handmade gift giving...

as some of you may recall, a few weeks back i promised myself that i was going to learn embroidery this year! no if's, and's, or but's about it... this was going to be the year of the stitch! i scooped up a great book, embroidered effects by jenny hart, and i started studying. after reading and rereading that fabulous little book, it was time to try my hand at some stitching. my nieces upcoming 6th birthday was the perfect occasion for me to get in gear and get to work! here is the finished product which i gave to her at her birthday party this past weekend...

the little birds were iron on transfers that came with the book and the rest of the design i did myself. having the birds already drawn out definitely made this project less overwhelming...

95% of it was done using the "split stitch". the little red berries were made by using the "french knot" technique. which, by the way, i'm in love with!

i hand painted and distressed the embroidery hoop as well, so that it too is part of the art...

all in all i think it came out pretty darn ok. it was my first attempt and i loved every bit of it. not every stitch is perfect, but i put a whole lot of love into it, and after all, that's really what gift giving is about, isn't it?

yippy!

amazing news first... yesterday evening etsy's handmade wedding story about MY wedding was posted. they had contacted me shortly before christmas to see if i would be interested in doing a little write up about our wedding for their blog. OF COURSE i would! it's so exciting to see a story about evan and i in the same place where i read so very many other amazing articles. there might have been a few happy dances around the living room...

this is a favorite shot of mine not in the article. it's the pierce/trimboli family photo. evan is the youngest of 8 kids so about 75% of this photo is his family. i just love how relaxed it all is... ahh what a day! you can read the article HERE...

in other admittedly less exciting news, the shoes that i ordered about 2 weeks ago finally arrived yesterday! i had been on the hunt for vegan saddle shoes for many a year and finally found them online at payless! i was so excited to get them, i immediately put them on and snapped a few shots to share in my joy. check 'em out...

i do believe they will be making appearances in my ensembles fairly often these coming days. so super comfy and way cuter then a pair of sneaks... i'm stoked!

so all in all yesterday was a darn good day. etsy feature and cute shoes... i couldn't be happier!

snow day fun!

having grown up in NY, i've seen my fair share of snow. the brutal northern winters were one of the reasons i moved south in the first place. so it amazes me, after only being in the south for two years now, just how excited i get these days by the prospect of snow! in the wee hours of the morning this past saturday we received a nice covering of the white stuff, which led to a very eventful saturday afternoon. phone calls were made, plans were hatched, layers were put on, and sledding occurred!

evan and i headed over to adam and steph's house where they, along with amber and katia, awaited with the sleds. adam pointed out a wicked hill just up the block from his house. seeing as the roads were a sheet of ice, it was the perfect spot to try out the new sled. evan got the first ride of the day which was undocumented. evan's report on the hill... it was a success! then adam was up...

there he goes...

it was my turn next...

that little sled is extremely fast and extremely fun! i conquered it...

steph's turn and she was stoked...

flying down that hill...

we took a little drive to a new spot. one with actual snow and not in the middle of the road. amber and katia decided to be the testers of this new hill...

as it turns out, this wasn't such a good spot. amber and katia ate a bit of snow on this one...

new hill...

and it's GOOOOOD!!!

a little male bonding sled time. i do believe this is when adam busted his thumb. it's just not a good day of sledding without an injury!

ladies turn...

look at that determination in his eyes! this hill will be mine!!!

katia was less determined and more scared for her life...

i still haven't recovered from walking up this hill a good number of times that day.

lovely ladies of the mountain, hangin' ten on our sled...

for the last run of the day we opted for pushing the limits of this little plastic sled. this ended up not being the best idea (big surprise), as i got bounced off, half rolled, half slid down the hill, got snow up my back and down my pants. all in the name of fun!

with frozen fingers, frozen toes and yes, frozen facial hair, we decided to call it a day on "the slopes".

we all retired to adam and steph's for an evening of wine, chili, pj's and movies. great end to a great day...

jumping through hoops...

so, i've got a recent obsession with embroidery. who hasn't right? something about the precision and texture has got me hooked! the amazing amount of tradition behind it all can be somewhat intimidating, but i'm ready for the challenge! i've purchased a book to learn the basics and can't wait to get into practicing my stitches. until then i'd like to share some of my etsy favorites... enjoy!

