I just, I mean within the last 10 minutes, got my new quart of Ulano QTX (some of the best emulsion around) via UPS and Texsource.

Do you know what that means? Do you? I do. Do you want to know? I’ll tell you.

It means that I can get around to finally making the screens for the new designs. And that means that the new shirts are very close to being available. Before I can make them though, I’ve got to clean some of my older screens. So, say goodbye to the Robot Shirt, the Logo Shirt, the Goat Shirt, the Windmil Shirt(s), and a few other old shirts. And by “goodbye” I mean get them while you can because once they’re gone they’re gone forever.

Alright, time to go make some chick’n tacos with Chipotle style rice. Then some Beauty and the Geek.

This is the Mammal Shirt. The newest of the new designs. There’s not a really super interesting story behind it, to be honest. I just think it’s silly.

How it came to be: I’m not sure what we were talking about, but Cody and I were… well, talking and I randomly said yelling, “I’m a mammal!” And right at that second an image popped into my head. Guess what it was. Go ahead, guess. I’ll wait.

It was a dolphin. Did you guess it? Yes, I saw in my head a dolphin shouting that (s)he’s a mammal. That’s pretty much the entire story.

It took me about two week or so to actually sit down and draw it out. It went from “I’m a mammal” to “I am a mammal!” to fit inside the blow hole spray thing better but it essentially stayed the same from my head to pixels.

It should be getting printed up within the next week or two, so stay tuned! Time for How I Met Your Mother! YAY!

Well, I got some printing done today. Not as much as I was really wanting to but when your emulsion gets left in storage over winter and freezes then thaws it tends to …well, not really work anymore. It turned from an Elmer’s glue consistency to a peanut butter consistency. It’s kind of interesting.

Fear not, as I have ordered more and should be getting it in a few days. I’ll hopefully be able to get most, if not all, of the new shirts printed up next week. [crosses fingers]

What I did get accomplished today though, was all the Awesome Shirts. That’s right, it’s back in stock (finally) in all sizes. The only reason that got done today was because I had the screen prepared from the first run.

Oh well… I guess I now know that you can’t freeze your QTX.

Herbivorous Rex is an old design. Well, sort of anyway.

When I was running my first company, Heart on Sleeve, I used this idea. However, because I’m an idiot I spelled “Herbivorous” as “Herbavorous” or something like that. I also didn’t really create it. I put it all together - I didn’t steal it from someone else. What I did was find a cartoon looking brontosaurus and use, I think, cooperville font. I wish I had some older pictures of it… but I don’t.

This time it’s different. It’s BETTER! Why, you ask? Because I drew it all myself. I used a reference for the dinosaur, of course. I’m good, but I can’t draw dinosaurs without reference. It’s also better because I spelled it correctly. Amazing, huh? Another thing - the dinosaur’s face. I mean, just look at it! Look how happy he is. You can’t beat that.

Sorry if this seems rambly and incoherent. I haven’t been asleep in more than 24 hours.

Last week I ordered the blanks for the new shirts. They should be arriving at my door, I’m thinking, tomorrow. Then, assuming all goes as planned, I’ll be printing them up on Thursday. I’ll also be reprinting the Awesome Shirt, so the stock on smalls, mediums, and x-large will be in.

In other news, I’m still trying to work out kinks in the site. I’ve been trying to compress javascript and css and screwing things up in the process. Hopefully I get this all sorted out soon.

The Babies Sound Like Raptors design has existed, not in this form, for quite some time now. Probably about two years ago or more Cody’s nephew, who was just a baby then, was crying and screaming all the time. So, she randomly said out of frustration, “Babies Sound Like Raptors.”

I had been trying to think of new designs and that little phrase made me laugh out loud - or LOL, if you will. However, back then I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d do the design. I hadn’t started really drawing the designs - just kind of arranging pre-made graphics. I didn’t know how to screen print multiple colors. I was pretty much clueless.

Fast forward to about a year ago and the idea still lives. I really wanted to do something with it, so I just made it into a pin design. It’s fairly simple but it gets the message out. Then, I get encouraged by some people on T-Shirt forums to make it into a shirt design. So, as I’m getting a little more familiar with Adobe Illustrator, I give it a go.

The first attempt was, what I still see as an awesome drawing, of a raptor holding a baby in a blanket in it’s mouth with a speech bubble with the phrase. It was pretty boring as a t-shirt design, I have to admit. Then, comes the raptor in a bassinet inside a stroller. Bam! That’s it. That’s the one we’re going to go with. The only problem was that I couldn’t really afford to get it made. However, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

After letting the design sit for about half a year, I began to notice things I didn’t like about it. Mainly the text on the shirt. It just looked really messy and kind of tossed in there too quickly. So, I go and I start tinkering with the text and I smooth it out and change the line breaks. This time I really hit the nail on the head. The text works so much better than the older designs and it just looks all around solid. This is probably my best t-shirt design yet.

Well, this is the new Quixotic site. …Obviously.

This time it’s not hand coded, but as a result, it’s a lot more functional. It’s pretty much just a Wordpress site. I’ve been trying to figure out how I wanted it to come together for a couple of months now and this suits my needs best.

We’ve got three new shirts on the way and we’re also reprinting the Awesome Shirt. We’re going to offering a magnet option with the one inch pins too. Instead of having the pin, there will be a magnet so you can put it on your refrigerator or locker or something.

I’ve tested the site pretty thoroughly, but if you find a bug let me know.