Best Buds- custom CARS inspired sock monkeys!

I  love  custom orders that challenge me to create something I've never done before. I have made all sorts of sock monkeys, but I've never had to use a car as inspiration! These monkeys are for a little boy turning two. He really likes the movie Cars, and his momma wanted sock monkeys styled after the two main characters, Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater!

 See the resemblance?

 Besides making their faces look like the characters, I wanted to add a fun patch on each one, just to add some more detail! Lightening got a lightening bolt and his number 95, and Mater got his towing logo.

 Best buds forever! I think they turned out really cute. I hope the birthday boy loves his cuddly new one-of-a-kind sock monkeys! 

New Mini Sock Monkeys...

Look what I started today!

These teeny little guys and gals will be perfect for an Easter basket, or just to celebrate Spring! There will be six, and I'm planning to have them done and listed on Etsy this week. If you'd like to reserve one, please let me know!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend! :)

Mini Monkeys

February is always a big month for mini sock monkeys. They make the perfect Valentine gift- I've sold them as presents to children, girlfriends, husbands, and more! I am on the hunt right now for more cute baby socks suitable for next year. I haven't found anything perfect yet, but I'll keep looking!

Here are the Mini Monkeys of this past Valentines Day:



Kade was kind enough to lend his cute hands for the photo shoot. They are the perfect size to cuddle these minis, and it helps to give an idea of how small they really are- about 6" tall on average!

Kade and the Sock Monkey Factory

I have been super busy the past couple weeks in my one-person sock monkey factory. It is a happy, magical place, mostly, except when something (i.e. tripping over remote controlled R2D2) unexpected happens and arms, tails, ears, and bodies go flying everywhere. Luckily no important body parts (are there any unimportant ones??) were lost, and all the sock monkeys were able to be put together without any missing pieces. Here are a few of them:





Those were all custom orders! I am almost done with two more, that I haven't taken photos of yet- one for my nephew's baby shower this weekend, and one to (finally!) put in the shop. Besides that, there are quite a few more in the beginning stages, waiting to be stuffed and sewn!

Sock monkeys take a lot of work to make, at least the way I make them (I am very focused on little details, and somewhat of a perfectionist...). It's been a little non-stop over here for a while, and I began to realize that when Kade started giving me advice the other day...

Kade- "Lets buy that wooden mailbox toy with all the letters, the same one that my teacher has!"

Me- "Sorry honey, we don't have any extra money in the budget right now for toys."

Kade- "Hmm. Well, maybe you just need to make more sock monkeys then, huh!"

then yesterday:

Me- "Holy cow, that fifteen minute doctor appointment cost five hundred and seventy five dollars!!!"

Kade- "Just make some more sock monkeys, mom! Sheesh! Learn your lesson yet?"

Apparently, sock monkeys are the answer to all my problems. Who knew?! We have been talking to Kade a lot recently about how mommy and daddy have to work so that we can have a place to live, have a car, have food to eat, etc. and it suddenly clicked with Kade that you need money to buy things. Now he isn't quite as upset that daddy can't get home until close to bedtime, because he understands that daddy is working so hard every day for our benefit.

Kade is trying to think of ways to earn money himself, so he can buy that toy he wants. Yesterday when I was using hand sanitizer + magic eraser (hey, it works!) to get rid of dry erase marker stains on the whiteboard, Kade said, "hey... I bet Grandma doesn't know that trick. I bet I can sell it to her!" and then he wiggled his eyebrows and tapped his fingertips together with a very sly giggle. He wants to sell cleaning tips! So funny.

He also made me a video. It's one of his favorite things to do lately. You can tell by watching this that our house really has been a sock monkey factory, at least in his eyes. (Oh, and I don't know why the video looks so strange... I think he was using the Eiffel Tower background effect, which doesn't work too well unless you are in front of a plain wall or sheet or something.)

Anyways, here is a prime example of Kade sweetness:





Now, it's back to the factory for me! I can't wait! :)

Open Heart Surgery

Performed by... ME!!! The patient came through just fine :) Here are a couple pics. I have to warn you though... if you're squeamish, look away!

Pre-Surgery:
Looks pretty good! But, the customer wanted the heart to say something different. I love to personalize things, and I can do so to pretty much any of my items for sale. So if you ever see anything in my shop but you wish it had a patch or said something else, don't hesitate to ask! Most of the time I even make little changes like these free of charge. If it takes longer than 20 minutes or so, I do charge a small fee of about $5.


(Hey- I just noticed in this picture that miss sock monkey here has a wild crazy pink string coming out of her ear! She should get something done about that.... not normal!)

Mid-Surgery:
The patient is comfortable and asleep and I begin the heart surgery. I have tiny little scissors especially for jobs like these! I go very gently and slowly... a mistake would be bad at this point!


Post-Surgery:
The heart is all sewn up! The stitches will never come out. Sock monkey now has a brand new pink heart for Leila. I hope she will be happy with it!

The one and only Spider-Man sock monkey!

