La Boulangerie

In the French style, La Boulangerie puts porcelain "feves" in their King Cakes and Galettes des Rois rather than plastic babies. If you aren't swamped with prep for tonight, today La Boulangerie has tiny little porcelain shoes in their King Cakes for Muses Thursday. We were able to score some after dropping my sister off to begin her big day of Muse-ness.

Here are mine (I'm totally going to recreate the polka-dot one for 2015):

ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS! I CANNOT WAIT!!

I hope everyone has an amazing time tonight, whether you're riding or watching.

It's beginning to look a lot like Carnival...

My supplies are currently all packed up, but this weekend I did buy some gold glitter sneakers to wear to Muses 2014 that I may doctor up with some rhinestones and maybe some cool shoelaces. Getting excited!!

Tabasco Shoe

We had some leftover teeny tiny Tabasco sauce bottles from the bags we assembled for our out of town guest when we got married, and I thought that would be a cute shoe theme. I didn't want to leave the bottle full of actual sauce (which would in theory spoil one day), so I emptied the Tabasco bottle (into some beans, natch) and cleaned it out thoroughly with soapy water and a Q-tip. Once it was dry, I filled the bottle with red glitter and glued the cap back on.

I wasn't 100% sure if I'd like the holes in this shoe but now I LOVE THEM. When the shoe has cut-outs like this you have to be a little  more careful when you're painting the glue onto the shoe, but it wasn't too bad.

The interior is ArtMinds stackable (green with a tiny bit of gold mixed in), the heel and edges are ArtMinds silver. The main body and sole of the shoe are two shades of red, Recollections "cherry" and the slightly darker red from Oriental Trading (the pictures don't really show that there's a different in hue in different sections of the shoe). I had just enough red sequin trim left for the lower edge of the shoe and I lined the upper edge and peep-toe edge with individual silver sequins (placed with tweezers). I hot glued the red feather plume in the back (which may have to be replaced with something less fragile, I'm worried it's going to get crushed) and attached the glitter filled mini bottle on the front with E6000.

Scarlett O'Hara Green Curtain Dress Shoe

You know that scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett pulls down the portieres because she's going to Atlanta to see Rhett for the money to save Tara, and has to go "looking like a queen?" The resulting Green Curtain Dress was the inspiration for this shoe, because who doesn't just love that dress?

I was going through scraps in my mom's sewing room to see if there were any bits and bobs that might look good on a Muses shoe and noticed she had a few bits of upholstery trim, and I went from there.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a good forest green in the stash (all my greens are a little too bright/not dark enough), but I found the perfect color and The Glitterage so I went for it. The interior of the shoe and heel are Martha Stewart, the sole and lettering are Recollections champagne. The trimming was all leftover bits from my mom's stash with some brass and amber-colored rhinestone adornments to finish it off. I had some fringe, but couldn't really find a good spot on the shoe for it. I still have some upholstery trim so if I can find a good green glitter, I may do another take on this. I also have some trim that would be great on a Scarlett O'Hara garnet dress shoe.

Cleveland Browns Shoe

I realize this isn't going to be anyone from NOLA's favorite of my 2014 shoes. This one is for my sister to throw to a friend of hers who is (and this may be obvious) a fan of the Cleveland Browns.

The brown is Martha Stewart "brownstone" and the orange is Recollections "copper." The sole is Recollections gold. The football is a discounted Christmas ornament flipped over (same treatment as this Saints shoe). The shiny tinsel wreath wrapped around the little football is some autumn trim that I bought on sale and picked the leaves out of. The edges are lined with orange sequin trim from a $1 Michael's bargain bin roll.

Here's the shoe before all the transfers:

And here it is post-transfers:

The lettering is ArtMinds silver and Martha Stewart (I think it's called orange popsicle? Something like that).

2014 Steel Magnolias Shoe

Last year was the 25th anniversary of the Steel Magnolia's stage play, so I did the blush and bashful shoe. This year is the 25th anniversary of the film, so I made another pink shoe for one of my favorite fictional Louisiana belles, Shelby. Like the 2013 blush and bashful shoe, I went for a pink palette (something that looked "hosed down with pepto bismol") and accented with silver, because Jackson and Shelby would be celebrating their 25th anniversary, which is the silver wedding anniversary. I trimmed the shoe with some big iridescent pink sequins and white and silver wedding-style trim and a nice silver magnolia with a rhinestone center. The white and silver trim was leftover from a Southern bride's wedding second line umbrella, so it felt like a good fit for this theme.

This shoe obviously had to be primed with a few coats of white spray paint before glittering. The pink is actually the Recollections tinsel-style glitter, which I'd never worked with before. I like the texture of it a lot, I'm definitely going to use it again. The color is "blush," which is just too perfect. The silver is ArtMinds and there's a Martha Stewart pink on the sole, that doesn't really show in any of the pics. It's a little darker than the pink of the main shoe.

Steel Magnolia

After doing two of these, I've decided that I'd really like to do a Steel Magnolias shoe every year. I don't know what it is, but I have a serious soft spot for Steel Magnolias. Maybe next year I'll do a Miss Merry Christmas Shoe? A Truvy's Beauty Spot Shoe? Or another pink shoe for Shelby (Shelby would've loved Muses, it would've been her hands down favorite).

Hyacinth Shoe

Hyacinths are my favorite flower, possibly because they're nature's pH indicator. I had some blue-green hyacinths in my stash, and thought they'd look pretty on a summery little sandal.

I primed the shoe with white spray paint, so it could handle pale sheer glitters. The blue is a glitter I can't identify, as it was applied in The Glitterage. The lime green on the sole, heel and lettering is Martha Stewart. I lined the edge around the shoe with silver braid trim and glued some hyacinth blossoms with rhinestone centers on the front. To give it a little extra bling, I added a row of rhinestones down the back and some more dotted around the sandal straps.