Tell us a little bit more about this insane t-shirt design.

Well, it all started back during Shark Week. I was inspired to make something that would convey the raw essence of… shark-iness? Sharkitude? Anyway, I ended up with what you see here: well-armed, top-heavy battleship/submarine thingies. I still don’t know what the M.O. of those crewmembers are, they look like impish little fellows though.

Tell us a little about Omnitarian. Being in Wisconsin do you spend a lot of time ice fishing?

I’m a college student who designs t-shirts in my free time. I am definitely not a fan of the ice and snow up here, I prefer a warm blanket over a tiny hut on a frozen lake.

Pancakes or waffles?

Don’t make me choose! Perhaps a mad breakfast scientist will splice together waffle and pancake DNA, ending the issue forever.

How many t-shirts do you own? Describe your favorite.

Ah, yes. I took a count of my t-shirt collection recently: turns out I’ve amassed over 70 shirts over the course of just 1 and a half years. My addiction borders on the unhealthy. I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite, but one that’s been getting a lot of air-time recently is Fawn Memories, a DBH print by Slaterock.

Besides yourself, whose tee designs do you really really dig?

Too many to list! But empirically speaking, I own multiple shirts by Jublin, Wotto, TGentry, Andy G, A.mar.illo and Sassa Tattoo.

Any links?

My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/omnitarian/
My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Omnitarian

Anything else?

Dear Cartoon Network: un-cancel Chowder!

A T-shirt, as you can see on the Tilteed home page, is a garment worn by women and men; an expression of style, mood and art. Today... that is. But the American tee wasn’t born today, or yesterday for that matter, and regardless of what your tees mean to you now, it's historically rooted in the military.

The T-shirt evolved into American culture, say historians, after the U.S. Navy saw British Royal Navy men wearing the lightweight garb under their uniforms. According to a CBS news article about T-shirt history, the Navy “borrowed” the idea of the tee from the British, and began wearing these white, cotton T-shaped designs in about 1913. According to an army historian interviewed in the piece, the army “unequivocally” borrowed the T-shirt from the Navy--creating what was then called a “quarter-sleeve undershirt” for U.S. servicemen. G.I. Joes often came home wearing their army attire, and unknowingly began a brand-new trend.

When 50s-era stars such as James Dean and Marlon Brando showed up on the silver screen cast in white T-shirts, the trend was solidified as a fashion statement.

A decade later, T-shirts began being utilized for different purposes. First, they were tie-dyed. And when screen printing became popular, tees of all shapes and sizes were printed with statements advocating for social change. Moving into the 70s, Rock ‘n Roll seized the opportunity of the tee; bands began printing iconic logos on T-shirts--and fans began buying (and wearing them). The classic tongue and lips Rolling Stones tee is still printed and sold today.

In 2008, according to CBS, a whopping two billion T-shirts were sold in the U.S. We’re not sure how many tees have been bought in 2011, but we’re pretty certain they’re as popular as ever. Check out Tilteed’s one of a kind tees and wear one to keep tee history alive!

Here at Tilteed, we're intrigued by all things tee. Naturally, then, we were excited to see a recent art exhibit that was centered around T-shirts. Over 800 of them, to be exact.

The exhibit took place in Honolulu, Hawaii for three days this May, from the 27th through the 29th of the month. The public outdoor art display featured over 800 off-white T-shirts hung from a series of metal rods in the middle of Honolulu's Kakaako Makai Gateway Park. The tees each represented artwork in the form of original designs from Japan and the U.S. And according to Aloha Art Week, the exhibit was the second of its kind; the first took place in Kuroshio-cho, Kochi prefecture in Japan.

As is often the case with art, there are a few details of the exhibit that aren't crystal clear. Like, for example, why the tees were displayed by way of hanging, so that they continually fluttered in the wind. Doesn't that make the designs on their fronts harder to see? And if so, is a certain obscurity part of "the point?"

We invite you to reflect on the purpose of this unique T-shirt exhibit and let us know what you think about it in the comments section below!

SkyBlew's representing Tilteed in a big way in their newest music video, "Excuse My Lateness."

Wearing two limited tees: Lion About Your Age & And His Head Swelled With Pride

Watch the video above to see the hot new video + make sure to give a shout out to SkyBlew on twitter @HeySkyBlew.