Or maybe it's just a spider-monkey?
This guy was a custom order from Jer's friend. It took hours and hours of work to complete that webbing! I'm so proud of how it turned out, I hope B likes it :)

**Edited to add: Geek Crafts just blogged about Spider-Monkey!! Check it out here!!

Newbies

I just wanted to take a moment and introduce some new little creatures, available (or will be soon) in my shop! First, there are three Owl Messengers. They are a bit more complex than the other ones (which will still be available by custom order).


Also, remember I showed you the prototype of a mini sock monkey messenger bag? Well, here is the finished product!!

(modeled here by Sofie, who still needs a home!)

I have made four of these bags so far, and have enough for about 10 more- then I will be out!

On a side note. It's almost July! Does anyone else feel cheated out of their time, somehow? It can't have been over half a year since last Christmas... what happened to all my wonderful plans? Somehow time passed by without me, and I'm trying to catch up. Is that possible?

Three little monkeys sitting on my couch

Custom orders, waiting to be shipped off to their new home!


See the lovely package hanging from the middle one's neck? That is how all of my sock monkeys are shipped off. They each have their own matching blank birth certificate and care sheet.

This one is for a new baby:


These two are for two little 1 year old brothers. Their older brother already has a sock monkey, so now all three will!


I used to do all of my sock monkey eyes the same. Buttons. Mostly vintage. One day, thought, I ran out of buttons, unexpectedly. I needed to finish a monkey right away, so I tried something different. I liked it! Now, all my monkeys have different eyes. Some buttons, some cartoony, some sleeping. Each one is different. It really helps them all to have their own personality.


I like the idea that they are all OOAK- even if I use the same pair of socks three times, they will still be different from each other.

I just bought 6 new pairs last week. I can't wait to get started on them! I also have about 4 others in the works. I am so motivated today to get some done... but I ran out of stuffing! I'm going to have to wait until next week, so I've got to find something to do until then. Luckily, my house is not short on things to do! Sadly, WAY to many things I *need* to do, and keep putting off. I am great at writing "to do" lists. Not so great at finishing them! Something I need to work on.

Monkeys and Rainbows

That title might sound like something a 4 year old girl might be excited about, or maybe I'm just really immature :)

There is a new monkey in my shop! Hooray!
He wants to be a superhero, so I made him a cape.


While I was taking pictures, I started playing around with the cape, and found it is useful in many different ways! It can be a cool looking hat, or even a bib or apron, if he is going to get messy!


Either somebody's been a bad monkey, or he's playing hide 'n' seek!

Enough of monkeys, on to rainbows! I took these pictures on Tuesday.
I like how the rainbow is going right over that large tree. That is where I would put a rainbow, if I was in charge of such things :)

This picture shows the actual brightness better.
I took Kade outside to see it, and the only thing he said was, "I wish I could slide down it. Can we? Please? No? *sigh* Lets go back inside then."

Need some color?

This guy makes me think of Popsicles and sunshine!

One of my favorite things: Cherry blossoms

Custom sock monkey! It makes me happy to think that a little baby will be cuddling this guy soon!

BusyFingers BabyBuddies newest member, the bluebird!

Rainbow Twizzlers make everything better, especially icky medicine!

All aboard!

Getting stuff done

This week has been a big week for finishing projects!

I completed the bag my sister ordered from me. It turned out just like I hoped it would (which usually NEVER happens, so I was surprised!) The back has a huge full size pocket, with a corner opening, trimmed with the cute Japanese twill tape. The inside is the teal fabric and has 3 pockets plus a loop for sunglasses or keys. My sister picked it up yesterday and was really happy with it, which is all that matters, really!

And after that was completed, I made another Owl Messenger and started three sock monkeys. One is already up in the shop. I'm not much of a pink person, but I love this yummy monkey! I also started work on a whole new idea that is quite exciting. It's still in my head right now and I don't want to say much about it before I get it figured out, but I will say this: it is soft and involves the alphabet!

Today my sister and I took K and my nephew to see this movie:



Horton Hears a Who was the cutest movie I have seen in a long time! I am glad I have the excuse of having a child as the reason I go to kiddie movies, because I would go anyways :) I'm just a nerd like that. It was my nephew's first movie at the theater, and I was worried it would be too loud, too scary, or too something... but he loved it too! The only problem he had was staying in his seat. On the way home we stopped and got chocolate milk for the boys. K was in the back seat yelling, "oh NO, the WORLD, it has FALLEN into the chocolate milk, what EVER will they DO?!?!?!" Actually it sounded much differently, but I, the translator, have translated it for you so you don't have to do the work.

Just now K woke up from a nap and told me he had a "ho-bibbo" dream where the fish bowl squirted water into his eyes and the frog got stuck under his eyelid and I told him he could get it out so he put his head really close to the fish bowl and opened his eyes really big and the froggy went back into the water (that is the short version).

He is still sitting there on the couch, shaking his head, saying, "it was soooo ho-bibbo. I am sewious, so so ho-bibbo. You know what sewious means? It means a LOT of ho-bibbo."