this little bunny by Cake Eaters, in his retro 70's coloring, is just too cute for words!

the mother and daughter team over at Hare and Drum make wall decor with gorgeous designs and meticulous stitches!

i love this simple design from Samskiart. would be a perfect valentine's day gift for that long distance love.

this sweet little illustrated dream by Cowboy Bunny would be the perfect piece to design an entire children's room around.

what can i say about Neawear, i've coveted all of her wall wear for quite some time now. it is impossible for me to choose just one! i would blow my nest egg here... if i had one.

Mary's Granddaughter has some of the most original designs i've seen to date. i love the little bits of loose thread and the 3D elements she adds to her pieces.

being vegan, i'm not into trophy animal heads hanging on my wall. however, i would take this vegan friendly one from Penny Royalty any day!

ahhh... an embroidery of someone doing embroidery! Planetmithi just blew my mind with this one. love it!

ok, now it's time for me to get to work. all this browsing of others embroidered treasures has lit a fire under my bum!

the cost of crafting...

i was just reading some very interesting articles this morning and wanted to take a minute to share them with my fellow artists/crafters/etsians and friends...

i for one know that every time i list a new item on etsy, the part that takes me the most time is figuring out the cost at which to sell it. you have to take into account what you pay for materials, the time it takes to make it, somehow put a value on your creativity, then also the things that most buyers don't think about like, cost of promoting and advertising, and cost of living because for me this isn't a hobby, it's my full time job, and also what my wholesale cost would be. because my etsy prices are retail i have to leave a little wiggle room to discount for wholesale while still making a profit. on top of all that, you can't help but compare your items to what similar items are going for on etsy. with so many folks using it as a site to just sell the things they make in their spare time, and therefore not looking to make a living wage, it really drives down the price of what a buyer may think handmade goods are really worth.

all of this started with an etsy facebook link. megan auman makes these incredibly cute, impeccably made, eco friendly cozy cuffs. she was lucky enough to get a shout out from etsy on their facebook page, which started quite the conversation about costs. take a second to check it out here!

this then led megan to try and explain her pricing and what exactly goes into the cozy cuff. read her blog article here! she was so good about keeping a cool head in her explanation. i know that if i read all the things that people posted on that facebook link about overcharging and other nonsense, i might not be so kind. kudos to you megan!

she then wrote another article here! this goes into the topic a bit more, stating that many etsy buyers, for the most part, are driven solely by price and then poses the question, what is the artist who is looking to make a living here to do?

i'm not sure what the answer to this is. i believe that if you have a well made product that you're passionate about, you won't feel the need to compete with the undersellers. that will come across in your product and the buyers who understand that will be loyal. that is my hope at least, i think megans too. as you can see on her etsy page, she's found many buyers who do understand the value of her work. the items in my shop are not at a very high price point and even i have had buyers asking me to give them a deal. it's tempting to do so just to make a sale, but those are not the buyers that i'm interested in marketing to. i want someone who understands the value of handmade and is willing to support it, not take advantage of it.

i'm sure many other sellers have their own thoughts and opinions on the matter and i would love to here more about it. feel free to leave comments or links to other articles on the subject...

here's one book i know i'll be looking into...

thanks!

blarg...

today is just one of those days...

it's all rainy and chilly out, and i can't get myself motivated for the life of me. i have had no car for two days in a row now. my poor little jeep cherokee is having some sort of steering issues that have yet to be solved, and this leaves me stuck inside. i've already watched 2 movies and caught up on the real world, (this is what confinement does to me) but at least i did get it together long enough to make one new ruffled floral wall decor for my shop. i guess the day is not a total wash. barkley doesn't seem to motivated to do anything either. he was neutered two days ago and is still taking some pain meds. at least he has a good excuse for his laziness. so i'm fully writing today off! barkley and i will continue to be useless. tomorrow is another day!

