the bluecotton blog

As the records for high temperatures continue to be broken around the country, we enlisted one of our customers to give us some tips on lawn care. Erik Houser, from Atlantic Landscaping in Dennis, Massachusetts happily obliged us a few questions about landscaping and his dream lawn mower!

My favorite part of caring for my own lawn is the immediate results and satisfaction of turning overgrown grass into a beautifully cut lawn. What’s your favorite part of your job?

A perfectly manicured lawn and planting bed area. I like hearing from all of my customer’s “Excellent job!”

Of course when summer’s over – the leaves fall, presenting new challenges for the lawn. Do you have any tips or tricks of the trade for us on leaf cleanup?

For all of my customer’s properties I use a walk behind leaf vacuum (BillyGoat). If your property has access to the drive way, collect your leaves there and then dispose of them. If you do not have direct access to the driveway, a leaf vac is the way to go!

In addition to lawn care and landscaping– you’ve also installed swimming pools and fences. How did you get into making people’s homes beautiful?

Several years ago, I became disabled from being an auto mechanic. I hated sitting around the house with nothing to do and not being productive. I took some online landscaping courses and started Atlantic Landscaping. I’ve contracted properties from Hyannis, MA to Orleans, MA. I now have a potential customer off the Cape that wants a custom design and installation (photos to come soon on FaceBook)!

We’re going through a heat wave here in Kentucky – the old Bluegrass state. Do you have any tips on how to keep a healthy lawn in dry conditions?

Depending on current moisture conditions, you may water the lawn 2 times per day. Once in the early morning hours (5-7AM) and if needed, once again in the afternoon (3-5PM) The later day watering hours will still provide enough water to keep the lawn cool, but will evaporate quickly enough to not cause fungi or mold that can ruin your lawn.

You have quite a fleet of equipment! If you could win any piece of new equipment – what would it be and why?

I would absolutely LOVE a Walker Mower with a high dump attachment. These mowers with a 48” front deck are the BEST in the current industry. They offer precise cutting along with a bin collection system. They are great for leaf collection as well as regular cutting. They are worth 12k-15k for the unit!

You can find out more tips from Erik and Atlantic Landscaping on lawn care here.

Do you have a favorite t-shirt that you’d prefer to be a tank top? Today’s blog will show you how to repurpose that t-shirt into a sleeveless beauty. We’ve posted t-shirt refashions before, including how to make a t-shirt bouquet and a DIY t-shirt scarf, but today we’re going to keep the t-shirt’s function as it was origianlly intended – a torso cover. With just a little cutting and sewing, you can transform your standard t-shirt into a fashionable tank top for summer vacation!

Visit Crafterhours for easy step-by-step instructions!

This week we’ve got the skinny on Mickey’s Yogurt, an honest-to-goodness family-owned frozen yogurt shop in Clovis, California. Mickey and Daryl France are the owners. We spoke with Daryl about Mickey’s Yogurt and how custom t-shirts helped them before the doors even opened!

Tell us a little about Mickey’s Yogurt.

Mickey and I met on an Internet dating site over 4 years ago. When we met, Mickey shared his dream of one day owning a frozen yogurt business. I quickly climbed on board that yogurt train and we embarked on a quest to find a great location. As much as we looked, the right place just didn’t materialize. We live in Southern California and there are lots of frozen yogurts stores in the area.

Clovis, California seems like an interesting place. Why’d you choose Clovis?

My daughter lives in Clovis and a great location opened up and we grabbed it. Clovis is a town of about 100,000 people in the Central Valley area near Fresno. Mickey loves the cleanliness of the city and the way people take care of their homes. He says it shows that people really care about the town in which they live. We now live in Clovis part time.

Mickey’s Yogurt truly is a family affair isn’t it?

We rolled up our sleeves after securing a location and got to work. Mickey handled dealing with the construction, I created the design and colors for the store and advertising. My daughter, Melisa Howell and her husband Paul Howell jumped in to help. Melisa handled the licenses and fees with the city, and Paul took care of anything technical, like wiring and utilities. Melisa is now the head manager of the store and Paul serves as the service manager. That’s where BlueCotton comes in! We knew we wanted a great design for the employee t-shirts. Our granddaughter Tiffany is an artist and student and created the t-shirt design. I sent her design over to my son Jared, who designs monsters for the film industry. He fine-tuned the design into the artwork seen on both our employee t-shirts and our promo tees.

So you have employees t-shirts and promotional t-shirts, right?

