Why Handmade?

I'm going to talk about something that does the equivalent to giving me thought hives. It's something that's gotten into my head and bothers me on a minor level for a pretty significant amount of time. Sort of like the thought equivalent of me petting a dog. I touch a dog, and then for the rest of the day, whatever part of my body came into contact with that cute, fluffy doggy fur will itch. Some ideas are like that for me, and this is one of them.

Not too long ago, Etsy made some "clarifications" to their handmade policy. Etsy is often thought of as *the* place for handmade things, and for the most part it does an okay job at that. The rules a few years ago were that everything needed to be handmade by the person selling, and if they had help by family or friends, this had to be disclosed, and those people listed in the shop info. Then this changed to handmade by the person selling or someone in their immediate employ-- not a factory, but a handful of employees. This has changed even more, to now being the person owning the shop must design the things, but they can outsource to a factory if they wish (and as long as they disclose that in their shop info somewhere).

I can kind of understand this. For all of those people custom designing wedding invitations, T-shirts, etc. and having them printed somewhere else, then selling them as an original design-- that makes sense. What customers are paying for in those instances is the work that went into the design, not a hand sewn shirt or handmade paper. Sort of like the coloring books that Melanie and I made. She did all of the illustrations herself, I did all of the text, but neither of us were capable of printing and binding them on our own, so we got someone else to do that bit. Not knowing if that actually counted as "handmade" by Etsy standards, I never listed them on Etsy before, but such things also sell better in person, so I bring them to fall craft fairs with me.

I'm completely okay with all of that. What bothers me, and what's giving me the brain hives is that this is the same rule across the board. I'm sure it would be a nightmare for the Etsy staff to try to separate out how this rule would apply to the different categories (and I have no clue how the new rule applies to vintage things at all). So it's a blanket rule for everyone. This, I'm not fond of.



When I started making sock monkeys, I didn't intend to start selling them, I just needed more monkeys to do a photo challenge. When people started asking to buy them, I started selling them, and to me, part of what makes them special is that they really are handmade. I mean handmade in every sense of the word-- there aren't a dozen (usually underpaid) people sitting in a warehouse somewhere stitching together Monkeyville Sock Monkeys. There's me.

This is George, the very first sock monkey I ever made.

I really do make each monkey by hand. I sew the bodies on a regular sewing machine (I got it at Target, it's not anything special, but it has a stretchy fabric setting), I stuff each monkey, and I assemble them. The limbs, ear, tail, mouth, and all of the facial details are hand stitched, the felt for the hearts and other tummy adornments is cut by hand (freehand too most of the time) and that's attached by hand too. On very rare occasions, I have a bit of help stuffing them, because when things get busy, I'm often not physically capable of stuffing all of the monkeys. I have arthritis, so I occasionally have friends and family help me with that. I also always ask for help with names, because I've made so many monkeys now, that I just can't think of anymore, and everyone I know people with really good ideas.

I could completely outsource monkey manufacture. Just write up some schematics and send them off to some factory somewhere and say "make these guys, and make them all look like this" and I could sell them on Etsy if I wanted. It wasn't a strict adherence to Etsy's rules or some kind of loyalty to that particular site that has stopped me from outsourcing the monkeys.What stopped me, was that to outsource the monkeys would defeat the whole purpose of making them.

This is where the fact that I never set out to sell the sock monkeys is a factor. I started out making them because I needed something that would distract me from everything else in my life being broken. I gave away a bunch of monkeys, but I needed something else to do with them, so I started selling them. When things got hard again, the monkeys saved the day again, providing much needed income when I was unemployed, and a much needed distraction from the constant "OMG! I MUST JOB!"

An old photo of in progress monkeys. The technique is different, but the process is the same.

If someone else was making the monkeys, none of those things would have been there. I'd like to think the fact that each one is unique and made by me makes a difference in the monkeys too-- at the very least, they don't get ruptured stitches that require intensive surgery the same way. My concerns aren't producing as many sock monkeys as cheaply as possible to maximize profit, I make the monkeys because I like to. I love sock monkeys, and as I've said before, they're my way of making the world a bit better. Paying other people to make them just doesn't do the same thing.

