Sanctuary of One Designs

Saturday

2010-05-15T18:48:00.002-05:00

Ahhh, a cold beer on a warm Minnesota summer day, I can feel the humidity building already. Feel pretty good today for a change, got a couple new shirts out so feel free to check the site or my Facebook for the updates. Listening to some new tunes as well, feeling kinda jumpy. I want to get a couple lawnchairs and throw them out on the deck but the hornets are going crazy out there so I better wait until I get some raid or something.

Watched the Hurt Locker earlier today, pretty intense, very good show. I know I'm late to the party on that one but it sat on my Netflix Queu until yesterday, seems like that place is really slowing down getting enough movies out, I've had some that sit in position 1 for 3 months or more before I get them, but oh well, I just fill it with old shit until I get the new ones.

Season 2 of True Blood comes out pretty soon, excited for that, I don't have HBO so I have to wait until they come out on dvd. That's about it for now folks. PEACE!

Friday Chat

2010-05-14T18:56:00.002-05:00

It seems like every time I post a new blog, or update my FB page about "new things coming soon" I end up getting sidetracked by long work hours, or car trouble, so I'm not going to do that anymore. Instead I will layout my plans with no timeline, that way if something happens in the meantime, I cannot be held accountable by...me.

Things are moving along, been working a lot, got a few new ideas cooking. Actually maybe too many ideas in the old noodle, I want to do this, and this, and that. In the end I never get anything done, I need to learn to cool my heels and just do one thing at a time. Anyway, that's about it for now, I'm going to try my best to pump out a few new shirts this weekend. So off I go.

Back from the ashes

2010-03-06T11:25:00.003-06:00

Been quite awhile since I have posted a new blog, many things have changed in my life since then. I have completely recovered from being sick, I feel okay these days, still have trouble now and again but I'm moving along. I moved again to another small town here in the burbs, its quiet and I like it. I am also living alone for the first time in about 20 years, lol. It took some getting used to but I'm doing well with it these days.

The shop has been going strong as well, making decent sales for such a small place on the internet. I guess that is all for now, I'm gearing up for a re-design for my website soon so I will be posting my progress and whatnot. Peace.

a little update

2008-11-05T20:24:00.002-06:00

Hey folks, haven't been feeling to great lately, got a virus to go along with everything else. This one is fun, it swelled my gums up to the point where I could not close my mouth. Of course that means I couldn't eat anything and it was very painful as well. I am still not healed from this, I cannot close my mouth all the way, but I can chew on the right side of my mouth, so I can eat a few things that are easy to chew, noodles and such. The past couple weeks were agonizing, drinking my food, the only thing I could eat was pudding, lol.

In any case, this has finally started to subside, so much to the point where I have been able to get a bit of work done today. I added a new design and re-edited an old one to make it look a bit better. I have also started the sale on election gear, this section will be taken down on friday and replaced with a Holiday section. I have already started designing for Christmas stuff and whatnot so when the time comes there will be at least a few things to shop for when it opens.

Other than the business stuff I have not been able to do much. I have wanted to do some illustrating and things of that nature, but I just don't have the mind for it with all this other shit going on. I pick up the pad and pencil and just stare at the blank space until it's time to take my medication, lol. I can't wait for this junk to be over with so I can get back to doing the things I love to do. Peace.

New Website Lauched!

2008-10-11T19:33:00.002-05:00

Hey all, I finally finished the new site design, I hope this one works better for those of you that have non-standard screen sizes. Through all this I have learned that I am not very good at web design, lol, but I'll keep trying.

Finally moving better here, able to walk normal again, except for stairs and things like that. They start pumping chemicals in me on Monday. The schedule sucks, Mon-Fri, then two Tuesdays in the following 2 weeks, then repeat a couple more times. I can't wait til this shit is over with. I will not be able to do anything for the holidays and such.

Halloween is my favorite time of year, I have never missed doing "something" on Halloween, I will make up for it double next year. Anywho, back to work here.

small update

2008-10-01T13:58:00.003-05:00

Getting better as the days go by, I'm starting to move around pretty well, getting some better sleep too. I have to see the doc today to discuss my chemo schedule, well see what happens.

