Ashley from Little Blue Boo

Little Blue Boo

Lil Blue Boo is the genius creations of Ashley Hackshaw, who combines her love of sewing, painting, printing, power tools, motherhood and recycled t-shirts. Ashley repurposes old t-shirts with screenprints, dye and transfers. She frequently makes creations for and with her daughter Boo, including hats from old t-shirts, painting and stitching a stained t-shirt, and auctioning off upcycled t-shirt dresses for charity. Also, she used to fly airplanes, so she's pretty badass. New updates added to her site almost daily.

Juyorican Creations

Juyorican gives old t-shirts new life by making them into custom blankets, bags, pillows, aprons and more. Creator Mayra Lentz is a mom to teenagers and art enthusiast has designed, built, painted or hand-sewn almost everything in her house. "There is no task that can be done with a sewing machine, a saw, paint, glue or a nail gun that I won’t tackle," she says on her site. "My favorite thing to do is to recycle, re-purpose & re-design older materials into something new that can continue to be enjoyed for years to come." I think my favorite creation of hers may be the Muppet Swedish Chef t-shirt turned into an apron.

 Dressme

"Baby clothes should be fun," declares the Dressme manifesto. "Dressme stands for hip, handmade and recycled. Re-use to make something new, beautiful and unique." Dressme is the brainchild of fashion designer Liesbeth Soeterbroek of Amsterdam, who launched the business 7 years ago to make recycled outfits for her newborn son. Each shirt and dress is handmade from specially selected unique, original and eco-friendly recycled materials. The result is baby clothes like this one made from old t-shirts. Based on their Etsy feedback, people love them. 

Defunkd Vintage T-shirts

Jimmy from Defunkd is the man. He's the guy who originally introduced me to the vintage t-shirt community on the internet, and today he continues to sell his own wares and blog about others at Defunkd.com. I'll let his manifesto speak for itself: "At Defunkd we take vintage very seriously. We exclusively feature real vintage tees aged a minimum of 15 years, up to three decades. You wont find vintage 'style', 'retro', or other sinful reproductions amongst our store and blog pages. Each piece of clothing is hand selected by experts who view them as collectible snapshots of fashion and popular culture. We aim to satisfy the discerning tastes of the true vintage aficionado." 

Stay Vocal T-shirts

"There’s two things that I know a lot about and love: reusing and t-shirts," Stay Vocal founder Alex Eaves writes on his site. About half of the Stay Vocal apparel line is made from new t-shirts that were going to be destroyed, and the other half is found at thrift stores and through donations. Here's an example of one of their recycled shirts that was printed over and given new life. Reusing doesn’t stop with their T-shirts, either. Orders are printed on the back of would be recycled paper and shipped in used packaging (mainly cereal boxes) with labels printed on scrap paper. Even their business cards are printed on used t-shirts pieces.

Tweet

So I originally took this picture on Thanksgiving, but I've been too busy soaking up the Georgia sun before I have to return to bitter Milwaukee (Yeah, I'm rubbing it in...I was kayaking on Thanksgiving).

@foodiefitness, eat your heart out! This is definitely my favorite Teecycle shirt I own. Shortly after this picture was taken, I was stopped by some guy who told me a huge story about how his daughter was the president of the Latin Club at her high school!

So happy (belated) Thanksgiving, and be sure to follow #7DaysOfTeecycle at @Teecycle_org.

I assigned all your posts from Facebook and Twitter a number and put them into a drawing, and using Random.org I picked 10 entries to receive a free t-shirt of your choice. You can check out the winning posts below.

So without further ado, here are 10 ways you made Black Friday a little greener. 

The shirt for day 4 actually has a funny story behind it: I bought it because I though the "DET" stood for Detroit... it actually stands for "Detachment."

Okay so it's not too funny, but it's still a pretty sweet shirt even though I'm not really in the Air Force!

Be sure to stay up to date: Check out #7DaysOfTeecycle or @Teecycle_org

This shirt is awesome for two reasons:

1) It has some random dude on the front sticking his tongue out.

And 2) It's a shirt for Phil's 550 store in Marquette, Michigan.

Funny enough, I go to @MarquetteU and used to live in Michigan!

4 more awesome shirts to come! Follow #7DaysOfTeecycle with @Teecycle_org

iDia dos! Tag 2! Day 2!

