4.26.2011

TPT: March for Babies Raffle

I was really debating doing this at all this year. It's tedious hustling up those $500, especially when 1 in 3 of your, or at least MY, fb friends are also raising money. It's hard work. And by the time the walk comes, it's a pain in my behind. But it's for the kids. It's for the IHZ. It's for Zeta. So, I'm doing it again! However, I'm only dedicating a week to fundraising. That'll keep the stress to a minimum. I wasn't going to do the raffle either, but I was like nah...let's stikk with tradition, but it is smaller this year.

So here's the deal. There's a cool lil purple box with a baby in it to the right of this post. If you clikk on it, it will go to my March for Babies personal page. There you can make a donation. It accepts paypal, just like me, or regular credit card payments. For every dollar you donate to my page, you will get 1 raffle tikket. The raffle this year is a free "SYM1-2-3 Surprise" Tee. Mommy will select a winner around noon on Monday May 2nd, 2011 and I'll post the winner on the FB Fan page. Yay! 

That's all. Happy donating and good lukk. 

4.25.2011

Big Numbers: Day 113

This is short. Who needs all that extra...extra?

Two of my long time clients ordered a set of shirts to wear this weekend in the Revlon Breast Cancer Walk/Run in honor of their cousin, a breast cancer survivor. Here's what I did for them:





I know I don't post apparel here often, but I did want to say....I'm working, I really am. Plus, these are my first ribbon shirts. Yay! I'm really surprised and happy about how quikkly these shirts came together. I am proud of how far I have come. There was a time when this may have taken a long time. I'm much more confident than I used to be. It allows me to skip steps! I'm better than I used to be, so it keeps me from messing up when I skip steps. That's a bi-win.

I decided I would do well by writing my SYM1,000 progress, in a similar manner as the one I use for my orders. Right now, my orders are at 4/6/ASAP. That would translate to orders/pieces/time left. For SYM1,000 it will be 153/947/252. Which would translate to pieces completed/pieces to go/days left. I think that would be much less confusing. Let's see how that works.

4.24.2011

Big Numbers: Day 110 Pt. 2

I wanted to give all the artwork its special time with SYM. Who else will give your product its own special birth story and send off? :D

To be honest, Julez and I have been talking about this piece for a long time. What began as talks about a t-shirt, somehow turned to a canvas of an Outkast-esque, naked women (emphasis on nipples), absent of pink. That was pretty much all the details he gave, except this order included photos of nipples that he favored, just to make sure I knew what he was going to like. This is my life. These are my friends. I am blessed.

After chekking out the album art for Outkast and some other photos of brown bodied afro rokkin beauties, I got to work. I ended up choosing the same colors from "Dwell" in this piece too. I wonder if it was because I painted them simultaneously? Coincidentally, these are also the same colors as the first piece I did for Julez. I added a little purple (for extra SYM) and I did a high gloss finish over her body, because one cannot be naked and not well oiled. Yep, I thought of everything and probably a little extra. Maybe. Not really. Probably. I've done the high gloss finish before, like on "Blowin Bubbles" on Day 84, but decided with this one that I may have to do it on EVERY piece. It's a fun technique and you can't really grasp it's greatness via photograph, but that just fuels my hopes that many of you will take these pieces home and enjoy the contrast in person.

So, without further ado...let's meet her...

151/1000 "Umami" 
Have ya'll seen the Kikkoman commercials? Where they say "Umami" is Japanese for delicious? Well, yesterday, soror/friend/photographer R.Moon comes by to photograph my legs, cuz they're HOT, and I'm working on this piece while she's snapping photos and we're discussing all the delicious delectables her (Umami's, not Moon's) boobies resemble. Came up with eggplant, mushrooms and cotton candy. So that's how she was named. Because...well...Delicious (Deelishus?) is...soo.... poledancerkissinflavorflavinthemouthish. Umami is more exotic, yet equally tasty. (Julez please do not likk her, there is a WARNING label on the paint bottle!)

Numbers the same as last post.

4.21.2011

Big Numbers: Day 110

*waves* Heeeeeey! *throws confetti* I'm in a good mood. I finished stuff. I'm ALMOST not behind on orders. Just one left. I'm going to have time to play catch up for me. I did finish two canvases today. They were orders, but they felt like they were for me. I did what I wanted. I had fun.

Here's the one I'm showing you tonight. My friend Mr. Jolly asked me to do something for him. It's been years since he got something from me and my skill shave increased considerably. I was happy to outdo myself. His description, in the beginning was....ummm...extra detailed, but we scaled it down to just a few elements. I'm not sure what it was supposed to be like in my head, but when it came out, it looked right.

