A New Storefront for The Pink Toque!
I have some exciting news for The Pink Toque! A lot of you know that I’ve been around blogging about my crafty endeavors for over four years now. In fact, it was four years ago this month that I opened my Etsy store and started selling purses, bags and custom plush. When I designed The Cthulhu Toque and its companions the Baby Cthulhu Toque and the Sockthulhu plush, they were sold in the Etsy store, too. Last fall and winter were the first BIG seasons for my Cthulhu crochet creations; though I had designed the toque before then, it didn’t take off until the seasonally cool weather set in. Now that we’re starting to experience some cooler temperatures and we’ve officially said goodbye to summer this year, I’ve been getting requests again to have the Cthulhu Toque available, and I’ve also seen an increase in its pattern sales on Ravelry this past month. I’d been playing with some new Cthulhu crochet designs recently, and so this year I decided to create a new storefront just for my geeky fiber arts creations and release some new accessories there, too!
Introducing… The Pink Toque shop! No longer am I using Etsy to sell any of my stuff. The new shop is in addition to my GEEKSOAP storefront at geeksoap.net – most of you already know that GEEKSOAP is just one storefront of mine that’s strictly my line of original handmade geeky soap, and the Cthulhu Bath Mitt since that logically goes with soap. However, The Pink Toque shop is a new and separate storefront hosted on BigCartel instead of Etsy, and there you’ll find my Cthulhu Toque, the Baby Cthulhu Toque, and some new and exciting crochet designs of mine… such as the Scarfthulhu Cthulhu Scarf and coming soon… Cthulhu Mittens!
Wait, a Scarfthulhu Cthulhu Scarf?! Yes, that’s what I said. Isn’t it awesome? Both ends of this 63″ (over 5 ft!) original scarf feature 100% handmade tentacled Cthulhu goodness that will keep even your soul warm and protected from the elements. Or maybe it squeezes your soul right out of you; I forget. Either way, you can’t deny how cool it will make you look in the cool weather. And paired with the Cthulhu Toque? How can you go wrong?!
So now there are two places you can go to get your hands on some original creations of mine – geeksoap.net for soapy goodness and shop.thepinktoque.com for all of my geeky fiber designs. I think you’ll love the addition of the Scarfthulhu to kick off the additional store with something new, and the mittens will be fun, too! I’m still working out a few kinks with their design, but hope to have them up in the next month or so. That means you’ll soon be able to own an evil yet full and fashionable set of Cthulhu accessories to keep you warm this winter!
Want to keep up with me on Twitter? – @ThePinkToque and @geeksoap
Fan The Pink Toque and GEEKSOAP on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/ThePinkToque
Thanks for spreading the love :) Speaking of spreading the love… did you notice the adorable crochet Cthulhu doll that’s wrapped up in my Scarfthulhu? His name is Oscar, and he’s a creation made by Ruth of CthulhuChick.com. You can snag a Cthulhu doll of your very own in her shop! Oscar has attended two cons with me – Gen Con and Dragon Con – and he always loves a good adventure. At home he has a special place in my soap studio, watching over me as I work. When he’s not keeping an eye on soap, he’s causing mischief all over The Pink Toque shop, so be sure to look for him in the store when you’re there. :)
Remember to look for my creations in two places now! My handmade, vegan friendly geeky soap designs are still at geeksoap.net, and now you can find my original, wearable crochet Cthulhu accessories available at shop.thepinktoque.com. Hope you enjoy!
Scarfthulhu Cthulhu Scarf
Introducing the Scarfthulhu Cthulhu Scarf – the perfect complement to my Cthulhu Toque! This is a truly evil, yet fashionable statement in keeping warm this season.
The Scarfthulhu Cthulhu Scarf is another original Cthulhu pattern design of mine. Made from soft worsted weight acrylic yarn, this scarf is 100% handmade and features Cthulhu tentacles and sewn on buttons for eyes. Due to the button eyes, this product is not recommended for children. Approximately 63″ (over 5ft!) of awesome. Available for purchase at The Pink Toque shop!
Love the plush Cthulhu you see pictured wrapped in the scarf? He’s a creation by Ruth of CthulhuChick.com. Be sure to go and grab one of your very own, and let her know that Lesley sent you!
Washing instructions: Your Cthulhu scarf is machine washable on a gentle cycle, however, I recommend handwashing with lukewarm water and laying it flat to dry.
