MONA & Excellence!!!!

LOOK AT MY NEW SHOES!!!!

I won the national INDY Award of excellence for my new picture book! 

I'm getting these amazing shoes for my Author/Illustrator School visits!!!

I'll wear my new shoes for my upcoming KEYNOTE!!!

They look like me! They look like my picture books!!

People will ask me forever if I painted them myself, but no, I bought them from MONA!

Today has been a day of excellence. A day of exploration. A day of amazement. A day of inspiration-to-the-max!!!

Imagine my extreme enthusiasm to realize that Mona, THE MONA was here IN PERSON!!!
M-O-N-A!!! Here is Sister Bay. All the way from North Carolina: MONA!!! This is a one name phenom, like Beyonce. Mona. Not Mona Lisa. Just Mona. Two syllables. One name. I have been a 'follower' of Mona's work for well over a decade. It never ever dawned on me that she would be in-the-flesh, here in Sister Bay!!!!!! She's a small little power-house of a person & the color and joy are just bursting out of her!

I spurged on a pair of her hand-painted clogs. I will have happy feet for the next year, the next decade, bouncing just above the ground. (I promise the clogs are the same size. LOL! Not sure how this picture would indicate I got one in each size category??? Too silly to take more pictures and download.)

Now the new school year can get underway!!! I have my new pair of back-to-school-shoes for the new year at hand!!! Bring on the eager teachers-of-Tennessee!!! I get to be the keynote presenter next week!!! I'll be the one in the Mona-shoes! Smiling ear-to-ear! Time for my next round of AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR SCHOOL VISITS! I have new shoes!!

From there we jumped on the motorcycle and went off on a new adventure. We had discovered Silver Poplar Gallery early in the week, but it was closed...... so it was back for a real romp & we were thrilled to have the mini-tour. Here's the piece de resistance. The grand barn structure -- which we learned is actually an amalgamation of 7 barns crafted together in the minds of the Wizard of Theatre himself.

It's such a thrill to rub elbows with excellence. Imagination. Whimsy. Dreams. 

*** I've added this article to TBA's amazing international Blog hopping, Ruby Slippers!!

Winners are Announced!!

The winners for my signed books are beginning to roll in! It's such a thrill to find out who will have a copy of "Red, White and Blue" for their observations of Patriot Day. Today I took the first copies to our little post office up here on the edge of the world. It's fun when both of our Post Mistresses are up-to-date on the workings of my contest. They were just as excited as I to be sending the books out into the world. In a little village you tend to get acquainted with with each other.

Editor's note. I don't know what happened to the paragraph where I mentioned the winners names?? I am attempting to learn how to intersperce the pictures with the type. I guess I blew that paragraph away??

Here's a list of all the winners so far -- that we have gotten ahold of:

Sunny in 2nd: Kristen Vollmar, PA
Happy Rainbow: Connie Dyson, GA
Owl Factory: Andrea Fletcher, OK
Best of TpT: Laura Major, LA
Froggies in 4th: Melissa McNamara, NY
Learning Ahoy: Paula Belchior, NJ
Illuminations; Bette Vaughan, FL

From here: Mary McGough, PA
also from RWR: Joni A., OR
also from RWR: Barbara Greuber, TX

In our list of winners it seems that we have covered quite a spectrum. Pennsylvania came out on top with two winners. In addition we have a teacher whose husband is bound for Afghanastan this fall & she has done her entire classroom in patrioritc theme to support his mission. We also have a teacher from Harlem -- she is certainly the closest to Ground Zero. We have PreK thru First grade represented. We have a not-quite-graduated beginning teacher selected and  teachers with lots of seniority, with years of experience, too. My books are going from coast to coast!!!

HUGE thanks to all of my blogging-buddies who helped to spread the word of my labor-of-love.

I'll be making daily trips to the post office while we get this all sorted out! [The pictures are from our Fourth of July parade festivities over in Bailey's Harbor last month. The local book store takes up a collection to send new books to those who are serving abroad.]

