Everyone is always making comments about Elmer’s incredible cuteness.  He has a fan club who like to visit him often and he loves all the attention.   Living with Elmer is quite a different story.   He is fiesty, curious, strong and insistent.  King of the castle and ruler over all the minions, including me!

Yesterday I took what I thought was a really cute picture of Elmer sitting high on top of the hutch in my kitchen.   You can actually see the ceiling a few inches above his head.  How he gets up there I have not figured out yet but I am sure leaping is involved.   I was a little dismayed that he was using my “Fortunate Cookie” quilt for his resting place but nevertheless I went for the camera.

This morning I awoke to find a huge mess in the kitchen.  What I failed to notice while I stood in the kitchen taking this picture and puzzling over how he got up there was the antique glass and silver pitcher sitting precariously close to the edge of the hutch.   Elmer had knocked it off the hutch during the night.  The glass shattered everywhere and the entire kitchen floor had become a hazardous zone.  

Suddenly this picture takes on a whole new meaning.  I sort of treasured that beautiful pitcher.  Now that regret is mixed with thankfulness that none of my kitties got cuts on their paws or injured in the crash.  I wil have to create something from the salvaged pieces.   Might have to check with Kecia and see if she has any ideas (Kecia is the soldering queen of Lemoncholy Studios).

I packed my car with as much as I could fit and headed over to Jersey Made.   My new adventure!   An incredible creative collaborative journey has begun……

My sis offered her help.  She obviously thought I was exaggerating when I described the bathroom as “eeny weeny” and small enough that only one person would fit inside to paint it.   She is an expert painter and took on the big project of painting the unbelievably tiny bathroom.    Bill had commented on the faucet.  It has a industrial size faucet that you would see on a utility sink, yet the sink itself is about 1/3 the size of a normal sink.   Abbie has to be careful not to bump her head in 75% of the room.   The jokes started flying about it being Harry Potter’s “closet under the stairs”.   

amazingly she sqeezed back here to paint the wall….

I collect maps.   Many maps will be used to decorate around Jersey Made so it was fun to gather them along with some that were shared by friends.   Abbie spent a bunch of time ironing maps…..

assisted by Neil when he was not busy chatting with Heidi in the bathroom…..

The McGrevey map – hahaha!!!

The wallpaper is a bit overwhelming.  But the trim……  OH NO!!!!   It had these bunnies dressed up in people clothes standing outside their little bunny houses.   Sounds like a really warped “Animal Farm”, doesn’t it?    Well it had to go!!!   When Abbie reached up and found that it peeled off easily the shouts of glee were filling the air…….    Poof and it was gone!!!!

So then off for some supplies.    The first business purchase but much needed items…..    All this activity left Abbie, Neil and I a little hungry.  So we stopped at the Hollybrook Diner to recharge.   Neil and I entertained ourselves with the old jukebox.   Didn’t know any diners still had them…..

So much to choose from…..

The look of concentration while he searched for a tune and I searched for a quarter.

Then back to the store to try to get the track lighting to work.

The evening ended with a stop at my house to search for the furniture needed to make displays for all the items that will be sold at Jersey Made.   Of course that meant that Elmer escaped the kitchen and came out to meet the guests.    Neil and Elmer instantly created this great bond.   Neil was tugging on Elmer.   Squishing him with big giant hugs.   Holding his tail like a lease to pull him back for yet another hug.   Neil followed Elmer where ever he went.   Calling “come here elmo” – hehehe – it was extremely cute!!!

It was quiet for awhile.   I thought Neil had gone off to lay down but there they were, two buddies hanging out on the floor in the hallway!!!    One of those “ahhhhhhh” moments!!!

After Neil left Elmer was searching the house room by room to find his new buddy.   Abbie reported that Neil talked about “Elmo” the whole way home and informed Abbie that ”Elmo my friend”.   Neil sure comes out with a great sentence every now and then…..     I never had a cat that had a fan club but Elmer sure does.   He’ll get some extra treats tonight!

I am sure many more adventures will follow on the path to Jersey Made but day #1 was pretty great!

