Search Results for Ca (366)

Code:Rad - Beddy's Beds

Ashley Longnecker / January 02, 2015

If you have kids with bunk beds you know how much you dread changing their sheets. It sucks, like, for real. I think I’ve found a solution. There is a company called Beddys and they make this zippered all-in-one sheet set! It’s genius. It has zippers on both sides, your child unzips one side to get in bed, then zips it back up in the morning and their bed is made and looks wonderful.

The best part, it’s machine washable! I know I’ll be saving my pennies for these. With having to buy four sets for our kids it will be a good chunk of money but I think these would be a great investment when we are traveling in our 5th wheel! Go check them out, and follow them on Instagram.

Code:Rad - Melody Joy Designs

Jonathan Longnecker / December 30, 2014

I am not sure how I found Miss Melody Joy on Instagram but I am so glad I did. She is so rad. Not only is she this wonderful carefree spirit, she radiates joy and passion and love. I cannot wait to meet her one day. I have a feeling we would be great friends.

Anyway, I’ve had my eye on her leather wraps for awhile and I decided to buy one for Jonathan for Christmas this year. She stamped 4 arrows on it (our kids) and stained it a beautiful dark brown color. He loves it but forgot to put it on this morning, so.... I stole it:) I will be placing an order for one soon and you should to. It’s comfortable, well made and you support a small business that gives back! Follow Melody Joy Designs on Instagram for more awesome handmade items like her hand knitted cowls and Nest Jewelry.

Where do you get high-quality wholesale fitted shirts?

Jonathan Longnecker / December 12, 2014

It's funny, as soon as we decided to get out of the hand-printed t-shirt game we got a flood of questions as to how we were doing it. I keep thinking maybe they shouldn't take advice from the guys closing up shop, right? I kid, I kid. We did learn a ton in our short time doing this and thought it might be helpful if I wrote all this down somewhere on the internets.

What we'll be tackling today is the question we were asked most: "Where did you get your shirts?"

That's a great question. If you're not part of that world and trying to break in it's tough to know where to start.

Get out of town sale

Jonathan Longnecker / December 03, 2014

Hey everybody! How was your Thanksgiving? We had such a great time here in Knoxville - everyone came to our house and we enjoyed a truly relaxed time of stuffing our faces, laughing and actually getting to talk to each other. 

It's funny how even when you spend time with your family, you can still be busy enough to cut it short or just not be mentally present. Maybe it was the fact that everyone was off from work that day - or maybe it was just cold and rainy enough for people to linger, but it was nice to hang with the family.

I've watched in amusement the last several days as what used to be just one day of sales has turned into like 5 days of "money events." Stores opened a day early on Thanksgiving day, Black Friday was still Black Friday, Saturday got devoted to local businesses, Monday the Internet was on sale and then Tuesday was all about giving. I love giving and all, but I just had to laugh and the ridiculousness of the marketing madness. I'm getting a little tired of everyone else telling me when and how to spend my money.

All that to say - we didn't do any Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals for anything in our store. Why? We didn't want to be another email in your inbox yelling at you to buy something. 

Instead, I'd like to share some news. By this time next year we're going to be on the road. Our house will be sold and everything we own will be in an RV! 

And let's just say boxes of t-shirts is not on the list of things we want to be carrying around with us.

So from now on everything in our store is 50% off. No special timeframe, no coupon codes, no midnight specials. We just need to clear out our remaining inventory. 

Oh, and one more thing. For every dollar you spend on one of our shirts we're going to donate a dollar to Rice Bowls, an awesome non-profit that helps feed orphaned kids. Like, indefinitely until all the shirts are gone. We're that crazy, guys. For real.

So go check out the apparel store! And if a particular size is out of stock shoot us an email and ask. There's a good chance we've got a blank one in your size that we can print for you.

Create Don't Hate

Jonathan Longnecker / December 01, 2014

We have a saying in our house that you've probably heard before. "You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit." It's a fun little rhyming reminder to the kids when they complain about all the things.

For example: I give them two cookies, they complain that they didn't get three. We take them somewhere special and they complain that we didn't go out to eat, too. As parents that can be super frustrating. You're doing your best, trying to make them happy and they aren't content with anything. It's not their fault, though. We all start out kind of selfish. That's why we have to teach them to be gracious and thankful, right? Right.

But lately I've been noticing that as we get older we start to forget that lesson, too.

Take a scroll through your Facebook feed and what do you see? Adults acting like children. Complaining about the President. Complaining about their job. Complaining about their amazing tiny computer/phone in their pocket that has one little bug. Complaining about their favorite TV show or movie. Complaining about their husband or wife. Complaining about Facebook, even. I know you've seen it.

Part of me wants to go shake them, "You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit!" - I mean seriously. We're not kids anymore. Why do we spend all our time complaining? 

Overabundance of all the things

Here's part of my theory: we live at a point in history where we can literally watch/read/listen to anything we want anywhere we want anytime we want. We can inhale and numb our minds without any effort. There are endless games on our phones that are programmed to be addictive and time consuming. Social networks like Facebook and Pinterest figured out that when they implemented "endless scrolling" we just didn't stop scrolling. We spent more and more time because all we had to do to get more information was move our thumb.

Let's not confine this to digital, though. Walk through your local grocery store and take a minute to look at just how many kinds of cereal you have to choose from. Or how many different crackers there are. And don't even get me started on the shampoo. I want to curse at every barely different version of Head & Shoulders lined up and indistinguishable from one another. Grrrrrr.

If you want to take it to another level go into a Walmart and walk up and down the aisles without any intentions of buying. I am constantly amazed by all the crap on those shelves. Empty, frivolous, useless junk that does nothing but satisfy our consumer need to buy something new. Rows upon rows and millions upon millions of dollars worth of nothing. And that's just one store in one city in one state in one country. 

We've become so accustomed to getting all the things all of the time that when something goes haywire we freak out. 

Entitlement and criticism are like a drug

From here we quickly move from being frustrated when the consumer machine fails us to outrage that it broke in the first place. It's like some switch gets flipped and we're 5 again, right?

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have to work at this stupid job all day long. Aarrhghghg!!!"

"The new 80's cartoon movie looks so stupid. CGI sucks. Why can't they just get it right?! My childhood is ruined."

"Ugh, I'm so frustrated with my husband! He won't take me shopping at the outlet mall!!"

When all we do is consume what is laid out before us, we have a tendency to become complaining, critical children. Did we pour our blood, sweat and tears into that movie, TV show or song? What about that smartphone in our pocket? Did we take a huge risk and run for public office? Did we take a risk and do anything remotely interesting at all today? Probably not.

And yet somehow we feel that we deserve to have everything handed to us on a silver platter. We feel that we can use our words to cut down, ridicule and minimize the accomplishments of others just because we don't like it.

Even worse, this behavior becomes really addictive. The more we do it, the more we like tearing others down. It feels good. Then we start to surround ourselves with complainers. And then it feeds into that nasty entitlement and away we go. It's a hard train to get off. 

It's time to stop whining and grow up

Guys and girls, we need to get off the whiney train. It won't be easy, but we need to - for our friends, for our family and for ourselves. So how do we do it? 

I think the quickest way to hack the "pitch a fit" behavior is to make. Make what? Doesn't matter. Write a song, draw a picture, knit a scarf, built a table, program an application, invent a recipe, film a video, make a craft, write a story. Use your brain to give life to something new, to create and give instead of taking all the time. 

When we spend our time consuming and waiting to be entertained it causes us to become cynical, critical and whiney. Making things is the perfect foil to change those habits because it reminds us how hard it is to create something. We start to rely less on others for our happiness as our mind becomes consumed by our art.

Even better, you'll become more interested in what you can do for others than what things like TV shows, discount sales or political parties can do for you. Giving is way better than getting. And creating is always better than hating.