brighton is doing a charity auction making custom chainmail with all benefits going to Japanese tsunami relief. For all the info about it, check here! Get something awesome, for an awesome cause!

News on the Klickitat front!

I have been working at a fabric store for a few months now, was hired on as temporary help for the holiday season. They ended up keeping me afterwards as a retail associate, but today I interviewed, and will be promoted to assistant manager. This is a good and a bad thing! Good because I'll be getting medical benefits and a raise, and a lot more money, bad because it's 32-40 hours a week as opposed to the 12-16 I've been working until now. It's going to take some adjusting, but I'm going to do my very best for the store, and for ConTact.

For the latest information on Con*Tact soap stuff, we've got a new blog! Check it out here. It's a little bare-bones at the moment, but I'll make it awesome soon.

Other than that, I'm slowly replacing all of my dragon and bear shirts with t-shirts that have cats on them, purchased on the internet. The latest one is the emoticats shirt from Lolmart, and hopefully my "You Weren't Invited" shirt from Woot gets here sometime in the next month.

Oh, and  matrices and I started work on a plush anthro fox, just for fun. And I've got something neat coming up with  dingbat soon, too!

So! Con*Tact is on AIM now under the nick contactcaffeine, feel free to chat us up whenever you'd like.

Also, we're running another label art contest now that the previous winners have had their soap shipped. Take a look at the information here for everything you'll need to get started. Runs until April 3.

1. Do you sleep in your bra? I sleep under a pile of cats, and a blanket with cupcakes on it.

2. Do you sleep with socks on? No! They'd get floor crud all over the sheets.

3. Would you rather sleep alone or with someone else? I like sleeping in a bed with somebody.  brighton is my favorite because he's big and cuddly and warm.

4. Do you enjoy drama? I'm involved in more than I try to be.

5. Are you a girly-girl? I collect My Little Ponies and love cupcakes. But I also collect bones and play video games.

6. Who was the last person you hugged?  brighton is best hugs.

7. Small or large purse? I have a messenger bag, I guess that counts.

8. Are you short? Average height. Short compared to  brighton, like everyone else.

9. Do you like somebody? I don't like anybody. Ever.

10. Does your Facebook password have to do with a boy? No. That's a dumb question.

11. Do you care if your socks are dirty? I only wear them for one day, if that's what this means?

12. Do you think you’re conceited? Of course I am. I'm awesome.

13. Do you dress up on Halloween? At least one costume, sometimes a few!

14. Are you double jointed? No.

15. Where is the weirdest place you have slept? I don't think I've really slept anywhere weird.

16. Has anyone touched/smacked your butt in the past 24 hours? My cat Zodiac, she always touches my butt. :(

17. Is there any type of rumor going around about you? Usually there's at least one floating around about how much I love to ruin relationships.

18. Do you call anybody by their last name? No.

19. How many guys will read this just because it says "Girl Confessions"? This is where I'm supposed to talk about my cup size or something, right?

[] I do wear make up.
[X] I have cried in a movie theater.
[X] I can put mascara on without opening my mouth.
[X] I get jealous.
[X] I think Johnny Depp is sexy.
[X] I love to laugh.
[] I like death/grind/black metal.
[] I like rap.
[X] I like techno.
[] I like country.
[X] I carry a purse.
[X] I'd be lost without my computer.
[ ] I own a Spice Girls CD.
[ ] I own a Britney Spears CD.
[ ] I own a boy band CD.
[] I get bored watching football.
[ ] I've never been called a spoiled brat.
[ ] Guys are confusing.
[X] I've been called a bad influence
[X] I have/had a piercing other than my ears.


Come on ladies, be truthful!

1. What color is your bra that your wearing? Not wearing one right now, it's my day off!

2. Do you prefer light or dark haired guys? - Dark.

3. Are you currently frustrated with a boy? No.

4. What's one thing a guy can do to make you like them? Be positive.

5. Do you have a best friend? I do, she's pretty neat.

6. Have you ever had your heart broken? It happens.

7. Have you ever thought of having plastic surgery? Who hasn't?

8. Do you like your life? It's the most fun thing ever.

10. Has one of your friends ever stolen a boyfriend from you? No, we look for different things in boys.

11. Have you ever jumped in the pool with your clothes on? No.

12. Do you have more friends that are girls or boys? I have way more guy friends than girls. Girls are usually crazy.

13. How long have you had a facebook? I don't know, and won't check.

14. Have you ever slapped a boy in the face? No.

15. What are your biggest fears? Being widowed again, but HOPEFULLY the odds are on my side and I won't have to deal with that madness all over again.