The current Monkeyville Fall/Winter Flock, waiting for adoption!

Each one of those little guys takes me at least a couple hours to make. The more complicated the details (more than one heart, the skeletons) mean more time. Am I ever going to make hundreds of these guys a week? Not likely, but I make as many of them as I can, because I like to make things, and I like making things that make people happy even more.

Fall is Here!!!

It's officially fall here in New England! That means pretty leaves, weather I can walk to and from work to without feeling like I'm melting, and best of all-- ALL the Things are pumpkin spiced! YAY! *Kermit flails* Of course, I still drink my usually cup of milk and sugar with a bit of coffee added, but it's just nice to know that pumpkin spiced coffee is there should I have enough per-caffeine brain power to order one (I don't). Oh, and there's some sports things that nearly everyone I know is super excited about too.

I love this time of year, not just for the pumpkin spice coffee, beer (yum!), and pastries, but also because I get to start making my very favorite type of sock monkeys-- the Halloween monkeys! There's something about making zombies, skeletons, and pumpkin themed (though not pumpkin spiced!) monkeys that always makes me super happy. This year's Halloween Monkey Flock is called Dead Man's Tails and these monkeys combine some of my very favorite monkey styles-- they're skeleton (or zombie) pirate monkeys!

Captain Red Legs, the leader of the Pirate Monkey Flock

There's been a lot of activity on the seas of Monkeyville. There was a pretty epic Ninja vs Pirate battle with lots of casualties on the pirates side. Lots of eyes were lost to ninja stars, and those zombie and skeleton pirates remaining came ashore and have renounced their pirate-y ways. No more pillaging and plundering for them, they just want homes with lots of safe adventures and cuddling. The zombies have even gone to Zombies Anonymous to give up their addiction to eating brains. This wasn't really such a bad addiction since for sock monkeys, their brains are just fluffy stuffing. The only things in danger of being nommed were the couch cushions.

Gunnar the zombie pirate. Could that face be brain hungry? No way!

Several pirates have gone off to new homes, where they'll be loved and can "plunder" all the cuddles they want. I love making these guys, but I'm always glad when they get to go to a home where they'll be special and loved. Monkeyville is turning into a Monkey-opolis with lots and lots of monkey, so not too many of them get the special attention they need. It's kind of like having a litter of kittens. They're all cute and adorable, and you want to keep them all, but there aren't enough hours in the day to play with each one, so it's better to adopt them out to homes where they can be loved and cuddled and played with.

Fester the zombie doesn't actually glow. 

I haven't made too many other Halloween monkeys. This year's Fall Flock has been mostly non-holiday themed monkeys, though I did make Fester the zombie. There's something about tie-dye socks that just yell out to be made into a zombie. I have a few other pairs of zombie socks, but with Winter Cheer debuting soon (Hanukkah starts November 27th this year!) the rest of the zombies may have to wait until after the Winter Cheer monkeys are complete.


However, there are several pirate skeletons (and regular monkeys) just waiting to be adopted in the Monkeyville Etsy shop and I'll be hard at work in any and all available time making not just Winter Cheer monkeys, but non-holiday monkeys. My goal this fall is to use up all the socks I possibly can... which means LOTS of monkeys because I have at least 1000 pairs of socks in my house!



Stay tuned to the Monkeyville Blog and Facebook pages, because there's lots more exciting things coming soon!

Sock Monkey Wrangling Part One: Nyx the Demonic Pixie Babysitter

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm sorry about that, but I have an excuse reason. A very good one too! I have a day job that requires I spend about 13 hours of the day out of the house. Normally, this isn't so bad because the nice people at The Artful Phoenix here in North Attleboro have been watching over all the sock monkeys and making sure that they don't get into trouble and that they get adopted out to nice people. Unfortunately, The Artful Phoenix is closing its doors at the end of this month, so I had to bring all of the monkeys home with me.

