Joy around the world

This week (december 15-21) is International Launguage week. Although I am not fluent in any language except English (and even that is questionable), I thought a great Tuesday’s topic is to say

Merry Christmas

Feliz Navidad!

Joyeux Noel!

Fröhliche
Weihnachten!

and many more available at Santas.net

If you are traveling, may it be safe and filled with sily Christmas songs. I hope your holiday is wonderful.

– because next tuesday is Christmas Day, I’ll be blogging early, and you’re welcome to as well. The topic is: enjoy time with friends and family.

Have a wonderful holiday!

[tags]merry christmas,holiday,tuesdays topic, jgoode[/tags]

Bloggers unite for Kindness

Today, December 17th, 2007 thousands of bloggers are uniting to share their stories of their own acts of kindness.

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“Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. ” Read More

So today I’d like to share a neat online organization I just discovered… Donorschoose.org.

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Donors Choose is a non profit oraganization originally started by a school in the Bronx, New York. Teachers can submit proposals for funds and the public can then choose to donate a portion or all of the requested funds. Its a great way to help individual classrooms and make a big difference to the students involved.

As soon as I heard about this site, I got involved. You can search by subject, age, location, keyword and more. I chose a couple different projects to help with. One request inparticular was located right here in Colorado. The teacher requested funds to buy each of her students a new book to read over the holiday break. A good portion of the request had already been fullfilled, so I was able to complete the funding – hopefully just in time for the holidays.

The other inspiring idea on this site is that you can purchase a gift certificate for someone else. Your recipient can then choose which project/s they’d like to support. What a fabulous gift!

I had so much fun reading about the different projects and the teachers wishes for their students. There are so many ways we can help with such a tiny bit of effort, it amazes me how true the statement – little things really can make a difference.

[tags]acts of kindness, charity, donation, jgoode[/tags]

Illustration Friday: little things

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “little things”. A wide array of ideas came to mind…

“It’s the thought that counts” – seeing as how it’s gift giving season. Or, “don’t sweat the small stuff” – the title of a great follow up to “seven habits of highly effective people” and a great motto to stick in your head from time to time. Or what about, “make a difference one… at a time”? Or a number of other popular quotes, cliche quotes or great thoughts to hold on to. But what kept outnumbering all the rest… tiny toes and tiny fingers. My house is full of them, along with tiny boogers and oodles of tiny messes.

But rather than bore you with a choatic illustration of my family room, I thought the tiny baby penguins would be much cuter and “aw” worthy of a topic like this. So … my visual ode to “little things”:

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and for your sharing enjoyment, each design is featured on a variety of gift items:  Cute Lil’ Chick, Future Egghead, Just Hatched, I’m the Momma
-wink

[tags]illustration friday, jgoode, penguins, art, gifts[/tags]

Happy Big Momma Day

Today is Big Mama Day, “marking the birth on this date in 1926 of  in Montgomery, Alabama. A popular blues singer in the 1940s and ’50s, she recorded “Hound Dog” four years before Elvis. Janis Joplin recorded her “Ball and Chain.” Big Mama died in 1984 at age 57″.

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It’s also my mom’s birthday, so its a double big mama day, although I’m not sure she’d like to be called big mama. I remember back in junior high I thought it would be neat to start calling her Mama – she quit responding. She wasn’t pleased at all.

Today is also National Noodle Ring Day. I’m not quite sure what a noodle ring is, nor could I find any information on it. A few sites seem to be promoting pasta in general but I’d prefer to redefine noodle ring all toghether.

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In my house “noodle” has a second meaning. Family members have said “I love you oodles” since I can remember. So when my first son began to talk he didn’t know what an oodle was, (yeah, what’s an oodle?) so he thought it was ” I love you noodles”. From there it was shortened to simply “noodles” and if you really must reply without making any publically known sense, you can happily respond with “meatballs” or some other pasta related word… if everyone is paying attention.

So… Noodles Mom, hope you have a grand international you day!

photo image from wikipedia

[tags]birthdays, celebrate, tuesdays topic[/tags] 

Playing Santa

For the past 3 years I have been lucky enough to be able to participate in a gift exchange with a great group of online friends and peers. We each sign up, include a little bit about what we like, don’t like, favorite colors, art preferences, etc. Each year the group gets a little bigger, the exchange item choices broaden and the fun grows.

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gift wrapping is my favorite part

 

This year my giftee is a fellow designer I was fortunate to meet just over a year ago at a conference hosted by CafePress. Jen Funderburk is the owner, operator and inspirational motivation behind LekkerDesigns.com… one of my all time favorite design shops since I began with Cafepress. I’ve always appreciated the clean images combined with a twist of attitude, it’s like Suzy on the surfer seashore selling snazzy seashells filled with mini shots of your favorite flavor with a retro swizzle. – wink – Always a good time when one browses the Lekker Shops!

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Now, the idea behind this gift exchange is: send a design gift, something from your own shop/collection or something the recipient might be fond of. I have always taken this opportunity to design specifically for the recipient for this occasion; an item that can’t be purchased by anyone else so its truly a one of a kind. So with that in mind, I was a bit worried about coming up with a design Jen would like. I tend to create fluffy cutie patootie meets Barbie’s little sister with a lollipop… ya know, sometimes ooie gooie and perhaps overly smilie – dontcha think? Some people just aren’t that fluffy.

however …

“Lekker” is dutch for tasty, enjoyable or delicious – I can grasp that, so I grabbed a pile of critters and ran with an idea – I plowed forward regardless of my worries… and here’s the result.

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The 2007 lekker thoughts Journal

 

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“notes of inspiration and greatness”

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The hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkey manget
to post those evil reminders on the fridge

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and a teeny tiny original JGoode penguin charm

 

I love the holiday season. For me it’s not about the gifts and the shopping or the parties or the food… it’s about the people and the giving and the potential for an unexpected grin – or 5. – speaking of, I sent this gift with no note of the gift exchange – leaving Jen to wonder why I sent the package, ha! silly me… sometimes Santa forgets too I’m sure.

 

[tags]holidays,occasions,jgoode,gifts[/tags]

Get Gift Certificates!

Not sure which JGoode grin they’d like best, which penguin they’ll want or what size they wear?

OR running out of time to ship?

Now you can purchase a gift certificate for your favorite people to pick out their own JGoode Designs goodies.

Because JGD products are manufactured by CafePress, you can now share the JGD grins with cafePress gift certificates.. new this holiday season!

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  • Available in denominations between $10 and $1,000
  • Include a personal greeting in the email announcing your gift
  • Gift certificates are not taxed and never expire

IMPORTANT: CP gift certificates can be used for any product sold at cafepress, so to ensure your gift recipient looks for JGoode Designs, Create a “Gift Cart”.

Here’s how…

  1. Browse JGoode Designs
  2. Add items to your cart
  3. Click “Create a Gift Cart” (upper right of the JGD site).

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  4. A new window will open explaing how to create a gift cart
  5. Click “Continue to Gift Cart”
  6. A new windo will open displaying a cafepress shopping cart.
  7. Scroll down until you see an orange button on the right side which says “Gift this Cart”.

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  8. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete your gift certificate order.

Also: you can include “check out JGoodeDesigns.com” to your gift message so your recipient will know where you found your fun gift suggestions.

Gift Tip: if you’d like to have your gift cerficate sent at a time different from your purchase date, send the gift certificate to yourself and then you can forward the message or print it out to give to your giftee whenever you’d like
*Gift certificates are emailed once your order is processed.
Discounts and promotional offers may not be applied to gift certificate purchases

Gift Certificate Terms & Conditions

[tags]shopping,gift,jgoode,christmas[/tags]