HELP!

this is a call to all who are reading! the rescue that i've spent the last 2 years working with, North Mecklenburg Animal Rescue, has an opportunity to win $10,000! this is huge and definitely within reach! it's super easy for you to help, just read on...one of our biggest success stories to date, Gunny, has been entered in a most valuable pet competition. if he wins, he gets to give $10,000 to the charity of his choice. seeing how NMAR took a huge chance when they saved him from euthanasia, he would love more then anything to win this money for them.

if you don't know Gunny's story, here's a little sum up for ya. Gunny was picked up by animal control and he was covered in puncture wounds. when i say covered, i mean that there were so many they couldn't even be counted. some were old and starting to heal, while others were fresh and newly received. his leg was broken, probably a number of times, and so swollen he couldn't even step on it. one of our volunteers, the ever amazing amy, found out that he wasn't going to be put to sleep until his scheduled euthanasia day which was a week away! now understand that we never want to see dogs put to sleep, but gunny was in serious pain and they were giving him NOTHING to help with that. so amy got him out that day thinking that at least she could take him to the vet and get him euthanized that day. he seemed to be beyond any help that we could give. well something amazing happened that day.... gunny smiled! through all the pain and terrible things he had been put through, he smiled his goofy gunny smile, wagged his tale, rolled over for belly rubs and charmed us all! gunny was taken to the vet that day where it was decided that he was probably a bait dog in a pitbull ring. ya know, the dog that won't fight so they tie him up and let the other dogs get there practice on him. that was our

sweet little gunny. well now that he had somehow gotten out we were all determined to give him a better life. the community came out with unbelievable support and raised enough money for us to get him the 2 intense surgeries he needed. one to heal a bad throat injury and the other to amputate his leg. amy fostered him through all of this and, as we all knew would happen, fell in love with him. he is now as good as new, well minus a leg but he doesn't seem to even care about that. he's gone on to help educate people about the misconceptions about his breed and help raise awareness about dog fighting. in fact he was even in USA TODAY... today. so when amy entered him in the most valuable pet competition, we knew he had a fighting chance to go all the way.

tomorrow is the last day to vote for our little gunny. it's an intensely close race between one other dog and himself. if you could please pass this on to anyone you know gunny, myself, and our rescue would forever appreciate it! just go HERE and vote for gunny. you will have to enter an email address, but i can tell you from experience it takes two seconds and you will not get any junk mail. how can you deny this little face...

thanks so much!

if you just haven't seen enough of gunny, here are some other places he can be found...

*facebook fan page*

*blog*

*youtube video*

*USA TODAY*

shenanigans and tomfoolery...

last weekend i met up with a couple of good friends for coffee and what would also prove to be a fabulously inspiring chat. maria, of "a forgotten art", and steph, of "darling clementine", are each working on opening their own etsy shops as we speak. they are both incredibly talented, equally lovely ladies, and i can't wait to purchase pieces from each. we started off talking shop, quite literally actually. ie, how to keep from getting completely overwhelmed by all the other insanely amazing items on the site, how to work out shipping, best spots in charlotte for buying fabric, time management, and working on finding your niche and branding your shop... that was the first hour. well it's bound to happen when creative minds get together, talk turns to what inspires us, and currently we are three very inspired ladies. we continued to chat it up about blogs we follow, great photo sharing sites, how many great "style a day" bloggers there are, projects we're working on, want to work on, and one day will eventually get around to working on. minutes flew by and what was meant to be an hour or so meeting, ended up being over two hours, and we weren't even fulfilled! business talk had to come to an end so that dinner and game night could begin!

we went back to steph and adams house where we decided to let our significant others join in the fun. we were also joined by the always fabulous katia for a dinner of pasta, salad, and yum yummy bread. we certainly had to carbo load for the fun filled activities ahead! the wine started flowing the ladies started getting silly and we hadn't even busted out a single game yet. enter uno attack! a new favorite amongst this crew. it's a simple concept, press a button, wait to see how many cards you get... what could be fun about that? honestly, i can't even answer that question, but i have to say that this game can provide us hours of entertainment! there was definitely some cussing, (i'm southern now so i have to say cuss instead of curse) and maybe even a bit of name calling involved, but it was good family fun all around.

adam & steph...

katia gets the small plate...

adam & steph have Monkey & Squirrel decor!

the sauce... vegan soyrizo goodness!

