It's a Retro-Robot Christmas!

Sometime in the summer, Maureen got stuck on a retro-robot fix. She found some cute robot merch, and she just kept going on and on about robots-this and robots-that. Well, we decided to use some of that energy to plan and execute a robot family Christmas display.

Luckily, we've got a great resource in Maureen's in-laws. Her father-in-law, Charley, is an automotive and welding genius, and he gave us free reign over his backyard "junk pile." We sketched out some ideas, and picked out some parts, and we were off to the races!

ROB-E2010: His head is a muffler (Charley), springs (REStore), weatherstripping (Lowe's), and old knobs from a stove (REStore). His teeth are connectors (Lowe's). His body is an old propane tank (Charley); his hands are forks and spoons (Rummage Sale). His legs are Heineken mini-kegs (convenience store), and his feet are extra casters Mo had lying around. Total cost: $17.00!

Mamabot: Her head is a colander (rummage sale) and an old Buick hubcap (Charley), with LED lights and a mouth from a Mrs. Potatohead. Her body is a muffler (Charley), with two headlights (REStore) and a computer fan for a belly button. Her arms are old desk lamps we got from a rummage sale. Her "skirt" is an old bell housing (Charley). She's set on an old air filter (Charley), and her tracks are made from 4x4s and rubber mats (Maureen). Total cost: $2.50!

Data (get it? Dada): His head is an old air filter (Charley), with the face of an old car heater/radio (Charley). His hat is an oil cap. His body is an old keg (Brown Distributing), and his legs are truck mufflers (Charley). His hands are clamps I found at Big Lots, and his feet are bread pans (Dollar Store). Total price: $29.00!

With the additional cost of the rope-light tree, some ornaments, the fireplace, and some robot toys for Rob-E to open, the total cost of this display was about $175! (We found the TV for free in someone's garbage on the side of the road. We asked permission and hauled it away, much to their amusement!) Also, BIG THANKS TO STEVE THE UPS GUY for helping us locate Data's keg!

Winter Wonderland

We took a little break in November, and put up a simple display of merchandise, so we could focus on preparing our Christmas/Holiday windows. We decided on two different approaches to the holiday windows. One would be fun and whimsical, the other would be luxurious and glamorous. We decided to call the glamorous window "frenzy's Winter Wonderland."

We were shopping for something totally different, and we came across the brown burnout velvet that makes up the backdrop. We originally had planned to use dark blue velvet, but at $3/yard on clearance, we realized we could make a gorgeous backdrop from the brown velvet. What a bargain! Maureen, of course, sewed the backdrop, and it hangs beautifully!

Maureen had found the dress for the mannequin in October and picked up the mask on Halloween clearance, and we set to imagining a scene around an "ice princess" theme. We bought the Marie Antoinette wig and the small pieces to make her hair distractor. We also began to accumulate snowflake ornaments and large glass crystals from wherever we could find them.

On a trip to the Habitat for Humanity REStore in Mount Vernon, we came across the bumpy glass chandeliers and the frames for the topiaries. We bought them and painted them, which was all that was needed for the chandeliers to look like crystalline ice drops. Kris created the crystal topiary out of firepolished glass beads purchased in bulk from an online seller and chandelier crystal drops found at Farley and Moore, a local antique store. Much thanks to Robin and Maureen for stringing many, many beads on wire so Kris could work on constructing the final topiary!

Maureen wrapped presents like it's her JOB! Aren't they gorgeous? We used presents, deer statues, pedestals, trees, and blocks to display merchandise. All told, this window display cost us close to $700, but we had fun making it, and we're loving having this art installation in our window through December!

Los Dias de los Muertos/PINK!

I can't believe I just jumped right over our early October window displays and jumped right to Halloween! We had a lot of fun making our Dias de los Muertos (Days of the Dead) window displays. We know they were early (they ran in early October instead of November), but we couldn't wait to get them up. And we HAD to start off the month of October with a Breast-Cancer Awareness window, that we called "PINK!"

There is a LOT of handmade stuff in the Days of the Dead display. Maureen made the blue backdrop, the papel picado, and all of those paper flowers. Maureen also added the ruffles to a basic navy blue skirt, made sleeve extenders to match the skirt, and made the ruffled placard, bow tie, and cummerbund out of fantastic Dia de los Muertos fabric. Kris painted anatomically-correct hand and arm bones on the lady's black elbow-length gloves and made the skull masks from paper mache. The patterns on the masks was done with paint and rubber stamps/ink. From there, it was a matter of acquiring frames and photos, a couple of candelabras, wax fruit, and hats.

The PINK! display was a collection of pink merchandise off the racks. We included a sign in the front window to remind people that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Simple, but effective!

