ATHENA, LING & PRIME

ATHENA, LING & PRIME: June 2013. So, interesting story here. It all starts with a water balloon fight that ended in an ice cream brain freeze/head butt incident.
Athena and Ling thought it would be fun to fill water balloons and pelt Prime with them when he got home from the store. Good idea right? Wrong. Un-beknownst to them, Prime had bought a package of Jello crystals and a small bag of pop-rocks, which of course, were stuffed in his pocket and as soon as they started throwing the water balloons at him, he was saturated with water in seconds (Sock monkeys throw fast). This caused his jello crystals to clump and expand AND his pop-rocks to start popping in his pocket - WHICH, can really hurt - or so I'm told...
Prime was soooo sticky from Jello and pop rocks, he could hardly run up the stairs to beat the living snot outta Athena and Ling for destroying his afternoon snack. When he finally made it up, they were sitting as sweetly as could be with three bowls of ice cream and invited Prime to have a lovely snack with them. Well, no Sock monkey can resist ice cream and as Prime was distracted, he forgot why he was angry and ate the ice cream. HOWEVER, they kept eating, and eating and eating ice cream until all three had terrible brain freezes! In order to get rid of the brain freeze, they decided it would be wise to start butting heads and fool their brains into dealing with another kind of pain (okay, they weren't the brightest "bulbs in the pack"). Instead of getting rid of their brain freezes, they all ended up in hospital with minor concussions and bruises and a strong lecture form the doctor about "no more monkey's jumping on the bed", (I think he was on drugs).
ANYWAY, the moral of this story? Sometimes it's easier to make lemonade than pancakes during an alien invasion. Oh yeah... and NO ONE wins in a head butt.....

SCOOTER, HERMES & RUSTY

SCOOTER: June 2013: Scooter once had a job as a food photographer and was actually making quite a decent living at it until that fateful day in September. While photographing a hamburger with fries, Scooter saw a young lady with a banana split and vanilla smoothie. As Scooter hadn't eaten that day, he couldn't resist the banana split and attacked the young lady. Not only did he get the banana split and eat in in one mouthful, he also slurped down the smoothie and let out one gigantic belch. Unfortunately for him, the young lady happened to be the owners daughter and Scooter was banned from photographing food at his establishment again. The owner went one step further (as Scooter accidentally bit his daughter in the attack) and had his name blacklisted in every restaurant. Now Scooter takes pictures of nothing. Bad Scooter.

HERMES: June 2013. Hermes rhymes with germies which is appropriate as Hermes is a "germaphobic". He can't touch ANYTHING without having his disinfectant wipes with him or his antibacterial sanitary wash in his hands at all times. Even the simplest thing like opening a door brings out the wipes and wash. AND, you don't want to watch him when he blows his nose - that antibacterial wash can't be good for you squirted up there... Poor germie Hermes.

RUSTY: June 2013. Rusty is an amazing "uni-cycler". He can cycle circles around you on your regular bike and still have time to do wheelies and jumps. He loves to show off and make you feel incompetent on your bike. Why he can even do hand stands while drinking a glass of water and singing the Bohemian Rhapsody backwards. That little Rusty sure is amazing. What's that Rusty? Someone slashed your tire? That's too bad...

SKITTLES, ZORRO & ROCKY

SKITTLES: May 2013. Skittles has decided that the end of the world should be on some obscure day like February 19th or November 27th. It doesn't matter what year, just something out of the ordinary. AND, why link it to some comet or planet alignment? Why not something like February 19th is the day Stanley Goosenheiser accidentally trips while cleaning the White House and lands on the "big red button". OR, on November 27th, the DoDo bird is brought back to life at some genetic testing facility and releases toxic gases from his butt that kills humans? THESE THINGS CAN HAPPEN PEOPLE!!!
ZORRO: May 2013. Zorro has a mask. I made him take it off for the picture but he refused to remove his cape. According to him, his cape has all his super powers and if I remove it, he will become an ankle sock rather than the knee high that he is. Not wanting to start a huge debate on the powers of capes, I let him keep it on and asked him to use his invisibility power for the cape. He agreed. Hence, no cape in the picture. I wonder if he'll figure out that I won...
ROCKY: May 2013. Rocky lost a tooth the other night and cried like a man being nailed in the... well, you know what I mean. After we finally calmed him down and told him about the tooth fairy, he was anxious to see what would be left under his pillow. However, he just started crying like a man who got nailed in the nu -oops! Well, he just became a big baby when all he got under his pillow was an old banana and one a pair of clean underwear. Rocky is not very "Rocky-like"....

