Slippers and Scratches

2012 was a bad year for house slippers. I almost attempted to knit my own. Several slippers were both the wrong size and cumbersome to put on, I bought a $14.00 pair of moccasin slippers from a discount store and within a month they started to hurt my feet. Within two months they were breaking apart and Christmas had just past. I needed a decent pair of house slippers and it was on my mind for months.

Two weeks ago I finally started my pursuit for the perfect house slipper. EBay had a lot of moccasins, and for every listing, I followed up reading through the manufacturer’s website to learn all I could about the make and model of all their moccasins. I tried some on at local stores, and I can tell you which ones fit large and which ones fit small. My research was valuable in finding the best pair of moccasins. I fell in love with a deerskin leather moccasin with genuine woolskin lining. I hummed and hawed for over a week because they were so expensive. After justifying the expense, I asked my most loving husband if, for my birthday present, he could pay for half. He agreed. Wow!

I checked with the online store and emailed the sales lady back and forth regarding size and price. She said she could offer me free shipping for the moccasin slippers. That was it, I placed the order and to my great surprise; my most loving husband paid them in full.

The tracking service said they would arrive on the 14th. Every day I tracked and followed their shipping progress. I woke up on the 14th announcing that my moccasins were arriving today. It was early and I half-knew they wouldn’t be at the post office, but I paid visit to the post office anyway, just in-case they had a parcel for me. Negative. “Did you get a notification card?” Er, negative.

They must be on the delivery truck. We checked the mail but it was still too early. Later in the day I sent my most loving husband a text asking if the package was in the mail. “Sorry Hun, maybe tomorrow”.
Thinking that he might be fooling me and wanting to give them to me in person I resigned myself to wait another day. Near 8:00pm on my way home, I did what I never do at 8:00pm; and that is, to check the mail box (just in case). Oh my! They arrived! The new mailman was later than usual. Yippee!

I fondled the box. It was very light. It was neatly wrapped in plan brown paper just like the parcels that used to come from Germany a long time ago. I used a knife to open the package to preserve the brown paper wrapping and slid the box out one end. I took a breath and opened the box. They were exactly like described, exactly like I imagined. I put them on; snug, warm and comfortable. Within the hour they were conforming to my feet and I hardly knew they were on.

The next morning I ‘googled’ -how to care for your leather moccasins-. Endless pages and blogs on weatherproofing and cleaning moccasins filled my screen.

What if, I was wearing my dream moccasins and I was too lazy to remove them before stepping outside? What if I stepped out onto our lawn? Waterproofing them would be a great idea! After reading several waterproofing strategies I decided on one. I had the required materials and could easily execute the method. I had a morning project and my moccasins would last for years.

In the morning and I had time to work on my moccasins. I carefully melted the beeswax so that it would not burn in the microwave oven. When it was melted, I added about a quarter amount of mink oil and mixed it thoroughly. Into the laundry room, I took the weatherproofing concoction, a small old paintbrush, and my moccasins. After dipping the brush into the liquid solution, I applied the mix to the leather soles of my moccasins. It cooled quicker than expected forming a crisp beeswax waterproof barrier. I was not too sure about that. I scrapped some off with my fingernails. I switched to using a cloth to rub it in better then more fingernail scrapping to remove more wax, more circular rubbing to penetrate. I walked away from my project. I didn’t want to apply this mixture to the upper part of my moccasins. I rubbed only mink oil with a clean cloth onto the uppers.
I didn’t touch the second moccasin. I was worried that I couldn’t undo the first. Then I thought, if you can’t wear one, you can’t wear both, so I proceeded to coat the second moccasin in the same manner. They were sticky and tacky.

I left them to dry while I went to the Mall. Pretending they would dry while I was at the Mall.

At the Mall, I happened to stop into a leather shop. They sold moccasins; who knew? I told the store owner what I had done to my new moccasins and he coldly replied; “You just wreaked your moccasins” You spray them, not grease them”. I stood there unwilling to leave while he worked on a leather shoe.

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

“You should have come here first before going online”. He replied.

When I got home, I looked at the moccasins. They were not dry. I could not wear them. The grease would get on our carpet and floors. Dog hair and dirt would stick to my moccasins.

I did not want to tell my most loving husband.

I called Jenny who has a leather shop and she was helpful. She gave me some ideas but urged me not to do anything until she took a look.

“Why would you do that?” she asked.