Red Shoes and Resolutions - part 2

In a previous post, I mentioned this year's New Year's resolution - to buy something handmade at least once a month. See that post for the inspiration behind this resolution, and for the first of January's purchases - a print from Champignons which I had been coveting for a while. To continue the red shoes theme from that print, I wanted two more prints, the first of which was this beautiful Ruby Slippers piece from Quite Contrary, which I also bought in January:



This month, I was also able to afford to buy this gorgeous print from Linda Boucher:



The two shoe prints above continue the symbolism that was there in the Champignons print. Although her print is called 'Alice in Wonderland', and is about when Alice grew tall from eating cake marked 'Eat Me', the fact that she is wearing red shoes makes me think of The Wizard of Oz, and Dorothy's ruby slippers. Also, the fact that Dorothy and Alice's clothing are very similar means that this figure could be either of these characters. Plus, there needed to be three prints not only because things look better in threes, but also because Dorothy says "There's no place like home" three times while clicking her ruby-slippered heels. Therefore, the hanging of the Alice/Dorothy print with ruby slippers either side seemed quite natural to me. I searched for red-shoe themed prints from UK Etsy sellers, and found the perfect ones. All three prints now hang in my bedroom:

Red shoes and resolutions

In amongst my more predictable New Year's resolutions, such as losing weight, I've come across a much more appealing idea - buying handmade. The idea came while browsing through the fabulous Hippy Of Doom's Flickr photos - she mentions in the description of this photo (an image of a pendant by the equally fabulous All Those Threes) that her resolution for 2008 was "buying something handmade for myself every month". A far more enjoyable (and doable) resolution than the well-meaning yet unrealistic ones that involve denying oneself things. As Hippy herself says, "I highly recommend it as a resolution - I have SO much awesome stuff now!"

So I'm looking forward to a year of awesome stuff, starting with this beautiful print by Champignons. I've been coveting it for months and have finally, with a little bit of Christmas money, been able to buy it.





Things are better in threes though (or so my OCD tells me), so there's going to be a row of three framed prints, all on the theme of red shoes. This print, by Quite Contrary, should be appearing in my house next week, no doubt chanting "There's no place like home". Although I'd be somewhat worried if a print could talk.