Cicadas, Cicadas, Cicadas

I think everyone I knew was a little Cicada crazy there for a few weeks. I know Mr P was! Every time we saw one on the ground he would get so excited and pick it up to add to our collection. HAHA!!  Yes- we have a ziplock bag full of these little insects....and they are in our freezer!! Right next to the tater tots...ahhahahahaha

I plan to have some of my art students draw these little guys and plus I needed one to look at for our latest tee.

I watched the coolest video on Cicadas- check it out... It's a little over 7 minutes long,but well worth it.

http://youtu.be/0JJz36rSob0
or at
www.kickstarter.com/projects/motionkicker/return-of-the-cicadas


The four of us would lay in bed every night watching this same video over and over and over. Do any of you guys out there with little kids go through this?? They get something stuck in their heads and can't get enough of it.  (I'm the same way about chicken biscuits and M&M's)  So, after hearing these little bugs sing every day and seeing them all over the place, I promised my son we would create a Cicada shirt. Mr P was PUMPED
  I tried to read up on them. I learned that the ones that we have in Louisiana are the Brood XXIII cicadas that have a 13 year life cycle.  Called the North American genus, Magicicada.  There are many Cicadas around the world that have a life cycle of 2-5 years, we just happen to have the ones that have the longer 13 year cycles. Some even have 17 year cycles. They live in temperate-to-tropical climates and are many times confused and called Locusts. Funny- they are unrelated to true Locusts and actually are more related to leafhoppers and spittlebugs. Im not even sure what those actually look like. Must goggle!  I read that many people around the world eat them.... I have no desire to munch on one of these critters.
  I went to Kiroli Park In West Monroe

one day at the suggestion of one of my co-workers Anne Gilbert. I found a few Cicadas on the trails.

Check out how red their eyes are!! 

Anne actually went out there and collected a few more for me and brought them to me at work.

Here is Anne above. And the ones she collected below.

  The design process took a few tries. I laid up in bed with a dead Cicada on my drawing pad and got to work. I first drew him with his wings spread wide apart but Brent reminded me that it looked to similar to our Monarch Butterfly design. He was right (yes- I said it!).. So, I then worked on it from a side few.

First in pencil

 We found these super soft tan colored shirt to print it on in the adult tees. Love this color!!

Our first time to print on it. I wish they would of had the same color in a youth size, but there were none. We used an athletic gray triblend instead on the little people sizes.

Here is a pic of the Two P's in their new tees and chucks

They are friends with an adorable little girl named Elly at their school. She got one of the tees too. Her mom told me she calls them the "Live Locusts"  So cute!

The youth shirts are now at The Childrens Shoppe in Monroe, LA and at Arrangements Limited & Gifts in Tallulah, LA. Or online at www.mrpstees.com.

Here is Brent modeling the adult tee. It is unisex. S-XXL. Great Fathers Day gift :) Brent is shown wearing a large. 

We have them at Ksera in West Monroe, LA or online.

Girls can wear Insects too!! Here is a summer cool outfit I put together at Ksera. 

Love the tee paired with denim cut offs. 

Thanks for reading!!

Love

Lissy

Little behind the scenes look---this is the "reality" behind the photos you see! Me standing on the dining room table while Phoebe tries to tell me something AND a pink princess Pezz dispenser laying beside our design..HAHA

www.mrpstees.com