Good day!  Started early (for me) with hex and coffee at Firehook - ha, we can't stop calling it that.

Posted cards to site, and ran off to photograph Precipice print.  Mixed results.

Started big SM project of prints on wood.  Sort of fun feeling creative and free.  Made screens, so all set to print tomorrow.

Early evening walk with ladies after running out quickly for coke at gas station ($1.50 !!).  The sun was shining, the start of golden hour, and I realized I should be out with them THEN every day instead of walking in the sad dark.  So that will be my new plan!

Sold chairs finally on marketplace, and then was off to SMUM.  Metro was apocalyptic - filled to capacity, yet we kept stopping at super crowded stations and people kept squeezing in.  It was harrowing!!  I managed to find a set and all was better, but I was so isolated that I missed my stop.

UM good , a happy drop.  Then the gym, which was totally empty.  It's sad when it's like that.  Where is everybody??

Tomorrow > print.

- - - - - - 

Sitting in the sauna, my mind wandered to bsur, and all that bloomed out of that, and just now thinking about posting shot of Irene in my first tee design, and what came out of that!  

Jordy > bill and John > Adam > bsur > branddave.  Its a crazy progression, and IS SO FUCKING MAGICAL (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) how all that came from the tiny seed of creativity and spark of an idea that I put into motion with a series of actions.  All the people, products, $$$, happiness, (frustration) everything that flowed out of that one thing - that idea, that motion and action.  It's just so exciting to think about, all that I have done.  Its very powerful ! 

 

 Weird time(with govt shutdown)?  I don't know, it just seems like the streets are empty and holiday is not started.  Good election last night.  I am staying away from the news!  Glad about that discipline.

Working slow this week with stomach issues.  Monday was a full day of cheryl, and yesterday I printed for SM, and that was pretty much it.  Today I finished that (soooooo sloooooow) and finally got my nov postcard finished (redo of course) and Steve's cards finished up.  Creative energy very low.  I have drawn nothing lately.  For weeks.

Have a lot to do, so i'll keep on moving forward.  Hopefully stomach gets better over time, and I can gain some sort of momentum.  I need it! 

Quick post post-gym pre-getting the fuck out of here.

Week going by fast.  They will from now until Jan.  Worked on prints today, and prepping envelopes.  haha, that sounds pretty pathetic when I write it down.  Buckle down, Dave !!!

Started holiday cards too, and that could easily become a swamp.  

INSIGHT on my walk home from gym ::: DON'T SPEND A LOT OF TIME DESIGNING HOLIDAY CARDS, MAKING A PERFECT COLLECTION ETC - YOU DON'T SELL A LOT ANYMORE, AND YOUR TIME IS BETTER SPENT ELSEWHERE!!

Good SM news which injected some spring in my step.  That and NSYNC Girlfriend/Gone.  Forgot about those!

ok time to leave for the night.  Tomorrow is another chance to make progress! 

INSANE Friday led to a relaxed weekend.  All worked out, but not at all how I expected.

Got a lot done friday amidst all the chaotic feelings - finished and shipped print + commission, and finally got out the SM UM/W with Totes, tees, and leftover Holiday cards from '24.  Needed to make these trips so bad, but they were sort of inconclusive.  Got a blah reception at W, disappointing actually.  I felt like yesterday's news.  Funny, not typical.  And UM was busy with an event, so I was sort of coming in with bad timing.

Anyway, HATE the card spinner W is using, so in the process of replacing that.  Such a strange selection in 2025.  But think I found one that will work.

The commission was well received, which makes me feel good.  Lots of angst!  Stayed out of the studio most of the weekend.  Stayed around the apt with Hexy and ladies.  Coffee, walks, tv - weather is turning.

No big trek to the woods, felt uninspired.  Haha, I always do now.

Back today and muddled Monday as usual.  Made some progress here and there.  Its a turn the page kind of time.  New projects, and things to buy - ugh.  Too much to buy. 

 

Productive day, even keeled, which is a nice change!

Finished tees for SM, made a new plan for P_ _ _ _ (devious) and finished prints on wood.  Adding the Branddave really helped the cat, and the Dog commission came out great.  Plain, but looks right that way.

MAJOR progress in my push to stay off fucking Drudge, and away from the Dow.  I am happily oblivious for almost 24 hours now about what happened today.  NICE !

Home to pizza - yay!! 

 

Rough start to the day with Emma waking Hex up early to walk, and the off-ness flowed throughout the day.

Made my screens for prints that are ordered, and figured out my wood dilemma pretty quickly.  

Printing for one went ok, wish the cake was a bit less messy, and I think I need to add a logo at the bottom to balance it all out.  It looks pretty plain as is.  

Made the choice to orient it a little higher on the wood, and of course that was not the right choice.  Now it looks a bit top-heavy.  I'm so picky about my work.  If I could, I would do it all over again.

Frustrated with FB Marketplace and extreme lack of movement on these great things I have up.  Where are the customers?????  I'm baffled.  At the same time the govt is shut now for weeks, no end in sight, and economic indicators are in the shithole.  2025 health insurance scares me.  Scares me.

