40OTD guest post! TK version...

in honor of opening day, guest spot from Terence Kearns

J.J. Putz wore number 44 in Seattle,, but wore the beloved, Big Four-O, at his Presser in December 2008, after a trade from Seattle.

Oddly enough, his chose to wear number 22 that season, and maybe the switch had something to do with his less than stellar performance for the Mets in 2009, as he only saved 2 games in 29 appearances with a 5.22 ERA, and his season was over by June. A great excerpt from www.MBTN.net sums up Putz's tenure with the Mets:

"A top closer with Seattle but not yet paid  like one, Putz's acquisition, announced the day after the Mets signed closer F Rodriguez, provided the biggest jolt of 2008 off season and almost a comical act of compensation for a beleaguered bullpen."

Some have pointed to his unfortunate surname as an explanation of his performance as a Met, but I submit that it was his poor decision to switch Uni numbers...
Terence M.K.

couldn't agree with you more, TK! Putz is such a... ahhh, nevermind! thanks!

(not so) Mysterios Fitteds...

the hats have been sent to their rightful owners across this great country of ours!

will post pics after they get them in their hands and on their melons.

until then, you'll just have to live with this:

T-shirt Stencil Project

need to start over:

listen to me very carefully... DON'T BUY THIS PAINT:

They're here, but...

i can't show pictures till everyone on "the team" has their melons in theirs ;-)

just a few teasers:





Just a reminder...

as we head into the weekend, i just wanted to post this guy as a little reminder:

just wait till you see where he appears next ;-)

hope you all have a safe, fun weekend!

Busy Night for Stencils...

first thing i did, was take the stencils i made the other day and put them to use

remember these:

i measured my blank shirt, found the top center for where the logo would be, and marked it:

i then centered the stencil/freezer paper, and ironed it on. was amazed at how much the freezer paper cooperated. i took the old cut out of the paper and lined it up with the outer edge of my stencil:

 you can see i marked off spots for the center "spoke hole" design:

lined up the design and ironed that too:

then painted with a spray-on fabric paint. i wanted to get a worn/distressed feel for the logo:

oops! didn't use my brain too hard on that one, eh:

no worries, seemed a bit off and too intricate for my first time anyway. so i painted over the mistake:

that's it for the white boarder! on to the next step soon...

round 2 of my night



3 Invaders jerseys in various stages:

#17 for my teammate Jeff has all the necessary parts: front logo, shoulder logo, rear numbers, & shoulder numbers. no worries there! Connor's Brown & Gold Original has the front logo, and shoulder logo finished. need to make him rear numbers (original 8" digital style), & shoulder numbers. at this point, only players that actually play on the team get the "varsity block" numbers on their Brown & Gold Original (unless otherwise requested either way). Ben's White & Gold PA Jersey however... has nothing completed! the White & Gold Jersey needs the front "PA Invasion" logo, the shoulder "drop shadow I" logo, 3" black-gold-black digital shoulder numbers, & the 8" rear digital numbers. so i spent about an hour or so tracing everything out:



then i called it a night...

#40 of the day goes to...

Lombardi...

Mail Pouch Barn #1

here are pictures of a project i finished up in '07 that is pretty important to me. my first Mail Pouch (MP) barn i painted for my Mom & Dad on their shed in the backyard. my Dad fought with cancer long enough to see the shed, but passed away shortly after. me, him and my Mom would always take road trips and he'd point out every MP barn we'd see along the way. so i thought it would be nice if they could wake up every morning, and see one in the back yard...

i patterned it after these barns:

i wasn't into taking a bunch of pics back then, but managed to snap a few of my progress here and there.

stool, table, drafted print-out that i made (pic below), paint & supplies

here are the dimensions i drew up. i did this by finding a straight-on image of an existing MP barn online... right clicking on the image and selecting "copy"... opening AutoCAD, and "pasting" the image into a workspace... tracing out the letters...

then pulling the trace off of the image, cleaning it up, and sizing it up to scale... then dimensioning the letters i traced. sounds difficult, but it's harder to do then to explain:

drop shadow added:

i later read in this book (The Barn Painter) that Harley Warrick would start all his barns with the letter "H" and work his way out then down. kinda cool that his initials were H.E.W., no?

