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Update from the Ladies of Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover!

Hello All!

We here at Mushpa y Mensa hope this email finds you terrific, happy and healthy. We would love to share with you a little bit of what we have been up to this summer.

First huge news…. Maya got some color!!! Remember when she was our blank canvas?

Maya went from dreary and pale, to sunlight and bright, with a dash of original Mushpa y Mensa artwork on the side.

Click to see more details!
Click to see more details!

With the help of our friends Marco and Sidney, we gave Maya a splash of purple posies, pastel mint, and a smidgen of bronzer. Next, the drawings we had on paper came to life in the form of a giga-sticker! So cool! This all came together, completing her present fantabulous exterior look! Still in the potential plan: red hub-cabs that will make everything pop! Glitter red slippers you could say. Oh Dorothy…

                                               ***

In other exciting news, we will be spending some time down south in order to build the inside of the truck! We said goodbye to NYC a week ago. Mushpa y Mensa will be out of The Big Apple for a bit, but make sure to keep updated with our outrageously awesome news via our newsletter (Sign up Now!), our Tweets @mushpamensa, and other good info at mushpamensa.com.

Thanks for tuning in, and again thanks to all for supporting the reality that once was a dream.

Much love,

Cara Elaine and Maria Emilia

Photos of Our Peeps

Mushpa y Mensa Peeps

What, Mushpa y Mensa has a new section on their site featuring their amazingly gorgeous super fans sporting their art? YES…yes, we do! You need to go check it out here, www.mushpaymensa.com/photos-of-our-peeps/.

If you too have a photo of you in an original, organic cotton shirt, unique handmade jewelry, or your lavender stuffed plush pets made out of recycled plastic bottle felt doing something, or whatever art you may have gotten from us here at Mushpa y Mensa, send it in.  We will put you up on Mushpa y Mensa’s “Photos of Our Peeps” page. Just email the photos to info[at]mushpamensa[dot]com and we’ll do the rest.

Much love,

– Mushpa y Mensa

So Close To The End!

That is correct! We have literally HOURS to go and need to raise $800. We are on the 99th backer. Who will be our magic 100? Basically, we need 33 people to buy us a $25 NYC cocktail or our 99 backers to increase their pledge by $10. We will take either! :]

Here are three reasons why Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover needs YOU and you need US:

1. We make people feel good.

Our art speaks to people, and grand people listen. When you can speak through your art, that makes it worth all the struggle.

2. You will be happy to have a little piece of you with us all the time! When you support, contribute, help, pitch in, donate, share, join…whatever you want to call it, that means that a little piece of your hard work went into making magic happen. Thank you and you’re welcome.

3. We are JUMPING with our EYES closed!

This is happening, no matter the circumstances, no matter the sacrifices, no matter what!

…and we’re cute.  No, but really only 20ish hours left to go. Let’s do this!

Much love,

Mushpa y Mensa

P.S. – Here is the link again in case you missed it, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mushpamensa/mushpa-y-mensas-magical-motor-machine-makeover  ;]

 

Only 7 Days Left To Make Herstory!

Mushpa y Mensa EssentialsIt is the final week of Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover and we are 72% funded. We need your help in these last few days to get that other 28%. As you may or may not know, if we do not reach 100% we receive 0%. That cannot happen.

For those unaware of what Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover is all about, click here, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mushpamensa/mushpa-y-mensas-magical-motor-machine-makeover to learn more. It is worth it, cool drawings, awesome 3 minute video, super interesting plan! To sum it up rather nicely, it is about, “Two Brooklyn girls, their art, and their hope to fit it all into a box truck!”. The essentials photo above is our artist’s rendering of what we actually need to make that happen. If you would like to see the actual list of everything we need and how we got to the $7,300 amount you may click here.

I wish I had more time to get into all the juicy details, but I must go finish fundraising the world! :] Soon we will be able to come to you. Isn’t that cool? So check it out and show some love via pledging if you so choose. In addition to your pledge, feel free to post the link on Facebook… Tweet… Insta… Pin… Tumblr… etc… Spread the love! :] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mushpamensa/mushpa-y-mensas-magical-motor-machine-makeover

Thank you to all of those who have supported us thus far and to all of our future dream makers!

– Mushpa

Quote and 411

Mohadesa NajumiTruth.