Now, it's one thing to have a monkey or two in the house because Eli and Sirus could look after them until they went to their new home. Now though, Eli and Sirus are heavily outnumbered until I can get all of the monkey's photos taken and them listed on Etsy. After a couple days of coming home to ALL of the bananas in the house eaten and peels everywhere, I had to resort to desperate measures.

I called the Boogie Man of course.

What? You don't have the Boogie Man on speed dial? He's quite useful for wrangling little monkeys of any type! Unfortunately, he's been a bit overworked with a gig rattling pipes and jangling chains. All was not lost though, and arrangements were made for a substitute sock monkey sitter.

A thoroughly stressed Monkey-Maker and Eli greet the sitter... and are quite surprised

The Boogie Man couldn't come, the Scissor Man was just a bit too scary for the monkeys, but Boogie Man's little sister was available, and since there's not a lot of money to be made in the Boogie Man industry, she was, well... not exactly happy, but willing to look after the monkeys for a little while.

Just call me Nyx.

Apparently the Boogie Man's little sister is a demonic pixie named Venyx Malvelius. All little siblings are a bit demonic anyway, right?* I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan, so the pixie bit didn't surprise me at all. The Boogie Man is in charge of the Tooth Fairy franchises. I checked the monkeys reaction to their new sitter.

Surprise? Shock? There expressions were a bit... woolen

Introductions were made and though slightly wary, the Monkey-Maker, Eli, and Sirus left the rest of the monkeys in Nyx's care and went out for a day of relaxation. The monkeys were a bit wary at first, they had never seen a demonic pixie before. After a little bit of hesitation, they greeted their new sitter in typical sock monkey fashion.

Monkey snuggle!!!

 Poor Nyx, apparently the Boogie Man hadn't warned her just how difficult it is to wrangle monkeys! I hope the minimum wage she'd be getting would be worth the snuggles!

Omar the Upset Eyeball is not amused.

Nyx was left with some pretty simple instructions, just take the monkeys out for a bit so they can play, and make sure that they don't get into trouble. The monkeys have a lot of extra energy now that they've been hanging around the house, and I was hoping a good day out would help them burn it off. Nothing a demonic pixie couldn't handle.

Demonic pixie teenagers are still teenagers

Nyx brought the monkeys to a cemetery not too far from Monkeyville headquarters, and while the monkeys don't mind hanging out in cemeteries at all, it may not have been the best choice for an inattentive babysitter to bring a bunch of rambunctious monkeys!

This doesn't seem like the best idea...

While Nyx talked and talked and talked, the monkeys ran around and played some typical monkey games. These are better than reindeer games because all the monkeys get to play regardless of their nose color.
There was some hide and seek:

Stella got picked first to count.

Can you spot all the monkeys?

The monkeys did their best to get Nyx off the phone and playing games with them. They were even nice enough to make sure that she would win. Maybe a bit too easy, but Nyx was a good sport. 

Found you. Duh.

Of course, an outing with sock monkeys always has a bit of mischief involved, and Alice and PJ got up to a bit of no good. However, that will have to wait for the next Sock Monkey Monday next week.

*Alright, being an older sibling, I might be a wee bit biased on that.

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.

*Taps Blog* Is This Thing Still On?

*Brushes dust off of blog* It's been awfully quiet around here hasn't it? I feel like I walked into a shopping mall after closing, everything's so quiet and deserted feeling. Don't worry Monkeyville followers, I'm going to try  VERY hard not to let it get this dusty in here again. It's only the *blog* that's being neglected, Monkeyville is roaring along full force, with lots and lots of things going on! That's actually the reason that it's been so quiet around here! There are so many new monkeys (and bunnies, and elephants, and bears oh my!) that I've been spending all the time I would normally blog wrangling sock creatures.

There's no shortage of sock monkey adventures either, because even though I've been doing nothing more than sitting and working, the monkeys have been having adventures galore! December is officially Sock Monkey Month here in Monkeyville, and it's going to be a really awesome one if I do say so myself. Honestly, I just made the monkeys, I didn't take the really awesome photos. I have to thank all of the monkeys new friends for those.


