Tag Archives: kickstarter

Mushpa + Mensa in the 21st Annual Cucalorus Film Festival 10×10

 

Last week we went to Cucalorus’s opening night party.

The next day I got the flu.

The next day we made a movie.

The next day I was in the ER.

The next day I hurled all day.

The next day we were at the Cucalorus 10×10 Screening and CONNECT Presenters Party.

This was my last week and this is the film we made with our great team (Brianna Okamoto, Josh Stowe, Andy Nielsen, Hillary Scott). I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, the movie that is, but when you have a dream and are given an amazing opportunity you push through it all to get there.

-Mushpa

Mushpa y Mensa Super Summer Update

Hello Mushpa y Mensa Super Fans!

Yes, you see right, it’s Mushpa y Mensa’s Super Summer update, after a few months of silence. We are happy to say that in the last three months, Mushpa y Mensa have begun their “Gypsy Market Life”. Already, on this journey, we have met quite a few amazing people, like the folks at Seaglass Salvage Market, Brooklyn Arts Center, Beacon House Inn, and Satellite Lounge to name a few. We have also danced and tasted many sweet wines at the Duplin Winery’s Main Squeeze Music and Wine Festival, as well as met dozens of new, fun people at the annual Azalea and Strawberry Festivals in North Carolina. ;] We even partnered up with Wilmington’s Earth Day Alliance and enjoyed a wonderful Earth Day Celebration at Hugh MaCrae Park.

It’s been surreal so far.

It’s amazing what faith, love, encouragement, and a little help from our friends can do. In terms of our little cottage industry, we are, as you say, busting a hump. We are constantly checking ourselves on how we can make things better from our art, to our business, to our life.

We have actually just updated the “Photos of Our Peeps” page on Mushpa y Mensa’s site. We added a photo uploading tool, so you can upload pictures of you in our organic tees, wearing our amazing jewelry, hugging our lavender filled plush pets, or even just keeping your hands cool with one of our coffee cozies. :]

And in terms of our Art? Well we keep on bringing to life tons of ideas in our head. For example, we recently created 3.5 new shirt designs. A cool Octopus Olivia with an Anchor Tattoo on her forehead,as well as R6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replenish, Reflect, Reimagine inspired by Earth Day.

We also have new organic Pima cotton relaxed fit tops that are flying out of the truck. Here is an example of the Pima tops with one of our new designs, Argema Mittrei, a female moth. Lastly, we spruced up Robot Girl and added a cute heart. All these designs we print for the ladies, the gents, and of course the smallest people around.

Mushpa y Mensa have also been focusing on custom shirts that have been selling off Maya so fast we don’t even have time to list them on our Etsy shop!

Spread the art, spread the love.

A few questions answered…

Where can I find the Art Truck?

Follow us on Twitter @mushpamensa. We are constantly posting when and where we will be. There is also an events page on our site, www.mushpaymensa.com/events we keep updated, but Twitter is best for the most up to date information.

We are doing some art shows, markets and fleas, but are hunting to find good spots to park around town. We are partnering up with cool people like the folks at the Beacon House Inn on Carolina Beach and Satellite Bar and Lounge in Wilmington.

And for all the natives and people in the know, since we are new in town, feel free to hit us up at info@mushpamensa.com or our contact page with any ideas where to park, festivals to do or whether you’d like us to rock a party or event with you!

Are you going on the road anytime soon?

We want to explore the grounds of NC and the surrounding area, so we will keep the max to weekend trips. But worry not, we will definitely be making it into the mid-west and west-coast! Maybe even an occasional trip to NYC sooner than you think!

If you have any questions about anything, make sure to ask! We love to hear from you all.

Until the next super exciting Mushpa y Mensa’s and Maya, Magical Mobile Art Machine update we say good day!

With lots of love,

               Cara and Maria Emilia

                                                             a.k.a.

Maya’s Magical Zine

Mushpa y Mensa
Hello Super Mushpa y Mensa Fans! We know it has been killing you waiting for our next post. Well here it is Maya’s Makeover Zine!!! We will not go on and on about our amazing zine as it is pretty self explanatory, but here is what Maya’s zine includes:

 

  • Our truck’s full makeover archive with before & after pictures of the project.
  • Mushpa y Mensa DIY tips a.k.a. our gained knowledge we give unto you!
  • How-to everyday eco-tips
  • Delicious food recipes
  • Plus Mushpa y Mensa’s greatest hits and inspirational thoughts from our blog, “La Casa“!

