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I did it again! Almost too pooped to type but…
I friggin’ DID IT! — AGAIN!
You may recall that yesterday I was all a twitter about having done 45 minutes of exercise — also known as – domestic duties.
Today, mere moments ago, I DID IT AGAIN!
On my “to do” list (we will NOT discuss just how long it’s been there) is to “sort, shred, and file” as appropriate, years of accumulated paper, old bills, photos from dance events, score sheets from dance events, certificates from dance events, dvds and videos from dance events, more bills, more statements, more…
well you get the idea.
So… facing the inevitable and not finding ANYTHING else to distract me, I proverbially girded my loins (anyone know how to gird? — what is “girding” anyway?) but I digress…
I was ready. the moment had come to START… just START, finishing will be weeks away, but to START that particular project.
So, I put on a new podcast from my favorite DJ “Mr Andi Mik” and got to work…
I just reached a stopping point, and turned to pause the mix and was SHOCKED!
FABER-gasted!
Flum-FLUXED!
AGOG!
AGHAST (well I wasn’t really Aghast, but since agog and aghast have such a nice alliteration I thought I’d throw that one in just for fun)
Eeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy Way….
I was well and truly AMAZED-ed.
See I ur a colludge grad-u-ut! I knows some BIG wurds.
So… the timer on the pod cast read 3 minutes left, 58 minutes played.
FIFTY-EIGHT FRIGGIN MINUTES of…
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Why Should Cowboys Have all the Fun?
Brace yerselves… This is gonna be short!
Bad Cowgirl c2013 TxCowboyDancer Designs
I can do short. I prefer long though…
Those folks in the back row spitting soda all over themselves can just keep their snarky remarks in the peanut gallery where they belong!
Thhhhhhhhppppptttttttt! So there!
As I was writing my last blog post (not counting the mea culpa…) Sorry about that folks. I didn’t really mean to spam everyone’s inboxes. I promise!
Anyway… It occurred to me cowGIRLS probably are bad sometimes too. And who am I to discriminate? Hmmmm???
So… I fired up my graphics program and created a GIRL version of the “I’ve been a bad Cowboy…” Design. Woot!
My favorite TWO products with the new design…
I’m not going to spam your inbox with lots of products. If it looked good with the “Bad Cowboy” then it looks good with the “Bad Cowgirl” design.
Having said that here are my two favorite just for the girls. 🙂
Available in Round, Square, Sliver finish or gold tone.
Denim fabric; other styles of wallets and bags also available
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Where Ideas Come From…
I confess that I have a weird brain
Ok, Ok… friends who know me outside of this blog… Hmmm.. Scratch that… whether you know me from reading this blog or if you know me from wherever…
You can stop laughing.
Now! Stop! I tell you!
Cease. Desist! *SIGH* Fine…
I’ll wait. Dum de dum dum..
Ok, there, got that out of your system? *SIGH*
Yes, I’m fully aware that I have a strange brain. It makes connections that most people don’t make. I’m not saying that in a “bragging” way because most of the connections that it makes are not for public consumption and I wisely keep them under wraps.
I have thought occasionally that maybe everybody’s brain works this way and that EVERYBODY keeps the weirdness under wraps so everybody thinks that nobody makes these weird connections. Which is just weird.
Because if we’re all “weird” and making “weird connections” then wouldn’t that make “weird” well.. Uhmmm “normal?”
I should move to Austin Texas. Ya gotta love a city who’s unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird”
uh-oh… I’ve gone into Free Association Mode. BEEP Danger! Warning! Danger Will Robinson! Resetting Brain…
I Told you! that my brain makes weird connections! I wish someone would make a “brain image recorder” because the movie of my brain would be well, weird. Interesting, maybe, scary, probably, but definitely weird.
