My dear friend Julie

Just emailed me the following holidays she thought I would have fun celebrating. I miss her so much and man does she know me well...imagine the fun you can have on cherry popsicle day!!! So watch for wacky Persimmons promos to go with these wacky days!

March 1 - Pig Day Greetings
May 17 - Happy Pack Rat Day
May 10 - Clean up your room Day
July - National Ice Cream Month
August 3 - Watermelon Day
August 7 - Friendship day
August 7-12 Scrabble Week
August 26 - National Cherry Popsicle Day
November 3 - National Men Make Dinner Day
December 26 - National Whiner's Day

The Great ATC exchange.

So David and I were talking about ATC's and how cool they are and how we would love people who live around these parts to get into them so we could do some trading. I thought about it and came up with the idea for the great ATC exchange. We are going to do the first of many? at Stumpjack. We will hang a wire of some sort on the wall and then clothespin the cards on the wire along the walls. There will be a display section where the cards are just to look at but then there will be a section where you can create a card and bring it in and take one you like off the wall and replace it with yours. Fun huh? The opening will be on May 23rd with good times and music by the very talented Kerry Micheals. So if you make these tiny works of art and would like to be included in this fun display at Stumpjack just leave a comment, email me or just send them to the store... (address on the right) This is one of mine.

A great friend Susan Murtaugh just dropped off 41 cards that she did and 9 that her super talented son Alex did. I love that woman! I actually confessed to her that I want to kiss her because she is so giving and kind to me. It made me think of this post by ChristopherandTia (one of my new favorite blogs to read) I figure we should have about 200 cards to start the show so with all of those we are well on our way! These cards are so fun because you can use whatever medium you want as long as your card measures 2.5 * 3.5. I have cards from all over the world and in all mediums from metal to fabric to collage to photography. I also have ATC night the first Thursday of most months so if you live here come on Thursday and make some for the show! See you then!

Oh by the way...PERSIMMONS WILL BE CLOSED THIS FRIDAY MAY 2 AND SATURDAY MAY 3. GLENN AND I ARE GOING ON VACATION!!! LONG LONG LONG OVERDUE VACATION.

Posters for Persimmons

I finally got a publishing program today. I have been waiting for the Vista compatible version of the cheesy program I like...Printmaster. It is a super easy to use program that I have used over the years. I have been a sign making fool today and this is one of the posters I made.

And the winner is.......

My BFF Kate!!!! And no I didn't rig it I really wrote every one's name on a little slip of paper cut them apart put them in a bucket and had Molly pick one. Out of all of them (and yes David your name was in there 9 times) she picked Kate. Congrats Kate...love ya.

Oh by the way I just had Molly pick another one just to see who it would be and it was you David. He he.

Shrinky Dinks are fun!

We made them last night at Art Night and boy oh boy was it a good time! I think I am addicted.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER THE CONTEST!!! I WILL PICK A WINNER TOMORROW MORNING!!!!!

Did I ever meantion my pal Tina just freakin ROCKS!!!

If not ...TINA KUGLER ROCKS!!!!

Nice relaxing weekend.

Oh it was a nice weekend. The weather was phenomenal here. Reminded us that oh yeah it does get nice in Wisconsin. I am not one to complain about the weather...after all nothing you can do about it...but this winter seemed to drag on forever. So spring I embrace you with wide open arms and can't wait until I can go out and plant and play in the dirt.

Yesterday we spent the day in the country playing outside. We did visit the chickens and Holly our bird dog tried to eat one of them. She almost got her eyes pecked out. Silly dog.

Saturday night we grilled out and then had a little fire. I made the most fantastic pasta salad that night. Just got some whole wheat pasta, feta, a couple tomatoes, artichoke hearts, finely chopped romaine, black olives, a splash of Caesar dressing and mixed it all up. Yum. Try it you'll like it.

