The Elves, the Shoemakers, and the Mosaics

So, the other day DH and I got our shipment in the mail from the shoe company Simple. We had found a whole bunch of shoes for $4-6 each, and since they run wide enough for us, we ordered 5 pair, 3 for me, 2 for him. Anyway, as I looked into the box, I realized we had not read the fine print on a few of the pairs. We each had a kit that looked like this:


Apparently, we were going to be sewing our own shoes. (probably why they were under $4) If you know us at all, you'll realize that this was not really a problem or disappointment for us, and the DH wanted to do it that night. It was harder than the instructional DVD made it look, and one of mine looks much worse than the other, but it was fun and they actually do work and fit. By the end of the night I had both finished, but was really bruised and had some blisters. DH finished his other one the next day (his are a tad bigger than mine) So now if you see our lights on late at night, you know that we are probably staying up late doing something awesome like making shoes. Here are a few pictures of us doing it.




Today the kids wanted in on the family arts-and-crafts and I decided to teach them about Mosaics. We read a bit about them, checked out some famous examples, then they tried their hands at making their own out of barley, rice, and pasta we had dyed. They did a great job and had a ton of fun!