New Zealand

While I spend my days frantically sewing hoodies and getting ready for the holiday retail rush, my family is driving around New Zealand in a van and doing whatever it is that is fun to do in New Zealand.

I'm so jealous! I have the travel bug and I want to go EVERYWHERE. Even places that I know nothing about.

My little sister has been working at an internship in New Zealand since August. My parents decided to fly out there and visit her for two weeks. They rented a little camper van and are camping and hiking all around the country.

Let me brag about my little sister for just a second. Jackie is one of those annoying fucks who seems to get perfect grades in school without even trying. Or at least that was the impression I got while I was wasting my high school years away, two years ahead of her. She graduated at the top of her class (yep, valedictorian) with a GPA higher than I thought was even possible. (4.8 or 4.9 or something ridiculous.) She chose to study engineering in college and got a FULL TUITION SCHOLARSHIP to Olin School of Engineering, just outside of Boston.

Then she decided to skip out on a semester to live in New Zealand, because that's where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed.

I am completely serious.

She moved to New Zealand because of a MOVIE. Ok, three movies. Three awesome movies that I learned to love even though she would say all the lines when we used to watch them together.

I've enjoyed reading her blog over the past few weeks, especially since now it has some dorky pictures of her and my dad instead of just pictures of sheep. Here's the link to the most recent page: http://itgetsevenbetter.tumblr.com/post/13073695679/im-giving-up-trying-to-actually-post-things-on

How the hell does Tumblr work? Now I can't figure out how to scroll to the next blog she posted. Anyways, she writes better than I do. I guess maybe I should have taken those high school essays seriously? Whatever, she's been making me look bad ever since I became a punk rocker and started fucking up my life eight years ago.

I became even more jealous of the trip after reading about when Jackie went bungy-jumping. To quote her blog, "I woke up this morning and decided to jump off a bridge." The rest of her description is pretty funny too.

And so is this picture.



In conclusion, my little sister is fucking awesome and I hope she's insanely successful in whatever the hell she decides to do once she leaves The Shire/Rohan/Mordor/Boston/whatever and graduates college and enters the real world.

Basement Photo Shoot

I didn't feel like coming up with a new creative photoshoot location this week, so Laura and I just took pictures in my basement and on the railroad tracks near my house.

My basement seems to have a different look every time I take pictures down there. This time there were blue lights set up on the side walls, which made things glow a little bit like they were under a black light. (Of course that made me think about how the basement would look if it were a real black light. GROSS!)



Laura modeled the new 5th Culture and Folter Clothing items. My favorite pictures are below. After that I'll tell a story about a little drama that happened last month that has to do with my basement.

Click on the pictures to go to the item pages and read more details about the new clothes for sale.


Zebra fringe top, S/M/L, $30, made by 5th Culture


Red and black lace-up tank top, S/M/L/XL, $32, Folter Clothing


Lightweight Leopard Blazer, S/M/L, $55, 5th Culture


Corset Back Cardigan, S/M/L, $35


Striped Nautical-Style Cardigan, S/M/L, $42, 5th Culture

Ok, now on to my silly basement story. Anybody who lives in Sacramento and goes to the shows we have in my basement has probably already heard this.

We have punk rock shows in my basement at least once a month. We don't like our address to be posted online because we aren't a real venue and we only book our friends' bands. A couple days before one of our shows, we discovered that the local alternative paper had published our exact address AND my roommate's girlfriend's phone number in the business directory on their website.

Random people were calling her up to ask if we sold alcohol in our "venue". She got confused and freaked out a bit. Our HOUSE was listed in the local directory as a bar!

We still don't know who posted it up there, but it was obviously just a silly mistake. Of course, our friends on Facebook started posting about this and talking shit about the News and Review. I got annoyed and told them to all shut up, because I like the Sacramento News and Review. The show that was supposed to happen that week was canceled and we got our address taken down off the website. We were all disappointed about the show having to be canceled, but we were afraid that too many people would show up. As you can see from the picture I posted earlier, our basement isn't very big. I wish we could fit more people in there so that we wouldn't have to be secretive about the shows, but it just isn't possible.

A couple days after all this drama I realized how hilarious it is that according to the internet, I LIVE IN A BAR.

If anybody finds this blog looking for the address of CASA DE CHAOS, for god's sake just send me an email and I'll let you know. ANNIE@DERANGEDDESIGNS.COM