"Watch out behind you."

When I did this search several months ago after I heard that another shirt decorator in town was making i’msojai gear – a claim that I still have yet to see evidence of – I realized quite quickly that this was not an original concept. Surely at some point I’d heard of the local legendary Sojai Boys who are known to maraud around Meiners Oaks after hours. And perhaps it just took someone to put this on a shirt for it to become something more. So I did this past spring of 2009. I did my thing, messed around with fonts in photoshop, settled on one, printed out a transparency and burnt a screen. It’s been well worth the effort. Local stylist, thespian, bartender Buddy Wilds bought the first one after I posted pics on facebook. And they keep selling.

But back to the point of this post. These two posts I found totally tickled my ego. First was Emily Collins @1mrthng2wsttmew who tweeted about her love of the shirts this past Christmas day. she tweets.

1. “best Ojai themed shirt i’ve ever seen …. “I’msojai” 11:06 PM Dec 25th, 2009 from web”

I wonder if she got one as a present. I’m getting all warm inside thinking about it.

And second was AUNTGIGI, who apparently road tripped to Ojai recently with friends. I didn’t take a lot of time with the blog, I just thought this part was cute.

AUNTGIGI writes on her blog Pixie Dust Glitter and Sequins “We both loved Ojai. Really. It was a town that seemed to signify “us”. Easy, earthy, friendly, warm, a glowing energy. We were meant for that place, and it was meant for us. We found treasures. We’ll return. Imsojai. We’resojai. Only one person flipped me off. Must have been an out-of-towner. Back at ya, dude.”

It was probably a local.

Another thing that I’m pleased about is one of my friends and another early i’msojai shirt buyer, Jeff Foster, of Pixel Painter fame, has offered to do a little design work on a halftone pattern of the i’msojai design. That should be totally awesome.

I’ll keep you posted that’s enough for now.