T-shirts. Everyone wears them but almost no one talks about them. Search Google for 'T-shirt Haikus' and you'll find link after link for shirts with haikus on them, but try finding a haiku about a T-shirt and you're just plain out of luck. Because T-shirts are so ubiquitous, it only seems fitting that we appreciate them by bringing them up for commentary. And so, today we present you with some odd, amusing and surprising facts about what we love most: T-shirts.

- According to this site, 62 percent of Americans state they own more than 10 tees, meaning that if a person laid all of these T-shirts out, they'd circle the globe with tees about 34 times.

- On May 22, 2010, Krunoslav Budiselić from Croatia set The Guinness World Record for 'Most T-shirts Worn at a Time' by putting on 245 tees.

- One T-shirt company studied the life cycle of its T-shirts and determined that the C02 emissions from one non-organic cotton tee is about 8.8. pounds.

- The store Forever 21 recently began selling women's T-shirts that read "Allergic to Algebra" across the front. Due to consumer backlash and harsh criticism from the media, what The Washington Post refers to as the "cheap clothing purveyor," Forever 21, has since pulled the tee from its inventory.

- According to the T-shirt Buyer's Guide, 'T-shirt' didn't actually become a word until it was entered in the English dictionary the 1920s.

- Also according to the T-shirt Buyer's Guide, until the 1950s, tees were considered to be underwear only. That is, "until John Wayne, Marlon Brando, and James Dean shocked Americans by wearing their “underwear” on T.V." in the mid '50s.

- Islamic Scholars state T-shirts with images of famous actors or athletes should not be worn during prayer time, according to an article published yesterday. From Al Arabiya News: "The issue was raised after it was noticed that a sizable portion of youths in Egypt go to the mosque wearing T-shirts with pictures of celebrities, the most common of whom are footballers Lionel Messi Mohamed Abu Trieka and Madonna."

- Every single Tilteed tee is hand-printed in a small shop in Portland, OR. on a 100 percent cotton American Apparel T-shirt.

Derick Melander at Friends Academy from Derick Melander on Vimeo.

In today's day and age, T-shirts are about as common as water or wine, though they're not consumed as rapidly--thank goodness. Contrastingly, T-shirts are often worn and re-worn over a period of many years. But what happens to a tee once it's been worn thin or once its 'cool-ness' has become outdated?

Some T-shirts, sadly, end up in landfills. In fact, according to Patagonia, which offers an apparel recycling program called Common Threads, "The population of the United States discards 11.9 million tons of clothing, shoes and textiles per year." Scary as that sounds, it may be comforting to know that some people donate old tees to second hand clothing stores, which keeps them out of the fill. Still yet, there's another--albeit less common and far less expected--place for T-shirts to end up--in works of art.

This route may not be the one most used tees take, considering that there seems to be just one artist in the U.S. making sculptures out of used apparel. Regardless, it's one of the coolest places for an old T-shirt to go. New York artist Derick Melander specializes in creating sculptures out of second hand T-shirts and apparel. As you'll see in the video above, one of his most public works was a sculpted design created in the library of a school with the help of its students. Together, he and the students meticulously folded, color-coded and stacked the items to create a vibrant sculpture that marked the entryway of the library. In this case, the students themselves also donated the clothing that was placed into the piece of art. As a result, Melander says this about the finished piece: "It's essentially a portrait of them or a representation of them, which is really one of the core things I'm trying to get across with these pieces, that the garments all carry a trace of the people who wore them... "

To learn more about the artist, check out his bio here. To see more works of art containing tees, look here.

As you guys know, I’m a graphic artist. So I draw. I sketch. And I create tons of useless little scribbles page after page until "presto!" I come up with one decent little piece amidst a pile of nothing. Typically, that’s when I pack up my sketchbook and head home to my scanner. I let the machine warm up while I line up the page on the glass, hold the book in place as it scans, and... "ACHOOO-UGH!!!" I sneezed during the scan and messed it all up. Trying again, praying not to sneeze, I finally scan in the work without a wiggle. Now I have to crop it and save it, then open Adobe Photoshop and clean up everything in the scan from there. And I haven’t even started fixing my mistakes when I drew the piece! By that point, I want to take a break from it since it’s such a hassle. This is what most of us do in order to get that one piece, that one small sketch, onto the computer for a design or concept. That is...until now.

