Teacher Appreciation Gifts

I was reminded once again how much time and energy good teachers put in, to help develop great students! Lets face it, it's not an easy job these days! Show your thoughtfulness and appreciation with a little gift! I was recently told that teachers do appreciate receiving a small token of thanks for their efforts and hard work! So I've been busy creating some great little gifts that I think any teacher would be happy to receive. Christmas is coming and it's a great time to pick up a little something for the teachers on your list. These could include school teachers, music teachers, coaches, ect. Pop by my store to find some more cool designs!
Shell's Designs

Carver Community Organization

I was recently at Carver Community Organization in Evansville to photograph a storytime and book distribution sponsored by Altrusa so I would have pictures for the newsletter I write. While I was there, I was able to learn a little bit more about Carver from Mr. David Wagner, Executive Director and Ms. Deione Clayton, a Carver teacher. I greeted them with a warm spot in my heart for all that they do partly because my daughter, Janine, used to help her violin teacher, Mrs. Savia, at their facility when she was younger. I asked about their strings program, curious if it was still going on. It is. It is one of their smaller more focused groups they call Academies. He said they are not taking in any new students for the strings program right now. These students have been in the program for two years and Mrs. Savia plans to continue to work with this select group of kids. Mr. Wagner was proud to say a young lady who started in their string music program several years ago, is now the Concert Master at North High School.

I'm not surprised by that. Kathryn Savia is a wonderful teacher. We Perketts are forever in her debt. Janine learned so much from her plus she was always patient and kind. That was very important. We didn't know it at the time, but Janine has a fairly severe anxiety disorder. In spite of this disorder, her overall experience with music was good. She's been in the Youth Orchestra, in a quartet (played at weddings, etc.), volunteered at Carver and braved audiences at school and church as well as recitals.

Janine, as well as my other two children, have set their instruments aside for now. It is my hope that they will be inspired to resume their training again in the future. Even if they don't, one thing I know is true, all the kids have a great appreciation for music.

So, walking into that brightly colored building brought back all kinds of memories for me. The three and four year olds Sara Murray (the storyteller from Altrusa) read to were so cute! I thought they were very well behaved too! Sara has a knack for leading a story time that's for sure. She has a gentle spirit and knows what to do to keep them focused.

I wrote more about Altrusa's experience at Carver for the Altrusa Viewpoint newsletter. That won't be coming out until the beginning of November so I'd better control myself on what I say now in case any Altrusans read my blog.

First Christmas Shopping On-line

Well I did my first Christmas gift shopping yesterday, just a couple of items but I've started! I like to spread the shopping out over a couple of months, so as not to kill the budget all at once! The stores are all filling up with Christmas and holiday items! I do love to look at all the ornaments and new decorations each year. However, I realized when I go to the shopping centers how much I don't like the crowds and busyiness. So this year I am doing as much on-line shopping as I can. I ordered a few items from Zazzle yesterday, cool t-shirts for my guys! It's great to be able to find great items that you know they'll love. Zazzle has a sale on now 10.31% off entire order when using code TRICKORTREAT at the checkout! Check out my latest designs in my store Shell's Designs

Quote for the week: "To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already acheived but at what he aspires to."
Kahlil Gibran

The Devil Came to Church Today

The Devil sat up front and stared at our priest. Creepy, ha? No one at St. Paul's had a clue that anything was amiss. Everything seemed so normal. As far as we all knew, it was a regular Sunday morning. I think I may have even stifled a yawn. What our priest saw was a person sitting in the front pew with a red face, penetrating eyes, and horns poking out the top of his head. However, he went on with the announcements as though nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Father Richard stared right into the Devil's face! I'm not certain I'd have that kind of composure. Then, the man in the front pew stood up. He turned around. He revealed his face to us all and we watched dumbfounded as Satan walked down the center aisle and out the front doors. It was a Halloween mask, of course. No one knows who was behind the mask not even our priest. Was it a Halloween joke or some kind of message?

