Notes from a Designer: November 2015

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Top 5 Funny Christmas and Holiday Tshirts Online

Fleece Navidad Cute Christmas Tshirt with Sheep
Christmas comes but once a year. But when it comes, it lasts for a month or so. Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving, with Black Friday. Then there's Cyber Monday -- or is it Cyber Sunday now? -- and then the Christmas shopping season is fully upon us. However, if you're doing your shopping on line this year, it's important to remember to order EARLY. Many companies, such as Cafepress and Zazzle, need a little extra time so they can produce or print your gift order, because Print on Demand companies are exactly that -- they don't even print the item until after it's ordered.

Gettin Baked for the Holidays Tshirt
The printing can take as little as a day, but since this is a busy time of year, it can also be considerably longer. So the earlier you order, the better. Add to that the fact that shipping, if you order online, is cheaper if you can wait a little longer. Obviously, if you wait until December 20 to order online, you're likely to have to pay higher shipping fees for fast delivery. Whereas if you order the first or even second week of December, you can opt for the cheaper shipping. It's all about having time to receive the item, check it for quality, and get it wrapped by December 24.

Life's Short, Eat the Figgy Pudding First
That said, NOW is the perfect time to order that funny holiday t-shirt! If you're planning to order one for yourself, it'll be useful all through the month of December. You can wear a funny holiday tee to office parties, informal gatherings, Santa Claus photo sessions, holiday shopping and other holiday gatherings.

Keep calm or you'll shoot your eye out t-shirt With broken glasses

Bite Me Funny Gingerbread Man Christmas tee Happy Holidays!!

Friday, November 20, 2015

I Love Paris

Liberte Egalite Fraternite Products Tee Shirts by FrenchBaby

I've spent time in Paris. It's my favorite city in the entire world. If I could live there I would. It's a city of love, and food, and adventure, and culture, and walking, and romance, and light, and joie de vivre. The recent events in this beautiful city are tragic, horrific and unthinkable. The innocent victims were just ordinary people, going about their lives, enjoying the city and one another. We must never forget them.
We must also never forget that it is our duty, as free citizens of the world, to continue to live as freely as we can. We must exercise not only our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but also the responsibility to defeat evil with good. With a life well lived. With grace, love and humility. With a sense of obligation to give back, pay it forward, help when we can.
Recently I've been spending a lot of time on the website GoFundMe.com . I've been donating what I can, when I can. I give $5 here, $10 there. There are many heartbreaking stories, and I wish politicians would spend a couple of hours a week reading some of them. Maybe they wouldn't be so quick to judge, to slash assistance, to denigrate the needy. Recently I gave a few dollars to a family that needed to bury a child and couldn't afford funeral expenses. If that sounds like a downer, well, let me tell you. I felt uplifted all day. I was not only able to assist a family in crisis, but also to be a part of a larger effort, because crowdfunding at its best is a magnificent coming together of humans helping humans. Most people, I think, who donate to GoFundMe and sites like it are not wealthy. I myself am poor enough that I don't always make my bills at the end of the month (I sell tshirts for a living, for chrissake!). But when I have a few dollars left over, I get the urge to give. Well, once when I had $20 left at the end of the month, I bought flowers, but that's a luxury in my life.
All this is a long way of saying the only way to defeat evil is with good. Light is the only antidote for darkness. Laughter is the antidote for fear. And love is the antidote for hate.