Holly likes to sew, to act and to dance. She keeps very busy doing all three.

As a young child Holly lived in Cachagua and Carmel Valley Village. Her parents divorced when she was 8 and from the age of 11 to 18 she lived back and forth between her parents. She tells about those years. "I have a creative nature, possibly because I grew up without television, radio, stereo, or telephone. I figured out that if I had a skill I could get out on my own at an early age, so I developed sewing basically because it prevented me from doing chores that are necessary on a ranch when I lived with my mother or a golf course when I lived with my father." Her mother lived on a remote ranch in Cachagua. Her father built golf courses and lived in a trailor. She lived on the ranch with a sister and three brothers and on the golf course with her three brothers plus two step-sisters and two step-brothers, and her life in both places was primarily school and chores. She predominently lived with her father between the ages of 11 and 15, and that's when she taught herself to sew. Her thoughts were always, "If I could get some kind of skill I could go anywhere and work. And when I become an adult I will have fun and do exactly what I want to do." She always wanted to be an actress - always wanted to be anybody other than herself.

As young children Holly and her brothers and sister loved making up their own plays. They got the ideas from stories at Bible School or from missionary movies. She says, "We knew there were kings and queens and slaves - and black people who ran around half-naked out there - and lepers who were losing their fingertips." Perhaps twice a year they would see movies at the community center. Her mother would bring home a box of clothes and books from a local thrift shop - that would provide costumes and more sources for the stories of the plays. Occasionally Holly would stay overnight at a friend's house, and that's when she could "see television!". She learned a lot from those few times she saw television.

As soon as she turned 18, Holly went out on her own. For about a year and a half she worked as a domestic in order to save some money. Then she worked various places as a ski instructor. Eventually she returned to the Monterey Peninsula. She started by working for companies where she could use her sewing skills. Eventually she got her own sewing shop in Carmel Valley Village but also continued working part time as a domestic for extra money. In 1979 she got her first costuming gig - for the opera season at Hidden Valley.

In 1980 Holly moved to Monterey. She had found out that she could make money teaching Country and Western dancing. She taught dance teachers at Country and Western night clubs and would also teach at promotional events for Country radio stations. For six months Holly and a "fabulous" dance partner from Fort Ord would go every weekend to San Francisco. They would teach dance in the afternoon and early evening and then hit as many as three Country and Western dance contests in one night. Holly tells how she learned Country and Western dance, "Living on a ranch, you have brandings; ranchers always help each other out. There were always barbecues and parties and hoedowns. These were large working ranches; they're all vineyards now." As Country and Western dance got replaced by other dance crazes, Holly shifted the form of dance she taught. But she still dances Country and Western. In fact, for the last three years she has been going with the Cachagua Playboys whenever they have a gig - she gets people up and dancing.

Soon after moving to Monterey, Holly met Christine Jacobson. Christine had a magic manufacturing business with Roy Slater, a working magician. They manufactured magic tricks which they sold in trade magazines. Holly became a performing magician or sometimes a "Box Jumper" who is someone who assists magicians on stage. She also began creating costumes for magicians and for musicians she met as a dancer. In 1988 Roy Slater introduced Holly to the world of custuming for community theatre. She made costumes for ROBIN HOOD which Grovemont Theatre (now Pacific Repertory Theatre) presented at the Outdoor Forest Theater. She continued costuming for Grovemont and in 1991 started costuming for Forest Theater Guild productions. Since then she has provided costumes for almost every theatre company on the Monterey Peninsula including children's theatres and ballet companies. In addition she has been making costumes for theatrical productions for many middle schools and high schools on the Peninsula. Her theatre costuming is non-stop; she currently is costuming what she calls THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Part 4 (part one was for Robert Lewis Stevenson School, two and three for the Wharf Theater - two separate casts over a nine week run, and now for Pacific Repertory Theatre at the Outdoor Forest Theater). She will also be costuming LUV, MIZLANSKY AND ZILINSKY, and Unicorn Family Fantasy Theatre productions.

Holly as a mermaid in a "Meet and Greet"

Holly also loves to do what she calls "Meet and Greet" for corporate functions; this usually means that she goes in costume as a character actress and she usually gets to dance too. Often it's a talent agent who contacts her and usually it's for a theme party. Sometimes she's contacted to provide a group of actors for an event. Sometimes she's contacted just to provide costumes and sometimes that could be the most satisfying of all. She tells about a recent occurance, "I love doing futuristic stuff and wished I could do a futuristic thing. I expressed that desire somewhere, somehow, and somebody picked it up and it came back. I got a phone call from someone who met me dancing and knew I made costumes. He said he had a week to come up with costumes for an event in San Francisco. I just happened to have some leftover futuristic costumes from a recent corporate event and was able to boost up those costumes. They would be for the futuristic rock band, The Venusians, who would be performing at the San Francisco premiere of 'Star Wars, The Phantom Menace.' I said I would donate the costumes if I could get a photograph of George Lucas with the costumes. I got the photo but you can't exactly tell who he is. You can see the costumes on the Venusian web site (www.venusian.com)."

Holly's personal costume collection contains over 800 items. A lot of them she rents to the public, usually for Halloween or other seasonal events. She talks about her costumes, "My costumes are usually character costumes and period costumes. I lean on the commercial side of costumes where it's goodsy and bigger than life and unusual as opposed to authentic costumes. Truthfully, authentic can be boring and tedious. I like dream sequences in shows. In OKLAHOMA you had to be prairie authentic but in the dream sequence you could use things that were never even invented - metallic fabrics and glittery things." Holly also is an avid haunter of thrift shops. She explains, "I buy fabric only when it's absolutely necessary and usually when it's on sale. My specialty in the costume world is that I can take a garment and turn it into a costume. I prefer doing that rather than starting from scratch."

Finally, Holly talks about the satisfaction she gets from being a costumer, "I get to eat and I have shelter. When I was around nine or ten years old I set these goals: when I grow up I'm going to have as much food as I want, whatever kind of food I want, whenever I want it - and I will not be cold." She also talks about the personal satisfaction she gets from from providing something essential to the actor and the production, "Sometimes an actor comes up and thanks me for making their performance easier. And they don't even have to say it, because I see it - especially with kids. They put the costumes on and Bamm! - they are those characters."