Polkadots & Green Argyle

Here are my newest sock monsters I made last week...or was it two weeks ago? I don't know...I've been sick and just trying to function enough to go to work. I come home and either crash or veg out with my hubby because I don't have the energy to do anything else. We watched "The Last Mimzy" last week...now I want to make a monster with a curlycue belly button!

On to the monsters!
The pink ones are "sisters" made from the same sock. My favorite is the little one with the two different colored eyes that coordinate wih her two different-colored pigtails! Her big sister reminds me of a valley girl with that pigtail on the side. Of course the way she turned out, it also looks like she has a growth on her head! "Like, eeeeewwww!"

This green guy is from some St. Patrick's day socks I got at a craft store (stores think about these holidays so far in advance!)

I love the way monsters look in argyle! Anyone want to send me their argyle socks? Knee highs would be great!...I could get 4 monsters out of just one sock! (depending on how worn out the sole/toes are) Target has some gorgeous bright-colored knee-highs I drool over whenever I go to check if they have any cool, monster-making appropriate socks on sale for under a dollar (which, sadly, they never do!) And the knee-high argyle ones are $5.99-$6.99...which I suppose isn't bad if I get 3-4 monsters out of each sock...that's a dollar a monster or less. I'm just a cheapskate (or as my mother would say...I'm just "frugal"). I don't like paying more than a dollar for new pair of socks if they're not going to end up on my feet.

Doodle blog inspiration from "Sketchy CoWorker"

Eek. sorry it's been awhile (and sorry this post will have no pictures since I'm on my break at work) but I've been sick. Althought I have gotten crafts done while I've been sick, I just haven't had the thought or energy to photograph them or update the blog. I did just get a good idea though from a recent Craft: blog post...a guy has a blog where he posts his sketches/doodles he does during his meetings at work. http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/01/sketchy_coworker_blog.html

Hey I do that! And my doodles are pretty fun/interesting. I should do that as well, as a part of this blog.

Power outage sock monsters...

I was woken up at 5am by a crazy windstorm that knocked out our power (a fallen tree took out power lines somewhere). I went back to sleep and slept until 7:00...power still out. My hubby had already lit the candles in the bathroom for me so I could put on my makeup by candlelight and get ready for work.

I got all the way to work and found the parking lot unusually empty. But I waited in my car and watched a parent or two dropping off their kids, but coming back to the car with the kids. I left my bag in the car and walked to the building. The secretary met me at the door and...you guessed it...she told me that the district was closed and I got to go home! I'm not sure exactly why, because the school had power. I'm not sure why I didn't get a call either. We have a phone tree for when the school closes, but no one called me. And I didn't have power to see the school closings on the TV. But I wouldn't have thought to watch it anyway...I didn't think the storm was enough to close the district. But maybe they learned from the day it snowed like crazy and every other district was closed except ours, but a lot of staff called in and only half of the students showed up.

So (I know my crafts are always preluded by these long-winded stories) I went home to my power deprived house and made sock monsters and listened to music until my laptop battery died. Then I went to Burger King for a bite to eat (forgetting that I could have used my gas stove to cook something) and to mooch off their power to charge up my laptop.

Anyway...enough of my day...here's what you came for...

It's the Adorable Snowman! I made him ou of a white fuzzy sock that came in a package with a black pair and a red pair that CJ gave me for Christmas. I knew the white ones would turn into a monster because I almost never wear white socks (they get ditry too easily). But I know CJ doesn't mind.

A funny random guy.

The Hug Bandit. Yay for $1 valentine's day socks! (I actually made him on Sunday, but finished him up today).

Business Name Change

I decided to look up "green baby" on Google to see if any other businesses already had the name. Well...unfortunately, one does. There is already a company named Green Baby that sells various baby products (http://www.greenbabyco.com/ ). I wasn't sure if it would matter since we're a diaper service and not a product compay. But we've decided not to risk it and changed the name to "Green Bottoms" instead (which I looked up and is not taken as far as I know) and I edited the logo.

It's so easy being Green!

Rachel (my friend and downstairs neighbor) approached me this week with an idea of being partners in starting a diaper service for people who use cloth diapers. She has used cloth diapers for her kids and comes in contact all the time with other moms in the cloth diaper "movement". And the subject of a diaper service (or lack thereof in this area) always comes up. So we know there's a demand for it in our area.
Using cloth diapers is cheaper than constantly having to buy disposables, plus it's better for the environment. And with more and more people going "Green" and being so environmentally conscious nowadays...that's a big plus. We actually are playing off of that concept in our company name..."Green Baby" Diaper Service...with a tagline "Making it easy to be green!"

Right now, Rachel is doing the business end of things by figuring startup costs and I'm doing the creative side of things by naming the business (which was actually a joint venture), designing the logo and enlisting my computer-genius husband to help me with setting up the website. I had an image for a logo pop into my head last night during church and I drew up a sketch in my notebook last night and cleaned it up and drew it in Illustrator today when I got home from work. I'm really happy with it...and everyone else I've shown it to is too!

I made the diaper green instead of the whole baby. A literal green baby is just a little too "Shrek".

Don't you just love the little recycling logo on the bum!

We're still in the preliminary planning stages and have no idea when this business venture will actually officially start...it could be in a few months, it could be this summer (when I'm off from work), or it could be next year. Who knows? But I'm excited. I love the idea of working from home and having a home business. And the diaper service could be some "solid" money coming in when I finally decide to sell my sock monsters and other crafts on Etsy (every time anyone new sees one of my sock monsters, they say "you should sell these!", and about 1 out of 5 will mention Etsy)

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year!

We didn't do anything big for New Year's Eve. Of course I'm not too into huge bashes anyway. I prefer hanging out with a couple close friends. My husband and I had a game night with Bill & Rachel, our downstairs neighbors. We played Carcassonne, a game CJ and I got hooked on through the XBox 360, but later found out that it was an actual board game. After hearing us talk about the video game version, our Bill & Rachel got the board game for us for Christmas.

As for crafts, I finally finished the Christmas present for A. Better late than never, right?

She loves the Shrek movies (actually, any of the Dreamworks computer animated movies). One of the traits autistic children have is "echolalia" or "scripting", repeating phrases that they've memorized from TV or movies. A "scripts" from Shrek and Shrek 2 all the time, as well as from Shark Tale and Madagascar. I'm sure she got the Shrek the Third DVD for Christmas and will be scripting from it when she comes back to school tomorrow. I ought to watch it tonight so I know what she's talking about. When I know the movie almost as well as she does and quote it back to her, it's like a gateway into the little world she's in. When I finish a quote or repeat a movie quote she's been saying, she will look directly at me.

But she is definitely all about Shrek...particularly Fiona. I was getting her the Christmas Shrek Happy Meal toys that McDonald's had recently...going to McDonald's on my lunch break on Fridays, getting a Happy Meal to eat for my lunch and giving the toy to A. She loved themAnd I decided to endevor to make her an upgrade from my typical sock monster and make her a "Sock Fiona" for Christmas.

Preliminary phases...

Finished Fiona!