…Well I’m Just As Confused As You Are Availble at Threadless

Skull Needz Available at Graniph

Traffic Jam Available at Uneetee

This evening, while giving our son Liam a bath, my wife and I both noticed how much he’s changed in just his short 2+ month life. See the photographic evidence below:

Newborn Liam

2 Month Old Liam

See what I mean? Everyday is something new and amazing. Now that I’m able to appreciate the long view, I can forsee moments in the future where I’d like the option of hoping in my time machine and seeing all of this magical stuff happen all over again.

Not being schooled in the necessary scientific fields to make this crazy goal a reality, I’ll do everything in my power to fully appreciate every single beautiful moment. But if you happen across a  DeLorean with a built-in flux capacitor, please let me know.

1: My two-month-old son is a wild man and I’ve been very busy admiring is newborn antics. Truth be told, my wife is the parental rock. She has deciphered his various cries, coos and grunts. All wondrous stuff I assure you

2: When time allows, there’s freelance projects to be done – stuff that I’ll eventually post on my the work page of this website. Many thanks to the magical Mike Doughty (and  Mai, his merch manager) for  hooking me up with the work.

3: In between the parenting/spousal duties and freelance design work, I’ve been scrapping minutes together to record with my band, endswell. We’re putting some finishing touches on a 3 song EP due out in February. Stay tuned for more info on that

In the meantime, help a dude out and pick up this tee or this tee or this tee.

Is $28 for a tee a bit steep? Yes. Is $28 for this incredibly iconic masterpiece a bit steep? Hellz no. I dig the color palette against the red tee and the beauty and freshness of the design is just perfect. Kudos Turtlehead!

1: The birth of my son, Liam. He’s a little miracle and I truly feel blessed to be his dad. I always thought having a kid would be a great experience but I never imagined it would this awesome.

2: My wife is the BEST. Her attitude was amazing throughout the pregnancy, she continues to laugh at my bad jokes and she’s been churning out some AMAZING baked goods. Just a few of the million reasons why I love her

3: Our younger pug, Olive, finally learned to sleep through the night. No joke – during Olive’s first two years, she’d incessantly rattle her crate between the hours of 3am-6am. It was insane. I think she sensed the upcoming arrival of our new addition and figured it was time to chill.

4: Operation lunchboxbrain took off like a rocket. I started designing under the lunchboxbrain moniker in 2006 and it’s safe to say that 2009 has been my most successful year to date. I had a bunch of tees printed at some top-notch sites and even picked up some commissioned freelance work. lunchboxbrain.com had more than 58,000 visitors in ‘09! I hope to continue this full on assault of graphic goodness in 2010.

5: The Yankees won the World Series! They may have spent a boatload of cash, but at least they brought a championship home to the empire state. That’s more than I can say for my New York Giants.

6: This old house isn’t so old anymore. I’ve been to Home Depot so many times, I’ve got a personal parking spot. I built a nice, stone-fortified flower bed up front, chopped down a busted old pine tree, started and finished Liam’s nursery, had new windows and carpet installed and completed a slew of odd jobs. There’s still work to be done but our house finally feels like a home.

7: Endswell went electric. I know it’s not even close to when Bob Dylan plugged in but adding a drummer to the endswell line up was a big move. I really dug what we were doing with just two acoustic guitars but the songs just sound better as a rockin’ trio. Stay tuned in 2010 as we’re heading into the studio to record an EP and of course, more gigs.

8: Thanks to the powers of Facebook, I reconnected with some old friends. One can never have enough friends!

9: Beer makes every year awesome. I particularly enjoyed some of the microbrews from Brown’s Brewing in Troy, NY this year.

Even before she gave birth to Liam, I already knew Star would be an amazing mother. She’s extremely patient, loving and selfless. I don’t think Liam and I realize how lucky we both to have Star in our lives. While I’m loving all aspects of fatherhood, I must admit that Star has that extra maternal mojo that I’ll never have. She’s the burp master, the bath expert, the fantastic fashionista and an all-around amazing woman.

“Women made us lose paradise, but how frequently we find it again in their arms.” – J. de Finod

Digital Arts Interview

We’ll get to the shirts in a minute but first I’d like to toot my own horn. I’ve been featured/quoted in a Digital Arts article about designing tees! Needless to say, I’m excited and flattered to be in the company of some amazing designers (Matheus Lopes Castro aka Mathiole, Matt Lyon aka C86 and Kerry Roper). The reporter, Graeme Aymer, solidly covered the numerous nuances of the tee design process. I can’t wait to see the full printed version featuring sample works of yours truly and other designers. I was nervous about doing a phone interview with Graeme but he cherry picked some nice quotes and I’m thrilled to have been included in the article. Thanks Graeme!

TeeDay – Hot Dog High 5

I don’t care what parts of what animals are in hot dogs. I love hot dogs. Summer, winter, whenever, wherever. Hot dogs are delicious and until I tour a hot dog factory and see the insanity for myself, my mind and heart won’t waiver. That being said, I’m seriously considering shelling out the $28 for this masterpiece.

TeeDay – Rocket Science

I’ve been looking for a good home for this design for awhile now and thankfully, the good folks at Crazy Dog T-Shirts have printed Rocket Science. If you’re into punny/nerdy/funny tees, this is a no-brainer buy. Get it today for a measly $17!

The Legacy Lives On

Flashback: Mid-to-late 80’s/cold winter day/standing in front of my grandfather’s apartment with my grandfather, Ralph

Ralph: Come here and listen to me. You’re the last Gregory male – it’s up to you to carry on the family name. Do you understand what I’m saying?

Me: (completely stunned, freezing my ass off, praying for my dad to find what he was looking for in Ralph’s apartment) Umm, yes grandpa.

Flash forward to April 2, 2009. My wife tells me we’re having a baby. I asked her if she was trying to pull a delayed April Fool’s joke over on me. She says “No! I’m really pregnant!”. A wave of joy and amazement washes over me. Flash forward a few months. My wife and I are at the OBGYN office watching the monitor of the sonogram. I see it before the tech does – a penis. A very tiny but very obvious penis. The tech squints at the monitor and confirms what I saw – a penis. Tears well up and I smile.

In that moment, my mind flashes back to that exchange with my grandfather. Personally, I believe everything happens for a reason. Maybe my grandfather knew what the future held for me or maybe he didn’t. Either way, the legacy lives on in my son, Liam. Welcome to the world, kiddo. It’s a better place with you in it.

Song Bird Available at Tilteed

Song Bird is a found art collage that I designed awhile back but it’s finally found a home at Tilteed. If you don’t know about Tilteed, you should really check out their site. Even though it’s a new site, they’ve already got a great collection of tees. They do a week long pre-order where the newest shirt is only $12. After that the cost bumps up to $18 which, in my humble opinion, is still pretty reasonable for an awesome tee like Song Bird.