I love nothing more than a challenge so I spent most of last weekend hand-embroidering the top of shoes. I am usually patient but I do hate repeating my work but there is absolutely no way to avoid this with shoes: I have to do both feet and keep a design that is somewhat symmetrical.
Of course I made a mistake and will have the redo at least one piece next weekend but things are progressing.
And good things are coming out of this project: I can design whatever I want without regard to cost of time. This is prompting me to hand-embroider the shoe and to also design it for deliciousness: I am padding the top of the shoe with quilt-batting and embroidering the edges with silk.
And no: my shoes don't look factory-perfect. That's the point. There's nothing boring or standard about them.