This shirt is actually pretty awesome. It's for the Menomonee Falls' World Language Week! Stay tuned, more days on the way. 5 more to be exact!

Be sure to keep track on Twitter: @Teecycle_org or #7DaysOfTeecycle

My name is Josh, and I am a junior at Marquette University. After stumbling upon Teecycle.org, I nabbed up all the coolest shirts I could. Soon enough, I was rocking shirts that made people stop and say, "Wait, you went to Whitefish Bay? You played on the rec team? I played on the rec team!" It became the perfect opportunity to spread the word about a great website to buy great shirts.

Now that my wardrobe of random (yet extremely awesome) shirts has bulked up, I realized, "Why not put my shirts to good use?" I decided to do a string of blog posts titled, "7 Days of Teecycle." Every day, I'll wear a Teecycle shirt and just spread the word! What better way to promote a great cause, right? 

So day 1 starts with a purple and white shirt: Whitefish Bay Rec. Dept. Basketball. This is one of the first shirts I bought from Teecycle.

 Stay tuned! 6 more days of awesome shirts are on the way. And if you want to keep track via Twitter, check out @Teecycle_Org or #7DaysOfTeeCycle!

Sure, our neighbor stopped us before we got in the door and told us firefighters were looking for us during the storm to evacuate our house. We heard her say water was up to our windows. Yes, we saw random debris scattered in our lawn and weeds and mud caking our outer walls.

It wasn't registering.

When we first opened the door, we could live in denial for a few seconds longer. Maybe just a trickle of water snuck in. Nothing a few rags can't clean up.

Then I stepped on the hallway carpet.

SQUISH.

I walked into the living room.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH.

I walked over to the bedroom.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH.

I ran to the baby's room.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH.

When you stepped down, water welled up over your feet. Not a good sign, right?

We had been stranded at my wife Jess's parents the night before when the weather started to get apocalyptic. Rain turned streets into rapids. Funnel clouds touched down. Freeways closed. A sinkhole swallowed an Escalade.

Meanwhile, this is what was happening to our neighborhood:

Since it was taking hours for people to navigate a few treacherous miles, we decided to spend the night at Jess's parents. Before we went to bed around midnight, Jim, who lives a few blocks away, checked on our house for us once the water receded. He told us it looked like the water had reached a few feet above the base of the door. We had no clue what that might mean when we walked in our door early Friday morning.

We have no basement, so instead a river of water came steaming into our living space. It still didn't sink in right away as Jess and I immediately got to work. I grabbed the Shop Vac and started sucking up water from the carpets while Jess took photos of the damage and put rags down around the house.

It quickly became evident that trying to save the carpet was beyond pointless. A snap decision was made, and we started tearing up the soaking wet carpet.

When the first corner was pulled up, we realized we had been staring at the tip of the iceberg. The mats and floors underneath held puddles of standing water. I got splashed every time I yanked up one of the mats.

Here are more photos of the damge.

Our hallway, post-carpet

I don't know when the enormity of the situation started to hit us. Maybe after Jess's third call to the insurance that told her flat out that they wouldn't do a thing. Maybe when I looked at the furniture and everything covering the carpet and wondered how I was going to do this alone. I could feel the panic rising, and I tried to head it off by putting my head down and working harder.

Then I walked into Clara's room, and completely lost control. It was our baby's room, that Jess had worked months to make perfect. She was just 12 weeks old, and her room was ruined. It wasn't fair. I just wanted to hug my daughter, who was safe at her grandparents.

At the same time, I knew I couldn't just give up. We had no choice. Clara was counting on us. I got back to work.

I don't have the most experience removing carpet - much less sopping wet carpet - so I probably didn't handle this as efficiently as I could. I manically disassembled and moved all the furniture, and then tried to remove the entire living room carpet in one piece while Jess cleaned up the aftermath. In retrospect, not the smartest idea.

After a rugburn on my entire arm and a few strained muscles later, I finally had the whole thing out the door. I can't think of a strength training exercise I'm more proud of.

But we were only getting started.

Exhausted, demoralized, starving and overwhelmed, we were both at our emotional and physical low point.

That's exactly when my dad's old friend Jim Vivian walk into our yard. I hadn't seen him in years, and I was stunned to see him. And I immediately started blubbering. I'm tearing up just writing this.

