Sapporo Snow Festival

For a week in February, the northernmost island in Japan hosts a fantastic snow festival. The sculptures made of snow are a highlight. Some are enormous — even larger than this one. I haven't been to the festival yet myself, but Mr. Field Notes' dad has been a number of times. He shared this photo and I thought it was so neat I had to share it too. The detail in the leopard's spots and the orangutan's cheek pouches is awesome. It's estimated that 2 million people visit the festival. Here's a little insight into how the massive sculptures are constructed: how to make
a giant snow statue.

In Japan, as here too, it won't be much longer before festivities culminate around a different occasion — the appearance of the spring blossoms — something that is an even bigger event in Japan than this snow festival. I haven't been to Japan yet for the plum and cherry blossoms, but I think this year, Mr. Field Notes and I might have to break out the sake boxes and furoshiki we got in Japan and make our own mini party under our plum tree.

In anticipation of the spring, I've started farting around with a new spring line up for my etsy store. There are a lot more plantable paper offerers on etsy and the competition has had an effect on my sales. It's mostly fine, because I would rather hang out with my gorgeous daughter, but I do need to keep creating or I won't be able to keep buying nifty things on etsy! To that end, I recently received some new paper punches, an ume (plum) flower shape and a sakura (cherry) flower shape. This is what I've decided to do with them (the first one is an old hydrangea shape):



I need better photos and a prettier assortment of colors, but it's a start. I'm not sure, but I think I will offer them as a DIY wedding package, one that is very affordable (under $25). What do you think? I'd love some feedback...!

NEW: Flowers made out of paper that grows!

Spring comes quickly around here, and with the tops of the bulbs already peeking out of the ground, I have a limited amount of time to develop my new line of recycled paper products before planting season is here. For a few years now I have been making 'plantable paper' in my spare time, mostly custom requests from people who are getting married. Plantable paper is embedded with seeds. As the paper biodegrades in soil and water, the seeds sprout and grow out of the paper. It's a really nifty way to give seeds and also makes a perfect, inexpensive favor to give away at weddings. Over the years I've been asked to make butterflies, hearts, cones to hold flower petals, printed table place cards in various shapes and most recently — 200 paper flowers. They are going to be placed in little pots along with a smaller paper butterfly and flower. Soon this years flowers will be growing from the scraps of this project. In the meantime, I am putting them up for sale as a new regular item in my store on etsy. Happy planting!

Visual Development - Part 3: Handmade Boppy Cover

Baby Field Notes has finally started to track moving objects regularly now with her eyes and shows interest in objects she sees. Her eye contact is more steady too. The other day I caught her looking over my shoulder at my sock monkey collection, so now it is officially time to break out the things I've made for her to stimulate her eyes and more importantly, her brain.

Recently I finished a cover I sewed for the Boppy nursing pillow I have. It's got the same bold black, white and red fabrics I used for her fabric book and the taggie blankets. I used left over ribbon to edge the cover so she has something to tug on and finger during tummy time.

The thing is, I don't use the Boppy pillow anymore. A bunch of jumbled up blankets stuffed here and there around her is way better. I just could never really figure out how to fit the Boppy around my waist and position her on it to permit easy, comfortable breastfeeding. It purports to conform to 'all body types' but it doesn't work for me, or her, so I've abandoned it in favor of blankets.

But, I still have this awesome cover for the Boppy so I am hoping to discover a way to use it for something else.

p.s. Here she is with our newest sock monkey. Can you believe that grin?!?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Monkey

The classic movie starring Clint Eastwood as the 'Man With No Name' inspired this awesome sock monkey - another superstar monkey created just for us by Siansburys on etsy.





Sian is a whiz at creating movie star monkeys, so long as they come with weapons.

She's done Capt. Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Carribean, William Wallace from Braveheart and Obi Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. She's also done a Die Hard monkey and Indiana Jones.




When my dad was here last I showed him the William Wallace and Jack Sparrow monkeys. He suggested a Man With No Name monkey. It took no time to figure out that was a killer idea for Sian's next movie star monkey. I just had to pile up the cash to pounce, and I am so glad I did. She turned out another awesome monkey. I love the cigar touch, that is typical Sian. She always finds a way to capture the essence of the character.

Now, which monkey will she have to do for 2010.... ?

Back to work!

