First thing's first: The Little General is going on a buying trip in New York, soon. If you think of something that you HAVE TO HAVE for the holidays, swing by Sid&Nancy's facebook and tell us what you want us to look for, in the big city.

Does your boyfriend need shoes? We know they don't like to spend their hard-earned money on something they just put on their feet, so we have shoes, including Converse, Vans, cowboy boots and dress shoes - starting at around $15.

If you know you're going to be doing a lot of shopping, for the holidays, it might be a good idea to start with buying yourself a nice shopping bag. We have these great shoppers from Blue-Q that are guaranteed to get you through a rigorous day of shopping AND make a nice, recyclable statement.

Speaking of Blue-Q, we got a new shipment of smart-ass gum. These make great little "thinking about you" gifts and are only $1.50 each.

Check out these vintage watch bands. Debbie McDaniel salvaged these from certain lost-forever-ness and brought them to Sid&Nancy, in search of loving homes. Most of them are genuine leather and can be worn with your old watch faces or as interesting cuffs, all by themselves. An easy and funky gift for a fashionista friend - or for yourself for only $5 a pop.

Ian Dillinger made these great little keychains for those dark and lonely times when you really need to "knock on wood." Clever man - we love them!

Vivian Leese is at it again. You may remember her fancy goldfish earrings from last spring. She's brought us a few more goodies for this winter, including THIS long-chain charm necklace, priced graciously at only $20.

Ashley doesn't really like to model products for the blog and often gets Courtney to do it, instead; however, she fell in love with this plush and chunky broach by Viola Otis. It can be used as an accent on a shmancy holiday dress - OR to dress up an old v-neck tee.

It's FALL.... well... kinda...

Do you know Savannah Gwinn? She should be familiar, to you, because she's our go-to-girl for promo photo shoots - AND she's also the one we lean on for help in the store. Savannah has an expert eye for fashion and for all things vintage/yard-sale-chic.

Savannah has been hanging out with us - for moral and staff support - lately, and she's been bringing some pretty rad stuff to the store, like these framed - asian inspired - velvet art pieces she salvaged from certain destruction, some time ago.
Speaking of new products...
We went on a buying trip in NYC, this summer, and found a great new vendor from California, selling these great decorative bobby pins. We are big fans of the bobby pin. Wear one, as an accent, or wear a BUNCH to make a punchy, flowerd-y statement.
Also....
These necklaces are also the fruit of our buying trip labors in New York. They are boho-cute-ironic-chic... everything you could ask for from our tiny trinkets. And, did I mention AFFORDABLE?!? From left to right, you are seeing a dinosaur, mustache, harmonica, beatle, owl and jade flowers. Not pictured, we also have a skater-girl charm necklace (complete with a rape whistle), scissors, a Cherokee Indian chief, handcuffs, cupcakes and cameras.

You are gonna love me for posting this...
It's mid-September and the time is right to dig through your closets for those secret vinyl clothing collections you're never going to wear again. We're seeking those out-of-the-box pieces to supplement the bad-ass Halloween costumes that we know we'll see, crawling 5points and the Art Bar. There's only one time of year when you can dress like The Crow and no one will accuse you of being a delusional nerd.

Just a leetle reminder: we are carrying the newest issue of Undefined Magazine. The cover-art alone is reason enough to buy this copy ($3) but the articles are stellar. Get it while the gettin's good.

We love you we love you we love YOU! Thank you for reading and for shopping. We've had a great summer and are ready to rock and roll through an AMAZING FALL! Please click the SUBSCRIBE button so you always get the latest Sid&Nancy news (plus, the occasional embarrassing photos). Stay tuned.

Welcome, Freshman!

In case you 4,400 new students were not aware - Sid & Nancy is the right place to come with your shiny new (and tiny) college-student budgets. We buy and sell the hottest recycled clothing. It looks good, it feels good and your parent's will love your new-found money-making/saving skillz.

Here's what you need to know:

Sid & Nancy buys clothes, every day - *as long as our weekly allowance permits*. Mon-Sat 11am-6pm and Sundays from 1pm-5pm.

We take clothing based on LABEL, CONDITION, SEASON AND (most importantly) STYLE.

A good rule-of-thumb is to remember that weather rules. If you can't wear it at this time of the year, then we can't buy it from you.

Please be respectful and bring your clothing, cleaned and folded, in a reasonably sized container *25 items maximum please*.

One of our buyers will sort through your items and determine what we can sell them for, in our store. You will then receive an offer of 30% of the items' resale value, in cash; 40% resale value, in store credit.

Also, remember that we do not buy children's clothing, bathing suits, pajamas, socks, boxers or blankets. We just can't do it.

MEET OUR NEW STAFF MEMBERS:
Jamie Chason has spent the last six years documenting the metamorphosis of a rare, unpronounceable butterfuly indigenous only to a glacier in Antarctica; coincidentally, the same glacier on which Ashley was born. We are excited to have her on our team for her extreme survival skills and knowledge of potent coffee roasts.

