We surived!

Well Christmas is over and Guy and I are still alive! A huge thank you to all our friends and customers who visited our store this season. Without all of you we would not be in business..so thank you. Whats next here at Stamm House? Well after a small break and we will be working on items for the Market Square wholesale show in Oaks Pa. the first week of Feb2013. I will be making some crazy Halloween and believe it or not more..aaagghhh..Christmas! After that we will be back home and working on new Easter items for the store. We will have a new German clown rabbit and a new German girl duck in her Easter bonnet. I'm also working on a German gnome under a toadstool candy box...so coool! There will be new retro candies in the store when we reopen and a selection of new toys. Look for our open sign around the Valentines day briefly for a few days, then open for the Easter season around the end of Feb!

Some Day....

"Some day", these are the words I hear myself saying more and more lately. Every year for the past twenty seven years or so when the Christmas season begins to approach, I find myself turning into a crazy, neurotic  screaming banshee. Orders are piled up, my studios a mess, I can't find a piece of paper to write on let alone a pencil or pen to write with. The phones ringing, the door buzzer is going off, the dog wants out, the coffees cold, the fish want fed, my leg hurts from my fall two months ago and the mailman left my supplies at someone else's house! Last night for a few precious minutes I was able to quickly glance through a Christmas magazine.There on the pages were wonderful pictures of homes completely decorated for the holiday season. Pictures of  vignettes with antique santas, fresh greens and cookies right out of the oven. The home owner looked so relaxed and happy to be enjoying the holiday season with her cup of (I'm sure warm) coffee in front of a fire. Switch back to me, in the studio late working on more stuff....The dogs asleep on her pillow, I'm huddled by , not a cozy fire but a propane heater for warmth. The belsnickles look like they are about to rebel and march out the door in a line singing "later crazy bitch!" A few more weeks of this madness then  maybe I will have time to get a Christmas tree..wonder if they are free after Christmas? The picture above is of myself and my sister, I'm the little one. Right now my sisters aboard a giant cruise ship in the pacific on her way to Hawaii and Mexico..hmm.. somethings not right in my life.."some day!"

All packed up!

Just a short note to say we are off to the Der Belsnickle show in Boyertown Pa. This time of year we are on the run and hardly have a minute to think! Here's a quick picture of the last guy to get packed....

It's a sunny Sunday!

We are having beautiful weather here in central pa., at least for the next day or two. I thought I'd write a quick note as I wait for a customer to arrive. Today is a "around the house" day for Guy and I. Later we will be catching up on a few projects the weather is allowing us to do. I will be changing the flower boxes in front of the store from fall to winter which will take us through to March. We need to hang some wonderful snow fall lights a dear friend gave to us and drag out the garlands for the windows. I'm sure somewhere along the way there will be the late afternoon nap on the couch! This week brings more belsnickle painting and getting stocked up for The Der Belsnickle  show Thanksgiving weekend in Boyertown Pa. Two of our new woodland belsnickles I am posting a picture of here so you can see what we have been working on. These cool little guys have pine cone hats!

Crazy Town!

Today I'm crazy woman. That's not to say that I'm anything other than that most of the time! The whole day has felt like a mad dash to something. What I'm not sure but suspect it's the Christmas season. It gets like this around this time of the year, the days all blend together and I have to keep reminding myself  what day/week it is. Today started with voting.Guy, myself and our four year old gran-daughter went to the high school to vote. I took Lily into the voting booth with me and tried to explained what I was doing. Afterward all she said was she was glad that it was over and grammie should be president. Ok, simple enough! It was then back to the studio to finish some more belsnickles and try to work on the store a bit. I feel right now if I had at least three more sets of hands I might get things on track. Sadly I do not so it's just me when it comes to the store decoration. I grabbed a quick picture of the store window tonight. Now it's back to painting and watching the election results..will I be a happy camper..or moving to another country? We will see!

Aaah..It's good to be a gnome!

Today is Sunday and I didn't do a thing in my studio.Nothing. Sometimes it's just good to get away from work. With the Christmas season right around the corner my days are filled with santas, santas and more santas.When my santas start to look "grumpy" it's a good idea to try something else. This week we worked on these little happy pine cone gnomes. We love gnomes, who wouldn't. They are happy little magical creatures that live in the woods. They have kozy  little moss and stone houses with little glowing fireplaces. They spend their days doing all kinds of happy little jobs and humming happy little tunes! The little pine cone guys pictured  were patterned after one I got from the Chec Republic. My husband says we need to have a little name card attached to each of them. For some reason Mr. Stamm has named the gnome on the right..Barry..he's such a happy little fellow!

Up..Up and away!

Actually it was pretty non eventful around here last night. We had a little rain and some strong wind but nothing like was predicted. I was hoping we would fly away like Dorthy in The Wizard of Oz and land in munchkin land where everything was pretty and clean but then I would have to deal with the wicked witch and all those little munchkins that I'm sure after awhile would get very annoying. Better off to stay put here on the ground! The poppy field would have been interesting though....a much needed nap! Back to reality, I have a shipment to pack of 50 little belsnickles all waiting to jump into the box and be shipped off to Shaker Workshops catalog for the Christmas season. So it's back to work for now ..whats next, pine cone gnomes for Christmas!