And so it goes...

crabby, cranky, not so productive.

What is it with January? These gray skies have to open up soon.

I can't wait for warmer, happier weather! And for my creative mood to lift.

Soon! Soon!

I'm waiting.

dear dave,

the malaise continues. I've been working on marketing stuff. We'll see if any of those seeds grow. Reloaded etsy. I'm so unsure about the whole thing. So many people seem to have success with it. I keep wondering what the secret is. There sure is a lot of stuff for sale.

It's snowing, and I'm craving pretzels. I keep thinking about trekking to Safeway, but I know it's a bad idea. My feet will get soaked.

The day feels over. I'm going home.

dear dave,

I bit the bullet and spent 99 cents on Pandora for the rest of the month. Turns out 40 hours of listening time goes rather fast.

I've been drawing the past few days with not much direction and little results. I've been thinking about new prints, the AXIS (!) windows, Tom's shirts. But nothing is going anywhere (yet).

All I seem to want to do it fiddle with my site and stress out over my warped boards. Not the best use of my time, but it seems to be where I'm at these days.

Let's hope it all leads somewhere soon...

struggling with warped boards lately. I'm determined to crack the code, and figure out how I can prevent/improve. It's gotten ridiculous.

Cold outside. Very monday. Im going home.

Not much to report lately.

Back at corcoran this morning - which was nice. Reprinted You Disappoint Me.

Super cold day. I had to drive around with my top down, since the board I was printing on needed to stick out the top. Kind of crazy. You do what you have to do.

Feel more at peace with my site. I'm in a good position to load it up with new content. The structure is there.

Ready to move forward.

great response to Valentines, which is awesome.

Shipped first round out today - and ordered more tees. On a roll?

Warmer weather feels good. Im off to the gym.

dear dave,

I really enjoyed my lunch with Tom Goss today. Nice to get out of the studio, and out of my head. Looking forward to making cool new tees for him this spring. Stay tuned!

VALENTINES ON SALE NOW!!

After so much back and forth in my brain (riding an elliptical no less), I have updated my drawings on my website in my portfolio section. It's a work in progress. I need to add words, to make sense of it all.

Nothing seems to make much sense. Im all about random-but random doesn't seem to be working much for me lately. I'm (trying) to change course.

Angst! so much angst!

Chris, Wednesday.

Busy the past few days editing branddave.com. A big campaign to get back to basics, and cut the fat. (Turns out there was a lot of fat!)

I'm determined to make the most of my time, and prepare. Planning to make a major marketing push this spring, and the first step has to be polishing up my site.

So that has been the focus. So far so good.

the struggles continue

dear dave,

Working on website past few days. One change leads to another. Soon I'm deep inside, changing everything. It's all so easy, which may be a curse? Certainly a time sucker.

Adding new prints, and tightening shirts. It's tough to balance new and old. I've been struggling lately with my photography. Maybe it's time for a new camera. Not so happy with recent photos. Especially struggling with photographing prints.

And warped wood! Seems like many of my stored prints have warped considerably.

I have a lot I could be working on and planning for, but I feel like I'm missing a base or launching pad from which to jump. I'm in this constant state of uncertainty, and it's taking its toll on my creativity.

Shot with Stephen this afternoon. I nice guy. I like this pic -

Worked on my indie fixx shop today. Not much more to report. But overall-it's all good.

dear dave,

more of the same today.  My schedule with Joe/Axis changed which helps A LOT!  Happy about that.

I've been busy tweaking my site, and adding new prints.  Now that it's done, and its 4:30, and it's getting dark, and it's Friday, and I don't have a class to prepare for tomorrow, I'm feeling lazy.

Of course there is stuff to do.  Tom is making coffee.  Maybe I'll rally.

---
Back to the gym yesterday after months of non-membership.  Hex gave me a 30 day pass.  So nice to be back, moving again!

Another unused valentine design--I fought hard (in my head) to use it.
Dear Dave,

Seems like every day is a challenge.  Yesterday I slept terribly, and woke up to another bad headache.  I came to work, but felt so off.  I finally broke down and decided a massage was the best cure.  What a good decision!  Marco is the very best.  The best.

That and gallons of water made me feel much better.  But the day was lost.  I stayed home and watched way too much tv.

Back today, and really focused, which is nice.  I think the massage really helped.  I feel much more clear and centered.

The valentines are finished, uploaded and ordered.  The website is updated with the valentines, homepage revised, and CCnow links opened.  Facebook has been alerted, and my phone and email tags have been updated.

Okay - Lets sell some valentines!

Rocky start to a rough day!  But I managed to pull things together towards the end.

Here is a sneak peek at my new Valentine collection.  Worked hard today pulling the final designs together.  I think they are really great!

On sale tomorrow.  Valentines Day is practically minutes away!

working on valentines.  Don't think this one will make the cut - but I really like it!

dear dave,

Here is the famous bee tattoo!  HaHa - tickles me to see it.  I worked hard on that bee!

Happy New Year!  happy to be back at work with the rest of the world.  Onto new things.  I feel new energy.  I'm going to do better.