Sanity measures
Feb. 24th, 2026 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseI buy my shoes - infrequently, as I'm not really a great shoe person, preferring to have one pair per season with a few occasional exceptions - from a place called Vegetarian Shoes, which is based in Brighton. As a matter of fact, they're vegan shoes, as you would expect. They are your one-stop shop for really good quality, breathable, flexible, plant-based shoes; I just used to wear plastic, but I avoid that as much as possible these days, not just for environmental reasons but also because I'm quite susceptible to athlete's foot if I wear anything that doesn't breathe properly for too long. I haven't had that for many years now and I'd like to keep things that way.
Vegetarian Shoes do, however, have a particular type of style. They tend to the utilitarian, and, indeed, the clunky. If you're after a pair of steel toecaps, for instance, you're in immediate shoe heaven; they have at least a dozen different types of shoes and boots with those in. They also do a lot of trainers, which I'm aware are very popular but they aren't my thing (fine if you're a runner, but they really don't look elegant). And the sandals... well. If solid is what you're after, you'll do very well, but if you want something with a bit more finesse, you're struggling.
They do a few colours, but mostly what you can get there is black or white. This works for me, because I basically have black shoes (again, I do have a few pairs of Indian khussa shoes I trot out in high summer, but even one of those is black) - they go with everything. And it seems they have a bit of trouble selling the white, because lately I've had a few e-mails from them touting the white shoes as an ideal artistic canvas for personalised shoes. I will admit I have looked at those and thought "yes, some of those chunky white sandals would look an awful lot more elegant with, say, a bit of knotwork and maybe some of the cuter mediaeval marginalia images", but, although I would quite like a pair of workhorse sandals for the summer, I haven't bought them because I didn't have any suitable paints.
So. Yesterday, I'm fighting Sibyl all day (I changed her in the end because I didn't think her kit would stand a repeat of last night, and she didn't seem to be about to slow down... of course, as soon as I changed her, she did), and I'm thinking "this is a stress thing", and then I run across an appeal from our Kings. Yes, Kings plural; Drachenwald has two Kings at the moment, rather than a King and a Queen. Their Majesties are running low on tokens to give out to new members/children. My first thought was "ganutell flowers", and then I thought "don't be silly - those aren't really for children, at any rate not younger ones, as they squash too easily". So then I thought that maybe I could get a few of those blank mini boxes and paint them up with, I don't know, maybe an illuminated letter on top and a bit of knotwork. I do love my knotwork. Not too slow to do, and it's the sort of little thing that goes down well. Pretty much everyone has something they want to keep in a mini box.
Who sells mini boxes for painting? Oh yes. Hobbycraft. So I go and look over there, get myself a few of these boxes, and then look at their clearance section just in case there's anything there I could do with.
And... there is a set of leather paints. For less than half price. It's the last one. It goes straight into my basket.
So now, a little later, I can get myself a pair of big clunky white sandals in the happy knowledge that they don't have to remain white and clunky. (I have used good leather paints before, and they really do stay. My mother once gave me a rather tired-looking pair of beige boots she no longer wore, and I thought, boots good, beige bad; and I painted them bright emerald green. They did splendidly for years!)
I still have a mother who is clearly on her way out, and no news. But I also have the prospect of some art to do, in addition to what I'm already doing; and it's helping with the sanity quite a lot.
Vegetarian Shoes do, however, have a particular type of style. They tend to the utilitarian, and, indeed, the clunky. If you're after a pair of steel toecaps, for instance, you're in immediate shoe heaven; they have at least a dozen different types of shoes and boots with those in. They also do a lot of trainers, which I'm aware are very popular but they aren't my thing (fine if you're a runner, but they really don't look elegant). And the sandals... well. If solid is what you're after, you'll do very well, but if you want something with a bit more finesse, you're struggling.
They do a few colours, but mostly what you can get there is black or white. This works for me, because I basically have black shoes (again, I do have a few pairs of Indian khussa shoes I trot out in high summer, but even one of those is black) - they go with everything. And it seems they have a bit of trouble selling the white, because lately I've had a few e-mails from them touting the white shoes as an ideal artistic canvas for personalised shoes. I will admit I have looked at those and thought "yes, some of those chunky white sandals would look an awful lot more elegant with, say, a bit of knotwork and maybe some of the cuter mediaeval marginalia images", but, although I would quite like a pair of workhorse sandals for the summer, I haven't bought them because I didn't have any suitable paints.
So. Yesterday, I'm fighting Sibyl all day (I changed her in the end because I didn't think her kit would stand a repeat of last night, and she didn't seem to be about to slow down... of course, as soon as I changed her, she did), and I'm thinking "this is a stress thing", and then I run across an appeal from our Kings. Yes, Kings plural; Drachenwald has two Kings at the moment, rather than a King and a Queen. Their Majesties are running low on tokens to give out to new members/children. My first thought was "ganutell flowers", and then I thought "don't be silly - those aren't really for children, at any rate not younger ones, as they squash too easily". So then I thought that maybe I could get a few of those blank mini boxes and paint them up with, I don't know, maybe an illuminated letter on top and a bit of knotwork. I do love my knotwork. Not too slow to do, and it's the sort of little thing that goes down well. Pretty much everyone has something they want to keep in a mini box.
Who sells mini boxes for painting? Oh yes. Hobbycraft. So I go and look over there, get myself a few of these boxes, and then look at their clearance section just in case there's anything there I could do with.
And... there is a set of leather paints. For less than half price. It's the last one. It goes straight into my basket.
So now, a little later, I can get myself a pair of big clunky white sandals in the happy knowledge that they don't have to remain white and clunky. (I have used good leather paints before, and they really do stay. My mother once gave me a rather tired-looking pair of beige boots she no longer wore, and I thought, boots good, beige bad; and I painted them bright emerald green. They did splendidly for years!)
I still have a mother who is clearly on her way out, and no news. But I also have the prospect of some art to do, in addition to what I'm already doing; and it's helping with the sanity quite a lot.