Enter: Wacom.
And before I go any further, I’d truly like to thank technology for Wacom! Really, I could end this blog now and leave it at that, but really, THANK TECHNOLOGY FOR GIVING US WACOM!!!

If you haven’t already heard the buzz from at least a dozen different sites from Gizmodo to Adobe and just about every artist on the scene whispering in hushed but excited tones, Wacom has decided to eliminate the middle man and design a device that will take your sketch directly to a computer or laptop for manipulation. On August 29th, Wacom released this revolutionary video showing us just what the newest little gizmo in their product line can do. Welcome, the Inkling: a new digital sketch pen that captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with the ballpoint tip on any type of standard or sketchbook paper. That’s right, I hear you skeptics out there, "Why don’t you just continue to use the scanner, J?" Well, to point out the little round dude in the video, the inkling not only captures the artwork digitally, but you can save layers, as well as also create vector graphics for you to manipulate in Photoshop, Illustrator, as well as other vector or bitmap based programs. And what’s the nicest part about this little gem (besides the already awesome features I noted above)? It comes in a carrying case no bigger than a pencil case and comes with 4 extra pen tips, the USB cable and a place to slip in the pen.

My god... you mean to say I don’t have to lug my, albeit reliable, Wacom Intuos3 tablet with me when I travel? Nope! Say goodbye to that extra bag while on those road trips, and TSA will love that you have less to scan on your way through the lines (so will everyone else, for that matter). Simply carry the Inkling with you and plug it in at night once you’re back to the hotel room. It will need charging daily, I suspect, since it hasn’t been specified as to its battery length. It also hasn’t been specified as to the amount of memory it will have, but I figure, with it’s size, you could easily carry a good 10-25 gigs of drawings on it. If it holds more, I’ll be ecstatic, since that would potentially mean, I could draw during a whole vacation, never look at my computer (except to answer emails from my favorite artists and tee fans, of course) and plug in at the end of a week and download all my files to the computer.

Now, what could possibly be the downsides to all of this? Well, first off, you have to wait until mid September. I’m sure we can hold our horses until then. Surely you’re patient, right? I’m sure I can. But the other big downside? The price. Mind you, I got my Intuos3, used, for $399. Half the original value. So when I saw $199 for the Inkling, my heart leapt at the idea I could get this in the near future. Then I remembered I didn’t actually pay for my Intuos3. I got it as a Christmas present... So I’d have to save a bit to get this little time saver. The only other downside I see to owning this little device is, well to be frank, bugs. This is a new product. We don’t know how "accurate" these "likenesses" will actually be, but I’m gonna probably love this thing to death just because it makes my art easier to work with... until something happens and it doesn’t read that I’m using a different piece of paper and puts the layers from the last 4 drawings all on the same file. Yeah, I’d probably flip out as I spend 2 hours separating vectors for each piece. Or, in my blissful ignorance while vacationing, I THINK I have the space available on the device, only to find out it only has 2 gigs of memory and I have to scan my sketches anyway... Except those ones I drew on the napkin while drinking Bahama Mama’s on the beach. Those were great sketches... BUT I DIGRESS!

“J, what’s the bottom line here? Are you telling me to buy one or hold off?” Well, those artists who are great with sketch art, like our friends ISABOA,  GIMETZCO!, or even the beloved Edgar R. McHerly may benefit from this little device. It’ll save time, and allow them to edit things and eliminate cleaning up those pesky paper textures in the background from scans. For those who are more digitally inclined already, like Oiseau, weardecay and Omnitarian (to name a few), I can see where it can be used to quicken the pace of getting ideas from paper to computer, but they seem to already excel in the clean lines and stellar methods they have in place. So I believe it all depends on your current style. Would I get one? Yes. Will I be the first in line to get one? Sadly, no. But whomever does purchase one of these magical wands better put on a heck of a show via YouTube of Vimeo so we can see you literally go from paper to finished product, so I can drool over it, silently from the confines of my little apartment, as I save up for one to use.

