Hallelujah! EndureLife’s etsy shop is finally up and running!! We’ve been printing like crazy for the past 3 days. And I will say, we have been having a BLAST! It’s so rewarding seeing your ideas and dreams finally becoming a reality!

We really wanted to actually screen print our designs ourselves. However, we are renters right now with NO WHERE to get messy and dirty and properly expose screens, etc. So, our 2nd choice is this transfer press method. We send off our ORIGINAL designs to be screen printed onto transfer sheets. Then, we use the press to transfer our designs onto tshirts, etc. The great thing about this method. We can make them as we receive orders! 

I am excited to one day do the whole screen printing thing. I love that process, but for now… we must show our transfer press some love. He is certainly getting the job done! 

Here is a little photo spread of our printing adventures for you! Oh, and check out our shop! Enjoy!!

Dustin at the transfer press…
waiting for results on our patches!
 

Peeling back the transfer sheet. This is so fun!
 

Dustin modeling our first shirt!
What a hottie!

Girlie version! Love it! 

Peeling back the transfer paper on some small patches. 

Yes, unfortunately, I had to be a model too.
I do like this photo though!
 

Love these hats, but I have no clue how to wear it.
My cousin, Lynsey, would look great in it. She looks perfect in any hat!! 
 

Our 2nd shirt design! Dustin’s idea. Love it! 
 

Yes, totes too! I told you we went crazy printing!!
 

Dustin’s idea to print this on the bottom. I love it!
However, it doesn’t always print well, still working out the kinks. 
 

Alright. Now go check out the shop!! We will be updating it regularly! Hmm, my SewTrashy shop is feeling neglected. I must get my new items up! I can’t wait to show you what I have been working on. 

Today, we woke up at 4am to volunteer at Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair in DC. This is one of our awesome gift bags! We worked the 5am - 10am shift, but ended up working until 11am. No problem though, because we were lucky enough to hook up with Art Whino around 7am and stuck it out with them setting up their MASSIVE collection of art. Did I mention I wanted to buy every SINGLE piece!? Susanna, Annie and Darrell were all really awesome people to work with too. I’m so happy we met them! We did end up buying the piece below for Dustin. It’s so fun, very different than anything else we have on our walls! 
 

“Danosaur” by Daniel Fleres.
 

After we finished up with the Art Whino Crew, of course we did some SHOPPING! I have such a hard time deciding what to buy. Everyone is so talented, with SO many wonderful items. Take a look at my new wares!
 

Recycled Skateboard Earrings by Claire Mcdermott.

Cute little yellow earrings by Jenny Wren.

Snazzy new bag by Barry’s Farm.
 

Detail shot of snazzy new bag by Barry’s Farm.

New clutch purse by Barry’s Farm.

Little felt button by Miss Chief Productions.

Did I mention that by volunteering Dustin and I were BOTH entered in a drawing for a FREE, UNJURIED BOOTH for next year’s Crafty Bastards! I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but man that would be flippin’ sweet! Especially considering they get like 400 applicants but only accept 100. *fingers crossed*

Oh, and stupid us… we were so tired this morning we totally forgot our camera! No pictures of the actual event… AGAIN! Maybe next year!

**Check out all the VENDORS here**

I am so excited for this swap, my very first! I want to keep my design a suprise for the others involved so I can only give you this little sneak peek. Can I just say I LOVE my metallic gold ink. I didn’t think I would like it, but I DO! I’m so pleased with how the print turned out. Can’t wait to show you!

However, I am not happy with the paper I ended up using. I could NOT for the life of me find good quality heavy BLANK postcards… ANYWHERE! GR! Not even Kinko’s would sell me their postcards unless I had something printed on them. Oh well. Can’t change it now. I’ve printed about 70 of them in addition to over 50 notecards. Yes, shop update after the 1st!! 

I can’t believe I forgot to share this with you! About 2 weeks ago,
Dustin’s 1963 Coke Machine was delivered to our front door. He
purchased it when he was 14 from the money he made as a kid while
shining shoes at a barber shop in El Paso, TX. 
 

The machine is pretty old and in need of a facelift… we have some plans,
first to swap out that old plexiglass sign for a nicer one. We are toying with
whether or not to paint the “wood portions” Coke Red. Any thoughts? 
 

We picked up the yellow coke sign from a flea market this weekend.
It was meant to be used on the old wooden crates. This one was never used! Only $10! 
 

Along with the coke machine, Dustin’s parents sent us a crate of
Mexican cokes! FYI, they are SO much better than “the real thing” here in the US.
They use real cane sugar in the Mexican cokes, no High Fructose Corn Syrup here!
I’m not even a Coke fan, I’m a Dr. Pepper fan, but these are really good!
There is just something about a coke from a bottle!

And yes, we do pay for them, even though we can just open
up the front and grab one. Weird? No, fun!
 

We opened the front of the Coke Machine and
found this note from Dustin’s mom. How cute is that? 

We also had a sign from Dustin’s step-dad that said “NO BEER,” but
unfortunately, my photo of that was unusable. It make us laugh! 

I just love IKEA fabrics. And, I REALLY love browsing their AS-IS section. A few weeks ago, I picked up 5 Dining Chair covers in this great black and white fabric. Not sure what I would use them for, but I couldn’t resist at .99 cents a piece! 

Well, my cousin had a housewarming party this weekend and I thought it the PERFECT time to use one! So, for about $2 total this 14″ throw pillow was born. Hope to have photos for you soon of her place! Trust me, you’ll want to see it!

Pillow photographed on our “new” orange thrifted $10 chair. Wait til you see the pieces we got! What a steal!

So, after a long day of auctions and thrifting… my $5 chair had to find its home on my lap. :) 

Let me just say… this week has been an INCREDIBLE blessing. Long story short, we moved from Hawaii, had a TON of damage to our items, but the money we are getting for damages really has to go towards bills and things, not new furniture. Well, as usual, God TOTALLY hooked us up. I can’t wait to share all of the wonderful purchases from this week. You won’t believe how CHEAP everything was. Awesome. Speechless. Just what we needed. 

Must get sleep now… long day ahead!  

Just a project I finished this weekend. My husband asked me to cover his Bible in this brown Ultrasuede fabric for his birthday. (Yeah, that was back in August.) Well, I finally finished after many sore fingertips. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE! 

It was a relatively easy project. Just a bit time consuming and lots of sore fingertips. My awl came in quite handy with getting the needle and hemp through the covers. I glued the fabric to the front, back and spine with a little Mod Podge, and it turned out perfect! He loves it. 

Place your vote over at my husband’s website to be entered in our FREE TSHIRT GIVEAWAY!!! Voting ends midnight on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. The winner will receive one of these shirts along with some other goodies! More details at endurelife.com

Hm, am I allowed to promote my favorite, even though I designed it? Well, here it is!! :) 

I realized late last night I should have photographed my “new” candle holders with candles IN THEM! How silly of me. Anyway, I decided to see how these revamped Ikea votive holders looked with some juicy cherry “flavored” candles. YUM! I just love them! Enjoy!

Well, tonight I was inspired to do a few more very simple projects from Big Ass Book of Crafts for the Crafty Daisies Book Club. Here they are! Enjoy. And check out the Crafty Daisies Book Club Flickr Group for other people’s work!

Five paperweights I made using rounded glass chips and bits of magazine, book and dictionary pages. Love how these turned out. Inspired by Big Ass Book of Crafts. Page 219. 

Handheld mirror with a young Frank Sinatra image on the back. Inspired by Big Ass Book of Crafts. Page 230.

Revamped Ikea votive holders. Four holders turn into two sweet little votive holders. Inspired by Big Ass Book of Crafts. Page 207. 

Revamped Ikea votive holders. Four single holders turned into one taller classy votive holder. Inspired by Big Ass Book of Crafts. Page 207.

Can’t wait to see what the next book will be! It’s nice to have a reason to do projects I might not normally have done. Thanks for the inspiration Crafty Daisies!