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Keepsaker’s Korner
Next Meeting is Thursday February 21 at 7pm *** Please note that
there is a date change from our regular schedule in February. The second
Thursday is Valentines Day and the store will be too busy to have us
there. So the club voted to have the
meeting the following week. **** OKCC meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month. We meet at Becky’s Hallmark, 11109 E 41st (northwest corner of 41st & Garnett, next to Furr’s). Next month’s meeting will be March 14th. At the February Meeting · We’re going to play Hallmark Bingo!!! Prizes will be $15, $10, and $5 gift certificates!!! · Remember the meeting date change, it’s on February 21st this month. Community Service Domestic Violence Intervention Service – DVIS needs towels and washcloths. Food Bank – Please read below the minutes from the January meeting for the background behind this additional project. Jeanne Draughon has spoken with Broken Arrow Neighbors and in additional to the normal non-perishable foods they accept cold cereal (either in a bag or box and this need is especially great in the summer when the kids don’t have breakfast provided by their school), personal care items, and powdered laundry detergent (they split the contents into smaller portions to give out). Jeanne will also have a list of other area food pantries and a copy of Broken Arrow Neighbors pamphlet so that we can learn more about what they do. Happy February Birthday to ….
Okie Keepsakers Meeting Minutes January 10, 2002 President Rita Randall called the meeting to order. She welcomed Connie Poppy, a new member who recently moved here from OKC. She’s originally from that great state of Kansas! Vice President Dana Blando reminded everyone to sign the sign-in sheet. Treasurer Sally Turner wanted to know who needed the $50 reimbursement from the club for each of their Christmas family. No one wanted reimbursement so the club voted to give DVIS a check for the $150 that was in the budget for Christmas. Sally then read the Treasurer’s report: $ 636.07+ Beginning balance 15.00+ Dues 11.50+ Sale of leftover BBQ 15.00+ Ticket sales for Cherished Teddies 510.00+ T-shirt sales 162.92- table clothes and BBQ 25.00- DVIS family for Christmas 7.82- January Postage $991.83+ Ending balance Secretary Teresa Pattison said the 2002 Dreambook was online at hallmark.com. Also, hardcopies of the Collectively Speaking were available and that there is a link on our website to the online version at hallmark.com. Sponsor news – Earline said Becky and Rick were on their way to market so we should have some good news next month. New Marjolein Bastin items are on their way. Next month’s meeting falls on Valentine’s Day and the club cannot meet at the store that night because they will still be very busy with last minute shoppers. And besides, some club members may want to spend the evening with their valentines! The club voted to have the meeting on the 3rd Thursday instead, February 21st. DVIS chairperson, Debra Kirk, has received a thank you note from DVIS for our help with Christmas. (I will put a copy on the website.) Next month, they need towels and washcloths. Discussion ensued about the new community service and publicity contests mentioned in the January Collectively Speaking. We will need to continue to keep good records of what is donated to DVIS. We should also start taking pictures every month of what we donate. Dessie Howard said she still had the club’s extra Santa’s Deer Friend colorway from the 1998 convention. It was decided that in addition to DVIS we would bring nonperishable food and for each item we bring we will get a ticket. At the end of the year, we will draw from those tickets a winner of that very special ornament!!! Jeanne Draughon volunteered to bring the food to Broken Arrow Neighbors the first month. We will take volunteers to take the food each month to different food banks. Cris Converse said she will put in newspaper publicity notices for our meetings. She already does it for another group she belongs too. Sunshine Committee chairperson Terri Legrand said she forgot to send Alice Sandkuhl a sympathy card but did give it to her before the meeting started. Hospitably committee – Everyone thanked Cris Converse for getting the goodies for this month. Next month’s volunteers are: Lyndia Farrell, Doris Vivian, and Georgia Tunnell. Old business – Be sure and get your new t-shirts! There are some extras if you didn’t originally signup to but one. New business – we have a couple of extra 2001 local club ornaments. Discussion on this was tabled until next month since the meeting was running long. Program committee – Donna Lundy said that next month we will have Hallmark bingo in place of a decorating contest. Mark Dickson is making up the cards. (Sounds like fun!!) There will be 3 games with the same prizes as the decorating contest: $5, $10, & $15. Door prize drawings: $25 monthly gift certificate – Donna Lundy 1981 Disney ornament contributed by Teresa Pattison – Lyndia Farrell The 2002 Dreambook The 2002 Dreambook is now online at hallmark.com. If you don’t have internet access, go the library and check out these ornaments! Even if you’ve already looked at it once, go back because they have been adding more pictures each Monday. And now there are even sounds attached to the pictures of the magic ornaments that have sound. Pretty neat! The Dreambook should be sent out to National club members in March as usual. Here are some of my highlights and other comments posted on the internet: New series: ·
Jewelry Box Ballet 1st in the Treasures and Dreams
series. Windup music and motion. Plays "Dance of the Sugarplum
Fairy" from The Nutcracker. Open the drawer on Keepsake Ornament
jewelry box–the music begins, the tiny ballerina twirls. You can even place a
ring or small pair of earrings inside...or a special wish. Each year, this
series will bring you a different style of musical jewelry box complete with
a "hidden" drawer and a melody that complements the carefully
sculpted scene. Dated. Sculpted by Ken Crow.