SMOKEY & MALLORY

SMOKEY: May 2013.  Smokey just recently lost his job and is starting to annoy all the other Sock Monkeys with his constant presence and whining. SO, if there's anyone out there that is looking for a "Toothbrush Tester", please contact me and I'll pass Smokey's information your way. He is amazing at testing all types of toothbrushes and then packaging them to make them look brand new. Seriously, no one has figured out yet that all toothbrushes are tested on monkeys before they are sold in the store - that's how good he is. Sooooo.... call us! Smokey's eager to work again and we're eager to see him go..... back to work that is.
MALLORY: May 2013. Mallory just figured out what it is that Smokey does for a living. She has been puking for an hour straight now....

SOPHIE, TIMMONS & COLE

SOPHIE, TIMMONS & COLE

Meet one of my new Sock Monkey lines. Yup, still the same ole sock monkey style BUT, we now have hats! Not just any hat either. These are hand crocheted by me and made in the true style of a northern toque. I am always looking for ways to improve these sock monkeys and mix it up a little and thought it would be fun to "northernize" these guys a bit -  toques were the first things that came to mind.

Sophie, Timmons and Cole were kind enough to volunteer as the first set of sock monkeys to be fitted with toques and they look absolutely fantastic! I must say, the hats worked out well and only took me 3 tries to get them right. Then another 3 tries to make them look good with the ears.... Always an adventure when you're working with a bunch of monkeys!

MAX & ANDREW

MAX: April 2013.  Max lies. Not little "white lies", HUGE, out-of-this-world lies. Yesterday he told his brother that their mum and dad had moved and left no forwarding address for them and they were now orphans. Two weeks ago he had the entire sock monkey community believing they were all allergic to bananas because yellow makes you break out in hives. I actually caught him looking up NASA's e-mail address with intentions of sending them a note about alien's living in my laundry room under the stairs. It never ends with Max and every lie seems to be bigger and better than the next. Whomever is the lucky recipient of this sock monkey better be ready for the CIA knocking down your door....
ANDREW: April 2013. Andrew is Max's brother. Not only did he believe what Max said about his parents moving and not leaving an address, he called Social Services and the Police and had them arrested for neglect. The fact that they were buying groceries and treats for their offspring at the local store when they were arrested was passed over until Max finally fessed up. Andrew is now in therapy. Max is in "juvie".

MOM, ARNIE & HIROKI

MOM, ARNIE & HIROKI: April 2013.

These three sock monkeys have all been built for different people and charities. 

Mom is a donation to the Catholic Women's League for their annual Mother's Day draw. It will be in a basket with other local artisan's donations and the draw will of course be on Mothers day. So, buy tickets and you could be the happy owner of "Mom" the Sock Monkey!

Arnie is rather special. If any of you watch "Ice Pilots" you will recall a cast member - a mechanic - named Arnie. Arnie was very sick and recently passed away. While he was so sick, one of the Buffalo crew wore the bumblebee socks every day as good luck for him. She also gave them to Jamie, who is Justin's partner (a Buffalo pilot) as she was expecting their child and overdue, to wear for good luck. Well, Jamie had a little boy (Nial) and brought the socks to me to turn into a sock monkey. Let me tell you, these were a well worn pair of socks BUT, turned out just fine as a Sock Monkey. I saw Jamie today at one of my programs and she said that Arnie the sock monkey was a hit with the Buffalo crew and brought tears to a few eyes. I am honored to have made this monkey in memory of a wonderful man.

Hiroki was created for a friend of mine who's daughter befriended a student who was here for a year from Japan. They went to school together in Lethbridge and became good friends. As a matter of fact, she brought him north for a visit and a chance to explore North of 60 in the Canadian north. He is now back in Japan and this Sock Monkey will travel there to live with him. Cool!