This is the last week to win a beautiful pendant and other great prizes! Just go here and leave a comment to win!!!

cluck cluck cluck

So what do you think of my attempt at a "real" painting. I say real because it took me more than 20 minutes to do. This one took me about 2 hours. I enjoy chickens. I made it for the upcoming Rahr West museum local artists show...but you saw it first....here.

Have you checked out my new etsy shop yet?

If not check it out. It is called cheap old crap. I am listing some of my real good finds as ephemera packs on there. This is some of the stuff I have been hoarding for years. Go look now if you like great old stuff...thank you.

Oh yeah don't forget about the contest...you can win over $40 worth of goodies!!! Ends on the 25th so enter today if you haven't already!

The fight

So I had quite a few comments about the infamous fight at Goodwill so I thought I would share all the dirty details. Here it goes...Our local Goodwill has an employee appreciation night. The only way you get to go is if you know someone who works there and you get a ticket from them. The crazy thing about this night is everything is half off and the stuff that is half off normally is 75% off. So it is a ridiculously packed and kind of annoying night to start off with...throw in a grouchy old woman and it is 100,000 times more annoying.

Well I had enough of a certain grouch one night. See on previous trips this woman pushed my mom's cart into her and when my mom said "excuse me?" she said "well I wanted to look at something and you were in my way." Ok whatever. Then again that same trip she did the same thing and even in front of another woman who teamed up with mom and made her finally get out of their face.

Well on the evening of the scuffle she was at it again. My sister was moving out of the way for someone and the grouch swooped in and took over my sister's position in that particular rack. It was as though she was just waiting to butt in like she was scoping out people to tick off.

I was checking out the men's sweaters and it was towards the end of the night so it was thinning out but I still pushed my cart into the rack so there was ample room for people to get through. I was finding some great wool sweaters to do some felting projects with when I noticed a flash of bright pink blush and bad lipstick standing by my cart. I knew what was going on here, she was trying to get me going, so I ignored her. Well after about a minute I looked at her and asked if I could help her with something. She frantically pointed to my cart and said "well I would like to get by here and your cart is in the way". I pointed out that really there was plenty of room but moved the cart anyway all the while she was huffing and puffing dramatically. It was really not a big deal but something inside of me snapped and I said "you know -----(said her name here because I know her but will keep it out of the story to protect the not so innocent) you are a real bitch and I am sick of it you were a bitch the other day when I was at -----(she was extremely unhelpful at a recent visit to the place she works) and you are a bitch tonight what is your problem?" She instantly started to play the innocent little victim card and started crying acting completely over dramatic. I just said whatever just move on and continued to look at the sweaters. When I turned around I got a thumbs up from another shopper who had also had a run in that night with her. Well she just couldn't leave it alone and walked back to me and kept saying I can't believe you called me that no one ever called me a bitch my whole life. I think I just said yeah not to your face and moved on. Well she went to the checkout and told the manager about me and left. I thought it was all over but no. She came back in the store and continued to tell every single person going through the checkout how completely horrible I was. It went on for about 45 minutes and finally I had enough. I parked my 2 carts full and walked right up to her and the manager. I started out by saying I was sorry for swearing in the store and that I know that wasn't right but I wouldn't have come to that had she not been treating us and everyone else terribly the whole night. Well I was the bad person and told that I was wrong and she was right. So apparently it is ok to treat people like ass in Goodwill as long as you have a fake smile on your face and can pretend cry. That is bs...so I left my 2 carts there and left to find her waiting in the parking lot. PSYCHO!!!

I found out soon after I was not allowed there anymore so I emailed the president of the Goodwill corporation and told my side of the story. He called me and also gave my info to the regional manager who called me as well. He apologized and told me I was welcome for the employee appreciation nights and to just ignore her from then on. They were very professional and kind but I own an antique store and spend thousands of dollars at thrift stores every year so losing my business is losing lots of money. I just wish that the manager would have thought of that that night when she allowed the grouch to stand there and pretty much slander me in front of dozens and dozens of people. Despite the apology and invitation I can't go back.

