a & b get new names and a whole new life!

above: today started with the old girls bringing in the twins to be prepped and go into surgery. they have named them ~ olli & lolli. olli is only so slightly the larger twin. burgeon and sweety are doing a great job taking care of them and they really are well adjusted. both mothers sat with the children while the family waited for surgery to begin.

above: the operation table, prepped and ready to go. i used felt and embroidery floss for the eye surgery.

above: birth picture of the twins, from their adoption file. the button tumors are highly visible and you can clearly see the ears lack canals.above: the new eyes are placed where they should go so that during surgery i have a clear idea how things should go.
above: both twins were put to sleep and their eye tumors removed. after replacing lolli's eyes i bound them so that they could heal and she would be comfortable.
above: both olli and lolli are through with eye surgery and doing fine. they rest as i prepare to move on to ear surgery,
above: sweety and burgeon sleep in the waiting room. i told them to go home but they would not have it.
above: olli has had her ears removed and i am moving on to lolli.
above: the surgery table with new tools. in the foreground i am in the end process of removing lolli's ear.
above: the only complication of the day - olli had a small whole at the site of her left ear removal.
above: new ears and eyes unveiled, the twins are doing so well we decide to go ahead and remove the nostrils and re-string the mouth so that the girls are all ready to go and don't have to o back under at a later date.
above & below: the girls all ready to roll - new eyes, mouth, ears and names! from left to right - olli (blue eyes), lolli ( lavender eyes), burgeon & sweety! yay!

conjoined twins

above: while there have been several additions to the sock monkey family here at banana hill none are as eye catching as the siamese twins, a & b. a & b are very healthy despite their situation and they are fully functioning together. after several test it was decided that a & b would not be separated because of the many risk that would involve. however, now that they are healthy and have found their forever home we are going forward with several other surgeries to correct minor health issues and bring them a longer, more enjoyable life. those surgeries, which will be documented here on banana hill's blog, include a complete replacement of both twins ears, you will notice that they are deaf - with out any working ear canal; i will also be correction their vision in several steps that start with the removal of the pink button tumors that currently leave the babies with minimal vision and causes them a bit of motor problems.

welcome katarina la pearl!

if you have read this blog for any amount of time you know that while i love sock monkeys i do not love the mass production-breeding of sock monkeys for gifts. unless you know that the person you are giving the monkey to both wants a life-long commitment and can give the proper care to a monkey. you probably know that i came to own several farm monkeys through various donors. we just recently were informed that big mac had met a monkey he grew very fond of and he expressed the desire to have her move to banana hill. katarina la pearl joined us this weekend. katarina is my only monkey who is clothing trained at this point, she also seems to come from a breeder who works with farm monkey as she has been customised to have a thick head of dark black hair. katarina la pearl is very friendly and a wonderful monkey. she and big plan to be married very soon and (i am so excited to say this) they want to start adding to the la pearl-mac family as soon as possible! yay!

above: katarina la pearl

above: kat and big - they are so happy!

welcom baby ????? (update) - baby's name is agatha [or agi for short]

our newest bundle of sheer joy has arrived today, and she doesn't have a name! there are two i am throwing back and forth - igga or azure. i love azure, but it seems so obvious and lately i have been dying to name something - ANYTHING - igga. she could be either and i am so overwhelmed by the idea of making a choice!

above: baby curled up instantly in the sock monkey slippers i keep at work. she's so sweet and playful!

a new baby for banana hill!

i have blogged about puncezilla on banana hill once before and i have been waiting and waiting for a monkey from her that i could not stop myself from loving! well, i found the monkey i have been waiting for today. a tiny baby monkey, blue and silver and much too beautiful! payment is made and the beautiful monkey should be here within the week! yay!

above: small blue and silver puncezilla monkey who will be our newest addition!

the whole family - i am sure it will grow soon!

above: fauna, tipi (tee-pee,) ledger, zinger (hiding his face,) geena, stan lee, cinereal, burgeon, baby, and sweetie. (not pictured are lori littleman, big mac, tatter tot or daryl the sock dragon.)

stan lee

stan lee is my first attempt at putting together a monkey. (yes, he was before ledger.) i was on the phone with my friend sherri last night and i was like, "look at that blue monkey." and she answered, "there is no blue monkey." i thought for sure she was being silly but she was right, somehow i had over looked blogging about stan lee. stan lee is a meatball of a monkey and upon his arrival he was quick to get the ooohs and ahhhs of the two banana hill hotties, geena and cinereal. he is an old soul and loved 80's rock and kiss (hello, paul stanley.) while stan insist on playng the cool single guy he seems to be spending more and more time with cinereal; which makes me happy because i see a lot of myself in cinereal and a whole lot of amber in stan!

above: stan lee striking a yeah-you-know-i-rock-and-you-want-me pose! stan's bulk comes from polyfill stuffing in contrast to the smooth easy look you get from cluster stuff. oh, well, you live, you learn!

sock monkey atc's

i hosted a sock monkey swap (that i mentioned on here a while back.) and these are the cards i made and sent to my partner:

woot! woo!