Details:

where: NE Alberta street, Portland Or.

when: 11a - 7p

David: "Every single button is amazing. My most favorite is the Guy in a rabbit suit holding onto his bounty of carrots!"

Leah: "Tilteed.com, I love my Edgar R. McHerly bag and buttons. Thank you, thank you. "

You remember these essays when you started back to school. Every teacher did them: “Please write a 500 word essay on ‘What I Did on My Summer Vacation’, due Monday.” (Because, let’s face it, all of our teachers wanted that first essay due the Monday after the first week of school started, just to remind us the weekends were no longer ours). We’d collectively whine and bemoan to our teacher’s disgust, as she’d continue with the rest of the class’ lessons for the the period. She would remain resolute. The report would remain in effect and thus would begin a long year of teacher-student struggles within the classroom. The bell would finally ring, releasing us of our required school bonds and off we’d set, faces forlorn, dreaming for the past nine weeks back as we sulk off to our bedrooms. We’d plop down the notebook and start the arduous task of adding flourish to our summer activities, because Susie Johnson’s always-so-amazing-trips to Disney World and Europe would undoubtedly cause our playing in the creek behind the house to pale in comparison. These were the summers we remembered forever. The same thing, every year and we didn’t need money to do anything... just our imagination, neighborhood friends, sweltering summers and the somewhat frequent prayers for rain to save us from the heat.

Now, fast forward to the present and take a look around. It seems as if we’re past the age of innocence at age three. People expect more than just a sweaty nine weeks off from school. They want every day packed with something to do all in the luxury of air conditioning. They wish to be entertained and they demand to have someone cater to their every whim at any hour of the night. We’ve become entirely too focused on needing the bigger and better and have forgotten the simple joys of sitting outside and watching the fireflies in the warm, windless twilight. Where has the self-made entertainment gone? Where are the memorable romps through the sprinkler system, the fireside campouts and the races down the block to the ice cream man? I miss playing pirates in the back yard and randomly spraying friends with the hose as “mist” from the ocean. I miss the long car rides and the repetitive two or three tapes we’d listen to (really? tapes... yes, tapes) as we drove to see family. We’ve come to expect someone else take care of our desires, and we’ve forgotten how to entertain ourselves with our own imagination. Read books, play outdoors (or indoors if it’s too hot, for that matter), find the nearest place to swim and make your own summer amazing without fancy water slides and amusement parks or being holed up inside watching tv because we’re too impossibly bored because no one will do all the work for us to have fun during the hottest few months of the year.

What did I do on my summer vacation? I did nothing interesting (except find you readers some awesome tees this year)... and loved it. I’m not about to add any flourish to it. I hope you did too.

image source

Those who purchased should be receiving or have already received yours in the mail. We love getting fan photos via Twitter and Facebook, so naturally we need to share these gems with the rest of the tee nerd clan. This weeks featured fan photo comes from one of our twitter friends, Emily Owen. She received her Ganbare Nippon tee in the mail and shared with us, take a look:

Source + more photos at Highsnobiety.com

Our winners for this round are:

Reinis Butans repping a past limited tee. Here's the photo that won him a front place spot this week:

Photo caption: "RIP. People will stop staring once we take over the world"

Our second winner (yes we picked 2 winners!) is David Essex capturing the spirit of the Great Imoto perfectly with this photo:

Photo caption: "My favorite Tilteed shirts as imagined by myself. First is my most favorite shirt ever by The_JCW. My Imoto."

Both of you have won a tee from the Tilteed catalog!!!!

Please email us (info@tilteed.com) your size + your top 3 choices to ensure that we don't send you one that you may already own.

Thank you guys, we really love how you have both played with this theme and captured the spirit of the Tilteed tee.

Stay tuned next week for a new theme for Friday Foto on our blog. Happy Friday everyone!

LTD Tees has an interesting, if expensive way, of setting themselves apart.  They offer limited edition t-shirts by variety artists along with an 8” x 11” print of the design in a custom box.

