Many of you know that our grandfather, Alfred Paulsen, was a gifted illustrator who worked for NASA for 25+ years. During his tenure there (and after), he dabbled in all kinds of fun freelance work on the side. Recently we've started unearthing loads of his work and will be posting it on the blog from time to time.

I'm not sure what this spot was done for, but couldn't help but crack a smile just looking at it. Circa sometime in the 70's.

Much more to come.

Do you remember real mailboxes? How about real mail? What about that feeling of excitement as you opened up that rusty old mailbox in hopes that something would be addressed to YOU?

It seems like much of that is lost nowadays. A letter addressed to us now means we probably owe someone money.

Well, we miss that feeling. So, we decided to start The Lil' Happy Invisible Creature S.A.S.E. Club. Inspired by our youth - when the simple task of addressing an envelope to ourselves, licking a few stamps and patiently waiting a few weeks could mean receiving anything from a signed baseball card from spring training to various stickers from our favorite skateboard company.

It's real simple. Send us a self-addressed stamped envelope and we'll fill it with goodies. Put 2 stamps on your return envelope and we'll fill it with more.

However, we thought we'd make it a bit more fun and interactive. Regardless of your artistic ability, we ask that your envelope addressed to us be creatively designed or illustrated. No rules, anything goes - and we'll post the coolest ones on the Lil' Happy Twitter page.

So, that's it! Oh, and we figured we should set some ground rules and answer a few questions. Just in case.

DEADLINE: September 1st, 2010 Please send us your S.A.S.E. by that date. We hope to do this once a year, but since we don't know the volume we'll be receiving, we have to shut off the valve at some point.

Please send your envelopes to: The Lil' Happy Invisible Creature S.A.S.E. Club, P.O. Box 375, Seahurst, WA 98062

Q: I can't draw to save my life. What should I do? A: Like we mentioned, it's regardless of your ability. C'mon, it'll be fun!

Q: What are you going to send us? A: We're not telling. It'll be fun though. We promise.

Q: When should we expect our envelope back? A: After the deadline sometime. It could take awhile as we also run a full-time studio over here. If you send it, it will come. A little patience.

Q: I don't live in the U.S., can I still participate? A: Probably not, due to customs. However, we aren't international mail professionals, if you can find a way that works via USPS, we'll definitely send it back! If it involves anything more than dropping it in a mailbox, we won't be able to pull it off. Sorry.

Q: Can I send you more than one envelope? A: No, sorry.

Q: Can I send a poster tube? How about a large document envelope or soft pack? A: Nice try. Let's keep this old school. Legal sized envelopes would be the biggest/best option.

Any more questions? Feel free to email us at lilhappy@invisiblecreature.com

Our Conan O'Brien and My Morning Jacket posters have been added to the shop.

21 years after my first class with Mrs. George, my high school art teacher, I'm coming back to say hi. She was/is an amazing teacher and played a large role for me in pursuing art as a career. Because of that, I thought it would be fun to create a poster for the occasion. Looking forward to catching up after 17 years.

The sun is shining in Seattle and it appears that spring has come a bit early (if you're local, you're just as thankful as us). We also happen to have a ton of posters sitting in flat files that we'd like to send to you kind people. So, it occured to us that this would be a perfect time to slash prices (most posters $8-$10) and make room for some new art. We've been making posters for 8 years now and decided to put many in the 'blowout bin' until they are gone. Grab them now as this sale will only last a few weeks.

As 2010 is quickly approaching with new projects and new ideas, we didn't want to neglect 2009 in this Holiday rush. It's been our best year yet (It seems like we get to say that every year) at the IC and we just wanted to say THANK YOU. To our beloved clients, those who purchase our work in various ways, our faithful blog subscribers (almost 10K feeds?!), our Twitter followers, our extremely talented and inspiring peers who push us every day, and everyone else who has dropped us a comment or thrown love our way. We are extremely thankful (especially in this economy) to be doing what we love for a living. It's so much fun to "work" here - and we have many, many people to thank for that. Merry Christmas + Happy New Year to you all ...

Can you tell we love our new printer? Two new prints added to the shop today. Isle Of This Town & The Lonely King are available for your Aunt Nadine's living room, right above the '76 Magnavox.

Grain Edit (Dave Cuzner and crew) have been very generous to us over the years - responsible for putting our work in front of many fresh faces. So when they asked if we'd like to create GE's first ever T-shirt design, we quickly obliged. As many of you know, Dave has quite the book collection (we've been known to collect a few over here as well), so the idea of a few critters lending an ear to a story about our favorite blog seemed quite fitting. And with today's announcement from The Times, the story seems that much sweeter.

We've had an incredible year at IC and feel like passing on a little love. So, we've gotten drunk on eggnog, whipped up a graphic and logged into the blog. From now until next Monday, December 21st, we are including a FREE set of our IC Throwback Series with any order $20 or over. Please note that we have a limited amount, so when they're gone, they're gone.

