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Tag: travel

Special Requests, Diversity, and Inclusivity

Here at Surrounded By Penguins we encourage people to take the opportunity to be part of the product creation process. We want to make products that you will love and cherish. So when aq31.12 on Instagram took the time to message us to suggest that we place the new Galapagos penguin design on a shirt that was a different style, how could we not oblige?

Now we wanted to place the design exactly where the original is placed. As of last night, this cannot be done unless we place it on a shirt that allows for wrap around printing. This drove up the cost of the shirt by over $20usd and put the shirt in the new materials category instead of using recycled materials. So we reached out the aq13.12 again and asked for input about the shirt you see featured here. To quote aq13.12 that hearted the image… “I think the middle looks great”. Approved! Awesome.

Thanks so much aq13.12 for the suggestion!

Have a suggestion? Please feel free to let us know what it is! No pressure! All suggestions that are not spam will be considered.

Galapagos Penguin RECYCLED T-Shirt

Galapagos Penguin RECYCLED T-Shirt

Color: Black, Size: XL

$25.99
Shop now

New Adventures, New Products. But First!

We just got back from Ecuador and it was amazing! We’re super excited to review and create new products from so many of the birbs we got to photograph, but first I needed to do some justice with the designs I’ve created from adventures we had before we created Surrounded By Penguins.

We wanted to make products that were affordable for as many people as possible. We want everyone to feel as if they are helping the birbs. So we made a postcard featuring once again our favorite Fiordland Crested Penguin couple! Problem is, shipping cost more than the post card itself! So it is more practical to add postcards (and stickers) as a bonus addition to your order. If you only want to purchase postcards I suggest buying a few. For every postcard added to orders, it brings totals up to only 5 cents per a postcard to ship (to the US). This makes getting a postcard more worth your while. When I order these, I’m going to buy several and send some out to a few lucky friends. When’s the last time you received a postcard?

Fiordland Penguin Couple Postcard – Care To Waddle with Me?

Next up is our notebook! I’ve been needing a sketchbook journal! I love to practice my penguin cartoon art drawing during lunch but my current journal has been full for so long that I’ve been needing a new one. I think the couple on the cover of this notebook, along with a penguin asking me what’s on my mind can get me to write and draw without inhibition. The dotted pages will be new to me, but I’ve been wanting an excuse to try dotted pages to see if they work better for me. I don’t like lines getting in the way of drawings but I did want somewhat of a guide to help with drawing alignment and keeping sentences in appropriate rows.

Waddle’s on your mind, love? Penguin Couple spiral Notebook

Keep checking back for more of your soon to be favorite products!

A Day in Perris… Meeting the Sand Penguin Family

Have you ever heard of sand penguins? Not African penguins or other penguin species that you can find waddling on beaches and other sandy areas, but actual magical sand penguins. These penguins are so rare that only a few picture of them have been seen on the internet. From the first time we found out about them, we became obsessed with a need to meet them.

Well we were in luck! Our recent visit to Perris Lake lead us to a wonderful beach spot where Sand Penguins magically appeared! Once we heard of the special appearance the race was on to meet them before they disappeared into their mysterious hidden nesting grounds in the sea.

No time to pack neatly! Come on everyone lets go! The trek was harder than we thought it would be… Having no time to figure out how to best roll the wagon, we dragged across the beach until we saw some Seagulls.
Excuse me, Seagulls. Can you tell us where we might find the sand penguins? Squawk! Set up here, yeah set up here, they’ll come to you! Squawk! Yeah! They will come to you.
Zippy: What do you think, Sippy? Should we set up here?
Sippy: I am not so sure, Zippy. There’s something about those Seagulls that I can’t quite put my beak on. But I suppose this is just as good as any other place here, so lets set up.
Once set up, everyone agreed that the location was beautiful. Beautiful but no sand penguins in sight.
*Just then… A flock of Seagulls came into view* Huh. What’s this? What are these Seagulls up to?
Whoa! What a flurry! I can barely tell what is going on!
As the Seagulls passed, only one remained… “Squawk! Hello there penguins and friends! March along there towards the water where all the other Seagulls fluttered. There among the sand and sea, you will find what you seek.” And so a small party of brave penguins set out to the shoreline. They said bye to Seagull as they made a u turn over the sand penguins and back towards the other seagulls. Bye Seagull!
With not more than a wiggle and a waddle. They saw that a few of the sand friends and small penguins were already at the shore line. Huh, how did that happen? And wait… Is that what we think it is?
It is! And a baby sand penguin at that! And look there are others! And the small penguins are even guarding.
Sippy: “Hello family! And hello new to us sand family!”
Look at all them!
With the magical sand penguins arriving and the visiting penguins making their way, the seagull took their leave. “Thank you, Seagull! I hope we see you again soon!” said the visiting penguins. “No problem. I am sure we will meet again. Take care!” the Seagull responded
Wow! It seems like we’re late to the party! We better hurry!
Mippy: Wait a minute, I forgot something!
What’d you forget, Mippy?
Mippy: “A kite! To fly so that we can signal thank you to all the other seagulls.”
Fantastic, Mippy! That’s a great idea!
Finally, we made it! Time to have the a sand party of royal proportions!
Some friends even came on a sand raft!
All the friends learned so much about each other. The sand penguins are royalty made of magic. They help to protect all beaches, even when they don’t form into penguins. They love when people play in the sand with them, but they don’t like when people liter on them because it’s dangerous and disrespectful.
The sun was starting to set. It was time to get going. Jack wanted to stay with the sand penguins. Not ready to leave the beach, Jack lagged behind.
Come on, Jack! They all encouraged Jack to come back.
Jack: But I don’t want to leave! What if we never see the sand penguin family again?

Sand Penguins: Remember Jack, and everyone, we are everywhere a beach is, be it by a lake, sea, or ocean.  We are all around and sometimes even come home in your shoes.  Don’t forget to keep the beaches and sand clean, when everything is pristine that’s when we sometimes visit.  We saw you picking up liter and that’s why we showed, so keep up the good work.  Keep on having fun and in sure, some day soon we’ll sea each other again! Get it? Sea. 
Jack sighed… Okee. I guess I’ll go then and keep helping to clean the beach in hopes that we’ll see you next time!

They all said their farewells and thank you’s until it was almost too dark to sea each other… Get it? Sea. Until next time sands penguins, until next time…. Oh! And seagulls too!

Island fever

Surrounded By Penguins had a dinner meeting last night regarding future travel. We haven’t even put up the designs we have so far, but we already need more images for merchandise and other creations. I’ve heard this is typical. Right now, we’re waiting for some quality control samples to come in! It’s been a long time coming and yet, it seems like it’s all happening so fast. I’ve heard that before. I hear many lines in my head from people that have shared their experiences. Most of which are true. People aren’t kidding when they say, for about every 1,000 images 1 is useable. Good thing we had a past trip to Australia and New Zealand so we had some images already but not having “Surrounded By Penguins” in mind, even less than 1 image per 1,000 is usable. Lol. I could go on about all the truths but I’m already digressing.

Seeing this bookshelf while waiting to register my car made me home sick for the islands. Guess I should had registered a boat instead of a car. Lol.

What Surrounded By Penguins had a dinner meeting about last night was *drum roll please* the Galapagos Islands! Let’s hope it can happen this year come October! I am sooo in need of swimming with the penguins. I think some under water shots could make really cool looking merch.

Of course this place had no Galapagos Islands books.