Meanwhile I had a ball at Pinterest today. I made a board for all things "You're Wonderful." To show you just how over-the-moon I am with this resource, I took my laptop to the beach for our daily afternoon sunshine and made a board just for me: all things polka-dotted, black and white, striped and checked! LOVE LOVE LOVE having all of these ideas in one 'folder' & always available.

Pinterest! Resource!! LUV!!!!!

[Note from the editor, several weeks after the this post was published, there is a linkie party over at TBA (Teaching Blog Addict) where a guest poster, Ms Kerri, has a linkie party with our favorite resources for the classroom. Go to the linkup to be saturated with a gazillion new ideas for your classroom!! Thanks for the opportunity to share my resource collection with a wider world!! I'm an author/illustrator + music lady and my pinboards support the use of my books & songs in the classroom.]

Yes. Today is the day! Today is THE day!!!
After weeks and weeks of attempting to get in the front door of one of Time Magazine's Top 50 websites of the year, I am kicking up my heels. I'm celebrating my membership at Pinterest. [It's a dingy-Debbie story about the delay & I won't bore you with those details. Let's just say that I had a moment of clarity this morning around 6:00 and now I'm in!!!!!!!! Insert uncontrollable laughter now.]


Here are my main goals for Pinterest:

• Create a 'board' for my Debbie Clement classics.

Today I have jumped right in & created some great visual collections for my three picture books: "Red, White and Blue" + "Tall Giraffe"  + "You're Wonderful." I love creating a collection of craft projects, snacks, DIY (do-it-yourself) bulletin board, fine motor, directed reading ideas to support your 'extension' & 'expansion' of my little ditties!!! I've gotten underway on behalf of Goldie Goldfish, Creepy Monsters, Lion Prowl. and even the lesser known Busy Buzzy Bumblebee!!!! How excited am I?

• Create a 'board' for inspiration.

Today I started on a collection of rainbows in all sorts of media. I've also begun to assemble an ensemble of quotations & words that are uplifting. Tidbits to give you some spring in your step. Pinterest is all about inspiration!!!

• Create a 'board' for art projects.

Today this also got underway!!! Children's art!!! Amazing process & open-ended, hands on ideas that have been successfully directed by Art teachers, classroom teachers and parents. I will be adding photos I've taken in hallways across the country in due time. (Patience, grasshopper.)


Oh happy day!!!!!!! This truly has to be the best thing since the invention of the wheel. For life in the cyber world -- where every possible resource is at your beck & call, it just takes a system to organize all of the potential that's a click away. Ideas galore. I am sooooooo excited!!!


I can't wait to learn more!


Today I learned how to set up a board. How to pin. How to repin. How to search within Pinterest. How to look at friend's collections. How to follow new people. Special thanks to Deborah Stewart, Laura Major, Ayn Cosh and the very young and brilliantly pinning, Brittany Coon.... whose collections I have pinned extensively into my baby boards. They have resources that are truly amazing for the early childhood world. "It's all about sharing resources," in the words of my fellow Deborah Jo. (read this post for our past collaborations.) I can't wait to delve into Cate Heronan's amazing collection!

Next up are Dinosaur Romp and Monkey Fun. In due time it would be awesome to catalogue boards for bicycles/Ride my Bike and vegetables/Eating Healthy and Reggio Emilia and art materials and quilt projects and fabric and daisies and sailboat sunsets and Venice and and and and and AND!!!!!!! Pinterest is all about the AND!! I will need to make a note to brush my teeth. I am willing to sacrifice my time on Facebook. This is the opportunity of a lifetime! Have I mentioned that I'm excited? [Morning after editor's note: I got a FB message from Brittany prompting me to make boards -- collections for polka dots & stripes --  and of course that is beyond making my heart race!!!]

********I've been able to get my Pinterest account and this blog post linked up with "Michelle's Math in the Middle" blog-hop. Be sure and check out all the friends who are pinning by going over to her page right here!!!


******* I have the link to my "Pinterest account" permanently catalogued in a 'button' at the top of this blog page. Click there to be transported into a world that weaves dreams and tulle into gossamer joy!!!!!

