Oh Noes!

This week, the flock* of Ninjas has been completed. Yay! Hopefully they'll all go to new homes when we do the craft fair in a couple weeks. These ones are a bit different than the first Ninjas I've done. They have all felt details and embroidered, anime style faces. They've been dubbed: Sleepy, Happy, Lefty, Righty, Normy, and O.o**.

I'd love to show pictures of them... except I can't find the memory card for the camera! Oh no! I have a suspicion that it fell behind the nightstand, but I'll have to look all over the house this weekend. A week without Sock Monkey Monday just doesn't feel right! Thankfully, next week the new day job schedule starts, so I'll have lots more time to not only make sock monkeys, but to photograph them as well.

It's not yet Halloween, but my mind is already focused on December and Christmas. December is Sock Monkey Month, and I have to plan what we'll do for that. Hopefully, something Really Good. Hanukkah is Really Early this year, and I definitely want to do at least a couple Hanukkah monkeys. However, Christmas orders have been coming since August, which means unfortunately, I can't take anymore Christmas orders. At least not right now. We'll have to see after we get a bit further into November. For right now, I have to stop taking custom orders or I'll never have time to sleep! A sleepy monkey maker isn't a very good monkey maker. Fingers get poked with needles when I'm too tired***.

Speaking of which, I should go to bed now.

*Well, what else would you call a bunch of Ninjas?
**I've been pronouncing that "whoa" (imagine Joey Lawrence on the show Blossom).
***And more than once, my nose.

Christmas in October, Halloween in February

One of the few specific Halloween memories I have from when I was a Wee Little Ninja Writer is of my mother asking me after trick or treating "so, what do you want for Christmas?" Back then, I laughed and teased her that Thanksgiving hadn't even arrived yet! How was I supposed to know what I wanted*.

Now, I'm no longer a Wee Little Ninja Writer, I'm Full Sized Ninja Writer and I've been thinking about Christmas since August. August! Should my mother find out about this, I'll never hear the end of the teasing! However, I'm willing to take that risk, to deal with the laughter of my family, because if I didn't start thinking about Christmas back in August, I'd have some major issues.

I can see why Santa needs the whole year to make stuff for everyone**. I don't have billions of people to make toys for, but I have quite a few, and I'm going to need all of the time that I have to get everything done. Sock monkey making has ramped up to Extreme proportions, because November 13th, we'll be at a craft fair at the Epworth Methodist Church in Pawtucket from 9am-2pm.

This will be the very first craft fair that I've gone to as a seller and not a buyer, so I'm not exactly sure how many monkeys or what kind of monkeys to bring. I'm excited, but we don't have a lot of time to get everything ready. Eek! I have lots of Ninja Monkeys in the works (a Monkeyville Specialty) along with lots of others. Including these guys:

I haven't named them... I'm not sure if I should, but it feels wrong not to. These guys are sitting in the Monkeyville toy box right now, waiting for hang tags. Ninjas, reindeer, babies, and a few other monkeys will be joining them soon I hope!

It feels like the holidays are next week, but thankfully, I have a bit more time than that to prepare for them. The preparations for Christmas have taken over the ones for Halloween, but that doesn't mean that the Halloween monkeys won't be done.

Once Christmas is over, the next big holiday to look forward to is Valentine's Day. I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day for numerous reasons, so this year instead of hearts, flowers, and little kids in diapers shooting arrows, it's going to be zombies, skeletons, and more zombies.

I like zombies. I like zombie sock monkeys even more. They're cute, they're gory, and they're snuggly. What could be better?

It's going to be Valentine's Day for those that don't like Valentine's Day! Sure, candy and flowers are okay (I guess, I've never actually received either for Valentine's Day) but zombies are just all around... cooler. Skeletons too. Plus, it's hard not to love a sock monkey who wears his heart on the outside of his chest. At least it is for me. It's hard for me not to love any sock monkey. No, I don't have a problem. I am not a sock monkey hoarder... really... *looks innocent while hiding over 35 monkeys from view*.

Eli Monkey tried to give me a hand the other day. Though neither of us realized exactly how much five pounds of stuffing really is. The box is about a foot and a half square... not so bad really. However, I wasn't expecting the stuffing to expand to at least twice that size once the box was opened. Eek! Five pounds of stuffing is A LOT!

Eli Monkey tried, without much success, to contain the stuffing. That will end up being a lot of monkeys! Sirus Monkey, intelligently, watched from a far, while Eli made a bit of a monkey of himself***.Eli joined Sirus pretty quickly, once work was started and fingers were required. Soon, I will have my very own mini-army of Ninja Sock Monkeys. 

