He's her lobster!

*clap* If you were a Friends fan, or just alive in the 90's, you know all about lobsters in love.

That well-known reference was the inspiration for my latest custom made toy. My sweet client ordered this lobster for her fabulous Texan boyfriend. He is her lobster and I hope he likes this little guy. Who knew a cold crustacean could be so cuddly and adorable!?

Well, I HAD a plan.

For blogging regularly, especially catching you all up with recent designs and toys. I had a plan... and then my daughter started not feeling so well. I wasn't worried about it at first but it didn't go away. We were on the fence of taking her in and she took a turn for the worst.

We took her to E-Care, still hoping it was nothing serious. It took quite a few hours and a CT scan for the Dr. to decide that it was indeed appendicitis. Her appendix pointed the wrong way (apparently she is one of 10% of the population that has this) so it threw off where her pain presented. 

We ended up in Dallas at Children's Medical Center. Long story short, surgery, recovery, home finally. PHEW!

So now, I owe you guys a blog post... with photos! I aim to please.

One of my facebook friends asked if I'd ever had a request for a dolphin... so of course I had to try. I LOVE IT! I think he is just perfect. Can't get much more dolphiny than this :D

My happy little Whale is a new prototype. I realized that after I took the photos that I meant to make little arm fins for him and I totally spaced on it. But really I think he has a super cute cartoonish quality and doesn't really need them, but I can add them of course. Look at that face, isn't it precious! And the water spout.... how can you resist that!?

Do you have a favorite animal? Ironically, I've not made a sock version of my favorite. I wonder if you can guess what it is? :D

New, New, New!

WOW, I just realized there are a LOT of toy photos that I haven't posted here on the bloggy side. I get so caught up on the facebook page for Sole Mate Toys that I neglect this part and that is not cool. 


I think I will split this up over the next few days so that I don't have to squeeze a million things into one insanely long, photo heavy blog post. Spread around the awesome, sounds like a plan to me!
I love collages! Great way to smush in ALL the poses and angles without dragging it out in individual shots.


So WAY back in March I received a toy request for a Gorilla obsessed little girl. You know how I LOVE a new toy design so of course I was excited! Here was the result...

Isn't it cute!? I love the nose. LOVE!

Still in the Way Back Machine.... In April I got to do a First Birthday gift for the sweetest little peanut. Her mom wanted a giraffe, no other restrictions, just a giraffe. I did one years ago, you can see a photo of it here on the homepage http://solematetoys.com/ . It was huge and very realistic... as far as sock toys go, that is. This time I wanted to design a more youthful toy so I tried a baby-ish giraffe.  Here are some facts about baby giraffes that I bet you might not know....  

• Gestation period is 15 months
• Interval between births is generally 20 months
• Life expectancy of 25 years in the wild
• A baby is generally 6 feet tall and will weigh about 150 pounds at birth
• A baby will fall approximately 6 feet during birth before hitting the ground
• A baby will begin nursing within one hour
• A baby will generally also begin walking within one hour

AWWWW!

Is that not one of the cutest things you've seen recently, or what!? Ok we will pause here for now, in the upcoming posts you will get to see some of the fabulous new toy prototypes I've been making. I have lots of big ideas coming your way. :D

Do Androids Dream of Electric (Green) Sheep?

I'm not sure about that but I know I do. And if I can dream it, I can create it... well I can try at least And so, without further ado, let me introduce you to Shirley the Sheep

There would be some changes if I made her again for a client but overall I'm super happy with how she turned out. I think sheep are just adorable and I'm partial to the black faced ones.