Shoe-La-La! (and a $50 Zappos Giftcard Giveaway!!!)

Shoe-La-La!

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a great week. A couple weeks ago, I was contacted by a representative of Scholastic books about a children's book they're promoting.

A children's book, Carol? Really?

Well, hang on there a second - you'll think this is cute! It's a children's book about the love of shoes.

Ooooohhhh...

See? Not totally off-topic for us, right?

(Yes, it's true. I do have conversations with the blog readers in my head. You don't?)

For those of you who have a daughter, a niece, a grand-daughter, or a friend's little girl for whom you're a much adored "auntie," you may want to check this one out. Kate, my daughter, has a comical obsession with shoes - she loves them. Her shoes, my shoes, her older brother's shoes - the shoes in the Nordstrom kids' shoe department, the shoes in the Nordstrom Salon Shoes department...and you can just imagine the amusement this affords my family (and the jokes about the apple not falling far from the tree...sigh). So, when Scholastic offered to send me a copy of this book, I was a little bit skittish. After all, I don't want to be accused of fostering rampant consumerist tendencies in my toddler daughter (who me? Noooo!). But after having perused it, I found the message was more about personal resourcefulness and ingenuity. The book describes four girls as they engage in an epic search for the perfect party shoes - only to find that their perfect shoes could only be realized when they applied their own creativity. Which led me to decide to try doing the same.

I started off wanting to make this a mother-daughter project, but I had no luck finding some inexpensive, unadorned ballet shoes for Kate. I did, however find some for myself at the Gap on super sale ($4!!!) and decided to go at it with some doodads and a glue gun:

1. Start with one pair of inexpensive shoes.

2. I found some acrylic "gemstone" and decorative brads at the local craft store (another $4).

3. I tied some bows with satin ribbon (had this stashed in my "craft supplies" box).

  

4. I picked out the brads I wanted to use, and prepped them for gluing by bending the stems flat against the back of the heads.

5. Using a pair of beading pliers to hold the brads and acrylic "gemstones" so as to avoid unpleasant hot-glue-gun burns, I attached the bow and stones to the shoe. (Just a note, if you do this, make sure you glue them on as though they were almost overlapping. Otherwise, they'll gap when the fabric stretches around your feet. Also, use said beading pliers to pull off any extra glue that may have clumped around the sides of the stones.)

6. All done! One pair of pretty shoes for $8 and 20 minutes of hot glue gun action. ^_^

Anyway, let's get to the real fun - one lucky reader will win:

A free copy of Shoe-La-La 

(a terrific gift for the little fashionista in your life...or just yourself. I won't tell.) 

AND 

A $50 Zappos.com Giftcard!

To be included in the drawing for this giveaway, this is what you have to do:

1) Be a public follower of our blog, and

2) leave a comment on this post, and tell us about your most memorable pair of shoes (good or bad). Please include your user name and last initial or your first name and last initial, so we can differentiate in case there are multiple entries by different people with the same first name (e.g. Sara T., Jessica M., etc). 

To get extra entries (up to 2 more!) you can

3) blog about this giveaway on your blog, and leave a comment with the link, and/or

4) tweet about the giveaway, including either @raphaela235 or @kathrynshops, and leave a comment telling us you did.

On January 18th, we'll do a random drawing from the entries and we'll send the prize out to the lucky winner! Just a note - please don't leave your email in the comments. We want to help you protect your contact information. When we draw the name and number of the winner, we'll post it on our blog on January 19, 2010 along with directions for that winner to contact us. If for some reason, the winner doesn't get in touch with us within 48 hours, we'll redraw, and announce a new winner, etc. This sponsored contest is open to all residents of the U.S., U.S. territories, Canada, and Military APO/FPO addresses.

Good luck to everyone!

***The entry period for this giveaway has closed. Thank you for your interest!***