Yes. In addition to the employees’ tees, we wanted to have a t-shirt to promote Mickey’s Yogurt. We planned to give out the tees on Opening Day. We ended up giving out tees to people applying for
jobs and people who were nice to us and before long all the t-shirts were gone. All 400 t-shirts! The tees helped generate a buzz around town. People started dropping by while we were painting and working on the store asking when Mickey’s Yogurt would be open! People keep asking if they can buy the promo t-shirts. One lady came in with her two young boys wearing their t-shirts. She told Mickey that they wear their shirts to school every day and she has to sneak them away to wash the shirts so they can keep wearing them.

So how was Opening Day?

Business opened with a bang on February 2nd of this year and has continued to do extremely well.

What are the most popular flavors of yogurt and toppings?

Favorite flavors are the traditional vanilla and chocolate. Customers say they like those flavors best because they can be mixed with any topping. The most popular toppings are the Reese’s Pieces, M & M’s and Cookie Dough. For the fruit toppings, the Strawberries are a clear front-runner. Mickey’s favorite yogurt flavors are Pistachio, Root Beer Float and Cherry Amaretto. I like the same flavors with Tart thrown in for good measure to have something a little less sweet.

Daryl with a local school’s mascot!

If your team, club, organization or business would like to be featured in the BlueCotton blog, please email leann@bluecotton.com

“The Avengers” t-shirts have been assembled and rounded-up for today for you all you fanboys and fangirls from the far reaches of the internet universe. Feast your eyes!

Mike Scott at The Times-Picayune says it best: “A years-in-the-making comic book casserole, “The Avengers” teams up some of the Marvel Comics universe’s most iconic superheroes — along with some of its lesser-known ones — all in one big, fat, popcorn-devouring, world-saving package.

Directed by the amazing Joss Whedon (think Toy Story, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse and Firefly – all of which he wrote, directed or both), The Avengers promises to be a action-packed, superhero-filled good time.

Check out a few of the t-shirts we found featuring “The Avengers” below.

This week we’re sharing your message with a quality custom blog post. We got the buzz from Nathaniel Philips of Lexington Bee Company on why bees are so important to our way of life, and why should you support your local beekeeper!

One of my favorite job duties here at BlueCotton is getting to know our customers. I just watched a documentary called Vanishing of the Bees (narrated by the lovely Ellen Page), when I saw Lexington Bee Company’s t-shirt order fly across my screen.

How did you get into beekeeping?

My interest in beekeeping began when I was in college at the University of Georgia. I took an entomology class and became fascinated by the study of bees. I started volunteering at the UGA bee farm and reading books to learn how to keep bees. After that I built my own hives and what started out as a hobby during college, grew into a lifelong passion.

What do you find the most fascinating thing about bees?

A third of the food we eat depends on bees for pollination. Without honey bees, the fruits, the vegetables, and the flowers that depend on them would disappear. Not only are bees responsible for pollinating the plants that produce the food we eat, but they are also the only insect that produces food consumed by humans. Albert Einstein once said that, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”

If you had 30 seconds on all major networks, what would you say about bees/beekeeping?

Support your local beekeeper. Not only does eating local honey support a more environmentally friendly agricultural model, it’s also better for you. Honey is a collection of simple carbohydrates and an assortment of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids. Processed honey sold in grocery stores loses many of its subtle flavors and nutritional values when it is filtered for clarity and superheated to extend its shelf life. At Lexington Bee Company, all of our honey is 100% pure, raw, unheated, and unfiltered. We harvest our honey with minimal straining to preserve all the natural enzymes, pollen, and floral essences the honeybees put into it for the highest quality flavor.

What’s your favorite kind of honey? Can you tell us a little bit about different kinds of honey (from trees/flowers/etc)?

The flavor in honey is the result of the pollen and nectar gathered in a certain locale during a certain season, which can lead to delicious results. Depending on what flowers and trees are in bloom determines what the honey will taste like. One of the most flavorful honeys is Sourwood honey, which is produced in the mountains of North Georgia and Western Carolina during the months of June and July. Sourwood honey is extra-light to an amber color and extremely aromatic with a distinctively rich honey flavor.

What’s your favorite bee/beeswax/honey product?

The appearance of honey in grocery stores has increased exponentially in the past few years. From chips to candy to sauces, honey is adding flavor to a variety of food products. Acting as a natural sweetener, honey is a healthy substitute for refined sugars. So, given the delicious flavor and added health benefits, any food containing honey is my favorite honey product.

If you would like to be featured on our blog and answer a few questions about your organization, business, club or team – please contact leann@bluecotton.com.