IdyllopusPress Presents

THE VANITY H.O.P. ART TOTE BAGS CAME OUT GREAT

The Child Experiments with Selling His Art: "I love my loot from Cafe Press!"
The Child Experiments – H.o.p. as Salesman
Not a promo shot. And no it’s not an apron, it’s a tote bag.

The recent haul of vanity H.o.p. loot from Cafepress arrived a several days ago and it looks great. We got a couple of the tote bags, which seem more than a fair price in comparison to others, and I was surprised with how great they look. We’ll probably order several more to keep in the car for grocery store trips. I’ve no idea how well they’re going to wear but we’ll be finding out.

If I have one complaint about the totes, it’s that the printing is not true center. Looks like for it to be true center you need to have an image that is sized 8 inches in width. They state the image is “centered” but in truth they “center” by beginning printing under at the left handle. It is 8 inches from the outside of the left handle to the outside of the right handle. If your image is less than 8 inches in width there is no adjustment made for a true centering. So I will have to do a special tote bag sizing.

Anyway, the totes are proving to be really convenient and much preferred to any grocery tote bags or other tote bags we’ve previously had. They’re nicer. And are fun. H.o.p. loves his (that’s him in his new shirt with his new tote bag). Marty’s enjoying his. I want one! That’s right, I don’t have one yet! Why not? So unfair.

P.S.: Yes, the bags are for our personal enjoyment. But being homeschoolers I look on the continuing Cafepress endeavor as a sort of lesson for H.o.p. in learning to be comfortable with the idea of self promotion etc.

Site Search Tags: ,

Posted

in

, ,

by

Juli Kearns

Tags:

, ,

Comments

11 responses to “THE VANITY H.O.P. ART TOTE BAGS CAME OUT GREAT”

  1. cosmos Avatar
    cosmos

    That is one great looking bag on a great looking h.o.p! I think I’ll do that.

    Reply
  2. Idyllopus Avatar
    Idyllopus

    The bags really are very nice and roomy.

    Reply
  3. Adorable Girlfriend Avatar
    Adorable Girlfriend

    You and Jennifer have the talent. Your kids have the kewlest stuff.

    Forgive AG being new to the gang, but is h.o.P. homeschooled? And if so, I’d love to know more about that. Have you posted on what lead to homeschool or what you have gotten from such a unique experience?

    Reply
  4. Idyllopus Avatar
    Idyllopus

    AG, yes, H.o.p. is homeschooled. I’ve reasons littered throughout the “Homeschool” category but the short of it is my husband’s a musician, I’m a writer/artist and H.o.p., like his mom and dad, has the kind of artistic temperament that would have likely had him, from kindergarten on, forever in detention, and if not in detention then he would have been miserable in school, just like we were.

    We live in a very red state and I didn’t want to chance him being schooled red. They eliminated recess in the public school system here and I couldn’t see him sitting at a desk for hours. I wanted H.o.p. to be able to progress at his own rate, not be choked with test-prep, and be able to explore subjects in a way that would be meaningful to him, which has included lots of drawing, drawing, drawing and other arts. Homeschooling also means H.o.p. can actually see his dad, who goes through periods of working a lot of evenings/nights and quite often is working weekends at the studio or doing gigs. We’re able to schedule H.o.p.’s outside home lessons during the day and take him to museums etc. during the day. Not to mention, H.o.p. has never wanted to go to school. He’s well aware he has considerable more freedom at home.

    I didn’t do the artwork on the above bag and shirt. H.o.p. did the mecha monster drawing when he was 6. He did some others too when he was 6 and 7 that he wanted to make into t-shirts so we did a Cafe Press store for them. Nowadays he focuses on constantly drawing storyboards (which he doesn’t want to use on t-shirts), making little animations and running around filming everything in sight.

    Reply
  5. snowqueen Avatar
    snowqueen

    They ‘eliminated recess’?????? Are they totally mad? (don’t answer that)

    Reply
  6. snowqueen Avatar
    snowqueen

    oh and the bags are fab!

    Reply
  7. Idyllopus Avatar
    Idyllopus

    Wait! I see that last year they reinstated a 15 minute period of “unstructured time” for children. (They had failed to do that in 2004.) But now they have a problem with schools that have no playgrounds and no funding is allocated for creating them. You have to have a sponsor to get a playground and have funding drives.

    This is from an old NY Times article from 1998 on Atlanta abandoning recess, but it gives an idea of the kind of thinking ruling over the schools here.

    But educators cite a panoply of reasons, besides academic pressures, to explain why recess is going the way of inkwells in so many schools: a fear of lawsuits if children become injured, a concern about the possibility of unsavory adults lurking at the edges of playgrounds and a shortage of teachers and volunteers willing to supervise the children.

    ”We are intent on improving academic performance,” said Benjamin O. Canada, the superintendent of schools in Atlanta. ”You don’t do that by having kids hanging on the monkey bars.”

    Recess has become so anachronistic in Atlanta that the Cleveland Avenue grammar school, a handsome brick building, was built two years ago without a playground…

    ”…there’s this political appeal at work: we want to improve performance; we don’t want to waste time; we don’t want to coddle kids,” Professor Pellegrini said. ”So we adopt this factory-like approach: let’s stick their nose in it long enough, and they’ll learn more.”

    This approach, in the view of Mr. Pellegrini and others, borders on the inhumane, keeping children confined for hours each day. At the Cleveland Avenue school, children start classes at 8 A.M., and they have no free time until dismissal at 2:30 P.M., except for 30 minutes at lunchtime. Even then, they must sit at the table after finishing their meal, and cannot mill about and talk to friends.

    Reply
  8. Jennifer Avatar
    Jennifer

    “…a sort of lesson for H.o.p. in learning to be comfortable with the idea of self promotion etc.”

    He looks comfortable! Good for him. I’d like to sign up for that lesson. Self-promotion was and still is like crossing a field of land mines.

    Reply
  9. Idyllopus Avatar
    Idyllopus

    Oh, he was more than comfortable. He did a multitude of gregarious show-off poses. But this is the one that turned out best as far as being able to see the bag.

    Speaking of bags. I couldn’t self-promote my way out of one.

    Reply
  10. Adorable Girlfriend Avatar
    Adorable Girlfriend

    Thanks for sharing. I’m really impressed with your reasons to homeschool him. It puts a face to HS that I often don’t get to read about — the progressive parent who wants to explore things beyond teh Bible and brainwashing.

    I had not realized your state was so bad when it came to public schools. I’m always amazed at how each school system is different and how some are betters than others.

    Reply
  11. Clement Avatar
    Clement

    the design looks great! and actually cafepress just fixed the problem, the image is centered now. 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *