It's the Little (Soft, Well-Crafted, Realistic, Imaginative) Things That Make Me Happy

Can I just share with you something that makes me really, really happy?

A baby sloth hand puppet.

Some of you know I have a thing for sloths.  I have, ever since I was a little girl and pretended I was a giant three-toed sloth while creeping ever so slowly up the carved wooden post at the end of my bed.  (Thank you, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.)  Sloths might just be my favorite animal in the whole wide world.  Them and okapis and giraffes.  Yep--those three animals just make me happy because they exist, and I could watch them all day long.  Well, ok, the sloth I would only watch for 15 minutes if he was sleeping, which would be most of the time.  But still, for those 15 minutes I would be a dreamily happy haze of joy. 

So what could be better than watching a sloth?  Playing with an excellently made puppet of one. 

Some of you may have seen Folkmanis puppet before, since a lot of zoos and children's museums and aquariums carry them in their gift shops (choosing to feature the animals most suitable to the ones they features in their exhibits, of course, a marketing ploy of which I wholeheartedly approve).  Good toy stores usually have them too, but if you are looking for a certain animal, it will be hit-or-miss.  Today, while looking for a travel toy for my toddler niece, I stumbled upon all the wonderful Folkmanis puppets offered on Amazon.com.  These puppets are just the most beautiful, well-made toys out there.  And Folkmanis also raises the bar by making puppets that have the best expressions--just waiting to tell a good tale to kids!

I mean, look at this guy!  C'mon, what is not to love???!!!

The other thing the Folkmanis people do so well is make beautiful puppets from creatures you don't normally see on a toy store rack:

I have seen this gobbler in person.  He is HUGE, and so so so beautiful.  

Not all the puppets are big--some are little finger puppets.  So cute!

Oh, the fairy-tale perfection!

You had better believe this Brer Bunny would get into all sorts of mischief. 

The comments on Amazon said this snowy owl had a fully rotating head!  That's realism, and craftsmanship. 

Burrowing owls!

Little turtle that retracts!  As you can see, the smaller puppets are much simpler in design, but I can attest from the ones we own that they are still well made and kids really enjoy them.  We have the little racoon, grey squirrel, barn owl, and bald eagle, all Christmas stocking stuffers one year. 

This donkey reminds me of Sesame Street!  

Look at the fabulous expression on this guy!  What stories he could tell!

There were too many other wonderful puppets that I would have loved to put up here, just because they made me happy, but the photos were not good enough.  The tiny baby birds in their nest.  The baboon.  The tiny field mouse.  The baby harbor seal.  Ahhh, the cuteness, the quality!

If I had a larger house, I freely admit we would have most of these puppets.  And some kind of set up for puppet shows.  But as it is, our house just cannot accommodate any more stuffed animals, even such beautifully made and imagination-sparking ones.  We will be happy with the ones we do have. 

Just for fun, here are the larger Folksmanis puppets we currently do have in our home:

This toad is also huge.  Totally not worth the real estate in our tiny house. And yet. . . I'm the one who picked him out. ; )  He is so gorgeously made, and so fun.  You can stick a finger in his tongue and make it move around, and he can "eat" smaller things, which I thought the kids would enjoy.  But so far Smiley (who "owns" him) half likes him and is half scared of him, and his big sisters enjoy sneaking the toad into Smiley's crib so he finds him in there at night when he goes to bed.  Smiley always dumps the toad on to the floor instead.  But even that makes me smile--the toad clearly has so much personality that Smiley responds to him with his imagination.  

This grizzly is apparently harder to find now--it was not on Amazon today, but I found it new on EBay, so I could show you.  This puppet was given to Happy the same time we got the toad.  (One year my MIL saw these puppets on display at a teacher's resource store in their town, and told DH and I to go and pick out one for each of the kids.  I tried my best to pick small ones, but also wanted to pick out the most fun.  That was the same time I saw the turkey puppet, but I showed a lot of restraint. The toad was big enough!)  This grizzly is fabulous.  You really cannot see the detail at all from this pic, but the fur is so soft and realistic looking, and there are paws with soft textured claws--and the best part is the face.  At least ours has the most wonderful face, reminiscent of "Where the Wild Things Are."  It looks almost soulful.  And I love the fabric texture they chose for the face too.  The mouth is hard to open, though--the only drawback.  I would still purchase it again, though. 

Then a couple of years later we were visiting a nature center with the in-laws, and they had another display of these puppets, and MIL decided to get the kids each one again.  So, this time the kids picked their own, so did not pick the ones I thought were best, but they are still really nice:  Sunny chose a medium sized fox, Merry chose a medium sized fawn, and Happy picked this door mouse, whom we named Jelly:

Smiley was still too little to pick, so I got to pick for him:

That's Bixby.  Bixby has the craziest expression, which made me laugh so hard there in the store, which is of course why I chose him to bring home.  He's a pack rat, and comes with his own removable pack which a kid can put stuff in.  Bixby looks like he has a couple of screws loose, but he tells the best stories, all in this rather grating New Yorker accent.  He also sings Smiley to sleep, and snuggles in close.  Smiley does not toss him out of bed most of the time. ; )

So, there you have it.  A little bit of nothingness that made me smile today!