Now, I’m not that chuffed (it’s in the Urban Dictionary, use your language people) by the print or the fancy box or the shipping cost, but this sneaky cross between Monopoly’s Rich Uncle Pennybags (yes, that is his name) and a Rocky and Bullwinkle villain is so memorably mischievous that it is the first shirt I mention when someone (as dunz0 did) asks:  “Favorite still available t-shirt from an independent line.”  This one:

Anyone so inclined should feel free to send it this way without the pile of loot that seems its natural accompaniment.  Diamonds aren’t really a girl’s best friend, I tell myself, but perhaps if I had this t-shirt that might be more believable.  Plus, paying for your own shirt plugging “Crime” seems wrong.

Art done by J3Concepts/Jared Nickerson, “Crime is Money” is taken from a design called “TV Kills Everything.”  “Crime’s” boldness has a self aware humor that makes me think the character’s about to wink and pocket the gem.  J3Concepts does such a great job of packing personality into this image that I can see myself putting on my new motto and heading out to aid and abet (with a discreet black hoodie over the shirt because I admit nothing. Of course, first I’d need the shirt.  Hmmm, crime spree prevented. Thanks for keeping me honest, folks.  I’m sure someone appreciates it.)

At the end of Iron Chef, the hosts try the meals of the Iron Chef and his competitor. They give their critiques and almost always shave zero problems with the meal of the competitor, and point out a flaw in the meals of the Iron Chef. Then they get to the awards, and every single time the Iron Chef wins. They had no problems with the meal of the competitor, but the Iron Chef wins anyway. That’s ridiculous.

But this is a t-shirt site. So what would happen if Reality TV were t-shirt based? What would the shows be like?

• America’s Next Tee Model

Every week, 14 artists would create 100 different designs each. Then the panelists would choose only one design subjectively while ignoring the 99 other designs, and use that one, single design to make blanket statements about how good the person is as an artist. Somehow CMDixon still wins.

• Teemerican Idol

12 artists go to Los.Angeles.com and enter a weekly design competition. Winners each week are decided by who gets the most votes. The winner tends to be the one artist whose work manages to be the most generic while garnering the most votes from Twitter. Somehow every year second place is given to Sanjaya.  He doesn’t even enter.

• The Real T-World

This is would be the most interesting show on television, and that is not an exaggeration. Male and female t-shirts are forced to live in a house together. One of the male t-shirts is pink with rainbow, but faded so that no one knows. One of the female t-shirts is XXXXL. The rest of the t-shirts want as many arms to go through the arm hole as possible and whine a lot.

• Cheatee-rs

GrecoXYU hosts a popular reality show where cheating partners are exposed and confronted. Despite the publicity of these confrontations, nothing really changes and most people think GrecoXYU is just jealous he’s not in on the action.

Teeality Programming

T-shirt popularity tells us that the above reality shows would all be wildly popular. And even when it comes out that all of them are staged, no one will care because hey! “Entertainment!”

Here's the deal:

This rounds theme is called, "Play The Part."

Which means...

- put on your favorite Tilteed tee.

- get a friend to be your photo assistant.

- get in touch with the tee desgin, pose for a photo that is exuding the energy and personailty of the tee.

- send it to us via Twitter @mention OR Facebook post (you can tag us or publish directly to the wall).

This theme will run until July 29th, you can submit your photo until 10am pacific time to be considered.

What will you win?

The winner will win a Tilteed Catalog tee!

Sound fun? Let's get to shooting...

How would you win an ugly t-shirt party? I can imagine the following:

• Someone shows up in their brown, armpit stained oversized white shirt they spilled coffee on.
• Someone shows up in a knock-off Insane Clown Posse shirt.
• SomeoneXYU shows up in a shirt with a colorful half-toned chibi bunny.

But when you host this type of party, you want to be the one in the worst/ugliest t-shirt in existence. You want to find a way to blow people away with the ugliness of your t-shirt. That’s not easy. Some people like designs that others would see as ugly. Others find designs to be harmless. Blowing someone away with an ugly shirt would be way harder.

I considered some ugly rocker shirt or some cruddy t-shirt from CafePress. But I think if I really wanted to blow people away with an ugly t-shirt, I’d have to do the following:

• Base the t-shirt on popular Internet memes (I hate Internet memes).
• Design the shirt myself using a tablet (I don’t know how to use a tablet).
• Make them sort of Manga looking.
• Put the design on cranberry (I look terrible in cranberry).

Boom. Success. I win.

