On July 16, 2009 at 5:27 PM our family was graced with the birth of our daughter, Inara Michelle Schade.  She was a beatiful little girl, and brought joy to her parents and older siblings.  She touched our hearts immediately.  Her older sisters were overjoyed to have a baby sister to fawn over and love and help raise in this world.  We all looked forward to our lives being blessed by this little miracle.

Unfortunately, Inara was not born with a perfectly functional heart.  We found, shortly after her birth, that she had congenital heart disease.  More specifically, she was born with a birth defect that affected both her Aortic and Pulmonic Valves (see diagram).

The Pulmonic Valve allows blood to exit to the Pulonary Arteries and into the lungs.  The Aortic Valve allows blood to flow into the Aortic Arteries and from there to the rest of the body.  Inara’s valves were malformed, too thick, and too small.  Because both valves were affected, there were no surgical options available to us to repair the damage.  I’ll not go into the details of why a transplant was not an option, but suffice it to say Inara was too fragile for that.  Simply put, there was nothing that we could do.  The only thing keeping her alive at this point was the ventilator and the large doses of medication used to keep her heart pumping.  But that would only last so long, and eventually Inara would begin to suffer a lot of pain.

Thus, we made the decision not to prolong Inara’s life any longer than was necessary.  Being LDS, it was important for us to give her a name and a blessing, which is normally given to infants shortly after their birth.  We also wanted to ensure that her oldest brothers, who were on a camping trip at the time of her birth and not immediately available, had the opportunity to meet her.  We made arrangements for the boys to leave their camping trip early, and within a few hours, we had the entire family together.  We were able to be with her as she slipped from this life.  Inara Michelle returned to her Heavenly Father at 9:32 PM on July 18, 2009.

Our family will be forever touched by her short life.  We will never forget her, nor the impact she had made on us.  Her spirit is strong, and we know for certain that she now lives with God in the Celestial Kingdom of Heaven.  We are saddened by her untimely departure, but know that she is safe and happy in her new home.  We look forward to seeing her again in God’s due time.

Inara Michelle – we love you with all of our strength, spirits, and hearts.

-Brian, Sharon, Steven, Braden, Leah, Rebecca, and Adam Schade

This is how the contest will work, in a nutshell.

1.  Scattered throughout the TwilightTeez.com web site are Edward Cullen Fan Club apples.  The apples are unique in that each one is colored differently.  Find these apples.  They could be anywhere, so you’ll have to actually hunt them down (thus the name of the contest).  Each apple has a code associated with it.  The code appears underneath the apple.  As you find each apple, write down the code that goes with it.
    
2. Purchase at least $20.00 in merchandise from our store.  Retain your Order ID as you will need this to enter the contest.  Your order must take place between 12:00 AM MST April 27 and 11:59 PM MST May 10.  Previous orders from our store are not elligible.
    
3. Go to http://www.twilightteez.com/pages.php?pageid=14, read the official rules and conditions PDF file that is available there, and then enter in your information.  You must fill in ALL fields on the contest entry form.  You must also inform us if you are an adult or a minor 13 years of age or older and have the consent of a parent or guardian to enter the contest. 

A random drawing of all eligible entries will be held and video recorded at noon MST on May 12.  The winner will be notified by e-mail and will have 48 hours to respond.  24-horus after notifying the winner, we will post the video of the draing on our YouTube channel.  If we do not hear from the winning entrant within 48-hours, we will cancel that winning entry and hold another drawing.

The contest rules and conditions and the contest submission form can be found on our web site at http://www.twilightteez.com/pages.php?pageid=14.  We’re really excited about this contest, and hope you guys have a lot of fun looking around for the apples.  Good luck to everyone!

-Brian

First I woudl like to say just how cordial everyone is being to each other.  It’s amazing how easily we can all get along together.  There’s definitely people who favor one or the other of the two camps, but most of the people here are huge fans of both stories.   I was part of a panel which debated the whole Harry Potter vs. Twilight thing.  It was a lot of fun and everyone did a very good job with their opinions and supporting their respective sides.  Any fears that this was going to turn into an avenue for Twilighter abuse were allayed within minutes of the event starting.  It’s been a load of fun for all involved.

Yesterday there were photo ops with Kellan Lutz and Gil Birmingham.  We met them briefly at a dinner last night.  They are both very nice folks and very fun.  I have photos, but I’m having trouble posting them at the moment, so I’ll have to try to upload them later.

One of the really great guests here is the crew from The Hillywood Show.  If you don’t know who they are, check out their web site over at www.thehillywoodshow.com.  They have created, among many other incredible parodies (one involving Capt. Sparrow flying around in the DeLorean from Back to the Future), a Twilight parody that is just drop-dead hillarious.  It’s set to Katy Perry’s Hot and Cold and a lot of the comments I’ve been hearing is that these girls (and guys) nail the parts of Bella, Edward, Alice, and Jasper even better than the actors themselves.  Check them out!

Today we had the pleasure of meeting Kellan Lutz and Gil Birmingham – Emmett Cullen and Billy Black respectively.  If you ever heard rumors about these two that they are nice and funny and charming peopel, believe them.  These guys were very cool, even when a friend of mine bugged Gil about his smoking habit (I did not know my friend during that time).  Pictures from our meeting will be posted later.  We had the opportunity to give Kellan our Emmett cap and beanie, as well as our new Renegade Human shirt (Emmett’s shirt is not currently available in men’s sizes).  Gil received our Jacob Lover cap and beanie as well as our newly minted My House…My Rules shirt.  Both actors appreciated the gifts very much. 

We have one more day worth of events for the show, and today isn’t done yet, either.  Keep your eye here for more updates.

-Brian

UPDATE:  Well, I misspoke myself a bit.  It turns out Kellan and Gil are not staying at the same hotel we are.  There was a last minute change in that arrangement.  That’s okay, though.  We’re still on the 12th floor of the hotel, and let me tell you, it’s AWESOME!

-Brian

It’s hard to believe with all that has happened in the last year that it’s only been about a year since the release of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host.  It seems like it’s been much longer than that, but it’s true.  Just 12 short months ago, we were introduced to Jared and Mel and Ian and, of course, Wanda.  And it seems like its’ been forever that we’ve been working on our own shirt designs to show off our support for that wonderful story, but we have them finally.  Our new The Host shirts are now available for immediate delivery and they are, in my humble opinion, awesome.  I can’t wait to get my own.

The first design I’d like to point out is the one we call simply Renegade Human.  It is a simple silouhette of Picacho Peak in Arizona, the setting of the book.  A beautiful Arizona sunset adds some color to this piece, and the text Renegade Human appears underneath in white ink.  Currently this shirt is availble in black, but if there’s a demand we can make it available in other colors as well.

 Our second offering in The Host series is from our favorite paternal figure in the family – Jeb.  His mantra was pretty straight forward.  This is his house, and therefore he makes the rules.  You don’t like it?  You don’t have to stay.  The funny part about that was that really, for the charactes in the story, the alternative to leaving wasn’t all that great.  I think this shirt will resonate with many parents, especially those who have teenagers.  I’m looking forward to wearing mine.

Personally, as fun as the graphics on the front of the shirts are, I’m particulary pleased with how the backs of these shirts came out.  The backs show off a Soul (Wanderer?) with its tendrils extended.  This graphic took some doing to get just right.  We knew that if we messed it up, Stephenie’s fans would most certainly let us know.  The Souls in The Host are not merely beautiful, but they shimmer as well.  And so does the graphic on the back of these shirts.  We have worked with our printer to deterine the perfect shimmering ink to use with these shirts, and let me tell you they look AWESOME!  The pictures here do NOT do them justice!

I’m so pleased that we can finally offer these shirts to you.  We do have others in the works, but I have no timeline as to when those will be available.  For now, we hope that you will like what we have and will consider purchasing them to add to your growing Stephenie Meyer collection.

In Other News…

We’re working dilligently to finalize several new designs that we want to make available.  I can’t post any of the images here, but here’s a brief look at what we’re offering in the very near future.

First up – and I’ve been touting this for some time – is our Dave Barry line of shirts.  We have four approved designs set for manufacturing, and all show off various aspects of Dave’s work.  Quotes include "Camping is nature’s way of promoting the hotel industry" and "There’s a fine line between a hobby and a mental illness."  Dave is also famous for suggesting great names for rock bands.  Some of his suggestions include "Combat Alfalfa", "Mosquito Hunters and the Unreliable Pollinators", and who could forget "Heave".  If none of these strike you as funny, then I highly recommend making an appointment with your doctor to have your sense of humor checked.  We have a design for a shirt which will highlight these names and many more, soon to be released exclusively from Twilight Teez.

If you’re not familiar with Dave’s work, and if you’re in need to laugh so hard you spew your Coke on your computer monitor, I highly recommend visiting his site and reading some of his past articles.  Click here to read some of his best work.

