Results tagged “designs” from Puppytoes.net Shop blog

I've always loved taking photos - most of the photos I already have are of friends or family, vacations, or of course, Cragar. Lately, though, I've become fascinated (and perhaps borderline obsessed) with Infrared Photography.

The first time I saw examples of infrared landscapes, my jaw dropped and I got a goose-bumpy feeling. You see, in the springtime when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, I love the look of the landscape when there's a big storm rolling in. The white cherry blossoms just seem to glow against the black storm sky with turbulent, angry clouds. And for a moment I can forgive the fact that the wind from the storm will shower those little cherry blossom petals all over my car so they can stick there. And even driving 75 mph is not enough to unstick them from the various parts of my car's exterior. Believe me, I've tried.

But I digress...

So when I discovered infrared photography, I immediately thought of those cherry blossoms. Green foliage becomes white and glowing, the sky is darkened, and the whole photo just looks, well, almost ethereal. I also learned about false-color infrared photos - I personally have used it so far to add blue to skies and/or water, giving the photo an almost-but-not wintry feel. I've seen other photos that keep the magenta/red color associated with IR photos. Keeping that color scheme almost gives some photos a cool, sinister, post-apocolyptic feel.

Lately, everywhere I go, I pack up my camera, IR filter, and tripod and hope I can find something interesting to shoot. So keep a lookout for even more new photos in our Photography section in the coming months!

Shortly after the puppytoes.net store opened for business, I added a Safety and Warning Signs section to our shop. I was inspired to do so after sitting in on a safety meeting where the main topic was exactly that - Safety and Warning Signs.

I've seen that particular presentation several times before (in fact, I've even presented Safety and Warning Signs training before), so instead of focusing on the actual training, I found my mind wandering. I began taking the signs out of context and realized they would be really funny on t-shirts.

The first one I thought of was of course, Irritant, because seriously, don't we all have someone irritating in our lives? Someone we could just go up to and say, "You know, I was shopping online today and I saw the perfect shirt for you!" Frankly, I know a lot of people I could give that t-shirt to.

So we started adding more of these standard warning signs - the ones that when taken out of the laboratory (or any workplace, for that matter), would elicit a good chuckle when seen on a t-shirt.

But last week I guess I started to get the itch for the dramatic. Maybe dramatic is the wrong word - but specifically, how could I incorporate some of these safety warning symbols in a more stylish way?

I started thinking some of the warning symbols would look really neat if they were done in a runny and splattered spray paint effect. After going through several prototype designs, I didn't like the effect. But I came up with a new idea.

What if these warning symbols were done in a negative-spray-splatter-stencil type effect?

What the hell am I talking about? Well, read on...

I know, I know... I promised it would be about two weeks before our new designs were unveiled. Well, in theory, it was - I just didn't have the time to write about it.

So I'm back - germ free this time, although I do have a nasty little case of whiplash... don't walk down a wet, grassy hill in flip-flops, kids. Trust me.

And now that I'm back, I'm officially announcing the launch of our new line of Diet and Weight Loss designs at the puppytoes.net store.

If you remember from my teaser post last month, I hinted that the designs had to do with the seven wretched days I spent with the Norovirus. Out of those seven days, I spent the first four days unable to eat anything and the next three eating only bananas, apples, and toast. As I was getting dressed that last day I realized my jeans felt a little loose. I hopped on the scale and saw I lost about 10 pounds.

Even though the time I spent with the Norovirus was hell, I looked at it as an opportunity to get my butt back in shape. I was in great shape several years ago, then an ugly knee injury forced me to basically sit on my butt for almost 9 months. As my energy dwindled away, I slowly gained weight. I figured there was no way on earth I was going to be able to motivate myself to get back in shape again. For a long time I was looking for some kind of activation energy to get myself moving again.

Well, thank you, Mr. Norovirus. You became my activation energy.

Well, there's nothing like a stomach bug to knock me off my game plan. This should actually be the day to announce our sixth newest design, but instead I got to spend a lot of time admiring my newly remodeled bathroom. And one other thing while I'm on the topic of the dreaded stomach bug... can someone tell me why, after all the time Pepto-Bismol has been on the market, no one has reformulated the damn stuff to make it taste a little better? I'm not asking for much here, but when I'm taking something to prevent me from hurling, the taste of that something should not make me want to hurl. I'm just sayin'....

Anyway, on to important business:

Day "4", Design 4
"Hot Chocolate"
Men's, Women's and Kids' Apparel, $14.99 - $39.99
Mug, $17.99

One of the most successful designs at the puppytoes.net store has been our "Chocolate" design. It's another fun tribute to the periodic table, with our familiar spin on the word "element". They were so popular over this past holiday season, I was beginning to think there was a bug in our order reporting system! If we owned a brick and mortar store, I'd imagine little tshirts with wings just flying out the door.

One night as I was getting ready for bed, it hit me. Hot Chocolate. Everybody loves our "Chocolate" design, so why not come out with some Hot Chocolate? Of course we couldn't spell the word, "Hot" with the periodic table, so we just added the word itself along with some chocolate-y flames to the existing "Chocolate" design. We also replaced the wording.. it "protects me from the elements"! You know... the cold, bitter, winter elements.

So the new Hot Chocolate design was born. It's available mostly on apparel, but you will find one sweet little mug to hold your favorite hot chocolate.

