Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Just this for now. 

There's a monkey entry coming, but for right now, I'm feeling like putting my head on the desk and repeating "oh God..."

I did the taxes today. By myself.   It took from 12pm to 3am.

*Collapses. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Sock Monkey Monday: Taken Over

 The massive amounts of snow have finally started to recede here in Monkeyville. It's about time too! The monkeys are all getting a bit restless. It's also cream egg time of year! Yay!* It's also that special time of year when bunnies start to appear.

That first bunny was a Ninja, that must be how he snuck in among the monkeys unnoticed.

Of course, where there's one bunny....

Sock bunnies breed just like regular bunnies! They've taken over Monkeyville!

Some less clumped together cuteness:

The yellow guy was the first I did. I forgot to leave extra sock for the arms.


All of the bunnies except the big blue one and the Ninja were sewn by hand.

All of these little guys are for the craft fair on April 2nd in Pawtucket. I figured since the Monkeys were over priced, that the bunnies, which are easier to make and generally cheaper would be a hit.

I have surgery coming up this Friday at 6:30am. Oliver is being evicted and hopefully I'll get to be a normal person again. I'm going to have at least a week off work, where I won't really be able to do too much, so I figured I'd get all the monkey stuff done then, because sewing monkeys (other than the machine part) isn't that hard. I also have a nice boss that doesn't mind if I make monkeys in bed.

I have some monkeys that are done as well, I just don't have the time to photograph them right now. I'm exhausted and not feeling well. Oh, this will also be the last Sock Monkey Monday for at least a week or two. It depends on how fast I get better.


*okay, so I can't actually eat them yet, but I can buy them for after the surgery when I can actually eat normal foods again.

Sock Monkey Monday: Goals, They Are Good

First, some cuteness:

Alexander has one of my favorite monkey faces ever. How can you resist wanting to cuddle him? 

It's hard to feel like I've managed to get anything done when there's almost nothing around me but half finished monkeys. I finished two Pirates last night, both very girly ones. I probably should have put something cute like eyelashes on them, but I didn't think of that. There's a boy pirate to be completed and a few other monkeys that need anything from limbs being attached to just their faces finished up. I'm not as fast as I used to be, but there's progress being made. It's just in smaller strides. It's exhaustion that's doing me in more than anything. As much as I want to work on the monkeys, I just don't always have the ability to. The only thing I've eaten since yesterday around this time (and that has stayed put) is three tacos and a couple mini brownies. Not really enough to keep this well-oiled, monkey-making machine up and running at full speed. I'm still trying though! I have probably the last test tomorrow, in which I get injected with a radio active dye, then eat an egg (I don't know why it's an egg, that's just what I've been told) and sit in a machine like an MRI type thing (I think). Based on how my insides light up, the doctor will be able to tell what's wrong with me. It's been greatly narrowed down, which is why this is probably the final test. After that, it's most likely surgery to repair the hernia and whatever else is messed up.

The end of my day job is slowly crawling near, and the closer it gets, the more I've been thinking about what I want to do afterward. I've applied for a job or two, but there isn't a huge amount of things that interest me. I'm a planning kind of person, so I've been working to come up with a plan for after April 1st. The first bit of the plan is a party complete with a sock monkey shaped cake (brownie actually, it's easier to carve in the right shape) and lots of pizza. I'm planning on being better by then.

Then comes the great unknown. I'll have to get my resume buffed and shined, then posted everywhere that I can post it. However, there's not much I can do about other people seeing it and wanting to call me, other than write the best resume I can. What I can control is Monkeyville. So I don't go mad, I'm going to put all of my effort into making Monkeyville as big of a success as I can. I have plans for some new products, including some that will go into beta testing with in the next couple of weeks or so*, and I've also come up with a bit of a business plan and some ideas to get Monkeyville beyond just Etsy and into some brick and mortar stores**. I've also opened up a shop on ArtFire (you don't need to join ArtFire to buy a monkey from there, this is a big plus), and I've been looking into other ways of promoting the monkeys.

My main goal right now is to get into Craftopia. The week before that, there will be another fair on Saturday that I'll be doing as well. It will be smaller, but I want to see how it will go. I also want to see about the Artisan's Collaborative here and see if I can either get a spot in one of their fairs or get a guess spot in their shop. I'm hoping that at the very least, Monkeyville can help with the bills while I'm looking for another day job. I'm really hoping that I can get Monkeyville to a place where I can focus mainly on that, and only need a day job as a supplement. A steady income when the monkeys might be a bit slow. That's the ultimate goal, but I'll have to see how it goes.

More cuteness: 

Caleb the sort of St. Patrick's Day monkey.

I think that's all of my plans for now. I have some other ideas for things that I want to do, but nothing is really concrete right now. I find out Friday if I got into Craftopia this time around (fingers crossed!) and I'm just trying to get what I can done right now. The monkeys have really helped me not get depressed because I've been so sick. It's hard to feel bad when you look at such a cute face.

OH! Speaking of cute faces, this came in the mail today from Mint Conspiracy!

It's a "Poor Little Sick Something". Just the right thing to cheer up a sick sock monkey maker. *Happy* Trust me, the photo does not show the true adorableness of this guy. Also not the right color either. He's much brighter green.

*Beta testing for real. The Monkeyville labs have been doing far more than just producing cuddly sock monkeys *Ninja laugh here* Um... yeah.