BUT!!!!!!! WEIRD IS sometimes AWESOME! Like when you’re a “creative personality” or you are a comedian then you get on stage and say just about anything that comes to mind. And get paid for it! Woot! (I confess, money, or the impending lack of it is something that very near the surface of my thoughts almost 100% of the time lately… but I digress…)
I do that you know. 😉 Back to the comedians:
In two separate interviews, two of my favorite comedians / actors: Robin Williams and Jim Carey answered essentially the same way when asked about “Where they get their ideas?”
Both of them said that they get ideas constantly, almost continuously. The hard part is to not say them out loud because people would call 911 and nice guys with a really cool white jacket would show up. Essentially they said they their brain is just wired that way; they can’t shut it off.
Hmmm… I guess that puts me in pretty good company. LOL I just wish I made as much as those guys. 🙂
Speaking of the weird, well unusual.. in a good way… when you visit my blog, check out the snowflakes. COOL! No, I didn’t do it. It is something that Word Press does for the month of Dec.
Background on my latest design:
Bad Cowboy c2013 TxCowboyDancer Designs
Sometimes my ideas seem to just pop into my head but this idea is a little more concrete.
I was out at a club, Hmmmm, must have been a year ago at least… a friend of mine was looking at this really cute guy and said “I’ve been a bad cowboy. You should send me to his room.”
Well I burst out laughing and promptly found one of those little cards they put at the bar to write phone numbers on, and wrote it down.
It has been in my “idea file” every since. Uhmm.. not the card; the quip. I have this text file on my computer where as strange and weird things occur to me that *might* end up on a t-shirt someday, well I jot them down.
And when I get stuck for an idea, I open it up and start skimming. The first one that makes me laugh out loud. Yes LOL for real, well, that is the one I start working on.
As I was finishing up this design I showed it to my room mate and he said. “Oh I’ve seen that on a t-shirt before.” After I said “Oh Crap!” I clarified with my roomie that my design, to the best he could recall, looked a lot different than the tee-shirt he had seen before.
So… a quick internet search revealed that while I’m definitely not the first one to do a design along these lines, none of the designs I could find look like mine! WHEW! Want to see the search? you’ll see that my design is WAY COOLER! Jus’ Sayin’ 😉
Mental note to Tony: before spending hours on a design, do an internet search to see if someone else has already done it and if they have, well do it different and better. Whew!
My favorite TWO products with the new design…
Stretched Canvas Print – Available framed or unframed on skinny to thick canvases or on single, double, triple or quad panel configurations.
I’m going to do something new with this post, even though I realize it is already long. See what happens when I let my “inner weird” break loose? *sigh*
Anyway, I”m going to put two products up front and center: A dart Board and a Canvas Print.
You can see the rest of the products after the jump if you like. But these two products are something that I always put new designs on but no one has ever bought. Yet.
Probably because they are sorta expensive. Eeek! I know that I wouldn’t buy them. Hey, truth in advertising! But I’m an out-of-work librarian pretending to be a graphics designer! LOL Not some potentially wealthy customer with money to burn and friends to buy presents for… *hint* *hint*
Dart Board featuring “I’ve been a bad cowboy” design. Available at TxCowboyDancer Designs
AN – KNEE – WAY…
These two featured products are ones that I think would be perfect for a MAN CAVE or a BAR or a NIGHTCLUB!
Hey! Terri B. Are you reading this? Hmmmmm????
Roger? How about you? Show it to the owners! Don’t you think one of these would look great at the RU?
Hey Debbie! Don’t you want one of these for your new club?
OMG! I know a lot of bar folks! LOL Not a word dear readers… not a word!
The REST of My favorite products…
…with the new design on stuff that is a lot cheaper and priced for mere mortals and not Guys looking to decorate their Man Cave or Bar Owners looking to sell beer…
jus sayin… 😉
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Coffee Kitty is NOT a Morning Cat… Uhmmm… Person
Given how sleep deprived I am this morning…
c2013 TxCowboyDancer Designs
…this design is somehow very appropriate.
Since this is only the second in this new series, here is a reminder about the format. Each post will have three parts:
- A large image of the new design (like the one to the right)
- A bit of background on how the design came about (just below)
- A few of my favorite products with the new design (just below that)
I hope you are enjoying the “back story” on the designs as I create them.