Not much to do these days sitting around the house all day, so I have decided to add all my political designs to buttons! You can purchase these buttons individually, as 10 packs, or as 100 packs for events!

Click this link to check out the Election 2008 section of the site.

Thanks for the support everyone.

yo peeps

2008-09-30T11:14:00.002-05:00

Starting to feel a bit better here, not able to do the things I want to do just yet, still can't bend over to tie my shoes, or twist and turn, but I am progressing. Still pretty sore too, but each day gets a bit better I guess, depends on my activity level the day before. Had a docs appointment yesterday afternoon, my blood markers came back clear, but there are a couple issues yet that have to be dealt with, I have to see another doctor and have 3-6 rounds of chemo to get rid of a few suspicious spots that they found. Hopefully that will clear everything up and I will be good to go after that.

Heading back to work on thursday, don't know if I am ready yet, but I have to get out of the house. It's killing me sitting here doing nothing. I have been able to get some work done that I've been putting off for awhile, made some new shirts and started fixing the website, but still. At least I was able to go outside yesterday and get some air for the first time in a week yesterday.

I was able to add some new products, if you check out the site there is some new shirts available, one of them is The Skull. I have added this design to the new INFINISTITCH product line, which includes men and womens polos and performance jackets. The products look pretty cool, I may get one of the performance jackets to check them out as they look like a good fall jacket.

Election 2008 shirts now available!

2008-09-28T08:56:00.002-05:00

Greetings to my peeps! I have been able to get some work done the last two days or so. I got a request for some political designs and I've been having so much fun working on this project that I decided to put up a separate section on the site dedicated to this years election! Feel free to check out the links and give them a look.

On another note, my health has been improving the last few days, I had a couple setbacks earlier in the week and was forced to take it easy, but I am starting to feel a bit better now. If you are wondering what my health problems are I will decline to answer that question, I am not the type of person to relish pity from others, so it will only be mentioned as "health issue", lol.

I also realize that I do talk a bit too much about my work and not much else, this blog is intended to get people to go to my shop, but I would like things to get a bit more personal, not just me coming on here and giving standard updates about new shirts available. In the future I will be blogging about much more than just my work.

Here is one little bit of information about myself that you can take with you today. BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS!

update

2008-09-20T23:17:00.002-05:00

Well, I had some big things in store for the shop site and the regular website, but they will have to be put on hold for awhile. I have some health issues that I have to deal with right now, I will be out of commission for a bit, but hopefully things will get back on track within a couple weeks. Thanks to my peeps.

Update

2008-08-25T20:13:00.002-05:00

Check out the site link for a couple new shirts! Things have been hectic here lately, will be moving to a new place this weekend so just alot of packing and other junk going on.

Let's Get Denarded shirt!

2008-08-15T05:45:00.002-05:00

A few new designs are now available, one of which is a great Let's Get Denarded Shirt! Some other news is that the website has officially launched, I've got some work to do to make it compatible with different screen resolutions and different browsers, but considering that this is the first site I have ever put up, or even attempted to put up I think everything went okay.

New designs available

2008-08-06T10:39:00.002-05:00

Hey all, just a quick update today, I've been busy as hell recently busting my arse on a new website and adding new products to the shop. Here are a few new ones, hot off the computer!

New shirts available!
survive!
iZombie!

New mugs available!
survive!
iZombie!

New journal available!
survive!

aint no cure

2008-07-22T21:48:00.002-05:00

yes, I am referring to the summertime blues. Sales have been crawling this July, I've heard the same thing from many a shopkeeper, but all is well. Getting ready to make a big announcement pretty soon here, I've been working on a side project, that's why I haven't had time to update too often, or even update my products for that matter. But since sales have been so slow this month I figured it would be a good a time as any to get rolling on something else. I have a cold as well which helps me sit in front of the computer for hours on end without moving, lol.

update

2008-07-06T19:21:00.002-05:00

Things have been a bit slow lately, the summer slowdown I guess, lots of stuff going on in peoples lives this time of year. The slowdown hit at the end of june, so I took the opportunity to take a bit of time off from making designs and do some other things I have been meaning to catch up on, mainly just relaxing, lol.

