More Summer Sandal Ideas and a Very Nice Gift!

Remember the summer sandals made from flip flops? Being a fickle person, I decided my preference is for closed toes. (Flip flop wearing in big cities is an act of bravery. You never know what "trouble" you might step into.) Not that I live in a big city, but still....

In short, I wanted closed toes and expanded on the original technique of slicing a flip flop sole by making just one more slit in the front. I squeezed a T-Shirt strip in and knotted the remaining piece around the strips where they cross over. I wore them all day yesterday and they're holding up just beautifully and are really comfortable. Now I need a black pair, and a blue one and a yellow one. (And they are all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.......as Pete Seeger would say.)

My weekend was great...my daughter's  birthday party a roaring success, fish piñata and all. And then THIS arrived in the mail, the first thing I've ever won from a Give-Away:

A beautiful gift card holder (all for myself) from the wonderful and talented Charissa from the Gifted Blog. Her blog has the most incredible ideas, many using recycled material to wrap gifts. She wrote a brilliant review of "How to Wrap Five More Eggs: Traditional Japanese Packaging", a book of Japanese packaging which I enjoyed very much. Her "Japanese Culture" posts all offer insight into the Japanese way of life. She also offers workshops in the Pasadena, CA area. Needless to say, the gift was wrapped beautifully. It was too pretty to open.......but then I did.

Thanks so much, Charissa.

I'm also excited that my spiral scarf pattern (even with all the distracting shoe making) is in its final stages and will be sold directly off the blog. Etsy is wonderful, but I wanted to offer the pattern for downloading directly and Etsy is not currently offering this.

So check back later this week!