To commemorate, I made this treasury on etsy. As always, comments appreciated!

[CIC Team] treasury:
top row: beckykazana, therainbowroom, HamjArt, KIMONOS
2nd row: PoorRobin, sunshinegrovefarm, kittybblove, ahouston
3rd row: sugarandcream, alatceramics, MistyAurora, swiedebie
4th row: tekaandzoe, happycloud, bprdesigns, thefuzzymonkey

Lupe of uglycowpretty
Fellow Portlander and new to etsy. Sometimes our little one’s have playdates together. She’s introduced Mikah to the playcenter at OMSI and we got to do a trade- a onesie for some crayons. The altered baby clothes are so so cute and not to mention a great way to reduce and reuse.

Naomi of teacupdinosaur
I know Naomi from the SF Taiko Dojo. You may know her from her other websites regarding geisha, kimono, and maiko resources (ImmortalGeisha, KimonoAsobi, PuchiMaiko). Needless to say, you won’t be disappointed with anything from her shop.

Kristin of KLTworks
I have the pleasure of knowing Kristin from her online presence on etsy and twitter. She’s such a creative and inspiring mama. Check out her blog.. and if you haven’t already, her amazingly chic home.

And last but not least, one of my favorite motherhood blogs, The Shape of A Mother. These are real stories and photos that mothers have submitted themselves. Some are anonymous, some have multiple stories that you can follow. It is a very honest look into some of the hangups and joys of how being a mother has literally changed us.

My own journey into motherhood has been a terrible and wonderful affirmation of instincts I never knew I had, inner strength I didn’t know would cultivate so early in my life, and a relentless love that I am so glad to have finally found. I was not expecting to become a mother, though I am so fulfilled to have become one. Mikah gave me grace and gratuity. I thank my mother for her YEARS of work, Mikah for this gift, and Ben for his partnership in this wonderful journey.

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day!

First our website is finally live! It still needs some tweaks and additions, but the shop and shopping cart is working. Features we love include:

A secure shopping cart experience
We now have an SSL certificate which ensures security when you enter your credit card information on our website. You can verify this by checking the weblink and seeing that instead of http:// it reads https://

User registration
You will be required to signup in order to make a purchase. When you do that you now have an account with us and can track your order history (including when and if your item has been shipped yet) straight from your account! You can also write reviews on items and save items in your shopping cart for a later purchase date.

Coupon codes!!!
Yes that’s right- we’re going to be handing out discounts left and right (ok, slight exaggeration..) now that we have a system set up to automatically do it (etsy currently does not support this feature). A Halloween coupon will be revealed soon… we encourage you to stay tuned so that you can test out this new feature ^_^

Here is a screen shot of our new site… we appreciate any feedback you have on it including if it looks tweaky on your system/browser

And while on the topic of website updates we recently changed our etsy banner in reflection of the fall season…
Out with the old… and In with the new! What do you think?

The prototype has been completed! (see our original post here)

The two kitty paws (above) are actually erasers that adhere to the body by magnets…
Unfortunately they don’t work! The beautiful heavy wood we picked out is just too thick. The little rail on the bottom of the chalkboard to hold chalks is also a nice touch, but was eliminated with the idea that chalkboard kitty will serve better as a car/travel companion… which would make having a rail rather silly!

We will be keeping our prototype pictured above and selling the 3 chalkboard kitties that were completed as a limited edition piece. They will come with colored chalk, an eraser, and a reusable canvas bag to store it all in. Why limited edition? It just takes way too long to make. All the corners and edges are rounded as a safety feature and take forever to do (and are thus more expensive to make)… just look at all those curves around the tail and feet! It just wouldn’t be cost effective. Also cutting the shape out is impractical to do out of our home on a larger scale… *sigh*
So while we would love to make more of these (they are so cute to have around the house), it’s back to the drawing *ahem* chalk boards for us…

3 Chalkboard Kitties *are now available* on our etsy shop for $45 + $8 priority mail shipping in US
International shipping available

In the meantime I’ve compiled some items that I’ve found on etsy.com that I would love to buy in the future. I especially adore baby shoes! They’re just so cute!

