Tuesday's Topic: Family bonding and hot dogs

Welcome to July and Happy Tuesday! Bonus, it’s a brand new month AND we get to eat hot dogs by the pound for weeks now. Well… at least my family will be

In the not too distant future I will be venturing off onto a road trip with my 3 children (and adorably dorky husband, of course). We’re traveling to visit family and have a little vacation time together. I love road trips and I really enjoy spending unscheduled, unplanned, unorganized time with my family. It’s nice to just “wing it”. We discover new things together, explore, maybe we’re not extremely adventurous, but we do try to be open to finding new unexpected things around occasional corners.

I’m hoping we’ll find some neat stops that aren’t necessarily “on the map”.

I’ll tell you about them as I find them.


Bless America with the Statue of Liberty Penguin

I hope you enjoy your July 4th – and if you’re celebrating, stay safe!

Meet the Chef Penguin

Lately, in my house, we’ve been cooking a lot. Tons of celebrations and cakes and family and food. We love to cook together, especially banana bread. So I thought a great way to start “today’s featured design” would be to start out with our little friend the Chef penguin

Chef penguin

Chef penguin, a fun original penguin design by JGoode. T-shirts and gifts, for your favorite Chef. View Available Products

The Penguin and a Student Art Show

I am all about art and art education and art for the sake of just being creative for 37 seconds. So when I was asked if I could help out with an art show at the Ellen Browning Scripps school in San Diego, I jumped up at the opportunity. The school’s mascot is a penguin, so it was a perfect fit

I created 575 mini buttons and sent them to California this past week.

Each button had a picture of my penguin as the art penguin with the words “creativity is something wonderful” written above. Then, I put each button in a mini jewelry bag and included a card that said…

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” ~ Edgar Degas

“I Believe there is an artist in us all. How or what you choose to create is entirely up to you. I’ve created drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures – big, small and much more. My favorite creations are always those that remind me of a special moment. My life is my art and my art is my life. ” ~ Jennifer Goode • jgoode.com

I spent a few days putting all this penguin fun together, but when it was all done and said it was SO worth it. I was sent some of the most wonderful photos in return. Kids and their art and art by the kids and just art every where. I Love it! It’s so fantastic to me to see what results from a little creative inspiration. Amazing, really amazing.

The art show’s theme was “Thumbs Up for Art”.

The event committee also created a penguin (With my written permission of course) big enough to allow all the students to add their thumb print, creating a group masterpiece. The result was a terrific pointillism penguin.

Check out this wonderful art created by the students…

A special thanks to Tara for asking me to be involved in this fabulous event… thousands of miles away, yet I had a delightful time!

note: these event photos are courtesy of and used with permission by the original photographer.

Heading to Seattle for 3 Days of Walking

The penguin and I will be participating in a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-day walk In September, 2008. It’s 3 days walking 60 miles and loads of pink!

I have joined up with a fabulous group, Affiliate Marketers Give Back to help raise funds for the cure and I’m taking the penguin with me. We’re so excited to get involved this year!

I will be blogging about my experiences along the way including my adventures in training – it’s amazing how many muscles there are in my body that I don’t use regularly when I sit at this computer. I had no idea! They will all be in shape by September, I promise! I will even try to add in some videos from time to time — be prepared, I am not a professional film maker.

I’d love you to get involved and support me in this journey!

You can sponsor me by visiting my special donation page

Net proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust, funding important breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment. Every dollar helps – I would really love all the support I can get!

About donating…

  • All donors will be listed on my Thank You page.
  • For individuals or companies interested in larger sponsorship benefits – You can sponsor a logo spot on our team shirts for $1000.00. There are 12 team member who will all be wearing these shirts for the entire 3 days.

More ways you can help..

  • Purchase any of my Pink Ribbon Penguin or other Breast Cancer awareness products now through August 15th, 2008 and 100% of my commissions will be donated to our team fund.
  • Spread the word by posting a link on your own site about our team (tell them JGoode sent you ~grin)
  • Purchase something from our team shop – 100% of the shop commissions will be donated to the team.
  • Visit PinkRibbonPenguins.com to read about my progress, updates on donations and more.
  • Watch for other for-purchase items as well as additional sponsorship logo options in the near future.

Please share your experiences and thoughts – this is a journey for us all and I am excited to share my portion of it with you!

IF: Save – The Hero Penguin

This week’s Illustration Friday theme is Save. There are a number of ways I visualize the word “save”, but for today I think the super hero penguin does the trick. He’s all about being there to help, but was originally designed as a fun “icon” to represent being there for your family… “Be a super hero for your kids”. Be fun and bigger than life. Be the protector and the motivator. Be a hero!

Superhero penguin

Every day I strive to do my best, but I’m pretty sure I have plenty of room for improvement. My goal is to have my kids think back and remember happiness.

Good People Day

Oh yes it is! April 3rd is Good People Day (according to one of my new found inspirations, Gary Vaynerchuk). I could go on and on about all the Good People I’ve met, all the Good I hope to offer People and all the People that do Good, but there’s no way there is enough room to list every name, and I would be horrified if I left one person out.

So instead I want to say THANK YOU to all the people that have inspired me, encouraged me, taught me or been there when I needed them.

This is to all the people that wake up every morning with an attitude ready to make a difference in the day… ready to conquer the world, no matter how big or small for the moment. To all the people that strive to better themselves. All the people that reach out and help those in need. To all those people that are just darn Good People.

These are the people that I hope to meet, sit with, surround my life with. It’s the Good People in the world that make the world a better place to be… and it’s the tiniest of good that can make a difference…

Try, just for today, to do One Good Thing for one person and see how it can spread. One Good Thing! Then challenge them to do the same. Take just a moment to let at least one person know that they are Good People! 😀

So here it is again, The Do Good Penguin…

YOU ARE
GOOD PEOPLE!
Thank you for being a part of my day

original designs by JGoode at myJGD.com

Some Good People Blogs I recommend:

[tags]jgoode, penguin, good people,GPD08[/tags]