500+ fans means, it's GIVEAWAY time!!

Who doesn't love free stuff?! I do... and I hope all of you do too! Please read these details very carefully!!

THE PRIZE:

Of course the first thing everyone will want to know is what kind of prize will be offered in this giveaway?? I thought about this for a while, I even asked the masses what they thought. What I came up with was this... one lucky winner will have their choice of either TWO standard Lens Pets (winner may upgrade to large size for a small fee) or ONE large sock monster.  Custom made for the winner, you choose colors, design, everything. Any of the designs found in my shop or in my Flickr sets or your own idea! CUSTOM MADE for you! :)

Maybe you like owls?

or aliens? or monkeys? or dogs? Whatever you like, as the winner the choice will be yours :)

HOW TO ENTER:

There are a number of ways to earn entries and every entry is another chance for you to win!! So pay attention! Here they are...

• visit my shop
  once you've taken a look around, come back here to my blog and tell me what your favorite item is and where you heard about my giveaway. :)
  ONE ENTRY PER PERSON

• become a fan on Facebook
  please comment here letting me know if you are a new fan. Already a fan? Great! Leave a comment and let me know!
  ONE ENTRY PER PERSON

• share my Facebook page with your friends
  make sure they know to come over here for the giveaway details! NEW FANS please comment here on my blog (NOT ON FB) with the name of the person who referred you. You'll get one entry for every person who mentions your name in these comments.
  ONE ENTRY FOR EACH REFERRAL

• visit my Twitter page
  follow me and retweet about my giveaway! then come back here and comment to let me know that you did.
  ONE ENTRY PER PERSON

To make tallying entries and choosing a winner as easy as possible, EACH ENTRY should be a separate comment here on my blog.

OFFICIAL RULES:

• This giveaway will run from today (July 30, 2010) through Wednesday (August 4, 2010) at 11:59PM EST.

• The giveaway is open to both US and International participants.

• The winner will be chosen by random number generator and will be announced within a week after the giveaway has ended.

• Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you (Etsy, FB or Twitter user name) in case you win! I will announce the winner on my blog and make every attempt to contact the winner. If the winner doesn't respond within 10 days, a new winner will be chosen.

• Item will be shipped directly by MandeeFranee Designs via the United States Postal Service. Item will have delivery confirmation number (which will be shared with the winner upon shipment) but will NOT be insured unless additional insurance is purchased by the winner.

• Minors under the age of 18 must have parental/guardian permission to enter (if you are under 18, we will need to contact your parent(s)/guardian if you win and make sure they said it was okay-so ask permission before you enter).

By entering this giveaway, you are promising to comply with the official rules as they have been laid out here :)


Good luck to everyone!

an Odd Sox fairytale

Once upon a time there was a princess. A buzzy little BEE princess to be exact. She was the cutest little bee you ever did see. With the most beautiful beaded wings, long stripey legs, big button eyes. Her name was Princess Bea. She was born in the kingdom of the Odd Sox, but she longed for adventure. The Queen bee was strict. Princess Bea was never allowed to leave the hive. So she sat in her chamber, staring out the window wistfully, and wishing she could see the world. 

She knew the Queen Bee would NEVER let her leave England, not in a million years, so Princess Bea devised a plan. As sneaky as a bee could be, she flew from the hive disguised as a worker bee. By covering her beautiful royal beaded wings with tissue paper she was able to blend in and sneak past the Queen's chamber without being noticed. After escaping from the hive, she hopped aboard a plane, hiding away amongst the boxes and packages and mail. Little did Princess Bea know, but that plane was heading to the United States!!

Upon arrival Princess Bea was astonished! She could never have imagined that the world outside of her hive could be so big and amazing! After buzzing around for what seemed like weeks, a kind family offered to take Princess Bea in. She was introduced to candy and television and the internet! She was quite happy with her new family. They were very friendly and treated Princess Bea like one of their own.