Ryan Alexander is the youngest graduate from Stanford's very first BadAssery program. We like him for his cut-off jeans and knowledge of all-things-band-tee-shirts. He also is a world-renowned found-artist, most noted for his installation titled "Iceberg Slim."

Meet Adrianne Ruffin
"Inspiration: Music, Love, Adventure, Art, Storytelling! I want to make garments that are poppy & sexy & speak to the soul of the rasta, punk, goth, emo, derby, pin-up, starlette, princesses that make them want to go out and share what uniquely makes them kickass!"
- A. Ruffin
We've been talking to Ms. Ruffin about getting her stuff in our store, for a while, and we're excited to announce that her wears will be available at Sid&Nancy this Saturday August, 21st. All pieces are reinvented from older garments, largely graphic and band tees as well as vintage slips. We love her and we're confident you see why.

NEW MERCH!
Metal tampon cases.

Enamel pendant necklaces.

Vintage style graphic lockets.

All by Classic Hardware and available now! Get it while it's here, cuz this stuff will not stay in-stock.

Thank you, to everyone who voted us Best in Alternative Clothing. We love what we do and only hope to serve you better, for years to come!

God, we're cool.

Sid & Nancy is known, in Columbia, as a destination for awesome sunglasses and we felt obliged to show off our new wears.

Also, we got a couple new artists displaying their work in our store...

These pendants are the creations of Augusta Thompson, who experiments with epoxies and art. As you could probably see, she loves Frida Khalo about as much as we do. What makes these guys a little more appealing, to us, is that Augusta was sure to include mexican art on the BACKS, as well. The attention to detail makes these $22-25 necklaces finished and thoughtful gifts for the dark-and-artsy girl in your life - or a delightful treat for yourself.

These cutie patootie barrettes are made by Merri Mitchell. You may have seen her at Crafty Feast, earlier this month. She has collected all these neat feathers, bits of trim and sparkly things and upcycled them into fun, whimsical hair accessories. Each piece is priced from $12-$15 and have already become a hot item.

Um.... Do you know Kimberly Bookman? We LOVE her! We've been exchanging clothes with her since we opened the store, more than three years ago, and she's OBSESSED with our funky selection of sunglasses. She's not just a fashionista - she's actually a closet (and ridiculously talented) painter/sculptor/dreamer..... which is our kind of girl.

These are what Kimberly call her "Devine Ideas".... After months of drooling over them, Kimberly arrived - last week - with a nice big selection for us to carry in Sid&Nancy.

Each piece is made of built-up acrylic (and false eyelashes) on tiny stretched canvasses and come equipped with a metal bracket for easy hanging.

Remember Shayna Simoneaux's "Paintings of Birdies" jewelry and accessories? Well, we've been selling her jewelry for quite a while now - but have expanded our inventory to stationary, rings, earrings and key chains - in addition to the necklaces and bracelets that we already had in stock.

Shayna's Birdies have made an explosion on the local, independent jewelry scene. You can read more about her and her paintings at The State.

We look forward to voting for our favorite restaurants, bars, shops and people every year. We have also had the privilege of winning Columbia's Best Alternative Clothing, in the past. Please grab a snack and click on the "Vote Now" button. Go ahead. Express yourself. And, if you don't really have an opinion on a certain category - you are certainly not obligated to answer every question. This is easy and fun and we hope we win your vote.

Have you seen this couple?
These are the missing parents of Sid&Nancy and we want them to come home. NOW....
They said they were going on vacation and would be back in 6 weeks - but it's already been WAY TOO LONG! We HAVE been stalking them, online, and you can too. Meet Ralph and Debbie.

Emergency Use Only

Every first-of-the-month, the girls of Sid&Nancy mark down items that have been in the store for more than 6 weeks. Usually, this only takes a couple hours to complete - but this week has been so busy - it wound up taking two days to finish all the markdowns. That said, if you've been lusting after a dress, shirt, pair of heels - whatever - check back into the store. You could be pleasantly surprised.

The girls like to tape important things to the wall behind their desk. There's something very "family-refrigerator" about this section of the store. We collect the usual items of interest/importance, such as pictures of babies... business cards.... high-sale receipts.... condoms... and THIS clipping from The State, bragging about Shiggy's Columbi-Yeah T-shirts, which are available here, at Sid & Nancy for $15 in various colors and sizes.

I know we talked a little bit about Half&Half, last week, but they brought us a new batch of prints and just had to share them with you. Because they rock....

The screen printing company usually works on commissioned designs and print tasks. Recently, however, they started doing something new. Their series, "Tuesday Prints" are small art prints that the designers work on, every Tuesday, to sort-of CLEANSE their creative pallets. For these projects, they don't have to worry about what a client demands of the design. They use this time to experiment with new inks, paper and - most importantly - design ideas. This is what we got from them, this week:

Three small prints, side-by-side, each done by a different Half&Half artist.
These and many other Tuesday Prints are sold at Sid&Nancy for only $12 a pop. The large band posters are $20.