Teanne Harris: Frenzy's Kickass Chick of the Week

When I read this story, I couldn't believe the selflessness and strength shown by this woman. Her fiance decides at the last minute that he doesn't want to marry her, and she donates all of the reception decor and favors, etc., to a local Senior Citizens home so that they can have a Halloween party! Then, she picks up her plane ticket and goes to Hawaii for a solo honeymoon. I love her and I don't even know her! You go, girl!

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/weddings/2009/11/02/2009-11-02_bride_jilted_at_the_alter.html

Modern Witch/Ninja Mannequin Massacre: Halloween 2009

CARNAGE!

The frenzygals decided to "act out" a little bit to celebrate our first Halloween in business. We had a lot of fun creating this display. It is deceptively simple—we spent weeks planning and acquiring the necessary props for this display.
Surprisingly little of it was actually made by us, though. In fact, the total amount of hand-made object for these windows was limited to:
Maureen knitted those wicked-awesome, thigh-high legwarmers!
Kris made the spellbook from an old dictionary and some random ephemera/stamps/ink.
We put eyeballs in the monkey pod stalks at the front of the display.
We shredded the pink dress and the Undertaker Tshirt, and we used red tulle to make the "blood sprays".
Maureen sewed the muslin backdrop, and Kris used "spray blood" to finish the massacre window.
The ninja costume is a black turtleneck, black pants, black socks, black gloves, a standard black eye mask, and a black pillowcase. EASY!

Details matter at frenzy: the Witch is controlling the Ninja by using the Ninja Mind Control spell on the open page in the spellbook. We looked up ingredients from Zombie powder used by Haitian witch doctors to add some authenticity. Our wicked lady also has acquired the Brain, Heart, and Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz display. Her books include an astronomy text, for use with her telescope, and field guides to demons and other spirits. Of course, being a Modern Witch, we eschewed a traditional cauldron in favor of a crockpot.

One last shoutout: the great spiderweb in the side window was made for us by Judy McCardel of Underfoot Weavers in Danville, Ohio!

Frenzy Does Hardcore-Pretty

Ordinarily, when Frenzy customers come looking for formal dresses, we ask questions about the event to help the ladies select an appropriate frock. Last weekend, we were inundated with lovely young ladies who were looking for dresses. When we asked what type of event they were attending, we got an unexpected answer: A Rugby Match. And not only were these ladies attending a rugby match in formal wear, they were PLAYING in the match in formal wear. Apparently, every year the Kenyon College Women's Rugby club plays a "formal" match.

Needless to say, we totally approved of the idea and scrounged around to find dresses that had been damaged during the course of the year that we could supply to them at a lower cost. We managed to find about 10 dresses that suited their needs.

Of course, we HAD to go see how our lovely dresses held up to the rigors of rugby. Those women ROCKED! Serious punishment was meted out, all in lacey, sparkly packages! Ladies of the Kenyon Women's Rugby Team, you're our KICK-ASS Chicks of the Week!

Precious Metals/Glam Rock

One of the hottest fashion trends forecast for the fall and winter is Rock Chic. In other words, the rest of the world has finally caught on that rockers have a super sweet aesthetic of their own, and the fashionistas of the world want to capitalize by faking a hard, studs-and-spikes, devil-may-care, punk edge that is legitimately owned by those who really understand and enjoy the bands and fans who live the rock-and-roll, heavy metal lyrics that inspired this "trend." (OK, enough editorializing. I suppose it is nice that all of the true "metalheads" are finally getting to call everyone else "posers.")

Anyway, we decided to create a "Precious Metals" window display (to exploit the trend, I admit!) that focused on both metallic accents (also a hot trend) and a rock-and-roll theme. We paired silver stilettos with metal-band Tees, and wrapped it all up with some music-themed decor to create this fun display.

Most of the clothing items in this display were straight off the rack. You'll notice the reemergence of Maureen's silver "Tin Woodswoman" skirt. Also, Kris made the bright orange/pink necklace worn by the 80s chick in the left window. But the crowning achievement of this display is Maureen's handmade knit punk mohawk hat.

The Art of Adornment

For September's First Friday event in downtown Mount Vernon, we wanted to support the opening of a new art gallery on South Main Street and the many other art events that were occurring. So, we developed the idea of creating an "Art of Adornment" window display in which we created an "art gallery" in which the art that was displayed was an array of fashion accessories.

We used approximately 50 yards of black cotton fabric, plus a couple of black sheets, to create the backdrop. We have curtain rods hung on the back wall, so Maureen turned the fabric into curtains and draping fabric for the floor. Then, we collected a variety of old and new frames, pedestals, and blocks. We hung the frames from the ceiling using cup hooks and 20-lb test fishing line.

Choosing the items to highlight took the most time. We selected items that we knew would stand out, with bright colors or unique shapes. About a yard of black velvet was used to finish the framed accessories. Maureen used a dowel to put those ties in the frame--awesome! We also had a couple of female busts that were designed for displaying jewelry, and Maureen found the armature that she had for making latex masks, and we used it in the guys' gallery. All in all, we think it is a striking display, especially after dark.

