death makes a holiday

today's entry has a dark theme all around.

it started off this morning when i applied for a job at a crematory. how cool would that be?! holy geez. not only do i need *a* job, i need THAT job! please please keep your fingers crossed for me...i think it's about time some good karma came my way! sheesh.

then i found out that my swamp rat photography shop has been accepted to join the etsy dark team! three cheers for blood and guts. i was starting to feel overwhelmed by all the "cutesy" going on over at etsy. not that i haven't met loads of nice people already, because i have! and it's not that i can't appreciate cute as much as the next person, because i happen to love me some cute. see?



but i think y'all know how i roll by now. and besides, i feel a lot more at home among these artists and crafters and morbid ol' souls. it's really frustrating to be looked over or straight-out ignored by people who don't know how to respond to your obsession with dead things and serial killers. ya know?

i brought out all the halloween decorations today while josh was at work.



decorating our house for any holiday is a difficult task because i already have so much crap everywhere that it ALREADY looks decorated. ha. before i quit the thrift store, i made sure to grab up some cute halloween things so that i could actually get into it this year. if there is anyone still reading this thing that remembers my first post waaaaay back in january, you will understand how finding josh made my boring old house a home worth dressing up for the holidays.




i LOVE these guys! they are s'mores, all dressed up for halloween! technically they are ornaments because they have a hook on top, but i like them just as well sitting on top of our entertainment stand. i also have a frankenstein and a dracula, but they are packed away with the christmas oraments.


this little guy is an old favorite.


is this not the coolest candle holder ever?! she has hair on the back of her hand like a werewolf!!






in the background you can see a photo from when we went to halloweekends at cedar point last year. that's me, josh, my cousin amy and her husband matt, all posed in a real coffin (with some ghoulie hanging out with us)!!!


and here is one of my favorite things that i liked so much when i put it up, i just might leave it up year round. it looks even better with the lights out!




i just finished reading the book "death makes a holiday" by david skal. it is a cultural history of halloween, although i wish it went into more detail and was about 3 times the length. some of it was rather dry in places, but i really liked the chapter entitled "home is where the hearse is" that explored haunted houses and the art of "yard haunting." this is an interesting read for those interested in the history and traditions of halloween.



i am also a huge fan of vintage halloween imagery, so finding this book of vintage halloween graphics by jim heimann was a big score.



here are some great images (sorry the photos aren't the best)









looking forward to halloween this year, as well as dia de los muertos a few days later!!!

monday monday

there is some new vintage up in FRENZY. it's crazy to me that things from my childhood (early 80s) are already old enough to be considered "vintage," or at least "retro." i feel old enough, as it is! here is some original 1980s merchandise:

strawberry shortcake address book/recipe book set:



set of five (5) childrens books:



and some other goodies:








josh and i had a rather uneventful but enjoyable weekend. on saturday we went to bachelor/bachelorette parties for our friends todd and lacey, who are getting married NEXT WEEKEND! josh had a little too much fun with his friends and ended up with his head out the car window the whole ride home. after some pretty intense purging, josh climbed back in the car and exclaimed, "FUCKIN HEATH LEDGER! HE RUINS EVERYTHING!" then he laughed maniacally. needless to say, heath ledger was not invited to the party, nor did he force josh to drink all that beer. i don't think he even came up in conversation once that evening. HA.

at least josh has this remarkable talent NEVER to have a hangover in the morning no matter how much he had to drink the nite before. so sunday we woke up and went to the flea market, where i scored some records. YESSSSSS. if i go a couple weeks without getting new records i start having withdrawals and shit. it's bad. i'm sure some of them might end up in the store because i probably bought some doubles i already had at home. that's when you know that you are a record addict with a problem: when you can't remember what you already own and you start buying multiple copies just in case you don't have it. but it was an especially good haul because i even found some doowop, which is pretty hard to find:

*dicky doo and the dont's - wild party/leave me alone (let me cry)
*larry williams - short fat fannie/high school dance
*jerry lee lewis - whole lot of shakin going on/it'll be me [on sun records!]
*the turbans - when you dance/let me show you (around my heart)
*the castaways - liar, liar/sam
*alvin cash and the registers - the philly freeze/no deposit - no return [AWESOME two-sided soul jam!]
*dave clark five - reelin and rockin/i'm thinkin

last tuesday, i had a really fun hot trash because a bunch of people from the etsy messageboards were tuned in while i was on the air and sent me lots of fun requests all nite long. tune in tomorrow nite if you think of it! ; )

photo swap?

i have had such a crush on summer carnival photos lately. there are so many gorgeous prints from people on etsy and i wish i wasn't unemployed right now because i would be creating a carnival room in my house as we speak. so i thought: maybe i could find some photographers who would be interested in a trade? i would be happy to send a print of anything from my etsy shop in exchange for something of yours. ESPECIALLY if it is carnival/amusement park/fair related. we could decide on a print size (5x7? 8x10?) and match each other so we're both getting an equal trade. or if they are only available in one size, maybe we could work something out. i probably wouldn't send mine matted and framed unless yours was also, just to make it a more even trade. so what do you say? anyone interested? it would make my day!!

in the meantime, here are some beautiful photos i am drooling over by some talented photographers. please visit their shops and show them some love.


by bomobob



by aliciabock



by eddyizm


by skippydesigns

friday i'm in love

it has been a laid back friday and i'm sooo into it.

i just went to get a haircut, which i haven't had for MONTHS now. i can't tell you how much better i feel. i was startin to HATE on myself. ha. i had a lunch date with my mom and met one of her friends from work, who turned out to be one of the sweetest ladies ever. then i came home to find that my skull and key necklace was included as a part of a friday feature in the blog all things tangled. how awesome! it was a feature about necks. i'm in a neck feature! that sounds funny. and to top it all off, josh got home from work early so now i get to go spend time with my cute boyfriend. speaking of my boyfriend, here is a great story...

josh called me from work yesterday and asked, "do you remember when i hit you last nite?" i was confused and i certainly did not remember. he explained that he woke up in the middle of the nite, still drunk like he was when he fell asleep. he sat up in bed and couldn't figure out where the hell he was. he didn't even recognize our bedroom. apparently i felt him moving around and i stirred in my sleep. josh, not knowing what was moving under the cover or what was going on, went with his first instinct and reached out and SLAPPED THE MOVING OBJECT. he slapped me on the butt. and in my sleep i barked, "stop it!" and just kept sleeping. by that point, he realized where he was and what he was doing. yeah. slapping his sleeping girlfriend.
hmph.

T-A-C-O...TACO, LET'S GO!

why do i have the weirdest cats ever?

first there's pogo, who thinks she needs to hide under the rug. that's her stupid tail you see just poking out of the first picture. she just crawls under a rug when no one is looking and sits there, waiting for someone to walk by so she can jump out at them like a maniac.









you know exactly what she's thinking in this picture: "if i just stay reeeeeal quiet, she won't notice i'm here..."



then there's lemmy, who thinks that my vintage pee wee's playhouse playset that i've had since i was a kid is HIS playhouse.





megadeth is my only cat who is normal. although i DO have the sneaking suspicion that she's the one who keeps pissing on our couch...



which brings me to another thing: someone keeps pissing on our couch! does anyone know what to do to keep cats from peeing on things? i've tried everything i can think of. it would be a damn shame to have to throw the couch away because it's such a comfy couch...but HELL am i tired of shampooing couch cushions!

i made my first sale in the new etsy store last nite, so that was a nice surprise to wake up to. i'm just afraid it's going to be like our swamp rat store where we sold a photo the very first nite and thought it was a good sign and then we haven't sold one since. wah!

i finished reading "dark at the roots" and it was one of the funniest memoirs i've ever read. it comes highly recommended.



here is my favorite scene, it's even better than the one where her sister chews on her sock. this one is about her little brother while they are sitting around the dinner table:

"hey!" michael said from his makeshift booster seat, a stack of encyclopedias on the chair at the head of the table. he was wearing debbie's curly red little orphan annie wig and a green tutu. he had both hands down his training pants and a look of sheer delight on his two-year-old face. "there's a little bag down here with balls in it, and when i pinch them, it hurts!"

hahahahahaha.

i almost got to do something cool today. i almost got to watch a private show by the spits at the radio station. they are playing at a club tonite, so they were going to come down to the station beforehand and play a live set on the air. my manager asked me if i wanted to come down and help out if anything needed to be done, and also get to watch the band for free in a tiny room with a handful of other people. fuck yes i did! well, it ended up not happening because the band got into town too late, but still. have i ever mentioned how much my station rules and how lucky i am to be able to be a part of it?? just the fact that this kinda stuff can happen. man. it's so badass. at the end of the month, i'm having a band from austria on my show to play and hang out and have a record party. they have a song about tacos. they are a genre commonly referred to as "party punk." BRING IT!

frenzy!

well, the cat's out of the bag! the etsy-related news i've been sitting on is this: i've opened up a new shop!



the url is http://frenzyfinds.etsy.com. i am hoping i have not gotten in over my head running two shops, but i needed a place to list things that weren't photography related. i like having a specific place just for the photos to go, so that brings me to this.

i decided that i wanted a place to sell recycled or upcycled items, including vintage finds that need a new home and anything i might have crafted out of found items and turned into my own pieces. i like taking something old or ordinary and putting a new spin on it to make it more unique and a little more...me. hopefully people will share my taste, whether it is vintage, retro, punk, rockabilly, weird & creepy...whatever.

so i started with some vintage things i needed to purge from the house. josh is yelling at me that i have too much stuff and i'm finally having to agree with him. so far there are vintage saddle shoes, records, a dress, and these GIG pity puppies. see, i told you that art entry a few days ago would tie in and make sense once i announced this! plus, the banner and avitar for the shop are SHAG images, so i think i tied in my post rather nicely :)

anyway, here are the two puppies for sale in the shop:





you'll have to visit the store to see the other vintage stuff i have listed. and believe me, there's LOTS more to come once i have time to sit down and add it all!

i also included a few jewelry pieces i made out of found objects. here are two of my favorite necklaces incorporating keys:





and finally, here is the biggest part of the surprise i couldn't wait to share. i didn't want to say a word because i wasn't even sure how well this would turn out. in the past several weeks, i've been teaching myself how to screen print. a very punk rock, d.i.y. method, but screen printing nonetheless.

originally my idea was that i wanted to make serial killer pillowcases. i like to call the line "cuddle with a serial killer!" because now you can cuddle up to charles manson or john wayne gacy when you turn in for the nite :)





i had a ted bundy screen made but i didn't like the way it turned out, so i decided not to list the pillowcase i made and start over from scratch. i like doing this, but because i am doing it such a d.i.y. way it takes a long time to prepare each screen and make the actual pillowcase (or whatever we print -- josh and i have also been experimenting with t-shirts and bags so far). anyway, i hope to get some more made soon so feel free to put in a request for your favorite serial killer. ha. just in time for halloween!

like i mentioned, i experimented with screen printing on bags and i made this cool buddy holly purse/tote bag. i still have some tweaking to do to get things just right, but i still think it's neat.



so there you have it, folks. please stop by and let me know what you think. and mark it as a favorite if you think we might have similar taste, because i have a lot more to come in the future!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade frenzyfinds.etsy.com

laugh out loud

i found out some fantastic news.

remember a few posts ago when i talked about josh's "black church"? well, i was talking to my mom last nite and i admitted that since i fell in love with the church's appearance from the outside, i was dying to see it inside as well. here is what i learned:

1. my uncle, who plays an organ in a church for a living, plays the organ in THE BLACK CHURCH. ha! i didn't realize.
2. because the black church is my uncle's church and has been for several years, my mom revealed that i actually have been inside it before.
3. mom admitted that not only have i been inside the church already, but "that's the one you peed at!" i vaguely remembered the story about how when i was a baby, pampers weren't as leak-proof as they are today, and when my parents went to pick me up...yeah, you see where this story is going.

so there you have it. WHO KNEW? my mom, apparently. hahaha.

i also wanted to say that i'm in the middle of reading a hilarious memoir called "dark at the roots" by sarah thyre. so far it's all told from the persepective of the author as a little girl -- a baaaad little girl. memoirs are my favorite thing to read, and usually my favorite memoirs are stories about crazy, fucked up childhoods and stuff. this one isn't weird, it's just about a badass little girl who does stuff like poop in the garage (and get caught) while she's playing hide-and-seek because she doesn't want to give up her hiding spot. here is my favorite scene that i loved so much i had to turn the page back and read it a second time. she is talking about talking a long bus trip with her mom and sisters:

"hey shroomy," i said. "come chew on my sock."
debbie trotted right over.
"whoa, now that's too much," becky said as debbie knelt in the aisle next to me.
"it's okay, i like the flavor," debbie chirped, her mouth muffled around my white cotton gold-toe, black on the bottom with trailways residue.


i hope i can write like this someday. but instead of pooping in my garage i guess i'll be peeing in churches.

ok, all you creative genuises...

i need your help.

i know i keep being very secretive lately and i apologize, but i have an announcement that i'm simply NOT ALLOWED to reveal yet. but when i do, i will need a fantastic halloween costume to go with my secretive (AND AWESOME) plans.

any ideas? i don't have a lot of money so i need something that will be easy. i could definitely go for funny or creepy. offensive doesn't even bother me. after all, this was me last year when we entered the "most offensive costume" contest at the bar:





one slutty, pregnant nun...coming right up! too bad you can't see the "i <3 dick" pin i was wearing. and for the record, josh was even worse. how nazi, pedophile priest doesn't win the "most offensive" award i will never know. the sign around his neck says "thank heavens for little boys." HA!



in the end, a bloody-spattered mary with her aborted baby jesus fetus won the contest. SHEESH.

maybe you know some good couple ideas that josh and i can do together? or something for me at least? i kinda want to be a mammy. the idea of blackface cracks me up. maybe i could talk josh into putting on some blackface and a really bad 80s sweater and being bill cosby.

new photos

hopefully by this time next week, i'll be lettin y'all in on a little secret. but in the meantime, here are some new photos to share that i just put up in our etsy shop.

a few weeks ago, josh told me we had to go on a bike ride once it got dark because there was something he wanted to show me at night. he took me to this beautiful (and creepy-looking) old church that he called "the black church." i was raised roman catholic, but after having religion shoved down my throat in catholic school for so many years i grew to abandon any religious beliefs or practices. but i still have a thing for catholic imagery and art, often times finding it hauntingly beautiful.

so i did a little research on josh's "black church" and found out that it is named st. michael the archangel and has roots all the way back to 1881 with its first congretation. the church that stands today has been there since 1892 after a fire destroyed the first one. i don't know much about architecture but the article i read said that the church is a good example of "high victorian gothic."







the night that we visited, we found it odd that there should be one light on high in the steeple while the rest of the already-dark church remained, well, dark. a little creepy, no? anyhow, here is the photo that made it into the shop:



i promised some carnival photos would get added, so here are the four that i kept hidden from you until now!:









i can't get enough of that carousel horse -- i looove how it came out.

i have a love for old signs, especially those that are tacky, retro, etc. here is one of my favorite signs in my town that i have been meaning to photograph for YEARS. i think the actual building is abandoned, so who knows when/if they will end up tearing down this sign. i hope they don't!



and finally, i already did an entry about how much i love my bike so this one is not a surprise. but i know i'm not the only one who can appreciate the aesthetic beauty of a vintage schwinn :)