Peanut butter jelly time!

We got this fan mail art from a fan named Megan, and it made us hungry! We had to have PB&J after seeing this. Thank you, Megan! We love your peanut butter and jelly Squaredy Cat :)

We did a jelly cat back in 2009! What do you think?

...And they told two friends...and so on...

We absolutely LOVE getting fanmail to our snail mail address (find it here), but it's even cooler when fans of Squaredy Cats draw pictures for us! We're artists, and we think everyone else is an artist too! Drawing is so expressive, so when someone takes the time to make a drawing for us we really appreciate it.

So, it turns out we got a letter and drawing from someone whose friend likes Squaredy Cats. Sam's friend Madison drew us a picture, and we returned the favor by sending her a picture we did. So, now we're doing the same for Sam. Sam had a hopping idea to do a bunny Squaredy Cat, so we showed Sam our own Squaredy Cat dressed as a bunny. We're sending you some stickers to say thanks too!

Thanks, Sam!
We're not squared to LOVE 2b a bunny!

Some Brooklyn Love

We're pleased and proud to announce that Squaredy Cats are finally being embraced by a Brooklyn store! Please visit Kaleidoscope in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on 3rd Avenue between 87th and 88th Streets, and let them know how much you love Squaredy Cats.

Getting local support is extremely important to us. Monkey Doodle Dandy, the tiny company that invented Squaredy Cats was founded in Brooklyn; but, though Squaredy Cats are in stores all over the country, this is the first Brooklyn, NY specialty store to carry the plush!

If you live in Brooklyn or Bay Ridge specifically, show Kaleidoscope how smart they are! Shop local, and support the little stores and little companies :)

If you're a Squaredy Cats fan on Facebook say hi to Kaleidoscope on their timeline.

If you tweet with Squaredy Cats say hi to Kaleidoscope on Twitter.

English to Spanish challenge

Help us out, and help Ornella from Argentina!

We got an interesting email from a Squaredy Cats fan from Argentina, and it inspires us to put the challenge out there. We could use your help!

When we first conceived of Squaredy Cats and the phrase "not squared to..." we did initially think it might be a problem translating, but we had no idea that there would be so many languages and fans around the world that this would really be an immediate problem for us.

The problem is that "squared," though an English word, does not translate well into other languages for the meaning we intended since we're using it as a pun for "scared." But since the cats are square (really cubes), well, you know the rest…

Ornella, our fan from Argentina has posed this question to us: How does Squaredy translate to Spanish. The short answer: We don't know! Somebody help so we can answer her.

Pasted below is her email in its entirety. She also posted a pic of one of the Squaredy Cats that she likes. Please excuse the translation to English:

Hello!

My name is Ornella, I´m from Argentina! Im a big fan of the squaredy Cats! My mom bought they in internet. (I´m not sure if that was very well saying)

I have a challenge for YOU:

You have to translate "Squaredy Cats" to Spanish.

You will say: ¡But that is easy! Try. It. It´s very Hard.

I speak Spanish and I can´t do it.

It´s going to be fun!!

Thank you

Ornella

Thanks, Ornella! We hope to find an answer soon :)

Holiday surprise

We're going to give away three Squaredy Cats, and here's how we're going to do it:

We have a mailing list, and we're going to pick up to 100 names of that list, and mail a Squaredy Cats Christmas card to all those fans. We'll randomly place inside three of those cards a "Golden Ticket" to mail back to us for a FREE Squaredy Cat!

There's still time to get on our mailing list before we mail the cards with the randomly placed tickets. You can message us on our Facebook page (please message—don't post your address directly to our wall or everyone will see it), or you can email us at 12345webmonster@1234monkeydoodledandy.com (remove all numbers from address).

Please provide a full address including zip code and name.

USA and Canada residents only. We'd love to be able to do more, but we're not allowed yet.

Deadline for this contest is December 10, 2012.

Special custom Squaredy

We don't say enough how much we appreciate getting actual fan mail. We get letters and pictures pretty often, and we try to acknowledge everyone with free stickers, but sometimes, here at Squaredy Cats Headquarters, we get so busy we forget to say thank you. We're going to try to post some of these pictures so you can see what makes us smile.

We got this letter and artwork from Madison of Florida a few weeks ago, and decided to take her up on her request to draw her idea. We only made a few tweaks to keep within our own guidelines of how we draw our Squaredy Cats. Below you'll find her letter and our version to Madison.