Prepare for some adorableness-- Monkeyville isn't responsible for monitors melting from all the cute.

Photo by Kandi, used with permission

Princess Polly the Pirate Monkey getting lots of snuggles from her new best friend!

That is probably the best thing about being a sock monkey maker. You get the cutest emails EVER about how happy the monkeys have made someone. I've made a lot of monkeys in the past few years too, and it never gets any less cute or routine. Every time I get one of these emails, I get all melty, and I realize that the monkeys are doing exactly what I make them to do! They're going off into the world and making people (especially little kids) happy! YAY! *Kermit flail*

There has been so much cuteness going on here at Monkeyville that I have to spread it out a bit. I'd hate for someone to explode from all the cute. I mean look at how adorable This post on BenSpark.com is! It would just be horribly irresponsible of me to just post that much cute on the Monkeyville blog plus all the other cute too! I'm very glad that Eva and her friends enjoyed her sock monkey themed birthday party.

*Happy Dances*

I know I haven't done Sock Monkey Monday for a couple weeks now, but I have a good reason! I have a job now! I am no longer a bum, hanging around the house, I am once again a productive member of society! *Snoopy dances* This also means that I don't have a lot of free time anymore, so it's going to be a bit tough getting the sock monkey entries (and the sock monkeys themselves) done.

I started the new job last Monday, so clearly Wee Ninja Muse is a good luck little ninja, because the job that I brought her along on the interview for is the job that I got. I made a Lucky Ninja for a friend, and I have to make another Lucky Ninja for another friend so that we can ALL have jobs.

To those of you who know me as a monkey maker, what I do is probably NOT what you'd expect. My last job, I made hematology controls-- that basically means I did a lot of things with a lot of blood. I think my primary job was to scare the temps though. With this job, I'm once again in the lab, but doing a MUCH less gory job-- I'm an Analytical Chemistry Technician. Mostly that means I test stuff. Which means that for the past week and two days, I've spent most of my time moving REALLY tiny pieces of product around with a pair of tweezers.

The main requirement for this job was the successful removal of the "Writer's Cramp" in the game Operation. Once I proved that I rocked at Operation (I have two different versions), I was a shoe in. Okay, so it wasn't QUITE like that, but I do really like where I work. I came up with a few things that sort of show what kind of company I work for now:

• I have a toy moose on my desk. Pretty much everyone does. They're standard issue. 
• My first day, my new boss brought me and the rest of the team (there are four of us total) out to lunch at a local pub. 
• There's a HUGE couch in the middle of the office area. This couch is comfy and no one gets mad if you sit on it. No one times you when you're sitting on it either!
• There are SNACKS, lots and lots of snacks! Gummy rats, pretzels, yogurt, bagels, and drinks to go with them. And not just coffee, but juice and seltzer too!
• Last Friday, we had a JUGGLER who juggled and made balloon animals!

 The only downside is that the commute is long, but now that I'm used to it, I don't mind the commute at all. I can sleep on the train, and I haven't used almost any gas for the car. I also haven't really spent any money on breakfast or lunch stuff beyond some stuff to make a sandwich because we have it all there.

I have to admit, I didn't think jobs like this existed. Sure, I've had jobs where they were okay with you taking an hour for lunch as long as everything got done, but that was about the only "perk" I've ever had, and I lost that when I went to the last company I worked for. This new job is a bit of a culture shock for me. I think I've said about 20 times my first day "we're allowed to do that?"

I'm used to being watched constantly, I'm used to being punished for punching in just ONE MINUTE late. I feel guilty when I go in and eat breakfast while sitting on the couch... even though that's what the couch is for. I'm used to scarfing down my lunch as quick as possible because 30 minutes isn't a lot of time if you have something that needs to be microwaved for 5 minutes, and having to count that time it will take me to walk to the time clock, etc.