and here she is all finished up... with rays of sun shining down from the heavens :-)

my Dad saw and enjoyed this painting for a short time, but passed before he could see all of my other DIYs. but with every stitch, and every cut, and every new idea, i keep him in my heart and in my thoughts. him and my Mom have always been big fans of my work, no matter what it was/is. my Mom will give me some good ideas from time to time, but don't tell her that, she'll take credit for the whole finished product ;-)

me and my dad out crabbing/fishing:

me and my ma checkin' out a game:

(those two knuckleheads were married for 40+ years, and together for about 50)

Freezer Paper

that "freezer paper" t-shirt stencil that i saw on Uni Watch that i mentioned here...

i started the project this weekend

first, i bought the Freezer Paper:

didn't have a clue what i was getting into with that stuff, but it's shiny on one side, and paper on the other.

then, i drew up a logo of just another company that exists in my world. fairly intricate. don't want to give you a straight-on color version of it yet (what fun is that?)... would rather you all see the progress and finished product.

but i took to printing it out to scale, cutting it out, then tracing it onto the freezer paper:

 then cutting again.

my progress:

would have made it alot further along on the project... but, i bought the wrong color paint to start out with. also, TK and his friend Mike came into town striaght outta the Bronx, and a fun weekend ensued!

will continue as soon as i get me some paint!

desk buddies...

in the land of cubicles, you gotta have a "desk buddy" or 2... or 3...

who are yours?

here's mine:

as if ya didn't know:





that's grimlock, a lego space man, and a penguin, natch!

hope your all having a great weekend!

#40 of the day goes to... (St Paddy's Day Edition)

cramming in a couple today, actually:

first up, Kurt Thomas of the Bulls wearing their St. Paddy's day get-up:



pretty sharp jersey, can't hate it! but the Bulls logo and color scheme have always been one of my favorites. and when i think of the Bulls, i think of those dominant MJ teams.

love the logo so much, in fact, that i bought a Bulls patch off of eBay for a future DIY. the only problem is that the description didn't mention the "Chicago Bulls" lettering. see my patch:

no biggie though, i have scissors...

the next #40's of the day goes to, "The Definitive Notre Dame Uniform History Pictorial" posted by One Foot Down

first up, the 1977 Fighting Irish during a fan-packed preseason game:

then 1992, we have Reggie Brooks:

another cool shot of Reggie (not from the site):

that's great!

i don't feel like typing anymore, so that's it for today's (Irish themed) #40's!

p.s.

TK, i'll run your #40OTD guest post soon! promise! and hope you have a safe trip across PA to visit us this weekend. we'll try to show you a great time!

rear numbers for Invaders Dark

glued together, and ready to go... i mean, sew!

you like?

quick jersey thought

at some point will attempt something like this:



sizing up the numbers...

so while i waited for my jersey to arrive, i took an old (lightweight, logo on front) navy colored jersey i had and sized up the numbers. this step was only printing them out to size, cutting them out, and placing them on the jersey. no biggie. but the first of many steps:

looks pretty good, eh?

UPDATE: the numbers won't be white

my "go to" (quick little shout-out)

i have 2 "go to" guys when i need DIY help. questions, materials, thoughts, advise, you name it. these two, in no order are:

Joe H, of Jersey Name Frame

and,

Frosty, of Custom Jersey Guy

both all-stars! this time around, Frosty came through with some extra material needed to take the next step with my "Invasion" jersey. with the jersey/sock combo traveling through time, space, and the US mail as we speak... i can now have the numbers mostly ready to go!

good chance i'll have the rear numbers cut out and ready to glue tonight ;-)

thanks for the help Frosty! Joe H, will see you in a few months for some bar hoppin'. Frosty, next time i'm in Myrtle... bar hoppin'!

thanks guys!!!

Invaders Dark Update 1

nothing groundbreaking... but... i placed an order for what should end up being the new Invaders Dark "Invasion" jersey & sock combo today!

now i need some material for the numbers and shoulder patches... then it's off to the races!

#40 of the day goes to...

my hometown (couple years before i was born), Pittsburgh Condors!



that's John Brisker wearing a real bad-ass (future DIY?) jersey!

interesting story too (according to Wikipedia, anyway). Detroit born was a bruiser/all star with the Condors, played a couple seasons with the Super Sonics, and went missing in Uganda of all places. go read:

Wikipedia entry

Remember the ABA entry

if you remember, the Condors had an awesome logo:

(thank one of my FAVORITE sites for that, Chris Creamer)

oh! and BIG thanks to "Jimbo" James Huening for posting the "sombraro" pic in the Uni Watch comments section!