I Lost a Shoelace

I know, I know - it's New Year's Eve and all you energetic young-at-hearters are out celebrating, and I'm searching for a shoelace.   Priorities folks, priorities!

This is an AWESOME pair of my favorite shoe brand - Trippen - gifted to me by my generous friend Rhonda (how lucky am I???).   I was going to wear them today but discovered one of the shoelaces went off for a stroll somewhere - how does this HAPPEN???  You would think I would notice when taking them off that I was a shoelace short, so surely they were both there the last time I wore them...it must be the cat's fault.   It usually is, right?

I did nothing and I'm not here anyway...

I've been wanting to figure out how to make my own shoelaces, so clearly the time was ripe for it.   A quick web search showed me all of the ingredients I needed, which I happened to have on hand:

• Ribbon of some sort (preferably something not too slippery, so they have some traction to hold a knot)
• Shrink tubing (which comes in various colors, including clear - I had black for some electrical wire project sometime, somewhere - every girl should have a tool area with that sort of stuff, right?)
• Paper clip (may or may not be necessary)
• Hair Dryer.

That's it, and you're good to go!

I cut the desired lengths from my ribbon, and pieces of the shrink tube about 1/2" long.   The tubing I had was 1/8" diameter, and black, which just happened to be perfect for this ribbon (yes, I am lucky!)

I cut the ends of each piece of ribbon at a bit of an angle, and rolled it into as tight a roll as possible to stuff it in to the tube.   This is where the paper clip came in handy - I just pushed the ribbon in to the tube with the clip, and it was done in a jiff!

The hardest part was shrinking the fly-away ribbon & tubes with the hair dryer!   I didn't take the time to try and secure the ribbon with something that would hold it steady while the hot air was blasting it, and it was way too hot for my hands to be near it!   So if you're making a bunch of laces I suggest finding a way to hold the ribbon down while using the hair dryer.     I set the dryer on the hottest setting, and heated the tubes for 20 to 30 seconds.

Done!

For those of you who are out and about tonight, come home fulfilled, happy, and safe!   Here's to a 2016 that is filled with an abundance of blessings, good health and healing, fabulous friends and community, and lots of heart-expanding experiences!

I leave you with a shot of the first bulb opening up in my garden - Fresh Start!

And a sweet little gift from a young houseguest who is staying here for a few days:

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR FRIENDS AND FELLOW BLOGGERS!