4 1/8" H x 2 3/8" W.
Gold Crown® Exclusive Price:
$19.95 (This picture was in our
December 2001 newsletter.) ·
Bringing Home the Tree 1st
in the Winter Wonderland series. This marks the beginning of a series of
festive snow globes where a different winter scene will appear each year.
Handcrafted and glass. Dated. Sculpted by Duane Unruh. 3 3/8" H x 2
1/4" W. Gold Crown® Exclusive
Price: $12.95 ·
Sweet Tooth Treats 1st
in the series. Set of 4 ornaments. A different cookie jar will appear each
year, each one accompanied by its own special miniature cookie ornaments. Lid
opens. Porcelain. Dated. Sculpted by Nina Aubé. Cookie jar: 3 1/4" H x 2
3/8" W. Bear cookie: 1" H x 3/4" W. Snowman cookie: 1" H
x 3/4" W. Tree cookie: 1 1/8" H x 3/4" W. Gold Crown®
Exclusive Price: $14.95 ·
Snow Cozy
(mini) First in the
series. This little bitty snowman in a huge red hat leads a series of
snow-people in wintry wardrobes. 1 1/8" H x 3/4" W Dated. Sculpted
by Kristina Kline. Gold Crown® Exclusive. Price: $4.95 ·
Dream (mini) Paintbox Pixies. First in the series. Set
of 2 Ornaments. Look who's coming to brighten up the holidays! Each year a
different pixie will bring another word that reflects the magic of the
season. Handcrafted and fabric. Pixie: 2" H x 1 3/8" W Word Base: 1"
H x 2 3/8" W Dated. Sculpted by Linda Sickman. Gold Crown® Exclusive
Price: $6.95 Series ending: ·
Fashion
Afoot – 3rd and final ·
Robot Parade
– 3rd and final ·
Miniature
Monopoly pieces – train – 3rd and final ·
Mickey’s
Holiday Parade – Goofy with tuba – 6th & final Other observations: ·
The 4th
in the Town and Country series is Grandmother’s House & Covered
Bridge. The mini Dashing Through the
Snow from 2001 would look good with this. ·
Mini Raggedy
Ann and Andy ·
New mini
display tree with battery operated light string. ·
Mini Tin Man
from Wizard of Oz. Kind of odd that
there aren’t others. Possibly start
of another unofficial series? ·
Beautiful
Bride Barbie will be porcelain and come in 3 hair colors! ·
Gingerbread
Cottage has fragrance! It will use fragrance insert
for an ·
Remember the 2001 club calendar and the picture of the Frostlight
Faerie? That was not one of the ornaments out in 2001. It now shows up as a club ornament with a
lighted battery-operated base castle base. ·
More Frostlight Faeries this year as babies. Very cute! ·
Buzz Lightyear with sound! ·
Minnie like last year’s Bell Ringing Mickey ·
Family Tree grouping of photoholder ornaments with a tree display
base. ·
Memories of Christmas grouping comes with a postcard featuring the
image from the Hallmark Archives that inspired the ornament. Included in the
grouping is a set of flicker flame lights that complement the ornaments. ·
Perfect Harmony grouping of etched glass balls (although not really
ball shaped in the traditional sense) in different shapes and colors with a
display stand. Very pretty but a bit
pricey for a glass ball. ·
Wizard of Oz is a Horse of a Different Color! · The cat photoholder returns after an absence of many years. · The description on the Naughty or Nice? Elf: "Turn elf so belt buckle faces up and this elf will tell you if you've been naughty or nice." His belly will work like a magic 8 ball! · The Granddaughter/Grandson bears baggy clothes open up in the back so that you can tuck something inside (like a note or $$$). · The Lucy ornament has wind up action - the conveyor belt moves the chocolates along! · Another Disney castle – do I see an unofficial series starting? What’s not in the Dreambook: · No mini for the Noah’s Ark unofficial series · No Feliz Navidad · No Mitford (boo hoo!) · No NFL teams · No Peanuts other than series · No Star Wars episode II · No Little Golden Book ·
No 'office' themed ornament...like Laptop Santa ·