But eventually Princess Bea grew lonely. She longed for the other bees that she'd left in the hive back home. She missed her best friend and the little boy bee that she'd secretly had a crush on for years. Of course because Bea was a princess and he was nothing but a lowly worker bee, they were never permitted to socialize in the hive. But Bea used to watch him from her window as he was carrying the pollen back from the fields and dream about a day when they could be together. After sharing her hopes and dreams of true love with her new family Bea was thrilled to find that they wanted to help. 

Princess Bea and her new family were able to get in contact with a kind servant bee who worked for the Queen in Odd Sox manor. The servant helped to sneak Bea's one true love onto a plane, again disguised in tissue paper and hidden amongst the packages. When finally the day arrived Princess Bea was beside herself with joy! Baxter Bea was here!!! Now they could be together without worrying about royalty and rules.

and they lived Happily Ever After...

Find Odd Sox on Facebook , add your own Odd Sox to the family or just oggle them on Flickr. But really you should buy some! ;)

one, two, three, four...

I declare a thumb war??? Ok, maybe not. But I have added FOUR new designs to my shop, just in the last few days. :)

a mouse! squeak squeak! an albino mouse it seems... with little pink eyes ;) though of course he is available in a variety of colors.

an airplane. I really like this one. I can just picture someone using this with a little boy, making airplane noises all the while.

a lion! ROOOOAR! had a request for a lion so I made this guy up. LOTS of sewing to add that mane.

Dooce, aka Heather Armstrong, hilarious woman. Love her blog. She mentions every so often that she would like to have a pet hippo living in her backyard. and that was the inspiration for this hippo Lens Pet™. ;) I think purple is a good color for a hippo :)

I have a million more ideas sketched and written in a notebook I keep on my table. Since I'm still super busy filling orders I just try to sneak at least one new design in each day.

In addition to the Lens Pets™ I finished one of my sock monster orders, the request was for two aliens.

I have 3 more sock monsters to make this week mingled in amongst the many, many Lens Pets™. I also have plans to go to a new park (new as in, I've never been there) in a couple days with a friend. I'm super excited to get out of the house again and to be taking my camera with me! I haven't taken pictures of ANYTHING in the last month other than sock monsters and Lens Pets™. Photography (especially nature photography) is something I love. So I'm looking forward to that and of course I'll have to share if I get anything decent. :)

back to work...

food, friends and work

Yesterday I spent a couple hours cutting out a million little felt pieces and putting together "kits" so that I could take all of my sewing on the road with me. I packed it all up and headed over to a friend's house for dinner, a movie and lots of laughs. I haven't been out of the house much at all since I started my shop on Etsy, things just took off and I've been so swamped I'm spending every waking minute of every day working on orders. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled with the popularity of my Lens Pets™. And frankly, I'm a bit of a hermit anyways. ;) But it was very nice to get out of the house. Dinner was YUMMY (veggie burgers on the MOST delicious buns I have EVER eaten, with grilled mushrooms and zucchini), the movie was cute (500 Days of Summer) and the company was great. BONUS: I got lots of sewing done while I visited. Including a couple new Halloween Lens Pets™ to add to my Holiday Collection...

of course there had to be a jack-o-lantern!! I love his little buck teeth on the bottom. ;)

and a black cat! I wasn't sure if I would add a black cat to the collection because the whole point of Lens Pets™ is that they're bright and eye catching... but I think the addition of the bright orange accents is just the right touch

the spider isn't new but this color combo is. so far I've done purple, green and orange. I can't decide which I like best.

 Halloween is by far my favorite holiday... but Christmas Lens Pets™ are right around the corner! ;)

just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

That's what Dori says in Finding Nemo, right?! ;) I'm living by that motto lately, still working my tail off trying to catch up on orders and I have been sewing like a crazy woman the last couple days! Bedtime has been at 6am most 'nights'! I've even managed to squeak out a few new designs too (always thanks to special requests and customers who give me artistic freedom on their orders). :) 

introducing... the unicorn Lens Pet™, complete with horn made from glitter felt

you can see the glitter on his horn a little better here.

had a request for a panda so I whipped this guy up

made my monkey in a super cute pink/green version that I totally love (I call her a love monkey of course) ;)

In the middle of all the Lens Pets™ I had a sock monster order to complete, for a purple pig! :) I sewed the little mouth to look like he might be saying 'OINK' but I think it had the unintended effect of making him look quite shocked! lol

In between orders I made these super quick (well, as super quick as hand sewing can ever be, by quick I just mean they don't have a lot of time consuming details) Lens Pets™ for my sister. They won't be for sale as that would obviously be copyright infringement, but my youngest niece can't get enough of this show so I made them as a gift with her in mind.I love how they turned out, it's a good thing I don't have little ones anymore or I might have to keep them for myself!

Busy, busy bee... back to sewing! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like... HALLOWEEN?!?

It is in my shop! ;) I've been working on some holiday Lens Pet designs and today the Halloween collection has debuted! With four new designs to choose from there's something for everyone!!! I know, you're thinking... Halloween stuff? IN JULY?! But because of the wait for my custom made Lens Pets, I wanted to make sure  that people could order and have them in PLENTY of time for capturing all those adorable little trick or treaters on film. ;)

So, take your pick... are you a BAT lover??? (I sure am, I'm tempted to use this cutie year round)

or are mummies more your style??

how about the wicked witch... wart and all?!

or are you more of a classic horror fan... as in, night of the living dead?! (or Michael Jackson's THRILLER) Well, if you are you'll want the zombie then! My favorite of the four, he comes complete with teeth for chomping brains, a little bit of blood spillage (eating brains can be a messy meal), exposed brain matter and a scar from where the other zombies once tried to eat him. ;)

The spider is also included in this holiday collection and my kitty cat is available in a spooky black version! :) As always, if you have any other Halloween-y ideas please let me know, I'm happy to give every idea a chance at being in Lens Pet form. ;)

Tweets and giveaways!

In celebration of hitting the 500 'likers' mark on FB I've decided to do a giveaway. I'm still working out all the kinks since I've never done this before but I think (hope) it will be great!!! I'll be incorporating this blog, Facebook AND Twitter so keep an eye out for all the details coming soon! 

and in other news... I've finally started a Twitter account. I held off for a while thinking I didn't really need one since I already have the blog and the FB account... but I caved to the pressure. So I can now officially add TWEET to my list of things to do every day. ;) I would love to see some more followers over there so if you're on Twitter please come join me! :) http://twitter.com/mandeefranee

I'm still sewing away like a madwoman, starting to finally make a dent. I've even managed to introduce a few new Lens Pets™ to my shop recently (thanks to some special requests and customers who've asked to be surprised)!

a cow (which I've done in standard and large size in the last few days and I love it either way)

a giraffe (might change his snout... it's hard to make that long snout that so many animals have with a flat piece of felt. even still, I think he's pretty cute)

a jellyfish (can't wait to make him in a bunch of other color combos!)

I still have a LOOOOOOOONG list of Lens Pets™ I'd like to make, including some special holiday ones!!! Halloween Lens Pets™ will debut VERY SOON so you can order and still have them in time for taking pictures of your little trick or treaters. ;)

a short break from sewing...

I took the boys to see some fireworks last night (not sure why they did them on the 3rd instead of the 4th). After living here in Michigan for 5 years this was our first time seeing a fireworks show here! For the last few summers they've been in Colorado over the 4th of July with my ex in laws and before that we were in Ohio celebrating with my sister and her kids. But this year they were home and we weren't going anywhere so I looked up the nearest display (you can seriously find EVERYTHING on the internet) and off we went. The boys bickered and fought pretty much the entire time (there must be something in the air the last couple weeks) but the show was good. Here are a few of my favorite shots... (the colors look much nicer when you click the image and see it in the larger size)

this one reminds me of a flower. so pretty!

and even though this one might not be the most exciting or colorful shot... I love that it looks like a dandelion! :)

Back to the sewing table now...