All this in a fantastical and printable PDF.

Want some more Mushpa y Mensa?  Check out www.mushpamensa.com

With much love,

Mushpa y Mensa
(a.k.a. Cara Elaine and Maria Emilia)

Mushpa y Mensa’s Fall Update

Hello To All of Our People!

We here at Mushpa y Mensa wanted to send out a Fall 2014 update about what’s going on with Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover! We wanted to let you all know where your gracious support has taken us thus far.

Solar It
Solar It

With the help of Alberto Borja, Mensa’s magician electrician father, we set up the amazing solar powered system to power all the electrical things Maya, our mobile art truck, will need. We installed a 150 watt solar panel on the roof of the truck, hooked it up in a series to two 6 volt golf cart batteries, and did some serious wiring. We did this so we could set up track lights, LED lights, a fan, plus working outlets to charge our laptops and basically work off the grid with the help of the sun! It’s pretty amazing.

Workin' It
Workin’ It

We have become best friends with our jigsaw, circular saw, wire cuter and drill. We cut plywood not only for the electrical set up, but also to put up new walls, and to create different types of storage boxes! We have screwed in, nailed, spackled, siliconed, sanded, painted, painted again, wallpapered and distressed many a thing inside our truck. Our old dashboard got a fresh coat of robotic silver paint, and we built a curvy, new, purple dashboard panel with cup holders!

Making It Happen
Making It Happen

Soon to come:

– installation of floor

– birch poles to hang our shirts from!

– a million little touches

We're Getting It Done We're Getting It Done
We’re Getting It Done We’re Getting It Done

We will be done on November 25th when we get our marmoleum flooring installed. We can’t wait! Just in time to hit up all the Holiday Markets!!! :]

Stay tuned!

Much love,

Mushpa y Mensa aka Cara and Maria Emilia

www.mushpaymensa.com

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

Before and After

What, you want a sneak peek of Maya our Mobile Art Shop??? Okay!

Maya Before

Before

mAYA aFTERAfter!

– Mushpa

P.S. – Follow us on Twitter!

Penny in Yo Pants!

I dedicate this to my Mensa! 😀

To find out more go here, pennyinyourpants.co.uk.

❤❤❤

– Mushpa

The Final Stretch!

stretch goal coverWe all did it people!!! We made our goal at 7:30AM this morning. Thank you, Thank you and did we mention Thank You to all that pledged, sent their good energy and basically believed in us.  It has been a long journey and we are glad you took it with us.

stretch goal!

For all you that thought you missed your opportunity, you still have a chance to pledge. Whew… We are literally HOURS away from the end of Mushpa y Mensa’s “Box Truck into an Art Truck” Kickstarter Campaign and are still taking pledges till 2:15PM today. We would like to raise an additional $800 for an add-on of a Lo-Jack Recovery System. We did not add this in the Kickstarter original amount as we wanted to have it at the lowest possible amount to get the truck done, so that we’d make that goal. Now that we made that goal we can add additional items, like security. I, Cara, personally voted for a bad-ass hood ornament and spinning rims, but Mar Emilia is probably right.

We can’t wait to get to the next steps of creation of Maya, Art Truck. Thank you for helping us get there.

Much love,

Cara Elaine and Maria Emilia (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  ;]

 

The Final Countdown

3 Days Left

First off, Happy Memorial Day weekend. It is officially, unofficially the beginning of Summer! This is Mushpa y Mensa’s season of organic cotton, original design, hand-made t-shirt glory! You need a new organic tank top for the season? We’ve got it! We will be in Astoria at the Astoria Flea and Food @Kaufman Astoria Studios (click here for more information) today from 10AM-6PM. Come see us and check out Maya, our box truck in person! We will even have the diorama with us. I know…exciting!

Maya Box Truck

Alright people let’s get to it! We have hit the final 3 days of our Kickstarter project, Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover! We are 81% funded at $5,971, but our goal is $7,300 in less than 3 days. That is $1,329 we need to raise in a very short amount of time. We can do it, but we need the help of family, friends and strangers. Go check out Mushpa y Mensa’s Magical Motor Machine Makeover and see how we will take this blank canvass of a box truck and transform it into mobile street art. Be a part of something you can brag that you brought into fruition! That alone is worth it. ;]

Much love,

– Mushpa