spooky summer & q2 check-in

Please consider this your quarterly update from Penny Snark Industries. There’s been so much going on this spring/summer and so much still on the way! You’ll even see a few small updates to this blog if you check out the homepage – and this site can now ALSO be found at PennySnark.com. (Which will hopefully save me from spelling/explaining Sconnie every time I try to share it… 😅)

There’s a lot, so let’s jump into it!

Moving

I spent the month of May moving out of the one bedroom apartment I lived in for 6 years and into an updated historic duplex where I have so much more space. I’m ALMOST entirely unpacked, and I’m so looking forward to properly decorating. I’ve achieved my dream of having a closet room/dressing room which is coming along very nicely, AND I’ll be setting up a sewing studio in the finished attic that I hope will help me devote more time to my sewing projects. So far I’m really loving the new space and am very charmed by my new neighborhood (I’m only about 15 minutes away from where I was living before, so I’m still close to friends/family/favorite restaurants haha.) Stay tuned for a look inside once all the boxes are cleared away and there are things on the walls! (If you’d like to see what we’re starting with, I have an empty apartment tour available now to supporters on Patreon.)

Podcast

The Ghouls Night In podcast is still going strong! Midge & I recently celebrated two big milestones: our 40th episode and 15,000 downloads! It’s been so much fun chatting with her every week about horror icons, beloved movies & tv shows, and just plain weird stuff. This has been the creative project that I’ve been most passionate & energized by this year…as you can tell, I haven’t been around the blog as much, but you can find me every week on the pod! I’m a big nerd, so I love picking out a topic like taxidermy or arsenic and finding delightfully bizarre facts and stories to share, and it’s been really cool to experiment in a new medium. Any of my real life friends will confirm that I love to talk…

Wedding

My best friend got MARRIED! It was an absolutely lovely weekend – I was so happy to be maid of honor and stand up for this amazing lady and her new husband. I only cried a little during my speech, which I’m counting as a win since I almost started crying while we were all getting our hair done. This whole process was a reminder of how important friendships are & how lucky I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. (Am I going to cry right now?? MAYBE.)

Up Next: Midsummer Scream

Were you wondering what was making my summer spooky? I am so excited to be heading to Midsummer Scream at the end of July! (During my birthday!) This is my first big Halloween event, and I’ll be attending with my fabulous friend & podcast co-ghost Midge Munster and my partner in hodag hunting, Spooky Little Halloween. I’m so excited to meet other spooky friends like Sips & Spirits, All Hallows Geek, and Your Best Halloween Ever in person, see some incredible guests, do some shopping, and hit the dance floor. I’ll be extending my trip on either side to visit LA and Disneyland while I’m there – I’m nervous about my first time traveling in the pandemic times, but it also feels kind of poetic for my first big trip to be back to LA for weird stuff, since my last adventure in 2019 was going to LA for the MCR reunion show. If you have recommendations for vintage or spooky stuff to do in LA/Long Beach, let me know! And definitely let me know if you’ll be at Midsummer Scream so I can look out for you!

I have a few plans and sewing projects in mind for Midsummer Scream, so fingers crossed that I can get the sewing room together soon (I had a damaged piece in my new sewing desk so I’m waiting on a replacement right now). I’m so ready for some Halloween in July! 🎃

31 days of halloween 2021

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been an ENTIRE WEEK since Halloween! This year, I took another stab at doing 31 days of Halloween outfits and/or costumes, one for each day of the most magical month of the year. Although I didn’t hit all 31 days this year, having that creative challenge in my head definitely helped inspire me to play more dress-up. Let’s take a look!

shop small & spooky this halloween

As the spooky season starts, Halloween lovers around the country start emerging from their coffins to prowl the aisles of stores like HomeGoods, Michael’s, and Target to hunt for the newest Halloween goodies. I’m a big fan of Halloween hunting, but I’m also passionate about shopping small and supporting independent makers year round. I get a lot of questions about my personal favorite shops, so I wanted to share some of the small businesses that I have (or will be) shopping with for all my spooky needs!

31 days of halloween: spooky style 2019

Hello ghoulies and gremlins! It’s hard to believe it’s already time to review another month’s worth of spooky style. October has blown by this year, and I’ve had so much fun coming up with Halloween-themed outfits all month long. This year I ended up with 26 outfits, which I consider a great success! Come see how I turned my vintage wardrobe into a full month of spooky style.

my spooky pink halloween tree

I feel like Halloween trees are having a bigger year than ever before! I posted about my love for Halloween trees back in 2016, and while there were certainly plenty of Halloween queens styling trees for spooky season back then, I’m seeing them everywhere this year. In fact, for the first time I set up my very own Halloween tree this year. And guess what? …it’s PINK!

