Ever want to make your own t shirt?

My friend told me about the retail clothing store Uniqlo coming to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA.  The store is a Japanese clothing retailer that makes clothing for women, men, and children.  They have this awesome program on iPads where you can make your own t-shirt (UTme!).  You can draw, download a picture, add wording in, and then use different features such as splash, glitch, and mosaic.  It's super cool, so I went yesterday to check it out.  There wasn't a line, and I had the most helpful sales associate help me with the programming.  Her name is Lenne and she's a fashion merchandising student at California State University, Long Beach.  I think we spent almost 35 minutes playing with my blog header.  We worked on fading my blog header into the background using another color palette, cropped the borders, and used the "splash" function while trying to keep the integrity of the "Fashlete" heading. I couldn't have made my shirt without her awesome help!

It wasn't the easiest task, and after playing with my header for awhile I decided to keep it clean and add just a little splash.  We saved my header, I picked out a white t-shirt size, and it was sent to print. I was then given a slip of paper so I could come back to claim my t-shirt.  It only took about 10 -15 minutes, and voila my t-shirt was done.  It turned out a bit darker than I wanted and we couldn't get rid of the gray line at the top due to the actual cut and paste of my header. I still love it though, and now I can sport my blog header on my own t-shirt!  The total cost for me was $24.73 and that includes tax.  It's a super fun process, and is a great way to sport your own unique design.  It also would be a great gift                                                    to give to someone or it would be fun to do with a group of friends.  

Challenges

So I'll admit that change has been harder than I thought.  There have been a few things that have challenged me since moving.  I have had to question a friendship and ask myself if that person brings more positivity into my life or negativity.  I have also had a friend's mom try to push me into dating someone I am not interested in.  In the end I'm learning more about myself, setting boundaries, being more confrontational when times call for it, and I think part of this move is making me reflect more about who I am, how I deal with things, and where I need to improve.  

On a positive note, when I was in Alaska about a month ago I posed a challenge to myself and my friend.  Since moving to Pasadena I thought it would be a fun challenge to do at least one new thing/month alone that pushes me out of my comfort zone, causes me to interact with strangers, meet new people, and try new things.  Almost three years ago I heard about the Pasadena Roving Archers http://www.rovingarchers.com and always wanted to go and try archery in the park.  So since I've moved to Pasadena, I woke up at 6am this morning threw on my athletic clothes and drove myself to the park.  A line already had formed at 7am, and I got to talk to a few of the people in line.  They split us up into groups of 8, took us out to a range and taught us the basics of archery.  We got to practice quite a bit and after about an hour they took us back to the larger range where we had a balloon bullseye competition with the rest of the groups.  I should add that unfortunately this non-profit group is being threatened by a group that is opposed to the Pasadena Roving Archers that gives lessons to the public!  That is the one sad thing since this non profit group has been around since 1935.  I signed a petition to save archery in Pasadena and wrote to the Pasadena City Council.  What I can say is that the archery experience was a lot of fun, and reminded me that doing something different and meeting new people can be fun.  I hope to meet this challenge each month with enthusiasm and openness.  

Archery Range with the Pasadena Roving Archers

Being new to a city can bring on challenges in many forms from challenges with friends, challenges with setting boundaries, challenges with having to confront issues, challenges of working on yourself, and fun challenges like pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.