16. Have you ever cried yourself to sleep? Yeah, see above. There were many tears.

17. Have you ever not been able to get someone off of your mind? Again, see above. But I've had happy boy thoughts on my mind, too.

18. Do you believe in the saying “once a cheater, always a cheater?" People make stupid decisions, but I don't think that means it'll automatically be a habit.

19. Have you ever had a good feeling about something? About important things like relationships, or just anticipating something stupid like "this cookie is going to be sweet and delicious!"

20. Do you ever wish you were famous? I'm about as famous as I'd like to be, which is to say not very famous at all.

21. Are you currently missing someone? Not anymore, Brighton just got home with dinner fixin's, mmm homemade chicken and dumplings.


THIS GUY OR THAT GUY? PICK ONE:

Cowboy or Gangster?
No.

Preppy or Punk?
No.

Face or Body?
Face

Good cook or take you out a lot?
Definitely a good cook, I love my Italian.

Sweet or sexy?
Sweet is sexy.

Armani or Abercrombie?
Fred Meyer fashion is enough for me.

Contacts or glasses?
Glasses are pretty cute.

Head on over to http://www.contactcaffeine.com/ and check it out, we've got all of our soaps available without caffeine now!

So! Our new ad went live on FA last night, featuring this amazing artwork by  neogeen. We can't get enough of it's blacklight awesomeness.


Speaking of our soaps, we've redone the face of our store to now reflect all of the fantastic artwork from people, as well as added a picture of the little free samples we give out with every order. Check it out at http://www.contactcaffeine.com - and you can see we've still got 3 scents that don't have custom artwork for them, so it might be part of a future contest, we're not sure yet. Just want to finish up with this current one before opening up something new!


We're in the process of re-labeling all of our soaps with the new artwork, and are hoping to have all of the prize packs mailed out by this weekend. We figured the winning artists would prefer to see their own artwork on the labels, rather than the boring old stock pictures we had, so it'll be a nice collectible thing for folks as well.


On top of that, we've finally moved to the point where we can start making decaf soaps available in all of our scents, so watch for that coming very, very soon to the store.


It's just another busy evening in the soap lab, tonight there's a dozen bars of Sex Panther sitting out, so our apartment smells like the manliest man ever.


In plush news,  northsound is currently working on translating the Anthro Plush Pattern to be able to accomodate a feral torso, as well as feral front legs, so dragons and gryphons will be possible. My next personal project with that will be a big western dragon, so I get to learn on the fly while I'm building her. I'm really excited about it though, and I'm so happy with how Icemoon came out that I know this next one will be awesome.


This weekend is going to be a really busy one! We'll have some soaps at a table at Emerald City ComicCon with  ladyfoxglove and  savannahhorrocks/ skinhorsedolls, and I'll be working with my other job at the Sewing Expo on Saturday, so there's a lot of traveling and crazy convention atmosphere coming my way.


I've gotten really into making Peruvian bracelets lately just for a cool-down craft, so if anyone else makes friendship bracelets, I'd love to do a trade.


Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Need some fur or fur scraps for something? Buy mine! http://tinyurl.com/4vkpqc2

All of our new FC scents are available, as well as the new Buttercream Cupcake and Rootbeer! http://tinyurl.com/37ozg2b Remember, use discount code LUNAR through 2/12 to save 15% off your purchase! Happy Lunar New Year!

Some of the new artwork for labels is starting to show up on the site, too! Including ones by  matrices,  synchra, and  neogeen. So many more will be added when we wrap up the Con*Test, which ends on 2/10, with judging a day or so after that.

Get those submissions in, and thanks to everyone who's been working and submitting already. We definitely will be needing more label artwork in the future, so there will be another Con*Test on the horizon very soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4fVsSejI4Q&feature=player_embedded

So in news not related to plush, or Northsound, or anything...