We love getting photos from all you who wear our shirts and we want to showcase you being the awesome tilteed tee nerds that you are! This week we have a round up of oldies and newies... Shall we start?

via @mdnightmaverick

via @webhead808

via Sarah Esterman

Thanks to all those who are sharing their photos with us!

If you have a tilteed tee and you want to show us how you rock our threads, send us a photo via twitter or facebook.

Happy Weekend folks!

I stumbled across these reproduced vintage Air Vengeance kicks this morning on Highsnobiety.com and thought them perfect to be paired with one of Tilteed's favorite tees, Dead Head. What could be a better combo than Wotto pairing with a vintage nike?

How do you wear your Tilteed tees?

]]> 2011-07-13T16:03:57+00:00 http://www.tilteed.com/ http://www.tilteed.com/blog/post/tour_the_monster_museum/ Click through to Miss Monster’s store site and you enter a mini museum of handmade monster cool.  And there’s usually something new—this time the sight of steam punk biomech goggles surprised me.

I was expecting the “usual” assortment of unusual monsters, masks, patches, cuffs, and/or shirts.  This inventory changes regularly, almost magically.  Occasionally, there will be a tweet out in the universe saying something like:  “Check out this cool demon skin rug.”  I’ll click through and not be surprised to find myself again in Miss Monster’s store, looking at another detailed and intricate work of wonder.

Now, mostly I just wander through and am impressed by the detail, the effort and the mastery of so many craft forms.  I have yet to acquire anything, although I am creeping ever closer to some version of the werewolf from Tilteed’s own “Beware the Moors” shirt.  Or perhaps a key chain with a Foo Dog on it or an antique door knocker watch fob (there’s a pocket watch or two somewhere in the house.)

What I like best about Miss Monster’s work is that she manages to put in a great amount of technically proficient detail while maintaining the punch of vivid boldness.  Add in the power of her strong color choices and the effect of viewing a Miss Monster piece carves a place in your memory.  She mixes traditional monsters with unique imagination and a rare flair.  Go see what she has in store for you now.

I downed my drink and sauntered over – as much as I could saunter while wearing this Neoprene coated fiber space suit. She smiled when she saw me – it was clear that she’d be hoping I’d walk by.

“Hi.” I said with a smile, even though I knew that she couldn’t see it with the glare.

“Hi.” She said back, twirling her heels and biting her lips.

We flirted for a while. It was clear she was into me. She kept touching my knee and whispering nothing important into my helmet. We downed some drinks, flirted some more. At one point our lips made contact. I decided to make my move.

“So… You want to go back to my spaceship?”

She smiled, “how big is your spaceship.”

“It’s the biggest spaceship you’ve ever seen.”

I could tell that sent chills down her spine. “Really…” she said, feigning doubtfulness.

Two seconds later she grabbed my glove and we were out the door.

Skulls, rainbow, black… not my style, but it seemed like Tegan and Sara had cracked the t-shirt code.  
 
Used to be you picked up a t-shirt at a rock concert and then wore it to impress someone, remember the night or because everything else you owned was in the wash.  But now you can buy a shirt not just to represent a favorite band but to help a cause.  Disasters, need and poverty drive the news everyday.  But many of us want to make a difference.  


The Yellow Bird Project is a Montreal based non-profit “helping those in need via a few indie rock bands and a lot of creativity.”  The bands design the shirts and choose the cause.  You will find a variety of art on the t-shirts, covering the range of subjects and styles but emphasizing the hand drawn feel.  Not much cute, but a lot of different looks.  
 
I find myself strangely drawn to the neon oddness of the Of Montreal shirt.  

And since I’m currently annoyed about a certain movie with suspiciously hatted lawn decorations*, Wolfmother’s contribution amuses me almost enough to buy it.  And I want to wear Star’s relaxed tiger while listening to a few of my favorite playlists.
 
The shirts are on American Apparel blanks and cost $25 plus $5 shipping.  There are also hoodies, a scarf, tea, a coloring book and a bunch of bands I’m looking forward to tracking down the music of. And I think I need to plan a trip to Montreal.
 
Know any other good products for charities?  Drop the link in the comments.  Have a favorite Yellow Bird Project Project band, shirt or cause?  Share.
 
*If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.

