It's WINTER CHEER!!! *Kermit Flails*

It's time for WINTER CHEER!!! In case you can't tell, I'm super excited about it! Soon, I get to decorate the house (and my desk at work) with all of the shiny, glittery, sparkly things I can find and I can keep myself incredibly caffeinated by ingesting large amounts of sugar spiked with a bit of coffee*. I'll need that sugar and caffeine buzz when it comes to the holidays, because this year I have a lot of monkeys to make!

The first of the Winter Cheer Flock are now complete. I had to come up with this year's theme without the help of the wonderful Ninja Muse, so it was a bit hard, until I found the stash of winter/holiday socks. This year there will of course be non-holiday themed monkeys, each with a fleece scarf that matches their colors. But there will also be several special monkeys.

The special Winter Cheer Monkeys have been outfitted by their Nana's in the latest in winter sweater fashions. Naturally, some of the monkeys Nana's had better taste in sweaters than others, but no matter what, each monkey looks adorable in their sweater-- even if the sweater would win first place in an office ugly sweater contest.

Winter Cheer Monkeys!!!

Winter Cheer is for everyone, regardless of religion or lack thereof. It's just about being happy that it's Caramel Brulee Latte Season Winter and things get all shiny and sparkly during winter. Oooh... sparkly... *Tries to focus and not be distracted by all the glittery things*

There are monkeys for Christmas and Hanukkah, but also some monkeys with sweaters that are just winter themed. No one is exempt from the ugly sweaters!

Sparkle is very eager for his first Christmas (and his sweater is sparkly!)

Leor is ready to assist with lighting the Menorah! (Just don't let him do it himself)

Holly, and her fraternal twin Emmett are just happy it's winter and they can wear their reindeer sweaters now!

If you happen to be in North Attleboro, I'll be doing a craft fair with LOTS of Monkeyville monkeys (with and without sweaters) eager to be adopted! Stay tuned for details!

*I'm not even going to pretend to love coffee. I don't even like it that much, what I love are all the wonderful sugary things that go into coffee. Which is why I get SUPER excited that it's caramel brulee coffee season!

The Count Down to Winter Cheer!

The first thing you learn about hanging out with me in person is that knowing where every Starbucks is within a reasonable distance* is, because we will be going there, especially if you see me on a weekend. More often than not, I will ask my friends to meet me there. There just happens to be a Starbucks nicely situated in between our houses, so it's an easy place to meet. I'm not an addict**, I swear *twitch, twitch*

Wee Ninja Muse and I shared a Beantown coffee when I interview for the Day Job

For me, the seasons don't go: spring, summer, fall, winter, or even the New England variation. The seasons for me are: caramel macchiato, Frappacino, pumpkin spice, and caramel brulee latte. I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin spice lattes, but I know it's really fall when the pumpkin spice signs are out. Pumpkin spice season is in full swing here, but I'm already dreaming of caramel brulee time of year, not just because caramel brulee latte is my very favorite (umm... extra, extra sugar...) but also because the start of the caramel brulee season is also the start of the Winter Cheer season here in Monkeyville!

This year, Hanukkah starts at sun down the night before Thanksgiving, which is extra early, so Winter Cheer preparations have started extra early here in Monkeyville! Winter Cheer is for everyone, so while there will be some Hanukkah and Christmas themed monkeys, there will also be plenty of sock monkeys that are just really happy that it's caramel brulee time... er... I mean, that it's winter! Sock monkeys (or any monkeys really) shouldn't drink caramel brulee lattes, they have enough energy without the extra caffeine.

Eli is the only one in the house that drinks more coffee than I do, but he needs it to get all his coursework done.

I've already started sewing the sock monkeys for the Winter Cheer Flock, and the first two test monkeys for this year's theme are complete. I needed to do a bit of testing this year because I found an awesome stash of winter/Christmas themed socks that I hadn't had the chance to use yet, but I wanted to something special with them this year. I try to make each season's flock something different than I've done before. That usually means a bit of testing and at least one experimental monkey (Mwahahahaha). This year's test monkeys came out better than expected, so all that's left is to get first half of the new flock finished up.