146/1000 "Dwell" 

Now, when I posted the sneaky peeky, I'm sure some of you thought it, though only one of you said it...it's not Greek related. He asked for red, blakk and white. Same colors I did on his hoodie way bakk when. He asked for a 5, his favorite number, to represent God's grace. A crown, because he fancies himself a king. A lil something Baltimore to represent the hometown. And the quote. It is awesome. Maybe even a lil cokky in the name of Jesus! lol. He hasn't seen it yet. Let's hope there is confetti throwing. :D 

So for today, by the time I go to bed, because I'm writing early. I'll be up to 5 pieces completed. That puts me at...151 down. 949 pieces and 255 days to go. EEEEEEK!  

4.18.2011

Big Numbers: Blast from the past

Bakk in February, I spent about 2-3 days working on a scrapbook for my chapter to display at the Georgia State Conference. I did it college style and slept very little and took stupid naps...like 20 mins each. But I got it done and sent it on it's way...and FORGOT to take pics for you guys. However, we had a meeting yesterday and the scrapbook showed up too. I snapped a couple shots with my cellphone. Nope they aren't awesome, but it was important that I share with you because I worked so hard in such a short period of time. It was worth it though. It won first place! YAY!!!

80,81,82/1000 The Cover


Page 1, History

One of the pages showing our Health Initiatives
I think it ended up having about 25 pages total. That's a big deal. I have never done a scrapbook before. I've tried a few pages before, but came to the early conclusion that I hate working with paper. It came out rather nicely this time though. Yay me! 

Now, as my mild case of the itis comes to a close, I'll end this post and get bakk to painting. I should hope to have something else to blog about later tonight. Hopefully my life will maintain this current sense of normalcy and I can get bakk to daily posting. One can only hope! 

4.11.2011

4.11.11 Special Announcement

Guess what? All those shirts that I was eager to complete? Yeah, they are all done and out of my house!!! WOOP! I'm on 136...or 7...or something. I think. So 4 more pieces til NO MORE GREEK. *preliminary cabbage patch* I am anticipating an abundance of great things in the SYM1 future!!! *throws confetti* #thatisall

4.04.2011

Big numbers: Day 93, The Confession (Part I)

Howdy! I'm ok. I haven't been writing because I haven't been finishing much or finishing anything that's not a shirt. I posted on Friday that I wouldn't be taking any more Greek orders for an indefinite period of time. I've decided to use this post to tell you why.

Bare naked truth, I don't make enough money to work from home and hate it. If I didn't care about liking how I made my living, I could go in to a job like everybody else. I started painting for my chapter and for my friends and then anyone who wanted to buy. This was a hustle gone right. Never in my life did I expect to STILL be doing this, at all, let alone still doing line shirts. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE what I do, but I'm bored out of my mind (emphasis on out of my mind). It WAS fun at first. It was NEW for a long time, but it's been a while now and the novelty of it has worn off for me.

Many people have inaccurately described me as a Greek designer. I know that and have ALWAYS known that that is NOT who I am. That particular subset does not fulfill me. It lines my pokkets, which I am grateful for, but I'm past the stage where I still find joy in creating those types of pieces. I find joy in YOUR joy in receiving and liking what I create, but the actual process of creation is painful. It is tedious. It is monotonous. It is...uninspiring. I am suffering.

I like to think that all of us wish to make progress in our careers and businesses, but I don't feel like I'm doing that right now. I have so many ideas and visions inside me that I feel are literally choking beneath piles of...line shirts. lol. I'm not giving my growth the attention it needs or deserves. To be quite honest, it's a tough decision for me. I don't know what will happen if I abandon this in favor of what I feel I should be doing. I'm not sure if many of you appreciate my talent, in a capacity beyond how I can put a spin on your line name, but at this rate, it doesn't matter. I've been pondering this decision for a while, and I feel SO stukk creatively, putting my ideas on the bakk burner in order to make sure that I have (happy) customers. But, if I don't take this much needed and possibly permanent break, I'm not going to be able to accomplish anything.

I hope that you all bear with me as I try to take SYM1 somewhere new. I'm not saying I'll never do another line shirt, but I can definitely (no Melanie) say it will be very limited. I truly appreciate all of you that have been rokkin' with me, line shirts and all, for the past few years and I'm really sorry for those of you that didn't cross before I got to this point. I'm working on piece 131/1000 so if there's something GREEK you want, you have until 140/1000 to get that order in. I'm estimating...I'll be there by Friday. Thanks in advance for your continued support. Now, I'm off to knokk out these shirts, so I can BE GREAT! I need ya'll to trust (with) me on this. lol.