Ernie out in the world

When I was still teaching in Japan Yasufumi, one of my students, asked me what I'd given my coworker (another foreign teacher) as a going-away present. I told him I made him a giraffe and showed him this picture:

It's the original giraffe (my first creature ever) and his four bizarrely colored friends. Yasufumi loved the giraffes and immediately asked if he could buy Ernie, the green and blue giraffe. He surprised me and for some reason I told him they weren't for sale, yet. But I promised that when they would go on sale he would be the first to know. And when I opened my Etsy shop a couple of months later, Yasufumi was one of my first customers.

Even though he bought Ernie online, I delivered Ernie to him in class and he was very happy with his new felt friend. Ernie now lives in Yasufumi's home office, we he keeps watch over Yasufumi while he works.

Moem in Tirol

My mom went skiing for the first time this week with Guido and Opa Nelissen in Tirol, Austria. And she took Moem the Cow with her on the cross-country-ski adventure.

The trip started with a long traffic jam to Austria but when they finally got there, there lots of beautiful and cold snow to ski on. Moem the Cow was attached to my mom’s bag and therefore enjoyed the trip just as much as my mom did. Except for the funny Austrian food sometimes.

Donnie in Groningen

This weekend Donnie the Monkey went on a little roadtrip to Groningen with my mom and Gui. He had a lot of fun.

He did some sightseeing, visited a modern art museum, ate lots of food and even got a little drunk with my mom’s help.

eleventh monkey out in the world

The plushies in my eleventh monkey shop describe themselves as a a bunch of slightly awkward creatures looking for new friends out in the world. Some of them have already found new friends out there, and those friends have been photographing their adventures outside of Japan.

Gus moved to Belgium to live with my brother Djamo and he took Gus on a vacation to Tunesia:

Donnie moved to the Netherlands to live with my mom and she taught him how to cook, brought him to the office and took him out shopping in Eindhoven:

It’s so much fun to see the eleventh monkey creatures out in the world and I hope to see pictures of the others out there too.