It was well worth it, getting back into designing this evening I feel alot better than I have in quite a long time, the stuff I have in mind is alot more clear and not clouded with other things going on in my life, its a nice change to be clear headed about stuff for once. And now that things are cleared up I will be pumping out a few designs here this week, I'm almost done with one right now which should be up either late tonight or after work tomorrow, then I have a few designs rolling around the ole noggin that Ill push out later on as well.

Over my little break I didn't do much of anything, just traveled up north to see that fam and did a few things over the 4th, work was hell last week so I was pretty happy to have the long weekend. Anywho folks, thats it for now, Ill update as I add more stuff this week. I am also in the process of converting my designs from shirts to hats which I will debut in the coming months, Id like to be able to offer around 10-15 different hat designs before I open up a section offering them. Thats it, peace!

new junk

2008-06-20T21:47:00.002-05:00

A couple new items are now available, including the ultimate Zombie shirt! Besides work, not alot going on right now, just enjoying the warm weather by staying inside with the air conditioning, lol. As you may have noticed, I'm not all about quantity anymore with the shirt site, more about quality. When I was pumping out designs left and right I was getting nowhere at all, now that I've been focusing on stuff and taking my time with the designs things are picking up.

New junk

2008-06-06T20:57:00.003-05:00

Well I decided to add a few mousepads to the mix on the site, there are 8 of 'em now available, more to come! Since I was in a good mood today I have also added a new shirt to the comedy section. This design can also be seen on a tote bag or mousepad as well.

Glad it's Friday today, thought I was going to have to work very late again, but I decided that I wasn't going to take that beatdown today so I grabbed my gear and left at 5. 10 hours is enough for me after the grueling couple of weeks I've had. I really need a vacation, lol.

I take days off once and awhile, but that just doesn't cut it. I haven't gone on a real vacation in years and years, I would actually like to go someplace where I am completely away from everyday life, and all the thinking that goes along with it.

The latest

2008-06-04T19:20:00.002-05:00

Been a bit since I've been on, normal life interruptions I guess. But now I am back at it again. A couple new designs have been added since I last updated this blog, I have been hand drawing skulls of late and decided to put them to use on some new shirts. If you feel up to it check them out, the link is on the right side of the page.

I have also now added Tote Bags as an item up for sale in the shop, I figured that if you are the type of person that like to carry their own bag while shopping then you mine as well do it with some style! If things go well with this new product then I will speed up my process a bit and add some other new items to the shop earlier than I had planned.

Thanks for reading, peace.

one more design

2008-05-19T21:41:00.000-05:00

Had an idea going earlier today so I decided to throw one more shirt out there, MACHINE is now available.

new design available

2008-05-18T20:46:00.002-05:00

I have added one design today, a trendy shirt with 2 skulls facing each other, nautical stars and swirls. Pretty much a trendwhore design, but it turned out good. I have also started to remove my name and website from the bottom of some shirts, I feel this clashes too much and may be taking away sales because of this. From now on my hand written signature will be included on my designs placed in an are where you can't really see it.

New look

2008-05-17T20:35:00.003-05:00

The new look is just about done, I will probably change the main pictures at some point here to something that matches the site better, but as for right now I would rather start working on some new designs and leave the sites "looks" alone for awhile.

Timetable update

2008-05-01T19:35:00.002-05:00

Well, things have been going slow here the past week, mostly my brain has been dead. But tonight I finally figured out how I want things to look like on the site so I figure I'll have the new look and sections up by Sunday night at the latest. I will probably start messing around with it tomorrow so you will start seeing some things being moved around. I have come to an ultimate decision about the gear that is already available on the site, I will be keeping all of it up, I will just be moving it all into one big open section. Nobody is buying the shit, but sometimes I think of a movie line or something funny that would look good on a shirt and I have to have somewhere to put it, so that's where all that stuff will go. Also any personal request shirts will also go into that section.