Goes well with my Cthulhu soap and Baththulhu Cthulhu Bath Mitt over at geeksoap.net, too! :)
FPS / TPS Gamer GEEKSOAP Geek Soap
By fan request… first/third person shooter gamer soap! Featuring Halo and Gears of War; perfect for that boost you need after an all night gaming session!
GEEKSOAP is handmade from vegan friendly, hypoallergenic ingredients and comes generously scented with Boom Headshot! to ensure an invigorating clean that’ll leave you feeling confident and ready to pull another all-nighter with your console.
Size: 5oz bar with the dimensions of 3″x3″x1.25″ (Gears of War) or 3.5″ x 1.25″ (Halo)
This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net
GEEKSOAP is geek soap for the internet. Soap for geeks; just pure geeky soap!
How to GROW Your Dragon GEEKSOAP Geek Soap
You already know how to train your dragon, but do you know how to acquire a dragon in the first place? GEEKSOAP has the answer: GROW ONE! For those who need their own dragon to train, this unique GEEKSOAP bar provides you with endless fun and allows you to grow your very own pet dragon right at home!
This original soap includes one random dragon toy embedded deep within a round soap egg. Simply use the soap to hatch your baby dragon! Once hatched, put your new pet dragon in water and watch it grow up to 600% its size! Makes for a fun, educational bathtime or anytime toy. Bring your dragon to life just by adding water!
These bars weigh a little over 5oz and have the dimensions of 3″x3″x1.25″.
GEEKSOAP is handmade from a combination of all natural & vegan friendly, hypoallergenic ingredients. How to GROW Your Dragon GEEKSOAP is scented with the gentle, soothing scent of lavender, which makes it the perfect just-before-bed bathtime soap for kids and a great unwind scent for parents! These soaps come wrapped to seal in freshness and allow you to keep them on display until use. GEEKSOAP is vegan friendly. Let me surprise you with a random dragon color or chose your own adventure!
How to GROW Your Dragon GEEKSOAP is soap that’s fun to use, and provides BONUS fun long after it’s finished. You will be able to continually re-grow your dragon pet over and over again! Intructions included with every bar of soap to ensure you get the most out of your new dragon pet.
Dragon toys are safe and non-toxic, but warning: since this small toy can pose as a choking hazard, this soap isnot suitable for children under 3 without supervision.
This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net
GEEKSOAP is geek soap for the internet. Soap for geeks; just pure geeky soap!
Ninja Turtle GEEKSOAP Geek Soap
Cowabunga, dude! You know you can’t resist these awesome little guest soaps, ninja turtle style! They’re seriously adorable amiright?!
Each cute little turtle weighs just over 2 ounces, for a combined 8+ ounces of good, clean crime fighting fun for your guest bathroom sink. They are also perfect to use as travel soap!
As usual, these bars are made from 100% all natural ingredients and are completely vegan friendly, as you’ve come to expect from GEEKSOAP. They are scented with a refreshing coconut lime fragrance (Which is better than my original idea of pizza or sewer scented soap… not exactly the smells you’re looking for fresh out of the shower, lol) and come wrapped to seal in freshness and allow you to keep the soap on display until you’re ready to use it.
The mold was custom designed and created by me so you can be sure that your soap is lovingly handmade and 100% one-of-a-kind. You won’t find soap like it anywhere else!
This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net
GEEKSOAP is geek soap for the internet. Soap for geeks; just pure geeky soap!
Green Lantern GEEKSOAP Geek Soap
“In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!”
Dirt and grime is no match for the most powerful weapon in the universe! Recharge yourself in the shower each morning and wield the power to accomplish anything you can possibly imagine, right in your own hands. Dirt doesn’t stand a chance.
My brother-in-law inspired this design!
“The soap with willpower!” -Â basicallygeek
5oz bar with the dimensions of 3″x3″x1.25″.
GEEKSOAP is handmade from a combination of all natural & vegan friendly, hypoallergenic ingredients. Soaps come generously scented with a crisp, invigorating fragrance that screams “CLEAN!”
This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net
GEEKSOAP is geek soap for the internet. Soap for geeks; just pure geeky soap!
Hit Point GEEKSOAP Geek Soap
Tough encounter ahead of you today? Keep your health in check with Hit Point soap; the only bar you need to monitor how much health you’ve got left for your upcoming adventure!
These bars weigh 5oz and have the dimensions of 3.5″x2.5″x1.25″.
GEEKSOAP is handmade from vegan friendly, hypoallergenic ingredients and comes generously scented with a crisp, invigorating fragrance that screams “CLEAN!”
This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net
GEEKSOAP is geek soap for the internet. Soap for geeks; just pure geeky soap!
Venture Brothers Paintings – The Monarch & Dr. Mrs. The Monarch
Hiya!
I know, I know. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but I’ve been busy! (Excuses, excuses.) After Gen Con I started a brand new, amazing job right away, and then Lucas and I just moved closer to my work last weekend. Between the new job (which used to have a long daily commute), continuing to create huge amounts of soap to fulfill customer orders, and our recent move, I’ve not had as much time to create other things or update. Now that we’re finally settled, I’m excited about how inspired I am to get crafty again to create new works of art to decorate our new home.
I LOVE the fact that all of the art on our walls are original prints and artwork by friends and geeky artists, or something I’ve painted myself. My latest creations are acrylic paintings of my favorite animated couple in one of my favorite TV shows of all time, The Venture Brothers. Introducing… The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch! (Note: I have yet to do the solid magenta backgrounds on these that I’m planning, so stay tuned to see them 100% completed and on the wall in our office in a future post!)
I based my paintings on images I found online of the pair, which came from screen captures taken from the show. You can see the images I used on the floor in front of each painting in the first photo. The Dr. Mrs. The Monarch was originally going to be done à  la Dr. Girlfriend, but as I worked on her I decided to modify the design to transform her into the Queen Butterfly instead. It seemed fitting; the paintings will soon be hanging above Lucas and I’s matching computer desks next to each other in the new office, and the color scheme of the two together will be more consistent.
It’s been awhile since I’ve painted; I was so tickled with how well these turned out that I may just have to do a few other pieces for the new place. Besides painting, I’m also excited about some digital art I created for our guest bathroom, which I am using to display some geeky-themed soap of mine and @KyleeLane‘s. I envisioned this Andy Warhol-esque design of my Game Cartridge soap and Kylee’s NES Controller soap. I wanted the colors used to match the four colors of the shower curtain and accompanying accessories to tie everything together between the curtain, the walls, and the soap on display. These will be printed at 12″ x 12″ and I created them in Photoshop using photographs I took of our soap. Not bad, hey? I can’t wait to see them up!
In digital scrapbooking news, I’ve even found time to FINALLY update our Family Life 2010 digital scrapbook. Even though it’s been months since I’ve updated, My Memories Suite is always so user friendly and fun that I found myself getting back into the zone and creating new pages quickly to share some of the things that has happened in my family’s life this year. And wow, has 2010 been our year! It’s only September, and already the Family Life 2010 album looks to be on course to surpass last year’s album in length. Which makes sense since there has just been so much good stuff in 2010 and so much that we want to share and remember. :)
So while soap orders still keep pouring in and there are some exciting things for GEEKSOAP on the horizon (Like being approached for an upcoming feature on an NBC TV segment!), I’ve managed to find time to revisit some of my other crafty passions like painting and scrapbooking, too, and I’m loving this inspirational and creative energy flowing through me right now. Â And now that it’s fall, I’ve got people wanting to purchase my Cthulhu toques again, so I’ve been craving a little knit and crochet time. I’ve got the toques AND some new Cthulhu accessories coming very soon to their own storefront; look for that in the near future! (Like next week.)
So much good stuff going on in my life right now, it’s hard not to be ecstatic and want to shout it from the rooftops. I am truly blessed with an amazing husband and some amazing friends, family, and customers who just really inspire me with their love and support to keep on creating in all facets of my life. Thank you. I hope you’ll like what you see coming from me in the near future! <3
GenCon Wrap Up
I already wrote and posted this up over on G33Kmade.com, but I thought I’d also share the post here as well, as a way to wrap up how Gen Con went for me :)
Wow. Just… wow. Gen Con Indy was amazing! Thank you SO much to all of the fabulous people that stopped by our booth and supported handmade geek at the best four days in gaming!
Firstly, we have SO MUCH LOVE for all of the independent geek artists that made up G33Kmade’s booth. Though Kylee and I were there as the face promoting our cause, G33Kmade was more than just soap; we had amazing prints by GEEKLEETIST, fantastically detailed nerd pillows by Victoria the Germ, and epic dice bags designed by Lyndsay of Dragon Chow.  And not only that, we also represented other featured G33Kmade artists and friends such as GeekyCookies, UberDork Cafe, and Ruth of CthulhuChick, whose plush Cthulhu was our booth mascot. We were givin’ out super sweet geeky buttons made by Wendy of GeekyBoutiquey left and right, and tried to ensure our mission of spreading the love between everyone that made G33Kmade’s booth a success to anyone that would listen. And boy, did we have a lot of listeners!
