Dave's Garden T-Shirts are now for sale

Now THAT'S positive thinking! :-)

I like the thickness of the original T-shirts because the summer temperatures are so high here (along with the humidity).and they are not stiff feeling.. They are really comfy. However, I do realize not everyone lives where the heat can be almost unbearable at times.

I hope the quality is as good as the website looks. I love the idea of being able to order the varieties they offer and the color options. I don't mind the gray to work in at home, but when I go out I would like a punch of color, I feel washed out in the gray and tans.
Zu.....got those shirts yet????

No t-shirts yet! You're as impatient as I am! ;-) They're in Jackson, MS so I bet I'll get them Monday. Monroe is on I-20 between Jackson and Shreveport but for some reason packages coming from the east go to Jackson then Shreveport and then Monroe. Weird... It really depends on them getting to Shreveport before the drivers leave in the morning. I don't know if they will move them to Shreveport over the weekend or not. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, I'd better wait then.

Thanks Faeden.

Re: the New Orleans accents....a while back, we were sitting across the breakfast table from a group of sisters (cruise ships pair you up randomly, especially for breakfast) and I listened to them, trying to place them by their accent. My first guess was "up north" (Brooklyn or somewhere near there), until one of them mentioned being from New Orleans. Then the accent fell into place. Specifically, I remember marveling at how the word "on" became "ohhhn" when they said it ;o)

LOL, a lot of people have asked my parents if they were from NY! Speaking of t-shirts, my cousin sent me pics of N.O. shirts with sayings like, "Drove my Chevy to the levy, but the levy was GONE!"

On accents, I have been accused of having none, although when arriving in Dearborn Mi. in 1973 from Virginia I was immediately pegged as a hill-billy by the other local youth.

Now after returning to Va., a few years back, >10, I probably have retained some of the original "southern twang"

By the way "hill-billies" were targets until I showed them they were not "easy" targets.

Most of our local dialects are easy for others for our country to at least understand. The exception is the first wife's concoction of English from the smaller parts of the Chesapeake bay in Va. Md. and the outer banks.

I'll never forget the time my brother-in-law went into a small store in upstate NY and asked them if they sold eye's (yes he was trying to buy ice).

Alot of people are able to peg me from my accent. But at the same time, I can sound like a Yankee in no time if I hang around them long enough or I have a light southern accent also. So there are times I have my *regular* accent and other times I have others. I have actually had people peg me to the nearest city 30 miles from here before. That was a shock when they did that!! LOL

My sister picks up accents SO fast! She was riding in an elevator once with two Italian ladies, and she was chatting with them. At the end she got out and said "good-bye" with an Italian accent. She was hoping afterwards that they didn't think she was making fun of them - it was entirely involuntary.

LOL. I'm not that bad but I do pick them up if I am around them long enough.

My suth'n drawl comes back when I'm in N'awlins!

I've had people from England ask me where I'm from in the UK - comes from being married to a Yorkshire tyke for a number of years, and before that watching so many British TV programs. I even translated for my husband and stepson in Ireland. LOL

Oh, and ever since I took a three day trip to Canada, I've been saying "aboot."

I love language!

LOL

I was visiting New York City years ago and I went on the Staten Island Ferry (it's free for walk-ons and a great place to get pictures of the skyline). This very nice couple was pointing out all the landmarks but when I told them I was from Louisiana they were soooo disappointed; "But you don't sound Southern!". I truly DO sound Southern but I think they were expecting more Elly May Clampett

LOL What ya doin' that far away from the cement pond?

Ha! Ha! I loved that show but I never met anybody like them before! I NEVER called my Daddy "Paw"! My younger sister told her grandkids to never, ever call her "Granny". She's Nana to them (but she's 40-something so I can understand that!)

Picture this - An American couple and their Ameircan born son -stationed in Germany -decided to adopt a Romanian 2 year old girl. Now, both parents are in the military, so provisions must be made in case they both get deployed. So, they hired a live-in "nanny", who was straight out of Ireland, to help keep things in line.

You can imagine the fun - An American family, living in Germany, with a Romanian child who was trying to learn English from an Irish nanny! They had lots of laughs during that time. End of story - they are living happily back in the States!

I'm soooo confused!!!! ;-)

That little kid is probably as confused as I am! I took a class at work earlier this year taught by an Irishman who's lived in England for a long time. Between the Irish slang and English slang and the Irish/English accent we had to keep interrupting him to ask him what the heck he just said! He was a really fun guy and it was a great class. He picked up some of our American slang too (the Southern variety).

Ah, the Southern variety - that's the best kind!

I teach English to Mexican people living in our county. Every now and then I hear my Texas drawl coming back at me. I have to watch it.
Additionally I teach Spanish in that same county. When I'm out I try to use my Spanish whenever possible for practice. I'm told that I have an accent from a country that I've never been to. Mostly from Spain. But then most of my professors at A & M were from Spain and I undoubtedly picked up their accent the same way that my English students are picking up my Texas accent.

Cool, AuntAnne! I have a question for you--am I considered 'hispanic' if my heritage is from Spain? I never know which box to check--why can I not be 'white or caucasian' and 'hispanic' too?? My great grandparents spoke spanish, and came over 'on the boat' from Spain.

That's a great debate question. I'm not of Spanish or Hispanic or Latino heritage. Just plains Heinz 57 variety. But from what I read that's something that greater minds than mine are debating. From my viewpoint (and only that) Hispanic would refer to any Spanish speaking country. That being said I would think that you'd be of Hispanic heritage. But then Spain is part of Europe therefore that would make you like a lot of us of European heritage. So now that I've made the issue clear as mud, lol, I'm going to leave it at that. I don't know exactly what those stupid boxes are for. Mine would be Irish/German/French/Scottish/Native American/Dutch and heaven only knows what else.

re Cafepress:

I have ordered from them because they have a lot of neat shirts with music stuff on them. I think the shipping is too high; it doesn't go down in proportion if you order many things. They seemed to be having a "beta" situation with some colors, specifically the darker ones. If you get what you ordered, the quality is fine, but I've ordered stuff and gotten an email 10days later saying item XYZ cannot be shipped at this time, do you still want it? and then MUCH later item XYZ is now available, do you still want it? Go back to step one and repeat!

Try zazzle.com.

xxx, Carrie

That doesn't sound good. We have a lot of local advertising printers here. I used to be in Purchasing and that was one of my comodities. Is there anyone local in Bryan / CS that would work with you Dave?
I like the assortment on Cafepress, but if you have problems with orders, it will drive you crazy with complaints.

Thanks for the tip about zazzle, Carrie. I checked out their site and they seem to have their act together. I'll look more closely at them when I'm home, but they certainly have a lot of promise!

Sheila, I have a wonderful printer in San Antonio that printed our last two batches of shirts (and mugs) and did a wonderful job for a good price. The trouble is, I just don't want to handle the shipping anymore. It's just not fun for me, and the post office is 15 miles or so from my house...

dave

The shipping charges at the CafePress store I buy from aren't unreasonable at all, and charges DO decrease the more you buy. Take a look here: http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/shipping.aspx#1 I also have had no problem with availability.

Dave just a thought on shipping - UPS will do home pick-ups if you call them, I have not checked their web site lately (usually just use it to track incoming shipments), but you may not even have to pick up the phone. I'll check it out and get back w/more information.

Did not take long for that, there is a schedule a pickup link on their front page. http://www.usps.com/

This message was edited Jun 25, 2007 8:42 AM

I'm not going to do that again. I'm a programmer, not a shipping manager. Some people enjoy that work, but I don't for reasons I've gone into here and others that I haven't mentioned. Going with a third party like cafepress or zazzzzzzle is the only choice.

Cafepress or zazzle are nice because they're "one-stop" shops. The downisde to that approach is that it's hard to get them to customize on things like the terracotta flowerpot mugs (they're definitely unique to DG - nearly iconic at this point ;o) and the quality is iffy - might be good one batch, and then change without notice.

But there are some order fulfillment places that will take the inventory we supply and fill the orders. Do you want me to get you the names of one or two places that seemed promising (relatively low markup on shipping and reasonable inventory fees) the last time I looked? It might be worth comparing them to the turnkey operations.

Dave, sorry, I did not mean to "touch a nerve", I am not a shipping manager either, nor a programmer.

I am a component level electronics technician, currently licensed for nuclear, X-ray and laser measurement systems and a computer tech (dell factory direct certification).

If you have any problems in the "Hardware spectrum" I would be more than happy to help out. And if any of your dell systems require repair, the certification, allows me to work on their systems w/o voiding the warranty & order the required warranty parts.

Have a good day-

Dyson

Besides the fact that shipping is not our favorite family activity *grin*, the other issue with going with someone local is that your choices will be limited to one.

We've heard it thousands of times that if we order, members will buy. They will, eventually, but meanwhile, we're left with thousands of products that we have to store for a year or more. That's with one shirt selection (or mug, or cookbook). I can't begin to fathom what our house would look like if we did more selections.

I'm sure this is a case of can't please everyone, but frankly, this time, we're going with pleasing ourselves :) We're not shipping anymore.

I don't blame you, Trish. Shipping is a pain.

~Lucy

Good for you! Couldn't be clearer! :>)

Thanks Trish, I had not thought out all the angles and as usual - you have enlightened me.

Precise, clear, to the point!

God Bless.

Sasha

I took a quick look at the zazzle.com t-shirts. I really liked that they seem to have a bigger variety of colors than CafePress and offer more styles of shirts than CafePress does (with the exception of v-neck - I think). I also found that it was easier to find ALL of the t-shirt styles on zazzle than on CafePress.

My DH got two customized key chains (with each others pictures on them - I know, goofy,sappy, and mushy).The shipping was maybe 1.95 and each key chain was $1.95. Best of all, when DH carelessly lost his, I could go back online and reorder it without reformatting or reuploading or anything. Best of all #2, the shipping was so cheap. For key chains that is....

xxxx, Carrie

This message was edited Jun 25, 2007 7:37 PM

Hmmm...just a thought about Cafepress verses Zazzle.....Cafepress offers bigger sizes than Zazzle. You might want to take that into consideration too. :o)

Got my shirts today! Order placed on 6/20, shipped on 6/21 (UPS ground), arrived today 6/25. Cost me $35.98 (2 shirts) + $5.00 shipping. Initial charge was $29.98 before $3 upcharge for each shirt since I ordered the largest sizes for both. I'm happy with the look and feel. The "Women's" t-shirt (pretty light blue) is thinner than the other (Light gray), but it's %100 cotton so it feels better than those cheapo shirts you get at the tourist shops. The gray shirt is thicker and while not as thick as the Hane's "Beefy T's", I like the weight. I didn't want anything very heavy anyway because it's hot as heck here in Louisiana for a good portion of the year. The design on the front looks good too--very crisp.

Overall I'm happy. The service was great. Dave might be pickier than I am about the look and feel. His name is on the front so I can certainly understand that. I'm just not that picky about t-shirts. If it's 100% cotton and I like the color and design then I'm happy. If I hadn't gotten the largest sizes I would have paid $17 each for 2 custom t-shirts. I've bought lots of them at events and $20+ is normal.

Just my 2 cents.

Mary Ann