Invaders 4!

i play a lot of pick-up hockey, and the only real "rule" is to bring a light & dark jersey. teams are made on the spot. i'm not too fond of wearing my "gamer" (the brown & gold, or the navy) Invaders jerseys as i don't want them to wear out. but i LOVE the Invaders theme/name.

i already have a white pick-up jersey:

in fact, here i am wearing an earlier version of the white just before a shinny:

so now i needed a dark! i wanted something totally different from what we've seen from the Invaders to this point. i wanted a SUPER classic & simple design. almost to look like it would have been a throwback from... say... the 40's-50's. errr something like that. but still tied to the Invaders style

so i simplified our shoulder patch. turned it into a 2-color scheme of a logo:

re-sized, traced, and so-on:

 

 

 

slapped it on the front of the jersey:

 

i tried to do something with our other shoulder patch, but it just wasn't working. enjoy anyway:

 

finished front:

 

first time i ever tried sleeve numbers. also, used our current logo shoulder patch almost as if to say "no matter how different, this is still a 'Vaders jersey"

 

simple back. current numbers font, no outline. clean!

 

here i am wearing it the next day, for the first time... passed out on a bus trip to Buffalo to see the Penguins take on the Sabres. too... much... beer...

 

welcome to "the family"

Good Design, Bad Design

let's start with just a downright good DIY. 

this below is $65 worth of $1 bills for my cousin's 65th b-day. it was made by our other cousin. beautiful! can't wait till i turn 100!

 

next, this is FANTASTICALLY bad design/planning! love it! we watched a guy, from our windows at work, take his time (about 3-4 days), measuring, and making sure everything was straight. then sticking the letters on perfect... sticking BLACK letters on glass, mind you. that was difficult enough to read. but now that the sun is in a different part of the sky, well, check it out:

No-Tell Motel

check out what i just scored on eBay:

why not, ya know...

i'll re-pourpose these someday for sure. oh by the way, check out the room numbers.

DIY Fail: Puck Edition

i wanted to make a few more pucks like the Invaders puck that i keep at my desk:

no biggie, right?

this time around though, i wanted to do my own design. so i choose to attempt the simplest of Invaders logos... the shoulder patch:

i taped off the face of the puck with masking tape. i printed, to scale, colorless "wire" design. i then taped that on top of the first piece of masking tape. the puck was now face, masking tape, paper, masking tape. i knew you could see thru the top layer of tape, and cut thru all three layers. see for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

no pics of the spray painting process, i didn't want to "yellow" up my camera phone (i'm a bit of a mess).

the paint stayed sticky, and didn't really jive with the smoothness of the puck like it did the first time around. so i wrapped it up in this nice note, and sent it to a lucky friend! is it you??? you'll know by tuesday-ish

and THAT'S a DIY fail! was fun to do though, and totally looking forward to the next one... because... you know what happens soon after a good DIY fail:

(flickr set of pics can be found here)

Monster Grip...

alright, it's the "Master Grip" but a famous one at that!!!

i scored this off of eBay recently:

straight outta Detroit City!

is the perfect accessory to my very favorite accessory:

seriously, i've carried that PBR bottle opener on a chain with me for well over 5 years now. if you see me and i DON'T have it, don't panic & seek help because there's something weird goin' on.

i have pretty busy fingers and i love to "fidget" with random things. as i look around my desk, i have a track wheel from an old mouse i spin, a huge nut & bolt i found that i spin, the Invaders hockey puck that i mess with, paper clips, velcro, pocket leatherman tools, etc.. but i always loved the way this just "lives." fits perfect in the hand, and the ball-chain just moves and flows like nothing else. sometimes i wear it too, not too often though...

why did i put an old steel bottle opener on a ball chain in the first place? well, maybe you've seen another one just like it:

and yes, heaven forbid if i ever lost it (happened a good 2 or 3 times)... i have back-up: