Sunday, October 01, 2006

Catching Up...

So the biggest adjustment this year has been Gen going to kindergarten. We have to keep track of all the different papers that come home, special weekly assignments, library books to return, volunteer responsibilities, etc. But at least we have a block of hours to work without interruption which is great!!! And Gen loves school, so that's even better!

Holly has become a garage sale maniac (Mick is learning to love them) and having pretty good luck finding treasures to sell. Profit margins are small, but at least it keeps the store interesting. Garage sales really are like treasure hunts, though you have to wade through a lot of crap to find the gold. It takes a special breed to love these events.

Mick has been going to lots of concerts, thanks to his new volunteer job with Slims and The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. He can go to almost any show he wants for free! You can read his concert reviews on his website (www.mickgray.net).


BIG PROMOTION IN OUR STORE THIS MONTH!!!
Spend $25.00 or more in our store and get a way cool Superman Returns PROMO Daily Planet newspaper!!! A big THANK YOU to Legends Of The Game in Morgan Hill (ph: 408-776-0725) for providing these goodies for you!!! (Any local shops interested in providing small promo items will get free worldwide promotion for your store!)

New items in Holly's One Smile Can Change The World Shop (www.onesmilecan.com). A holiday section has been added, just in time for Halloween.



And there's a new Current Events section featuring SANTA CRUZ The Original Surf City.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Mick Is Selling His 1957 Ford Fordor!!!


Mick is selling the car that made me swoon over him! He was Buddy Holly, I was his buddy Holly and Bessie was our cool car! This classic was restored back in the 80's thanks to Mick's dad Pete Gray (of the famous Gray's Thunderbird Nest). Pete is no longer able to help us maintain our lovely car, so we're going to let her go. Parting is such sweet sorrow and this beauty is a sentimental piece. We're not selling cheap! We started the bidding at eBay Motors at $8000.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Emmys Were Awesome!!!

I had such a great time and didn't make too big a fool of myself as I walked down the red carpet and had our cameraman film the crowd and me. I spoke to several soap stars, some of which I didn't know, but many I did. I used to watch several different shows. The only time I got nervous was when I thought we'd be late or when I forgot what I was going to ask at one point. Other than that it was a great experience and I hope to do it again next year.

Gen is selling her original refrigerator art to help save up for a Disney World trip. We told her it would probably be a few years before we can go. If you'd like to help, please visit Gen's Gallery for more info.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Holly Does HOLLYWOOD!!!

Holly will be playing host to DaytimeTV.net's very first livestream! I will be actually at the red carpet interviewing the celebrities, so I'm told. We'll see what happens. I'm driving down tongight with my friend Valarie who runs The Dot Net Group. She has faith in me, so I guess I just need to have faith in myself, eh? Wish me luck!

Mick had to give up a concert tonight so I could leave early. He's very supportive, but I feel bad.

More to come soon!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

We Started Some My Spaces

Well, Blogger doesn't seem to bring in any traffic, so I decided to start some MySpaces and so far so good. You can visit our spaces at http://www.myspace.com/albmouse, http://www.myspace.com/zandersmith and http://www.myspace.com/onesmilecan. I'll still be popping in here from time to time to talk about the whole family.

So right now I'm gearing up to put together some online seminars for Mick. He'd like to teach inking techniques to young artists. We're trying to figure out how it can be done via web conferencing. More to come on that.

Gen is eagerly anticipating Kindergarten. She asks me almost daily if she's starting yet. I hope she enjoys it as much as she thinks she will.

We're visiting a friend in Austin, Tx next month. We're currently looking for the best deal for travel. I know we gotta book soon or we might not get a flight at all.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Sick Sick Sick

Poor Mick has been sick since early February! He's finally over it (knock on wood). But it was one thing after another! First a cold, sore throat, flu, allergies and migraines. It's a miracle that Genevieve and I didn't catch it. I think I've been a lot healthier since getting my tonsils out a year ago, even though I think the doctor left part of my left tonsil in.

Mick has been able to work a little bit between relapses. Legion of Super-Heroes is doing very well. He's having a great time inking over Barry Kitson. It's especially a blast to be working on Super Girl. He also wrote two new concert reviews: Danzig & The Misfits and The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Visit www.mickgray.net and go to the music section to see all of his concert reviews.

Gen has been going to dance class every Saturday at The Little Gym. It's a combo tap, free form, ballet and gymnastics. I love that it's non-competitive. They just want the kids to have fun and learn coordination without feeling stupid for doing something wrong. And now she has a foundation if she ever wants to take more advanced dance or gymnastics lessons. Of course she'll have to sell more of her art on eBay to help pay for the classes (she loves having her own store!).
So if you know of anybody in need of some lovely refrigerator art and would like to help support the arts (ha ha), send them over to Original Art by Gen.


I have been busy with my t-shirt designs. I created two new sections at my shop, One Smile Can Change The World www.onesmilecan.com . The first is inspired by punk, goth, new wave and retro, but it's all for kids and families. Some of the designs may look ominous, but the messages will be purely inspirational. I call it Cutie Punk and I got the domain name to go with it www.cutiepunk.com. I really wanted to do something that would make people look, yet they would get positive messages rather than rudeness. When I say that one smile can change the world, I mean for the better, just as one rude comment will spread negativity no matter how innocently it was meant. Click on pictures to see the designs on shirts and stuff.


I also started a section for weird humor and my first offering is a lovely design for dogs and babies... I'm a Pooper. Hopefully I won't offend any Dr. Pepper fans. I just thought it was cute. Click on picture to see it on doggy and baby stuff.


I added a new section in SuperSoapFans GH. It's the Gospel Of Corinthos and it was created because of a line of dialogue that had Mick and me laughing so hard we had to replay the scene. Sonny had just found out that Alexis and Sam were mother and daughter. He realized that he had slept with both and got them pregnant. He said "What kind of creepy freaky crap is this?" And Mick told me I had to put that line on a shirt. And hence The Gospel Of Corinthos was born. He is after all the "chosen one" of Port Charles. He's always good for a laugh. We love our "gummi mobster".


I had to go back to work at IBM for a short term assignment. We needed the money and I figure I can handle it for a week. I really need to write a book--we are working on that--so I can become a famous writer and sell lots of copies!!! Then I'll be able to afford working at home on all my little projects.

American Idol has returned for a 5th season and we're enjoying the show very much! They got a great bunch this year and I've been very pleased with America's voting so far (except maybe Melissa--she had potential). Our unanimous choices for the final five are Mandesa, Katherine, Taylor, Chris and Elliot. Another show we look forward to is Rock Star. We enjoyed last years so much that we're hoping this year will be even better.

Well, that's all for now. Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I'll be posting more often now that my writing muse has returned.

Live each today like it's your last.

Love,
Holly

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

It's Been Over A Month???

Well, slap my hand! So much for posting every week, eh? Time flies when you're busy. Here's what's been happening in the world of the Grays...

Mick has been catching up with work, finally! For awhile there things were pretty crazy with pages being behind schedule before Mick even had them in hand! Mick is really enjoying working with Barry Kitson. They've both wanted to work together for years, but the timing was always off. Now they're having a blast! It's truly a mutual admiration society for these two. Mick has been very lucky with his projects over the years. He's gotten to work with people he admires like Barry, J.H. Williams and Ryan Sook. To top things off, Mick was offered another 2 year contract with DC Comics! He was thrilled. It's an honor to work for such an icon, as well as feel your work is appreciated. He is truly blessed.

I, Holly, have been working around the clock to get items up on eBay, design t-shirts for the cafepress shops, update Mick's website and produce Mick's inker video. The video will be tons of fun, with lots of laughs and cameos from many famous artists. I'm also scrambling to get some marketing plan together for promoting our various projects. A new avenue I discovered is YouTube.com where I can post our videos for the world to see. If people enjoy the videos enough they'll hopefully check out our websites. Right now I have our wedding video, our entry for the Super Soap Weekend contest and my student film project from 1988. Next up I plan to make a short video of Gen doing her art and have an link to Gen's art commission page on eBay. For only 99 cents (or more... further donations are accepted) you can have an original piece of art created just for you to your own specification.

Gen is very excited about selling her art on eBay so she can save up to go to Rock School. We all watched the documentary last week (not realizing is was rated R!!!). But Gen LOVED it! She isn't bothered by foul language. She understands that some adults talk that way and kids shouldn't do that. She said she wanted to be a drummer. We have a budding young rock musician two houses down from us who has a drum kit. Mick is going to ask him if he would take a few minutes to show Gen a bit about the drums. We'll let you know how it goes. If anybody has an electric drum kit (with headphone jack!!!) to spare, we'll be happy to take it off your hands.

That's all for now. I'll try to update more often, I promise!

Holly :)