I'm bad at writing bios, but whatever, let's go.
Hey there! My name is Candice, in case you didn't already see that somewhere on here, and I'm absolutely horrible at these "about me" things, so excuse me if it ends up a bit all-over-the-place.
What can I say about my shop?
The name "Straitjacket Fun" comes from a song by the band Autolux. It struck a chord with me and I've been using it as a screen name since I first heard it. Depending on the day, it means a couple different things to me:
On a good day, it represents tossing the stigma of "crazy" (AKA mental illness), and instead, embracing what we may perceive as personal flaws, since we all have them and they make us who we are. On a not-so-good day, I'd say it's a sarcastic response to the struggle of dealing with mental illness on the regular.
And if it was a super-extra bad day, I'd cut the sarcasm and just say, "NO, actually, I'm not okay, but thanks for asking.", and then curl up in a ball and wait for death to take me. KIDDING.
I'm the kind of person who gets obsessed with celebs/bands/movies/etc, none of which ever seem to have any kind of merch available (I believe the kids are referring to this as "fandom" these days. Pardon me, I'm old). So I started making keychains and other random stuffs to rectify this. This led to friends asking me to make stuffs for them, and suggesting I sell said stuffs online. So I did!
I've been a huge button-collector for years, and always wanted to be able to make my own buttons some day. My wish finally came true a couple years ago, with a small loan from my dad to get my first button machine. EXCITEMENT!
Then came the realization that DUH, I have to actually make designs to put on the buttons. DERP. I'm still working on that part, learning different design programs, and trying to come up with a balance of designs that appeal to me as well as others, while also trying not to sway too far from my personal vision of craziness.
I also do custom orders via my other etsy shop, SJF Customs (www.etsy.com/shop/sjfcustoms), so if you have your own designs you'd like to put on any of my items, head over there and I'll hook you up :)
As you may have guessed from a lot of my designs, I'm a bit introverted, a bit sarcastic, a bit cynical, and a bit non-traditional. I hope you can appreciate that, or at least respect it. Because if you can't respect it... well, you should probably leave now. But if you can dig it, I'd love to see you sporting my designs. So if you grab some, be sure to post pics to Instagram and/or Facebook and tag me so I can see!
