I received pure gold today from the postman...

Now, I don’t know about all of you guys out there but for some, strange reason, whenever I hear mail coming through the door its delivery also gives me a sense of excitement and anticipation. Now, it is fair to say that often times this excitement proves to be folly as bills, bills and more bills are not what I would deem pure gold from the post man..

There are times though when hastily getting out of bed upon hearing the clank of the letter box and dumpf of the mail landing on the floor are merited. Like today for example..we have received our long awaited LadyUmbrella neck labels.. these babies have taken over a year to get here…no no, it didn’t take a year for them to arrive here, the good people at Franklins run a tight ship and post promptly but we have had so many redesigns throughout the process it has taken a year for the finished article to get here. So, again, big thanks to Franklins and in particular Karen who had a never ending well of patience and understanding throughout the many e-mails we exchanged. So, pure gold for us this morning when we got our neck labels, check out the pictures..like them? Another example of some pure gold we got are our swanky buttons.

Lots of times we get junk mail. Junk mail, such a condescending term..sometimes it is true but sometimes those deals for pizzas or furniture or gardening tools are golden – it all depends on what you want to come through the letter box… There is a whole variety of things -well, everything more or less, obviously not a car though or giraffe or similar, they’re just too big - that can be sent through the post these days.

And what about the guys who review t-shirts and write t-shirt blogs? Is that not a cool job or what? The likes of Rangga at Cottonable, Brad at T-Shirt Review Blog, Coty at Coty Gonzales Reviews and Kat at T-shirts Around the Internet must receive a whole bunch of cool t-shirts on an almost daily basis, some of which must be pure gold...they're blogs are also pretty damn good and well worth checking out...

So, my question to you, what is the most bizarre thing you have received via the great postal services of your respective nations? Were you expecting it to arrive? And how happy were you when your own form of pure gold arrived? Really would like to know, I’m sure people out there have received the most bizarre things – let us know about it..

And, if you want some more pure gold, we’d be happy to send you some LadyUmbrella t-shirts..our online doors will soon be open…stay happy ya'll...

Heuston: We Have Lift Off (t-shirt blog lift off)

Hello world,

Well, first thing I'm going to do before I launch into this blog is to introduce myself, I don't know if its customary to do that in blogs or not but I'll be polite and do it anyway..

I am Rob, 26 years old, living in Dublin, Ireland and currently starting to run a t-shirt business called LadyUmbrella..."t-shirt business?" you say - already intrigued huh?

Well, to get to this stage I've avoided all the shortcuts, gone down many long and winding roads (which I'll divulge in future blogs, oh the stories) and pursued different things...So, how did I stumble upon the t-shirt business - not from anything I studied anyway...

When I finished school I went onto performance music college for a 2 year diploma..I rocked my socks off there in a band called Made in Taiwan and made some life long buddies..the 2 years there were all too short and the good times that were had there were unimaginable: being on stage in a pretty good band, meeting new people, "chillin", being around creative/musical people and having a cool bunch of teachers and lecturers who just, to their very core, lived and "vibed" with the music...they were phenomenal times where I met life long friends (like this guy, Richie, who played bass in M.i.T and also works with me in the LadyUmbrella business - here is his blog) and I fondly recall all the sweet rockage...The course was truly great and although the credentials I gained from it might not have been stellar, it was wonderfully put by one of our lecturers as we were leaving for the last time "You've gained some very important and useful life skills"....Rock on!!!

Then, once I obtained my diploma in music I did what all budding rockstars do and went on to do a degree in, eh, I.T...why I did this I'm still not sure...I guess it was a combination of A) Being able to type B) Having enough points to get accepted to the college C) In the back of my mind (even though I was wearing purple flared cord pants at the time - no, they weren't in fashion) I figured getting a degree and living the student life for 4 more years would be a good idea..set myself up for life as it were so that, in case and just in case the rockin' didn't work out, I'd have something to fall back onto..

Well, I did my time...4 years of crap...do I like computers now? - no...can I still type - yes...would I do it again - its a coin toss...I learned a whole heap about computers and got a good degree but sitting in front of a computer all day was just not for me (blogging and facebooking are totally different though, ye?)...I got a job in computers when I graduated and lasted for....drumroll...1 week..I e-mailed my boss on the Saturday just letting him know that I wouldn't be back - one week was long enough to solidify the fact that computers were not for me...

Since then I've had spells as a door to door salesman, a fund accountant, and a band manager..all interesting in their own right but I won't go into to them at length at the minute...ultimately, the key point to note is that I've found my way into the realm of t-shirts...

How? Well, I've been unemployed for a while, not lazy or being a spunge, but just trying to see what will fit for me..Being my own boss is the dream..so, how could I do this, be my own boss and live the dream...I fortunately came across a Spanish designer, befriended her and started going out with her...turned out she, amongst other things that she is wonderful at, could draw and photoshop like no one I'd ever seen before..

So, about a year ago she had some sketches and did her magic and made them appear in photoshop (its not magic really, I know that, I have a degree in I.T hehe)...the designs were pretty narly and the concept and name, LadyUmbrella, were also pretty interesting..I did some online research and created a survey...went and begged people to do my survey (not just friends but randomers, friends tell you what you want to hear) and got some pretty positive results...We then decided to have a good go at it and see if we can set up a t-shirt company.

We are a year down the road now...the designs have been rejigged numerous times, tears have been shed, set backs have been met, google has been utilised to the max and many many hours have gone into it...now, we are online at LadyUmbrella.com and Facebook (feel free to "fan up") and are just weeks away from getting our stock (how many weeks, we're not quite sure but we wait patiently/frustratingly) and are getting giddy about our launch..

Finally, what is this blog about? We'll, I'd like to think I've learned a bit in last year or so about t-shirts and hope to divulge that to whoever may be reading (please say hi or leave a comment if you read this, otherwise my finger ache is for nothing)...Also hope to tell some interesting stories and post the rare gem of a Youtube link when I find one...like this...it made me laugh...hard...I also hope to let the world know about how LadyUmbrella and our t-shirts are progressing as that is what I do now - 18 hours a day, 7 days a week...would I change it for an I.T. job? - no...for a fund accounting job? - no...for a door to door sales job? - no...to be a rockstar? - quite possibly...

On that note...

Rock on...