New Years Resolutions: The Importance of Happiness

At LadyUmbrella t-shirts we champion the phrase of "Stay Happy" and the importance of happiness was acutely highlighted to me on the 23rd of December. This blog is titled "LadyUmbrella t-shirts and life" - this post falls into the latter of the two.

On the 23rd of December my loving, caring and healthy mother got paralysed. She woke at 8am and was getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. She got some pins and needles in her feet and then 15 minutes later was paralysed from just above her belly button down. It transpired after emergency surgery later that day that she had suffered a prolapse disc (aka herniated disc/slipped disc) which 73% of the time does no "real" damage. Unfortunately my mothers was a rare rare case and it turned out her disc was "calcified" making it a lot harder and doing more damage. I've been with her every day since in the hospital and just willing feeling to return to her once active, dancing, life loving limbs. Feel free to send some positive energy her way so that she can recover.

And so, the importance of happiness. The happenings of the last 8 days has starkly highlighted to me that we are but fragile creatures with no real control of things. The saying of "you're not here for a long but a good time" is resonating with me now, reverberating around my mind. I would say my outlook on life has changed - things can't be taken for granted. There really is no way of knowing what may happen at anytime. My mothers plight hammers this point home.

As a result of my mothers misfortune the launch of LadyUmbrella t-shirts is still undetermined. We pretty much have everything lined up and hope to get going soon but my time is now more divided than ever before. Also, I'm down a "member of staff" as my mother was looking forward to spending time in LUHQ and help me pack up the orders as we receive them - she is one hell of t-shirt folder, she folded mine for so many years..I dearly hope to have her by my side folding t-shirts sometime soon..

So, as this New Year approaches I have my resolutions nailed down: focus on happiness, don't take things for granted and try to live life each day..what are yours? I genuinely wish all who read this a great 2010 and that you don't take things for granted..stay happy, really - why not?

Touchdown T-shirts

So, some good news for all of you out there - our LadyUmbrella t-shirts have touched down and I can confirm they are glorious. To finally get them to LUHQ is something kinda special, it is the culmination of over a years work and to see it come together is truly memorable. It was a Kodak moment.

We wanted to get them sooner so that we could get them shipped to you in time for the festive season alas things did not transpire that way - out t-shirts sadly won't be with you for Christmas. We are working away frantically on our site to get it water tight and easy for you all to use and would like to thank Pawel Witkowski and Steven Fitzpatrick for their help and skills. Our site is going to be ready for you all..real soon..

We are in the final stages of preparation now for launch and thank you all for bearing with us and supporting us thus far. Its been said before but I'll say it again, the people who tweet us and say hi on facebook and all those that have mentioned us in a blog - really, we are overwhelmed and most thankful..

Our sights are now set for launching at 12.00 noon GMT on January 1st 2010 - hangover or no hangover..will you be with us? We've been practicing our packing so that we are ready for your orders - what do you think of the pack job?

How LadyUmbrella Comes to Life Video

Hello all..just a short blog post to herald the era of cinematic goodnes here at LadyUmbrella t-shirts. Some of you may recall that we recorded a movie a weeks ago which has been edited supremely to become "How LadyUmbrella Comes to Life".

The man in charge of the edits was the very capable, the Latvian Spielbert, Mr. Ivars Burtnieks. You can find more of his videos on his youtube page. We are most thankful for the time and effort he put into making our video and can only say good things about him. If you want a video made he is the man to get in touch with..

Anyway, without further ado I'll leave you with our movie - How LadyUmbrella Comes to Life - sincerely hope you enjoy and want to know what you think? You like the clouds in the background? Know all about us after watching it? Want a tee? Feeling happy?

A t-shirt photo shoot fairy tale pictorial..

Hello LUFANs, I apologise profusely for the lack of updates in the last weeks but I now have the pleasure of recounting the tale of the LadyUmbrella t-shirts photo shoot and showing you pictures that you won't be able to see anywhere else.

So lets kick off the update with the photo shoot. On Saturday 28th of November we enlisted the help of model Elaine O'Carroll, make up artist Ciara Thompson and camera man Darren Christie from Life in No Motion Photography to take some photos our beloved t-shirts.

After just 5 hours sleep an early start for me was remedied by 2 turbo boosted cups of coffee..the door bell rang three times as the team assembled in LUHQ to enter the room which we had "rigged" (I'm a big fan of describing the rigging efforts). We applied wrapping paper to the wall to create the backdrop. The room had to radically transformed to make space so the bed was put up on its side against the wall and used it as the accessory rack - the mattress was delicately wedged into place in a different corner of the room between wall and wardrobe. Another feat of engineering was our wind machine - Ciara doubled up and daintily jigged from zeyphr to gale and delighted the Beaufort scale fanning Elaine with a shoe box lid - golden. Hopefully the pictures depict the scene and check out Elaine wearing "LadyUmbrella is Friends with Sir David Attenborough" (yep, we have changed the name of the t-shirt to give proper kudos to the great man).


Darren snapped frantically and captured the magic as it unfolded. The whole day was an enjoyable one. A pizza break and lots of laughter with the lights.. The lighting providing a never ending muscle burning challenge to me as I tried to keep the illumination steady and constant whilst not laughing too hard at the fan machine in action. Sometimes I laughed too hard though.

A total of about 8 hours were spent in the room taking about 452 pictures not to mention the pictures Elena took. Time thankfully flew though and and we are very pleased with the results - check out Elaine rockin' "What Came First - the Chicken or LadyUmbrella". This blog post coincides nicely and announces the fact that we are now uploading the finished photos - firstly to the LadyUmbrella Facebook Fanpage and then to our website when we open our store doors (which, I can reveal, will be soon [and I know I've said that before but we hope to receive the t-shirts on Thursday - you heard it hear first sush])..

We have already uploaded two designs and will upload the remaining 4 in the next 4 days - check them out and let us know what you think..which design will be your favourite?

And so, the fairytale ends..lots more tales to recount to you though in the coming days so stay tuned and stay happy...