None of those things apply at my new job. People don't grunt when you say good morning. People don't look at you like you have three heads when you say good morning. People are HAPPY there, and I know for sure that this company is far more productive than the other company I worked for. It's the little things, like free bagels that actually matter a lot. My last place didn't understand this. They were... all "stick" and no "carrot". For whatever reason, they never realized that it's easier to do something small, and make people HAPPY to work for you, than it is to FORCE people to work for you*. People will volunteer to take on extra work without extra pay, and things like that if you give them those little incentives. I know that for sure, I tend to recruit family and friends as monkey making assistants, and they do good work in exchange for pizza!

Speaking of which, Haunted Monkeyville will be debuting this week! Starting September 1st, there will be Halloween themed monkeys in the Etsy shop. Due to Irene, this will have to be a rolling debut, as the sewing machine doesn't work without electricity and we lost it here for most of Sunday. Also, I am COLLABORATING on a very, very exciting project that was set to debut at the same time, but while I have power, the wonderful and talented Melanie does not. Without her, the project will be *slightly* postponed.

We were lucky here in Monkeyville, all of the towns around us lost power from Sunday until sometime today. Other towns, not too far away STILL don't have power yet! I hope that everyone else has made it through the storm without any major tragedies.


*That job even had enforced merriment! The Christmas "party" was in the MIDDLE of the day, attendance was mandatory or you didn't get paid for that time, and it was just a really bland buffet lunch where we were only allowed soda or water to drink. It was also NOT friendly to anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas (or vegetarians), as the only foods there were salad, pork with some kind of fruit, and cold pasta with shellfish. I ended up having salad and rice for lunch two years in a row because the first year I was a vegetarian and for the second the party fell right in the middle of Hanukkah! I don't eat Kosher most of the time, but around Hanukkah I do my best to.

Ninja Thursday: The Adventures of Wee Ninja Muse

Subtitled: I go to Cambridge looking for a job

 
 Yesterday was a BIG day here in Monkeyville! First, I had a very exciting interview at a company in Cambridge. The application on Monster had the question: "What are your current goals in haiku form". How can you NOT want to work for a company like that?!

Of course, the first thing I did when I found out I had an interview for this job was to tell THE Ninja Muse, who was quite excited for me, though rather jealous that I would be going to such a pretty place without her. We tried the teleporter, but our prototype still isn't up to snuff. I teleported Ninja Muse's socks back to her (the only items that made it through-- coincidence? I think not!) and we sat and thought. Ninja Muse then mused "I wish I could shrink myself down and tag along in your bag".

Ah-ha! I set about to work instantly, and in under an hour, Wee Ninja Muse was born! Wee Ninja Muse was just the right size to fit in my bag or coat pocket without it looking like I was trying to smuggle puppies into Cambridge. This by the way, is why it's so good to have a Ninja Muse. Without Ninja Muse, there would be no Wee Ninja Muse, and my photos of my trip up to Cambridge would be much, much more boring.

Wee Ninja Muse with her ticket. Only pirates get smuggled aboard trains. 

"Is it here yet?" Nope, sorry Wee Ninja Muse.

"Yay! It's here!" Wee Ninja Muse traveled via coat pocket for safety.

"This... is not very comfortable...."

 "Ah, that's better. Wake me up when we get there." Even though I had only 10 minutes sleep the night before, the train was too loud for me to sleep. So while Wee Ninja Muse snoozed in my bag, I went over the notes I had made for my  interview. I was excited, but NERVOUS.

Finally in Boston, it was time to hop on another train. 

Wee Ninja Muse tried to be patient. 

"Is that it?" Nope, right color, but wrong side of the tracks.

First stop in Cambridge? Breakfast! 

Wee Ninja Muse was starving, she ate half my lemon square! That's okay though because I was hiding a brownie in my bag for later.

After that was the job interview (sorry, no photos of that) and Wee Ninja Muse was very good about sitting quietly in my bag for most of the interview. Little did I know this was because she was nomming my brownie!

However, she's adorable, so I forgave her... but not before threatening to feed her to the weird graffiti monster. 

Wee Ninja Muse in front of a well known Cambridge landmark.

This was right up the street from the company I interviewed at. Any guesses?