Jim had heard from my parents that we were in trouble, and he drove straight to our house. His arrival was more than just a second wind. It was a lifesaver.

It not only meant that we weren't alone anymore. Since Jim is a firefighter, it meant there was someone on the scene actually knew what he was doing around the house. He devised a plan of attack, and I was overjoyed to follow orders.

Shortly after that people who saw my Twitter messages just showed up at my doorstep, ready to help. My co-worker Matt left work and showed up in old clothes, followed by Steve and Matt. I've never been happier to see visitors.

They did not do easy work. I'll never forget Matt ripping up our wooden dining room floorboards, or Steve drenched in sweat while chipping away at our linoleum kitchen floor, or Matt helping our neighbor get his soaked couch out of his basement.

Reinforcements continued to arrive. My father-in-law showed up after work and started cleaning and packing. My parents arrived after a long day that involved a car breakdown, and brought dehumidifiers and a cooler of food. My co-worker Andy brought fans, and my co-worker Becky came by to check on us and offer help. Every message of support made us feel like we could do this.

Finally, after a 15-hour day of gutting our home, there wasn't much more we could do.

The dining room

We found out later that our area had been one of the hardest hit in the entire area. Here's an excerpt from a local Trustee's blog Village Spillage, talking about our block:

I've toured around WFB, and it's pretty clear, the closer to Shorewood (and their combined sewers) you were, the worse the damage .. while the entire village was hit hard, the the 4700 blocks, east to west are the hardest hit. Admittedly, I'm not expert enough to understand the sewer topography. The biggest culprit is Mother Nature herself, dumping 11 inches of rain upon us.

So what's next? Honestly, I have no clue. I have no roadmap for navigating the aftermath of a disaster. Throughout this Jess has been amazing, constantly on the phone with contractors, government officials, and anyone who might be able to help. My father-in-law and brother-in-law worked their asses off the whole weekend, pulling up damaged wood and disinfecting the whole house.

Throughout all this, the outpouring of support has been overwhelming, especially the Milwaukee community on Twitter. It's astounding. Some I didn't even know 6 months or a year ago, and now they're losing sleep figuring out ways to help us. It gives me so much hope. And when I'm feeling down, just thinking about the support of others picks me up.

Two in particular -- the amazing, amazing Sue and Katie -- are plotting a fundraiser to help us get our house back to liveable conditions. We don't know what it will all entail yet, but stay tuned.

Today we had our first contractor visit, and the total estimate is still not in. But from his initial estimates, we'll probably need a new roof, windows, floorboards and doors, in addition to all new floors. He also said he wouldn't even start work for 6-8 weeks to allow the house to completely dry and avoid mold. We'll be living with my in-laws indefinitely, and thank God for them.

One piece of good news is because our house is so old, the foundation seems to be sloped inward. That means the water pooled inward, and saved all of our furniture on the peripheral areas. And yes, every last one of our t-shirts was kept high and dry and perfectly safe.

Even if I don't know what will happen next, I know one thing for sure. So let me say this loud and clear:

TEECYCLE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

UPDATE

As I write this, Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is blaring out of a speaker. As long as it doesn't stop abruptly and cut to black, I think that's a good sign, and not just because it was our wedding dance finale.

I can't thank you all enough for your support. Completely overwhelming, and there goes my own waterworks again. So many of you have asked how you can help. There's still not much we can do at this point but collect contractor quotes before we plan the fundraiser.

But you can keep sharing this story on Facebook, Twitter, email, smoke signals or whatever works for you.

The shirts are selling fast and we're taking the sold ones down ASAP. It's hard to post new (used) ones right now, but we also have 6-month and 1-yr tshirt subscriptions for sale at http://bit.ly/subscriptees

Some have also asked about donating directly, you can now do it here:

But if you're going to help I'd like to at least get you a cool shirt to wear. :)

Thank you thank you thank you friends, and don't stop believing.

THANK YOU to Anna Grace Photography for a super fun and cool photoshoot with Clara. See the whole album. 

Gidal Kaiser shows off his latest Teecycle acquisition while biking in Bozeman, Montana.  

"I was never was an intramural champion," he said, "but thanks to Teecycle.org, I can now train like I was!" 

Want to show us your Teecycle? Email tim@teecycle.org.