If you haven't seen MST3K "Pod People"...why not? It's free on Google Videos right now!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d.....5463279947573#

...did I mention it has some horrifying fursuit-ish things? WHAT ARE THEY


"Trumpy, you can do STUPID things!"

So, uhh...pretty cool for people to be making money off of my moonkin plush design. Not that a moonkin is my design, but they could've maybe come up with their own version of it, rather than admitting they duplicated mine for "a client."

Grumpy bear is grumpy.

http://thepa.ws/piue - sign up for a mailing list, get a free dog or cat toy. :3 I love free things on the internet!

Thank you to everyone who submitted art for our Smiley Fox label! It took no less than 6 of us to look over the entries, but we finally settled on Synchra's submission as the one that would work best for our needs.

We've got several other labels that are going to need artwork in the future, and plenty of more soap to give away in return.

Next up: Sex Panther! Sexy and masculine, this intoxicating fragrance has clean citrus notes of orange and lemon with spicy notes of clove, anise, pepper and rose. Notes of vanilla, leather, balsam and warm musks lead to an unforgettable finish.

But maybe FurAffinity isn't the best place to be asking for sexy panther art...

And don't forget - all this week use discount code SANTAPLZ for 10% off your whole order through http://www.contactcaffeine.com , until 1/1/11.

We can't wait to see all of you at Further Confusion in a couple of weeks!

YOU GUYS I am so excited for FC this year! I'm doing character sheets for a few of my characters, and  brighton's characters.

And normally that wouldn't be something to be excited about, but I've officially just raised the bar with cool factor by approximately a million.

Wait'll you see what I've come up with!

I've got (at least) 12 new scents I'd like to cook up with my caffeine soap, but I think I want to give some of them more "fandom oriented" scents than the standard names they come with from my supplier.

So! Here's an example of what I'm going for: I have a scent that's cedarwood, musk, and nag champa incense, and it's called Sapphire Dragon. Sure, none of those scents have anything to do with dragons (it was originally cast in a dragon shaped mold, and may have had dragon's blood as another part of the scent matrix), but at this point, it's really just named that to be recognized as one of our own scents. And if people are unsure what they want, there's a possiblity they're more likely to pick Sapphire Dragon over others simply because it has Dragon in the name. I know I've been guilty of shopping like that before!

Anyways, I'm hoping some of you are creative and inspirational and will have great ideas! Also, if you have any label art ideas (or even submissions, if you really want!), I'm open to those as well. Our labels are also stickers - once the bar is opened, people can keep the sticker and use it wherever they'd like, because we package it with the backing still in tact. Here's the scents:

Yuzu - Yuzu is most likely the most popular scent on the market. Also referred to as Japanese Grapefruit, Yuzu is not your ordinary grapefruit scent. Yuzu begins with top notes of mandarin, tangerine, lemon satsuma, and ruby red grapefruit, middle notes of bergamot, and base notes of oakmoss.

Smoke Eliminator - The aroma of juicy lime and lemon zests with hints of herbal cilantro. Covers the smell of foul odors, and great for smokers! (tenative working name: No More Dragon Smoke, with a label of a dragon puffing smoke and a "NO" symbol over the top)

Snozzberry - Snozzberry is a unique blend of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, red currents, teaberries, dewberries, and cloudberries with just a hint of black pepper and cinnamon. (I may keep this name because it's already interesting)

Leather Jacket - The aroma of a brand new leather jacket. (I kid you not, this stuff smells EXACTLY like a new leather jacket, it's uncanny!)

Pineapple Paprika - insanely unique and complex, insanely strong! Pineapple paprika fragrance begins with top notes of pineapple, banana, orange, passion fruit, and mango; followed by middle notes of paprika, powder, and cotton; sitting on base notes of musks and apple woods.

Stormy Nights - An earthy, yet ozonic fragrance blend reminiscent of the way the night smells after a storm. Natures Garden's Stormy Nights fragrance begins with top notes of ozone, fresh air, and white flowers; followed by middle notes of ylang ylang and tuberose; and well balanced with base notes of patchouli and musk. (Sorta reminds me of Yankee Candles MidSummer's Night)

Animalistic Instinct - Sexy and masculine, this intoxicating fragrance has clean citrus notes of orange and lemon with spicy notes of clove, anise, pepper and rose. Notes of vanilla, leather, balsam and warm musks lead to an unforgettable finish. (Because of the amusingly creepy tiger guy in the photo, this may end up with some kind of tiger name, working name right now is Creepy Tiger Guy, although I don't think it'll generate many sales. It's actually a pretty nice scent and would definitely be one I'd reccommend to people shopping for their boyfriends/husbands)

Japanese Cherry Blossom - Oriental and sensual, our Japanese Cherry Blossom scent is a well-rounded blend of pink Japanese cherry blossoms and fragrant mimosa flower petals, with warm base notes of vanilla, Tonka bean, and oriental woods.

