lello news

Woohoo! We just ordered our copy, have you?

For those of you that follow our ramblings, you know that we’re devoted The Terrible Twos fans. Their first album, If You Ever See An Owl… has been in constant play in our little house ever since its release last year. Any music that has that sort of longevity for a 1 and 4 year old has to be good right? It is, we dig it, and if you haven’t heard them before, you should definitely check them out.

Get your copy of Jerzy the Giant here

A big thanks to the bands, Elisabeth Clay, Jamie Ross and all of the organizers who rocked us at this year’s Maplewoodstock! We had a blast chatting with all of our Maplewood neighbors and chilling to good tunes. We can’t wait to see you all again next year!

Cheers.

We’ll be hangin’ out at this year’s Maplewoodstock on Saturday, July 12th from 1 - 7pm listening to cool tunes and showing our wears. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop on by our booth and say hi.

Maplewoodstock is held in Maplewood’s Memorial Park all weekend and celebrates local artists and musicians like Starfish, 3rd Gear and Aztec Two-Step (just to name a few). To learn more about the festival and get a schedule of acts, visit the Maplewoodstock Website at: http://www.maplewoodstock.com

Hope you see you there!

That’s right, we’re selling our kid’s t-shirts online at etsy. Visit our store at: http://lello.etsy.com to snag your very own butterfly, zebra, monkey and/or maplewood tee available in infant, toddler and youth sizes. All tees were designed by us and screen printed by hand to 100% cotton t-shirts. We hope you dig them as much as we do!

xoxo

Well, this year’s Mayfest - which is the event that launched our whole business one year ago - was a bit of a washout. They’d been predicting rain, but we were hoping for the best, and we got off to such a great start. We met some awesome neighbors, sold more shirts than we anticipated off the bat, ate some sausage (and Jamaican patties and stuffed cabbage and key lime margarita cupcakes) and really got into a groove. Then… it started to pour. We were one of the stragglers that tried to ride it out for a while, but once our fold-up chairs started to float away, we packed it in and headed home. Too bad… Beth and the volunteers from the Springfield Avenue Partnership worked so hard to pull it all together, our son Jackson and his friends had a blast getting their faces painted like pirates by the Three Sisters Face Painting team, and… I think my wife might’ve developed a crush on Mr. Ray after he did a show for all of the kids. So… maybe it’s not such a bad thing that it ended early!

Seriously though… thanks again to everyone who came by, checked us out, encouraged us, and jumped in a few puddles along the way.

Be the first to get your very own pink butterfly, brown monkey and yellow zebra tee this Sunday, May 18th when we debut the shirts at this year’s Maplewood Mayfest. The fest starts at 11am and continues to 5pm on Springfield Avenue right here in good’o Maplewood, New Jersey. Tees will be available in infant and toddler sizes.

Can’t make it and really, really want a tee? Don’t worry… they’ll be available for purchase online following the fest.

Hope to see you there!

We’re a visual bunch here at lello. Trying to get the feel for a t-shirt design from a computer screen just doesn’t cut it. Right or wrong, part of our design process is to create rough mock-ups of the final tee designs by printing, cutting and taping our art to the intended toddler t-shirt. We’ll play with colors, size and positioning on different tees until we get something we think works. Then we’ll talk about it, revise the art and print, cut and tape again.

What we finally arrive at is something we really like… and hope you will too. Stay tuned… our 2008 spring/summer of kids tees will be dropping very soon!

Yep, the t-shirts arrive the other day and I spent a good chunk of this past Saturday morning checking inventory with Jackson. A rather unpleasant task made pleasant by a very upbeat and driven 3 year old. It’s pretty clear that he’s got solid project management skills just like his mama.

For this round of tees we’ve decided to use Rabbit Skins which are manufactured by a company called L.A.T. Sportswear. We sampled a variety of shirts and decided on RS for a bunch of reasons, the primary ones being fit, comfort and color choices. Their customer service also rocks, which in this day and age, is a big selling factor for me.

The art and shirts have been delivered to the screen printer and it looks like the first run will happen towards the end of next week. We’re all pretty excited around here.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was a promise to myself to post more frequent updates to the lello Website. We’ll… it’s now the beginning of April and looking at the Website and number of times I’ve posted, it’s pretty obvious, that like my well-intentioned-work-out-regime, this resolution is also out the window.

That said, I would like to take a quick minute to mention that we’re busily working on new toddler t-shirt designs that should be ready for sale in May (May of this year… for those skeptics out there). In-fact, I’ve been working like a possessed man lately trying to get everything lined up and to the screen printer by (ahem) today… which is now looking like Monday (doh).

Aaannnnyhooo… once I deliver the art and have a minute to breathe, I’ll circle back and give you enthusiasts a sneak peek at the t-shirt designs, etc. I promise.

In the dark days of winter it’s nice to have little moments that bring you sunshine. This particular moment occurred when my son showed me a drawing he had done of the family. He’s been busily cranking out works of lowbrow art for some time now. Often times the subject matter needs a little explanation in order for one to fully appreciate the art, but in this case the thoughtfully portioned round heads attached to stick arms and legs is undeniable. There is mom, dad, baby sister and Jackson in full glory. He even went to the trouble of signing this piece.

Why am I so taken with this piece you might wonder. Well, in-addition to it being a wonderfully accurate family portrait, it marks an evolution of growth in Jackson’s artistic/mental development. Up until this point, all people in his art were depicted as mere oblong heads. Sometimes these individuals had a mouth and/or an eye or 3. But in this piece, for the first time, he’s represented people in a way that we can all clearly identify and understand. He’s looking at the world around him, understanding it, and translating it to paper. Amazing!

Here’s the budding mural artist in his studio (the living room floor) working on his next masterpiece. The kid leaves me in awe every day.