Just so everyone knows, shirts will not be added as regularly to the new site as the other ones, these designs will take more time to make, and as they will be my own artwork, they have to be perfect, lol. But I am confident I should be able to put up 1-2 shirts per week. That about wraps it up, I'll toss an update up when the site is ready. Thanks for reading.

big changes

2008-04-25T18:55:00.001-05:00

Well, things are going to change with the shop, in a big way. Some may like it and some may not. First off you may notice a few missing shirts, well those images got tagged by the copyright folks so I got rid of them, no big deal, I'm happy that service is available where they catch that stuff that I don't know much about. Sooooo...if you were looking forward to purchasing: Bing!, War Kittens, That would be just fine, ED-209 or It's a Trap, they are now gone.

Okay, here is the big news, I am going to discontinue making any more funny, sports, state and movie shirts. Sales are non-existent with these Items, I believe mostly because these shirts are everywhere, and there are literally hundreds if not thousands of shops on the site that carry these same"ish" items. The sales that I am making are coming from the graveyard gear section. Therefore I have decided to stop making stuff that is pretty much offered everyone from the site to target, lol.

The items I will offer in the near future are going to feature my artwork, drawings, paintings, etc. I feel much better knowing that I will be using my own original work other than a re-work on an old movie line or anything of that nature, I hope you agree and will continue to support me with this venture.

As for the stuff that is on there now, I will be leaving it up for a couple weeks while I compile new stuff and start work on changing the look of the site. The items that will be staying permanently are zombie gear and graveyard gear, they will be reworked into different sections with different names. I will be adding new sections, I have a couple already in the works - DREAMS - which will be lighthearted stuff, and fantasy designs (fairies and that sort of stuff) and NIGHTMARES - which will of course be featuring scary stuff, zombies, skulls, and dark/morbid art. There will be more sections as well, I just don't have names for them yet, and I will not be eliminating comedy from all the designs, its just not in my nature, so there will be a section of "funny stuff".

That's about it for now, I hope you will enjoy the new site when everything becomes available as much as I will enjoy creating it. Thanks for reading.

new shirt..again!

2008-04-24T19:03:00.001-05:00

All I will say about this one is...VIVA KUATO!

Couple things

2008-04-23T19:17:00.002-05:00

Added a couple of new skull shirts in the graveyard section. Besides all the "shop talk" things are going well. The weather is finally heating up here, had a couple of 70 degree days, but I guess snow and rain and cold and misery is on the way, lol. With summer on the way the work will start to slow down at my real job, which is nice in a way because I can spend a bit more time doing more things that I enjoy instead of something that I don't. :D The downfall of course is less income, but I'm the type of person that would rather struggle with that and enjoy my life than to have no struggle at all but be overworked and dead tired all the time.

Gears of Skull

2008-04-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

Another new shirt added, with gears, spikes and a skull, everything you need. Check it peeps!

So1designs update 4/20/08

2008-04-20T17:55:00.000-05:00

Hey all, not alot to add this week for happenings and future endeavors. Added a few new shirts, plus some items for the Road Pirates. It was quite easy to do "other" items for the pirates gear, so I think I may take some time this week and put the designs on other products and only add 1 or 2 shirts. I'll be starting with something simple to slap the designs on, probably mousepads right now, just to get things rolling.

In case you may be wondering about the sales side of things, right now they are dismal, lol. But on the good side of things traffic keeps slowly increasing, so things should turn around soon, and if they don't, I'll just keep plugging away. :) Another bit about traffic, I'm getting some hits from Yahoo now as well, around 8-9% of visits, so that's two out of the three big search engines, "ASK" would be next of course.

I've had sort of a brain freeze the last week with other things going on so I haven't been able to add more to the graveyard section like I had wanted to this week, but I should be able to come up with a few new designs this coming week. I'm not going to add anything else right now about future stuff because frankly, I haven't been able to reach my goals yet that I set quite awhile back, so as for now just be on the lookout for the designs to be added to different products.

The layout may change a bit as I will be adding "sections within sections" so to speak. So if you click on a certain design, there will be sub-sections under that design, like "shirts" mousepads" "mugs" etc, you get the point. :) That about wraps it up for now, thanks to those of you who have re-posted and have sent me ideas for things!

Random shirts

2008-04-18T22:09:00.001-05:00

Two shirts have been added, "Random Drunk Guy" and "Random Drunk Chick", get 'em while they're hammered!

War Kittens!