We are also on track to launch a new line of t-shirts that feature our own designs created by our in-house design staff.  These shirts will range in topic from humor to fantasy to sci-fi to poignant to cute.  Let it be known now that they are NOT Twilight related.  Our inspirations come in all forms, including one from my 3-year-old daughter.  You can expect these new designs to start cropping up in our catalog in the very near future.

On a final note, we’re gearing up for AccioCon, which will be going on at the end of this week.  We hope to see you out there.  We’re very excited about the opportunities this con will offer us.  We are also going to have a presence at several other conventions throughout the year, including Summer School In Forks and Twicon.  There’s so much to do and so little time.

-Brian

The shirts for The Host are our most complex yet, which have caused a number of small issues to crop up each time we’ve sent them to manufacturing. I think it’s safe to say that we have solved the problems we have faced and are ready to launch two of our three designs that we’ve had approved. The third is not far behind.

Dave Barry is soon to launch, too. Again, if you don’t know who Dave Barry is by now, shame on you. I have been touting him for years. Go visit his web site at www.davebarry.com to learn more about him.

Another reason I haven’t posted much lately is because, darn it, it takes energy to write. I’ve been focusing a lot of my work on getting us ready for AccioCon in the next couple of weeks. We’re looking forward to it a lot, and we hope that many of you will give it a go. We also have our other events planned, TwiCon of course, coming up in July, as well as the Summer School In Forks event in June. Check them out on our Events page.

I am sorry for not writing sooner. I know, I’ve been meaning to, and I know that many of you have asked why no updates. I don’t really have much of an excuse except for the fact that (a) there really hasn’t been much news to report and (b) I’m lazy as heck. I am also sorry for not checking up on your comments to get them approved if, for whatever reason, they end up in the moderation queue.  Forgive me for not keeping up on that.

But there is one small minute note I’d like to point out. Twilight Teez appears on the Twilight DVD Special Features disc. My wife and myself are in the Comic-Con video. If you have the DVD, you can see us almost every time they show the audience. Let me tell you, it’s very bizarre to see yourself on such a mass distribution product. It’s cool, but bizarre.

-Brian (who promises to be posting more often)

The Host – We’re working hard on getting the final bits of our designs for our Host shirts.  We have the designs for the fronts of the shirts pretty much figured out.  It’s the backs that are giving us some trouble.  Getting them to look just right is taking some trial and error, but we’re getting really close.

Phoenix ComiCon – We had a vendor booth at the Phoenix Cactus ComiCon this past January, and it was a last minute deal for us.  Rushing to get everything ready in only a couple of weeks had us running around vampires with our heads bitten off.  But it was well worth it, and I’ll be posting photos of the event very soon.

AccioCon – Fresh off our stint at the Phoenix ComiCon is our upcoming gig at AccioCon in Orlando.  it’s only seven weeks away, and there’s a lot of preparation we need to do for this one.  We’re way excited about it, though, and can’t wait for the event to start.

Dave Barry – We are still in the midst of planning our new Dave Barry line of shirts.  We’ve got four approved designs now, and are working on about 10 more.

Twilight Teez Exclusive Designs – We are starting to develop our own design team which will pump out new designs that are exclusive to Twilight Teez and are not associated with any book series.  I’m particularly excited about this new direction we’re taking as we will be limitless to what we can create.  We’re working on fantasy and sci-fi themed designs which I believe will really help establish the Twilight Teez style.  More on this later.

-Brian

New Character Slogans Now Available For Immediate Delivery

I suppose the first thing I should mention is that we finally have the new character slogan shirts up on the site.  Renesmee and Rosalie now join the rest of the crew with their own shirts, which you can find at the following links:

Renesmee for Juniors

Renesmee for Women

Rosalie for Juniors

Rosalie for Women

Also available is the new Edward Fan Club design, "Humor Me" with the famous apple in an outline.  We decided to differentiate the two apples because (a) we felt it would add a certain value to the design if there was a slight difference, (b) making slight differences in designs happens a lot in the themed t-shirt industry, and (c) it’s going to make it a heckuva lot easier to differentiate the two when we are pulling them off the shelves to fulfill orders.

Edward "Humor Me" for Juniors 

Edward "Humor Me" for Women

Those who suggested the slogans can expect to receive their new shirts soon.

New Products For 2009

I keep mentioning this, and for some reason things keep getting pushed back.  We do have plans for some new products coming early this year.  We have approved The Host designs that we are working to get into production.  The only hold up here is the graphic that goes on the backs of the shirts, which is taking more time to get the right "look" for than I expected.  Now that the character shirts are released, I can devote much more time to this issue and get these shirts on the web site.