the men... yikes!

just so as to make a full night of it, we adding another game to the roster. we were now joined by matt and kate who in addition to themselves, brought dessert, mmmm! we decided to bust out pictionary man for game two of the evening. take the regular pictionary concepts, but now draw it on a 3 dimensional man. it took us a few rounds to really get into a groove with this one. we tried girls vs boys for the first round. the boys may say that they destroyed us simply because they were better at the game, but i say that we just hadn't warmed up yet. even though maria can draw a mean crab, it just wasn't enough to win. the next round was terribly suspenseful. we mixed up the teams and it was a death race to the finish. we were neck and neck the whole game but alas, my team was beaten by one point in the end. bummer!

the picman!

matt & twiggy...

we see you maria... :)

with days like this and friends like these who could ask for more? simple pleasures like good conversations, ridiculous game nights, yummy food and great friends are definitely not to be taken for granted. stay tuned for pictionary man, the rematch! because while i do appreciate these simple pleasures, i do not appreciate losing!

:)

see more photos from the evening here!

2010!

first of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! the end of 2009 was pretty crazy here at casa de monkey & squirrel and the blog updates had to be pushed to the side. with the etsy holiday season in full swing there wasn't much time for things that didn't consist of painting, packing, shipping and shopping! i also took a little time off to have a much needed visit with my family in ny. that has ended now though, and things are getting back to normal. i'm working on lots of items to add to my shop for the new year. all new cast iron goodies as well as a new line of hair accessories and brooches. busy days ahead!

i thought i would use today to catch y'all up on our ever continuing house renovation project. the kitchen has been taken down to the walls, well technically it's been taken down to the 2x4's behind the walls. we're bare bones here! no stove, no sink, no cabinets and the fridge is in the living room! it makes a great statement piece. so without delay, here is our kitchen...

this is a "before" pic just to refresh your memory.

habitat for humanity came and disassembled everything for us one day...

...then came back the next and took it all away. (pardon these pics. they are from evans phone because i accidentally took both cameras with me to ny... woops!)

we're doing some interesting living these days. making for dinner only what can be cooked in a microwave or toaster oven, then washing dishes in our bathroom sink. we've decided to only unpack the essentials for now which consists of two dishes, two bowls, two cups, the cutting board and the can opener. luckily evan and i are both very laid back about all of this craziness. we know that one day we'll look back and reminisce about the early days in our first house when we spent all of our money making over the kitchen and ate ramen for a year to make up for it. ahhh, to good ol' days!

things should start moving along now though. we've got all or our new cabinets in boxes in our guest room and evan is out picking up the new flooring as we speak. i will be sure to keep the pictures coming as the magic continues to happen. 2010 is looking good so far and with the new year comes a new kitchen... let the renovations continue!

friday the 13th...

this past friday, yup the 13th, my husband, our friends, and i got together for a bit of a gift exchange. the gift being one terrible tattoo. each chose a name out of a hat, then laughs and good times followed. i sat out of the tattooing part and just took the photos...

barkley discovers fall...

big pile of leaves = happy puppy!

visual updates...

just a few visual goodies from the weekend, enjoy!

evan and i were grungetastic for halloween...

we declared sunday movie day! barkley was totally on board...

juan found his favorite spot in the new house, the studio window...

i worked on finding the room in the house with the best lighting for etsy photos...

i put up our first bit of wall decor. thanks to scribbleit for this cutie!

stay tuned for more...

renovations...

the new house is coming along at a slow and steady pace. we move in at the end of this week, yay! here's a little update of our progress thus far. oh and pardon these pics... we've yet to add any lighting.

Living Room Before...

Living Room After...

Master Bedroom Before... previous owner smoked in here for about 30 years.

Master Bedroom After...

Studio Before...

Studio After...

Guest Room... sorry, no before. the walls were just white.