'Time Will Tell' and 'Prized Possessions' are now (finally) available exclusively through Velocity! Each print is a whopping 17" x 22" (with a 1" border for framing) and is printed on beautiful German Etching Hahnenmühle Fine Art paper. Hand signed, limited edition run of 50.

We just added a new print to the shop! 'Shake A Leg!' comes in 2 sizes, 2 color variants and 2 prices. Something for everyone.

Sorry we're a little late on this info. With the new site launch, we lost a little time preparing for the holiday shipping rush. For U.S. residents, our cut-off day for ordering will be Monday, December 21st. For international orders, you might want to place your order now. We definitely can't guarantee it will arrive by Christmas, but we will try. Our next shipping day is this Tuesday, December 15th. Thank you for your support and patience! Happy Holidays!

Oh - and we'll be including a FREE IC button set with each order through the new year!

After 3+ years and countless new projects, we felt like it was time to give our site a makeover. And just like on Oprah, some things remain the same but many were given a significant upgrade. As you take a stroll around, you'll see what we mean. One of the big changes is that the work, shop and blog are all contained in one nice little package for your viewing needs. Another is that you get to see our work much quicker, with access points all over the homepage. We have gotten a few comments from peeps that were hoping for an html iPhone-friendly version. After much consideration on our part, we felt like the vast majority of our demographic would NOT be viewing it on a mobile device. However, that version may be something to consider if the demand is there. We aren't David Lynch, but the work just looks better on an actual computer.

Many, many thanks to JD at Gridplane and Instrument for making this happen. Oh, and please e-mail us if you encounter any glitches as we are still attempting to sort all of that out.

We're extremely honored to be part of Grain Edit's Holiday Giveway Bash! featuring incredible art and collectibles from peers, friends and heroes. We're donating two 16" x 16" Giclee prints as well as our new Winter Fishing Hole! Gift Card from Target loaded with $25 to buy your uncle that Die Hard DVD he's been wanting or the ear muffs your dog has been hinting at. If we could enter, we would! Winners announced December 18th.

When Nonsek asked us if we'd like to open an IC artist channel, we took a gander at their current roster and quickly said "mmmmkay". If you haven't played around with their super-cool custom T-shirt remix madness, do yourself a favor and check it out. Infinite options! And now you can choose shirt colors and even lock layers that you dig.

You know what I'm thinking? This could make a REALLY great gift. Just sayin' ...

The holidays at Target are always fun. So, naturally we were pretty excited (okay, thrilled) when they asked us to create a board game for one of their charming holiday Gift Cards. Our Winter Fishing Hole! Game is in stores and online now until the new year. 1 - 4 players. Spin The Fish!

Well, 'All Hallows Eve' is right around the corner - which is perfect timing seeing as we've just wrapped up our 'Halloween Thingamajig' art for this year's bash at Target House. Hope the kids have fun.

Our buddy Ethan was in town and decided to snap a few cool shots of the shop.

Coalesce is graciously allowing us to sell a limited run of the 'Art Of OX' art print sets.

The 'Art Of OX' art print set features 12 hand printed, frameable 8 " x 8" prints. Each set comes in a wax sealed envelope, and are signed and numbered. We have been given 45 sets to distribute through IC. Of these 45 sets, 35 are printed on black stock with silver ink, the remaining 10 sets are printed on brick red stock with dark red ink and will be randomly distributed.

And don't forget, the album drops this Tuesday.

Spring has hit Seattle (well, a little) so we thought it'd be a good time to update you on what's happening in IC world ... and of course shamelessly plug ourselves all at the same time. We're having a ton of fun at the shop lately, so why not share in the joy a little bit?

The Takeover interview - Short and sweet.

RBTL podcast - This was a lot of fun to do, but maybe I shouldn't have had so much coffee before recording.

IC on Twitter - Sign up! Updated regularly with IC happenings and random pretentious garbage no one needs to know about. Oh, and this may soon take the place of '5 Things We're Digging'. I wish it wasn't so addictive, but it is.

Sasquatch! Festival - It's coming up hot. Thankfully, we have a new set of limited edition screen-printed posters available to help celebrate its arrival. Coming soon.

Coalesce 'OX' - This project was a blast in many ways, but I had no clue the band would want to feature the art on so many stinking cool pieces of merchandise. Icing on the cake. Limited edition (signed) art prints, a flask (with super cool box), quality hoodies and shirts, etc. Take that, Fugazi.

Having fun with new projects from Nike, Target, Wired, Devildriver, August Burns Red, Coalesce, The Not-It's, KEXP, Brother Ali + Rhymesayers, etc. We'll be showcasing these new projects (and much more) on our new website and store towards the end of August. Very excited to be working with the masterminds at Gridplane & Instrument.

There is much more to talk about, but not enough time to do so. Thanks to everyone who has made the IC blog a part of their daily RSS feeds. 6,500 and counting!

Oh, and special thanks to Cale Glendening for the above photo.