We also have a line of Dave Barry shirts getting ready to hit the printers.  If you don’t know who Dave Barry is, shame on you get over to his web site and get to know him.  He is quite possibly the world’s funniest guy.  And by the term "funny" I mean funny in the way that is not only laughable, but also makes you think.  I do not mean "funny" in the way of, say, Kevin Federline’s music career, which was just plain laughable.  Dave Barry is a humor writer, and has spent a good portion of the last 30-years of his life writing stuff that made us laugh so hard that we’d fart and tear up at the same time.  Well, at least that’s what I did.  Others in the room were tearing up as well, but I don’t think for the same reasons.  Anyway, I highly recommend reading his stuff.  Dave is one of my heroes.

Finally, in regards to new products, we are developing our own line of stuff that isn’t related to Twilight or Dave.  Some of you have seen some samples of these ideas in the form of my cartoon character, Howard.  Howard is a computer, and as such, has a very logical view on life.  For example, he has logically determined that there are several very good reasons why computers do not play football; quarterbacks being just one of them.  In the same venue, computers do not make good soccer players, basketball players, hockey players, or boxers.  I’m sure you might be able to imagine why, but soon there will be shirts that demonstrate these reasons visually.  I, for one, hope that you like them.

Twilight Teez Appearances

Twilight Teez will be attending several of the big Twilight-themed entertainment conferences coming up this year.  Below is a list of conferences at which we will have a vendor booth.  We’d love to see you all, if you can make it to any of them.

ComiCon Phoenix 2009 – January 23 -25: The first of these conferences is already nearly upon us, and we just barely received word that we will be able to attend.  The Phoenix equivalent of the big ComicCon (in San Diego) will be the biggest of all the converences we’re attending.  This is going to be a major test for us.  The largest gathering that we have ever been involved with to date was the Eclipse Prom back in May of 2007.  There was only 1,000 people at most in attendance.  ComiCon Phoenix will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 to 7 times that number, and maybe more.  ComiCon Phoenix will also have several very big names in sci-fi attending, including Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Gil Gerard and Erin Gray (Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering), and several others too numerous to mention.  I have absolutely no idea how we’re going to handle it, but we’ll do our best.

AccionCon 2009 – April 3-5: Acciocon is going to be about 1/3 of the size of ComiCon Phoenix, but it’s going to be AWESOME!  First of all, Twilight Teez is the primary sponsor for this event.  Second, Summit Entertainment is on-board to promote the event big-time (last I heard, anyway).  Third, it’s in Orlando, FL – home to such incredible attractions as Walt Disney World, Gatorland, and – I am not making this up – home to the World’s Largest McDonald’s Restaraunt.  On top of all of this, Orlanda is where my wife and I spent our honeymoon.  We stayed in The Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World.  I made it a point to be in the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and we enjoyed many of the other attractions.  I look forward to being able to revisit it again, 14-years later, with my wife and my oldest son.  But of course, the big thing is ACCIOCON!  Did I mention that TWILIGHT TEEZ IS THE PRIMARY SPONSOR?

Summer School in Forks: A Twilight Convention – June 25-28: This is going to be a much smaller event than either of the previous two, but we are looking forward to it big time.  Mainly it will be our opportunity to FINALLY visit the place where it all happened – fictionally speaking, of course.  Some of the activities being planned are a prom, Kaleb Nation (The Twilight Guy) is going to be there, and a bunch of other things.  The video below is a good source for more information.  As is their web site (provided in the link above).

TwiCon 2009 – July 30-August 2: I think that this might be the big one that most people are waiting for.  At least, it’s the one I hear most people mention.  This will be in Dallas, TX (yes, in the United States).  We are a sponsor for this one, too, but not in the same vein as we are for AccioCon.  There is a very large cost involved in being a sponsor, and we could only pick one of the two to fork (ha ha) out that amount of money.  However, we will definitely have a presense at this one.  There’s going to be a lot to do here, and it’s going to be totally AWESOME!

So there you have it.  Four major conventions this year, and we are so stoked about them all.  In fact, we are so stoked that it is impossible to stoke us any more without having some kind of major bursting of something.  We look forward to seeing everyone who can come, and for those who can’t, well, sucks to be you we are sorry.

-Brian

These guys are amazingly talented, and I highly recommend giving them a listen.  You can learn more about them on their web site.

I’m listening to their Christmas album now, which is available on iTunes (among other places).

-Brian