St. Patty's Day Parade Shoe

Like so many celebrations, NOLA has it's own spin on Saint Patrick's Day. During the St. Patty's day parade, some of the most coveted throws are...groceries. Specifically, vegetables that, when combined with corned beef, yield the fixings for a traditional Irish Stew: carrots, potatoes, onions and, above all, heads of cabbage.

If you're unfamiliar with NOLA St. Patty's Day, have a look through the entries in the Storyville St. Patrick's Day t-shirt art contest and you'll see how beloved those cabbage/vegetables throws are (I especially love this one and this one, which combines two NOLA inside-jokes into one design). Also, great article here and here.

In deference to the New Orleanian fondness for free cabbage (and my own partial Irish heritage), I worked up the Saint Patty's Day Parade Shoe:

The shoe is the colors of the Irish flag, with iridescent mirrored silver (Recollections "bling") standing in for white. The role of green on the back area of the shoe is played by Martha Stewart "emerald" and the orange on the straps across the foot is Recollections. The sole of the shoe is a nice cabbage-green (Recollections "pesto"). The foot and back of the foot are lined with sequin trim edging (orange on the foot, lime green along the back). Around the bottom edge of the shoe is a metallic green braided gimp trim that I got at an estate sale (also used on this shoe, and several others). I made a big showgirl-style fan of orange, green and white feathers and glittery metallic three-leaf clover branches (which I got on sale at Michael's after St. Patty's last year).

The interior of the shoe was filled with ceramic vegetables: carrots, potatoes and cabbage using hot glue. The ceramic veggies make it a heavier Muses shoe than most, but I couldn't have a St. Patty's day shoe without them...hopefully whoever the recipient is agrees and forgives me! On the foot straps, I added a little hybrid of a cabbage and a rose that I made by disassembling and layering a bunch of pale green silk hydrangea blossoms with a wee pale green rhinestone in the center.