Southern Festival of Books

Do you know who Kate Dicamillo is? She spoke at The Southern Festival of Books last weekend in Nashville, TN. I didn't recognize her name when I saw it in the Calendar of Events because I stink at remembering names in general, but I did recognize one of the books she wrote-- Because of Winn-Dixie. It is a wonderful book for kids about a lovable dog; a book that will make you both laugh and cry. I read it out loud to my daughter when she was ten and we did dip into the tissues from the kleenex box next to her bed. Kate's more recent book The Magician's Elephant is what brought her to the Festival. She spoke to an auditorium full of people and then took the time to answer questions from the audience. I have to tell ya, she's a funny person. I can see why her books do well. One thing she said that made sense to me is she writes at about 4:00 am because the critical part of her nature doesn't wake up until later.

Clever Little Raccoons

We all know those curious clever little animals called Raccoons that seem to find there way into our neighbourhoods. I remember in our previous home the raccoons would be sneaking their way along the top of our back fence and eventually would make their way over to the side yard and find the garbage cans! I remember my husband and I jumping out of bed one night when we heard some clanging and banging around below our bedroom window, sure enough it was the raccoons knocking off the lids of the garbage cans and making a wonderful mess! After that the garbage cans stayed in the garage, at least we can outsmart the raccoons that way! :-) Those little critters inspired my next designs for my store Shell's Designs. I came up with these funny cartoon raccoon characters that you'll find on mugs, t-shirts, cards ect. hope you enjoy them! They may just put a smile on your face!

Quote for the week: "Knowledge is realizing the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway."

Woo hoo - I'm a Giant Squid

Well it was a long journey but I made Giant Squid! Okay, I'll explain myself here, to become a Giant Squid one has to have 50 top notch lenses. When I first started writing lenses for Squidoo I never dreamed I would be able to come up with 50 different topics let alone write 50 awesome lenses. It took some time and a lot of updating and constant tweeking of my lenses to bring them up to snuff, but it was well worth it! There are some great perks to being a Giant Squid! It doesn't mean that you can stop making lenses just because you've reached 50 now I must strive to reach 100 quality lenses! Oohhh, I'm getting tired just thinking about that! It'll be a fun process with lots of learning curves I'm sure! :-) I've also been working hard on designs for my store Shell's Designs! I'm designing Christmas and holiday themed items right now. Just finished these fun 'snowflake' designs and now working on some more snowmen! Gotta get busy, we're heading into the busy season!

Quote for the week: "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau

People and Patterns

I looked across the pond this morning at my neighbor's lawn and admired the pattern they'd made when they mowed their grass. It's so perfect! How in the world did they do that anyway? When I mow, I'm all over the place. For one, I cut across the middle because it makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere--like I really don't have that much to mow. Then, I end up in some sort of cornucopia pattern where I'm continuously turning corners. The pattern gets smaller and smaller until it disappears to nothing. It takes me about an hour to mow the lawn and I think I'm walking really, really fast. Of course, I have to take a refreshment break, but that's only ten minutes I swear.

I think some people just have orderly brains and everything they do turns out orderly. Other people, like me, have a lot of scramble up there. I remember when our children were little we had these spongy bathtub animals that stuck to the side of the tub. I noticed that when we had guests stay with us some people would arrange those animals in a straight line or geometric figure and others would arrange them in designs like flowers. You could tell who was visiting by the pattern on the wall, literally.

Awsome Jason Mraz Concert

Well it's Oct. hard to believe! Last night my husband and I went to a Jason Mraz concert in Vancouver. His music is kind of a mix of jazz and pop. Love, love, love his voice, a concert really gives you so much more of an appreciation for what these guys can do. He has an amazing talent! His band was rockin' as well with saxophone, trombone and french horn players, these guys had some kickin' talent as well! It was a good night!
I've been busy working on squidoo lenses so look for some new ones in the sidebar! The next leg for the 'rocketmoms' is holiday lenses, these are my favourite to create, especially Christmas ones so stay tuned for those! I'm also working on lots of holiday designs, finished some adorable snowman designs. I'll feature a few here for you to see! Pop by my store Shell's Designsfor a look at all the new products!

Quote for the week: "To give and then not to feel like one has given is the very best of all ways of giving."
Max Beerbohm