Monday, November 3, 2014

WELL HI!

i've been writing on blogspot again, but in a new place!

join me, will ya??

a new kind of kick

Sunday, February 17, 2013

birthday spoils

i've been meaning to do a post about my birthday but gosh i've been lazy. overall, it was one of the nicest birthdays in recent memory!

the mister and i both took the day off work to hang out together, which was a present in itself. he took me out to breakfast at our favorite greasy spoon, and then we hit up a few estate sales since i NEVER have a thursday off to go to sales on the first day. they were a bust, but i haven't been to an estate sale in months so it was still fun to go.

then we headed out for a day of junkin. here are some of the treasures i came home with:


































an amazingly obnoxious lime green coat with a fur collar that fits perfectly! it's in mint condition and it's seriously the best shade of green. it's even better in person!

 this great 8x10 vintage photo of a hearse parked in a graveyard. it will look so neat framed and hung in our foyer that basically looks like a mini-funeral parlor.


































this vintage valentine for a "rootin' tootin' guy"



































this funny picture card about "pitching the woo." what a great phrase. i almost love it as much as "balling the jack."


 records! hooray! i was especially excited to find the monkees single from their movie "head" (a harder one to find, and one i still needed to complete my collection) and the little richard record that is co-written with the legendary esquerita.


and finally, the miss priss sugar bowl to add to my growing collection...

 my collection is coming along quite nicely!

josh also got me a bunch of awesome gifts! i was lucky to marry a very thoughtful gift-giver ; )


































pile 'o' gifts! the chocolates were for valentine's day ; )






















 a nauga monster necklace!






















this tiny package of beatles hair pomade came as an extra in the other item josh was actually buying me...it's pretty ridiculous, still!






















 little richard record! ooooooooh!

and the main present: a complete set of vintage monkees finger puppets! there was no peter doll made because he had already left the band at this point, but these three are in great shape (micky and mike are still carded!) and they have all their accessories (their boots are always missing). for a guy who always teases me about owning so many toys, josh sure is an enabler!

for dinner, we went to an italian restaurant that my family used to go to when i was a kid. the location near us closed long ago, but there were still several others left. the one we happened to stop at was gangster themed, which was really awesome. it made my heart happy to be back there again!























i came home to a package from my new york dead boys friend, jeff. inside was some pulp novels, dvds of the mc5, richard and the young lions and some old 60s music shows, and a shirt. check out that badass james brown shirt! whatta pal.

















i got this hilarious card from my cousin, whose little girl i nanny. HA!

















and finally, my tickets for the solo mike nesmith concert arrived on my birthday..what a nice present! oh, did i even tell you?!?! mike nesmith of the monkees came out of hibernation in 2012 to tour with the remaining monkees (making a lifelong dream of mine come true) -- and now he is doing a string of solo dates and I WILL BE THERE! so stoked. 

to sum it up, i'm 31 and life is good ; )

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

the long overdue monkees weekend recap

shame on me for never doing a proper post after the monkees shows in november and our subsequent monkees weekend. on one hand, it sorta still seems like it was all a dream. what's there to talk about when it didn't really happen?! on the other hand, i'm terribly sad that it's over and i can't bear the thought that it may have been the last time i will ever see them. it was THE most amazing experience to finally see mike nesmith perform monkees songs with the others, even if they were missing one important part of the band. i will never forget the smile on his face watching him perform, and the feeling that i was taking part in a once in a lifetime moment with my best girls there beside me. it was magic. i know i sound so lame and not that many people can relate to what i'm going on about, but it was a huge deal for me. i feel so very lucky i was able to see "an evening with the monkees" (not once, but twice!) so here is my recap, starting at the very beginning of monkees weekend...
*all photos from monkees weekend by amy allen unless otherwise noted!

Photobucket
me and the girls...note the huge screen behind us that we used to play the monkees television show all nite long!

Photobucket
beth and i dj'ed a swingin 60s dance party and it was SO much fun!

Photobucket
look at all the party people!

Photobucket
i was really nervous about pulling the nite off, but it was a hit. i wanna do it again!

Photobucket
at the last minute, things got 50x better when we booked cleveland's own monkees tribute band, the frodis capers! they were awesome

Photobucket
sisters! my cousins

Photobucket
amy and i

Photobucket
beth and i (photo by rachel elizabeth of nevermind the camera photography!)

the following night micky, peter and mike performed in lakewood, ohio. we had 4th row seats (!!!), which technically turned out to be 7th row when the pit seats were taken into account. it was amazing, and i didn't know how things could get any better.

Photobucket
beth and i, ready for the show to begin in lakewood

on sunday, we hit the road for buffalo, new york to see it one more time. this time our 6th row seats were even closer because there was no pit section and the layout of the venue was different. SO. MAGICAL.

Photobucket
hitting the road for monkees weekend day 3!

these are just a few of my favorite photos i took over the two nites we spent in their company -- i took over 400 photos total! i wanted to make sure i would never forget what it felt like to be there and i tried to capture as much of it as i could. i'm so glad i will always have these memories to look back on. these shots are from cleveland and buffalo combined.  
please do not repost without credit.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

if i could only do this over again...








first junkin trip of 2013

i haven't had the extra money for any junkin lately, and i've been behaving myself remarkably well. still, i was long overdue and the itch was gettin baaad, so josh and i headed out in a snowstorm last weekend to see what there was to be seen.

Photobucket
pogo mugs for the camera

the first thing i picked up was this cowboy light cover. we see these fairly often, but never for a price we liked. we've been talking about replacing the light fixture here in the computer room because it's far too dark in this room, so when i found this at a decent price we decided it would motivate us to complete the project if we had a cool fixture already picked out.

Photobucket

you would think i would already have a set of pee-wee colorforms, seeing as how i work at a vintage toy store and all. we even had these when i was a kid, but they are long gone by now. i found a set that was never even used and decided to bite the bullet.

Photobucket

my mission was to find something monkees-related, not only because i've been on mega-obsessive mode for the past few months, but also because the day we were shopping just happened to be the 70th birthday of one mike nesmith and would have been the 67th birthday of the late davy jones. i really had my hopes set on the vinyl lunchbox from the 60s, but it was nowhere to be seen. instead, i had to settle for this teen mag, which featured a section on the "cool and crazy" birthday boy.

Photobucket

Photobucket

as you probably noticed, i really like cheeseburger things. i picked up this plastic burger thinking that i would use it as a small trinket box, and the guy who worked at the store laughed at me telling me it was actually a hamburger patty press from the '40s. hey, tomato-tomahto, dude. i've also got the cutest collection of vintage planters going filled with all my tiny cacti and succulents, so i'll have to show them to you soon. cute lil' lamb had to come home with me.

Photobucket

Photobucket

my favorite find of the day was this cemetery sign. yeah, you already knew i was a creep, no news there. we have funeral home signs and undertaking service signs hanging in the house already, so why not a cemetery? i really liked the way the wallpaper looked behind the sign, so i made josh hang it in the dining room. maybe an unlikely place to display it, but seeing as how the gravestone blowmold also hangs out there i giggle every time i look at it.

Photobucket

Photobucket

found any good junk lately?