According to my present employer, I need to get a note from my doctor to go back to work. I've decided I'm ready to go back to work. I see him Tuesday and hopefully he'll sign off on the plan. I have no idea what to expect as far as my chances; I had a c-section so I am thinking he might think it's too early. BUT —

I have already gone back to work in the job of my own creation, selling my handmade paper. I've bundled up and sent out several orders since returning home. I've even collected '09 seeds for use in cards and paper for planting season '10: arctic poppies, bachelor buttons, dianthus and snapdragons so far. The zinnia will be ready soon.

It was a relief and highly gratifying to spend time outside gathering seed pods from my plants. I even took photos of a new product and listed it for sale online. Click the pic to see it up close! The flowers are confetti you can plant and use to grow flowers. The paper flowers are chock full of seeds I gathered from my garden plants. They really do grow too.

That's how I got these beauties at the left. I tell you, I cannot wait to teach Baby FN about plants!

I am ready to go back to work! I need it for my mental health. I hate being cooped up and cut off. That is a killer. So getting back to my former routine as much as possible will be good for my mental health and ultimately my physical health too - that mind/body connection is bona fide. That's the argument I will be making if my doc balks at the idea of me returning to work. I have an easy desk job that I do from home so I can't imagine I'll need to argue much, but I am prepared in case he does.

My doc (me, LOL) signed off on me going back to my papermaking job the first weekend I got home, about 4 days after delivering (and having a major abdominal surgery). I have been taking it easy. Really, I have.
I promise.

More on the labor and delivery soon. I am really eager to share the saga, even if no one is really interested, I need to write about it soon while it's still fresh in my mind.

I labored at home by myself and reached 8 cm dilation without needing pain meds or anybody around me. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, really. It just didn't hurt as much as I thought it would and the contractions were coming 2 weeks early so I didn't even think I was in real labor. Boy was I wrong!

It turned out to be a big week of work: The butterflies I make with seeds I embed in the pulp made an appearance on the front page of etsy. Click the photo to see the butterflies close up.

They didn't sell out, but several other things did that day! What a nice surprise to have. The last time I got that level of free advertising was a year ago. What timing! Fortunately, I have been teaching Mr. Field Notes how to press the paper so I can still make paper for orders. He does the hard, physical labor part while I do the creative, technical end. It's a great division of labor. I will really miss him when he's no longer taking leave time!

Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy — Well, does it?

I am sure this article has been floating around the etsy world for a while now, but I just discovered it and thought it was worthy of discussing. It basically makes the argument that etsy.com as company peddles a fantasy to women that they can start their own home business and quit their day jobs. It's a fantasy because vanishingly few are actually able to do this, according to data which etsy has gathered. The article also observes that vanishingly few men sell stuff on etsy. Why? Because they can't make enough money there. It's a valid observation and explanation.

You can scroll down to the bottom if you'd like to read the original article.

So here are my off the cuff thoughts on the essay based on my experience selling on etsy, paying attention to what other sellers do and say (in the forums especially) and seeing how my own small niche in its marketplace has panned out over time.

First off, I think the article is dead on. Yes, it generalizes about how many etsy women are basically SAHMs who are being supported by their breadwinner husbands. Truth be told, I am not so far outside of that category. But there are plemnty of women who sell stuff on etsy who don't fit that mould.

Why are male sellers not well represented on etsy? Sure it may have something to do with there not being a lot of money in it. Now, I am not a "top seller" by any means, and I have not quit my day job, but I have made at least as much as the seller highlighted in the article, so I consider that a tremendous success.

That being said, I do not make even close to enough to make what I do a full time job with health insurance, etc and not be dependent on a second source of income. So, yes, I think the etsy allure of a feminist dream is pure fantasy. However, etsy as a company does not sell it so much as the community (of women) wanting, expecting and asking how to realize that dream.

I have a hunch that most of the people who sell on etsy do not have a marketing or business background and so are unprepared for exactly how to make their arts & crafts a truly profitable endeavor. And most probably have no idea or do not accept the fact that it is difficult if not nearly impossible to make self-employment truly work, let alone operate a profitable business from home that is based on arts and crafts. Perhaps in the 'good old days' it was more possible but now with cheap, foreign-made crap ubiquitous, all it takes is our disposable culture to make it damned near impossible to sell handmade goods at a price the market will bear.

Why buy a $95 handwoven scarf when you can get a perfectly decent scarf for $10 at any number of Big Box stores? And why buy handmade paper at $3 a sheet when you can get ten times as many sheets for the price by buying handmade paper that has been imported from Nepal? Sure, some people can afford the high-end handmade stuff that is Made in America. But there are not enough of them.

Figuring out what to charge for any given item is but one problem, but I see it as the biggest one.