Back-2-School at Frenzy

At the beginning of August, we put up our first Back-to-School display. We found props all over the place: We bought used lockers from the Cleveland Institute of Music, when they were selling theirs to make room for new lockers. We borrowed the antique desk from Maureen's parents-in-law, and the whiteboard was part of Kris's household furniture. We had the football and megaphone from a photoshoot we had done for our Football Guide advertisement, and our sister-in-law, who runs a school of performing arts for baton, cheer, and pom, lent us the pom-poms.

The girl in black in the left-hand window is writing repeats on the whiteboard, "I will NOT pay too much." The textbooks are a collection of Kris's texts from college and texts Kris worked on when she worked for a publishing company.

Wizard of Oz: Did We Win?

We decided that all of our handiwork would be most visible against a vivid, but simple backdrop, so we chose a solid emerald green (Emerald City green, actually). The theme of the window display contest was "There's no place like home," so we painted the slogan, plus our own little spin on it (Home is where you can truly be yourself.) on the portion of the backdrop that faced the street. The yellow brick road was added by using yellow anti-slip stuff that usually sees only the inside of drawers.

After several people stopped in to mention that they didn't "get" our window, we added little keychains with photos of the original characters so that visually, people could match the original characters with our interpretations of them. This little touch didn't seem to help all that much...

Ultimately, we did NOT win the contest. We were given a prize for "Most Creative Use of Merchandise to Tell the Wizard of Oz Story," because the young people in the cast (the cast voted on a winner) apparently all voted for our window. We're still calling it a victory because it made people stop and look, which is exactly what a window display should do!

Wizard of Oz: Cowardly Lion

The final character in our Gothic Wizard of Oz display was the Cowardly Lion. Of course, this posed a bit of a problem in terms of the black-and-white theme, because it would be very monotone, like the Tin Woodswoman was. So, we opted to borrow a page from another glorious, fearsome feline: the Snow Leopard. The black leggings, tank, spiked collar, and boots were from store stock, and Maureen created snow-leopard-print boot toppers. Maureen also sewed the snow-leopard bolero jacket and designed and created the paws. Kris painted the mask and finished it by using hot-fix red crystals. Maureen cut and grommeted the red sparkly vinyl belt and sewed together snow-leopard ears and tulle to create a mane. The mane was hot-glued to a hair band, and Kris cut the tulle in chunks to make it stand up like a mane. And what girl, no matter what kind of minx, hasn't needed a little Liquid Courage from time to time? Ultimately, this was our favorite costume, and we were thrilled by how closely she matched the original design.

Wizard of Oz: Tin Woodswoman

Because we were out of male mannequins, we had to turn the Tin Woodsman into a female character. This character strayed most dramatically from our first drawing. Originally, we had wanted a techno-clubber in liquid silver pants and a silver mesh top with a tinsel wig. When we couldn't acquire any of the supplies we needed, we had to get creative. The drawings on the right of the sample show how we re-imagined the character. Maureen designed and sewed the newly designed outfit from silver lame, and Kris invented the curly wig and mask combo using a blank mask, several of those curly ribbons for presents, and a small funnel that we spray painted black. We decided to accent our Tin Woodswoman by using a charm bracelet with silver, black, white, and red charms in the shape of hearts; a heart made of bindi stickers around her belly button; and a fake heart in a jar.

Wizard of Oz: Scarecrow

Our second character was the Scarecrow. He was the only character who remained male, mainly because we only had one male mannequin. In keeping with our Gothic theme, the Scarecrow became more like "The Crow" (Brandon Lee movie, 1994). Kris painted a blank mask to look like Eric Draven from the movie and designed and constructed the chain necklace that has a variety of bird-themed charms on it. Maureen took a fabulous pair of pants that our mom brought us as a joke, and cut the pant legs, grommeted, and laced them back together. The crow applique was cut out of red felt and added by using heat bond. Maureen repeated the grommeting and lacing process for the sleeves of the shirt, and Kris added the wings with paint and the white cross applique. The tie and hat came off the racks, and the boots were borrowed from Kris's boyfriend, Erik. A fake brain in a jar completed the "Scarecrow's" outfit.

Wizard of Oz: Dorothy

We began with sketches to design the characters. We decided to turn Dorothy into a Gothic Lolita. We originally hoped that a black and white gingham dress we ordered would arrive in time for the display. As we neared the deadline, we decided that Maureen had better begin working on one just in case. So, she created a circle skirt from black and white gingham, and we used a white shirt we had in stock, and we preempted the red belt we had originally slated for the "lion". Kris made a gorgeous gothic necklace from red nylon chain and black aluminum chain. A great wig find and some fab black and red gauntlets solidified Dorothy's kick-ass status. THEN, Kris came across the red Dorothy shoes in a Spencer's gifts store in Mansfield, and the outfit was finalized. A robo dog as Toto completed the look.