Come see two women who roll like that @LIC Food and Flea today!!! We’ll be here till 6!

Check out our Kickstarter project!

– La Mushpa y la Mensa

Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover!

In conjunction with “Care-About-Mama-Earth” week we are launching Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover (a.k.a. Our Super Cool Kickstarter Project)! Yes!

We will make this short and sweet as all the information you may want or need to know about Our Magical Motor Machine Makeover is here. You may also click on our 3 minutes and 33 second amazing docu-drama above to find out what we and this project are all about.  :]

Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover is something cool, different, and amazing. It is a way to connect with people all over; a way to find, have and give hope to our fellow humans…and there is some fantabulous functional art to take with you as well!!! A win/win situation.

Go see!!!

With much love.

— Mushpa y Mensa (Cara Elaine and Maria Emilia)

The Facebook Post: In Conclusion, Delete your Account.

the opium of the people karl marx and facebook

I remember that I opened a Facebook account right before going to college about 8 years ago. Back then, you needed to have a college email or be “accepted” into your network, and it was just expanding to networks of cities and maybe even states. Who knows… One thing I do know. The Facebook craze has exploded in our faces in the last few years, and what used to be an exclusively elite networking computer program seems to have become the one common factor uniting the globe. From people fighting against repressive governments in Egypt, to a young kids in the rural United States, from your grandmother’s best friend, to your boss.

And now everybody is on everybody’s face.

Facebook is a ton of fun. Don’t you think?

You look through pictures of your cousin’s party and reminisce on how much fun it was, your friend posts a picture of you two when you were in diapers and the sweet nostalgia of your childhood kicks in, people share music that makes you dance, poetry that makes you cry, the hysterical “what does the fox say?” video that you cannot stop watching… It all seems fantastic. You reconnect with friends that you have lost touch with because of the years gone by, and keep the bonds strong with the people you do not get to talk to because they live in far away places. Facebook, as people say, has connected our world like never before, it has brought people together, it has created communities and it has even been a major tool in leading revolutions in countries were repressive governments have tried to silence the people. Facebook is more than a computer program… its a lifestyle that makes the world go ’round.

Ok puppies, sunshine and rainbows. Let’s burst the bubble now….

In my sincere opinion, Facebook also sucks.

Facebook is a new form of XanaxIt is the opium of the people. It has become this weird spin-off of reality TV, where you can now become part of the show, and expose your life to whoever you grant access to all across the world (in the meanwhile, some big guys are making bank from your online activity). You and your “friends” get to participate in this weird contest, where you get to showcase your life for the world to see.

Who has the pretties profile picture, you may ask yourself? So you change your picture every other week in order to keep up with your most up-to-date self. You have to perfectly fill out the About me, Quotes, Favorite Books/Movies/Music in order to portray the most appropriate “you”. Which are you going for? The I don’t-care-what-you-think-because-I-am-amazing-but-I-still-accept-you-as-a-friend-in-order-to-get-to-4,500-friendship-requests? Or the, I-don’t-give-a-crap-what-you-think, I-like-PBR-and-awkward-mustaches-and-pictures-of-odd-objects-but-I-still-want-you-to-“like”-my-Hemingway-tribute-poem-and-if-you-don’t-you-are-not-a-hip-intellectual-and-therefore-I-will-delete-you-from-my-friends-request?

Maybe you are neither of the above…but you have a friend who might be. And you yourself might just have a little of the essence from these two characters. Which is? The need for illusions to feel accepted and part of this world.

Where did she go this summer!? And most importantly, who is that with his arm around her!?

No way…. Did you see what she posted? Ohhhh No she didn’t….

I cannot believe that they find it appropriate to share those things on the internet…

Did you hear she got engaged? Oh yes, I read it on Facebook!

Ugh she looks so gross in that picture, why would you even think about putting that up.

He posted a video praising Rush Limbaugh…can you believe he is so close minded?

Both you and I know that we have been guilty of such gallant comments about human interactions on the web, and we are all guilty of the same sin: getting sucked into the Facebook vortex.

And the vortex sucks for a few reasons….

facebook sucks1. Facebook takes away the most valuable thing to many in our world…TIME. How many hours a day, a week, a month do we spend glued to the computer (or the phone) scrolling down the news feed, liking a post, and swooshing through the hundreds of thousands of pictures on yours and your friends profiles. Many people would agree that too many hours are spent on this computer program….way too many hours. Think about all the other things you could be doing instead. Cooking some good food, making yourself a dress, learning how to fix a car, spending time with grandma! You will already spend about 1.5 to 3 years sitting on the toilet in a lifetime…that’s enough sittin’ and shittin’ your time away, don’t you think?

facebook sucks2. Facebook is NOT REAL. Plain and simple. It is a tool that yes, is very useful in terms of quick and easy communication, yet it does not portray accurately, or for that fact, truthfully and honestly, a persons life. It builds “relationships” based on  carefully chosen moments that you allow your friends to see. You choose the person that you want to portray to be, in all your glamour (or not glamour if you are the hiking, happy go lucky, granola folk out there, yet still you portray a “self”) Yes, it is based on reality, but how many of those friendships do you feel are honestly real? How many of those moments where people connect to your happiness, and your road trips, parties, vacations, graduations, are truthful when the way we connect is by “liking a post” or commenting on how much fun it seemed to be. What would your relationship with them if they were physically close to you? And even more, when they are physically close to you, how REAL are you without the use of this tool? I say that the people that matter are the ones you make an honest attempt to stay connected with. The people you call and have a conversation once in a while, the people you write letters to over the holidays, the people that you text once a month even to say “Hey I’m thinking of you!”. There are other tools to communicate in a more personal way to people who are far away from you. Tools that do not make you feel lonely…which brings me to my third point.

facebook sucks3. Facebook will only make you feel lonelier. Even if it seems like your friend’s list is growing, there have been recent studies out there (google them) that are starting to talk about the effects of social media, like Facebook, and how it actually makes people feel more lonely….and honestly, and you might agree with me, I don’t think we even need a study to prove that. How many times have you been scrolling down your news feed on you couch at home, wishing you were somewhere else, like your friends in the pictures. How many times have you changed your picture and felt so good every time someone liked it? …and how long did that feeling last? When scrolling through Facebook, have you ever felt jealous? Have you ever felt excluded? Annoyed? Have you ever felt truly connected with all of these friends on your list? Are they really your friends? Can you trust them with a secret, or confide in them your deepest sorrows, or just cry on their shoulder? How many are truly friends? How many are just acquaintances?

facebook sucks4. It blocks you from being in the present. How many times have you stopped enjoying a beautiful moment so you could snap a picture and post it on Facebook? Way too many times. Way too many times do we start recording instead of being present in the moment, and when the moment is over, we don’t even feel like we experienced it because we were too focused on archiving it for the world to see. How many times do you find yourself spending a day out with your friends, check your phone because you got a text, and when you look up to see, every single one of your friends is looking down to their little screens checking on their telephones too? Disconnected from the present. All the wise folk in the world, dead and alive, always tell us, in different ways, “live in the present”. They say this for a reason, and it is heartbreaking that we are slowly pulling away from those wise words. De-volving in a futuristic society of “likes” and “posts”.

So like always….”WHAT TO DO?”

Boycott Facebook! Easy….. Only a one-step program.

Now, delete your account.

Mushpa y Mensa, aka Cara Elaine and Maria Emilia, as individuals, have been Facebook free for a year now.

In my experience, I do not feel any more or less connected to the world around me, even though other people might miss my presence in the realm of the internet. I keep in touch with the people that matter the most to me, and the ones that truly care are the ones that make the effort to keep in touch through other means. I keep in touch with family near and as far as the equator using for example this really archaic tool called, “Email”. ; ) That’s an easy one. Skype and other video calling programs are useful too and I even use Whatsapp to text.

I am by no means removed from the world of social media and communication, and I still have many critiques for many of these communication devices. I do live a reality though, and removing myself from the one I saw as the most toxic to real human relationships was a good first step. If each of us slowly detaches from this monster of a vortex, then I think that we can focus not only on truthful and real relationships, but furthermore, on living these relationships in the present as well…and hey, you might even find yourself with time to knit your grandma a sweater! : )

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The Mushpa y Mensa Reality

Mushpa y Mensa is a small crafty arts business. We are still little, yet we are blooming. We will become successful because we believe in our magic and our beauty.

