As Seen In...

A few months ago I was asked to submit one of my pencil cups to Pregnancy & newborn Magazine to possibly be included in an eco-friendly issue.

 Laurent the owl and I agreed that this was a good opportunity, so he packed his bags and went on his way. I pretty much forgot about the whole thing until I got a message last week that little Laurent made it into the magazine!

It's the April issue and this is the cover. How cool is it that something I made is in a pregnancy magazine and I'm actually pregnant? haha What are the chances?

They did a nice article about doing an eco-makeover on your whole lifestyle. Each page features a different aspect of life, and Laurent is in the "Work" section.

 Doesn't he look cute? I'm so proud. hehe

Thank you, Etsy!

Last week I was lucky enough to appear in one of those Etsy Finds emails that get sent out now & then by our friends at Etsy. WoW! Thanks so much to Etsy for including my little monkey, I had a ton of sales and even passed the 500 sales mark for Monkey Travel Club. I'm just so amazed at how well they've done. I don't know what I would have done without Etsy. More than likely, quit the full time craft making by now. So, thank you Etsy for not only featuring me, but for running and creating an excellent site for all of us handmakers. :)

I had so many orders to fill, I was a monkey (and friends) machine for a few days. Meanwhile, I've been working on remodelling our downstairs bathroom and getting the guest room set up too. Now I need to apologize for not stopping by any of my favorite blogs lately (including my own, haha). I promise, I'll be back when my mom and aunt have visited. I must get back to cleaning the house now, my guests arrive this evening! Yikes!

Attack of the Penguin

This week I was attempting to get some new things into my shops when I came across this:

I don't seem to recall making this Gadget Penguin with his eye bulging out. hmmmm? I wonder what's been going on here?

Oh, right. I see now. A certain ginger cat has adopted this penguin as his own. Thanks a lot Jody. Pick on someone your own size next time....or maybe someone who doesn't take quite so long to make. Nano Penguins are much smaller, Jody!!!

Vote for Me!

Actually, vote for Balthazar! I just received a convo from Etsy letting me know that one of my monkeys has made it onto the Tax Time Get Down to Business item poll on the Storque. That's so cool! Balthazar and I are very honored to be a part of the pool. If you'd like to vote for Balthazar or another cool handmade item, click here.

I've been planning to expand Monkey Travel Club to include friends of monkeys. Here's what I've come up with so far...

Nick thinks the cat needs a mouth. I suppose he's right. Is it weird to have a shop called Monkey Travel Club that has a cat, a penguin and a pig in it? Anyway, these guys will get me started in my exploration of the animal world, in yarn. They'll be packing their bags for their debut in my shop soon.

And, in case you're wondering why my shop has such a weird name, it's because of the Flickr Group. If you've got one of my monkeys, please join the group and post some photos. I like to see them happy, in their new homes.

p.s. Animal suggestions welcome.

I'm Still Crafting

I just realized that I haven't talked much about crafty stuff lately. This is a "craft" blog, right? hehe, oops. So, to prove to you that I actually do still make things, here are a few of my recent creations in no particular order....

I crocheted this cute cupcake using a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. You have to sign up to get their free patterns, but that's no biggie.

I'm always trying to come up with new and exciting uses for my monkeys. These are 3 new styles that are now available (or soon to be) in my shop.

The French Press Monkey, or Caffatiere for you posh types. I have Jenn & Josh to thank for that idea. The one in the middle is a little trinket box type thing. The lid comes off & you can put things inside! And for those of you who have gone green, I've created the Klean Kanteen Monkey, now available for the 27oz. size. If you need to get yourself a Klean Kanteen, click here.

I'm also working away at a pattern for my zipper pouches. It's a slow, slow process, but it's coming along. I'm ready to lay it all out now. This is the pouch I photographed for the instructions. You like?

See? I've still got my craft on. What have you made lately? I'd love to hear about it.

Around the World

We're back! Nick and I flew home late Sunday night and were so glad that yesterday was a holiday. We were beat. I spent most of the day lounging on the couch, not a normal activity for me at all. So, I thought I'd share a couple photos from our trip...

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside, one of our favorite resort hotels on the Disney property. I love the attention to detail, the theming is great!

We had enough time to hit all four parks on this trip, here are a few snapshots.

Cinderella's Castle is beautiful and the weather was too.

We love the Jungle Cruise.

I'm not brave enough for Splash Mountain, Nick had to ride this one alone.

EPCOT is my favorite, I love to check out all the different countries at World Showcase. We loved the updated Circle Vision film in Canada.

In the end, it was a great trip. Nick and I had a wonderful time and we barely thought about work. I can't wait to go back.

Stand-ins

Know what these are?

Super deluxe handmade pretend gadgets!

Because I don't happen to own every popular gadget in the world, I asked a friend to make me a few fake ones.

I painted them black & now I have an Amazon Kindle, an iPhone and an iPod Nano to use in my monkey photos. These are great for making the monkeys too. I'll be able to check sizes with my little stand-ins.

Pretty neat, huh?

Disneyland!!

Did I ever tell you that I used to work at Disneyland? Yep, for almost 15 years! And no, I'm not tired of it. I still love the place, and this week I got to pay a quick visit to the Happiest Place On Earth.

Here I am with my niece and my sister in front of the castle. (I'm the pumpkin muffin)

Check out these candy apples! Aren't they the cutest?

Carnaby loved the Christmas tree on Main Street, U.S.A.

I've got some mugs that match these. I was strong though, I didn't bring them home. sighhh

I had a great trip but I'm up to my eyeballs in monkeys now. Back to work.

Pretty Much On My Desk

I guess almost anything could be considered On My Desk appropriate, so I'm just going to give you a taste of what's going on around here right now.

Some magnets-in-progress for a great customer. They just need the magnets!


Monkeys! Yesterday was the biggest monkey day ever for my little monkey shop. Was it International Monkey Day or something?


A new diaper bag in the works. This one's has been planned for months and months. I'd love to get it done today some time.


Some day, I'll have a few shelves in my sewing room just filled with adorable pin cushions! I just got these two from Up The Creek. They're tiny, cute and way under-priced. They'll look great with this one, and this one.

Now I need to get back to my sewing and cooking and listening to this cool station online.

Away for the Weekend

This past weekend Nick and I went to visit our friends who hosted our wedding back in April. It was nice to see them and to be back in such a special place. I love that they still have the wreath on the door from the wedding. So pretty!


We spent an afternoon wandering through some shops in Mariposa, a small town about 30 minutes away. I was most interested in the kitties hanging out by Chocolate Soup.


On our way home we stopped at the biggest outdoor shop I've ever seen. It was amazing. At the entrance we walked through a giant tree and there were taxidermy animals all over. It was really neat, and Carnaby had a great time too.


It wasn't all fun & relaxing. I got lots of new monkeys made while we were away. Better get busy with my camera and get these guys into the shop.

And the Winner Is....

Thanks so much for stopping by to see the Virtual Home Show the past few days everyone. It was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed it too. And now I'd like to tell you who the lucky winner is...

Cascade! That's Cascade Lemonade to you folks. Thanks a bunch for playing everyone. I'll be contacting the winner so she can choose one of these three monkeys to have as her own.

Have a great holiday season!

Virtual Home Show

I'd like to welcome you to the

Some friends and I have gathered together to show you some great handmade gift ideas to get the holiday ball rolling. I'd like to invite you to our two-day event, showcasing some lovely items from these talented ladies:

Sue Bleiweiss has some beautiful handmade notebooks to show you.

Felicia Haywood has been making the cutest toys around.

Lisa Jordan makes the sweetest felted treasures.

Jenn Maruska's sewing gifts are just the best!

Julie Thomas has some gorgeous pottery to show you.

Karen Wittkop will help you wrap things up with her adorable gift tags!

Stop in and check out the beautiful things these girls are working on, there will be prizes and lots of great holiday shopping ideas.

As for me, it's all about monkeys! Yep. It's monkey season so I decided to tell you a bit about how it all started...
Early in 2007, while on a trip to California (I was living in the UK at the time), Nick and I paid a visit to some friends of ours who live near Yosemite National Park. (These friends recently hosted our wedding at their home...I had to mention that.) Anyway, I'd just made the first ever official Gadget Monkey, seen above. His name is Randy and he was promptly adopted by Jim & Julie. We took Randy along on a trip into Yosemite and that's when we all came up with the idea for the Monkey Travel Club Flickr Group and shop. At first, I sold my monkeys out of my orginal Etsy shop, iSew, but later the monkeys took over and demanded their own space. So, on January 1st of this year, Monkey Travel Club opened it's virtual doors. And the rest, as they say, is history. At this point I've made over 430 monkeys!

When I started, the Gadget Monkey was the only style. Now there are pencil cups, coffee sleeves and whole lot more.

Anyone for a pumpkin spiced latte? I always get a smile when I bring a monkey along for a cup of coffee.

Isn't that sweet? Mick got Esther an iPod for Christmas. And Woody finally got the little brother he's been asking for.

I've just started working on some new Christmas monkeys for the shop. These 3 say they want to stay here, but I'm not sure I can put up with them. Leave a comment (by midnight on Tuesday night Nov. 4) and pick some names for them and maybe you'll win one! I'll announce a winner on Wednesday.

Now I'd like you to swing by and see my friend Felicia and her adorable little friends. Enjoy the home show!

400 and Counting

I can't believe it myself. I have now officially passed the 400 mark on my list of monkeys. Crazy, eh? I'm so excited that they've done so well. Thanks so much to those of you've who've adopted one of my kooky little monkeys.

To celebrate this milestone I'm going to be having a little giveaway. Don't get too excited though, I'm not making it as easy as leaving a comment. Being the proper businesswoman I am, I'm going to make you buy lucky monkey #400 in order to win. Here's how it will work...

- I will be listing several new monkeys in my shop between now and Friday. One of these will be #400.

-Whoever happens to purchase this lucky monkey will also receive a custom monkey of their choice (Gadget Monkey, Nano Monkey, Monkey Pencil Cup or Monkey Cup Cozy)

-The winner will also get their monkey for free! Yep, not only will you win a free custom monkey, but I will refund the purchase price of lucky #400 (shipping too). If you're the winner and you've purchased more than one monkey, I'll just refund the price of the winning monkey. Sorry, I'm not that generous.

- I'm not going to give any hints as to which monkey it is, only that it will be listed some time between the time of this post and Friday, October 17th at 10:00pm PST. I will say that custom monkeys don't count. #400 is a finished monkey.

-Once the lucky monkey is purchased, the contest is over and I will make the announcement here.

Get out your Christmas list and decide who's gettin' a monkey this year, and Good Luck!

UPDATE: Great news! Mabel, monkey #400, has been adopted. Hooray! Congratulations to the winner.

Yarnilicious

Every now & then I need to update my custom monkey yarn colors. I don't want my monkeys to get boring so I add new ones, stop using certain colors & so on. I've rephotographed my yarns & here's what I came up with...


These yarns make pretty photos, don't they? Perhaps I should print them and hang them in my sewing room for inspiration.

I've added lots of new colors and only discontinued a few. I now have 29 color choices in the shop (the monkey shop, that is)! Oh my gosh. Now I need to come up with a good way to keep them organized.

They Let Me Out of the House

Nick and I live in a lovely part of the Bay Area called Marin County. It's extra nice because it's not as densely populated as other parts of California (like just south of us in San Francisco - talk about population density). Just 2 exits from us on highway 101 is a road called Lucas Valley. (It's actually where George Lucas lives and works if you can believe that. It's not even named after him!) Anyway, I digress. Only a short drive from our place is total peace and quiet. Rolling hills, redwood trees and this lovely spot called Pt. Reyes Station. It was a sweet little town with a wonderful little farmer's market.

We went for a nice walk along this little river.


Nick even picked some berries. There were loads of them along the trail. It was a lovely day and we made it home just after lunch. It's so nice to be able to get away from things without going too far from home.

And just in case you thought I'd given up the hooks for good. I had to show you this little lady. Meet Nurse Frida. I made her special for a friend who just had surgery. I may be spoiling the surprise because she's probably still on her way, but I had to show you. Think good thoughts for Christina.