Eli Monkey goes to Harvard, but Wee Ninja Muse and I agree that MIT is WAY cooler.
Of course, Wee Ninja Muse wanted to see Harvard too, since she prefers the old brick buildings. We were in Cambridge already, so we hopped on the train again and went two more stops to Harvard Square. 

Sadly, we couldn't go to a few places that Wee Ninja Muse wanted to go, because I had stupidly worn boots expecting it to rain. It didn't rain, so I was stuck in big heavy boots with thick socks in 80-something degree weather. This resulted in a blister right on the heel of my left foot.

We stopped at Cambridge Commons for a while so I could sit and get my bearings (I was also kicking myself for not getting directions from Eli) and so that I could take my boots off and let my socks dry out. Yeah, yeah, gross I know. However it was hot out so they dried fast and we were once again headed for adventures.

With the help of the Mildy Intelligent cellphone, we found a quick way to get to where we were going. 

Sorry, you can't read the text on the banner. The camera chose what it focused on based on cuteness. 

Same problem. 

We went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. 

Wee Ninja Muse studies the Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt list in preparation for our tour around the Museum, while I drop off my coat and bag. 

The first thing Wee Ninja Muse saw made her sad. 

It's a display of birds hunted to extinction: the Great Auk, Dodo, and Giant Moa. I could only fit the moa's foot in the photo.

Then, we saw some funky looking pigeons (everything is stuffed and in a display case here).
 

And then it was on to what was probably Wee Ninja Muse's least favorite part of the trip:

Wee Ninja Muse posed very unhappily on a photo of a spider.
"These are all dead right?"

Um... sure... don't move Mr. Cockroach!
There were a few living animals in the insect area, including these guys-- Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Wee Ninja Muse was starting to get nervous, so we moved on to the next area quickly. 

For now, it's a display of all the cool things that grow out of animals noggings. There were lots of displays of various antlers and other animals horns. It was a museum/hunting lodge hybrid area.

*touch*

After that, it was off to see some older horned (and some not horned) animals. 

Triceratops.

Big... thing... I can't remember what it's called. It was so huge I could only get it's head in the photo, no matter how far away I stood. 

Moving forward in time:

This is a giant ground sloth, with a Wee Ninja Muse in front of it.
"The isolation of South America for about 75 million years led to the evolution of bizarre animals"

Yes, yes it did. 

Wee Ninja Muse and I agreed this guy was VERY bizarre!

And look! in the next display, we found one of the scavenger hunt items!

I'll admit, our finding these was largely by accident, as there was so much cool stuff to see we forgot to specifically look for them. Well, I forgot. Wee Ninja Muse kept pointing them out to me. 

Birds! Right to left: kiwi, puffin, ostrich chick. I always thought puffins were bigger. 

Off to the next room.
Look out Wee Ninja Muse!

 "Don't worry Ninja Writer,  it's not like it can swim through glass!"

Um...

Tiger: *nom*

Me: *saves Wee Ninja Muse*

Wee Ninja Muse: "It's stuffed silly".

We then walked through the ocean mammals room (skeletons mostly). And then took a turn into...

"Can you see me?"

Okay, it looked like a forest, complete with trees growing mushrooms, but we were still in the building. 

"You're SURE this isn't alive RIGHT?"

This was the North American Forest display, and the arrangement of everything was very cool.

We found lots of things on the scavenger hunt list here, including Snape's Patronus:

Aw, Snape had a cute patronus!

Wee Ninja Muse and I giggled over how dirty that sounded. 

When we left the forest, I happen to take a break on a bench to rest my hot, sore feet, and Wee Ninja Muse found another item on the list!

*Snarl*

Up and moving again, this time it was my turn to find an item:

Wee Ninja Muse was starting to get tired too, so we skipped the glass flowers and the rocks and minerals (meaning that we did not complete our scavenger hunt mission) and headed back to the train.

We used the Mildly Intelligent phone to find the nearest T stop, which resulted in us walking through Harvard Yard. We took the red line to South Station, and got there just in time for the 3:45 train home.