Store design ideas?

So some of you know I have a cafepress store. Right now it is a bit boring. Mostly work related designs. I want to expand that obviously. It is the Blue Collar Boutique after all so I want it to have designs for life, it does but not many. I want a lot of designs aimed more towards this aspect of my life. Shooting, survival, planning, and the evil zombie apocalypse for good measure hehehe. So any ideas? Something you guys would love to see on a shirt or mug or something but have never been able to find? I have a file of sayings and such to put up but none really centered on this type of thing. As long as it is not a trademarked phrase or copywrited body of work and the like I can design it.

I am open to ideas!!

Where's the gun? - Southern Nevada Style

Inspired by Weerd Beard and his "Gun Death" pieces I decided to do some here but mine are going to just be stories from southern Nevada. Help people see how even a small area can be full of violent non-gun violence against each other. I could go back and do some of the major cases since we have been here but I like keeping my lunch. Of course this first one is not exactly good at keeping the food down.

Investigators say godmother beat baby with metal pipe:

Investigators are revealing new information on how 14-month-old Dyon Johnson was allegedly abused and murdered by her godmother, Mariann Harris.

Southern California authorities booked 23-year-old Harris on a fugitive warrant late Wednesday night after Harris fled Las Vegas for a relative's home in Victorville, Calif.

After the baby's August 12 death, there was speculation about how the infant suffered the blunt force trauma that caused her death.

Investigators now say they believe it had nothing to do with a fall, but rather a metal bar that Harris used to strike the little girl.

According to court documents, the paramedics that arrived to Harris' apartment home noticed the child was cold, had glossy eyes, and had probably been dead for some time. Once at the hospital, doctors noticed Dyon was covered in bruises around her face, head and collar bone.

Disgusting nasty woman. I am so glad she was caught despite running. Of course this isn't a death to rally against though right because it isn't violent enough? Please people. The filth of humanity is going to find a way with or without a gun. I know many laugh at the saying but face the facts- Guns do NOT kill people, PEOPLE kill people and will continue to do so no matter what laws you put in place.A  criminal is labeled that for the pure and simple fact they have no regard for law!

Our favorite famale survivalist has a fiction book on Amazon!!

Brawny finished her book. I have to admit to some major pride despite having done not a thing but cheer her on. I love seeing someone do something amazing and she has done that. She has done that in a much more courageous way than I. So go to Amazon and download her Kindle ebook A Measured Response (End Of Days). Survival, apocalypse, battles, danger. You know you want to!!

First day of school!

My sweet Bug and the teenagers started school today. Niece is a junior and may even try to graduate early. She hasn't really decided. Nephew is in 8th grade. Last year of middle school. Some days he seems so much older and others so young but that is often the case with boys his age on the cusp of manhood. Bug is entering 4th grade. She is now in the upper echelon of school. Those years feel sweet and I want her to enjoy and savor them. The picture is her being silly. I am so proud of her and the young lady she is. All of them are pretty great.

Poor Monkey was pretty sad to see all the kids leave today. She wanted to follow Nephew out the door and cried when we dropped Bug off. Being back to hanging out with just me is not her favorite thing. I am a little sad too. They finally seem to get that this is their home and so all of them have been really great lately.

Well here is hoping the year is great and we can have lots of good grades and happy days.

Canned!

No, I didn't get fired. You have to have a paying job in order to get fired. Everything I do, I do as a volunteer.

I am trying to work up the ambition to do some canning today. I have a huge amount of green beans that need to be processed. I also have several large cucumbers that I am thinking about turning into relish. They are too big for pickles so dill relish it is. I have eight tomatoes with five or so more that will be ready tomorrow. My jalapeno plant is producing pretty well...for it's size. My peppers were really small plants this year and i didn't get much off them. I think I will have to buy some peppers but I plan on making salsa once my tomatoes really get going. If I get enough, I also want to do spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes. Hrmmm, I might have to buy more tomatoes too, lol.

I had a bunch of peas I was going to can...but I ate them. The corn is alive with bees so we should get a good harvest there as well. My cucumbers are going to go bonkers here in about a week (?). The onions are getting really big too. I am going to have tons of fun with the garden this year. My kitchen is most likely going to look like a war zone from now until November though. Oh well, Hubby will just have to get over it. Think a loaf of zucchini bread will help?

Birthday fun with Lila!

Today is my 29th birthday! Yay me! Last night my awesome other half took me on a date. We went to a movie. I chose "One Day" because I adore Anne Hathaway. The story also seemed interesting. Of course I had never read the book. I ended up crying my eyes out. Way too emotional of a movie for birthday fun.

Today I was presented with my gifts. All sorts of fun Browning pink & camo stuff for my Durango. Very cute. The pink is also not so overwhelming that my guy hates to drive it. I love it. My seats were getting just a little sunfaded and I was worrying about it. Leave it to my guy to think about the solution in a way I love.

We wanted to shoot today but of course we are under heat advisory and thunderstorm warning. The heat and wet is oppressive and the clouds are ominous in their rolling black waves. Our club is not quite done with the indoor range yet. Sooo home we stay. Eh. I have movies, chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream, and my brother in law is making a yummy dinner. Life is good.

* yes that is me in the reflection taking the pic!

The Onion say huh??

I know that The Onion is very often beyond sarcastic. Some of their humor I enjoy some I look at and feel like I missed a joke and some I just sit back and go "Huh?" The post of the young farmers son begging the country to stop trying to save small family farms because he really didn't want to work hard for little reward made me giggle a bit I admit. I can see a rebellious teen thinking some of those things. The article on publicists agreeing that celebrities were not famous enough got an eye roll. This one made me fell into the final group of "Huh?" responses. Paypal Founder To Create Island. Island nations for the Libertarian crazies. Guns left in a pile in the middle, A non-functioning but symbolic debt count of 0, and every so often an arbitrary tax on the entire population to get riled up about and make life meaningful. Ooooookkkkkaaaayyyyy...........

Yes I did my research and know that this is an actual plan. Or some of it is like the island nation with looser gun regs and less government input. Good on you.

My issue with The Onion thing is that it makes it seem like Libertarian = dumb hillbilly gun loving illiterate. Not really humorous like they are known to be but more a way to make anyone who even thinks along libertarian lines look stupid.

As too the plan itself. Nifty idea in concept but when you are creating a floating environment like this i just see issues from a basic living standpoint. Islands are great, even tiny ones, but you aren't worried the thing is going to sink due to human error. Add that is is a little hard to practice certain skills that a lot of us enjoy on a manufactured island with no minimum wage and I see disaster. Anybody remember Waterworld?

Shotgun shopping as a woman is suspicious??

Luckily my very hot other half does not read blogs so I can vent a bit. We, like most of us who are preparing for a bleaker future, have a list of things we wish to acquire. We have several rifles. We each have a handgun we thoroughly enjoy. With my darlings birthday around the corner I decided to start on the shotgun list. Our guns, our home, our list. The first shotgun honestly is more mine than his in the sense that it will be an aid in home protection on top of my 9mm and I am the one home more often but I know he will get a kick out of the purchase. Anyway, so really doesn't matter who buys it to us as they are ours. Blah.


So I went to a nearby sporting goods store. They had the lowest price. My brother in law put in some money since I was buying it earlier than expected. He helped me figure out exactly what 12 gauge we wanted because since I am still learning and we have never had one it is Greek to me. I walked in and made my request. Mossberg 500 12 Gauge with a 28" barrel. Well the guy and the female clerk he was flirting with (both Hispanic, maybe it was because I was a scary white chick?) perk up and he asks what model. I then say, "Umm.... Let me look at his text." (BIL had sent me a text days earlier helping me to know what to price search) Guy goes all weird and says, "I am sorry we are out, I can't sell to you." I respond, "Which is it? You don't have one or you can't sell to me?" He then proceeds to tell me to leave and that my looking at a text message from someone out of the store indicates to him that I am purchasing the gun for someone else and thus trying to buy and then pass on a weapon in an illegal manner. WTF?? I explained that my BIL was the expert and I was not and I was taking his advice on what to purchase for my own protection. Didn't matter, government regulations and I needed to leave. Wow.


Suffice it to say I went to the store I prefer anyway where my favorite guy was at the counter and got what I wanted without issue. He is a nice older man and he helped Santa with the great rifle for Bug at christmas.


I really love that my little 5'4" self looks like an evil suspicious villain. Maybe I should cast me as the bad guy of my next book just to shake things up. Dumbnuts.

50 Followers!!!!

So we are a bit horrible about celebrating the usual milestones. Blogiversaries and hitcounts and the like but this one just made me so tickled I had to share. We hit 50 followers. Sure I imagine quite a few gave up on us in our slump faze. I forgive them. But hello 50 is a pretty nifty number! (Yes there are 52 but Gracie and I don't count, haha.) So woop woop!! Thank you to everyone who reads us. Comment!! We love it and try very hard to respond when you do.  I know for me it makes me feel a little less lonely. Being home with my kids and the stories in my head can be a bit isolating at times. Add that our area is very transient and my health is so cruddy and I am not a very outgoing person and you are stuck with a pretty shy chick. You guys make me feel a lot less like the wall flower! Oh and I even added a cool little facebook button over there in our sidebar to my facebook so anyone who wants to can friend me there. I admit I am not on it much though lol though I plan to be more as I get my writing out there!! So anyway back to the purpose of this! You guys rock!! Thanks again for making us hit the beautiful 5-0 mark!

Bad news/ Fabulous news and great new friends!!!!

I am a kick me and then lift me up girl so bad news first. I seem to be in a lovely flare due to our record heat. Yay me!! It sucks tush. Trying to get the 3 kids that go to school back on decent sleeping schedules for school monday adds stress and my previous post about family drama added stress. So I hurt. Boo.

Now to the FABULOUS NEWS!!! We have been BLACKLISTED. I know. Pretty cool right? Okay so if you are not on the list or your do not read the blogs on the list you probably think that I am in a Fibromyalgia induce brain fog and have completely lost my marbles. You would be wrong, teehehehe. See that pretty image over there -----> that says The Gun Blog Black List? Click it. My awesome friend North made this list. Basically a play on the fact that the anti-gun fun haters stalk us gun happy hillbilly dummies and talk about black listing our evil ways. So now there is a black list. A finer bunch of bloggers you will not meet....err....read, hehe. So go check out the list that we have been included on despite our newbie ways. Click around. You will find some great people there!!

Now for the new friends. I added some more links to our ever growing blogroll as well. I added a few and am sure I have forgotten who all I added but I do know I added Matt's blog Troublesome Times finally. We have another of his blogs up but this one is where he is at these days!!. We also have TinCan writing from Nine Pound Sledge Hammer. His wife has FMS like me and he writes a good blog. Very neat guy! Also got Tam's frequent partner in crime up on The Adventures of Roberta X. Red Woman is a fabulous read out of Oregon and her pics make me miss the PNW. Finally Tales From The Clothesline is awesome. A prepping mom that Stephen introduced me too. Fabulous writer!!