Vroom! Vroom!

As you may have seen this week, I created a pedal car with a lovely sock monkey driver for a customer (see below). I also got a request for a car without the monkey--shocking, I know, considering the recent boom in sock monkey requests.

But now it is time to for me to buy my own new car. Somehow the end of the month snuck up on me and when I was planning to go to a dealership at the end of February, I was thinking next Friday not today or Monday.

I try to be a savy female car customer and use my feminine wiles to get a good deal. I go alone, without my husband, Anthony, to the dealership. This is partially because he almost lept over the desk at a salesman who was playing games with us a couple of years ago and partially because it plays into my plan.

The Plan
I go to the dealership within an hour or two of closing time so as to limit the amount of time that they have for their reindeer games.



I pretend to have no interest in the color (the first thing car salesmen asks a woman is not what model they would like, but what color!). 

I listen carefully to all of their pitches and ploys and feign apathy when they talk about all of the bells and whistles, pretending to only be interested in the price of the vehicle.



Then when the big moment comes and they ask if I will buy the car today, I revert to a meek housewife and tell them that I can't  make any decisions without my husband and he would be very angry if I bought the car without him (in reality he could car less). 

I leave them hanging and then they almost always throw something extra in or lower the price a little. Cue the maniacal laughter as they have given in to my master plan :)



We will see how well the plan works today.  I am thinking that I really want a red car and it has to have a few bells and whistles. Anthony has requested the radio buttons on the steering wheel--so we will see. 

Have a lovely day!



Click on invitations to visit my shop



Employee of the Month - Sock Monkey!

In my small, one person business, it might seem silly to talk about having an employee of the month, but truly the award goes to my sock monkeys.  

They have just been so popular lately.  I completely understand why with their cheery red smile and cute tail.  The other night I was discussing the design of a new invitation with my husband, Anthony, he complained that I kept on referring to the sock monkey as "him" instead of it.  I can't help myself...we have just become so close.

My interest in sock monkeys started a few years ago when I found must-have sock monkey underwear and pajama pants.  Then I moved on to wonderfully soft sock monkey t-shirt sheets from Target. One of my best friends, Steph, received a bounty of sock monkey gifts from me for her baby shower including books, a jack-in-the-box, a knitted cap, and onesies from Gymboree.



Available at Amazon.com



Photo courtesy of TerrierTrousers

 
Now, with the wide availibility of sock monkey fabric, you can purchase almost anything, from a wallet to a dog harness with the little guys on it at Etsy. 

I just love this harness from Terrier Trousers.  It would be perfect for Emmie and Charlotte, my two miniature weiner dogs. Although, Clarkie, the cute Boston Terrier in the picture seems much more behaved than my two weiners; they act like someone is torturing them when they have to wear a new collar or harness.  Yet somehow Deb  has a whole gallery of pictures with Clarkie in every different style. I wonder if training is included with the harness?

The last search that I did returned 7, 468 results! Wine bottle covers, eye glass cases, and even fabric feminine pads are also some of the products available. You can find sock monkey necklaces with lovely little scrabble tile pendants and bracelets with little sock monkey heads dangling from them (for the low price of $45.00), but who am I to judge?

Don't forget sock monkey art with paintings, prints, and drawings of all sizes and subjects. One of the paintings, entitled Dirty Socks features sock monkeys having sex--a little too much for my innocent eyes--so no picture for you.

Let's just stick to the warm and fuzzy sock monkey items. On Etsy, one of my favorite sources for sock monkey children and baby clothes is sockmonkeyshop. Tracey does the cutest things for little ones.The Sock Monkey Shop features different colors and styles of security blankets, burp cloths, bibs, onesies, t-shirts, and party hats for special occasions. She also accepts custom requests to make you outfit perfect! Here are just a few of her offerings.

Photos courtesy of sockmonkeyshop

Even adults adopted the trend such as Whoopi Goldberg wearing a sock monkey hat on The View on February 3. (I scoured the web for pictures and videos of this, but sadly there were none, so I found these lovely pictures.) Urban Outfitters showcased their version of the hat on this cutie and at ShopAnimalHat.com they even offer matching mittens!



Here are the most recent sock monkey invitations that I custom designed:

 Visit my shop to purchase these and other sock monkey designs and as always, I offer a plethora of coordinating products.  Have a lovely day!