Sun, Moon, and Stars - The aroma of fresh green notes of clover and ivy followed by notes of jasmine, and vetiver. Bottom notes of green stem notes. Fresh! (I think this one is delicately floral, but not overly flowery if that makes any sense. If you play WoW, it smells like a Resto Druid's armpit, in a good way)

Pheromones - A classic hot man fragrance; masculine, sexy, and irresistible. Clean and inviting citrus notes of bergamot and grapefruit, open up to a sensual bouquet of white floral and woody violet, grounded by the deeply sensual scent of oakmoss and sandalwood. (Smells pretty much exactly like AXE, which kills  brighton but I think will probably make for pretty brisk sales to the general public.)

Cucumber, Wasabi, and Cilantro - Refreshing spa-like fragrance with top notes of aldehydic fruit notes of grapefruit and lime, with middle notes of fresh cucumber, guava, and passionfruit, and base notes of wasabi, cilantro, and fern.

Trying to get FA staff to impliment a new submission category for those of us who craft for the fandom, but don't do illustration or fursuits exclusively.

http://forums.furaffinity.net/threa.....78#post2304078 is the thread - check it out and give it a bump if you agree.

Convention Name:
Further Confusion 2011

Hotel:
Fairmont

Arrival/Departure:
Late Wendsday Night - Late Afternoon Tuesday (it'll be my birthday at con, Monday the 17th)

Staying in the main hotel:
Fursuit floor in the Fairmont, hooray!

Means of transportation:
Flying in

Sharing a room with:
 brighton  matrices  katjakitty ( northsound)

Who do you hang out with:
Mostly  northsound, but I've got lots of fun events going on, so I'll be all over the place.

Gender:
lady type

Preference:
orcs

Relationship Status:
Only just with  brighton

Open:
Not at all.

How old are you:
30 (turning 31 at con, though)

Are you an Artist:
More of a crafter, but I'm not doing any commissions or sketchbooks. Might do drawing trades though!

Are you a Fursuiter:
yeah

How many Fursuits are you going to bring/wear:
Maybe one, I don't know if I want to suit this time around. it's such a hassle.

Which Characters:
Mome Rath or Klickitat.

Any new suits or characters Debuting:
No

Attending parties:
I'm always really awkward at parties.

Do you drink:
Alcohol takes the edge off of usual convention stress. If I'm out in suit, I'm drunk. But I'll be totally sober for the block of time I'm working the Con*Tact table.

Can I buy you a drink:
Yes! I love Jagerbombs, so Red Bull is an asset to have on hand. Sealed bottles of water are ALWAYS welcome, too!

Are you attending any panels:
Hosting the Unofficial Official Further Confusion Crafter Meet n' Swap, although that's not a sanctioned convention panel.

Stage or public performance:
Not this year.

How do I identify my self to you:
Just say hello! If I'm working the table, I'll be in super friendly sales-bear mode, so I'm pretty approachable.

Rules of engagement (Physical Contact in Suit):
Do not grope me. More importantly, do not grope  brighton It hits my enrage button and I will hunt you down.
We LOVE hugs! And head-pats (although reaching the top of Brighton's head may require a team of guides and possibly a sherpa, it's so high up there!)! And even shoulder/backrubs are great! But our suits are absolutely not sexual in any way at all, so we ask that you please respect that simple boundary.

Rules of engagement (physical Contact out of Suit):
Pretty much same as above.

Personality Type:
I try to be really outgoing at conventions. The easiest way to get me chatting is talk about crafts, I can go on and on about that subject.
I don't have many taboo subjects that I don't want to hear from people. I like getting to know new friends! And if you tell me something exceedingly strange or noteworthy, it will make amazing gossip later with  northsound.