Wil Wheaton came by the G33Kmade booth on Saturday and picked out a Dragon Chow dice bag as part of his mission to collect as many dice as possible at Gen Con. Getting a Dragon Chow dice bag was part of another spread-the-love geeky mission initiated by @cmdrsue via Twitter. It’s the kind of thing that makes you feel weak in the knees and love what you do that much more: seeing so many people come together under one banner for one awesome purpose… to support each other’s handmade geek. It’s the foundation that G33Kmade was built upon. Share. Support. Promote. Love. Geek. Wil picked up some of our soap sculptures of awesome offerings and chose a dice bag. When he realized what G33Kmade was and what we were all about, he told Kylee and I how PROUD he was of us. Of what we had started with G33Kmade. Of promoting independent geek artists and all of us working together. The fact that so many of you were on board doing this together. He compared it to how he got started and all of the people he’s worked with, and just kept repeating how proud he was. It was surreal. And awesome.
Who would’ve thought? Independent artists working together. G33Kmade is not just two people. It’s one giant geeky dogpile of epic proportions and each and every person supporting us – whether from the sidelines or as a featured artist – is an important part of that pile. It really was amazing to see how well received the whole concept was. People loved hearing stories about the artists of G33Kmade as they browsed geeky wares from all over North America. They were surprised to see Kylee and I selling soap side-by-side and promoting and cheering each other on instead of competing. But that’s what it’s all about, and the warm fuzzy feelings I got from being able to work with so many thoughtful, giving geeks had me glowing all weekend. I am proud to be a crafty geek.
The famously clean superheroine you all know as @DeodorantDame even came by so we could help aid her in her quest for cleanliness at cons everywhere! Equipped with her deodorant spray and a D20 Soap on a Rope, she was unstoppable. United we stand for a meaningful cause!
So enough gushing already, right? BRING ON THE PICTURES! For your viewing pleasure… (There are multiple pages, so don’t forget to click the Next links!)
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THANK YOU to every single person who has supported G33Kmade. Handmade FTW!
As you can imagine, it’s been busy ever since Gen Con around here. On a personal note, I got a job offer for a school district on the north side of town about 10 minutes before our Gen Con booth opened, and started said job at 7:30am the Monday morning after Gen Con. The good news is that the job is amazing; I love it! The bad news is that it’s an hour commute for now, so not only am I juggling a successful small business in what little spare time I have, I also have a new full time job AND we’re planning to move in a few weeks to be closer to work. As if I needed more things on my plate, Lucas and I are going with a bunch of friends down to Atlanta, GA next weekend to attend Dragon Con, too. Should be a really fun time!
In crafting news, expect a few new little things coming to GEEKSOAP soon, and my Cthulhu Toque should be back in stock both on Etsy and over on geeksoap.net in the next few weeks as we get closer to fall and hat season. I’m also planning a slight redesign to my Baththulhu Cthulhu Bath Mitt pattern to create Cthulhu Mittens for this holiday season as well :) Oh, and did I mention that Lucas and I are trying new recipes each week and attempting to stay on top of our family blog, too? Stay tuned! Somehow I’ll accomplish all of this in the midst of a move ;) Take care!
Come get GEEKSOAP in person at Gen Con!
You know you wanna head to Gen Con in Indianapolis from August 5 – 8, 2010… because not only is it “the original, longest running, best attended gaming convention in the world for over 40 years”, Â you can come pick up some awesome GEEKSOAP for yourself in person right at the G33Kmade booth; 2732! And then there’s a G33Kmade Tweet Up… so even if you don’t have tickets to get in to Gen Con you can still come hang out in downtown Indianapolis!
–>Â Grab all of the G33Kmade booth details and Tweet Up information! <–
Basically, we’ll be at booth 2732 and you’re gonna find awesome soaps by me, @KyleeLane, and other handmade goodies from @GEEKLEETIST, @VictoriaTheGerm, and @GeekyLyndsay there, too! As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, G33Kmade is a company that Kylee and I started together to help spread the love and support of handmade geekery because that’s the way it should be. Showcasing and celebrating other handmade geek and helping them get their stories and inspiration out there for all the world to see!
Want more excitement? @UberDorkGirlie (of the amazing @UberDorkCafe that I mentioned previously that you NEED to support! Give the gift of geek!) will be in attendance at the Tweet Up, so if you want to meet the dream in person you just have to be there!
Be sure to check out the official post over on G33Kmade for all the Gen Con details. Hope to see you at Gen Con!