Thanks, Madison!

PS We decided that we'll tag the first name on fan art posts so you can easily find yours!

Not squared to be a 'Domer

Fred Firestone, the famous Clap-O-Meter, and Joanna Firestone of Punderdome 3000.

We'd like to thank Fred and Joanna Firestone of Punderdome 3000 for sharing Squaredy Cats with the 'Domers in the audience at Punderdome hosted at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

To get the crowd warmed up for the puns of the evening Fred usually tosses out Paydays to audience members who can solve his pun riddles the fastest. He might ask something like, "What is the headline on the day that a fortune telling little person robs a bank, and is on the run?" An audience member yells out, "Small Medium at Large!" and Fred tosses them a Payday.

Last night Fred threw out six Squaredy Cats when several members of the audience correctly and quickly guessed the answer to, "What would you call a cube-shaped fraidy-feline?" The fellow behind us seemed tickled to have caught Dazzle (not squared of the SPOTLIGHT), but the rest of the plush cats disappeared into the darkness as groping hands grabbed them. We'd love to hear from whoever caught Midnight (not squared of the DARK), Tiger Lily (not squared to GO WILD), Zanie (not squared to be UNIQUE), Giggles (not squared to ACT SILLY), and Candie (not squared to be SWEET).

Fred Firestone tosses out a Squaredy Cat—Zanie (not squared of the spotlight).

Punderdome 3000 is a tournament style pun competition in which participants have the stage to string together puns based on a topic provided by Joanna. The punsters only have 90 seconds to write down some notes, and time to formulate their plan while the other participants take their turns at giving the audience reasons to groan and laugh.

Squaredy Cats is proud to have had the opportunity to share their love of puns. Squaredy Cats, after all is a play on words, and a plush medium for social expression. When Squaredy Cats were designed in 2008 the first few were distinctively puns. Remember "not squared of yer BOOTY?"

Since then, Squaredy Cats has evolved into a phenomenon of expression, now available as Plush from Kids Preferred. Order them for your store today!

Tiger Lily, Zanie, Candie, and Kurt Marquart & Elaine de la Mata—the inventors of Squaredy Cats.

It's Geek Pride Day!

If you are proud of your geekdom, tell us what you geek out about? We'd love to hear it. We think we're geeks sometimes, but other times we feel like we're not geeky enough!

This cat was designed as our "not squared to be a nerd" cat, but it still makes sense. We've updated her with pigtails and a cute bow. She's a geek. We're all geeks! :)

May the 4th is Star Wars Day :)

May the 4th be with you! Always :)

Star Wars characters as Squaredy Cats. Apologies to George Lucas and Lucasfilm. Used in admiration and parody only. No commercial intention or purpose.

Happy Presidents' Day!

Happy birthday, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and Happy Presidents' Day, everyone! :)

Hello to all the dragons!

Welcome to the new year — the Year of the Dragon!
We hope you like our Squaredy Cat dressed as a dragon :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Goodbye to the Year of the Rabbit

2011 was the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese calendar. Before we wish everyone luck and happiness for the new year (Year of the Dragon), we'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone we've met (including new fans) in 2011. Without you Squaredy Cats would just be like a silly rabbit. Instead we bounded through 2011, hopping along at insane bunny speed!

Goodbye, year of the rabbit. See you again in twelve years :)

To celebrate the new year we'll be designing all 12 of the Chinese New Year animals...

Star is not squared to GO PURPLE

Today is Spirit Day (October 20). Star is wearing purple today to take a stand against bullying, and to show support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. 

Spirit Day was started in 2010 by teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Please visit glaad.org to learn more about #spiritday, and for more details.

In case you missed the Squaredy Cats on WPIX :)

 We were waiting as patiently as we could since we did this interview with Francesca Maxime around a month ago. It was finally produced, and aired on October 13 on the WPIX channel morning news Dunkin Donuts Studio On The Run segment.

Francesca and her production team made us feel very comfortable on the set, and Elaine did an amazing job explaining what Squaredy Cats are all about. We couldn't have been happier with how it turned out :)
They even flashed our Squaredy Cats Facebook page across the screen.

Francesca Maxime with Elaine de la Mata and Kurt Marquart, the inventors and designers of Squaredy Cats.