How do I know if you're not looking to socialize (angry, busy or upset):
Generally my "go away" signals are if I stop making eye contact with you and you notice me staring off in random directions, or fidgeting/trying to organize things/trying to find something ANYTHING ELSE to do. In this same vein, if I'm working at the table, it's totally great if you stop by to say hello! But please don't just linger around for more than a few minutes if you don't have a reason to be there. I do enjoy hanging out with folks, but having a cluster of bodies around the table makes it hard for other people to shop. There's plenty of time after the table closes for hanging out! I'm staying right there at the hotel, so I'm not going to run away or anything.

Anything to add:
Con*Tact Caffeine will be in the Furry Marketplace this year! We just restocked with 150lbs of soap to bring, and will have an exclusive scent just for the convention: Australian Bamboo Grass. It smells SO CLEAN AND GOOD! On top of that,  northsound will be doing a photo shoot with our little plush furries and everyone else who has completed the plush furries on one of the days (probably Saturday, maybe Sunday) - even  beetlecat is working on one! There will also be the above mentioned Crafter Meet n' Swap going on, so we've got a full schedule for this convention.

...and did I mention that Monday the 17th is going to be my birthday? :3 My favorite flavor of cake/cupcakes is vanilla with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles. Just sayin'. And my favorite color of balloons is green!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcMG4uxiHk

NSFW commentary.

Play the game here: http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html

My personal best is 5.3m. Our guild's main tank says, "4 meters and 300 concussions later, I gave up."

We're launching a new scent soon! Smiley Fox fragrance is an uplifting fragrance blend of citrus paradise fruit, mandarin orange, tangy clementines, pettigrain, orange blossoms, heliotrope, water lily, and fresh green clover. But I don't have a label for this adorable, sweet, wonderful scent!

What Con*Tact is looking for is a cute, smiling fox drawing. I'd prefer it on a white background, but maybe a sunny day/bright blue would work as well. Printed, the image will be no larger than 1.5" across, so don't go too wild with the details - something cartoony with vivid colors will work the best.

Winner will receive their pick of a 6-pack of caffeine soap through our store. An additional winner will be chosen from Twitter's retweet pool, to receive 1 of any of our pawprint bars!

Con*Test runs until 11:59pm PST, 12/27 Please post a link to your picture here, note me privately, or email contactcaffeine[at]gmail.com .

The not-so-fine-print:

If you win, you're giving Con*Tact the rights to reproduce the image on our product labels for sales, and we retain the rights to use the image any way we see fit for promotional materials (using it on flyers, our website, etc). We will link your gallery on the catalog page, and will fully credit you with creation of the design.

This Con*Test is open to US and Canadian residents only due to shipping restritctions.

Soon, very soon! You will have an opportunity to get a custom one of our anthro plushies by  matrices and myself. Info's here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1936453/

Ordered lots of new scent oils from Nature's Garden tonight, hopefully lots of these will be awesome enough to turn into soaps. Absinthe and Werewolf are just restocking to get ready for Further Confusion. :3

http://yfrog.com/h2kkmp if you wanted to see the list.

Which one sounds good to you? I'm really excited for Bubblegum, but I love sweet scents.

 Matrices is having a very rare chance to pick up a drawing from her through this auction. She hasn't been open for commissions in a long time, so this is a way to get a super cute drawing from a very well known artist!

I have many good things to say about her art style! Her animals are so happy and cartoony looking, if you've got a cheerful, fun character,  matrices will really bring it to life. So go, bid! Win!

Are you a Canadian interested in reselling Con*Tact in Canada? Email us at contactcaffeine[at]gmail.com , we'd love to talk wholesale!

Shipping individual orders to Canada several times a week is killing us with postage, and it really expensive for individual customers ordering. Ideally, we'd like to send one big batch north, and then let someone else handle individual distribution (with a small personal markup, of course!)

Con*Tact does, that's for sure!  neogeen did this AMAZING piece of fanart for us, it's so pretty!

And now Surge, our green Cheshire mascot, has a huge crush on her blue Cheshire, Mu.

Black Friday MADNESS! From now until 3pm PST today (11/26) use code MADFRIDAY and save 25% off your entire order. http://bit.ly/avxz6L

Are you excited? I know I'm excited!