Walking back from gym, after a nice serene sauna, and came to the OBVIOUS realization that I have have have have have to stop constantly checking Drudge, my one-stop site for "News" about the world ending.  It's been a slippery slope back into the moment by moment lust for info that I escaped after the FUCKING election, and it's just destroying my mental health.  It has to stop. 

Tomorrow is about printing shirts (arrived at Fed Ex) and finishing up these prints.   

 

Ugh - I keep going over the issue with _ - over and over and over.  Every dog walk, every walk to the gym, over and over and over and over.  So exhausted with myself.  When will I stop ruminating over this ????

Anyway, productive day, but inefficient.  Cut some wood for commission, primed, only to have to do all the steps over again, because I realized the original pieces were not right after all.  Think I have it set and settled now.  But then -- another mess-up happens with another reprint ordered, so I need to cut even more wood to work it out.  Ugh.

But my big idea to push for holidays NOW has stalled completely.  Production is super laggy (non-existent) so I'm slowly entering myself into the position I am in EVERY YEAR.  November comes, and I say to myself, if only I had prints MADE, I could then spend time trying to sell them, rather than be bogged down making them.  I can never seem to break the pattern.

So worried and focused on "events" that I have ZERO control over, but just are bonkers, and are heading somewhere, and the uncertainty drives me insane.  I am constantly checking my phone to see if the world has ended.   It's debilitating, to say the least.

 Long time no post.  Each day comes and goes, and I guess I just haven't had time to blog?  Sort of.

After AOA I spent time making the extra tees, and what ?? Haha, I'm at a loss - what have I been working on ??  

I made some prints for SM g-town, and then I finally worked on my commission that has long stalled, Friday.  Today I got my subs out, and updated the tees on site a bit.  

I look at them now and am not satisfied.  I AM NEVER SATISFIED !! 

 

Blah blah blah, in a negative mood.  Maybe just best to leave it there, and as ALWAYS, hope for better tomorrow.  And the next day. 

Great Saturday at AOA.  Not as terrific as '24, but still good.

Lots of thoughts, but it's time to go home.  Tomorrow is my B-Day!  Yay/Ugh

Until then. 

 

Bleary-eyed at 7:40pm after a long day printing bits and pieces.  Sort of drudgery, going back through, printing small runs of disparate pieces.  

Totes coming out well.  Staying clear of designs that I think would be tricky, and that was a good policy!  

The new shirts are harder than I thought - some just don't look good with the designs I have.  Or it's not universal.  So I have to plot it all out, which is exhausting at this point (the 12th hour).  Just want to be done.

Sadly, I still have a bunch of printing tomorrow.  Wanted to be done.  Ugh 

Finished Next Gen NYC as I printed, and it was a fun distraction but much better first half.  All stories sort of fizzled, which I guess is normal.  Brookes - not a fan.

Another day of shirt production.  Finally got the new ones in a what a difference!

WHAT 

WAS 

I 

THINKING 

WITH 

THOSE 

OTHER 

COLORS 

?????????????

These are SO much better, I just don't know why I was so brain-dead and didn't get the right ones.  I will regret it until my dying day (ha)

Everything got messed up because I got the shirts A F T E R I had already printed my screens with all the fuck ups and taping and bs that involves.  So it's not so fun to go thru that all again (and totes now too).  But that was my choice.

Terrible, awful morning making 1,000 printing errors.  So discouraged how they were turning out.  

Printing white has been a huge challenge with thick ink and it pulling up after printing.  And for some reason, i keep fucking up heights.  Ugh not good.  I just want to disappear these shirts and start over.  I wish I could.

Made teh leap to totes which scared me after past experience (the texture) but they are coming out well.  Taught myself to use 1 tote at the bottom as a "platform" and this seems to work pretty good.  Think I will drop the whole idea of redoing the positives to make them more tote sized -- too much work.  And colored ink has gone out the window as well.  At this point, I just want to get through them as fast as possible.

Printed (and posted) "precipice".  ha, a flop I think.  But I love it. trying to decide if it will be Oct postcard.  I'm leaning in that direction. 

Re-begged on speeding ticket  - another delay (yay) and something to be hopeful about.  I have really really been in the dumps lately.  

 

I don't know

I don't know

I don't know

Tumultuous days spent making shirts, fretting about my shitty color choices, beating myself up about my stupid designs, spiraling over "friends", and pulling the dogs along on our walks.  Life could be better.  My whole psyche could be better.  Right now it's shitty x 1,000

Spent way too long on the precipice design that just popped in my head and is so dry and niche.  After all that work "perfecting" it, I'm printing it on 2 shirts.  Two.  2.  

(THANK GOD I LOOKED AT THE SPELLING LAST MINUTE.  CLASSIC, DAVE)

So bogged down on friend upsets that its been muddling our dog walks.  Made some steps in another direction.  We'll see how that pans out.

Overall, just in a shitty place.  Want this show to be over, so I can move AWAY from it.  And of course the turning of the month doesn't help.  

 

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ out vs $ in