I won't use them to take over the world. I swear. *Innocent look*.

 

Okay, we're ready. Bring on Christmas!

*I'm sure it was, depending on the year: a typewriter, word processor^, or computer.
** I would like a new full time, non-contract job this year please.
***Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
^Imagine the screen of a Really Old computer attached to a typewriter. Exciting new features included: spell check, cut, copy, paste, and the ability to delete words without retyping an entire page. Life was good.

Sock Monkey Monday: So Much To Do!

I think every week I say that it's been an incredibly busy week here in Monkeyville. This week was no different. With Halloween closing in, there's lots of Monkeys to work on, some special order monkeys to finish, and I had a couple experiments I wanted to fit in too.

I didn't get as much accomplished as I thought I would, but I still got a fair bit done. First, there was the new Sock Monkey Photo Studio to set up. The new area is Excellent! It's finally possible to take photos of the monkeys when it's raining!

Ezra and Phrixus decided to be the first monkeys to pose. The new area is so much brighter that the details on both monkeys is easy too see.

It's even possible to see the gears that are on Ezra's chest. I've tried to get decent photos of these before, but it's tough to photograph the different layers.

This is my favorite shot of the day. I love the Gratuitous Monkey Bum shot, and with Phrixus, it's even better because of the wings.

Laertes and Earl got their photos taken again too. I'll have to update their Etsy pages soon. 

 I have to say, I love the new Photo Studio as well as the camera. 

It hasn't been all photos here in Monkeyville though, the Magic Monkey Making Machine has been going steadily all week too, and while most of the orders are in progress, I did get the third (!) Phantom of the Opera Monkey completed. 

This phantom is for a two year old, so he's specifically made to stand up to lots of cuddles, and without all of the easy to swallow parts that the original Phantom has.

The cloudy, moonstone eye has been replaced with a light blue felt eye, and the expression is much happier as well.

After the Phantom was done, it was time for a break from Monkey Making and to try something a bit different.

It's a glove bunny! While this little guy wasn't too hard to make, I think I'll stick to using socks. The gloves are much hard to sew well, and to get all of the limbs the same length, etc. The gloves just don't make good stuffed animals the way the socks do.

However, today during my monkey break (Leela the sock monkey was being difficult), I attempted to make something out of actual fabric. Not t-shirt, gloves, or socks, but fleece.

It's a Boolet! Compared to the bunny, this was Really Easy to make, the hardest part was getting the face right. I'm glad that the Boolet worked well because I have plans for some holiday things later that pretty much require me being able to make things out of regular fabric like fleece instead of socks. Hopefully, I'll be able to get to those things, I have lots and lots of orders to fill, so time will tell.

Squee!

This weekend has been a Very Good weekend here in Monkeyville. In fact, it's almost as if someone is listening to my thoughts and decided to at least make the sock monkey related ones come true. I put the very first Halloween monkey up in the Etsy shop on Friday. It's a ghost monkey named Elvis.

Technically, Sirius was the first Halloween Monkey, but he was snatched up too fast to make it to the Etsy shop. Elvis made it, and just like his namesake, Elvis the ghost made a big splash!

Under the sheet, Elvis is both gory and cute.

First, Elvis the Ghost Monkey wasn't just in one treasury, he was in *two*! Then, this happened:

That's a screen capture of the front page of Etsy when I opened it Friday night. Holy Super Squee!!!

Elvis was on the front page of Etsy!!! Yay! That's Incredibly Exciting! There aren't enough exclamation points in the world to express how happy this had made me, because sock animals don't frequently make it to the front page of Etsy (it's more artistic things/clothing) and I never thought *I'd* have something that made it there!

Of course, now I have to work Really Hard and get more than just two monkeys up in the Etsy store. That's okay though, because last night, I finished Earl.

Freshly risen from the grave, because he's a bit mad at the way the Dixie Chicks treated him.

No brains this time, just a bleeding heart, some drool, and a hungry look in his bloodshot eyes.

Detail on the bleeding heart. I really liked the way that turned out. The bloodshot eyes were totally Ninja Muse's idea.

 Those socks just screamed to be made into a zombie sock monkey. They're quite fuzzy and cuddly too. Earl really isn't a bad little zombie. In fact, he's a really nice monkey just looking for some love.

Why is he named Earl?

Of course, Earl the Zombie Monkey isn't anything like the Earl in the song. He's a nice little monkey, and getting along quiet well with the other monkeys in the house.

Earl is up on Etsy now too, keeping Laertes and Elvis company. I have lots of other Halloween monkeys in the works, so I should really get to work.