so, i was a really good girl. i have been kind of hard to deal with and angry (the boot-stompin'-i-don't-give-a-f-bomb kind of angry girl.) i dyed my hair blue, which really helped me improve my mood, only to find out the perfect blue i have searched for all my life is DISCONTINUED. yep, that's right. i have been really hard on amber, almost unbearable. i have let house work suck and my job suck. i just checked out i guess. now i am clawing my way back and trying to meet the people in my life half way. so today i made some big compromises and i thought, "i am sure this will work out." and then i jumped online to etsy and found a darling new sock monkey baby! i am not sure, but his name may be tipi (teepee.) i am in love and i tell you this, he is coming to alabama with me. me, tipi, my magazines, my camera, my cell phone, my atc supplies and a book.

above: the newest member of the banana hill family. he should arrive in the next week.

ledger

i was devastated when i learned that heath ledger died, for two reasons. one - i was really looking forward to the day he realized that he was in love with me. two - if i couldn't be with him i really wanted michelle williams to be with him. i liked them together and wanted them to work out in the end. i was also sewing up a d.i.y. sock monkey kit at the time and decided that the monkey would be my little tribute to heath. so, here he is. ladies and gents i would like you to give a warm banana hill welcome to ledger! ledger is a happy monkey who is simply full off umpf! he is a smiley guy and is constantly laying it on thick for all the girl monkeys here!

above: ledger chillin' on the couch...

baby tater tot

i came into the office today to find a number of little suprises. amber put a poppyseed muffin (my favorite) on my desk, and a grumpy carebear cookie (the kind that has the hard sugar icing on top a sugar cookie) on my key board, and an evelope with my name on it. i picked up the envelope and it was a card and gift from faye's son, pryce! it was this teeny tiny non-sock sock monkey on a chain! i love it! his name is tater tot. i am soooo happy to bring him to our family here one banana hill!

above: me wearing tater tot, and my Christmas 2006 shirt

laundry monkey

geena got down and dirty helping amber clean the other night, though she seems to be taking more of a break in this picture. i believe that geena is getting all mommy on us. she constantly chatters about babies. zinger says he does not want kids yet. the pressure is on!

above: geena helping amber

my first monkey love

no, he wasn't a sock monkey. in the world of sparkelle sock monkeys are a relatively new obsession. my first monkey wasn't mine at all in the beginning, he belonged to my aunt twila. (who was wicked mean and wretched when i was a child, she greatly favored my sister. it's no secret.) anywho-doo, the monkey was from the early 70's, he was stuffed with a plastic face, plastic ears, feet and hands. one hand held a banana you could fit into his mouth and his chest was yellow and his head, arms and legs were black. my aunt no longer played with him and one day i picked him up, or asked my granny for him and she handed him to me. i fell hopelessly in love with the monkey and against my aunts will my granny gave him to me. i don't remember his name, i do remember that he was my all time favorite toy. i also remember that my mother tried to give me a new one that was virtually the same but had brown limbs and new fur. i lost that guy at church and continued to love my vintage monkey until... well, i am not sure when he left my life. in my memories i always loved him and then he just disappears. i got this picture from ebay.com, it's pretty much the same monkey i just don't remember my monkey having a belly button.

above: photo found on ebay, auction ended

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

i have so much going on today, and it's been going on since around thanks giving! that's okay, this is the final push and then ~ camping! that's right, sparkelle and family are leaving banana hill on the 29th and not returning until 2008. (don't worry, the monkeys will be taken good care of.) the holiday season brought about some real surprises this year, the biggest would be cinereal. cinereal is a zparkleys.com monkey who was a gift from amber! yay! she is a lovely, yet mischievous monkey who fell into crazy fascination with the christmas tree! my two junior monkey keepers will be receiving their first monkeys, unofficially named sprinkle and confetti. and, always a believer in turning kids on to amazing things at a young age, i broke a rule of my own to purchase a "mutant" monkey for my dear friends soon-to-be new son, aidan. the new baby monkey came from iamsunshine on etsy.com and can be purchased at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5415882, there are none available at the time of this post but they do have adorable pocket friends and glove animals. i broke the mutant rule because i view this as more of a modification to make a more baby-safe monkey! (when you check out the pictures you may notice that the picture of cinereal looks a bit different, my digital camera dies this weekend {i know, can you believe the luck. a dead camera on christmas morning!} and i replaced it today with a panasonic dmc-tz3. supposedly the panasonic camera is a real bitchin' job. we'll see!

above: cinereal, christmas morning

above: sprinkle & confetti

above: baby aidan's monkey man

the last few days...

the past few days have been really busy with the monkeys arriving, carpet being installed this weekend at work and everything. unfortunately i haven't really had too much extra time but the monkeys are doing so good! i am happy to see that i have quite the intellectual group of little sock monkeys, they all enjoy a good read. while fauna is very much mommy's little monkey she has been taking a real interest in the book i have been reading, may bird and the ever after. it's a fabulous book and she stays glued to each page. sweety and burgeon have found a slight bit of independence from each other, mainly due to the fact that burgeon has discovered our pet mice on amber's desk and sweety has no interest in rodents at all. sweety is, however, completely enthralled in my graphic novels, right now she is reading my dead girlfriend, vol. 1. zinger and geena have also taken to spending a little less time together; zinger is 100% amazed by the internet and more often than not can be found surfing the web with amber while geena has shown an unnatural interest in celebrity gossip. (a monkey after my own heart!) lorie and big mac have been somewhat in hiding, but are getting much friendlier. the flash of the camera seem to freak them out a bit so i am leaving them to themselves in hopes that they will relax more and eventually be able to play with the rest of us!

