Just tell me what it is that you want

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” -Walt Whitman

Several week ago, i made a drawing of a blase feline accompanied by the word “Yawp”. I immediately posted a photo of the drawing to ye olde book of faces asking who might be interested in trading currency for a snuggly t-shirt featuring this untamed beast. Apparently, i wasn’t alone in finding humor in the juxtaposition of a domesticated animal and this word of wild abandon from Whitman’s famous poem. The response pushed the project forward and forward it went.

Not only did i print a short run of t-shirts, but also a few handsome totes that are perfect for carrying around big fat records, books, and so forth to and fro. Everything can be found – in limited numbers, mind you – in my ONLINE SHOPPE.

Asking friends to participate in the decision-making process for this little project was super rad and i hope to do it again soon. Thanks to everyone who gave their input and to all those who continued to bear with me whilst my tendency to procrastinate kept these shirts from being printed for far too long.

Love, The Mustard Room

Eight bits

Recently, we printed some vee necks, some cool dries, and some track jacks for a visionary youth ministry leader whom we now refer to as the wiz. Have a blast in panama city beach, wiz.

Summer class

We really dig our friends at winchester village elementary in perry township. They've given us an awful lot. Most recently, we were given the opportunity to print these snazzy tees for their summer school students to wear during field trips. They also drummed up some business for us from another school in the township. Well played, wildcats.

Here's the work space in the newly cleaned and partially carpeted summer sweat shoppe/garage. Things are just starting to heat up.

Baby Jane earns a waffle cone for all of her hard work handing off t-shirts to her old man.

Swinging for the fence

Thanks to the inspiration provided by our pal, juli from cordinated, this dude will tell them how it is.

We make signage suitable for framing. Also, we sell tee shirts, just so you know, in case that wasn't clear.

Dr. Grabbyhands is moving up to the bigs as he makes the jump from the mommy juice right to gumming giant crispy bites of apple.

  

Baby jane has been acquainting herself with the game of baseball as we stay up late watching the Cards pound milwaukee into the ground to practice for the series against texas. Are we being too presumptuous?

The onesie

Duckbilled rambler, as worn by doctor james.

Livin the dream

Wow. What a week. Or two. To be quite honest, i seem to have lost all concept of time and space. The time loss has been made evident in the fact that i was almost certain that four hours had passed in what my wife informed me was actually closer to one and a half hours. The space loss refers more to that of the entire ground level of our home which has become overrun with projects taken on by the mustard room. Working and dining have become indistinguishable. They now exist as one singular entity. What does science say on the matter? Do not tell me for i fear that theories would cause my face to collapse, and this would be a travesty to my new haircut.

So there's all that. Also, as is the annual routine, our lawn mower stopped working. Our lovely neighbors next door were away, and my inability to operate the key pad to their garage door forced me to break in to the home of our good friends just down the road. After hoisting their mower into the trunk of my granny mobile, i chased a long day of work with a hot stroll across every square inch of our lawn while my daughter painted trees with water. Upon completing this heroic task, i hoped to immediately return the stolen mower to the scene of the crime. I proceeded to squat uncomfortably next to the oily machine and awkwardly wrap my arms around the base in an attempt to heave it back into my vehicle's barely adequate trunk. Did i happen to mention that this was right after finishing the job while the engine was still hot as rocky mountain oysters? Oh, well it was. I don't know the degree of the burn on the inside of my left forearm, but it looks as if a zombie gave me a hickey.

All in all, it's been an eventful few days. I haven't even mentioned how i spent a whole day working on projects for cgpc. Wait a sec, isn't that the place where you got fired five years ago and had your heart ripped out and handed to you on a communion platter. Oh, hyperbole, how i love you so. Anyhoozit, we completed printing the 200+ t-shirts we had taken on for their vbs, and i spent the remainder of the day surrounded by ladies while editing videos. Jealous? Did i mention there was complimentary kung pow chicken involved? It's called "livin' the dream". Deal with it.

Last, but not loveliest, baby jane got sick and hurled twice after spending the day at the kamikaze pizza emporium while informing us several times that her tummy hurt. Woops. She pretty much chilled on the couch for the next 24 hours watching documentaries on oceanic life and cuddling with her mama & papa & baby brother & puke towel.

See you on saturday. Wink.

Get the goods

Mister zippy and myself will be present and representing for the mustard room this saturday from noon to 8 pm at the indieana handicraft exchange. The event will be held in conjuction with the independent music & arts fest at the harrison center for the arts in picturesque downtown indianapolis. 100+ vendors will be selling super-rad, handmade goodies such as this...

Say hello to the new face of refinement: Belvedere. And for those of you who make purchases from the mustard room, you have one of these exciting pieces to look forward to as a bonus...

See you there, party animals.

Day on

This memorial day weekend has found us hitting the press hard to get this rather sizable tee shirt project completed in a timely manner. Here's a slice of the action featuring sonic accompaniment from guided by voices.

I am produced

There are only a handful of days before this, and so - between changing diapers and playing tea set party - we have been working on trying to get this dude (detail above) completed for the festivities.

Also, there's a rather large tee shirt pressing we're doing for - get this - a place where we used to work and live until we were told to stop and had our hearts broken. Granted, that was over five years ago. Nevertheless, this project has helped in salving some of those wounds that have gone unattended and reopened from time to time. Not only are we hand-printing two sides of over two hundred tee shirts for their vbs, but we also created the artwork for both sides. To those who know who they are, we say, "thanks."

Here's compacted snow in your eye, kid

In case you live in Indiana and you just so happen to have missed one of the days sandwiched between Springlike weather when Olde Man Winterbone stopped by for a sit-and-spin, here’s a look-see. Baby Jane and i spent one afternoon digging snowfingers, building snowdudes and hurling snowsaucers at our new friends, each other, and ourselves. Therapeutic, to say the least.

Then several days later we turned a chicken into a fish…

Magic.

Thanks for the mammaries

Way back in the early days of The Mustard Room’s textile screen printing department, we were given a sizable donation by my generous Dad-in-Law; a donation which included many used screen frames, squeegees, and glow-in-the-dark ink. These screens were used to print, among other things, apparel supporting the cause of La Leche League. Workable negatives of clever captions such as “I Eat at Mom’s” were still visible when the screens were entrusted to our care. Mama Jane discouraged me from printing my own LLL apparel using said images. Since that day, we have more or less squeezed the ever-lovin’ life out of these donations, particularly the screen frames. The weathered wood has been re-stretched and washed to the point that the frame no longer lies flat and the metal brackets at each corner are wiggling their way to freedom.

Following our eleventh collaboration with Westwood United Methodist’s student ministry dude, Dr. Lemons, we decided it fitting to retire the old lady pictured at the top of this post. This frame which was handed over to us so many years ago will now be forever stretched with the screen bearing the word ‘Inked’ as she has been so many times.

I only just now realized how ridiculous this post has been.

Nevertheless, sail on, silver bird! Your memory shall live on in the apparel which you gave your life to help ink…

Next stop: oven mitts

Golly, it was already like a week ago. However, i thought it would be prudent to mention the rad time we had at the Harrison Center over the weekend. Along with plenty of old friends and a few new ones, vintage songbird and the mustard room set up shoppe at the autumn INDIEana handicraft exchange.

If you came out… thanks!

If you bought stuff… thanks a bunch!

If you traded with us… mmm… tasty!

If you missed it, keep your eyes on the prize. It’ll be back around come spring time. In the meantime, there’s plenty of screen printed goodness left for you to get your grubby mitts on.

Peace.