Top Secret Shoes

I’ve always secretly wanted to be a spy.    I like to think I look so innocent that no one would ever suspect me, but I don’t think that’s how it works.  (Hey, a girl can dream.) 

But until October, I can be a spy at the Franklin Institute with their new exhibit SPY: The Secret World of Espionage!  I can try firsthand spy experiences like personal disguises, voice alteration, and navigating through a field of laser beams (AWESOME), but there’s also a lot of spy artifacts—including a pair of shoes bugged with a listening device in the heel!  Legit used by the Czechs to spy on us in the 1960s!  Spy shoes!!

If you too have always wanted to be a spy, I’ve got the shoes to help you get the job.  First: what are a spy’s favorite shoes?  SNEAKers!  Ha ha!  (Groan.)  But these sneakers might actually be helpful:

These sneakers have a hidden camera!  It has real time audio video recording with date/time stamping, and it comes with the receiver-screen thingy!  (Okay, so maybe I’m not ready to be a spy yet.  I’ll get there.)  But be warned, ladies: if you see a guy wearing these, watch for illicit upskirt video!  Also available in a few other shoe types, but this pair runs $288 from Omejo.

Camera shoes: check.  But what if you have to store secret stuff?  See these adorable wedges?

But wait!

The back opens!  And you can stash secret stuff!  Awesome.  The good people at Double Agent shoes have made a whole collection of heels with secret boxes in the back like this, or slim side pockets, or fully loaded with both!  The Panther just has the wedge box, and runs $299 (prices vary by style and number of secret compartments!).

But what if you need to make a quick getaway?  Get a little crafty and make yourself a pair of grappling hook shoes!

You can find the how-to at Instructables (including a video of the grappling hook in action), including some helpful thoughts on weight loads and engineering things like that.  The pulling-out-of-the-cord seems a bit much; I might try to make the cord retractable in the shoe.

Okay!  You’ve got the shoes!  Now to be trained:

Stiletto Spy School!  It’s got a shoe right in the name!  With daytime workshops in NYC and a weekend-long spy extravaganza in Las Vegas, Stiletto Spy School teaches women everything a lady spy needs to know: firearms.  Knife fighting.  How to tell if someone is lying.  Seduction and exotic dance.  (What?  Mata Hari was a spy!)  This seriously is my dream.  Stiletto Spy School, call me!

But if you don’t want to do all that, you can just go check out the exhibit instead. J  Over and out!

Shoe Science!

This was the scene last week at the museum where I work:

Those beautiful golden shoes are mine (of course!), but what exactly am I doing?  I am swabbing the underside of my shoe for any microbes that might be hiding there, to give to the Science Cheerleader!  Darlene is a former professional cheerleader who now uses her cheering skills to bring science to everyone.  The microbes from my shoe (as well as from a few places around my museum) have a chance of making it to the International Space Station as a part of Project MERCCURI!

You can still contact them about getting involved, but if you just want to try it at home and see what you might have on there, pick up a bacteria growing kit, like this one from Steve Spangler Science:

It comes with six large (4 inch) diameter Petri dishes, six cotton swabs, five grams of Nutrient Agar, one 600 mL plastic beaker, and one activity guide-- all for fifteen bucks!  Do your work shoes, walking shoes, or gym shoes have the most bacteria?   Here is how Steve Spangler recommends you find out:

• In making the agar solution, mix ½ tsp of agar (about 1.2 grams) with ¼ cup (60 mL) of hot water and stir. Bring this mixture to a boil for one minute to dissolve the agar completely. The mixture should be clear with no particles floating around in the solution. Cool the solution for several minutes.
• Prepare three Petri dishes for the first part of the experiment. Fill the bottom half of the dishes with the solution, loosely cover them with the lids so the moisture can escape, and allow the agar to cool and harden for a couple of hours or overnight.
• Choose three shoes to test.
• Follow this germ-collecting process for each step of your experiment:
1. Wash your hands.
2. Slightly wet the end of a clean Q-Tip and swab the shoes.
3. Lightly run the wet/germy Q-Tip over the surface of the agar.
4. Throw away the Q-Tip.
5. Close the Petri dish, tape the dish shut, seal it in a Ziploc bag, and label it.
6. Wash your hands.
• Once the germs are collected, place the Petri dishes in a warm dark place to grow (anything up to about 98 degrees F should be fine). All dishes should be in the same place and observed for the same number of days to standardize the conditions.
• Most bacteria collected in the environment will not be harmful. However, once they multiply into millions of colonies in a Petri dish they become more of a hazard. Be sure to protect open cuts with rubber gloves and never ingest or breathe in growing bacteria. Keep your Petri dishes sealed in the Ziploc bags for the entire experiment. When you're finished with the experiment, some people recommend placing the Petri dish bag in a larger Ziploc bag along with a few drops of bleach. Seal the larger bag and dispose of it in the trash.
• You're likely to have a huge variety of colors, shapes, and smells in your Petri dishes. Count the number of colonies in the dishes, note the differences in color, shape, and other properties. Getting bacteria to grow can be a little tricky, so don't get discouraged if you have to make more than one attempt. Allow enough time for the germs to grow, too. You need millions of them in one place just to see them at all.

If you’re not interested in seeing what’s growing, I can’t say I blame you.  Maybe just enjoy these Periodic Table sneakers instead!

This pair of hand-painted shoes has everything you might need to cheat on your high school chemistry test: elemental symbol, atomic number, even the metals and non-metals, all color-coded!  Yours for $50 from Etsy seller Stolle Creations.

Happy science!

A Perfect 10

Fashion is from top to toe.  Would you wear a beautiful outfit and terrible shoes?  Or a terrible bag?  Of course not.  So why not put some thought into your nails?

Let’s start with a manicure:

Love!  This set comes with a nail clipper, nail file, and cuticle pusher and scissors.  But the best part is the faux leather, high heel-shaped case!  Black on the outside, pink on the inside!  I love it.  Yours for $5.85 from Diva Entertains. 

Okay, your nails are in good shape.  Now what to paint?  Maybe a decal:

A black stiletto is a classic look, no matter where it might be!  But in case black’s not your thing, it comes in 22 (count ‘em: 22!) other colors, so the combinations are endless—imagine white heels on black nails, or turquoise on purple, or orange on light pink…  Plus you get 50 of them, so you’ll have five manicures to play with them.  Yours for $5 from Etsy seller Make it Stick Designs.

Want to try your hand at painting?  Here’s something kicky and fun!

Looks a lot like these Converse All-Stars, wouldn’t you say?

Classic!  A canvas upper in your choice of colors, white at the toe, white laces, contrast stitching, and rubber sole—yours for $50.

But back to the nails!  To make these painted sneakers:

1. Paint the nail in the sneaker color you want.  Let it dry. 
2. Paint the top white, but be sure to paint it straight across your nail and not curved like you would do for a regular French manicure.
3. Paint the holes.  I always use toothpicks dipped in paint for detail work, but you could also use tiny brushes or dotting tools (both available in this cool kit).  Make a white circle, let it dry, and then fill it in with black.  Let it dry.
4. Paint the laces—just connect the dots in a crisscrossing fashion!  Let dry, and seal with topcoat.

Looking for something dressier than sneaks?  You could do a Louboutin manicure.  What is that, you ask?  Well, let’s start with a pair of Louboutins, just for kicks:

Gorg, right?  The Glitter Double Strap Platform Pumps have two ankle straps, a T-strap up the front, a peep toe and half-inch hidden platform, and a 4.25-inch heel.  (Yours for $895 from Saks.)  Are you feeling inspired by the silver glitter on the front, and the signature red on the back?  Adele was, at the Grammys last year.  Take a look at the silver front:

And the red on the underside!

Unexpected and fun.  (And simple!  No tricky paintwork or extra tools involved.)

I hope these have inspired you to get out your paints and try something new.  After all, open-toe shoe season is just around the corner!  

Mmm... Chocolate!

