Halloween Shoot Continues

Dear Reader,

The squirrels have entered the graveyard and the Halloween shoot continues.

Over the weekend, my wonderful and talented friend Tom Clancey (the cinematographer, not the resurrected writer) stopped by for a couple of days to lend a hand on the graveyard shift. What ensued was a master class in photography for me :) Learning is such a joy and learning from a good friend is all the more fun!


Then yesterday, I watched Boxtrolls with my youngest, and at the end of the movie there was a little piece showing the makers moving the individual characters shot by shot. It was pretty cool, and it made me want to share a couple of images of the concentration that goes into making our little pieces - here's a couple of images my lovely wife caught of me :)

Yes, that's a candy bag in my hands :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Closer and Closer to Halloween

Dear Reader,

The final hours of the set build are always the most fun as things really start to take shape, so ...

today I thought I'd give you a quick glimpse into the evolution of the table-top cemetery!

I love the way a world gradually materializes in just a few hours :)

And it's always interesting to see what goes where and how fundamentals such as the ground beneath our feet make some of the biggest differences.

There's still a little way to go, I mean obviously we need a night sky and a few more tombstones, but all in all its getting close :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Halloween Cast of Characters Coming Together

Dear Reader,

Even squirrels like to Trick or Treat and of course they get dressed up for the occasion!

So far we have skeleton squirrels - insisted upon by my youngest, and now my own personal favorite - a witch - complete with broom - and still to come a ghost squirrel and of course the mummy, a regular favorite.

Finally, there's the stomping grounds including the night sky and the moon! Super excited to put the final touches together and shoot these later this week. I'm pretty sure everyone will have a good chuckle :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

PS there's a mystery guest character in the Halloween clip, see if you can guess :)

Spiders at the Natural History Museum!

Dear Reader,

This weekend we made a trek to the Natural History Museum in LA to help celebrate the opening of their spider exhibit.

A fun time was had by all and in the end the kids that stopped by crafted about 500 furry friends!!

Spiders were creeping all over the place, and they weren't shy of hogging the limelight ;)

And when it came to construction, even the security got interested in crafting an assistant (look at the end of the table in the shot to the right)!

Keep an eye out next year, the sheer joy of it was so great that I think we'll try figuring out how to bring this craft to you in a kit. Then the spiders can truly take over :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Halloween Is On Its Way!

Dear Reader,

Halloween is on its way, I know because there's a lot of discussion about costumes in the house. There's also been talk about how The Squirrel King should celebrate.

At this stage it's fair to say there will be a witch squirrel, a ghost squirrel, a mummy squirrel and maybe even a skeleton squirrel.

Where will we find them? Here's a couple of visual clues.

What they are doing in the graveyard ... well that you'll just have to wait for :)

Stay tuned as the set comes together!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Display Boxes

Dear Reader,

It all started with the "farm-to-school" produce box; our new in-store display unit that is :)

Over the last few months we've been busy with many things behind the scenes and our new display unit is certainly one of them.

Inspired by the waxed cardboard that our swag of fresh fruit and veges arrives in every week, we decided to take a similar tack with our new in-store display units.

We're pretty excited by the final product, seen here with and without acorns, so keep an eye out for them in stores near you :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Fun with Duct Tape

Dear Reader,

I've seen some wonderful uses for duct tape including the construction of bags, but I had not until this weekend witnessed the sheer joy that can bring young ones :)

Returning from a tea-party with friends, my eldest sat me down to school me in the ways of duct tape construction. Specifically, she led me through step-by-step, her method for making a purse.  Check out the spectacular results!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

And Then They All Disappeared

Dear Reader,

As we prepared for the big shipment to Canada, it occurred to me that it would be fun to document the chief squirrel overseeing our packing job. And so without further ado, here it is for your viewing pleasure :)

Four pallets in all, and all headed north. If you live in Canada, keep an eye out in your nearest Mastermind Toy store :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Sunshine and Forest Packs!

Dear Reader,

There has been a lot of talk of late of boxes, so I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone what's inside all those boxes ... Acorns!

A big part of our hectic schedule over the last couple of months has been an expansion of color choices and a wonderful overhaul of the tags. So without further ado, I present to you, our Sunshine Pack, that sets you up for pink, yellow and orange squirrels, and ...


our Forest Pack that has the fixings for purple, blue and green!!

Super excited to see the squirrels you guys make with these new colors :) Keep an eye out for them, they're starting to head out into the world!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Boxes and Boxes of Acorns!!

Dear Reader,

The last couple of months have been incredibly hectic, but we're about to lighten our load because ...

Our Canadian shipment is ready to go!!



A thousand acorns and dozens of stowaway squirrels are set to trek north.

With a little luck this will free me up to share more images with you!

Stay tuned for more posts, because there's plenty happening at Squirrel King headquarters :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

The Squirrel King: Title Sequence!!

Dear Reader,

We've been very busy here at Squirrel King headquarters working out production of acorns. In the meantime though, the squirrels themselves were building a title card. Here's what we caught of the action :)


Hope you enjoy this as much as we did making it!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims