GIVEAWAY - Shoe Pictures!

I'm so behind on posting, but wanted to update on the Giveaway. I may still do a few substitutions (I have a big bag of zebra striped shoes somewhere that I can't find, and I'm thinking one of those may make an appearance if I can put my hands on them before Sept. 12), but I've picked out all THIRTY shoes for the GIVEAWAY!

Funky silhouetted shoes

Super cool heeled shoes

Boot-like shoes (the bottom one is what I used on the Aztec Goddess and looks great once it's all glittered, especially if you then trace and glitter all the cut outs)

Perfect boots for getting (or maintaining) your boot balls

Excellent wedges - these were living in my "turn these into more cake shoes" bin until I pulled them for the giveaway. The red one has lots of surface area for plenty of fake cake layers if you're feeling like taking a swing at a doberge or rainbow cake or something along those lines...

Stripper-licious selections from my Ami Club Wear doorbusters order. We all know the more street-walker-y the better for Muses shoes - both have sky high heels and wicked platforms.

Baby shoes (I'm counting these each as one-half)

Some classic pointy toe high heels

These are paired because they both have cool geometric heels - the top shoe has a really cone-like shoe (perfect for something like this) and the bottom shoe has a kind of faceted geology thing going. If you're someone who lets the shoes speak to you, I'm sure these would have plenty to say.

Nice basic heels for classic Muses shoes. The bottom one is particularly nice because it's cream colored so you could layer iridescent sheers (or maybe get some sweet ombre going) without priming.

I always grab shoes like this because I like to add stuff to the heels (snoballs, sno-blizes, coffee cups, gumball machines, cotton candy, etc.) and it's always easiest for sandal type heels. This one has pretty rhinestone trim along the front for extra fanciness. 

More Ami Club Wear gorgeousness - I'm including a rainbow pump and TWO pairs of the sequin heeled platforms (one pair of pale blue, one pair of yellow). I haven't glittered these yet, but I love how a bunch of the work is already done for you - those platforms are going to look sensational when they're glittered in coordinated colors to match the sequin patchwork on the heels. For the rainbow shoe, I might not glitter the exterior at all, which is a big deal for me...rarely do I see a shoe that wouldn't be majorly improved with glitter, but I'm thinking this is one of them. I might do a coat of plain white iridescent sheer glitter so the rainbow still shows through, trying to decide (can't wait to see what the Giveaway winner does with hers!!)

Heels with a little something extra going one

The top shoe is one of those heeled sandals I like for "sculptural shoes" where the heel is a cup/cone/etc. The bottom has all these cool holes that look really neat once the whole shoe is glittered (it was the mate for my Tabasco shoe) 

This kinda retro shoe - I don't usually like a strappy shoe because of the floppiness factor, but this one holds it's shape nicely and I love the chunky heel

That's all of them! As a reminder, go and enter HERE by telling me about your favorite Muses Shoe by Sept. 9th and they might be yours to glitter!!

PS - You don't need to be a Muse to win, so tell your friends and they could potentially score more chances for you to get them...

I love you guys - GIVEAWAY

Not to get all gushy, but while I am always pretty psyched to have this blog, at times like this I'm double super especially grateful to have a space to swap tips and tricks with like-minded glitter enthusiasts!

First of all, I posted about the Ami Club Wear doorbusters sale and how the "catch" was expensive shipping, and a reader commented with this amazing hack: you can add a regular priced item to bring the total up to $50+ and still get free shipping and I tried it today and it WORKED. AMAZING!!! Thank you, Sarah Williamson: you are my favorite person. Let's ride a bicycle made out of dreams into friendship.

Secondly, I am absolutely over-the-moon excited about the September workshops. Yes, plural. So many people responded that I shifted the schedule around so I could offer two classes that day instead of one and fit twice as many ladies (yeah, I'm going to be dead by the end of the day, but what of it?) I cannot wait to meet all of you and glitter with you and its just going to be so amazing I can't wait!!! Lots of work to prep ahead of me, but I can tell it's going to so be worth it.

I'm feeling so full of love that I'm going to have a GIVEAWAY!!

Here's how it's going to work: between now and midnight of Wednesday September 9 comment here telling me about your favorite Muses shoe (a link/picture is helpful, but not essential) and why it was your favorite. Note that it does not have to be one of mine, I promise to be objective!! I'm going to pick my top 10 favorite entries and my husband (MIT degree in computer science) will use a random number generator to pick a winner.

The prize will be THIRTY SHOES - an entire year's ride's worth of shoes. Unglittered, but ready for you to unleash their Muse-y fantasticness. When my Ami Club Wear order arrives, I will post a picture of my 30 selections, but I will try to go as stripper-tastic as possible.

If you win, you (or some proxy you appoint) must be able to come pick the 30 shoes up during the September workshop hours, so some time between 12 and 6 pm on Saturday

So, start commenting here, share with Muses you know, and I'll update with a picture of the shoes in question as soon as possible.

Love and glitter, y'all.

