Cool Designs for the Nature Lover in You

Take it from Tim Phelps. His artwork­ – which is medical and scientific in nature – on his CafePress shop showcases his vibrant and anatomical designs. Phelps is an award-winning medical illustrator (think anatomy) who teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a hot hobby for miniature die-cast car flame painting for more than 15 years. Whew, that’s a mouthful. But Phelps’s designs say it all.

“I’m combining my love of nature with a great love for hot rods and flame painting, resulting in everything from hot rod moths and bugs to flame-painted sea life including fish, turtles and jellyfish.”

One reason Phelps loves CafePress? The variety of products on which he can feature his designs. And next on the design agenda – variations on hot rod 1932 Fords.

He’s made some designs for his family too – notably this flaming ladybug design for his daughter. He describes it as a “lava-licked ladybug.” The lava looks cool, no pun intended. His shop features many variations of beautiful, flaming moths – some which have cooler flames and others that, ahem, sizzzzle. Check them out!

With Starbucks brewing up a brand-new wordless logo (a stylized version of their iconic sea nymph – sans company name, initials or tag line or anything), I figure it’s only a matter of time until text is completely eliminated from all earthly communications. Which means the future don’t look none too bright for wordsmiths such as meself.

Hence I’m getting an early jump on the inevitable and moving to blog posts that have no text. I’ll simply upload a design that says it all. Eventually I’ll move to designs that also have no words, but right now I’m still feeling a wee-bit sentimental and verbose.

So, sorry about the long-winded design in this post. Hopefully you have the attention span to read it all. And don’t spill your coffee straining to make heads or tails out of all those vowels and consonants.

With The King’s 76th birthday on the calendar this Saturday, our shipping department reports a microphone-stand-shaped spike in Elvis Presley related merchandise moving out the door. While we generally ship UPS, it would only seem fitting for a limo to be waiting to whisk those Elvis posters off to adoring fans.

Yes, 30-plus years after his all-too-early final curtain call (Uhhh…thank yuh’, thank yuh’ very much…), Elvis is still as popular as ever. Well, maybe not as ever — but he’s certainly front-and-center in our hearts and on our iPods. And why not? Elvis Presley’s music (and that vintage concert footage with screaming fans in Vegas) is still as sweet as Tupelo Honey.

So if you’re looking for Elvis panties and assorted Elvis undies to throw at the TV screen during those all-night Elvis concert marathons, we got you covered (or uncovered, as it may be?). Or if you’re heading out to see an Elvis impersonator in concert, score an Elvis stadium blanket to keep you toasty. And of course, who can resist an Elvis teddy bear for that special Valentine’s Day gift?

Maybe Hurley’s numbers weren’t such a curse after all.

On Tuesday night, the numbers drawn for the $355 million jackpot Mega Millions Lottery turned out to be purrrdy close to those familiar island digits we loved to ponder about (and then saw scrawled all over a cave wall in what looked like a child’s chicken scratch. By the way your handwriting stinks, Jacob.). Observe: the LOST numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42. The Mega Millions numbers were 4 8 15 25 47 42. Uh, dude. Whoah.

The Huffington Post reported that more than 41,000 people won from having the LOST numbers on their ticket, each person winning $150 smackers. That’s a total of approximately $6.2 million dollars shelved out. Although $150 isn’t a chunk of change to quit your job over, it’s still pretty cool for those die-hard LOST fan friends out there to think about. Maybe you can start a tiki bar in your garage with your winnings. Or grab a bucket of fried chicken and toast to Hurley. Both sound like awesome ideas to me.

Sad to report that Geraldine Doyle has passed away in Michigan at the age of 86. Geraldine was the face (and biceps) behind “Rosie the Riveter” – the iconic recruitment posters that inspired and empowered women during WWII. The posters (and other We Can Do It merchandise) featuring Rosie in her red polka dot bandana and flexin’ guns continues today as an inspiration for women’s rights, gay rights, health rights, sock monkey rights and even St. Patrick’s Day rights.

As a 17 year-old factory worker, Geraldine was working in a factory when a UPI photographer snapper her photo (which appeared in newspapers and books). The then-mighty company Westinghouse later created motivational posters for their female employees, based on that photo. And the rest is history.

Oddly enough, Geraldine had left her job at the factory only a few days after the photo was taken. And she didn’t even put two and two together that it was her likeness until some 40 years later.