Drumroll Please...

It's Friday, Friday gotta give away a shirt on Friday!

First off, thanks to all three eligible entries. I wish I had enough shirts to give to all three of you.
I used a random number generator to pick a winner. Since each person asked a question they were given two votes. For example comment 1 was given numbers 1 and 4.
Soooo congratulations to....

CONGRATULATIONS LIZZIE!!!!

I'll be contacting you with more details! YAY LIZZIE!!! 

Crippie's Tippie- Entering contests on blogs is a decent way to obtain free things, depending on the size of the blog of course.

Pivotal Crippie Moments

Ohai!

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER MUH CONTEST PEOPLE

Alrighty, recently I was asked "Besides when you were diagnosed with MHE (and the surgeries that resulted from having MHE), what would be one of your biggest pivotal moments in life (or life-changing so-to-speak)?" 


While I've posted about things that changed my life a while ago, I saw this as a challenge to think of a pivotal moment in my life not related to having a disability. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED *Starts limping/pacing back and forth*. 


Hmm... it seems that most of my pivotal moments involve having a disability in someway or another. *Continues pacing/limping*


20 MINUTES LATER (I'm not kidding) EUREKA! The biggest non-cripple related life changing moment (or moments) was when I was around 2 years old. My mom needed a way to keep my occupied during laundry time so she put paper on the walls and let me color away. First off, no I didn't color on walls without paper, I was a good noodle. Secondly, it taught me that art is freakin' awesome! Early love of art continued to grow and eventually led to my chosen profession! w00t! CHALLENGE COMPLETED!!!


Crippie's Tippie- Enter my contest, this shirt really is freakin' awesome.

The Big D

Sup Everybody?

ENTER TO WIN MY REALLY AWESOMELY DESIGNED T-SHIRT HERE!!!!

I just finished cleaning the guinea pigs cages (they say hi btw), figured I'd get a quick blog post in before bed. I just checked my comment section and saw that someone asked me about my opinion on filing for disability. I've never filed for disability, but I probs will if I ever need to have major surgery again (btw, thanks Aflac for not covering pre-existing conditions... go duck yourselves).

Filing for disability is not something to be taken lightly. You don't get a whole lot of money and if you have health insurance you could lose benefits. I see filing for disability as an absolute last resort. My advice to anyone with a disability is to (as unfortunate as this sounds) plan your career around your disability. I have chronic pain and fatigue, thus I chose a career that involves sitting at a desk all day. Have social anxiety? Plan something that doesn't involve a whole lot of social interaction. Naturally you should pick something that you love to do but you really have to take your disability into consideration. I know this sounds really harsh but we have to be realistic. We also have to do our best to keep our symptoms at bay. I regularly see my pain management doctor to keep my pain levels at a tolerable amount. Of course everyone's situation is different. If you are really, really sick and cannot make enough money to support by all means file away. To summarize on the original question on whether or not it is a "good idea" to file for disability or not, if you have exhausted all other options, if you cannot function even when you are being properly treated, then filing would not be a bad idea.

Crippie's Tippie- If your disability doesn't always render you useless, I suggest seeing if your state has services that help cripples get employment. They can help you find some form of work that can be more accommodating to your needs. Crippie used this place to help her find employment.

Crippie's Bloggie Tips!

Ohai

ENTER MY CONTEST PEOPLES!!! You have till Friday!

Moving on, people have been asking me for blogging advice recently. So without further adieu I give you

CRIPPIE ANSWERS BLOGGING RELATED QUESTIONS!!!

1) Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because it was a homework assignment. Crippie was taking a social media course and having a blog was actually a requirement. I rather enjoyed the whole blogging experience so I decided to keep the blog going even though I am no longer being graded for it (btw, I got an A for the blog).

2) Do you ever get any negative feedback, if so how do you deal with it?

Luckily I've never had any real negative feedback or comments on this blog. I get the occasional spam comment which I delete. Generally speaking negative commenters are trolls, and you never ever feed a troll. Just let the comment be. 

3) Do looks matter?

As a graphic designer of course I am going to say that having a pretty blog does make a difference. Seriously though, having a properly designed blog makes you look more legit and it sets you apart from other bloggers. 

4) Any tips to boost viewership?

I get a fair amount of traffic from social networking sites for bloggers like bloggers.com and 20sb.net. I also get traffic by participating in events like blog hops and NHBPM. I've also found that consistently labeling my posts makes it easier for people using google to find me. 

Crippie's Tippie- Remember, blogging "success" takes time and a fair amount of effort. 

CRIPPIE GIVEAWAY!

OMG!!!!

A couple of weeks ago Crippie was contacted by the wonderful people at ooshirts.com. They asked me if I could design a shirt and then write a review about the whole process. Btw, if anyone thinks Crippie is selling out with this... I've donated blood just to get a free t-shirt.

Before I begin my review let it be known that I am a graphic designer with experience in screen printing. I also have experience with setting up cafepress shops and designing shirts with other companies. Also, my mother and grandmother used to work in the garment industry (my mom used to do color separations and my grandmother was an art director). So Crippie knows what she is talking about here ;)

The Process- First I went to their website and picked out a t-shirt and color. They had a whole lotta options as far shirt selections go. I opted for the "Canvas Unisex Tee" because it had some shnazzy colors and the fit was on the longer side. Then I designed my shirt. I used Adobe Illustrator to make my design and I uploaded EPS files.

Next I put the designs on my selected shirt. This whole process was super easy and I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy about how big my design could be. When I did projects like this before the space was so limiting and my designs would look tiny and crappy. The colors of the design on the screen were not true to color. This is probably my computer screen's fault. I added the pantone colors of my design in a special note section just to be on the safe side. 

I love how they "idiot proofed" the whole designing process. Ooshirts has services to make sure your colors are correct, that your background is transparent (if you want it to be), if you want your shirt to have a "vintage" effect, etc. I found the overall design process very pleasant and super simple.

Pricing - Ooshirts.com prides itself on being an affordable option for custom shirts. I did some price quotes for other sites, and Ooshirts actually was a cheaper option. Not a whooollleeee lot cheaper than some other places, but cheaper nonetheless.

Ordering - Placing the order was, again, super simple. My order was checked over by their designers, who gave it the OK to print. Within a few days I had my shnazzy new shirts! 

The end results - Once my shirts arrived I was very pleased. The shirt is self is very soft and snuggly. The colors of the ink look pretty close to the colors on the design I submitted. I showed the shirt to my mother and grandmother who found no real flaws in the screening process. The shirt has also survived several washes in the laundry with no cracks or fading! The one downside I found was that the color of the shirt is waaayyy different than the color on the website. 

Do you want to win a "Holy Crip it's a Crapple" T-Shirt?

Here's the rules for entering the contest!

-Enter the contest by posting a comment below with your email address so I can contact you

- 1 bonus entry for people who post a question for Crippie with their comment

- The lucky winner will be chosen at random via random number generator

-The winner will be picked on Friday, December 16th

- Crippie's relatives may NOT enter this contest. Want a shirt guys? You're gonna have to wait for Hanukkah

(For reference, the shirt is a large, but hey a free shirt is a free shirt)

Crippie's Tippie- ENTER MY CONTEST!!! And ooshirts.com is pretty damn awesome, thanks guys!