Oh and by the way she continued to tell people how horrible I was for weeks and elaborated the story to include the lie that I told her she was too fat to fit through the space.

Don't forget to enter the contest if you haven't already!!!

Tagged so here it goes.

I was tagged by the great Melissakate straight out of New York. I have never met Melissakate but living in Wisconsin makes anyone who lives in New York instantly cool plus she has a really nice blog.



So I guess the rules are that I have to link her...done....and then post the rules and these are them...list six quirky facts about moi...tag 6 others with links to their blogs...let them know they have been tagged. Well she informed us that there is an old Aztec curse bestowed on all who do not comply with the rules so I am risking that curse and skipping the tagging others part. I think I am pretty gutsy ain't I?



1. I didn't kiss a boy until I was 19 and it was horrible.



2. I make something creative every single day of my life and if I don't I get a little out of whack.



3. I am the president of an art group, the vice president of a downtown association, and one of the founding leaders and workerbee's of a new festival in my community...SPUTNIKFEST. Plus run a brick and mortar all by my self (sometimes Annette helps out) and have a three year old. So I guess you could say I am busy.



4. I love playing in the dirt in my gardens. Can't wait for this....

5. I can't shop at Goodwill anymore because I got in a fight there once.

6. I like beer.


Now bring on the curse....

Copper Flora

I made another mixed media necklace today. I was kind of inspired when I visited Wrap it Up for my afternoon Chai and one of Shannon's very very cool friends from Chicago freaked out over mine. I have been hoarding this brooch for a bit now and decided it would be the perfect focal point for a necklace. I really like how this turned out and the pictures don't really do it justice.

So I did it.

I opened a supply shop and hope to stock it full this afternoon with old postcards, game pieces, flash cards, books, vintage fabric and lots of other fun stuff you can use to make stuff.

Check it out...Cheap Old Crap. (meant to be funny so I hope you don't take it any other way)

Metrojam 2008

So I just got back from a major announcement gathering from the fine fellows at Metrojam (a fantastic FREE local music event in Manitowoc) where they announced the headliner act for this years event is The Knack....oh yeah...My Sharona.

I'm confused...help

So I got a new email account today because I really want to open a supply shop on etsy. I went to the sell section and found myself chickening out. Will I have enough time to check 3 email accounts or even remember to check them all for that matter. I have ALOT of stuff (vintage fabric, good paper, buttons, ephemera) and traffic is pretty slow this time of year in the brick and mortar so it makes sense to try and sell some of this stuff and I just think having a supply shop and then a separate shop for my finished stuff on etsy makes sense. So all you who have two shops give me some advice. Should I do it?

By the way do you love my vintage sunglasses I found on a recent thrifting trip. I do. Even if I look a little funny...I like that.

Don't forget about THE CONTEST!

Like a sponge.

I don't really discuss the etsy shop much with the three year old but yesterday I told my husband I had a sale tonight and she chimed in "Oh on etsy?"
Oh don't forget to enter the contest...on the previous post.

Whooo hoooo.

Thanks to all my readers! My little ol blog just hit 10,000 views! That is totally crazy to me that this thing has been looked at 10,000 times. To celebrate I am having a contest and here is the prize (may not be exact one pictured) A Lake Michigan Stone Pendant
3 of my silly cards
A little glass bauble pendant
And a rooster martini party hankie.

Yeah that is right if you win you get it all! That's a over $40 value all yours... for free! Here is what you have to do...

Leave a comment on this post. If you help me spread word of this contest and post a link on your blog to this entry you will get 4 more chances to win! Just post the link to your blog in comments too. I will pick the old fashioned way... names in a hat 3 weeks from now on Friday April 25th.

Good luck and thank you all for reading about me and my crazy life!

Oh Dear....

...I forgot to blog yesterday.

Please accept my apology and enjoy this little guy I made this afternoon. Isn't he creepy... I mean cute.