(Tea cups are passed around, Brighteyes pours all at once, Pinky has strung up a tightrope and is precariously balanced on it)
 
BRIGHTEYES:
 
Why don’t you come down and join us, Pinky?
 
PINKY:
 
No thank you, I’ll just listen to the conversation.  Hey, what’s the champ doing?
 
(FC is staring at the swaying rope longingly, and crouches down; Brighteyes casually hooks a tentacle around FC’s tail, just in case.)
 
DRAGS:
 
So when are the photographers coming?  I only agreed to come because my agent said this would be good publicity, two of us together equals fan crossover.
 
MONSTEROUS:
 
TEA!TEA!teaTeaTEAteateateaTEA!eat!TEA!TEA!TEA!TEA!tea?
 
(FC’s attention is drawn by the high squeally noises and movements, he starts staring at the mini monsters as they bounce off the shirt.  Brighteyes is drinking her tea and someone else’s while exuding a great sense of calm and composure)
 
BRIGHTEYES:
 
So you’re writing another book.  About your travels, I assume.  Just brush the little monsters off and don’t let them jump in the tea.  They start to dissolve after a few minutes.
 
(FC has started creeping up on the bounciest mini monster and swipes it with a claw, missing as the monster jumps to the side, tea cups clatter, mini monsters scatter)
 
MONSTEROUS:
 
Hiss!HISS!hiss!TEA!tea!tea.tea?BOO.donut!!!!!!!!
 
(FC is chasing the mini monster around the table, everything is falling to the ground, Pinkerton is humming and quite casually stretching a leg out to the side while raising an arm. Another mini monster, we’ll call it Herbina, crawls up on the rope with astonishing speed, then looks down, composing itself for a dive into a tea cup)
 
DRAGS:
 
So, Brighteyes, how is your book tour going?
 
BRIGHTEYES:
 
Well, the people are very grateful.  I do so much better out of the sun that I’ve scheduled traditionally rainy locations.  Fans have liked having an excuse to get out.
 
DRAGS:
 
I’m going to focus on the East Coast, I think, starting in Key West and breaking in Delaware.  There’s some nice smuggling caves there. I may be able to dig out treasure.
 
PINKERTON:
 
Beware of maps.  And sychophants.  And skies with wild and purple eyes.
 
DRAGS:
 
(raises tea cup in salute)
 
Ta, Pinky.
 
MONSTEROUS:
 
TEA!BAD!BAD!HOT!BOUNCE!BACON!tea?kitty.SCONE.SCRAM!!!.
 
(FC has grabbed the bouncy little monster finally, turns it around to look at—let’s call it Binty, and then pops it in his mouth.  Binty crunches a little.  FC nods at Drags.  Drags considers, then quickly grabs another mini monster (who may or may not be known as Red Angus) and dips it in his tea before popping it in his mouth.)

DRAGS:
 
Marshmallow chewy. But crunchy.
 
(Brighteyes puts down both of her tea cups with a bit of a dangerous twitch in ALL of her tentacles.)
 
MONSTEROUS:
 
TEA!TEA!tea!medic!!!!!!!TEA!mommy?JUMP!panCaKes!Tea!chewychewyooey!HELP!
 
(And the lights on the scene go down as Brighteyes’ tentacles pry apart Drags’ jaws in an effort to rescue Red Angus, Pinky begins a slow fall after overbalancing as he shakes an admonitory finger at FC, who is cleaning his face w/ his golden paws as a green rain starts to fall.)

It's summer time, which can only mean one thing.... Portland Street Fairs!

We were at  Last Thursday on Alberta Street last week and this week we are looking forward to more crafty Portland fun at the Mississippi Street Fair.

Come join us, say hi, grab yourself a few Tilteed threads and enjoy the sunshine with us on Saturday in this beautiful North East Portland neighborhood.

Details are as follows:

Where: N.Mississippi Ave. Between Skidmore & Fremont St.
When: July 9, 2011. 10a - 9p.
What:  The Mississippi Avenue Street Fair is a community-building event that celebrates the neighbors, businesses and organizations that make their home in the Mississippi Avenue neighborhood.  The event honors history and tradition while embracing diversity and sustainability.

We hope to see all of your friendly, smiling faces this weekend!

For more information, visit the event site.