JUST MONKEYING AROUND

What is brown and white and fuzzy with big red lips and over 100 years old? MY FAVORITE COLLECTIBLE!! I was visiting central nebraska with a dear friend. We had stopped in this little town and I could 'hear' a sock monkey calling my name!!

We went to every thrift, craft and antique store and it was no where to be found. We did hear a story from every sales person we encountered . Each one had a special memory of a childhood 'monkey' that saw them through the roller coaster of life.
After three hours of slogging through the heat and humidity we had lunch and decided there was nothing else to see and it was time to drive on.

That sock monkey was out there on Main street. It's plaintive cry was louder than ever.
I told this to Patti with a straight face .....I am very serious when it comes to my sock monkeys....
and she said we have to walk back down the street to the car. If it isn't in sight that's it.

We walked down the street and all of a sudden I saw IT-----this poster in a small quilting store tucked back from the street.
We rushed in and asked how much the poster cost. She kept saying "I am sorry it is not for sale....then kind of threw her head around. Neither of us caught on she wasn't having a tic.

She was waiting on customers and Patti kept pressing her with the story of searching in the heat,yada yada....she kept repeating herself and only when she almost threw her neck out of whack did we GET IT.

After the shop was emptied of customers she said "OK I am sorry. I didn't want to set a precedence of selling all my posters." Of course we understood. She had to climb on a ladder and move a ton of stuff but gave me this poster for $1!!!!!!!!!

This is a brand new coffee table book given to me by Nick and Sue when they visited last month!! I LOVE it. Thanks kids.

These are my flannel pj bottoms......how sweet are they?

Shannon and Nat sent me these for christmas two years ago and I still wear them a lot!

Doesn't every one have a sock monkey room of their very own? I had sock monkeys all over the house before our kids left home. Then eventually they all moved away to their own apts/homes etc.(the kids, not the monkeys.....they like to 'loiter' as oppposed to 'working'.

I turned one of the bedrooms into my sock monkey room. It was a red and white circus of a room. Then we had the fire. The old red and white room is now my studio and one of the guest rooms downstairs houses my monkeys. I haven't put much of myself in this room as yet but it is on my to do list.

Last count was over 100......every one old and much loved, hand sewn and has many 'monkey tales to tell."

My love for them started when my AUNT DOLLY made one for her guest room when I was little. When I stayed with her I would sleep with that monkey. She would keep my favorite doll of the moment company and wear her clothes and sleep in her stroller.

I received my dear sock monkey long after we were married but she is the one that started the family downstairs. I would look for them at thrift stores, antique stores and shows, garage sales etc.

We could be driving down the street and I would say "Honey turn in here I hear a sock monkey!" John would want to ask the clerk where one might be and I would just want to wander around the shop, waiting for it to jump out at me.!!"

I know I have embarassed him , my kids and friends when I am on the hunt and no one is in the vicinity. I have been asked "do these monkeys always talk to you? or do you hear other things talk to you?" Once we had spent an hour in this antique mall and I KNEW it was there. I kept looking and John growing more impatient, asked the clerk if there was one even there.

He thought there was but it must have been sold. All of a sudden I saw this long brown/white tail hanging below an open newspaper. I pounced on it and found the sweetest monkey.

"Oh Honey, look. No wonder he was crying so loud, he's blind."

Customers around all looked like I was contagious and whispered among themselves but that is ok........I knew it was waiting for me.

I always thought I would dress them up. Many had little outfits made out of felt or lots of pom poms. They removed the monkeys after the fire and before I could tell them NO... the cleaning company threw them all in the laundry without removing them. They all came back pretty much back to normal. The company also included a large bag of 'monkey parts".

I resewed legs/arms/tails on a more than a few. Some eyes did not return. But they are still alive and well and home.

The kids have given me little furntiure for them to sit in.

These winter sledding buddies hang out on John's sled from his youth.

I opted to hang these instead of curtains. I have to find some sock monkey fabric for those.



aren't they adorable? So sweet and much loved.


These hang around the closet so I have more floor and bed space.
more little furniture


a sock monkey throw from debbie mumm.


my raggedy andy I found swinging from a flag pole outside a thrift store watches over them.

Our granddaughters love the monkeys. So do other little children. When they come to visit these monkeys are carried, dragged, dressed and undressed, rocked, pushed and loved.

Once in a while the cats will drag one around. The neighbor kids that come love going down there and every time a new child shows up to join our group, someone always wants to take them down to see the monkey room.

We have grown children that do NOT want to sleep in there. I am amazed at that but I can't blame them if they were made without a 'sock monkey' gene!!

To know that the little ones love them is fine with me. I hope the girls will always remember being at Oma's house and having as much fun with the sock monkeys as I did when I was a little girl.


This is in our kitchen. I was given some little tiny monkeys and they sit in my red and white enamel ware along with raggedy ann and andy's. Whenever I see these I pick them up.

They are housed here because they are at eye level for the littlest ones. They aren't breakable and they can be played with at will.

I keep thinking I should make sweet and funny outfits and start posing them around inside and out to sell as cards etc. I know there are those out there but my stuff would be using MY monkeys and my scenes so would definitely be 'different.'

Have a fuzzy brown red lipped day!!!!!!