Halloween is just around the corner!  Makes me think of costumes, pumpkins... and chocolate!

Aren’t they beautiful?  These shoes are made of chocolate, which you might not be able to guess right away from their meticulous decorations: flowers, pearls, glitter... these heels have it all.  (I wish that pearled one came as a real shoe!)  Where can you find them, you ask?  They’re special order from our own Philly Chocolate, and clock in at around $55 each.

What?!  $55?  Yes, I kid you not.  That seems to be about the going rate.  These heels from Gayle’s Chocolates are $45 (but they come in that cute little bag!):

Plus Gayle’s keeps these in stock, so you don’t need to wait for a special order. 

But say you want to make chocolate shoes yourself.  You’ll need a mold!  This one makes shoes that are 8.25 inches long, with a 2.5-inch heel:

It’s less than $5 on Amazon (though shipping will run you another $3).  Or maybe you want little shoes:

This mold will make you a dozen little heels at a time!  And it’s less than $2 on Amazon!  (There’s $3 shipping here too.) 

So you’ve made your chocolate shoes.  Time for the fun part: decorating!  First, you’ll need edible glitter, and what better place to find it than... Edible Glitter.  They have a ton of colors (over 80!), and it looks like real glitter and not like those flakes that Wilton makes (you know which I mean).  I want real glitter, people, not flakes!!

Ahem.

So now your shoes are glittered up.  Maybe you want butterflies on the toes:

These butterflies are made of chocolate!  They would look so lovely on a yellow or orange shoe (though straight-up brown would be beautiful too).  You can get six for $18 from Fancy Flours.

Fancy Flours has a ton of decorating ideas.  I personally love their sugar jewels:

They’re like real jewels, but made of sugar!  I don’t see how you could eat them; they’re too perfect.  You can get them in a variety of colors (like shown here) or all in one color—either way, you get 8 for $15.

Or bows!

You can 18 of these little fondant bows (in blue, white, or pink) for $15.

Of course, now that they’re all gorgeous you might not want to give them away (and certainly not to those unappreciative trick or treaters, who’d like a mini Snickers bar equally well).  Guess you’ll have to eat them yourself!

Sales this weekend:
Bloomingdales: Save 25-30%
Bus Stop Boutique: From 5-8:30 tonight, check out their expanded collection of men's shoes, have an ice cold beer, and and save 15% on anything you bring home for your man!
Lord & Taylor: Save 25% on your first pair of boots; 30% off two or more pairs
Macy's: Save 15% and free shipping with code SHINE, plus some comfort looks and holiday shoes on sale
Nine West: 30% off boots and booties
Payless: Fall sale

Book Shoes!

So on Tuesday I gave you a book about shoes.  Today I give you: shoes covered in a book!

What do you think?  I started with a cheap copy of one of my favorite books (Jane Eyre) from Books·A·Million, a bottle of Mod Podge, some little metal frames from the scrapbook aisle of Michaels, my trusty E-6000 glue, two little tombstone-shaped pieces of foam (what? it’s the only foam I had in the craft box), and a pair of pumps by Jessica Simpson with a shape similar to these:

Mine were in a floral print and have a gold heel, but the Oscar Glitter Pump by Jessica Simpson is navy glitter all over and a 3.5-inch black heel.  I bet all the glitter would hold the glue well, though!  You can find these at DSW for $60.

So you’ve got all your supplies.  Now what?

1. Remove pages from the book.  (I cut mine out with an X-Acto knife and made a book safe with the shell!  I wasn’t going to waste a good book—I love books almost as much as I love shoes.)  Set aside a stack of your favorite pages to cover your shoe, and two that will fill the little frames at the toe.

2. Spread Mod Podge on a section of the shoe, and press on one page at a time.  There’s going to be some folding of pages around the curves of the shoe—just smooth them down with glue.  Cover the whole shoe this way, and then cover with extra layers of Mod Podge to protect the paper.  Let dry.

3. Glue pages into the little frames.  I sandwiched the pages between pieces of clear plastic that the frames came on in the packaging.  Since my frames didn’t sit flat on the toe of my shoes, I glued them to little pieces of foam.

