Susanna Prince 

Issue: #38

         January/February  2012    

Crackerjack Contemporary Crafts Newsletter
Celebrating the Handmade since 1986
In This Issue
Things to Celebrate!
Spelling Foibles
Quick Links
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oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

      Now that we are past a week of snow,  inventory and all the year-end chores, we are getting ready for Valentine's Day! Such a sweet, fun holiday to perk up the dark days of winter with pink and red, flowers and candy, love and friendship. It is a nice time to contemplate the lovely people who are in our lives - all of you included!

      But even before Valentine's Day, is Wear Red for Women's Heart Health. This year it falls on Friday, February 3. We are showing our support by offering $$$$ Off when you shop wearing red! Get $5.00 off a purchase of $25. or more, OR $10. off a purchase of $50. or more. You must be wearing something significant in red - a dress, skirt, coat, etc. In other words, a barrette just wouldn't cut it!

                
                             Red dresses

        So don your reds, and come shop for your Valentine!


Olivina Set
              Honeysuckle Rose, a very romantic fragrance, now available
                             in Bubble Bath! Let us gift wrap a
soap, hand creme
                                    and some bubble bath for an indulgent gift!



        We've been replenishing our selection of jewelry and soaps after the holidays, we have new fun magnets, pretty handmade cards and chocolates by local chocolatiers. Scarves are always a welcome gift, whether silk or fake fur!

  Caron Miller Neck Snuggly             burnout velvet shawl

Martie Carroll


     Check out our new online store! After problems encountered during the Holidays (of course!), we decided to revamp it, and think you will find it easier to use. A lot of the most popular items are already there, and we will be adding more all the time. And if there is something we carry that you think would be a good item for us to offer online, please let us know - we are always open to suggestions from our customers!

Small Business Saturday
We Appreciate Your Business!
  

 
Things to Celebrate!









Jan 25 -   Macintosh Computer Day - had  
     to start with this day, since I am an
     Apple computer user
since my first
     MacPlus in 1987!      MacPlus Computer                            
Jan 26 - National Peanut brittle Day
Jan 27 - National Chocolate Cake Day
Jan 28 - National Kazoo Day
Jan 29 - Ice Cream Cone Rolling Machine
       Patented
Jan 30 - Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day -
     Ewa is our in house appreciator of
     bubble wrap - she has startled us all on
     more than one occasion!
Jan 31 - Inspire Your Heart with Art Day-
     come on in and be inspired by the
     work of over 200 artists!

Feb 1 - G.I. Joe Day - I was so happy
when they brought the large size back when my son was into them - so much more fun to play with than the little "guys".
 
                  G.I.Joe Doll
Feb 2 - Groundhog, Hedgehog &       Marmot Day. A marmot looks just like a groundhog to me, and is prevalent in Alaska, so they have replaced Groundhog Day with Marmot Day! 
         MarmotPretty cute, huh?

Feb 3 - Wear RED Day - build awareness of women's heart health by wearing red, and we will reward you! Receive $5. off your purchase of $25. or more, OR $10. off your purchase of $50. or more!

Feb 4 - Ice Cream for Breakfast day

Feb 5 - World Nutella Day (which I personally find more interesting than that it's Super Bowl XLVI, but to each her own!) The Roman numerals make me think of another story - see the article below!

Feb 6 - National Frozen Yogurt day
Feb 7 - National Fettuccine Alfredo Day
Feb 8 - Opera Day - another one for Ewa!
Feb 9- Hershey's Chocolate Founded
The Kiss is a Street Light! I drove through Hershey, PA one night while on a road trip. One of the girls had been there before and insisted we detour to see the Kiss shaped street lights!

Feb 10 - Umbrella Day
Feb 11 - White Shirt Day
Feb 12 - Abraham Lincoln's Birthday- also my husband's birthday. My mother-in-law once had me convinced that his middle name was Abraham. His middle initial is A, and for a minute I wasn't sure - he had told me it was Alan. Which it is. I wonder why they didn't go with Abraham???

Feb 13 - National Tortellini Day

Feb 14 - Valentine's Day! 
                Candy Hearts

Feb 15 - Do a Grouch a Favor Day &
               National Gumdrop Day
Feb 16 - National Almond Day - my friend Carol Anne comes from a large almond-producing area in California, and she pronounces almond with an "a" sound the same as you'd use for salmon. I'd never heard it pronounced that way!

Feb 17 - First Canned Sardines Packaged
Feb 18 - Pluto Discovered - New Mexico has declared March 13 as Pluto is a Planet Day!

Feb 19 - Chocolate Mint Day - this has never been a flavor I would choose, but this year I'm finding it particularly appealing!

