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When Kristy Beauvais, the “Flounder” of FocusFish had a holiday show coming up, she needed some branded leotards for her camp students. With a hard deadline, she didn’t know how to make it happen with all the other things she handles running her acrobatic camps. Thankfully, a mutual friend sent her to us and we helped her sort it out.

We knew it would be a bit of a challenge. Kristy didn’t know anything about screen printing on spandex. We didn’t know anything about wearing leotards for acrobatics. Jazzercise, sure, but… oops. That’s too much information. Anyway, there was a lot of missing info about what was needed.

So we talked… a lot. We learned how her student performers use ropes and the trapeze and where they tend to get abrasions (ok… ow). Getting the right material and style at the right price takes a lot of research. There’s also a high level of difficulty when printing on spandex or other stretchy materials. So after mucho education on all our parts, we made some meaningful suggestions to Kristy that narrowed down the field.

Typically, we order apparel for our clients because we have access to thousands of styles and brands at wholesale prices. In this case, with the info we gave her, Kristy was able to find her own local source for her leotards at a price she could afford. So we worked out a rate for her that included printing on the blank stock she brought to us.

This is a perfect case study for why we don’t just list “generic” rates on our web site. The more we can learn about our client’s business and how they plan to use the apparel we print, the better price and result we can give them. With Kristy’s guidance, we stuck the landing. Boo-ya.

FocusFish had a successful holiday show and her performers looked awesome. I’ll share some photos from FocusFish, but please go check out her programs, especially if you’re in Southern California. Not only did we feel good about making her students look great, we love supporting worthwhile programs like this. Thanks, Kristy!

All photos are ©2014 by Donna Fedorowycz

This past weekend, we were asked to do some live screen printing at the Topanga Film Festival for the guests. They could buy a “thrift” store t-shirt on a rack, buy one of our blank t-shirts, or whip off their own shirt (or jacket) and we would print the TFF coyote logo on it while they watched.

Yes, we were really hoping to see people strip in front of our press. Alas, only jackets and hoodies came off, even with the open bar happening. It did stimulate some pretty amazing conversations and we soon had a crowd formed around us.

The printing was very loose. Sometimes we printed over stains on people’s shirts, or on the lower back of a hoodie. Lots of experimentation was happening and the guests were really into the art side of it. Check out the short video below:

Next weekend we’ll be printing live at the Concerts on the Green in Woodland Hills. We’ll be at Warner Center Park from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM – bring a shirt, bring a friend, we’ll bring the ink!

Sparky and Al McKay of Earth, Wind & Fire.

This past Sunday we kicked off our participation in the Valley Cultural Center’s Concerts on the Green in Woodland Hills. It’s a funtastic series of free concerts every Sunday from June 2 – August 25. We’re all tingly about it because not only is it our primo retail location for the summer, we get to see some live music.

This past Sunday was the music of Earth, Wind & Fire lead by their founder, Al McKay. I grew up with these dudes, having listened to their funky funkadelic funktasms since birth. After the show on Sunday, I got to tell Al McKay that “September” is my official song (born on the 21st of September). Righteous. How often does that happen?

If you’re in Southern California, we informally invite you (because we don’t do formal anything) to come see us every Sunday. Or one Sunday. Whatever works. Come on out and dig some free music. Say hi.

By the way, we are also having a Summer T-shirt Giveaway. There are several ways to enter, one of which is at the shows. If you want to win a free Sparky Firepants t-shirt (and why wouldn’t you), check out the many ways to enter right here: http://www.sparkyfirepants.com/summer-giveaway.

Setting up at WorldFest 2013

Have you ever tried to juggle? If you have, you probably noticed that it’s not a skill you pick up quickly. Some of us take years to get it down because we don’t juggle very often.

One of the things you notice when you start juggling is that if you stop paying attention for more than a second, it all goes right to hell. Let your mind wander and… splat! Balls down. Or chainsaws down. Whatever, although I highly recommend learning with the balls.

Life running our screen printing business and family isn’t kind of like juggling, it’s exactly juggling. Pile on the dog, the cat, the car that needs repair (again), the usual grocery shopping, laundry, birthday planning, and two kids in a local production of Grease, and you are very quickly juggling chainsaws. Did I mention that we also homeschool?

Even if you don’t homeschool, if you have kids, you know. Am I right?

Bourbon helps. If you don’t drink, try Calm. I use both.

Last week we were super focused on WorldFest. Which went swimmingly, by the way. We got a such a great response from our customers there and afterwards that we stopped looking at the balls (chainsaws) for a week. Oops. We had a few surprises get thrown at us.

It’s all good. We have our health! But it’s been a challenging few days for us as we start thinking about the Concerts on the Green this summer. We’ll have a t-shirt booth there every Sunday for 13 weeks this summer. It’s gonna be awesome, yes. We have a lot to do, for sure.

Oh! I need to remember to get gas for the chainsaws.

If you’re in the LA area, check out the free summer concerts here in Woodland Hills. My personal favorites Lee Rocker and Robby Krieger will be there. Come say hi!