And before I wrap up, let me add one more thing about hot chocolate. I usually have a very difficult time falling asleep at night. My average falling-asleep-time is usually somewhere between 1AM and 3AM, regardless of when I have to get up. It's not on purpose, I just can't fall asleep sooner, no matter what I try. Since the weather has turned colder, however, I've found there are some nights when I can fall asleep faster than others. After trying to establish a pattern, I realized they were the nights I had a cup of hot chocolate before bed. So after doing a small bit of reading (nowhere near comprehensive, mind you), some research indicated that hot chocolate consumed before bedtime promoted better sleep.

Whoda thunkit?

I must be reforming my slacker ways. Two days of posting in a row. Well, I did promise, didn't I?

In My Element
Men's, Women's and Kids Apparel, $14.99 - $39.99
Mousepads, tiles and buttons, $5.99 and up

I've been involved in chemistry for a very long time. When I was quite young, I was always interested in science of some sort, and it just turned out that chemistry was the direction I chose. I'm not saying those years in college were a piece of cake, like I chose chemistry and it was all a breeze from there, because it wasn't! Things like Calculus, Physics, and even Physical Chemistry kind of put a kabash on the whole doing well thing. But I've always been "in my element" around science-y stuff.

So, the science geek in me started spelling out stuff with the periodic table. I'll write another post on those designs later, but the lastest periodic-table inspired offering is "In My Element", featuring none other than Indium. See, get the whole In, element, periodic table thing... I told you I was a science geek! I thought it was pretty funny.

I'll continue tomorrow (Day 3) with yet another new periodic-table inspired design!

Until then...

I know, I know! there hasn't been a new post here since December 17. That was 24 days ago. I've been slacking in the blog department.

But that doesn't mean I've been slacking in the shop department. In the last month, seven new designs have been added to the puppytoes.net store, and at least two more are currently in the works.

But yes, I've neglected you, my dear internet. And as a token of my apology, I will be personally announcing our seven new designs over the course of the next seven days. Yes, I realize I've just committed myself to seven straight days of writing. But I'm fully prepared to accept the consequences of my slackerishness.

So without further delay, I present the first of our newest designs:

Day 1, Design 1
"I'm Drunk"
Mens and Women's Apparel from $14.99 - $39.99

This design was inspired from personal experience.

See, in the beginning of December, I broke my cardinal poker rule - don't get hammered when playing poker. I must have been in "one of those moods" or something, because the alcohol kept finding ways to slosh down my throat. After awhile, I noticed my chips were getting dangerously low. I didn't think I was playing bad - I didn't start playing junk hands and I wasn't really making any donkey calls - maybe I was just chasing a little too much, but it shouldn't have been enough to decimate my chip stack! So I shook my alcohol-rattled head a bit and took a good look around - as good a look as my slightly blurry eyes could see, anyway. It seemed like others at the table were playing better than usual! Not that I ususally play with a bunch of donkeys or anything, but even the loosest player at the table seemed to be exercising some restraint.

I was mystified. Do some other players really play better when I'm drunk? Perhaps the alcohol was inhibiting my aggression? Who knows? Maybe I really was just playing poorly! Either way, towards the end of the evening (no surprise I didn't cash in that particular game), I started giggling. No, it wasn't the alcohol making me giggle, it was the idea for this shirt. I imagined wearing it while sitting across from some poor donkey to advertise the fact the only way he'll end up beating me is if I'm drunk. Probably in poor form to wear in while playing with strangers, but it can give friends a good laugh!

I had a particularly difficult week this past week - too many things to do and precious little time to get anything done. On Thursday I was talking to my sister and she asked if I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I told her that it was too early to think about it and I'd get back to her.

Then she told me Thanksgiving was in two weeks. And then she told me I was a moron.

For some reason, I was thinking we were still somewhere in early to mid-October. That's what I get for overworking myself.

After freaking out that I have only two weeks to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, I freaked out again when I realized two weeks until Thanksgiving means two weeks until hard-core Christmas shopping starts. So I set to work, giving the puppytoes.net store a Holiday makeover.

We've been stewing in DSL outages for the last week here at the puppytoes.net store, so we've had plenty of time to come up with some new designs! We have some new geek and poker shirt designs in the works - we actually should have started with designs about how utilities like the phone company are so cheap they're outsourcing their (useless) tech support to Mexico, India and the Philippines or how their voice-activated menu system is ridiculous and could result in damaged phones as callers smash them into walls in frustration....

but we digress....

We decided to roll out our brand-spanking-new dealer buttons for your next poker game!

Greetings!

Before announcing our latest design, we'd like to address this entry title.  We're not really distressed, but lately our designs have been!  We've been feeling particularly grungy and monochromatic lately, so we've been reflecting that feeling in our new designs.  We've done a couple, like Wings, Dead Money II, and even Fluorine Chemist. We've been loving the spattered, scratched out feel of it all. 

Our latest distressed design offering is titled, "Poker Queen".  Sure the whole "Poker Queen" thing may be a cliche, but we kind of liked how the crest kind of frames the old girl.  Not to mention, queenie's got a pretty mean poker face going on!  OK, seriously, though, we like the scratched up feel of this design.  We even decided to create it in different colors, so it kind of follows our whole monochromatic kick - brown/tan design for a brown t-shirt, maroon/pink design for a maroon tshirt, etc. 
"Poker Queen" apparel starts as low as $15.99 and is available on short and long sleeve tshirts, tanks, and sweatshirts in a variety of colors.

Like our grungy, distressed stuff?  Want to see more?  Let us know what you think!

Cheers,
Joanne and Cragar