Outfit of the Day - Freddy Krueger, Chains, and Lip Service

Vest/Crop top - Lip Service; Tunic tank top - thrifted; Studded belt - Hot Topic

Today was one of those days where everything I tried on in the morning felt wrong. I mixed and matched a million things and ended up with a war zone on my closet floor and walked out the door later than I'd planned to work.

I ultimately ended up with a very basic tunic tank top that I purchased from the thrift store and accessorized to give the outfit some character.

My "vest" is really a vegi-leather suspender crop top with a buckle, but one of the tricks I have up my sleeve is wearing things other than the way they were intended to be worn. So instead of zipping up the crop top, I leave it open and transform it into a vest.

The Lip Service crop top as it was meant to be worn. I think my way is more fun!

My studded belt is nothing special - I got it years and years ago from Hot Topic and have just been swapping out belt buckles. Today I added some chains and paired it with a Freddy Kreuger claw buckle…but more on that later.

Belt buckle - Freddy Krueger claw from eBay; Cat skull stainless steel ring - eBay; Stretch spike cuff bracelets - Forever 21

This cat skull ring is one of my favorites! It's fully articulated and the teeth are all really sharp, so I have to be careful when I'm at work that I don't snag any of the clothes.

As for my spike bracelets, they're from Forever 21. I like them because they are simple and easy to mix and match with other bangles and bracelets, plus they're stretchy and can accommodate all wrist sizes.

Freddy Krueger is my favorite horror movie franchise character, and as I mentioned, I keep my belts fresh by swapping buckles, so I love that I can add this small element of horror culture to my ensemble. Freddy's red and green striped sweater is just a bit too garish (and colorful for that matter) for me to sport, so instead I just subtly wear his claw on my hip.

Until next time - thanks for reading!

San Francisco and the Disney Museum

Front view of the Walk Disney Family Museum

San Francisco is just about an hour and 15 minute drive from Sacramento, so Kyle and I make frequent trips there to go to clubs, do some shopping, see concerts, and go to museums. Saturday we went to the Disney Family Museum, which was super interesting to us because we're Disney addicts. In fact, I'm not really sure why we haven't been there earlier since it's been open for a few years.

Black Magic fringe tank from Black Heart Lingerie, Chiffon high-low blouse from FreeStyle Clothing Exchange (midtown Sacramento location), boots by New Rock

Of course, I have to take a slight detour to mention what I chose to wear. Since we would be out and about all day, I had to make sure I would look cute and be comfortable. The weather in Sacramento right now is in the hundreds (YUCK!), but in San Francisco it's comfortable and can even get chilly, especially at the pier area, which we planned to visit. So I layered a tank top with a chiffon high-low blouse over top. I really love the extreme "low" on the back of the blouse, by the way.

We arrived at the museum mid-afternoon (had to get an oil change before we took off which put us a little behind) and we headed straight into the museum.

The admission area before you enter the actual museum proper is filled with awards that Disney has collected, and boy, are there a LOT. The room was filled with tons of obscure little statues and placards and trophies to inspect.

This award shows Mickey riding a turtle?!

An award from Peru - hence the llama

A ton of Oscars, plus me and Kyle in the reflection

The rest of the museum involved a LOT of reading. It starts out detailing Walt's birth and his family history, then detailed his war experiences. There was a lot of information on his early short films and how he got his start in the animation world.

An early accounting of Walt's "Laugh-o-grams" and Kyle taking some photos

Eventually there were areas where you could sit and enjoy clips and snippets from Classic Merry Melodies, war propaganda shorts, and just pieces of every-day recognizable Disney classics. The films were my favorite part.

Wall of TVs at the end of the museum

Interspersed throughout the museum were neat things like a complete case of Technicolor paints and some really creepy old toys.

The creepy toy in the middle was a wind-up contraption.

Wall of Technicolors

There was also an entire section devoted to how WWII affected Disney studios. The soldiers came right on in to the studios in Burbank and basically lived there with Walt's permission. He also helped contribute by animating anti-Nazi propaganda films like "Der Fuehrer's Face," which is quite a hilarious song by the way.

The finals rooms of the museum contained a full-scale miniature of Disneyland as well as some really depressing and sad press clippings and drawings about Walt's death.

After the museum we headed to Pier 39 to do touristy things like check out the sea lions, eat some Bubba Gump's, and scope out Alcatraz across the water.

A zoomed view of Alcatraz. It was quite foggy out there.

This sea lion was the fattest I could find and that amused me.

A view of Alcatraz from a bit further away

It was a really long wait for dinner at Bubba Gumps, so in the meantime we walked around and checked out the cheesy tourist stores. I found the creepiest mannequin in a sports store. I can only guess why its mouth was that big. Ugh…so creepy.

It was a super fun day and I'm very happy we got to go. The museum is a must-see for any Disney fan.

Thanks for reading!