*******Yes! The contest ended last night at midnight. I am awaiting a couple more winners being announced by my fellow bloggers, before I announce the winners here. Come back tomorrow!!!!

Winning, Perseverance & 9-11

I have so much to learn.
I'm willing.
Willingness is a huge part of the equation.
I'm listening.
Listening to those ahead-on-the-learning curve is key.
I'm making progress.
Measurable progress leads to more effort & further willingness.
I'm the queen of baby steps.

Inertia is the enemy. Procrastination the trap.

I'm moving forward at my speed.
Movement is cause for celebration!!!!
I'm passionate about my work 
Passion and opportunity are the means.

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Follow what you love & it will take you where you want to go." --Natalie Goldberg

"Desire creates the power."  --Raymond Holliwell

"Fall in love with what you do, believe in it, 

strive to continuously improve." --Bob Moawad

"You have a unique message to deliver:
a unique song to sing, 

a unique act of love to bestow. 

This message, this song, and this act of love have been entrusted 

exclusively to the one and only you." --John Powell

Tonight at midnight concludes my first ever Blog-Hop and linkie party. I've learned much in the process about what I don't know about both of these concepts. There's still time to get your name entered in the hat! It's a thrill to have gotten my newest book, "Red, White and Blue" off of the printing presses, but I know that milestone is only the beginning of the actual work.  It is always my direct responsibility to see that it (the book/the CD/the DVD) gets into the hands of those for whom it could be of use. I wish that I could report that winning the INDIE Award has sky-rocketed me beyond the need to personally keep learning all about marketing. 

Alas. I will indeed focus on what I can learn about social media and tweeting and Triberr and the nuances of Facebook and LinkedIN and BranchOut and who knows what else will be coming down the pike?? A hearty thanks to all of my blogging-cyber family who have pitched in and shared about this particular resource, my labor-of-love. Neither Oprah in her newest evolution nor Ellen nor Regis have called. So I will continue on my taking one step at a time juggling act in an effort to pump-up my word-of-mouth campaign efforts. 

I honestly, truly believe this project of mine could be the perfect resource for a teacher [or even a whole school !!] searching for an expression of their spirit, in the face of the 10th anniversary of September 11th. I long for its being 'available' and on the radar for those needing such a resource. How to connect the dots? How to get it to those looking for a way to address this turn in our history? To make this moment approachable with young children? How else can I get it into the right hands. I've sent a copy to the White House, but they haven't called either. Hmmm.

Next week we will travel to Tennessee where I get to deliver the keynote: HURRAY!! An entire auditorium of early childhood educators who will hear the song and read the book in time for use in September.

I have two keynotes in OH as fall unfolds. NAEYC is the next 'biggy' on the horizon. One step and then another and another..... with any luck I will still be here shepherding this project forward as we approach the 11th and the15th anniversary and the 20th too. Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps. Everything in due time.


Having given 'birth' to these projects of mine is just the beginning. Standing behind them over time is the responsibility. 

"From a certain point onward there is no turning back. 

That is the point that must be reached."  -- Franz Kafka

"The real moment of success 

is not the moment apparent to the crowd." -- George Bernard Shaw

"Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating

all your energies on a limited set of targets." --Nido Gubein

"Some succeed because they are destined to;

most succeed because they are determined to." --Anatole France

P.S. You may order "Red, White and Blue" and use the promo code: RWB911 at any time, now through the end of September and receive 20% off of the retail price.

Author "Interview"

Here's a visit to my living room in Door County, Wisconsin. I wanted to share my excitement over my recent INDIE Excellence Award. Take a look inside my newest picture book and see what all of the excitement is about! Watch as I attempt to balance the book and my excitement with the original quilts!! [Click here to see the fireworks quilt under construction.]

You still have a couple of days to get registered for my first Blog-hop contest! Refer back to this post to learn all of the ways that you can enter to win a signed copy of my book, "Red, White and Blue." I will be giving away 11 copies, selecting from those who have left a comment on the contest announcement blog post from last week (all you have to do is scroll down a bit.)