1. $30 Recycled Lambswool Baby Shoes by woolybaby
2. $21 A cat eating a fish pouch by Mairuru
3. $45 Pure – 1 – Mini art feeling by ArtMind
4. $20 Green and Gray by tinywhales
5. $53 Folding bag by mehran
6. $32 mini bunny sculptures – set of 3 by prettyrandomobjects
7. $65 LARGE kitten with wings by SuspectShoppe

Even though sewing velour (or any fabric with a nap for that matter) is a pain in the butt, I *really* enjoy making these little guys.
I love how functional and cute they are. Plus it always feels good to be able to justify a cute purchase- cute *and* functional!
Also by making these, I found out that Ben knows how to juggle! Maybe i’m easily amused, but I think that is sooo cool. I tried practicing 2 ball/1 hand juggling, but never could get the hang of it… maybe i’ll start practicing again with the kitties.

Anyway, here is a tutorial I just figured out how to do with Google Analytics. It is on how to view the cities your visitors are coming from by items listing.

The idea of making molded items was sparked when we were at the craft store looking for supplies. 1 box of clay, 1 mold kit, and a bag full of crayons later, voila!

We were originally going to do them just for ourselves as “rock crayons.” But as we started the process the idea of egg shaped crayons, and then potentially selling these things in our etsy shop came up- hence Kitty Eggs.

They take some time to make and are a bit trickier to mold than regular rock crayons. Also the time it takes to hand carve their faces can be tedious, though Ben admits to enjoying this step the most.

We’re thinking of Kitty Egg Candles as our next project since we have a block of beeswax sitting around, waiting to be used…

Until then, buy handmade, and enjoy the kitty eggs while you can!

* * * Tutorial * * *

Here is a brief tutorial on the general making of molded crayons:

Cost: $-$$
Time: 15 minutes
Materials:
* crayons
* heating source (microwave, oven, pots of pans and water…)
* mold (anything from store bought to homemade tin foil molds will do)
* baking glove or some kind of protection from the hot wax (we used a pair of pliers)

1. Make time. Rainy days are perfect for this activity- by yourself, with a lover, or as a family activity.

2. Find crayons. We recommend nontoxic crayons for family use.  Standard Crayola brand crayons are easy to find (hello local grocery store), although we’ve found that other brands can work just as well.

Specialty crayons may not work as well, i.e. glow-in-the-dark crayons, or glitter crayons. The cheapest crayons are the ends and broken off bits you already have at home.

3. Peel paper off crayons, break in half if necessary, and melt. You can melt them in a variety of ways. Heat lamp, oven, etc. We used the double boiler method- empty crayons in a heatable container and boil the container (with the crayons in them) inside another pan of water.

We encourage using recycled cans. We molded ours to have a pouring spout and used an old meatloaf pan to boil it in. If you want to reuse the same can for making multiple crayon molds, we recommend using a pot that you don’t mind tossing at the end. It can get a little messy. Depending on the size of your mold, melt between 5-15 crayons. This part takes some experimenting.

4. After crayons are melted, pour the heated wax into the mold. This is where the baking mitts come in. Always use caution and common sense when handling hot objects. Don’t have a mold? Don’t worry, you can make your own- be creative! Tin foil or a cupcake container can work just as well as a store bought mold.

5. Let wax cool. The wax will instantly start to cool and shrink. If necessary, refill the mold and let cool again. This would be a good time to experiment with layers of colors. If you’re impatient, you can pop the mold into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

6. When cooled, release crayon from mold and start coloring. That’s all!

The kitties started a few years back as a fundraiser for our Art Club. People enjoyed the kitty paintings a lot because it is the kind of art they could connect with, not pretentious. Back then I made about a hundred kitties and sold most of them, raising cash for a good cause. Since then, the kitties have remained with me in both spirit and in form. Here are two of my favorites from the original bunch.

Now with tough times a callin’ the kitties are back. Seeing as we have a baby on the way it made sense that we would connect the two…kitties and babies. Hence, Kitty Baby Love. We plan on making Kitty Baby things like bibs (in the shape of kitties), baby toys (in the shape of kitties), comfort pillows (in the shape of kitties), you get the idea. We will also be continuing to create more and more kitty paintings.

Here are the new kitties linked to our etsy shop:

Some speak to the lighter sides of life, others to the more serious. Either way, putting humanity into the context of kitties allows us to see things from a more innocent and approachable perspective. Long live the kitties!!!

-Ben