Les Claypool's Duo De Twang at Ace of Spades

If you're at all a fan of music, talented musicians, and technical guitar and bass work, you need to listen to any of Les Claypool's many projects…if you haven't already (hopefully you have). The man is seriously a creative genius - he can wail away on the bass in just about any style, he has written a book, he's done scores for movies, and toured the country with about five different groups fronted by none other than himself. I will always gladly give him money to see him perform live. Always.

So when I heard he would be in Sacramento at none other than my very favorite local venue, Ace of Spades, there was no way I wouldn't be going to the show.

Les Claypool and Bryan Kehoe twanging away in front of a fireplace. Low lighting made the image pretty blurry - sorry about that!

The Duo De Twang is a bluegrass country-style act, and Les Claypool himself has quite a prominent sense of humor, so it made sense that The Reformed Whores would be the opening act. I've gotta say - usually I'm sitting through opening acts just waiting for them to finish. The Reformed Whores, however, were able to hold their own and kept me quite entertained.

The group consists of two women dressed in old-style country dresses crooning away a la June Carter Cash. The only difference is that the Whore's music is quite raunchy. They happily sing away about very vulgar topics and the juxtaposition of the genre in which they sing and the topics that they sing about creates an amazingly humorous atmosphere.

The Reformed Whores 

Les and his pal Bryan played pretty much the entirety of the only existing (currently) Duo De Twang album entitled "Four Foot Shack." The stage was set up like they were playing at a campfire and the banter between the two was a welcome addition to the set. The show really did play out as two really good friends enjoying each other's company while messing around on their instruments of choice. It was a really laid-back performance without all the hoopla and aggressive energy that comes along with a Primus show.

The highlights for me were when Les played the South Park theme song and a cover of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. Check out the videos below to watch.

Kyle and I had a really amazing time at this show and both of us hope to see Mr. Claypool again soon, whether he's playing in Primus, performing as Les Claypool, or with one of his many other projects.

For more videos from the show, check out my Youtube page.

Thanks for reading!

Outfit of the Day - Bats, Bones, and Iron Fist

Bat flight cropped tank, strappy vinyl garter belt, chiffon top from Forever 21, zombie heart bag from Iron Fist, boots by New Rock

Friday night Les Claypool's Duo De Twang played at Ace of Spades. I can never have enough Claypool in my life and being a huge fan of Les' bass work (and the bass guitar in general!), naturally Kyle and I had to go. But more on that in a separate post. Stay tuned!

Any and all concerts are excuses for me to get dressed up, so even though the show was a twangy bluegrass country show, I still went all out.

I have a really sweet vinyl strappy garter belt that I hadn't worn out of the house yet, and of course in order to be able to show it off, I had to sport a crop top. I've got a lot to choose from, but the bats tank hadn't seen the light of day in about six months, so I went with it. I'm only 5 foot two inches tall, so I layered a high-low hem blouse over the top to make sure I didn't make myself look too truncated. That's often a problem with short frames and crop tops.

Stag skull ring from eBay, razorblade and curb chain bracelet also from eBay, and zombie heart purse from Iron Fist

To match my horror-themed bat tank, I chose a small Iron Fist zombie purse. It's rather small, but since I only needed to fit my camera inside, it worked perfect for an evening on the town. It comes with a chain strap that you can tuck inside or detach altogether if you'd rather wear it as a clutch. But for convenience's sake, I chose to wear it over the shoulder.

The razor blade bracelet is actually a necklace, but I didn't feel like wearing it the way it was supposed to be worn, so voila - it became a rather unwieldy bracelet. It takes up my entire wrist top.

I had the stag skull ring from a Halloween costume from some years ago and decided it was time to break it out again. It's something I can really only wear sparingly because if I'm doing anything with any sort of activity involved, the antlers tend to get caught on things!

Hope you enjoyed reading. Check back for more on the Due De Twang show!

Outfit of the Day - Feather Print, Off the Shoulder, and Thrifted!

Top - Thrifted/Second Hand; Tights/Bottoms - D.I.Y.; Headband - Forever 21; Boots - New Rock

For anyone who doesn't know, when I'm not busy listing my own items online to sell, I work at an adorable little consignment shop in Midtown Sacramento called French Cuff Consignment.  It's owned by a mother-daughter team and I love being part of that family atmosphere. I'm thankful that both my bosses encourage my creativity when it comes to wearing what I want and also give me quite a bit of independence. So although I only work two days a week taking care of their website and eBay listings, I pretty much love going to work because it's an occasion for me to get dressed up.

This was my outfit for today - something light and simple enough that I wouldn't end up overheating, but still cute enough that I feel it justifies documenting.

The focal point of my outfit today was a cute Xhilaration blouse (for those of you that don't know, Xhilaration is a Target brand - damn do they have some cute stuff sometimes!) with a feather print. As if buying it from Target wasn't cheap enough, I didn't even have to pay full price because I got it at the Thrift store for an astounding two dollars! I love the oversized fit because I can wear it off the shoulder and show off my razor blade and praying mantis tattoos (which I got complimented on twice today).

