I Love Spring - Daffodils on a Tee

Wow! I just got a new black t-shirt. I was nervous about how it would look, since it's digitally printed, not screen printed. UPS took longer delivering it the last twenty miles than it had from my CafePress printers, but the order finally arrived this morning.

I had lightened the graphic you see here significantly from the original drawing to allow for the darkness of the printing surface. Then I created my transparent PNG version, uploaded, and hoped for the best.

The shirt is gorgeous! I love it. Although the yellow is not the pale, almost fluorescent color of the graphic in my store, it is more the clear, soft yellow I wanted.

I drew the daffodils two years ago. Now they're blooming again in our yard. Why wait till spring? Now I don't have to wait for spring, either.
I can hardly wait to wear this.



Want a shirt like this? You can find it at I Love Spring. Find related daffodil designs on shirts, bags, framed prints, and more at ... Mellow Yellow.

If you would like to affiliate "I Love Spring" through CafePress.com, and earn 20% of sales, click here to sign up, and link to great gifts and apparel.

Lorilei

Painting the Day

When I was a kid, I loved listening to the music of a family of singers.The music group was begun by brothers who wanted to be like the Beatles (an excellent choice!). Later, their mother and their sister joined them on stage and on recordings. They performed a kind of pop-rock that was fun to listen to in the sixties and seventies, including songs like "Hair." My very favorite song was "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" (think "I love the flower girl -- oh, I don't know just why, she simply caught my eye...."), but I had a few others I really loved. "What is Happy?" and "We Can Fly." A haunting song written by David Gates (of Bread) called "Can't Measure the Cost (of a Woman Lost)." Great memories.
These were songs that evoked memories, emotions, pictures in my mind.

One such picture was from a song called "Painting the Day." It's an optimistic piece about changing the world through perception. I always wanted to do a painting or drawing based on it. Finally, in 2005, I did just that. I have several versions of this whimsical graphic, which depicts a young girl (yes, P.L., my inner child) with a palette and brush, painting the sky. The sun is smiling off to her left, appreciative of the sentiment.

Not long ago, I heard from Vicky, the shopkeeper for the Cowsill's online store, that Barry Cowsill was one of the people who died in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. His remains were not identified until January of this year. Since Barry was the person who sang lead on this song, I felt even more affected. Barry's older brother Bill passed away in February, making this winter a sad time for fans.

The "Painting the Day" art will always remind me of happy times and feelings. When they aren't happy, when your world is dark, paint some sunshine and change the way you feel about life.

Thanks, Barry.

I traded my crummy tonsils for...

A friend of mine has a six year old grandson who was getting his tonsils removed. As the day approached (and he was becoming more apprehensive), she was trying to put a positive spin on the experience. She wanted to make a t-shirt for him with a message like "I traded my crummy tonsils for this cool t-shirt." I offered to do an illustration for it.

This design is the result of that venture. The little boy's grandmother says he is delighted with the shirt, and that he's glad it's all over but the ice cream now.

"I Traded My Crummy Tonsils for..." is available on the white youth-size t-shirt, as well as the toddler-size (if your child is a little smaller than average, up to 4T), plus the youth-sized baseball jersey, hoodie, and crew-neck sweatshirt. It's also on the junior ringer tee and other apparel. A similar design is offered on mugs, mousepads, the journal, magnets, buttons -- even a plushy white teddy bear wearing its own t-shirt.

If you would like to affiliate this design through CafePress.com, and earn 20% of sales, click here to sign up, and link to great gifts and apparel.