Baby Shoes

My Mom was a saver!  She kept old school books and report cards-- both hers and ours; cards -- Christmas, birthday, Valentine's, you name it; toys -- all carefully put away just waiting for grandchildren (she long wondered if that day would ever come); she even kept our lunch boxes!  Last summer, I went through a box of children's things that she had mindfully set aside -- homemade sweaters, baby blankets, the kilt that she thought was so cute (I didn't think so), and three shoe boxes.  Each box was labelled with my and my brothers' names and contained our first pair of shoes.

 

Here is a treasure that should be returned to their owners, I thought.  But, boys being boys, I didn't think that either of my brothers would have much interest in some old shoes, so I decided to make them more interesting.  Not wanting to bronze them, as was the old tradition, I searched for another idea.  I didn't find any ideas in my internet search, which surprised me -- what are people doing with their children's first pair of shoes these days?  So I came up with this simple way to display (or store if my brother so desires, but he better get them out when I come to visit!) the baby shoes.

A collectors box seemed the perfect way to display the shoes, but unfortunately, the box sizes were not intended for shoes, so it's a little smaller than I would have liked.  Then, I searched for a baby picture of my brother wearing the shoes and printed it out so that it would fit in the side of the box.  The background is shelf liner which had the added bonus of being peel and stick!

The wooden blocks were from our collection -- I don't think that the boys will miss three -- and are hot glued in place.  Voila, a baby shoe display!  I'm not sure that "impressed" would be the word to describe my brother's reaction when I gave him (or returned) his shoes, but I think that he is glad to have this little piece of his childhood to share with his children and remember the good times that we had as kids.  Now I just need to get to work on the other two pair.  Thanks Mom for being a saver!