Everything that I attempt is a team effort. My dear husband Allen filmed this little bit of 'show and tell' on his telephone and then worked well past his early morning golfer's curfew, in an effort to get the music's intro into place. Isn't this technology amazing?? I can talk to you from the comfort of my own leather loveseat up here in paradise. Be sure to tell your friends that they can enter at each blog in the blog hop to increase their odds of winning!!

P.S. If you are having trouble getting "in" to leave a comment, please feel free to drop me an email at my address listed above in the contact section and I will enter your name for you. Now it would be an enormous help if you could 'tweet' this or repost it to your FB world and circle of influence. THANKS in advance for all of your support!

9-11 Picture Book Contest Continues

We have company!!! We have our friends from Ohio with us for the weekend, up here in our little slice of paradise. So it's time for corned beef hash at the Viking Grill (see the movie, "Feed the Fish" for a complete setting reference.)

You have until Tuesday night at midnight to get entered to win one of 11 signed copies of my book. Please enter here and then go on to the other sites in our little blog hop for additional opportunities to win. Scroll back to yesterday's post and join the fun!

Today's our Arts festival is here in Sister Bay. All we need is a little sun.

Sept. 11th Picture Book Resource

It was a crystal-clear blue sky day for a mid-September Tuesday. September 11th. It was late in the morning & I was so proud of myself for standing there in the line at the post office with my package, ready to wing its way south to my little sister Rebecca (my collaborator on my 2nd picture book, Tall Giraffe.) For once I was prepared! My present would get to her in plenty of time. I put the box on the counter top and asked the postal employee how long it would take to get to Georgia. Her response made no sense. She shrugged and said, "I have no idea."

Clueless as to her meaning, she finally offered, "I have no idea how long before airplanes will fly again." She could see I was totally baffled and searching for insight. Her complete explanation was, "turn on the radio when you get in your car."  I returned to my car and started down High Street. I came to learn that everything about our world had changed while I was wrapping that birthday present. While packing my car to depart for our annual Artist-in-the-Schools showcase, the Twin Towers had been assaulted and began their cascade into history.

I listened to the radio. The interstate was nearly deserted yet, I continued to drive to the Ohio Theatre in disbelief. How was this possible? How could it be? I arrived at the front door of the historic venue to be greeted by Jim Arter saying that our event had been cancelled. He gave me a big bear hug and counseled me to drive very carefully back to my home base. So I was hours & hours late to the news of how our country had been changed. This was life before my cell phone. I heard the news before I saw the news. I sat in utter shock to see TV coverage.

Friday of that week, was our national day of prayer, mourning & reflection and I was agonizing over going to the New Albany Jewish Community Center to lead my preschoolers in music. It wasn't seeing the children that concerned me. I was upset at the prospect of leading the noon-time, Tot Shabbat service for all of the extended families who weekly gathered to light the candles and share the challah. What on earth could I contribute that would be appropriate to the day, to children and to the inter-generational gathering of families? I wanted to crawl under my covers & stay home.

It was while preparing to leave for the synagogue that I remembered I had a flag-bag. A bag FILLED with flags. (Do you remember? By that point in the week you could no longer buy the American flag in America. There had been a rush on flag purchases and the flag providers had run out.) My plan = children + flags.

My hope? Maybe the parents and grandparents would be comforted by seeing their own beloved children holding the stars and stripes. All I needed was a little something, a little dittie they could sing. While driving to the center I kept repeating: keep it simple. Make it simple enough that the children themselves will sing. I started with the two easiest of phrases: red, white and blue -- followed by I love you. There wasn't one adult with a dry eye.


I released the song on my 4th CD with a full blown arrangement of those two phrases plus a few more, complete with banjo & background singers in harmony. Some years passed and I learned how to become a picture book publisher. Releasing my first book as both author & illustrator taught me much. I knew as soon as I finished the quilts for "You're Wonderful" that it was time to get to work on the quilt illustrations to transform the song "Red, White and Blue" into its book format. Song & book together would be a resource for teachers leading 911 observations in the future. It would be a resource for all patriotic occasions: Veterans Day, Memorial Day, even the Fourth of July. So I returned to my sewing machine.

