I Sold My First Shirt!!!

 Hello, my good friends!

I hope you all are having a great day!  Sorry for the break in the blogs, I went out of town for a few days to see some family and had a great time.  I've also been busy with learning and researching things for selling t shirts.  I think I found an awesome site with some cool designs that I can use for my small business.  

I sold my first shirt!  I am so excited!  My first official shirt I sold was to a person that I sold a puppy to a few years ago.  She ordered one of my Choose Kindness shirts, and seems very pleased with the results.  Thank you, Lisa!

The technique I am using is the transfer paper and then using a heat press to transfer it on to the shirt.  Hopefully in the near future I will be learning how to use the Cricut machine to have a more clean look when it is transferred.  I am sure there is a learning curve to that, so that might take a bit.

I have a few of designs saved and ready to go.  I would like to focus on positive, inspirational shirts, but I am certainly open to suggestions.  I can also print photos and transfer them on to shirts, so feel free to get in touch with me with any ideas.

I am working this weekend on getting some designs ready to go.  I also need to find a way to organize my blank t-shirts.  It's a pain to find the size that I need when I am ready to print.  I need to buy a couple of crates to separate the shirts, that would make it much easier.  I am also trying to find how I like my workspace laid out.  I keep tinkering with that lay out, I'll find a way to keep organized sooner or later.

Thank you so my sister Rachael for ordering a shirt off of me as well.  I told her I didn't want her money, but she sent it anyways.  

I also went to the post office to see how much shipping will be, and it is a little bit more than I thought it would be.  Shirts are still $15, but shipping will be $7 for small orders.  If by some chance you would like a large order, get in touch with me and we can figure something out.

Again, please contact me with any ideas.  I am still learning and I appreciate your patience with me!

Call/text me at 724-581-8507 or email me blhutton4@gmail.com

Thank you all so much for supporting me!

Here's a pic of my sister wearing a shirt I made for her:

And here are a few fun pics:

I Made My First Shirts!

 Hello, my lovely friends!

I hope you had a great weekend!  I got some walking and running in, but it's been either humid or raining a good chunk here for the past couple of days.  One thing I have realized, I don't handle the humidity as well as I used to.

Good news!  I was able to get everything I needed over the past week or so to start making shirts.  I even practiced a few shirts.  I was so excited to make my first shirt.  I made sure I mirrored the image.  I made sure I made it even on the shirt.  I made sure to use paper so it didn't stick to the heat press.  I put the shirt in and put it on the heat press for the appropriate time and temperature.  And then I took the transfer paper off.  I put the image on upside down!  I was so sad.

But I guess I can chalk that up to a learning experience.  I need to be mindful about those sorts of things.  I even made my niece Katrina a shirt with anime on it.  Not that she shows too much excitement over things, but I am pretty sure that she liked it.  She's even thinking about wearing it her first day of school, which is a big deal for a kid.  We'll see.

I worked on a design yesterday morning.  I do want to focus on making people smile and being positive in my designs.  I came up with something that I liked a lot.  I will also do some custom orders, including pictures that you send me.  I learned a few things with designs and making the shirts in general.  Overall, I am liking the process.  

I have been thinking about pricing.  I think for now, my price is going to be $15 per shirt.  I haven't done any pricing for shipping yet, but I am guessing it will be around $5 per order.  I would consider meeting people locally in Beaver County.

Here are a couple examples of the shirts I made:

I would also like to experiment with the cricket machine, it looks like it could be fun!

Feel free to email me at blhutton4@gmail.com if you want to talk about any ideas.  I'd love to hear about any ideas you may have.

I'm Starting A Side Hustle (T Shirts)

Good day, my friends!

It's Saturday!  I'm still not sure what all I'm going to be up to this weekend.  As long as I can get some sleep tonight, I might be visiting some family in my hometown of Blairsville, PA tomorrow.  Sleep has been hit or miss for me lately, so we'll see how I feeling come tomorrow morning.

So, I have been doing some thinking lately.  I have some life goals that I'd like to accomplish.  Such as buying a bigger house and visiting my sister in Florida within the next couple of years (and seeing Harry Potter World at Universal while I'm there).  To do these things, I need some extra cash.  I don't have very many creative genes, my sister Bekah has most of those.  She does some amazing stuff with wood, I'll have to share some pics at some point.  I can't sew and I am not crafty.  But I do like to spread more positive thinking out there.  We all need some more of that.

I stumbled across the idea of making t-shirts with positive sayings on them.  I did a little bit of research online (everything you see online is true 😉).  I googled and I looked up on YouTube.  With a little bit of initial costs, I believe I can start my own little business of designing shirts.  I bought a relatively decent printer and a heat press.  These items were the biggest cost.  I also ordered some shirts and transfer paper.  I probably should stock up on some extra ink, I'll probably be going through that on a regular basis.  

