and there's Sport!

I had to break away from my usual titles that, for the last 4 or 5 posts, referenced how long it's been since I blogged... I know it's been a while damnit, it's Summer and I'm trying to pack my days. *edit, I was actually going to talk about sports but I got distracted with what's been happening and just didn't, oh well, next time. I do have a great rant by my little brother about Cleveland sports, but I think I'm going to wait a week when he moves out of Clevo to repeat what he said, ha.*

A lots happened in the past month. Heartbreak, healing, lashing out, way too much drinking... Oh, also I've been working on the Timbers Army clubhouse (I'm allowed to say that now that the official statement is out), affectionately referred to as the Fanladden... I'm currently getting all the storage space together so we can move the merch/shipping operation over... Also I've been building a special little Midwest mural with a TA twist to compliment the bar as a the centerpieces of of the main room. The place has a sneaky ton of space. We at the merch team have some special swag for sale at the Fanladden opening (despite what the official statement says, we will use the space to do some special members only sales, holiday sales, a pickup spot for pre-orders and some other random stuff). I'm currently taking pics of the process and will post them up here in a couple weeks when we're done putting all the finishing touches together.

Continuing on with the Timbers Army, I just finished up the majority of the winter line, It's going to be so cool, so many cool winter hats this year. We learned our lesson about under ordering last year, so we are making about 3-4 different style winter hats and ordering plenty for everyone. Along with a special Holiday boxset, we'll have the usual clip of new hoodies, crewnecks, tees and a special scarf. It's going to be a good winter, now that we have a place to call home, it's on my way home from work so I'm not driving all over town trying to get shit done. Oh ... we will have some late summer gear coming out too... Our labeling manufacture didn't send us all our shirts at once this year so we our going to have some late season tank tops (I know, I know) and some new womens and dudes shirts.

The poster sale went well... I think we sold almost all our poster, and a bunch of them sold out. I got way too drunk. The event raised over 40k ... blew me away, Harper's Playground is officially funded. It's so cool to be apart of the community like that, I remember going to Jefferson High to watch the kids play when we first started funding them a couple years back. It's a humbling experience that makes you feel pretty damn good, like there's some hope out there. I needed that in my life when we first started doing this, I had be jerked around by a bunch of companies, had been laid off, fired, not rehired, given severance... No one wanted me around, I had but all given up on apparel design, something I would like to thing I'm pretty good at. Then I started following the Timbers when I moved out here. I saw the scarves and this whole supporter DIY merch mentality and offered up my services... At that point I had recently finished another contract and was delivering wine because I had but all given up on the design industry and wanted to drive a big truck around... Next thing you know we start out with a couple of new scarf designs, couple of tee shirts, the Sunshine Trailer gets broken and we're off an running. It's been a truly amazing, once in a lifetime, experience. Having my designs effect community outreach the way it does, is so great that it brings tears to my eyes.

ANYWAYS, here's some photos from the signing and show:

So on the docket for the next month, new merch releasing, my ball hockey team, The Bill McCreary Allstars, made the playoffs that take place next weekend at Alberta Park... So that will be super fun, I have a hockey beard that's so think it's driving me insane... Gotta get the Fanladden open too. But in the end I'm just trying to slow down a bit heading towards winter, so I can start painting (my paintings) and playing Fifa 13. Got a couple of new logos I'm working on coming up. Other than that just making crap and trying to find new interesting projects and enjoying our perfectly weathered summer.

Take care, I'll be posting relatively soon with some picks of our new product.

Listening to: The Bronx albums The Bronx (1 and 3)

Also if you get a chance to check them out the Downtown Struts are this freaking awesome young up and coming band, their first real studio album Victoria is really good. Their finally getting to support some big bands, so expect bigger and better things. I love their style, it's a like rancids happy reggae chords mixed with dead to me ...