Last week we celebrated 17th birthday of my girlfriend’s younger sister. She is fond of llamas and theme of a presents and the whole birthday party wasn’t a tough choise.

If you check #llama tag on tumblr you’d see that internet is obsessed with them. Llamas are the new cats. Why? They are fucking adorable. And don’t you even dare to try searching for images of alpacas (small llamas). You could die a slow death from sweetness and beat in the throes of charms of those little creatures.

Oh, what a hell, here’s a picture of them: picture of alpacas (click at you own risk).

Anyway, since the lack of content about llamas on the internet was not a problem we’ve stated searching. And here is what we did:

We used llama font created by Avery Oldfield and Jack Inscoe and made this big sign that greeted in the morning the one whose birthday it was.

We made here a postcard with a handmade llama on it.

And last, but not least was a t-shirt. I found this beautiful t-shirt made by Austin-based artist Shyama Golden:

That peace of beauty was available just for $26 and we immidiatelly realized we need to get one. I saved the page in bookmarks and… forgot about it. I recovered my consciousness just a week before the birthday and considering our Russian Post we couldn’t get the tee in time.

I reached Shyama Golden directly describing briefly my situation and asked her if she could send me vector files of that t-shirt so we could print it ourselves. I was willing to pay for this whatever amouth of money she has considered necessary. Most people would turn me down, especially for asking an original vector files of an artwork (if I was a fraud I could hurt their business) but instead she proposed me the following:

Hi Stepa, I understand your situation but how are you going to print it on a shirt? I’m not sure I’d recommend that because the design is made to be printed on a medium colored shirt so I’m not sure how good it would look. I do have a black and white vector version which I use on my business cards that would work better if you are printing it yourself. I wouldn’t normally give anyone the file but I know you just want it for your friend.

 

How about this, you can paypal me $30, I’ll send you the design so you have something to give her on her birthday, and I’ll mail you an actual shirt for her that she’ll get later. $30 would include the shipping (I normally charge 10 for international shipping but in this case $4). If you’d like to do this just send me her size. Oh and your address of course :) I’ll send some little llama cards that go with it too.

How about that, huh? I’ve send the money almost immediately, accepting this amazing offer I could only dream of. We got those files and printed b/w version of a t-shirt just in time. She was extremely happy:

But the more to her delight was the news that she is going to get one more llama t-shirt, the colorful one, and even some llama cards. You should have seen her face that moment. And should have seen my face that moment, because, damn, I wanted those too :-)

The party was a success and everyone was happy. Well, because, obviously llamas simply couldn’t leave anyone unhappy.

Huge thanks to amazing Shyama Golden, who helped us to make it possible and took a huge part in this present. You’re an amazing person! Now guys go get some llama t-shirts or llama posters or anything else on her online store!