Sweet little 60's Style Bathroom... also no before.

and let's not forget the kitchen, which will be a work in progress for a while...

we've still got tons to do, but it's amazing what just a fresh coat of paint will do to a room. stay tuned for more...

barkley in the parkley...

today seems to be the last gasp of a summer that went by far too quickly. with the weather man predicting a high of 78, i knew we needed to take full advantage of this short sleeves day. this morning barkley and i headed out to mt.pleasant to do our bi-weekly cast iron hunting. he's a great hunting dog and also a wonderful co-pilot on these lengthy drives. i scored some great finds and am stoked to get working on them and get them up in my shop.


on our way home barkley and i decided that because he was such a good boy, and big help during the cast iron hunt, we would stop at the park to add a bit of playtime to our busy day. we sat by the lake, met some other 4 legged friends, and he even discovered the wonderful delicacy that is goose poop! all in all a great day and it's only 3pm. now we're off to the new house to do some more painting and cleaning. fun fun!

exciting times!

i'm such a terrible blogger! it's been weeks since i've updated and i finally decided that i just needed to sit down and write...

it's been quite a busy time here at the pierce household. i've started doing Monkey and Squirrel full time, we got a puppy, and we also just bought a house! all of this together equals zero time to blog. the puppy, whose name is Barkley, is a four month old boxer/shepherd mix. he's definitely a handful, but totally worth it. he's teething now which means he's walking around all the time with his mouth open wondering what he can chew on. he can't be left alone for even a minute. we learned this the hard way recently. i went upstairs for all of two minutes, came back down, and in that time he chewed the speaker wires to our computer clean off. evan was very excited about that. lesson learned! but he's a big snuggle bunny and we love him to little bits already!

the new house is keeping us quite busy as well. it's a cute little brick home here in charlotte. it was built in 1961 and i do believe that it hasn't been updated since. so far in week one, we've knocked down a wall, started painting, pulled down half a dead tree, and decided that the kitchen needs to be gutted! lots of busy days ahead. i'm going to do my best to document the renovations... we'll see how that goes.

the other big excitement is that i know officially do Monkey & Squirrel full time. i knew this day was coming for a few months now, but i still can't believe it's here! it's a lot of work, but worth every bit of stress. the pleasure of being my own boss is not something i will take for granted. i've got a few shops around the country that are carrying M&S items and i'm always looking to expand that list. i look forward to the day that Monkey and Squirrel goodies are in every home and on Oprahs list of favorite things. world domination is within reach! take a look at this little interview i did for the veganetsy team blog... what's my favorite food you ask, now you can find out here!

all in all, happy times here! just wish there were more hours in the day...

django...

for the past 2 and a half weeks we had been fostering the cutest little bugger of a puppy, django, a border collie/terrier mix. django had a pretty rough start in life. at about 13 weeks old his siblings attacked him, broke his leg, and covered him in puncture wounds. when he was found the next morning he was in shock, and as close catatonic as i have ever seen a dog. he was rushed to the vet where we were told that he should probably be put to sleep. his leg was already badly infected and he was in extreme amounts of pain. they decided though to give him another 24 hours on strong antibiotics and pain meds to see if he would respond. the next day he had come around and they thought perhaps he might just need his leg amputated. they would give the antibiotics a few days to get the infection under control before doing surgery. the day of his surgery, this little trooper went ahead and started putting weight on his leg. for the three days before this he couldn't even feel it, and it's as if he wanted to say "hey, i'll be ok just give me some more time. see i can stand on it!". more time is what we gave him. i picked him up from the vet that day and took him home. within the first 24 hours he was hobbling around and a few days later he was full on walking on it!

django came to us with the name robby. a terrible puppy name if you ask me. after his traumatic ordeal we decided to give him a fresh start with a new name. i decided on the name django, after django reinhardt the jazz guitarist, who at the age of 18 was badly burned over much of his body. doctors wanted to amputate his leg but he refused. within a year he was walking again. it felt like an appropriate name for our little guy.

despite my best efforts i went ahead and fell in love with him. he's one of the most well behaved puppies i've ever come across, and having worked at a dog rescue for 2 years, i've seen my share of puppies. at 15 weeks he had learned sit, shake, and down. we were working on some more tricks and he was coming along. he was 90% house trained, and the lacking 10% was probably the fault of his foster parents (ie evan and i) not being 100% consistent. he's very eager to please and more then willing to learn. great puppy qualities!