Many times we have been tempted to open a Facebook account, or for that matter an Instagram account (which is owned by the same people and is basically FB without words). It seems to be the easiest way for people to connect with us, to “Find us on Facebook” and “Like” our page. Every successful business model you see out there has the same logo-icons at the bottom of their page…Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…and the same resounding message: With these tools, people will connect with you, and without these tools, your success is questionable.

We say **** that! We will not give in. We believe in what we believe, and sticking to it might make things challenging, it might make future projects difficult to work with, it might make us stretch our resources thin, BUT it will push us to be more creative in how we connect to people in this world. It will force us to truly connect to the people who enjoy supporting our work. It will make us create a beautiful website instead of a generic Facebook page. It will be jumping with our eyes closed and landing where we should land.

As the wise Mushpa said to me the other day….

“We Want You to Love Us, Not Like Us.”

And that, my friends, is the truth.

Until my next essay,

With love,

Mensa

Happy Two Days After Thanksgiving Save Money Day From La Mushpa y Mensa!!!

What can we say, after an amazing bounty of family, food and fun we are in a good mood and want to share that happiness with our Mushpa y Mensa family. What does that mean? Free shipping until we ring in the New Year!!! Nice…

Who are these little guys? They are a perfect “Bring the Cheer” gift you can find right here, right now. Our brand spanking new, limited time only, eco-felt, naturally holiday scented (peppermint or cloves), Gingerbread Peeps (GBP). They are so delicious that someone has already taken a bite off of their cute head and leg! Each one is unique in their own way. GBP are all made by hand, hand-stitched, hand-stuffed and such, right here in our Brooklyn studio.

tablet case

We also have new iPad/tablet cases and gorgeous pillow cases all handmade using recycled fabric. Theses are fabulous, unique gifts…we’re just putting it out there. :] Something else exciting to look out for in the next few days is our handmade, out of recycled fabric, super fly coffee cozy!

Pillow C

If you are in the New York area and want to check out our art in person Saturday, December 7th and Sunday the 8th and Saturday, December the 14th and Sunday the 15th we will be at LIC Flea & Food @5-25 46th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. It’s indoors in a huge warehouse, free parking! :] There will be all sorts of vendors, food, live music, djs, Santa…so come.I think that is enough updates for now.

Chau!

La Mushpa y La Mensa

Mushpa y Mensa’s Super Fly New Site

Mensa y MushpaCheck out Mushpa y Mensa’s super fly new site (beta style), www.mushpamensa.com.

Nice.

– Mushpa y Mensa

The 100th Post of La Mushpa y La Mensa

Jefe Helping
Jefe Helping…

Mensa and I are always talking about consuming less, needing less, getting rid of excess. Things that anchor us to one place be it literally, monetarily or mentally.

We do little things like take our worn out old clothes, wash them and then cut them into a million little pieces to stuff our Plush Pets…

Plush Rabbit
Pierre, the Lavender, Recycled Fabric, Eco-Felt Plush Pet

…or make some deeelicious seitan from scratch, while whipping up some organic, coconut oil based mayo… I personally am extremely gifted in mixing alcohol with almost any “leftover” liquids (frozen or flowing) and it tasting like nothing you’ve ever had before (in a very good way).

Drinks on Me
Cocktails Anyone?

Some bigger things are Mensa creating an amazing backpack out of an old bag, after her million year old bag disintegrated right before our very eyes. The very backpack we packed with soy milk (something we have talked about learning how to make since we consume so much of it…stay tuned) and such this weekend after working in the co-op (don’t ask). We biked over 8 miles and this revitalized beauty made it through like a champion!

The Bag
The Bag That Rocks

We also made our fantastical Mushpa y Mensa cloth sign out of old pillow cases and fabric pieces. See below…

Mushpa y Mensa Sign
Mushpa y Mensa – Arts Not Crafts!

We are making it happen more and more every day, but we need a challenge….something to keep our momentum soaring towards our destiny. What we came up with is…well let’s start slow, why don’t you get to know us first…see what we mean when we say “from scratch”.

From the Inside
La Mensa’s Robot Girl With a Twist

We are here for a reason, all of us. Let’s make some stuff together, see what we think, then figure something out. Let’s connect as they say, in a good way.

This is our 100th blog post and the start of something gargantuous! :] Life, as La Mensa would say is, “pretty bad-ass.”

– La Mushpa