Squishy Roll Call

Well, it's that time again. Time for me to take stock of all of the squishies from Squishable that have invaded our house over the last few months. I love these fluffy little critters so much, and for some reason my husband seems inclined to indulge my recent obsession with them. My daughter doesn't mind much either, since I let her play with them too.

Squishable is such a nifty company, and they keep offering new types of animals and new sizes and all kinds of other products (I recently acquired a very nifty tea mug from them as well). Right now actual Squishables are available in four different sizes:

Micro (with removable key-ring attachment)

Mini (volleyball-ish sized)

Standard (beach ball sized)

Massive (bigger than my two year old)

Perhaps to me the most insidious (and by insidious I mean delightful) aspect is that they use the same animal/designs in all of the sizes. Not every regular squishy is available in all of the other sizes, but quite a few of them are. As a result, we've accumulated several squishy families in our home.

Dragons in Mini, Standard, and Massive (Squish, Neville, and Norbert)

T-Rex in Micro, Mini, Standard, and Massive (made in conjunction with Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics)

Manatees in Micro, Mini, and Standard

Narwhals in Micro, Mini, and Standard

Sabre-tooth Tigers in Mini and Standard

Cthulhu in Mini and Standard

There is also a Mini penguin and a Micro owl that as of yet are on their own (but never alone because the other squishies are quite welcoming).

It's nuts, I know.

Here is a shot of all of them together:

Don't you want to just dive right in and cuddle? 

As far as my daughter is concerned, her bedroom is a soft and fuzzy wonderland.

So, as you may have guessed going by the number of these things that I have, Squishable is a product that I highly recommend. They offer something to suit almost anyone's interest, no matter the age. With the wide range of sizes, there is also something in whatever price range best fits your budget. You should check them out. In addition to offering amazing stuffed animals, the company also happens to be run by some really swell people.

Have a wonderful and hug-filled weekend my friends. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get started on building that extension to my house so I have room for all of these guys...

Here, Have A Cat On a T-Rex

Yeah, he's judging you. Try not to take it too personally, he does that to everyone.

Because it's Friday, and because my brain checked out for the weekend yesterday. Maybe it's a lame excuse, but it really seems like Daylight Savings Time hit our house pretty hard this year--it has certainly wreaked all sorts of havoc on Baby Girl's sleeping schedule.

Also, my mind has kind of been crazy consumed with Mass Effect 3 of late (and trying to avoid spoilers for the apparent emotional roller coaster that is the ending). Hell, even Baby Girl is into it, because instead of sleeping, she wants to sit in my lap at night and watch me play. Whenever she hears me fire it up she cries "Mommy's game!" and comes running to be hoisted up to sit with me. I didn't even think that my character looked that much like me but whenever Baby Girl sees her on the screen she points and exclaims "Mommy!" with delight.

I think we have successfully managed to raise a nerd.

Anyhoo, so, have a fantastic weekend folks. I am going to have lunch with a friend this afternoon and then see if maybe I can't make the time to check out a few episodes of Game of Thrones this weekend (yeah, I totally caved and picked up the set when it came out last week). Also, I think I'll start up the next blanket that needs to be made.

Whoo! What a wild and crazy life I do lead.

Dragon Cycle

Remember when I told you about Squishable a while back? I mean, it's hard not to love a company whose motto is "They're giant, round, fuzzy stuffed animals. Hug them." (TM) At the time, our household was home to three of the critters: a mini dragon, mini T-Rex, and a regular sized manatee.

I have since then acquired two more, the massive dragon and the regular dragon. That's right, I now have the full Squishable dragon cycle!

Squish, Neville, and Norbert.

The massive dragon, Norbert, came to live with us on my birthday. Hubby and I went out to a movie with friends and when I got home, he had managed to sneak past my mother-in-law (he's stealthy) and was hiding in our bedroom, waiting to surprise me. Then this past Saturday Neville, the medium dragon, joined us as well, after Squishable sent out a customer survey that came with a 20% discount at the store for completion. 

Mostly, they just hang out with us in the living room, though Baby Girl has great fun rearranging them at least once a day. She very much enjoys riding Norbert. Sometimes she tries to take him into another room, and this is one of the most amusing things I have ever seen her do, as he is much bigger than she. This doesn't stop her though. She keeps going until she gets to a doorway that she can't smush him through, and then he just ends up guarding the hall until I retrieve him. One day, I am gonna remember to bust out the video camera when she tries to move him, really, I am. 

Here are a few more photos, in which my daughter tries to ride them all, so you can get an idea of scale.

Norbert is a lot easier to sit on when he's on the floor.

Neville is really not quite big enough, hon...

Baby fail? Dragon fail? Hard to say really, mostly just SMUSH.

She can't even sit on Squish properly, not that that stops her from trying.

These things are just so much fun--for the whole family, even! There are two more that we need to adopt--the full size T-Rex and the mini manatee--and after that I will do my best to resist their further charms--until they come out with something else awesome that just calls to me anyway.

Enjoy your weekend! I shall be playing with dragons.

Stash!

I know I keep talking about knitting socks. I certainly plan to start doing this. I just haven't really had the chance in between all of the other projects I have been working on this year. That doesn't mean I don't think about knitting socks all of the time. I think this has become pretty evident in my stash.

I finally sat down and pulled out all (well, most) of the sock yarn I have accumulated since I began planning to take up that hobby. You know, just to see what I've got going on.

Wow.

Um, there is a lot of it. Most of it is in my "overflow" stash--the yarn that doesn't fit in my designated yarn storage containers. This is my overflow stash (with guardians*):

Stash dragons on duty! 

Here is all of the sock yarn from that pile:

Knit Picks Chroma (fingering) in Pool Party

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Flamingo

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Honeydew

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Lilac

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Marlin

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Peapod

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Peony

Knit Picks Comfy (fingering) in Semolina

Knit Picks Felici in Moonlit

Knit Picks Gloss in Coast Grey

Knit Picks Stroll Multi in Atmosphere

Knit Picks Stroll in Black

Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Canopy

Knit Picks Stroll Multi in Diving Board

Knit Picks Stroll Multi in Lily Pad

Knit Picks Stroll Multi in Paisley

Knit Picks Stroll Multi in Pansy

Um, yeah, it is possible I may have been swayed by all of those sales on sock yarn that Knit Picks had this summer. Time to get knitting, I guess...

*Oh, and why yes, that is the Squishable massive dragon keeping my stash safe! He apparently decided he needed to come live with me. Arrived on my birthday, even. He is delightfully punctual. 

Consider Me Squished

Have you heard of Squishables? No? Then get yourself over to squishable.com immediately. It will change your world.

Basically, Squishables are pretty much what they sound like: super squishy stuffed animals (and other things). Someone must have been looking at a beach ball and thought to himself, "Hey, you know what would be awesome? A beach ball I could hug." Thus the Squishables were born. They come in many varieties (including Cthulhu and the little robot mascot for Android phones), and in a few different sizes as well (mini, regular, and the new line of "massive").

I first found out about these guys through ads on a couple of the webcomics I read. Then one or two of the webcomic artists started mentioning Squishables in their posts and my curiosity got the better of me, leading me to click over to the site and check it out. I have been coveting many of them ever since. Then Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics went and worked with the fine folks over at Squishable to design a squishy version of T-Rex. Then they went and made a mini Squishable T-Rex.

I finally caved in last month and ordered myself two mini Squishables, the dragon and the T-Rex.

Squish the mini blue dragon.

T.J. the mini T-Rex.

As you can see, I wasn't kidding about the beach ball thing.

Guys, these things are so freaking soft, it is amazing. Also, very extremely huggable. I literally had not even gotten the dragon out of the box before my daughter came and stole it from me. Sigh. I am a big girl though, and I can share. She loves these things, and I can use her as an excuse to justify them a little bit, so that works out.

The dragon was the first design to get launched in the massive size, which means there are two more sizes I need to get still. You know there is no way I am not going to end up with all three. The price tag on the massive Squishables is a bit steep though, so I am going to have to be patient. That massive dragon is one of three items on my "not gonna happen" birthday wish list.* A girl can dream, right?

I also really like this company because the people running it seem like a good bunch. They are one of the few companies I don't mind following on Facebook because they really understand how to use it as a tool to get people to love their brand without being annoying. They invite people to send in photos of themselves with their Squishables (or just of their Squishables doing interesting things) and post them on their site's gallery. In fact, right now they are donating a dollar to the Humane Society for every photo people send in. That is pretty awesome. On FB they will post some of those pictures and have caption contests, which is always a fun time. They have their own webcomic even, called The Fuzzy Five. When they hit a milestone number of likes they provide a coupon code for a decent discount.

In fact, it was those discount codes that finally made me cave and order my minis last month, and then made me cave again last week to order my first full-sized Squishable.

Maria (pronounced like Mariah) the manatee.

She arrived just the other day, and let me tell you, the timing could not have been better. Hugs have been needed around here lately, so she came in quite handy. Of course, even though when I started opening her box my daughter was in the other room, by the time I got the manatee out, Baby Girl had suddenly materialized to steal Mama's new toy. She's got a sixth sense, I swear.

Here's our whole squishy family together:

Caution: Extreme Cuddles Zone

And just so you can get an idea of scale, here is Baby Girl with the Squishables:

What do you mean, yours? 

I think not, Mama! Thbbt!

And just in case you wanted more scale, here's me with my daughter and the squishies.

I am sure these are only the first of many that will make their way into our home. Thankfully, they live up their name and are, indeed, quite squishy, which means that you can jam them into a tight corner if space is at a premium! So yeah, I am a total convert. These guys are awesome. If you have room in your heart and home for some soft squishy toys, I cannot recommend Squishable more highly. I am pretty sure they have something to offer everyone.

Have a fantastic weekend folks. Until Monday, I bid you adieu!

*For the curious, the other two items on my "not gonna happen" wish list can be found here and here.