2008-04-17T19:23:00.001-05:00

The Galactic Empire presents War Kittens...the shirt! Check it at the main site. :)

Durant action

2008-04-14T20:51:00.003-05:00

New shirt available, if you would be so kind as to purchase this shirt, that would be..just fine.

Short update

2008-04-13T14:54:00.000-05:00

Bing! shirt is now available in the movie section of the main site. :)

End of the week update

2008-04-12T20:29:00.001-05:00

Hey folks, another end of the week update coming atcha! Well, this week was a tough one, but I did manage to put up a couple new shirts. The graveyard gear section is now open with just one shirt available at the moment, but this section will be my area of focus for the next week or so. I would really like to get around 5 shirts up there by the end of next week if I can.

Added one more earlier today, O'Doyle RULES! Check it in the movie section. I had to re-work a couple shirts as well, that is another reason why not a whole lot has been added this week. I removed the lord humungus shirt, I didn't like it, ha. But it will be back up soon enough in a different form, lol.

I'm still trying to figure out how I want the sections laid out with different items to choose from, I wanted to do sub-sections, but that might still be a bit too cluttered, so I may just add entire new sections on the front page for mugs, stickers and whatnot, well see, I'll more than likely be testing that out this week as well.

Future plans thus far are pretty much the same as last week, the graveyard section is up now but more will be added soon, and then the new items is something I will get up very soon as well, I would really like to offer some other items besides shirts for the other designs. If I can ask something of all of you, can you send me some feedback on this? I would like to get opinions on what other items you would like to see added.

Also I may be opening a separate web site which will be a standalone site that mirrors the shop, just something else to attract visitors. And if you have not noticed on the front page of myspace I have started a blog as well which you can check out with the link in the "about me" section. This is to attract new visitors and to describe what is going on with the site during the week. At some point I will also be describing some of the design processes I use if anyone is interested. The blog is also updated quite frequently, I put up posts when I add a new shirt and whatnot.

Traffic to the site has been going quite well and is picking up by the week, and people are staying even longer than before, my target time is for visitors to stay on the site for 7 minutes or longer, right now average stay time is around 6 minutes 20 seconds or so. Compare that with the 1:59 time that I was getting 2 weeks ago I'd say things are going well. :)

That's about it for now, thanks for reposting bulletins and for supporting the site! Check ya later peeps!

the latest

2008-04-12T18:23:00.002-05:00

Been a rough week, work was tough but things are great now that it is the weekend! New shirt has just been put up in the movies section. O'Doyle RULES! I will be writing my end of the week update sometime today, I'll post it up here and on "the myspace" when it is completed. If you are unfamiliar with this, it's an extensive update I type up and post sometime during the end of the week (Fri, Sat, or Sun) detailing all the happenings with the site and what the near future brings. Check ya in a bit.

New Stuff

2008-04-10T18:49:00.002-05:00

The Graveyard Gear section is now open. I was going to wait to have 3-5 shirts ready before I put the new section up, but I couldn't wait. I will put a couple more shirts in there this weekend. This weather we are having should inspire me to create some dark stuff, it's cold, windy and raining/snowing/sleeting, just terrible. That's all for now, check out the new gear whydontcha!

Hey Peeps

2008-04-08T17:16:00.003-05:00

Well as you can see the blog is up and running! Things are going pretty good at the moment, the Road Pirates gear is doing well and I keep adding shirts to the other sections. I will be adding another one tonight, maybe two. Feel free to check out the site later on tonight. Outside of the site things are going just o.k. been having a few problems with things, but that's the way it goes I guess, work is slowing down quite a bit the past 4-5 days or so. It was the same last year so I should probably expect it to be that way again since things seem to run in cycles in the printing industry. All that means to me is that there will be more time for me to work on shirts and other designs, which I will never complain about.

I have been jumping around a bit when it comes to my plans for the site, I just have this "thing" that I have to put up a shirt just about every day and it's hard for me to skip it and add another option instead, but as I see it right now I should have the "dark" or "skull" section up sometime this week or at the latest this weekend. I have decided on a name for this section as well, it will be called "Graveyard Gear".

That's about it for now peeps, catcha later.