two days ago i took him back to the vet for a recheck. they were amazed. this puppy who had left there unable to walk came running back in, tail wagging, ready to give kisses and show off all his new tricks. he was given a 100% clean bill of health and deemed fit for adoption. now came the hard part, for me that is. i was to bring him back to the rescue. technically we are not allowed to have dogs at out apartment, and i could only be stealth with him for so long. he can be seen by adopters more often there, and he can begin socializing with other dogs. it was really all for the best. so with teary eyes i dropped him off yesterday, and by teary i mean down right bawling. he's got a great roomy though, miss annie, a four year old boxer mix (see earlier post for her story) who has taken him in as if he were her own pup. he's adapted well to rescue life, but my living room feels suddenly empty without him flopping down at my feet.

so django is now ready for a great, loving, forever home. he's a wonderful little puppy with strength and courage to boot! do you have a spot in your heart, and home, for him?

*for more info on adopting check out www.northmecklenburganimalrescue.org

let's talk chicken!

the other night evan made a meal that knocked my socks off! vegan fried chicken. it's been days since we had it for dinner and still i dream about it.

while visiting some friends in NYC recently, we stocked up on may wah faux chicken products. if you are vegan and have not experienced these you're missing out! most vegetarian restaurants use these goodies in their dishes. evan fried these up, after coating them in a batter that consists of a good deal of mustard and a dry mix with a good deal of nutritional yeast, and they were like little pillows of heaven. greasy pillows, but pillows none the less! we had it with sides of broccoli and mashed potatoes and ate until we wanted to barf.

check out the recipe and cook some up tonight. it does not disappoint!

a memorial and a reunion...

this past weekend evan and i drove up to the mountains of PA for a little pierce family gathering. evan's dad passed away about 8 months ago and the whole family was gathering at uncle bob's creek house for a memorial to lay jim's ashes to rest. this might sound like it would be a very somber weekend, and certainly at points it was, but those pierces know how to find uplifting moments even during the saddest of times. evan is the youngest of 8 children, most of whom now have children of their own. needless to say, with all these folks staying in one house (with only one shower might i add) we were definitely not at a loss for entertainment. each and every member of the pierce family has got personality to spare! the house itself was incredible, with a creek running through the backyard and all nestled in at the base of a mountain, my morning coffee outside never looked so good. we had many, many laughs and a few tears too, but i couldn't be happier about the family that i've married into. jim pierce is missed everyday by a whole slew of really wonderful people.

taco salad night!

i would just like to take a moment and share with ya'll the amazingness of last nights dinner. it all started off with me trying to figure out how to get rid of some of our perishables in the fridge before we head out of town for the weekend. what came of this fantastic task not even i could have predicted! taco salad night!

we had some left over corn tortilla shells that i cut up into triangles and baked for a few minutes. what yummy little chips theses made. we had half a head of left over lettuce, half a block of vegan cheese, 6 cherry tomatoes, a few scoops of vegan sour cream, a can of cuban style black beans, and a splash of salsa. i threw all of those goodies in two bowls and voila! taco salad night was born...

i'm often a big fan of making "concoctions". throwing a bunch of random ingredients into a bowl and hoping for the best. this one, i must say, was one of my more successful endeavors!

monday, monday...

what a wonderful monday indeed! i woke up this morning to 3 notifications that some fellow etsians had featured monkey and squirrel goodies in the their treasuries! for those of you who don't know what a treasury is, here's a brief description for you...

imagine taking all your favorite little keepsakes that you own, and then also take the ones that you wished you owned, and put them on a display shelf for all to see. an etsy treasury is someones very own little display shelf. so you can imagine how flattering it is when someone picks out your shop and basically gives you a cyberspace shout out! take a look at "distressed and blue", "flap your wings", and "clever"... all super cute little treasuries!

as if this delightful news wasn't enough. Scoutie Girl, one of my favorite blogs out there, is doing a feature on Monkey and Squirrel. readers can enter, just by commenting, for a chance to win one of my cast iron hangers, and which hanger you get is totally up to you!

after having only been doing the etsy thing about 2 months it's really quite nice to get a little pat on the back. so all in all, i'd have to say that this is a lovely way to kick off my week...