4. When the shoes are dry, glue the frames (foamed or unfoamed) to the toes.  Done!

There are so many things you can do with this: use a comic book you love; use newspaper and make a gift for a journalist friend; make a collage of photos... anything!

Sales this weekend:

Bakers: 25% off things with studs or spikes

Bloomingdales: Free shipping on orders of $50 or more

Lord & Taylor: Save 25% with promo code FRIENDS

Macy’s: Fall boot sale: save 20-30% on select styles

Nine West: Save 30% on your entire purpose

DIY: Glitter Soles

I just fell in love with this new trend for fall!

  
See the glitter on the sole of the Glitter-Sole Suede Peep Toe Pumps by Miu Miu?  To die for.  Bad news: these’ll set you back $690 at Net-a-Porter.  Good news: You can do it yourself for much, much less!

What You’ll Need:

·         Decoupage and sealer glue (I used Martha Stewart’s)

·         Glitter in the color of your choice (I used Martha here too)

·         Tape (I used masking tape, but you could use painter’s tape too)

·         Shoes of your choice (No one-inch heels!  Make sure they are high enough that you’ll be able to see all the glitter underneath!)

I glitterized two pairs, since I couldn’t decide which one to use:

The Carli by Steve Madden is a beige patent leather pointed-toe pump, with fun stitch detailing around the heel and a four-inch heel.  They’re also available in teal, black, and magenta, any of which would look super cool all glittery.  I picked the beige since it was in the clearance section of my local DSW!  You can find them online for $60, or try your luck in-store to find them for less.

My friend Melanie also gave me a pair of Nine West pumps before she moved.  (Yay having the same shoe size as a friend!)  They look a little like these:

The Andriana is a black leather pointed-toe pump with a 2.75-inch heel.  It’s also available in navy leather, red patent leather, and leopard, and you can find them at Nine West for $79.

(I know these are both stilettos and not chunky like the Miu Mius above, but they also have a line of glittered stilettos I fell in love with.  Too bad they’re only available in-store in Paris, Milan, and London.)

Instructions:

Step 1: Tape your shoe.  I used a point towards the toe, and outlined the rest of the shoe as well so I didn’t have any escapee glitter permanently glued where I didn’t want it.

Step 2: Are you using new shoes?  Scuff the soles up a bit with sandpaper-- it'll help the glue stick better.  I skipped this and wished I hadn't.

Step 3: Cover the sole in glue.  (Warning!  The brush in the Martha Stewart glue hold a lot of glue.  Let some drip off before putting brush to sole.)

Step 4: Sprinkle with glitter, then set aside and let dry.

Step 5: I did a second glitter layer, but this is optional.  I thought the extra layers of glue and glitter would help it last longer.  Let dry again.

Step 6: Seal with a final layer of glue or two and let dry.

Step 7: Peel off the tape and enjoy!

How’d mine turn out?  What do you think?  Here's the black pair, with white gold glitter:

And the beige pair, with smoky quartz glitter:

Miu Miu, Myself

A friend sent me this link to Honestly...WTF for instructions on how to recreate Miu Miu’s fabulous rhinestone-heeled shoes with the message “Oh yes you will!”  Melanie obviously knows my fondness for (1) shoes, (2) rhinestones, and (3) crafting.  Challenge accepted, Melanie!  Challenge accepted.

Step 1: find the shoes you want to sparklefy.  I couldn’t pick from among the shoes I already have, so I used it as an excuse to buy a new pair:

The Daffodil by Kelly & Katie is a sweet navy satin number with a four-inch heel, half-inch platform under its peep-toe, and pintucking on the toe and the sides.  I thought they were a good mix of simple but not boring.  I found them in (my favorite!) the clearance section of my local DSW—you can find them online too, for $40 instead of $90, though I think I may have paid a little less in-store ($24 or so?).  They also come in black, grey, and champagne, any of which could be really lovely.  I wasn’t sure whether to pick a satin or leather-type shoe—would the glue stick to a patent leather surface?  Would the glue just be absorbed into a satin shoe?  So I got a satin shoe and figured I’d try.

