Hoover damn (or maybe not)

There is a special lake in North Wales where Seabear first learnt to swim. She was a young puppy and a little afraid of swimming until one day when we visited this particular lake over ten years ago with my mum and dad. There was a hoover that was dumped in the middle of the lake, Seabear caught a glimpse of it and made her way swimming to the middle of the lake in an attempt to retrieve this plastic yellow hoover. Unfortunately it fell over as she tried to pull it and she had to return to shore empty handed, however she was now no longer afraid of swimming and it is now one of my favourite places to take her, and my other dog Ella, back to.  My dad then coined the name 'hoover damn/ hoover lake' which we all find quite amusing. It's real name is 'Llyn Du Bach' which is little black lake for those who don't know Welsh!

Yesterday Scott and I went to this lovely lake for a picnic and a walk with the doggies :) It's quite far from the nearest village and people etc and there are usually lots of interesting things to discover from bones to plants and sometimes frogspawn in the right season!

We had a lovely picnic with bacon, cheddar, chutney and cucumber sandwiches, satsumas, pepsi max, Pringles and mini Toblerones for dessert. Classy I know but delicious :)  I'm really getting into my photography at the minute, just as a hobby and for fun, but I just fond it some wonderful to take photos and look back at them to remind myself of all the interesting places I go, what yummy things I ate and the interesting plants and things I find along the way! I wore my standard farmer wellies,.. It was so swampy and wet and windy - I wore to raincoats to try to keep the wind out!There were a ridiculous amount of bones (i'm assuming sheep) which I enjoyed looking at, and tried to keep the dogs from sting :/ I 

 This is a particularly unattractive photo, but it sums up how we were feeling, a mixture of happiness, excitement and a face full of bitterly cold wind! I also look a little like Wallace and Grommet!

     It was that windy Seabear's ears were flying back in the wind :)

    Scott and Ella.

 Seabear :) Happy to be back in her lake!

I was holding hands with Scott and didn't realise for a while that I'd been splashing mud onto him from my wellies.. woops :) 

My faithful car Fester the fiesta!


And lastly Scott lifting a very wet and tired Bear into the car as she didn't have enough energy to jump up herself!

D.I.Y Shiny red ballet style shoes

When I was younger I used to have tap dancing lessons, and by no means was it my forte. I really disliked it, but stuck it out for a year or two until I finally convinced my mum I was not built to be a dancer!  I have a bit of a 'thing' for red shoes, and maybe the tap dancing could have been where it started, I had patent red shoes with the underneath made of metal, which made such a beautiful sound.

I saw these red pointe shoes on the internet, and fell in love ! I wanted to try to create my own more practical version (also a lot cheaper) that I could wear for everyday use. The above images are from Google and show the ballet pointe shoes both in red, and the iconic pale pink ones.

Here is my take on them -

What you need:

1 Pair of white ballet shoes (Mine were from Primark £4)

2 Meters red ribbon

1 Can high gloss red spray paint

Scissors, cotton

Tissue paper or newspaper

  

 You need to stuff your shows with tissue paper or newspaper to stop the spray from getting inside your shoe. Then take them outside, somewhere that you don't mind being sprayed.

Now Spray your shoes. It is better to have several thin coats, than one thick one, so be patient and spray, dry spray etc until your shoes is evenly covered.

Now leave your shoes to dry overnight, as they can sometimes be
 sticky for a few hours after.

 You now need to have 1 meter of ribbon for each shoe. Cut each meter in half (50cm) so altogether you have four pieces of equally sized ribbon (4x25cm).

Roughly mark in the middle of the shoe where you want the ribbon to be. Sew either by hand or on the sewing machine each piece of ribbon to the shoes (four times altogether).

 Then they are finished! I watched a video of how to tie them on Youtube - Ive posted the video so you can see for yourself how it's done.
My version's are obviously not meant for proper dancing, so only use them as day shoes!

Weird and wonderful

I love these duck shoes!

 

Renu Renu – designed by Dunja Seselja.  All the shoes in the Renu Renu line are made with cruelty free materials.  renurenu.deviantart.com.Pictures from :http://www.bizarrebytes.com/author/elizabeth/

New Shoes!

 The most beautiful new shoes! I bought these yesterday from the Trafford Centre, in ‘Schuh’ to be precise.

I'm usually a red shoe kinda girl, but after trying on both the red and green countless times and aggravating the staff, I finally decided on the green ones! But the red ones are equally gorgeous.

They remind me of Dorothy's shoes from The Wizard of Oz. And they were only £65!

I wore them last night to a Halloween party and had lots of compliments, so well done shoes!

Melissa Shoes

Some of the most beautiful shoes i've seen in a long time !

Vivienne Westwood for Topshop

'Melissa' shoes.