes. I'm not a shoe fiend like some people I know. I like actually wearing most of my shoes pretty frequently, so I'm not really a fan of the idea of owning hundreds of shoes. But I like new shoes. I like the feeling I have the first time I wear them out in public.

My newest pair of shoes (which I got to celebrate a new school year as well as my third REAL paycheck):
Are they not the most amazing shoes you've ever seen? I fell in love with them the moment I saw them in a catalog. But these shoes are SIGNIFICANT. These shoes are TIE-DYE, because I love tie-dyeing things. All the time. I have ten tie-dyed t-shirts that I've done myself. If it's white, fabric, and stays in one place long enough for me to wrap some rubber bands around it, I've already done it. For the most part. Someday, when I have my own house and furniture, I plan on tie-dyeing slipcovers for my couches and chairs. Because it doesn't need to be stain-resistant when it's been tie-dyed.

In other words, tie-dye has kind of become my trademark among my group of friends... my fallback suggestion for fun things to do together, my opinion on what my friend should paint her Beetle to look like, what I think my friend's tattoo should be (come one. A tie-dyed bicep would be way cooler than a coat of arms. Just sayin'.).

The world would be a happier place if it had more tie-dye philosophy in it. Think about it. You start out by accepting that you don't really know how it will turn out- if you will love it or hate it, if the colors will bleed a certain way, if the design will turn out the way you expected. Perfection is never demanded. In fact, imperfection is expected. Anyone can do it, and sure, some people are better than others, but most of the skills are easily learned, and are often not really necessary to make something amazing. Best of all, everyone has fun doing it.