Jennifer Miner is probably our most popular jewelry provider, so far. Years ago, the Liberty waitress started making these bottle-cap earrings and gifting them to her friends. Since she started, she has been selling these bad boys like hot-cakes at festivals all over the East Coast. I see a few people pick them up and say, "I can make something like this," but I'm here to tell ya - you probably wont do it with the finesse and polish that Miss Miner does. Her knowledge of high-quality jewelry construction combined with LOTS experience makes these earrings totally worth their $15 price tag.

Our favorite pair, right now, are these Frida-inspired skull earrings. Very cool.

Speaking of jewelry, Sid&Nancy just picked up two new lines. Vivian Leese is a Columbia resident who specializes in high-end bead and wire work jewelry. Lately, she has been providing a more affordable line of her earrings and necklaces that can be found in our store. We love her light, whimsical style that matches simplicity with detail.

Ashley is particularly taken with this gold-plate set, showcasing a pair of light blue matching goldfish, which are jointed and flexible, much like the larger jointed goldfish that you would find in China Town. The wiring is delicate and flaunts Vivian's talent for manipulating wire - which is more difficult than it even appears. This pair is priced at only $22 and the picture
could never do it justice.

Whitney Malson, who is a long-time customer and friend of Revente and Sid&Nancy just introduced her own line of leather cuffs, appropriately titled "BeCUFFS I Said So."

Courtney already picked one up, for herself, and wears it everyday. The leather straps are cut, by hand, and then tied to fit, with leather cord.

Once the knot is tied tight, there is really no need to remove it as showering helps soften the leather. They are available for men AND women, in various sizes, widths and colors. All of them are rightly priced at $16.

Butterflies are Bastards....

Courtney doesn't like when they call her the "boss." This is what she looked like at 10:30 this morning. The shop is on a "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy, at the moment.


Sid & Nancy will be taking the day off on Monday, May 31, for Memorial Day. Go get some sunshine and eat some barbecue, like the rest of us proud red-meat Americans.

Also, come out to New Brookland Tavern to see our friends Mercy Mercy Me play with Balkans and Predator. Doors at 9:30pm and there's only a $5 cover. We will be there getting our faces and our sobriety rocked off.

Hey! Do you know about the Half&Half?

They are a local screen printing company that started with two USC grads, Sara Thomas and Nick Wilson. Recently, they have had the joy of bringing on another local graphic artist, Thomas Jennings. The trio have employed their new-school design sense with old-school silk-screen methods to create a wildly successful business that works with touring bands as well as local organizations.

The Half&Half is located on College Street, in 5-points, near City Yoga.

Some folks may even remember when their business resided atop Sid&Nancy, which is part of why they are so near and dear to our hearts.

Columbi-YEAH!

Courtney, Corinne, and Ashley all had a celebratory din-din, last night, for meeting their monthly goals. As usual, the conversation started out all-business and then ended with Ashley hypothesizing the zombie apocalypse, Courtney punching someone in the face and Corinne dismissively sipping her drink - plotting her escape.




They DID get to talk a lot about Ashley's new favorite store in Asheville, Hip Replacements. She swung by the Lexington Avenue retro boutique /secondhand shop because a customer at Sid & Nancy said they have a very similar type of business. The manager, Ryan Ashley, was very excited to chat ideas and Ashley came home all inspired and fresh. If you get a chance to go to Asheville, anytime this summer, swing by Hip Replacements and tell them Sid & Nancy said "hello."





















The girls were not expecting the shop to be as busy at it was this morning. Within 30 minutes of opening, several Columbi-Yeah T-shirts had sold. SWEET! Then, Courtney pointed out that all these folks were ravenous for the shirts because they must have read The State article this morning. Oh. Courtney and Ashley spent half the day desperately "crazy calling" Shiggy, because they were swiftly running out of shirts to sell. He showed up around 3pm with an armload in various sizes and colors and also promised to bring more as soon as the new batch was back from the printers.

They also got to see Whitney Malson today! They got to gabbing about Shiggy's unexpected success and Whitney said that Shiggy's website (which was built by Pretty Penny Productions - LAST NIGHT) had blown up, this morning, and nearly crashed! Weird.... but good for you, Shiggy! We heart you!








Shuffle, a free publication out of Charlotte, just came out with their new issue - which is available at Sid & Nancy. It would be impossible to thoroughly get into all the musical artists covered in this issue - its totally overwhelming.... But we LOVE the magazine because it's FREE and it's absolutely saturated with information, reviews, and art. On the cover, currently: Aimee Argote. Amazing.
One more thing! Our awesomely bad-ass girl-skater friend, Lauren Trapp, is hostessing a girls' skate jam at the Owens Field Skate Park SATURDAY from 10:00am-12:00pm. Lauren is an absolute girl-power lady and is so easy and sweet to talk to. If you or someone you know is afraid that she'll be the only girl at the skate park, we highly recommend hitting up this leetle event. The GREAT part is that, if you miss out this weekend, you can make it to the next one, which will be held (same place/same time) on June 12th. For a little history on the skate park, click here.