Feb 20 - Presidents' Day - Honor Abe & George!

Feb 21 - Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday - the revelry before the restrictions of Lent.
                       Mardi Gras

Feb 22 - Ash Wednesday
               George Washington's Birthday

Feb 23 - National Chili Day
Feb 24 - First Multi-Stage Rocket
Feb 25 - International Sword Swallowers
                   Day
               Open That Bottle Night
Feb 26 - National Personal Chefs Day
Feb 27 - International Polar Bear Day
                     Polar Bear
                   I thought this was so cute, but it really shows the
                predicament these poor animals are in, with the ice melting
                                      too soon, or not being big enough.

Feb 28 - National Tooth Fairy Day - she must be real if she has her own day, right?
Feb 29 - Leap Year Day!
               Bachelor's Day 

-  

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We regularly offer gift certificates through the Wallingford Center Fan Page, so "Like" both Crackerjack and Wallingford Center to stay in the loop! 

 

 

Spelling Foibles



     I am a good speller.
This is both a gift and a curse. A curse because misspellings stand out for me like sore thumbs, and it's hard to move past them. I can find a greeting card I love, but if there is a word spelled incorrectly, I won't be able to buy it. It goes on and on.

     It began when I was a kid. I learned all those crazy rules (to which there seem to be nothing but exceptions): "I before E except after C", "a vowel followed by a consonant and then an E, says its own name", "a word beginning with a vowel, or a soft H, should be preceded by "an"".

     Every Sunday, after church, we would drive to the drug store so my dad could buy a newspaper. Often we would wait in the car for him, and I would ponder the sign on the bookstore next door. There was a large vertical sign, white with black block letters, hung perpendicular to the building. It read BOOK'S. That sign drove me crazy! I knew it wasn't Book's Bookstore, and I would think that there were at least three people involved in the creation of that sign - the bookstore owner, the person at the sign shop who took the order, and the person who fabricated the sign. The fact that not one of them had caught such a simple spelling error just baffled me!

     And so it began - the misspelling as the optical illusion of my life. Once you've seen that the vase is also two people looking at each other, you can not go back to just seeing the vase!

     My mother is not a good speller, even though she'd been a secretary. But she at least knew not to trust herself, and would double-check. And of course when you were typing on a manual typewriter, in triplicate, I suppose double-checking yourself was cheap insurance! She also found people she could trust with her queries. One of my sisters worked in an office with a woman who knew all the correct forms of address and form, as well as spelling, so my mom was known to call my sister at work, not to talk to her, but to her coworker!

     My dad, on the other hand, was pretty good as I remember. He also would notice incorrect spellings, and took care that things were accurate. He was an engineer, and had a company that manufactured interior car trim parts. The name of the company was Mark VIII. One day he was speaking to a woman at another company who was typing his information and when he told her the name of his company, he said "Mark Eight, with Roman Numerals." The typing stopped, there was a long pause, and the woman said, "But I don't have Roman Numerals on my typewriter!".

     So of course it was my dad, when I proudly showed him my resume which I had just picked up from the printer (all twenty-five, two-page copies on nice linen laid tan paper), who told me I had a misspelling. "What!" I said. "Where?" "Here" he said. And he pointed to a phrase near the bottom of the second page. "No, that's right," I insisted, "I before E except after -Oh!" I had spelled "received" wrong! "Oh, it's at the bottom of the page, no one will notice," I replied hopefully. My dad just looked at me and said "You're going to apply for teaching jobs, and you think no one will notice?" I had to agree. So back to my original, typed resume, correct it, back to the printer, twenty-five copies of page two. It was worth it - and my dad offered to pay for the printing!

     Of course, now we all use computers and have Spell-Check, but even that can not be relied upon. There have been several instances when I keep getting a red underline, and play around with a word, and finally just look it up, and I am right, and Spell-Check is wrong. And then there's the whole context thing. Yes, "to" is spelled correctly, but it is not the right word to use if your phrase is "Let's go too".

     I do find it interesting to "collect" misspellings, and I share that with Jane at work. We enjoy them, as well as grammatical errors. And I refer to people as "creative spellers" rather than "poor spellers". After all, not everyone shares my affliction. I must admire some of the misspelling I encounter - it really makes a lot more sense than if someone had followed the silly rules! Like the word "weird". Now what rule governs that spelling? And doesn't it look weird whichever way you spell it?


 
 

Happy
         Valentine's  
                          Day!

 

 

 

 

 

Kathleen Koch 

Crackerjack Contemporary Crafts 

 

Thank You for your continued patronage of a local independent business and for supporting American handmade!