Step 2: gather supplies.  I ordered the E-6000 glue the website recommended from Amazon.  I selected a number of larger, varied rhinestone shapes from my rhinestone box (yes, I have a rhinestone box) and went to my local Michaels to pick up some 4.5 mm and 3 mm clear round rhinestones.  I ended up using about a pack and a half of each.

Step 3: Glue the larger rhinestones around the heel of the shoe, mixing the shapes.

Step 4: Fill in the gaps and down the heel with the 4.5 mm rhinestones.  Be sure you don’t place them too close; otherwise you won’t have room for the 3 mm stones.

Step 5: Fill in any leftover gaps with the 3 mm rhinestones.  Done!

They took me three hours from start to finish.  I will warn you that the glue has a strong smell, so if you have a nice day it might be a good idea to open a window or even do it outside... I was beginning to get a little woozy by hour two!  But I think it was worth it in the end—they look beautiful.  You could do black rhinestones, or multi-colored rhinestones... really, the possibilities are endless, and you could make a plain pair of shoes a really fabulous pair of party shoes.  (Oh, and as of right now, I haven’t lost any stones from my satin shoe, and I let them bounce around in my car for a day and I wore them to work yesterday as tests.  I really like that E-6000 glue!)

Don’t forget: Philly Shoe Fairy’s first birthday party this Sunday!  I hope you can come and celebrate with us! 

Also, ironically, today is Melanie's birthday!  Happy birthday, Melanie, and thank you for the challenge!

DIY: Shoe Wall

If you’re like me, you have more shoes than your closet can hold. Solution: a shoe wall! I’d always wanted to hang shoes on my wall, but I wasn’t sure how best to go about it until a friend gave me a page from Martha Stewart Magazine with this picture in it:

  Chair rail! Genius! An elegant look with a minimal amount of work. To make your own, here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Measure the wall that you want to be your shoe wall.
2. Go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and pick out some chair rail. Know ahead of time what shoes you’ll want to hang up—the higher the heel, the thicker the chair rail should be (at least one inch wide).
3. Get the staff to cut your chair rail to the length to fit your wall. (Or you can do this at home with a handsaw.)
4. Get some nails while you’re there—thick enough to go through the chair rail and into the wall.
5. Also pick up some paint, if you want the chair rail to match you wall or to pop off in contrast, and wood filler so you can fill in the holes you’ll make with the nails.
6. Go home and paint the chair rail.
7. While it’s drying, mark on the wall where you want your rail to go. Rails should be a foot apart.
8. While you’re at it, find where the studs in your wall are. You can use a stud finder, but if you have old walls like mine, you can just look for slightly raised nail heads pressing against the wall from the inside.

Now you might need an extra pair of hands.

1. Hold up the rail against the marks you made on the wall earlier. Use a level to make sure it’s straight.
2. Nail the chair rail to the wall.
3. Fill the nail holes with wood filler. Let dry and touch up with paint if needed.
4. Hang your shoes and enjoy!

How’d mine turn out? See for yourself!

  Nineteen pairs out of the closet and on to the wall! I chose to use contrasting colors of paint, which I love. I also stayed with blues and neutrals, shoe-wise—I tried it with reds and purples too, but it looked too cluttered. The simplicity of color makes this work, to my eye. Any way you choose to do it, make it your own. I’d love to see your pictures if you try it!

Sales this weekend: 
Bakers: All wedges on sale (up to 50% off), plus free H by Halston watch with any H by Halston purchase of $100 or more
Bus Stop Boutique: Designer of the month: NICOLE! Pick up a pair of NICOLE boots or shoes & enjoy $20 OFF
Macy’s: Save 15% off (and free shipping with $99 purchase) using code SAVEBIG
Payless: BOGO!
Nordstrom: Half-yearly sale (and double rewards points through Saturday)
Lord & Taylor: 15% off with in-store pass or code NOV (an extra 10% off with a Lord & Taylor card and NOVPLUS)