It seems everyone there had fun with the new plush line that's out now, and available at Toys R Us. Linda Church held, Tiger Lily, and Frances Rivera and Sukanya Krishnan really had a ball with a few others. Below you'll find a link to the broadcast piece, but directly below that check out what else we found. Someone posted a YouTube link of the team goofing off with the cats on the set, but we think it was terrific! How great that they had so much fun with our fun-loving toys.

Thank you to everyone at the WPIX Channel 11 Morning News in New York!

Here's a link to the embedded video below.

 

And here's the YouTube video of the fun banter.

Frances Rivera and Sukanya Krishnan a few of the Squaredy Cats.

Sukanya Krishnan holding Sandy (not squared to make waves) from series 2.

Sukanya Krishnan holding Honey (not squared to BEE smart) from series 1.

A Pink Kitty blog review

We'd like to take a minute to recommend a great blog called A Pink Kitty. Arianna posted about what she thinks of Squaredy Cats, and we couldn't be happier with what she wrote :)

National Talk Like A Pirate Day

Yar, me hearties, it's National (International, even) Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we be participatin' to our best abilities. Make yerself savvy to it, and speak to us in the respectful pirate way, ya landlubbers!

Visit our Facebook page, and say something snarky, and visit the interNational Talk Like a Pirate Day Facebook community page, and mention where ya heard of it.

National Pink Day

It's National Pink Day or some such :P
LOL! Happy National Pink Day!

It's National Running Day

To everyone who runs for fun, for fitness, for school, for competition: Have a great run today :)

Happy National Running Day! Why do YOU run?

Happy Memorial Day

We'd like to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. Thank you to all the service men and women who have given their lives for our country, and to those who served in any capacity. Some people forget what this weekend is about, but we're not squared to remember.

This one is inspired by the iconic image of General Patton giving his speech in the film with George C. Scott.

Yo yo, NoDak!

Our 50 states of Squaredy Cats project is finally winding down. Just a few to post. We just finished designing them. We finally ended up getting at least one vote for every state. That means we have a fan in every state in the US! That's pretty awesome! So, thank you to the fans on North Dakota. We posted yours on our Facebook Page yesterday.

May The Fourth Be With You!

Happy National Star Wars Day from Squaredy Cats (with apologies to George Lucas)! We always wanted to make some Star Wars Squaredy Cats, and now we found the perfect excuse. Maybe we'll add some more to our "Fandom" collection down the line, but for now, here's the personification of Star Wars, Darth Vader himself (with apologies to David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Sebastian Shaw, Hayden Christensen and Jake Lloyd)!

Thank you, NY1

We were so happy with the report that Jeanine Ramirez of NY1 News did on Monkey Doodle Dandy and Squaredy Cats! In case you missed it, we were on New York Tonight on NYC Time Warner Cable station NY1.

Squaredy Cats fans should take note: There may be some things you see in the video that just might be clues to a future scavenger hunt contest. Just sayin' ;)

Here's a link to the video and article.

And here's the best way we can think of to show our appreciation :)

Earth Day - Electric boogaloo

It's Earth Day, everybody! We can't all drive electric cars like Squaredy Cats (the creators actually drive a Mini Cooper). We, at the company, Monkey Doodle Dandy do everything we can to be as green as possible. We reuse scrap paper as often as possible, and use recycled materials whenever we can What kinds of things do you suggest we do to be even more green as the inventors of Squaredy Cats?

Creators interview on Ideas Uploaded podcast

Elaine and Kurt (the Squaredy Cats creators) were recently interviewed by Tara of the Ideas Uploaded blog. The blog is a valuable source for creative types. You'll find out what inspires designers, inventors, licensors, and anyone else in the toy industry.

Follow the Ideas Uploaded blog or on Facebook, and subscribe to the podcast.

We were both a bit squared about being interviewed via Skype, not knowing what to expect. We were given an outline of the questions we'd be asked; but between not being fully prepared despite that fact (because we're always working), and both of us being somewhat "camera shy" we were somewhat nervous. Elaine did a fine job of speaking for both of us as I stumbled through confused thoughts, irrelevant tangents and unfinished run-on sentences ;)

Listen to the podcast interview or take a look at the blog post if you're interested in hearing more about how Squaredy Cats came about and our experiences making it happen.

Speak for Autism

It's Autism Awareness Week. Please take a minute to look at these links to familiarize yourself with the disorder or to donate to the mission to find a cure.

Autism at Wikipedia  •  Autism Speaks, Home Page