Within the next week or so, everything will be here.  I am sure that it might take a little bit of practice to perfect the technique, but it doesn't seem to be too challenging.  My focus will be on positive sayings on the shirts, but I will be trying other things as well.  I am not sure yet how/where I will be selling them.  I am thinking that the shirts will be roughly around $15-$20.  Eventually, once I get more experience, I would like to have organic shirts (which would increase the price of the shirts but is better for the planet).  

What do you guys think?  If you have any ideas or suggestions, please pass them along.  You can either leave a comment here or send me an email at blhuton4@gmail.com

Thank you guys for reading.  I hope you enjoy your day!  Much love to you!

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Good day, my friends!

I hope you had an enjoyable long holiday weekend!  As long as you like it a little bit on the warm side, it was really nice in my neck of the woods.  I'm not going to lie, I could do without all of the fireworks.  I just don't get how loud booms make everyone so excited.

Hold on to your socks (if you have them on).  I am going to give you some shocking news.  We only get one planet.  Yeah, I said it.  Just one.  And we should treasure it.  Keep it safe.  Keep it clean.

To do that, we need to be mindful about our every day habits.  Again, I know I'm not perfect.  I need to limit my single use items.  Such as bottles of flavored water or tea.  I try to balance that out with buying laundry sheets of detergent that come in little boxes as opposed to the liquid detergent that comes in the huge plastic containers.  I also buy bars of soap instead of liquid body wash.

Another thing I try to do is make things last as long as they can.  If I don't need it, I try not to buy it.  I make my clothes last as long as I can.  I have some shirts that I have had for several years, some of them being from second hand stores to begin with.  It's not that I'm cheap (ok, maybe a little), I just try to be conscientious about buying things I don't need.  

Another thing I am big on is taking my reusable bags to the grocery store.  It drives me crazy how much plastic is wasted just by bagging groceries.  I don't want to think about how many pounds of plastic are wasted just by the Walmart plastic bags every year.  Please take your own bags to the store.

I have recycled my plastics for years.  Thankfully my town has a program where I can leave them out in the recycle bin and the city will pick them up.  If they didn't, I certainly would be taking them to a recycling center.  I bring my bottles home from work instead of throwing things in the trash.  It only takes a little extra work, but I have piece of mind knowing that I brought it home to recycle instead of taking the easy way and throwing them in the garbage.

I know that I am only playing a small part.  However, if we all make a minimal effort, we can make a big difference.  (Corporations can do their part as well, but that's a different discussion for another day.)

Things that you can do to help our planet:

1. Reusable bags when going to the store

2. Minimize single use items (buy reusable water bottles, purchase detergent sheets)

3. Carpool

4. Recycle (including amazon plastic packaging, you can drop them off at the grocery store)

5. Turn off the lights when not in the room

6. Instead of buying single serve yogurt cups, buy the tubs and portion it out in to smaller containers

7. Purchase a water filter instead of buying bottles of water

8. Meal prepping instead of ordering out for lunch

Of course, there are many things you can do to help minimize your impact.  Together, we can make a big impact and the world will be a better place.

Thank you so much for your time.  I appreciate that you have taken time out of your day to read my thoughts.  

Please feel free to leave any positive/constructive feedback in the comment section or you can email me at blhutton4@gmail.com

How To Start Being Vegan (or Vegetarian/Plant Based)

 Happy Friday, my friends!

I hope you all had a good week!  The weather wasn't too bad.  In fact, we had some gorgeous weather around here in western PA.  I've been getting some walking/running in wither before or after work.  This morning, I was able to get a 2 mile run in at the track.

I understand that going full on vegan on Day 1 can be highly intimidating.  Not too mention some possible digestive issues if you aren't prepared with all the added fiber that your system isn't accustomed to just yet.  I recommend stepping in at the shallow end instead of diving in the deep end.

There could be several routes you could take.  For the first few months, I gradually gave up meat.  I didn't necessarily pick out meals, it just happened naturally.  Maybe I would have some chicken there, or possibly some bacon there.  After 6 months, I pretty much eliminated meat (I did have seafood sporadically for a bit after).

Some ways that you could try:

1. Meatless Mondays

2. Pick one meal to give up meat 

3. Eliminate red meat

4. Eliminate processed meats (I suggest this for everyone, even if not giving up meat in general)

Once you have gotten used to the first step, you can add from there.  It's actually pretty easy, once you are used to it.  Meatless Mondays can develop to Meatless weekdays.  Once you are used to giving up meat for one meal for the day, then try 2 meals a day.  Once you have eliminated red meat, you can add giving up poultry.

There are many different directions you could take.  They are all a step in the right direction.  Do what works for you.  You may be in a situation where it's difficult to give up all meat.  It may be hard to completely eliminate dairy.  And that's ok.  We all have our own paths to take.

I'm still on my path to being completely vegan.  I have minimal eggs/dairy, it's hard for me to not have that chocolate chip cookie.  I'm still trying to move forward.

I hope this blogs inspires you to take the first step.  If  you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

If you have any positive/constructive feedback, please feel free to leave a comment.  Also, you can email me at blhutton4@gmail.com

Enjoy your holiday weekend!