Teapot Sweaters-Happy Earth Day!

I'm celebrating Earth Day with an upcycled product line. I invented Teapot Sweaters. Made from all upcycled goods. I thrift wool sweaters and felt them until they become thick enough to stand up on their own. I then add decoration of bits and pieces from my grandmother's jewelry stash, and other fabric or felted wool. The teapot sweaters are large to fit any tea pot, or over a bowl of muffins or biscuits. I love dual purpose art items, and upcycling! Sweet. This one sold yesterday, but I have three more to that will be for sale in my Etsy store.

I know I've said this before, but I really enjoy working with the wool. It's soft, warm, sweet smelling, and fun to stitch into. Oh and the teapot sweaters come with two matching wool coasters.

If you are new here, please sign up for my 200th Etsy sale give-away on the previous post.



Earth day with big corporation???? Chevy is partnering with The Nature Conservancy to plant real trees as part of the campaign. Grab this growing tree widget to help spread awareness.When you click the "grab this" button, just click on the myspace icon for the embed code. It will still work.

200th Etsy Sale Celebrations Give-Away!!!

To celebrate my upcoming 200th Etsy sale, I will be giving away a Bliss Coffee Cozy Secret Club membership! The winner will receive FOUR customized coffee/tea cozies sent right to their door over the next three months! It's so much fun.

I'm at 190 sales now, and when I hit 210, I'll pull a random name, so quick, get in on the contest!

Why is it called Secret Club? Just like my regular club membership, the winner gets to fill out my fun personality questionnaire (about their fav colors, coffee drink, etc,) and I will choose coffee cuffs based on your answers. Then the surprises will start arriving at your door. The first cuff comes right away (who likes to wait??), then one each month for three months. This will include one wrist and cuff style. It may include personalized art or original one of a kind cuffs. Who knows what designs, and surprises your answers will inspire!

How do you get in on the drawing? Be one of the next 20 sales at my etsy shop (that gets your name put in the hat once). OR post this give-away notice, on your blog and let me know you've done this by commenting on this post (that gets your name put in the hat once). Drawing will be on the day my sales go to 210. That's only 20 from now and will go quickly.

I love Etsy, love my Secret Club, and look forward to the drawing! Happy Sipping Everyone! Aly at Bliss MOnkey Studio


Cozy quality assurance worker: Inspector #86 on the job.

It takes a team to get these products out the door and into your hot and suffering, coffee holding hands, ya know!

Breakfast in Bed

And speaking of breakfast, I have to tell you this story. My day of birth was a Friday this year. That evening my five year old, Mudslide Sydney, came to me thoughtfully, "Mommy if I were you, I'd have breakfast in bed tomorrow morning. I will fix you a snack plate (his ideal meal) and Long-Legs (brother aged 8) will cook you scrambled eggs and make the coffee." I'm thrilled with this idea. I give Long Legs a coffee brewing review, and he informed me that he's not ready to make eggs by his unsupervised, eight year old self. But coffee sure.

The next morning, I try out sleeping in. I hear them talking and rattling around in the kitchen. Half hour later, there's a big shout. Apparently the puppy stood up against the counter and managed to EAT half of Mommy's special breakfast. Older son is ticked off. Younger son, very industrious, just remakes the sandwich.


Breakfast is served! Complete with card. It's artistically arranged into a smiley face with parsley eyes, and carrot teeth. Photo of breakfast in bed caused the cat to leap awkwardly away, and watery coffee to be spilled all over the bed, sogging my sandwich, which I then eat, calmly and very gratefully.

"Tastes better with coffee, doesn't it, Mommy?" Yes, of course!

I tell you honestly, it was everything breakfast in bed should be- complete with mishaps and rhythmic gymnastic ribbon dancing entertainment.

How to Cook "Over Easy" Eggs Without Flipping

Good Morning! This is my coffee counter just as it appeared mid-coffee prep 1/2 hour ago. The jug makes the hot water, the french press brews the coffee, the bunny mug and milk wait their turns.... and kid snacks supervise on the counter.

Can you believe my kids enjoy a crunchy seaweed snack? Yep! They fight over them.

My eight year old needle-felted THIS french press cozy for me, with two matching coasters. Mushroom forest. I just love it. I collect bunny mugs.

So here's my question. Would you like to learn how to make perfect "fried" eggs without flipping them? If you like your eggs "over easy" so you don't break the yolk, why risk it? Just steam the top done following this handy tutorial.

These eggs came from The Girlz. The lovely brown one is Racy Lacey's egg and the huge white one comes from Star. Her eggs are a different size each day, sometimes two yolks inside!


Get your toast or muffins toasting before you start the cooking. You need a good frying pan and a lid that fits it. If you don't have a lid, you can use a plate, but remember it will get hot with no handle, so plan ahead. Heat your pan to med, warm a little butter or oil, then turn it down a bit before you put the eggs in.

Sizzle!! Carefully crack the eggs in. Turn right to the sink holding the lid upside down to capture 2T (aprox) of water and pour it right into the pan. Put the lid on the pan to steam the eggs. This will cook the whites entirely, thus avoiding the whole flip it but don't break it procedure.

Steamy, steamy, steamy.... it's ok to peek and see if they are done. I like to poke mine to test the whites. Takes just a few minutes. Get your toast and plate ready. Take them out when the yolks are just as you like them. Soft? 1/2 solid? mmmmm..... in my case, to commemorate my Papa Fred who always cooked me an "egg ona muffin" when I was little.... it's muffins.

Breakfast served on my childhood patio picnic table, with salt and pepper cows, bunny mug full of fresh coffee, and the comics. Can you tell it was my one sleep in, no company morning? No human company that is. There's the puppy and the Girlz and two kitties. Now, when I finish my eggs and there's just a little of the comics to read, I make jam toast with Quince jam.

Bon Apetit! And please tell me how the cooking goes when you try my method.

In other NEWS:

Eugene weather report: Nasty! It was a blazing 82 degrees last Sunday, and we were all HOT, and now it's dropped back to 34 degrees last night, with rain and brief HAIL showers! Crazy, no? Brrrr! I was sewing with wrist cozies on last night.

Bliss Monkey Studio report: today's forecast is Classic Blue and Classic Pink cozies followed by some fun with the print gocco.

Sidewalk Art in Eugene

I love to be surprised by city artwork! We found these in the Blair and 8th neighborhood, after eating dinner at the famous Laughing Planet and heading to Sweet Life for dessert. New sidewalk art!!!! These beauties are strewn all up and down the area, and some blocks celebrate landmark businesses, like the music store on the corner. Can you see the one with directions?
I love Eugene.

Letterboxing as art?

Is Letterboxing art? Let's talk about it. But first, it's 2 oclock. Yes, tea time. Would you like a cuppa with me? I'm really hooked on having a few Marie Lu dipping biscuits with my tea these days. It's just Irish Breakfast today, I'm afraid, nothing exotic. But it's a nice standard.

Finally, conditions were right to find our first Letterboxing series of the spring. The sun came out, the kids had the day off of school, and we printed out the clues to an eight box, book themed series, called Dead Poets Society, all in a park we have hardly explored. Grabbed our kit, and our puppy and off we went!

Letterboxing always gets me into new parks, hiking new trails, climbing mountains because it's beautiful, and fun, AND there's an art reward at the end. I mean I love to be out in nature, and pretty much ALL artists spend a lot of time in the studio and probably need more exercise. Is it the artist in me or the pirate in me that loves a little adventure that leads to art booty?

Here's the trail scouts, Mudslide Sydney and Long Leggs McCormack honing in on a hidden letter box. We've followed the clues to the "giant mossy rock laying against twins" and searched the right side. Careful, don't let anyone see what you are doing! Letterboxing is kinda secret........ there it is! We found it! ......Nice. The person who produced these letter boxes did a great job camouflaging them with tape and keeping the contents secure from moisture.
What is inside a letterbox? Can you see? There is a hand-carved stamp based on the theme, and a sign in book. To collect the art, you simply ink the new stamp and stamp it into your own book. You make an original stamp with words or symbols to represent you, and stamp it into the box's sign in notebook, and can add the date and write a little note. Some of the stamps are simple renderings, some are amazing! Then you put everything back, and move onto the next box, if you are lucky to be in a park with a series. Most boxes are singles. They can have all sorts of themes to them. Some clues are riddles and hard to puzzle out. Some are simple directions. Sometimes the book inside the box is a beautiful, hand bound miniature. They are fun to read through before you stamp your own stamp. People travel from all over to letter box in Eugene. And honestly, when I'm traveling, I look up letterboxes in the area in case I get the chance to visit them. I've made my own boxes and posted the clues as wel, but you should only do that in your own area because you have to monitor the boxes to make sure contents are safe, and the book hasn't gotten full. Occasionally, nature changes a site and you may need to find new locations. Always hide boxes right on the trails so people aren't encouraged to trample all over in search of things. You know the "stay on the trail" rules.

Letterboxers like to have gatherings. There's debate about whether or not to show off your books (of collected stamps) because you might ruin the surprise or hunt for someone else. Perhaps if you shared stamps from far away? It's a tradition/game that started in England, after all, and has spread world wide! Perhaps I'm funny, but I prefer to keep letterboxing anonymous. You start recognising people's stamps, carving style, and notes in books after awhile, and I like the mystery involved. I don't want to put names to faces. I like to imagine everyone as an exotic, eccentric, magical, artist............. normally, I love meeting other artists, but sometimes it's just nice to keep a little mystery in life.

So is letterboxing art?

Good Morning Newses

Good Morning!!

This is me first thing this a.m. making coffee with my happy French Press covered in a cozy gift from Adopt-A-Critter, for my birthday. While known for her plush monsters, she's also a knitting fiend! It's cute and keeps my coffee warm till I'm ready to pour.

Speaking of birthdays, let me introduce you to my new helper, Tilda. She is the present I asked for and everyone went in on together. She is a photo printing/photocopy/scanner machine. Who could imagine the day we would have our own copymachines in our home? I can print newsletters and make copies of the kids drawings. I can print photos of archival quality instead of just looking at them online. I can prepare my art for use with the gocco machine. I'm so excited!!!!!

I have a lot to be happy about this week. First on the list is finishing my first art tutorial for Lark books. I designed a fabric jewelry project (based on my now-not-so-secret secret jewelry line humming along in the studio) called "If Life Gives YOu Lemons- Make ART!". I'm excited to be in my first book. The Art of Fabric Jewelry by Lark books is due out spring of 2009.


Second happiness is a coffee cuff reorder by one of my stores: In Other Words in Portland.

Third? The kids have the day off of school today, and the sun is finally out and due to STAY for the weekend. Grey skies and rain rain rain damp was really getting to me earlier this week. This coming from a very sturdy Oregonian is saying a lot! We are about to go letterboxing! I'm going to try to take the day off of Bliss Monkey Studio work, but I may not be able to resist. I love making my art, running my Etsy store, chatting with clients, and meeting so many wonderful makers and fans of handmade goodness! Plus, I'm up to the elbows in finishing a big batch of monster mitts because the world said we needed some fun spring wrist warmers.

Love you all!
Aly