I have been working on my stash management.  Seems I have piles of stamped images that I have made over the years with the intent on coloring them or using them for a greeting card or scrapbook page someday.  Among this stash I found 3 of these images that states “Mama said there’d be days like this…”  Little did I know that it would also sort of become the motto for my work on these cards.   Last week I had done the coloring on the cards with pastel chalk.  It gave them such a nice subtle antiqued look and I was really pleased with how they turned out.  On Sunday night I matted them on the black cardstock and attached them to the smoky blue cardstock.  They were ready to be bagged and listed on Etsy the next night.

However….my cats had a different story.  It seems one of them decided to walk across them and cause dark smudges on the blue cardstock.  I won’t accuse Elmer but I am pretty sure it was him.  He has been terrorizing the house recently.  In case you think I am exaggerating I will give you an example.  His newest trick is to knock over my wooden dish drainer.  Glasses go smashing into the sink.  Why can’t he break the dirty dishes and not the clean ones?  

So instead of finishing the cards and getting them listed on Etsy last night I sat looking at my poor card and wondering how 2 of them had the dark smudge but the other did not.  As with any problems all my fretting didn’t fix anything.   My lady looked like me as I held my head in my hands and sadly wondered what I would do….   It had been one of those days – LOL

But as I often tell those at my stamping workshops, I had to remind myself that this is another opportunity for embellishment!   Off I went to search my rubber stamp stash for some help.  I pulled out my antique cracking stamp, made a template to cover my lady and used Going Grey ink pad .  You can’t even tell that the smudges are there anymore.  Whew – what a relief!   Mama did say there would be days like these and I sure had one on Monday.   Still it all worked out for the best.  The card would not be as dramatic without the additional touches.

The rubber stamp image, Going Grey ink and cardstock are from Stampin’ Up!  Although this set has been discontinued you can check out all the current Stampin’ Up! products on my website there.  The full catalogs are available for you to view.  

I love Stampin’ Up! and this month I celebrate 7 years of being a Senior Demonstrator – yippee!!!

As usual, thanks for reading….

Well this was my first big weekend with my modified table display for doing shows.  I was really pleased with how things turned out.  My creations never looked better.  I am really getting the hang of this and liking the new direction my recycled creations is going.  My displays worked great.  Here is Elmer (my fiesty and curious cat) who decided that the first thing my display needed was for him to sit upon it.

My friend Carole assures me that Elmer was just expressing his approval.  Hehehe – she is in Elmer’s fan club.   I am fortunate to have a boss who rehabs houses.  He had seen my chicken wire display and mentioned that when he took out all the windows in an old house I could have them.  I quickly said “oh yesssss”.    He saved 12 of them for me in assorted sizes and the best part is he had the guys smash all the glass out over the dumpster.  The glass was a big mess and I was so careful not to get it everywhere or wake the neighbors with all the noise.  So that was a huge help.   Perhaps the posty notes I left all over his desk saying “don’t forget windows for Holly” was a good idea too!!!   So I just had to clean them up and do my re-creating tricks to make this spiffy new display.  There is ribbon across it so I could attach my greeting cards with clothespins.   Another display at hardly any cost and it worked really great.  I have considered offering these type displays to other artists and crafters.    I really enjoy taking all these stray pieces and putting them together into something useful.  Plus they are light and easy to store in my car.

Remember my curly willow blog and the wreaths that I had made with them?   Well, I finally found a great way to use the wreaths.  I made some bows out of scraps of wine fabric, attached some fake grapes and corks to make these cool decorations….

Here I am in my new space.  I really liked having the tent and found all kinds of ways to attach items for display with bungy cords and zip ties.  So I have some plans to further improve how my creations look at future shows. 

Plus I have decided that new tablecloths are the next order of business.  The tablecloth in the middle will be my inspiration to get 2 more to match.  Those are 2 of my favorite colors – Eggplant Engy and Forest Green – plus there are leaves all over it.  That combined with a few more displays and a sign to hang in the back of my space will be great additions in the future. 

The thing I didn’t take a picture of was my little car.  I have a Saturn and it was jam packed with stuff.  I couldn’t fit another tub or table in there and still see out the back window.  It worked out great though and I had plenty of room for what I needed.  Next time I will take a photo of that to share with all of you.  The logistics of packing the car was kind of funny.  It only went in a certain way but nevertheless I got it all in there.

Again, thanks for reading.  Your comments are always appreciated and offer great encouragement!!!

 Remember – buying handmade items made locally helps our economy where we need it the most!!!!