Although I’m an established fan of pink Halloween decor and colorful Halloween decorations in general, the decision to have a pink Halloween tree was primarily a practical one. I already own a 7-foot silver tinsel tree and a 4-foot baby pink tree (both from Treetopia – check out my review here), and there is legitimately no room for any more artificial trees in my one-bedroom apartment. The silver tree fully dominates my living room once Christmas season rolls around, so the pink tree was the reasonable option.

I purchased three boxes of reproduction Halloween Shiny Brite ornaments before having a firm tree plan in place, and I was a little worried that the black and orange color scheme of the ornaments would clash with my pink tree. But once I saw Ann Shen’s beautiful pink Halloween tree, I felt ready to go for it.

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A post shared by Ann Shen (@anndanger)

Apart from the ornaments I’d already purchased, my goal was to decorate my Halloween tree without buying any additional decorations. I certainly have plenty of spooky bits and bobs in my Halloween bin, so I got a little creative…

Just a girl and her Halloween tree! Even though I keep adding more and more bats to my walls, I still had a handful of extra from the original battening in the Halloween bin. I thought adding some of the bats to the tree would be a really fun way to tie it in with the wall, almost like the swarm of bats started right here. I topped everything off with a sparkly raven who’s traveled around my apartment from year to year perching on top of various things…I’m pretty sure he was originally from Michaels.

I actually had complained in my review about not really liking the pink lights on this tree – I still don’t prefer them for my soft, pastel Christmas vibes, but I actually like it a lot more for Halloween. As you can see, I put some pumpkins around the base (just like Ann did), and made a makeshift tree skirt out of a black shawl. I’d like to potentially DIY my own spooky tree skirt for next year! That seems like a fun sewing project. (In the background, peep the Shiny Brite glass garland I also snatched up.)

Really though, these Shiny Brites are the star of the show. They really bring the tree to life and give it such delightful Halloween vibes. The spiderweb ones are my favorite, but others are decorated with glitter stripes, cats, bats, and more. As a bonus, the boxes are so cute that saving them to repack the ornaments in wasn’t even a struggle – I have them displayed on a bookshelf!

As someone who will just gaze at her Christmas tree for extended periods of time, I’m thrilled with my Halloween tree. Since we’re just at the start of the part of the year where things get real dark real fast, it’s especially nice to brighten up the evenings with the warm glow of the lights. It was so easy to put it all together, and I think it brings a lot of character and a lot of fun to my Halloween decor. If you already have a tree, you should definitely give Halloween-ifying it a try…if I had more storage space, I would definitely add a black tree to my collection specifically for spooky purposes. Some day…

undead undies: where to buy halloween underwear & lingerie

I’m having such a blast doing Halloween-themed looks every day in October for 31 Days of Halloween (You can follow along with each look on my Instagram!) But when you’re truly dedicated to the spooky life, what do you wear underneath it all? Luckily, from glamorous gothic lingerie to comfy everyday underoos, the internet has made it possible for all of us to be truly all Halloween, all the time. Here are some Halloween-themed undies so you can be spooky all the way down to your skivvies.

As you could probably guess, this post & the sites contained within may be NSFW! Proceed with caution!

9 halloween cross stitch patterns for creepy crafters

Autumn weather always makes me want to get out my little tackle box filled with embroidery floss and start a new cross stitching project! One of my favorite ways to celebrate a holiday is by doing a themed cross stitch, so it’s no surprise I’ve done several Halloween-themed patterns. Cross stitching is a really easy craft to get started with that I highly recommend anyone try – the start-up costs are low, and all you really need is a good pattern and some patience. I got started cross stitching just buying a pattern from Etsy and jumping in, so today I’m sharing some spooky patterns that will hopefully inspire you to make something this Halloween season!

halloween style shopping guide

Fall is officially here, and we’re only a week away from October AKA Halloween Month! Lots of spooky babes have been getting ready this month, but there’s still plenty of time to do some shopping for Halloween-inspired clothes, shoes, and accessories this year. This is a cheat-sheet on some of my favorite places to shop for Halloween fashions that keep me feeling ghoulish through October (and, let’s be real, all year long!)

spooky style: halloweek 2018

Happy Halloween, my ghoulies! I can’t believe that All Hallows Eve has rolled around yet again – since I was out of the country the first half of the month, it feels like it went by in just a few flaps of a bat’s wings. Last year I did a full 31 days of Halloween-inspired outfits, and this year I needed to fit all of that spooky style into just over a week. That said, I feel like the limited amount of time really helped inspire me to do my best with each and every outfit.

haunted honey: vixen by micheline pitt review

I’ve been following Vixen by Micheline Pitt (and her gothtastic La Femme En Noir line) for ages, but it was just this year that I finally took the leap and made my first purchase. The day that the pre-orders for the new Micheline Pitt x Ben Cooper Halloween collab launched, I knew that there was no way that I could make it through this Halloween season or any future Halloweens without this skirt in my possession.