above: zinger, hanging out with amber online. he is all about learning as much as he can about his favorite topic - sock monkeys! (what a vain little monkey!)

above: fauna, my very own little may bird. (i swear if i were a sock monkey i am pretty sure i would be fauna!)

above: sweety, loves the light hearted gothic nature of my dead girlfriend.

above: geena, she is insane with celeb gossip rags!

above: burgeon, i am pretty sure that she has fallen in complete love with pharisees our baby mouse.

oh my, what a crazy exciting day!

first off the monkeys have arrived! and there is a surprise with them. (not a surprise to me, but to everyone else as we have a monkey who was not previously announced!) i also have another monkey i was not expecting at all! (thank you, faye!) i would sit here and blog all about it but that will have to wait until work is done! for now i have some pictures and after spending some time with each monkey i will post a proper introduction!

above: sweety and burgeon, these two seem like the best of friends and may be slightly rattled by the shipping process.

above: geena (surprise) and zinger, the love monkeys, if banana hill does wind up breeding i believe they will be our first parents!

above: fauna, sitting right next to my keyboard - she is so friendly!

above: mac (a larger breed of farm monkey) holding lorie littleman, they both seem very relieved to have each other and a bit frightened of the other monkeys and myself.

(all of my breeder monkeys were hand made by space at zparkleys and came from her etsy store, you can go there by clicking the link in the side bar. the farm monkeys came from kmart. i understand that farm monkeys can be cute and are easy to pick up without a second thought as to how long you will have to care for them and who will be responsible for them and that they are sometimes very attractively priced, still please consider their lives and buy hand. thank you.)

zinger & they are on their way!!!

zinger is the final monkey who will be coming to banana hill for the year 2007! zinger was sponsored by my sister for my birthday! a great big wonderful I LOVE YOU and THANK YOU goes out to my big sister. you rock so hard! also some really amazing news is that zinger and the girls are on their way today! i an expect them to arrive within the week. i am so excited. (so is lorie littleman, though i can tell he is a bit worried over what will happen to him.)

above: zinger

(photos by stacey taken from her store listings @ http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=67193)

welcome little lorie!

i have been really sick lately and so more often then not i roll around in this fog. today as i sat at my desk my co-worker (and the love of my heart) amber said, "sparkelle, have you really not noticed the sock monkey that faye gave to you?" (faye is another co-worker.) i looked up, honestly confused, and shook my head, "where?" amber indicated for me to turn around and there he was, lorie littleman. lorie is a six inch tall non-sock sock monkey, he is not a baby or adolescent, he is just short. lorie is a "farm" monkey, not a breeder monkey. farm monkeys are mass produced for public consumption with little or no hand stitch interaction and as a result are not very friendly, they are usually not even made from actual sock but instead from a knit sock-like material and lorie is no exception. ordinarily i would never support such an operation and i suggest that no one support such a thing, instead you should seek out an artist breeder, like stacey @ http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=67193, that way you can be sure that your monkey will be a lovely, one of a kind, hand sewn little friend. (and as we all know, hand sewing makes a huge difference in the temperament and disposition of a sock monkey!) lorie littleman is extra extra shy and seems to want little to do with me in fact when i turn my attention to him he simply plays "stuffie" in an attempt to make me believe he is not real, just as would be expected from a farm monkey. he does however watch with interest as i work and seems to relax a little more each time i pick him up. because i do not know his history or his personality very well lorie will be in quarantine as soon as i can get a little box set up. he is a lovely little guy and i hope that he makes a full adjustment to being a part of the banana hill family!

i would like to say a great big THANK YOU to my friend faye, for bringing this unexpected and much enjoyed surprise to banana hill! thanks faye, you rock!

above: lorie littleman, playing stuffie on my desk

burgeon

a third monkey has been decided on, burgeon will be coming to banana hill very shortly! this is really lovely news and i am very pleased to be sharing it! my hope is that burgeon will arrive with sweety and fauna.

above: burgeon

(photos by stacey taken from her store listings @ http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=67193)

sweety & fauna

VERY EXCITING NEWS! sweety the sock monkey will be coming to live on banana hill sometime in december! this is really wonderful to confirm because sweety was the first monkey i really truly fell in love with and the monkey who made me realize that i was destined for banana hill. (she is also how i found out about stacey the amazing breeder i keep talking about!) i am also very happy to confirm that the second monkey i am now positive will be coming to banana hill is fauna. fauna and sweety will hopefully be here before christmas! i will save individual introductions for their actual arrival.

above: sweety, below: fauna

(photos by stacey taken from her store listings @ http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=67193)