**Lately, I've been seeing an unpleasant... Publish America-ish turn to some of the things on Etsy. It's becoming less a place to sell and more a place to socialize. I don't mind socializing, but I would prefer it if it was obvious that I would like people to adopt the monkeys. They need homes after all. Hmm... Idea, I had one.


 

Adorableness, Now in Squishable Form

I'm not really capable of doing the Sock Monkey Monday entry today, so I'll just leave this for your enjoyment:

Seti, the baby sock yeti. Coming to the Monkeyville shop soon!

It's Not Always Sunshine in Monkeyville

It snows a lot here lately, but I'm thinking in the more abstract sense. Monkeyville is usually a very happy place. I make the monkeys because I really love to. In fact, I made them for months before it even entered my mind that I could sell them. I was selfish and wanted to keep all of the cuteness for myself!

First, some monkey awesomeness, then I'll get to the less fun bits.

Ninja Muse helped me with the name for this guy... I just can't remember it. When I saw those socks, I just had to buy them and make them into a Dia de los Muertos sock monkey. I didn't cut the felt, Mumma did all of that work, I assembled it all.

Those socks also come in white. I do remember the name of the white one is Belladonna. I'm a big fan of these guys. The mouths are different from the first skeletons I did, but I think it fits these guys more.

Okay, now on to the not so fun stuff. Unfortunately, even being surrounded by dozens of sock monkeys isn't enough to keep all illnesses away, and this monkey maker is going to have to at least slow down for a little while. I try to keep the Monkeyville blog as happy of a place as I can make it, but that's been difficult lately. For the past month and a half or so, I've been ill. Not horribly ill, just not feeling well. I assumed that it was the stress of working 10 hour days at my day job combined with working full time on Monkeyville. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case, and things have gotten progressively worse.

I don't know how to say it nicely, for the past few weeks almost nothing I've eaten has stayed down. I've had one day where I could eat normally. Today, I went to the doctor, and this week I have to get an ultrasound and an endoscopy done. Hopefully, the problem will be found and the issue solved so I can get back to making monkeys full speed, and I can just feel better. I have lots of monkeys made to go on Etsy for adoption, but I will say with the doctor's appointments, I probably won't be the fastest at getting them to the post office. At least, for the next week or so. After that, hopefully I'll be back to my normal, super multi-tasking self.

Sock Monkey Monday: Pedal to the Metal

 It has been an incredibly busy week here in Monkeyville, so busy, that help had to be recruited. I now have unpaid labor in the form of my family. Thankfully, they don't mind being paid in food, and chauffeur services. I needed monkey stuffers bad this week, and we got quite a bit done, with even more monkeys on the way!

A week's worth of work is quite adorable for Monkeyville!

I haven't thought of names for all of these guys, and I've run out of tags for them all as well. I'll have to make a few more of those before the order comes in. The guy in the front is Gir. Once I had the ears on him, I just had to give him the zipper, and the different eyes.

I love Gir. I kind of want to keep Gir for myself.

I'm also a big fan of the girl monkey in the back. I like her expression a lot.

She has that just right, silly monkey look to her. I like that.

The other monkeys for the week:

Happy Monkey is Happy!


This guy looks a bit sheepish. I want to ask what he's been up too...


I think this guy ate all of the bananas in the house. We're completely out of them.


An accomplice maybe?

More Gir, because there should always be more Gir.

*Hugs Gir*

This week, there will be some truly awesome monkeys. I've been sewing them in batches based on type mostly. The next round a skeletons (mostly) then Pirates.

It's going to be a busy week yet again!
 

Sock Monkey Monday: Ah, Love...

Love is in the air here in Monkeyville! I know that Eli and Sirus have something planned, but they've been quite mum on the subject whenever I ask. Maybe because sock monkeys, unlike real monkeys, are always quiet. Of course, there's also the Very Special sock monkeys for Valentine's Day too, which are making the house look quite festive.

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person myself, but I have to say, seeing the monkeys all dressed up for the holiday has put me in the spirit. Usually, I think of this time of year as Cadbury cream egg time. Oh how I love those little chocolate eggs filled with mysteriously delicious goo. *Gets egg. Noms egg*

While I nom my cream egg, here's some sock monkey photos for your enjoyment.

What I've been working on this weekend:

That's a Valentine's Day Ninja in the back.


Even Ninjas need some love!


I was trying a new technique for sewing the monkeys, so this guy has a longer body than I typically give them. I may put him up for $20 on Etsy instead of the typical Ninja price of $25. There's nothing wrong with him, I just don't think he's quite perfect.

Yeah, for some reason, sock monkeys are all male in my head.


This guy is one of the heartbreakers. He's sporting a broken heart of his own after all.


He doesn't look too upset about it though.

I'll be honest, I REALLY wanted to make this guy a skeleton, but I really couldn't without him looking too much like the Zparkleys skeletons. I certainly didn't want that, so I settled for skeleton-esque details.


These socks screamed to be made into a sock monkey, but they were ankle socks, so I had to improvise. The fuzzy body means he's extra cuddly.


Okay, even I can see this is a girl sock monkey. Not sure what her name is yet, but she has a lot of personality (she posed herself like that).

This is Jasper. He's the first I've done in homage to vintage cartoons, and while I wanted to keep him so bad, he's already sold and in his new home.

He's made from various ankle socks, because I saw these in the men's department of a store in the mall, and I just had to use them to make these monkeys.

Before he left for his new home, Jasper posed with Val, the second Valentine's Day monkey. I have to admit that I love the socks Val is made out of.