Doorbusters Shoe Sale

This sale has been making the rounds (I've had three people send it to me so far - not complaining, please always send a shoe sale my way) and I just placed my order so I thought I'd share my thoughts: http://www.amiclubwear.com/door-busters.html

When you first see this your thoughts are going to be "OMG! $2 shoes!!" so before you get too excited, let me give you the good news and the bad news. The bad news: there's a catch and you aren't actually getting shoes for $2 a pair. The good news, they are still very cheap (cheapest I've ever seen for unused shoes) and some of them are positively stripper-licious.

The shipping is pretty pricey, that's the "catch." Yes, there's free shipping on orders $50 or more, but it doesn't apply for doorbusters.

As best I can tell, shipping for the first two pairs of shoes is about $12, then goes up about $2 for every pair of shoes you add. I'm not sure if this holds up, but works for a back of the envelope calculation:

For shoe price = $2 per shoe, number of shoes purchased = n
Total = (12 + 2n) + 2n = 12 + 4n

So, if the $2 extra shipping per shoe holds up you'd expect the price to asymptotically approach $4/pair.

So not actually $2/pair when all is said and done, BUT assuming you get more than 3 pairs, you're still looking at about $7/pair which is great for new shoes. My advice in terms of getting the most bang for your buck would just be to pick out really fabulous, unique pairs (I can get plain high heels at thrift stores for $2, so that's not what I'm hunting for here). Also, as always, if you have some float mates to pool orders with, you'll probably get a slight advantage there in total cost per shoe.

If you're curious, I ordered some of these yellow sequin platform heels:

Image from www.amiclubwear.com

And these fabulous rainbow gradient heels (which are $6.99 rather than $1.99, but still):

Image from www.amiclubwear.com

I'll post pictures when they arrive!

Also, while we're on the subject of shoe buying, I was visiting with a friend this past weekend who very generously let me pick through her finds and she had a trunk full of really great heels from Bloomin' Deals on Freret ($2.50/pair). This supports my theory that if you plan ahead and start buying shoes now you're probably going to have a much better selection than if you wait.

September Workshop FULL!!

We are all full up for the September 12 workshop! I'm very excited -  a great mix of experience levels and no less than three krewes represented! I can't wait for all the sparkly fun we're going to have :)

If you'd like to get on the wait list in case of a cancellation, email me at drnoripants at gmail dot com

One last thing, and I'll let everyone get back to their regularly programmed Tuesday....

If you like my blog, and aren't reading Glitter Buzz NOLA yet, you should be - it's so, so good. Exquisite shoes, great ideas and lots of technical detail.

2016 Aztec Goddess Muses Shoe

Finished this one quite a while ago, but I'm way behind on my blogging. I bought a pair of these kinda weird high heeled booties with a cut out pattern and zipper down the front, and while I usually prefer a classic high heel, I grabbed 'em. Variety is the spice of life, am I right?

The shoe was a soft suede and super floppy, so I used it as a visual aid in my workshop for how to stiffen up or reshape a smushed shoe (which, FYI, I do by stuffing with plastic bags until the desired shape is obtained then coating with glue and letting it dry and only removing the plastic bags when the exterior is all glittered). I brought the unglittered shoe from the pair and this finished shoe so workshop participants could feel and see the difference. I will probably still throw this one (it says 2016), so I'll have to find another pair for the visual aid for future workshops.

I used Jefferson Variety glitter (blue on the exterior, green on the interior, holographic gold on the sole and zipper) and Gary's gold for tracing the cut outs and doing the glettering (JV is just a smidge coarser than all the other glitters I use and I thought the finer glitter would be better for detail work). I lined the edges with gold holographic faceted sequin trim from Papermart.com (my favorite source for sequin trim).

I finished it off with a big fan of dark green and peacock feathers and a little puff of green marabou. With the feathers and the color scheme, the final shoe has kind of an Aztec vibe, hence her name.

NOLA in 2 days + workshop update

So excited to be flying down to NOLA for a long weekend in 2 days! Normally my husband and I drive down and it's not a bad drive, but Southern Airways has added their Memphis - NOLA flights so we're seeing if the baby prefers a 2 hr flight on mama's lap to the 6 hrs in that torture device we call the car seat (spoiler alert: probably). If y'all don't know about Southern Airways, check them out - it's a tiny little 10-seat puddle jumper type plane that does a handful of flights to Southern cities and I love them. Obviously this and anything else I might mention here aren't pair endorsements...rest assured, my blog's too little to sell out.

Of course, I'll now totally contradict myself by plugging my September workshop! WE ARE HALF FULL FOR SEPTEMBER!! There may be another workshop before the 2016 ride (maybe December/early Jan), but I can't promise anything. Right now I'm considering having another 101, or I might have an "Advanced Embellishment" curriculum organized by then, or I might get blindsided by the holiday season/finishing shoes for my sister and I and just not get around to another workshop until after the 2016 Carnival season. Also, even if I have another in December, it's a super early Carnival this year and you'd be left with much less time to get your throws done for 2016 than if you sign up for September. So, I don't want to twist anyone's arm, but I'll just say if you're thinking you'd like to take my workshop, I wouldn't wait too much longer to drop me a line at drnoripants at gmail dot com. Spaces are, as the informercials would say, limited and going fast.

Anyways, can't wait for the weekend: Greenie Gals Preseason Tea, visit to Gary's to check out the new colors I've heard have been added, maybe even get crazy and pop into Jefferson Variety...