How to Inadvertently Ruin a Good Pair of Shoes

Last week I read a blog that offered seven reasons blogs fail and what to do about it. Mistake #4 is "you don't produce useful information." The solution was to demonstrate ones expertise by offering valuable content. Well, here is my valuable content....how to inadvertently ruin a good pair of shoes.

Perhaps it's a little eccentric that a 47 year old woman considers a pair of pink chucks to be her good dress shoes. (And the fact that I only paid $6 at a consignment store for them is beside the point.)

As a color to use when painting, phthalo blue is beautiful. Sort of a bluey green, it becomes a rich delicate shadow when mixed with white. Mixed with red, it becomes almost black. It mixes well to make gray, and is lovely to use for an overcast Texas late winter sky, when applied correctly.

As an artist, I am aware that phthalo blue, once applied, is impossible to remove. This fact was discovered, rather discouragingly, after a young child touched one of my wet paintings and promptly proceeded to clean his hands on the nearest soft surface -- the yellow sofa. That stain is a daily reminder to practice what I preach -- that people are more important than "things" -- but in this instance, I see the sofa more than I see the child. It's just easier to blame the child, because the sofa was an innocent victim -- a bystander -- who was in the right place at the wrong time. (In vain, I try to cover the stain with a throw blanket.)

Yesterday, when Hilary announced that she was going to run a few errands, I jumped at the chance to tag along. After not painting for nearly two weeks, I was back in the painting spirit, but tired and ready for a break.

While shopping with Hilary, I noticed some paint on my hand. (Uh oh. How'd that get there?) Then Hilary noticed paint on the front of my shirt. (What?) There was paint all over my shoes. I had taken off my shoes and socks to try on some sandals, which is how the paint ended up on my hands. (and shirt?) That also meant that the paint somehow got on my socks, which means that the paint is inside my shoes. The paint that was on the inside of my right big toe was kicked all down the side of my inside left foot, and consequently back up the inside of my right foot. In short, the shoes I was wearing, my pink chucks, my good shoes, are covered in a paint color that refuses all forms of stain removal.

It must have had something to do with gravity, because how else would the phthalo blue Texas winter sky have ended up on my shoe?

The helpful advice is this: gravity causes paint to sometimes fall toward the ground. If ones shoe is in the way, and the paint is phthalo blue, this could be an insurmountable problem. Be very careful of gravity (and small children) when using phthalo blue.