 It took over five years to make the 16 quilts necessary to create the 32 page book. I was derailed twice during those five years with personal diagnosis of early stage Breast Cancer and the follow-up surgeries, radiation treatment and various complications. It was just last summer not even a year ago, that I was completing the final quilt. The book was just printed in time for my fall schedule of events, teacher trainings and concerts with a formal launch at NAEYC in CA, where I met Arlana & we spoke of my bring the book to our US Army bases in Europe. It was that trip to both Germany & Italy that I got to tour and perform in Reggio Emilia.

I love being able to share the finished quilts on school visits with the children, sharing the process of having a dream and following it through all of the necessary steps: surmounting rejection to bring your idea to completion. Often when the children see the illustrations in the book they have no idea what 'media' I used to create all of those colors. They guess paint and crayons, markers and colored pencils. They are always amazed when I bring out the actual quilts. At that point we compare how the quilt in reality compares with the finished book's illustration.

"Red, White and Blue" has traveled far on its word-of-mouth marketing plan. With last week's amazing win of an INDIE Award of Excellence  it felt time to enlist the help of friends to tell the story to a wider audience. Today launches my first concerted effort to use fellow bloggers and social media to get the word further than my personal appearances. I have enlisted fellow educational bloggers to introduce my project to their reading audiences. In total I will be giving away 11 signed copies in an effort to raise awareness of the existence of this resource for teachers and communities to celebrate this amazing country of ours with the children of a truly amazing & diverse heroic spirit.

******Click here to see You Tube video of teachers learning the song & sign language to support its singing.
******Click here to see Carie's kindergarten in their YouTube performance: K children performing the song.

 
[EDITOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I am now a participant at Teacher's Pay Teachers and am offering this song as a digital download in a zipped file and Mp3 format. It includes the charts from the end matter of the book: the sign language chart and the music notation with chords, plus the page of flag facts. Click here for the direct link to that opportunity for immediate download.]

You can have a total of four chances to win a signed copy, by entering in any & all of these manners below:

1. one chance to win by leaving a comment here on my blog post (please leave your email so I am certain to be able to get a hold of you to track down your snail mail address if you are the winner.)
2. one chance to win by officially following this blog thru FB networked blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog and it's in the lower right hand corner)
3. one chance to win by following me on Twitter: Kweezlequeen
4. one chance to win by tweeting this blog post to the big world.

Please link up any ideas that you might have regarding reflections on 9-11, supporting children thru the observation of the 10th Anniversary of 9-11....... all art and craft projects dealing with a patriotic feeling of flags, fireworks and designs of red, white and blue would be very much appreciated.

Here are some of my blogging-friends and their thoughts on my book.

• For insight from a school counselor in supporting children during this time as we approach 9-11, please go read at Barbara's blog, Corner on Character
• From a fellow Deborah Jo, the queen of preschool, visit Deborah's blog to see her insight when my book was first hot off the presses: TeachPreschool
• For insight from a kindergarten teacher and to see their class quilt flag project go to visit Jennifer at Empowering Little Learners
• For additional insight for the kindergarten crowd go over and read Kayla's post at Kindergarten Lesson Plans

For further insight into this project and opportunities to win your own signed copy of my book please visit these blogs and follow their instructions.

• From the insight of a 2nd grade teacher please read Denise's Sunny Days in Second Grade
• For insight from a 'rare' male kindergarten teacher & fellow rainbow-person please read Matt's personal account & review at Look at My Happy Rainbow
• From one who chronicles about books, please go read at Carolyn's, WiseOwlFactory
• From one who supports the efforts of other teachers creativity & hard work go read Vicky's account at The Best of Teachers Pay Teachers
  
• From a teacher of mature 4th graders, please go read at Lorraine's 4thGradeFroggies
• From one who works with K-2nd students w special needs read Caitlin's Learning Ahoy
• From the perspective of a preschool teacher read Ayn's Little Illuminations

*****TO ORDER YOUR OWN COPY, Please click through here to my website to place your personal order.
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