I know you all think I wear really high heels – and for the most part, I do. But last night, I worked on a project that reminded me of these shoes. A few years ago, I spent the summer hand painting Dr. Scholl sandals. These are the Original Wood Exercise Sandal with a ¾ inch platform and 1 inch heel. There is a sculptured bubble by the toes that encourage your feet to curl and grip, thereby giving the leg a workout while walking. Dr. Scholl’s sandals feel so good on your feet and now the leather strap with trademark buckle comes in all colors. I typically wear two types of flip flops in the summer – Jack Rogers classic flat leather sandals and Dr. Scholls’ Original Wood Exercise Sandal ---only, the Dr. Scholl’s MUST be painted and look very, very chic. 
I painted this zebra pattern for my sister in law, the crabs for my other sister in law, the bunnies for my mamagirl in law, monkeys for myself and sushi ones for my own mamagirl. A few times, I’ve taken them to my local cobbler in town and he has encouraged me to go into business painting and selling these. He’s a nice, old Italian man and he smokes far too many cigars each day. He spits when he talks and since I’m always talking too, his spit has ended up in my mouth. I guess that means we have officially made out.
As usual, I’m getting sidetracked…so let me get back to telling you why I was reminded of these zebra Dr. Scholls’. JV had a friend sleep over last night and Gus went out on a sleepover. That pretty much guaranteed that I wasn’t going to have to break up fights and pry their dueling bodies off of each other all night. I enjoyed a peaceful night where JV and his friend compared yo-yo tricks with each other, agreed on what Wii games to play, played in unison with each other and just had no disputes all night long. I decided that I had some time where I could pick up and finish a project I had started. I was going to sew a window treatment for my kitchen. A few months ago, I decided that my tiny, eyesore of a kitchen needed a vast makeover. Since the appliances and cabinets were in pretty good condition, all I was going to be allowed to do was cosmetic upgrades. My appliances are black and I thought it would be really cool to have a black and white kitchen. As I flipped through the wallpaper books at the local paint store, I came across some very graphic zebra patterns and wondered…do I turn my Animal House LITERALLY into an animal house? I posted the following picture on my Facebook account and polled my friends. It ended up being the longest Facebook thread on my account with 25 comments (My favorite comment from a college friend – “take of ze-bra, bay-be”)with the majority vote for the print on the left.
So I did it. My father in law is a fantastic handyman and knows how to fix, paint, patch, spackle, repair most everything. It’s unfortunate he didn’t pass that gene on to Jackis because Jackis can’t repair diddly squat. At any rate, my father in law showed up at my house – he was up for the job. I will tell you, he gave me SO MUCH SHIT for selecting the wallpaper that I did. His house is decorated beautifully and traditionally– with florals, plaids, conservative colors and all – and he just thought my zebra paper was utterly ridiculous. After he repaired the door jamb where Wembley had chewed the wood down to the nail heads, he started to paper the kitchen. And after getting a few strips up on the wall, he began to like it. He actually became very proud and territorial about the walls. When I told him I had plans to replace the kitchen table with a step back hutch, he got really upset “you’re going to put something up against my zebra walls and hide all those great stripes?” Then he decided that he needed to make things look even better so he volunteered to sand, prep and paint the cupboards. All I have to do now is find some cabinet hardware to replace the old knobs and I had to have a window valance. I searched online and found a great zebra fabric, pulled out and dusted off my sewing machine, and last night banged out this valance.
I’m hoping that a more aesthetically pleasing kitchen will encourage me to get back into the kitchen and spend some more time cooking. I love to cook and I’m not too shabby – I’ve just been neglecting that part of my talents because my kitchen was too ugly for me to want to spend any amount of time in there. Before I leave you, I want to share a few interesting tidbits on zebras that you might not have known…zebras are part of the horse family where their males are called stallions and the females are called mares. Mamamares produce one foul a year. The gestation period is one full year and a baby zebra is born weighing an average of 65 pounds. Fouls are born with brown and white stripes, which change to black and white as they grow into adulthood. Zebras can run up to 40 miles per hour. Their lifespan is 20-30 years.
If you come back to read more Mamagirl Melly posts, I promise to tell and show you my obsession with monkeys. Come back soon.
Dr. Scholl's Original Exercise Sandals, handpainted by The Mamagirl
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