The vast majority of sellers on etsy severely underpay themselves and undervalue their work. Prices are ridiculously low for the time it takes to make the items sold. Some women admit to charging only for the material/supplies! Many charge a modicum for their time. Perhaps they do this becasue they know the market will not support a higher price, for reasons I just stated.

But perhaps many women simply undervalue their time. It is as though that old shampoo ad motto never sunk in: Because I'm worth it!

This is a generalization, but I think men are less inclined than women to undervalue their time and so when they find out that the etsy marketplace (with its attendent competition with other sellers there and from brick and mortar stores) does not support the higher prices they set for their work, they ditch etsy altogether or find another venue for their work where they can get the price for their work that they demand. I'd love to see data on whether men start and then abandon etsy storefronts at a higher rate than women do.

When it comes to pricing on etsy, I think women are more likely to just lower the price of their work and accept less.

We have learned to do this our whole lives. I think if women demanded more for their work and set prices that gave them fair compensation for their time, prices on etsy would be higher. But the marketplace competition does seem to drive prices down, and without being able to mass produce more creations at a lower profit margin, the end result is that no one can make very much money there at all.

I've seen the going rate for certain things I sell cut in half when a new seller moves in who undercharges for (her) time. I know how long it takes to make the things and am unwilling to accept less for my time, so I just don't sell those items as much anymore. I'd rather do that than undervalue my time.

But...

I am a feminist.

And I have a day job.

And I have no delusions about the chance of successfully working from home selling arts and crafts.

But, I still really wish women would demand more than $4 an hour for their time! It's a tremendous disservice to everyone.


Here's the original article:
http://www.doublex.com/section/work/etsycom-peddles-false-feminist-fantasy

Infant Visual Development - Supplies

The best visual stimuli for developing babies' vision are bold, black and white patterns with lots of contrast. With that in mind, and with my glasses slipped down to the tip of my nose librarian style, I selected fabric for my next sewing project.

Newborn babies cannot see much of anything which is why bold, stark patterns are best. If you have exceedingly bad vision (20/500), like I do, you can get a sense of what the world looks like to a newborn baby by looking at things with your glasses off. Forget about making out fine patterns — only the big shapes bordered by significantly lighter or darker shapes stand out, and even they are blurry.


I chose fabric that offered a decent amount of contrast but also had some variety in shapes - some circles, some lines, some squiggles. Different portions of the visual cortex respond to different stimuli based on how lines are oriented so it's important to represent a variety of patterns. I also tried to achieve a variety of textures because tactile feedback is important too, but being in a small town, I had to settle for what I could get. And, I am satisfied I got what I needed for these:

• 'taggie' blanket small enough to take anywhere
• fabric book
• blocks

The blanket will have 9 squares on the front and the red 'minky' fabric on the reverse. Ribbon loops and braids of ribbon will hang from the edges and maybe from in between some of the squares. I may put some cellophane in between the batting in some places so it crinkles when touched.

The book will be 6 inches square and designed to lie open flat. I may add some concentric circles in contrasting colors to the fabric that doesn't have much contrast. Concentric circles appeal to babies, as do simple faces, so I may make one of them too. On some of the pages I am going to put some cellophane in between the batting so there's auditory feedback as well as well as visual stimulation.

The blocks I will save for last and hope to make 6 so each side can have a big, bold letter or number on it in red, white or black felt — for learning the alphabet.

With the scraps, if enough is left over I hope to make some stacking rings. They, like nesting cups, are a good toy for promoting cognitive development. They provide practice in planning, ordering and discriminating sizes.

I think the White Stripes would approve of my fabric selection, don't you?

Ew! Newfie slobber goes everywhere.

When you share your life with even one Newfoundland you get used to slime, spit, slobber, drool — and all the places it lands. It starts with your lap. The cute puppies get a drink of water then head straight for you to show off how smart they are, having found the local watering hole. Then they move on to the couches. They make convenient napkins, just like pant legs. Eventually you notice the floors get their share of the drool too. More than their share. Soon you notice slime streaks on the walls. And every once in a while, you spot it practically on the ceiling.

That's where I found some today — a nice, big long streak of dried slobber complete with fur (a lot of it) stuck high up on the wall nearly at the ceiling above the bathroom door. Ew. Gross. Thanks guys. Did you have to put it so high up?

You can sort of make it out under the words in that photo. That grayish smudge is a ball of slimed, matted newfie hair the size of a quarter. A streak of dried slobber 8 inches long hangs down from it. Ew.

Who the culprit is I'll never know. Just a little present from one of them, thought I'd share. It's all part of the charm of having newfies. Since I had the camera out, I thought I'd take the opportunity to show off the other things now hanging on the walls. No, not cobwebs and more goofy newfie goobers, just good old-fashioned art. We finally hung our art, well, most of it.

Here's a little tour.

Some Japanese fabric (the so-called lucky cat you see everywhere in Japan). If you look closely in the background you can spot Yuki hanging out on the 'big comfy chair' watching traffic. I'm convinced she's got her own version of a trainspotting game going on given how much time she spends gazing out the window from that spot.

Of course, most days the window in front of her is so covered with her own nose print slime I doubt she sees much! I'd have to clean that window every day to keep it looking nice. Vacuuming once — sometimes twice and even up to four times a day — is about as much dog-inspired cleaning as I am comfortable 'scheduling' so the vast majority of the time, that window is ... dirty. But who cares. You make a lot of 'adjustments' to standards of cleanliness when you invite a big, black shagorrific dog (or two) into your home.

Moving on... on the wall in the living room containing Dirty Window we've now got some handy dandy shelves with real, handmade art on them!


The art is a series of three 14x14 inch custom pieces on canvas I commissioned from an artist on etsy.com. She did a wonderful job with minimal instructions to make a crow, bluebird and a green egret. The shelves are from Pottery Barn. I bought them, no kidding, in 2007 as a reward to myself for finally finishing some horrendous piece of statistical analysis for my dissertation. It took until now to finally deploy them. Delayed gratification.

More framed Japanese fabric from my favorite store in Kyoto: RAAK. They specialize in material for furoshiki - the cloth used in traditional wrapping of packages, gifts and lunches. RAAK is operated by a Kyoto-based textile company called Eirakuya, which was founded 390 years ago. A trip to RAAK is a must if you find yourself in Kyoto. They make just about everything out of their fabric — furoshiki, hats, wallets, purses, teddy bears and more. It's not cheap either (nothing in Japan is) so be prepared for a big bill if you go hog wild like I did.

I bought a TON (almost literally) of furoshiki cloth. I think it was my single biggest expense from Japan, but I knew I wouldn't be back for quite a long time so I allowed myself the splurge. The framed stuff isn't furoshiki, but I saw panels like this hung all over RAAK stores in Kyoto and thought a set of three would be perfect for the dining room. The choices were immense, and difficult, but in the end I chose these three for being iconic of Japanese culture and because they fit the color scheme of the dining room (red and black). All I had to do was find three that looked good together. Michaels craft store did the custom framing. They do a great job, but definitely wait until they have a good coupon. I used one that got me 60% off the entire framing order!

My Foray into Felt Food

Over the last few days I've been making a sandwich out of felt — using no patterns, just winging it.


The sandwich has:

* 2 slices of bread, with crust
* swiss cheese slice
* 3 slices of thin cut deli turkey meat
* 2 pickles
* 2 tomatoes
* slice of ham/bologna
* an egg with yolk
* cheddar cheese slice
* 10 leaves of lettuce


After making it, I came to realize that people who sell felt food on etsy severely underprice their creations. I've seen sandwiches, albeit not as complete as this one, for sale for as little as $11! That's crazy. It took me at least an hour alone to sew just the bread and cheese. And, it's not like I'm a novice hand-stitcher either — I've been sewing since my grandmother taught me when I was 11. And I have gotten plenty of practice making all those stinking OrnaMonkeys! There is definitely an upper limit on how fast you can stich by hand, so to see people so severely underprice their work it makes me wonder.

Of course, some of you may be wondering why the heck you'd make felt food, let alone buy it in the first place. Well... if you've got kids or are expecting them, they do make super cool toys. Kids can assemble their own sandwich, picking and choosing what they want to put on it to pretend to eat (or to pretend to make their dolls eat). This let's them practice at making their own food long before it's safe to. And, there's no mess. Depending on the type of felt play food they have to play with, they may even be more adventurous with eating the real deal. Play with fake asparagus enough times, or sushi, or pita sandwiches, and maybe just maybe she'll ask to eat that instead of a whole litany of other things that wouldn't be as healthy.

Baby Field Notes will have a well stocked felt food pantry by the time she's old enough to make believe. I can't wait! I've already bought some super awesome felt food from GoBuggy on etsy. Her creations are amazing — so much so that I now know it's not worth it to even try. I did try to make a lobster like her crawfish. It has joined the domain of Projects I Started And Never Finished. What was I thinking?! You can see her talent on display here in this crawfish dinner.

New Holiday Cards & Tags

A custom request I got through etsy inspired me to whip up some new designs for holiday cards and tags. I really love how the design of the snowflake cards turned out. It's just clip art laid over squares I made with rounded corners. The color scheme is one Godiva used a few years ago.

I am a big fan of the turquoise, red and white combination and I hope others are too!

I have one set of 10 cards listed for sale now. Just like the other paper I make, they are seed embedded and can be planted in the spring. Call it the no waste Christmas card that is also a gift!

The other card is a holly card that I colorized in Photoshop. Colorizing a black and white image turned out to be both easy and enjoyable. I haven't listed it yet, but I'm planning to. It's also plantable. I'm thinking about offering the option of customizing it with a family name under the "Happy Holidays" part, something like "Happy Holidays from the Stewart family."

And finally, I made some penguin and polar bear tags. They are more 'cute' than I usually do, so for those who want more 'grown up' tags, I've got the snowflakes design on some other tags that will be available soon.

In the meantime, get your paws on these tags while you still can!

Christmas Holly Card: Click here.
Holidays Card set of 10: Click here.
Penguin & Polar Bear tags: Click here.

Army of the 12 Monkeys: Monkey of the Month Club on sale now

Introducing the much loved 2008 Monkey of the Month Club felted OrnaMonkey ornament set.

All year long I release one unique monkey species into the wild. A mandrill, a few lemurs, a macaque, a capuchin, a langur or two, two tamarins, the monogamous titi monkey, and maybe a rare uakari or saki monkey round out the twelve.

Normal enrollments in the club fetch the member one monkey per month. This particular one gets the member ALL of the monkeys at once. This saves a lot on the cost of shipping and makes it possible for you to give them as a gift set for Christmas or spread them out among monkey-loving friends, family and teachers. You could hog them all to yourself. They are just that cute!

Each monkey comes with a bio-blurb so you can learn what makes each monkey unique among primates.

Recommended uses: Hang on a tree, in a window, pinned or hung on a bag, backpack or hung from door knobs, even your rear view mirror. This is one set of monkeys you'll love all year long.

And, because the felt used in the OrnaMonkeys is "eco-spun" felt made from recycled plastic bottles, you can feel good about supporting the use of recycled materials. The purchase of anything from me helps me to make charitable contributions each year to conservation organizations. I donate to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Jane Goodall Institute. Both work to increase the amount of land set aside for conservation. This helps not only the primates that live there, but all the other species as well. They even help people living near the monkeys and apes by providing employment in the parks, funding local schools and helping families begun small businesses that use the area's natural resources sustainably.

Photos show many of the monkeys that are part of the set. This set gives you a 40% savings compared with buying the monkeys individually. Click on any of the photos for more details.

Light Blue Leaf Card Bundle

Flame orange berries and gorgeous red dogwood tree leaves created the perfect backdrop for a set of light baby blue leaf cards I recently made.

Usually I don't make quite so many leaf cards all in the same color range, but I made too much pulp for one project and had others lined up so I had to think of something to use the pulp for. It had been a while since I made leaf cards and with the leaves changing color all around, I couldn't resist going whole hog on a bunch of them.


I ended up with 7 full sized cards and seven miniature cards that would be great gift tags. Sycamore, maple, oak, ginkgo and other leaves from trees that grow in my neighborhood grace the fronts of all of them. I collect the leaves on walks with the newfs.

Almost all of the cards bear a natural stain from the leaves too, something that doesn't always happen but I think it's wonderful when it does.

Click any of the pictures or here for a more complete description of them.

I finally made Plantable Christmas Cards!

It took a custom order request to finally get me around to making them, but I finally created plantable Christmas (or holiday or Hanukkuh if you prefer) cards.

The doves on the fronts of the cards are plantable and will grow flowers when planted properly. Instructions are printed in the backs of the cards, which are also 100% recycle paper, albeit not the fancy handmade kind.


I've decided to sell them in sets of 10 since it keeps the cost down and means people can still get a good number of them for those very special people they wish to send them to.



The message on the front and inside can be customized as can the color of the doves and the type of seeds they include.


They are for sale now, so if you like them you can order them in advance of the holiday rush. Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to the right place!

A Collection of My Favorite Etsy Finds

Today I got the chance to create for esty.com one of these things called a 'treasury.'

Members of etsy, the online company I sell my paper through, can compose collections of other etsy member's artwork. The collections are called "treasuries" and are basically a 3 item x 4 item poster style collection of thumbnail images of listings on etsy.