Woop-dee-do and yippy-kay-ayy, we’ll be at WorldFest this coming weekend!

So if you’re in the Los Angeles area, come out and join us on Sunday, May 19th. This is us officially inviting you to hang out in a beautiful park for a day listening to live music, sampling tons of vegan food, plus a beer and wine garden hosted by Lagunitas Brewing Company. Um, beer. Yes? Beer. Yes. The event is all about promoting health, environmental, humanitarian and animal welfare issues. No reason we can’t have some fun doing it!

Since we run an environmentally sustainable screen print shop – not to mention being vegan – we couldn’t think of a better way to participate than with our goofy vegan t-shirt designs. Naturally, we’ll be exhibiting our super soft vegan t-shirts at our booth. We’ll also have stickers, window decals, tote bags, and prizes to give away. So aside from the beer, food, and Ed Begley, Jr., you can score some very cool stuff from us!

We’ll also be educating people on what it means to run an environmentally-conscious business. Especially in the screen printing industry, there are a lot of chemicals that are used for preparing and cleaning screens. We only use drain safe, biodegradable, citrus and soy-based cleaners in our tiny little shop. There are a lot of things we plan to do as we grow (we’d love to be 100% solar-powered), and we’ll be learning about some options at WorldFest.

We hope to see you there!

David & Jenni

Under our banner of Super Nifty Things to Do in the Valley, here’s a great family event coming up soon. Check it out!

2nd Annual 4GOOD Family Day

Sunday April 7, 2013 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Bridges Academy
3921 Laurel Canyon Boulevard Studio City, CA 91604

Please join 4GOOD, for a fantastic way to help our kids understand how important it is to give back to their community! 4GOOD will host a FREE afternoon of hands-on volunteer opportunities for ALL AGES, including:

• Creating cards for service men and women over seas with Operation Gratitude
• Crafting friendship bracelets sponsored by the Zimmer Museum for Children’s Hospital LA
• Decorating placemats and lunch bags for seniors with Meals on Wheels sponsored by Sunnyside Preschool;
• Making fleece blankets for sick & needy children with Binky Patrol and much, much more.

We are asking families, if they can, to bring items that will help numerous persons in need.

• loose change
• gently-used stuffed animals
• gently-used teen formal attire
• gently-used plastic kids toys
• canned food

Families can enjoy lots of entertainment, delicious affordable food, free face painting, informational booths and fun for the entire family.

To RSVP to the event, click here or visit http://eepurl.com/szRNz to sign up to help volunteer to staff the event.

 Thanks for the heads up, @anniegb. She sent us this info after our Twitter meetup with @HealtheBay and @LA2050 last week.

We are Sparky Firepants and we approve this message.

We printed up these cheerleader tops for a local production of Grease! the Musical.

And just in case you forgot it, here’s the Rydell High fight song:

Hit ‘em Rydell Ringtails
Tear ‘em apart , green and brown
Bash their brains out
Stomp ‘em on the floor 
For the glory of Rydell ever more

Fight team fight
Chew ‘em up spit ‘em out
Fight team.. Fight…!

You’re welcome.

If you’re in the area, you should definitely check out this production. In the interest of full disclosure, both our teens are in it. Shameless? Sure. I can’t help it, but we’re really proud of them and the whole cast. It’s put on by a great group of people doing great work, Topanga Youth Services.

Here’s the lowdown:

Topanga Community House

1440 N Topanga Canyon Blvd, Topanga, CA

March 8th and 9th at 7pm

March 10th at 2 pm

The suggested donation for tickets is $12.

In the words of one of my son (Danny Zuko), “We have an excellent cast, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t get chills and they didn’t multiply.”

Word.

Looking for something to do in the San Fernando Valley? Here are some super nifty things happening here in the coming week:

Canoga Park Saturday Market

This little market happens every Saturday on Owensmouth between Sherman Way and Wyandotte in (you guessed it) Canoga Park. There are a few produce vendors, crafty booths, a hummus vendor (try the red pepper kind), and live music.

It’s a tiny little market, so when you’re done you can stroll along Sherman Way and visit Old Town Canoga Park. Follow Your Heart is right up the street, so you can have lunch and play with the puppets in their toy area. Or maybe that’s just there for me.

Cook LA Vegetarian Cooking Class

I just found this place and it looks swell. This class is on Sunday in Studio City. From their web site:

Tired of having turkey? Don’t like waiting in line to have brunch?  Then why not make it yourself, learn a new skill and eat all you can.  This class teaches you the basic knife skills needed, how to use a variety of spices to mix with your recipes and to top it all off, we cheers to your health with a cocktail spritzer.  Great combination to make new friends or bring the ones you love together.

Then, on Thursday, they are doing gourmet pizza. Check it out!

If you go, please drop us a line and let us know how you liked it!

Smoke and Mirrors

Oooh, magic! This magic show in North Hollywood with Albie Selznick looks cool. They have shows on Saturday and Sunday. Check out the web site, it’s magic-eriffic.

If you have an event happening in the San Fernando Valley and you want us to spread the word, send us an email with details! [email protected]