It's Not Me, It's You

Recently, I won an online contest at Saturday Morning Central winning this insanely awesome and geeky set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle soap from Geek Soap. I can't say thank you enough. For a nerdy fan like myself, receiving this awesome guys easily made my day/week/month! So thank you Saturday Morning Central and Geek Soap for bringing these crime fighters into my life... and my bathroom.

Coob, do you have a point? Yes, yes I do. Since stumbling into this world of crafty-ness I've been amazed at how damn friendly everyone is. Geek Soap's creator became a fan of COOB Originals on Facebook in support of me after sending me her first batch of ninja turtles. There's all this support, selflessness, love. What's wrong with all you people?! It's all give, give give! Now, of course I get it. Acts like this cause me to promote these incredible people and make me want to come back and shop with them. Brilliant, right. The catch? The catch is that some of these people are just down-right, N-I-C-E. Nice people... who knew? So, nice people, thank you for being this way, you inspire me to be both crafty and do nice things in return.

One last thing. If YOU happen to be feeling particularly nice, A.skate is an organization that teaches Autistic kids how to skateboard. This engaging and life changing program needs your help. By voting (you can vote everyday) for there project on the Pepsi website, you can help these guys get the funding they need! They don't even have a skatepark. So, if you feel like doing something good, go VOTE. You can log in with your Facebook account. Talk about nice people, the employees currently use their own money to fund the project!!! And, if you do vote and spread the word, I'll give you free shipping on anything in my shop. So go forth, and be nice :D

-Coob

Peek for the Sneak

Curious about what's going on in that new apartment of mine? The sawdust is flying, and a new stack of decks with some AWESOME new colors are being demolished and reconstructed as we speak... well, not literally. Man, that would be dangerous! But, seriously, keep your eyes peeled. Some of these bad boys are gonna show up in my Etsy shop real soon.


Happy Thursday Coob-Stalker ;P

-Coob

New Diggs, New Decks, New Year

I have successfully made the move into my new place, and though still unpacking of course, it's AWESOME. From all the great space to the energy efficient appliances, I couldn't be more stoked. The pup and I both find the high efficiency front loading washer and dryer pretty fascinating as you can tell.

Talent, my local skatepark and skateshop recently lifted the ceiling on their park. (Yes, it's indoors!) So, they had to close the park for a few weeks. This meant no one was really coming inside to break their skateboards. Luckily, the renovation is complete, looks awesome, and now, decks are being destroyed once again. I have some new decks with some awesome new colors. Be on the look on for the new guys coming soon in my Etsy shop.

Finally, I just turned the big 2-5 a week ago. And, I'm hoping that this year will be a good one! Last year sucked, and I'm overly excited to put it behind me. So here's to an awesome new year. A great start, I received THREE of my favorites prints from artist Kill Taupe. They are even better in person. Now, they're just sitting in their protective envelope home while they await framing.

To an awesome 25th year, here goes nothing ;)

-Coob

Let's Hear it for the Boy

Now that I have Deneice Williams stuck in my head... I thought I'd share with you a treasury I created. Quiet helpful and quite awesome. It might help some of you people out there who haven't a clue what to get for the guys in your life. I thought I'd share my insight.

Clearly you need to go check it out directly, click all over the place and comment to say just how awesome it is, you would have been lost without it, yada yada yada.
For the Fellas Treasury Link

That's all for now,

-Coob

Coob Goes Country

No, not country as in I now listen to country music, herd cattle, and sport a Stetson hat. I am however moving to the country. This is sort of a joke if you know that I live in Vermont, which really is all country. But here, in the "big city", it's a little less country. I'm moving a few miles away to a place which will be all my own, and is somehow, much more affordable. Which, is nuts considering how awesome it is. I'm moving officially next weekend. Hopefully I'll have instant Internet like my awesome Irish landlord claims. Anyway, check out the view from my new place.

This should give you just a hint about the awesomeness. I promise more pictures of the new place and continued Friday Favorites once I'm settled in.

Until next time,

-Coob

Friday Favorites Vol. 2 - KillTaupe

After failing to post last week, I'm here this week to make up for it. This volume of Friday Favorites features a favorite Etsy artist of mine: KillTaupe.

KillTaupe's "original urbanpop art" has a lot to offer. I love the bold and bright colors, the graphic style and nature of the pieces, the added humor, and of course that much of his work is done on wood with acrylic!

Here are a few of his pieces/items currently for sale.


Broccoli Eats Venison - Original


Give me all the French Toast - Limited Edition Print



Chickens Magnet Set

For more by KillTaupe you can check him out at:

http://www.killtaupe.etsy.com/

That's all for now. Happy Friday.

-COOB

A Coob Introduction

It doesn't seem there are very many places I am willing to fill out an 'about me', so perhaps it's best I do it on my own terms. And, if you are reading this, it's likely that I am not twisting your arms behind your back and pressing your face to the screen to get you to learn about me. So, that's on you!

A bit about me and why I started with all this 'COOB' business. After getting hurt and work, and subsequently being unable to work because of said injury, I had disgusting amounts of free time on my hands. I should mention that this is not the time of free time one desires. This is the sit still, with no one around, can't go anywhere, pull out your hair kind of free time. And, since I sometimes like my hair, I decided I'd better find something to keep myself busy.

It started with collecting bottle caps, a few here and there, and now it seems that I have an army of bottle cap collectors. Since they can't be recycled, I figured might as well try to do something with them. Thus, earrings, cuff links, magnets, and a few interesting other items were constructed with bottle caps. Bottle caps led to LEGO's, which were also fun. But, then I have always enjoyed LEGO's.

Yet even with what I suspect is thousands of bottle and LEGO's, there was still something I desired more: Skateboards. Yes, skateboards. Particularly, the kind that no one wants. I have two perfectly good working skateboards, and of course I can't use them because of my injury. So why in the world would I want more? I contacted my local indoor skatepark Talent in South Burlington, VT and proposed that I we help each other out. Every week I make a visit to Talent and pick up the broken, abused, and sometimes mind blowingly old skateboard decks that are headed for the trash. As you may imagine, skateboards aren't small, and aren't breaking down any time soon in the landfill. So, acquiring these broken decks has been a way for me to combine passions.

With the broken decks I tear them apart further to create new things, everything from jewelry to furniture (see lightning bolt pendant photo). I love working with the decks, and finding the life that's still left in them. The seven-ply wood layers that make up most of the decks seem to create many opportunities for me. In my opinion, the scars that tell the story of the life of the skateboard deck already offer some incredible art. And, I often find myself wondering what exactly 'this deck' has seen.

So there you go, that's why I do what I do. But you can check things out for yourself at http://cooboriginals.etsy.com/

And if you're wondering what's up with the name...? A friend of mine came up with it in attempt to turn my initials into a nickname : Coob. Upon giving my first pair of bottle cap earrings as a gift, my friend responded "My first pair of Coob Originals!" And, the name was born.

That's more than enough about me for now.

-Coob