The etsy website's front page of displays a treasury and they are rotated throughout the day so fresh ones are always available for viewing pleasure. The best ones are themselves a work of art.

People who put them together are called "curators," which reflects the idea that these treasuries are mini galleries. People compete like mad to get the opportunity to create one, and today I got that opportunity.

It's the second time I have created one. The last time was back in April. This time I pulled my selections from things I had bookmarked for future purchase. If I bought everything from it, I'd spend $498.5 plus probably $60 in shipping.

Of course, I wouldn't need to actually buy the scarf and I don't wear earrings. But, I could substitute this pendant for the ginkgo leaf earrings. I'm very fond of the necklace in the lower left corner by Stonehouse Studio, but I like this necklace even more. The three pieces can be removed so it can be worn with one, two or all three 'beads.'

The elephant is actually a vinyl wall decal, which I am not crazy about actually putting on a wall because I don't think it would look as nice as paint would. I wish the artists who made these things would sell stencils because I would buy one of them! But maybe the stencils do look nice - the artist who makes these has sold more than 1,000! A big 4 foot elephant would certainly add some spice to our large, bare dining room wall.

Speaking of all this purchasing... today I made a rather large purchase of a huge dresser/over sized buffet for our dining room. I bought it outright, which feels good. I love not having to put big ticket items on a credit card. It will store all of my papermaking gear: my large seed collection, lavender clippings, Accucut machine and dies, cloth, etc. so that it is all concealed. It all currently sits on the large dining room table, a giant clutter that I have come to abhor. But, it is convenient where it's at, so this buffet solves the clutter problem and keeps it all conveniently located.

I resisted the urge to buy the newfies an ottoman, keeping in mind that I still need a reserve of cash for putting the sprinkler system in, the new turf and the bathroom remodel.

Green Business Products from Recycled Materials

Recently I've had people approach me to create products for their businesses.



These have included biz cards, labels and promotional materials. They supply their logos and information and then I lay out the elements using InDesign — a great program for the job. I print them on the recycled paper I make from 100% post-consumer content pulp.

My most recent work was for Pete Swickles General Store in Oklahoma. I created promotional thank you cards and 9 different, unique labels for their bar soaps.


Because I've been asked so many times to create these sorts of materials, I decided it was time to list them for sale on a regular basis. I'm now offering custom plantable business cards as well as DIY lavender soap labels.

A Fall Oriented Collection

It's eligible to be on the front page of etsy, potentially giving every one of these terrific artists thousands of views and a good chance of lots of sales. If you click on the image, you can view each piece and won't have to wait to go shopping. I can vouch for the luxuriousness of Davy Jones's scarves and Sunyata's jewelry is definitely a favorite of mine. Douglas, the wool creature, is pretty cute. He sold minutes after I put this collection together, so I may have to scramble to find a similar replacement. I have a soft spot for crows.

Other than that, I chose the pieces because they fit into my theme of fall, leaves, and autumn colors. Enjoy!

And while you're shopping check out this Leaf Card that didn't make the cut.

A monkey faster than Usain Bolt: The Patas Monkey

Able to reach a top speed of 35 miles per hour, the patas monkey is the world's fastest primate — not Jamaican Olympic sprinter and (human) world record holder Usain Bolt, contrary to what his apparently grandiose ego might have you think.

Speedendurance.com clocks Bolt's top speed at 27 miles per hour.

Now, Bolt is certainly impressive in his swiftness. And he is equally entertaining with his posturing and chest-thumping. But, I think the patas monkeys would yarn and roll their eyes in his general direction. Try running with pack of hungry hyenas on your tail, and then we can talk they might say.

Come to think of it - that would make the Olympics a whole lot more fun.

Because of their impressive speed, the Patas monkey is my September selection in the Monkey of the Month club.

Like the other OrnaMonkeys I've created, I chose to highlight it not only for its unusual appearance, but also for its amazing running ability.

This Old World monkey, native to central African savanna, has a body that suggests it is built for speed, something that's not surprising for a wily little monkey that inhabits grassland among big cats and other scary predators. They have a slender body, long hind limbs and a deep chest cavity to make room for oversized lungs.

The patas monkey is one of the only monkeys that spends its life almost entirely on the ground.

These monkeys are really, really cool. Since there's no video of patas monkeys racing Mr. Bolt, you'll have to settle for this parody I found if him on youtube. It's pretty funny, especially if you saw his chest beating during the Olympics.