I was pretty rushed this morning, so I went with my usual tank dress, ripped pantyhose, and lace garter belt layered underneath my blouse coupled with my trusty New Rock Reactor boots in patent leather. I have seriously worn those boots practically every day for the last seven years of my life, so don't be surprised when you see a lot more of them.

Left Hand - spiked heart ring from Etsy and stainless steel curb chain wrap bracelet; Right Hand - Razorblade cuff from Love Culture, stainless steel razor blade ring from eBay, sterling silver curb chain ring, "Ugli" printed sterling silver band from Etsy

No outfit is complete in my world without a lot of accessories - mainly jewelry. I've got two rings that I wear every day (Tiffany wedding ring and sterling silver curb chain ring), but with six more fingers to decorate (I don't count thumbs because thumb rings just get in my way), my ring collection is really quite extensive.

My statement ring for the day was the heart spiked number from Etsy. Although I don't remember who I bought it from, I love to wear it because it's so heavy. It makes me feel like a total badass and I love it.

I've also got a thing for razor blades, which is why I have both a ring and a matching bracelet. I stumbled across the bracelet at Love Culture of all places, and it was on sale for only $2, so naturally I bought two of them.

If fashion and accessories are not your thing, I also included my kitten Lazlo…you can be sure this blog will feature my cats as often as possible and in as many random places as possible.

Thanks for reading!

Jackimac Leather Harness Vests

Left: Pledge leather vest with gunmetal O-rings; Top: Fractal harness with gunmetal O-rings

Jakimac is a boutique Los Angeles-based label I have been lusting after for some time now. The only thing that stopped me from owning any Jakimac pieces was that the price-point would be considered quite a splurge for me. However, last weekend the company decided to run a Memorial Day special and items that were normally over $100 dropped to half that price. I wound up with TWO vests for the cost of what I normally would have spent on ONE. Score!

The vests are made of genuine leather and you can choose what color O-ring accents and hardware you want. I went with gunmetal since it will match better with the jewelry I already wear.

I noticed that the way I intended to wear the vests (as depicted in above collage) doesn't really do them justice. They blend in too much so I think when I actually wear them out and about, I will layer less and really make them the focal piece of my outfit.

You can get Jakimac pieces from their website, but if you are one of those types who have to try things on before committing to buy, head to your local Urban Outfitters. UO carries Jakimac in select stores as well as on their website and the pieces are priced pretty much the same at both places.

Thanks for reading!

Blackheart Lingerie Order

Pictured clockwise from left: Chiffon ram skull tunic tank, Alchemy Gothic ram skull ring, sharkbite hem chiffon tank top, BLACK MAGIC fringe tank, my own shredded tights and New Rock boots, Iron Fist Count Catula shredded tank, and bat skeleton crop camisole.

I have a hell of a time resisting shopping when the word "SALE" is involved, so over Memorial Day weekend when my inbox was flooded with specials at all my favorite stores, it was really tough to pick only a few stores to buy from!

I ended up going with some stuff from BlackHeart Lingerie because it was cute and also because the stuff was seriously so affordable. I got everything pictured in the collage above (and some more basic pieces as well!) for around $75.

Crop tops are still as popular as ever and I do own my fair share, although I've been wearing them far less frequently than I used to. Both the bat cami and the chiffon shark bite hem tank are cropped and I would choose to wear them differently than most of the girls who are currently sporting them. I don't like to show too much bare skin for every day occasions, so instead of wearing high-waisted denim or skirts with a bare midriff, I wear a long tank top dress and layer the crop top over it. I got an XL in the bat cami, simply because I like my crop tops loose-fitting.

I'm much more into high-low hems and long tunic-cut tops in general at the moment, hence the ram and BLACK MAGIC tanks. The Iron Fist cat bat tee was a bit out of character for me. It's cotton, which I tend to steer clear of, just because it fades so quickly in the wash, plus it would normally be a bit too D.I.Y. for me to pay out of pocket for. In general, if I want the slashed/shredded tee look, I just grab my sharp sewing scissors and hack away at a band t-shirt, but I really did like the cat/bat vampire graphic.

Although nearly all of the tops pictured above look great with fitted bottoms (i.e. leggings, skinny jeans, bodycon skirts), I like to keep things simple with some sheer black pantyhose and shredded stockings and garter belt over top. It really does work with everything and hose are thin enough that I don't overheat in my New Rocks during the Sacramento 100+ degree summer.

Overall, BlackHeart has some really cute stuff and I will continue to check back for new items frequently, but a word of advice if you're considering buying anything from them - their sizes run a bit small. I usually get smalls and mediums in Junior's size brands (i.e. Forever 21, Hot Topic, etc.) and so I got mediums to be on the safe side (I prefer something be a bit too baggy than a bit too tight). While everything fit me just fine, I would have ordered a size up had I known things ran a bit small.

Thanks for reading!