Urban Chicken Adventures

It is difficult to take a candid shot of the Girlz because whenever they see me, they come running! I do love this "Charlies Angels" shot of the Girlz: Star, the tall white one, the brains of the crime fighting, bug destroying duo, and Lacey, the black girl with soul, bravest and chattiest of the two. Together they make up the "Urban Chicken Assault Team!" Today's target? You'll never guess, but right after this photo was taken, they found a snake sunning itself along the base of the house! Star quickly sounded the alarm, "Ba-bock!", and jumped out of the way, as Lacey dashed in for the attack! "Take THAT and THAT!" she grunted, Mrs Piggy kung fu style. (Although it sounded more like, "aaawwww!.....bok!..bok!"). Star, quite frightened, let Lacey do all the beak and leg work. Lacey pecked the snake, dodged for safety's sake, (peck and weave, Baby! Peck and weave!), bawked at it, jabbed it, flipped it over, pecked..... The poor garter snake didn't have a clue what hit him. He tried to quietly slither a way into taller grass, and Lacey grabbed him by the tail and yanked him back out for a second beating! Poor wee snake! I could have actually stood back and caught all this on film, but I was busy gently defending the poor thing. It was fascinating to see the Girlz reactions, however. And Lacey instinctively treating it as though it were poisonous. I think she would have killed it, if I hadn't held her back. What a fierce girl! If you haven't been properly introduced, go back to the post "Introductions: Girlz and Boys".

Pirata-Girl-Rocks!

This piratica coffee serving set is laiden with hand stitching. One lucky pirate will drag it off to her ship! Destined to be OOAK like my other coffee pot cozies, and comes with two coasters (see my etsy shop for more details). Working with recycled sweaters is fun-warm and wonderfully dense to stitch into.

Oh and folks are asking about the bones. I have a basket of old old old pelican bones from my art grandma's house, and they occasionally make it into one of the photo sessions.

Gocco Rock-O!

The OTHER package that arrived was from Think Ink. Supplies for my Print Gocco! Think Ink's website isn't pretty, but they have great supplies, were very good at answering my questions, AND they have a brand new Gocco manual out!!! I highly recommend it for new gocco users. It's a full size book written by a woman who's used this system of printing since the 80's. It's loaded with information, easy to follow, and nicely organized. (Much much easier than trying to learn from the manual the Gocco comes with.)

I mainly plan to use Print Gocco for fabric printing, but my first project is on paper: hand printed Bliss Monkey Studio envelopes! I wrote out my master envelope with a carbon pen, zapped the image into a screen with the gocco, inked it up and printed a whole batch of envelopes. My next 100 coffee cozy customers will receive their cuffs in these new art mailers! A BIG thank you to all my etsy customers, fans, dear ones who heart my shop, and have returned again to shop. I love creating and mailing beautiful things right from my home to yours. Thank you!

Bounty, birthday or pirate booty?

Check out the surprise goodies I found on MY porch this afternoon!!!

Now AdoptACritter has been teasing me about knitting something for my 4-4 birthday, so I wasn't too surprised to see a package from her, but two packages and one so heavy??? The kids were all excited and helped me carry them inside.

Open! Open! Fake fur, fabrics, notions, beads, printable fabric........ is this the monster collaboration we were planning? Mmmm...... look at all the fun stuff....the kids loved the "Keeping a Nature Journal" book.. patterns for kimono and sewing machine cozy....and the socks! They are so cute. I was so touched she'd send me fun socks! Now I wonder if the socks are to make sock monsters with! ??? AdoptACritter will have to "comment" to tell us.

Now see the little gold box on top of the pile? That came in the separate envelope. It's this sweet snap shut treasure box. So special. You are the sweetest friend! Thank you!!!!!

Mother's Day Gift Guide

Thanks to my buddy Mosey , in Belfast (that's Maine not Ireland, as I quickly learned), for telling me one of my cozies is in the Etsy Mother's Day Gift Guide! Nice. I took a screen shot (see earlier post of mine so you, too, can learn how to do this handy screen shot thing) to show ya. Bliss Monkey Studio pink and orange elephant love French Press Cozy, with matching coasters. All made out of recycled sweaters, felted thick. I love my French press, and esp love having my second cup kept warm by a decorative wool cozy.

I've been having fun playing with wool this spring. Recycling sweaters, and dying wool roving for needle felting. Most of my pins and animals have sold except for one owl, who still needs a home. And the new french press cozies are still available. I'm due to make some new animals, and I'll be sure to take some photos to show you how it's done. Needle felting is a fun process. Mosey makes gorgeous, folk birds and clutches, out of upcycled wool- check out her etsy shop.

Joy joy

March is certainly cloud viewing month. We have a saying in Oregon: If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.


Long Legs McCormack here with Skymonkey enjoying the riverside trail. Mudslide Sydney climbing trees. Yep, all in a day's work to scamper down trails, track animals, climb all available low branches, bird watch, try out different sticks (and argue over them), get caught in a rainstorm and dash home to fling all clothing directly into the washer, and cozy up on the couch with a mug of hot cocoa and a good read.

Joy

Need I remind you, this blog will continue to take a Spring Break from Bliss Monkey Studio time, and instead focus on March madness weather, paint, lack of gardening, soggy outdoor adventures and joyful family goodness?

With the weather being extremely DAMP and the strange DROP in temperatures, including intermittent snow flurries (after bulbs have bloomed outdoors etc), we content ourselves with indoor painting projects, game fests, and mayhem. BUT when the clouds part, we slap on our coats and dash outdoors to run, explore, breath deep! Get some fresh air before the next storm cloud rolls over. I love snapping photos when the sun is out. Alton Baker Park here....


Can you see the Osprey in the tree? We watched a nesting pair hunt today. These birds are impressive with a 5+foot wingspan.

The colorful building in our Science Factory, kid museum and planetarium, and all around cute landmark- great for rainy days and summer day camps.