Even if you don’t visit the store and do some shopping, please hit the share and like buttons so that others can find out about my designs. Thanks!
Background on my latest design:
I don’t remember where I first saw this cat. I think it was either on Facebook or maybe it popped up in a Google search. I’ve slept since then… 😉
Following the trail back to the source of the image lead me to a website called Deviant Art; a site I had never visited before. Wow, talk about a different part of the Interwebz! LOL
This was the image that I first saw… I Need Coffee Original sketch by (by YTCyberPunk)
If you’ve never heard of Deviant Art, check it out. It is a lot of fun, but a lot of, well, deviant, in a good “artistic” way. Basically it is a place for artists and photographers to hang out and share their work, comment and critique, and take a peek at what other artists and photographers are doing.
Some of the work on the site is jaw dropping amazing. Some of it is amusing. Some of it, quite frankly, is awful. Not awful in the sense of lack of inspiration or effort but in execution—sorta baby works by artists who still have “training wheels” on their paint brushes or mouses. Mice? Miceses?
Whatever you call more than one computer mouse. But hey, art is in the eye of the beholder, and all of it is fun. Think “coffee house” in Soho with local artists works on the wall, and you get the idea… only without the coffee and it is on the Internet instead of in New York… but anyhoo…
Hmmm… coffee must be on my brain this morning… Slllllluuuuuurrrrrrrrpppppp…. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
You know you are truly hooked when you are only a third of the way through your first cup of coffee and there is NO WAY the caffeine can actually be hitting your system yet, but your body reacts physiologically to the mere promise of more caffeine hitting the blood stream soon. *SIGH*
I Need Coffee (by YTCyberPunk) Cleaned up Ink Version
But I digress.. I do that you know…
So… on the Deviant Art website, has a way for visitors to purchase a digital copy of the artwork for their personal non-commercial use like putting it on a computer desktop as the background. Or printing it off and framing it and hanging it on the wall.
But I didn’t want the image for personal use. I wanted to edit the design and I wanted to sell the design on products like t-shirts and coffee mugs. So, having never done this before, I said “what the hey” and took a chance. I emailed the artist and asked her if she’d consider selling me the commercial rights to her drawing, including the right to edit the drawing and add captions.
It turns out that the “drawing” was just a doodle she had done during class and that she’d never actually ever sold one of her works before and was very flattered that I liked her drawing.
Since we were both “babes in the woods” so to speak, we talked it through, making the contract up as we went. We eventually agreed that she retain copyright on the original drawing and that I would have copyright on any modifications based on her drawing.
I sent her a payment and in exchange I got a cleaned up copy of the drawing from her and the commercial rights to print the modified versions on t-shirts etc. Coolness! My first official bizness KNEE-go-she-Ayh-SHUN! Woot!
Storyline showing development of the design as I edited it
When I got the cleaned up “pen and ink” version, I decided that actually liked the original “messy” pencil version better.
So working with both the original “messy” file and the ink “clean” version, I took a bit of this and a bit of that and did a lot of clean up and editing of the “messy” version.
I added color to it a little at a time. I did some MORE clean up, adjusted proportions, shortened the height of the steam, and eventually after several hours of work with a graphics program…
Tah-Dah. I had a design I liked and that was ready to go onto products.
My favorite version is the cream colored cat. But I am playing around with the colors and will at some point in the future have a black and white version and a grey scale version as well. Watch for those. 🙂
Or I might change the color of the coffee cup or I might use the ink version. Who knows. But I’ll have to have more coffee first. LOL
I just LOVE the expression on this cat’s face. Especially since it is so close and contrasts so nicely with the big “smiley” face on the mug! Woot!
My favorite products with the new design…
I had a LOT of fun coming up with captions for the bumper stickers and mugs, etc for this design. I’m a coffee drinker and NOT a morning person AT ALL so this is a topic near and dear to my caffeinated heart. Read the rest of this entry
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 