I'm planning on debuting Winter Cheer on Monday, October 21st. It's early, but they monkeys need time to travel to their new homes before the holidays start.


*Reasonable is VERY subjective here.
**I prefer a Milkyway latte from Beantown, the little shop near my day job.There aren't Beantowns everywhere, so I have to settle for Starbucks.

CHEER!!!

This holiday season, the Monkeyville theme is CHEER and the monkeys are ready to start going out and spreading CHEER everywhere The theme is also sparkles because I found some awesome sparkly socks that are perfect for the holidays and there's a bit of Dr. Seuss style whimsy thrown in too, because everything is better when done in the Seuss style. CHEER isn't an acronym, it's just a special feeling that usually comes this time of year. It's non-denominational, open to everyone, and just plain happy. I think it's best described as that feeling you get when it snows for the first time (for real, not freaky snow in October). Who doesn't feel like a little kid when the snow starts to fall for that first time and the world turns all white and pretty because all the grungy stuff of regular life is covered by the snowy blanket?

Last year, the monkeys spread CHEER just on Etsy. This year, they have two ways of spreading CHEER! The monkeys are still spreading CHEER on Etsy (and there are lots of monkeys coming!) but also right here in Monkeyville (AKA: North Attleboro, MA) at The Artful Phoenix! This is the monkey's first holiday season in a real store, so they're VERY excited about that. In fact, they got so excited that they wanted to help Melissa and Jan with the decorations! 

Photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver

Dotty, the giant monkey (a Monkeez monkey I believe) wanted to help out as well, and that's a good thing, she was much taller than the Monkeyville monkeys and could reach all the high branches.Under Dotty's direction, the monkeys set to work on getting the window display looking as cheerful as possible.

The first step, was getting the tree up and lights strung. Tackling the tree would be hard for the normal sized Monkeyville monkeys, but it was Dotty to the rescue! The rest of the monkeys supervised and made sure that the tree was nice and straight. Then, it was time for the lights! I think the monkeys got a bit carried away with decorating, because they strung lights on Dotty too!

Of course, being monkeys, they had to goof off a bit too!

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver

"Look at me!" Snowbert jumped into the tree and hung by his tail. This was just the start of monkey sillyness. If you have a Christmas tree at home, it's probably not a good idea to let sock monkeys decorate it! I hope Dotty wasn't feeling left out since she was a bit too big toget up to such shenanigans!

Of course, a holiday window display isn't complete with just some lights and a tree, at least not for these monkeys! These monkeys had BIG ideas. They worked hard to make this holiday display a very special one, and one that would be sure to catch the eye of the busy shoppers walking (or driving) down North Washington street!

They picked their favorite ornaments to decorate the tree:

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver, ornament by Martha Maynard

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver ornament by Elizabeth Anne Haney

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver ornament by Linda Richardson

 All of the artists had been working hard on making cool ornaments for the holidays, so there were lots and lots to choose from. They had been working so hard, the monkeys got another tree so everything wouldn't get too crowded.

There were even a few monkey ornaments!

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver

Not many though, because there were full sized monkeys to be made and sent to their new homes. The window was still missing something, so the monkeys ran around the store gathering a bunch of cool toys.

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver, dragon pull toy by Tom Seal

Of course, the monkeys had to play with the toys as well. They are monkeys after all. Plus, it's not like the chance to ride a really cool dragon comes around all the time, you have to take the chance when it comes along.

Once everything was in place, the monkeys took a break and called all the people in to look at their work.

photo courtesy of The Artful Phoenix, taken by Melissa Santsaver

Yep, that's definitely a memorable and eye catching window display. I think the Artful Phoenix will be the only shop in North Attleboro with an upside down Christmas tree.