No 'reading' theme · No blown glass There is still hope for some of these items not shown in the online Dreambook. The American Girl ornaments are not shown there but we know there will be some because they have shown them at market. Hallmark News If you are reading this online, check out http://www.josonline.com/ for pictures of some of the ornaments that aren’t in the dreambook online. (Look in the Keepsake Ornament section.) This retailer has been to market and has pictures! He says “30% of the line will be Gold Crown Exclusive, including four Designer Collections: Memories of Christmas, Between us, Family Tree, and Perfect Harmony. Each ornament will have a personalize-able "memory card" that matches the ornament. Hallmark will have American Girl ornaments for 2002, including a Keepsake of the newest American Girl, to premier at American Girl Place September 1st! Gold Crown Stores will have an American Girl Doll of this character, as a register to win! “ This new American Girl character is Kaya, a young Nez Perce girl growing up in what is now the American Northwest in 1764, a time when her people were on the verge of great change. White people had not yet come to Kaya's homeland, but she had seen their trade goods and heard stories about them. More than anything, Kaya wanted to be a strong leader for her people, and follow in the footsteps of her brave friend and warrior woman, Swan Circling. The Hallmark Catalog for the fall will be Gold Crown Exclusive, and will NOT feature a cassette coupon, but a photo album coupon instead. There will be more Marjolein Bastin product, but no more birds for the "birds at my window collection". There will be more Christmas Maxine items. There will be a Bunnies by the Bay “postcard” piece this coming this Christmas at Hallmark. Also there will Bunnies by the Bay items for the various seasons including Halloween. And ornaments will be coming in 2003. (See the info below for a refresher about Bunnies by the Bay and other info.) For pictures of the new Peanuts figurines, again check out http://www.josonline.com/. There are some very cute things coming out. I especially like the Easter Beagle and the Thanksgiving figurines. New packaging for Keepsakes this year. Cleaner background and increased image size. Color-coded boxes (blue=collector series, red=core line, green=miniatures) New memory cards allow you to capture a memory associated with each ornament and include a personal sentiment in a gift ornament. Memory cards also will allow collectors to catalogue and showcase their collections - they look like trading cards. 50% of the 2002 line made of new or mixed materials. 30% of the 2002 line is Gold Crown Exclusive - including all new Collector Series. The gift for KOCC members attending Ornament Premiere will be a set of 5 mini ornaments to go on the tree in the Santa’s Big Night collection. Clara's Hallmark ornament: The 'upstairs' of the shop is ready for a meeting. There are chairs, a podium and an easel with "Club Meeting Tonight!" written on it. In the back, there is a table with food. '02 MEMBERSHIP KIT: The
packaging has a journal feel similar to last year's 'Twas the Night Before
Christmas' collection. On the inside flap is a letter from Santa that he
wrote on Christmas morning. It's very charming and incorporates items from
the scene you'll be able to build throughout the year that includes The
Family Room. Ty News Retirements: click here for the latest Ty retirement notice 1/18 Midnight the cat Beanie Baby 1/23 Clubby IV Beanie and Buddy, Cuddly Crystal, Clubby Jingle Beanies 1/25 Huggable Holly, Rockin' Rosie, Loveable Lulu Beanie Boppers 1/25 Boomer, Jammer, Cutie Beanie Kids 2/5 Jumbo Peace Buddy Introductions: 1/10 Speckles the e-beanie Buddy available only online through the Ty Store. Click here 1/15 Paula Plappertasche, a new German exclusive Beanie Bopper click here 1/29 New Beanie Baby bears country exclusives click here Wattlie – Australia, Bunga Raya – Malaysia, Ferny – New Zealand, Sakura II – Japan, Mugungwha – Korea, Vanda – Singapore (these are all flowers) 1/29 February introductions: click here (click on the different parts of the picture to see the traditional Ty introduction pages) · Beanie Buddies: Cashew and Eggs · Attic Treasures: McKinley (USA exclusive) · Basket Beanies (like Jingle Beanies except for Easter): Hippity, Floppity, Eggbert, Grace, Eggs, Ewey · Beanie Babies: Sequoia the grizzly bear, Frisbee the dog, March birthday bear, Tracks the cat 1/31 German Exclusive Beanie Baby bear Freiherr Von Schwarz (translated it means Baron of Black) Click here for picture. Rumor has it that this teddy is the first part of a big German exclusive puzzle!!!! There will be more teddies (maybe one each month!) this year, and if you put them together they will show you a big picture... As the first piece of the puzzle is black, the whole puzzle could be a big German flag. For that we would need at least 3-4 teddies of the colors black, red and gold!!! 2/3 3 new U.K. exclusives. Each will only be available in it’s own country. Click here · Wales - A red bear in the new plush fabric and Welsh Flag · Scotland - Blue bear with Scottish flag · England - White bear with George cross February 10th is the annual toy fair in NYC. Ty will be making a big announcement there. Ty collectors will be heading to McDonalds this year for burgers, fries and Teenie boppers! Ty has applied to register 2 new Trademarks. According to the US Trademark database on December 27, 2001 Ty applied to register a trademark on "The Teenie Beanie Bopper Collection" and "Teenie Beanie Boppers" Ty lists "plush Toys" as the good and services for both of these 2 new trademarks. Bunnies by the Bay First, a bit of history. Here is a repeat of an article from the July 2001 newsletter
……. Hallmark Cards Inc. And Bunnies By The Bay Form New
Partnership NEW YORK-Collectibles maker Bunnies By The Bay will
produce a new line of consumer products based on its characters for Hallmark
Cards Inc. under terms of a new five-year licensing agreement signed last
Monday by both companies. Bunnies By The Bay, which produces collectible
bunnies, will introduce a line of products exclusive to the approximately
5,000 Hallmark Gold Crown Stores, in addition to card and stationery items in
retail outlets that carry the Hallmark brand nationwide, by Spring 2002. And now here is some new info about Bunnies by the Bay………… Greeting from Cricket Island! Once upon a time, two mischievous sisters lived in a sleepy little fishing town off the Washington coast. Growing up among the piles of fabric belonging to their Gram, a true one-of-a-kind seamstress, they discovered an important life lesson, "Everything can be mended." Today, the sisters continue to live in the "sleepy little fishing town" of Anacortes, Wa. For the past 15 years we've been busy dreaming up "Bunnies By The Bay", a witty and whimsical world where bunnies and their friends live quite delightfully, indeed! Now we're proud to join with Hallmark Cards in introducing this exclusive offering of Bunnies By The Bay. If you look close you'll see three groups of bunnies that will help you celebrate with your family and friends. Gabigail Goodness and
her good-natured friends Gabigail Goodness, joined by her many good-natured friends, nurtures Cricket Island's many plants and flowers (and it's inhabitants, too!). What's her secret for growing friendships? Why it's simple, indeed! 1. Listen with warmth 2. Shower with attention 3. Sprinkle with laughter 4. Watch it bloom! Nettie Confetti and her
fun loving friends Pass the cookies, cut the cake, it's always time to celebrate! Nettie Confetti and her fun loving friends are always finding something--or someone--to celebrate. And when every day is a celebration, who wants to ever grow up?! Mending Hearts Gracious Goodhart and her clip-snipping friends have a way of mending hearts as they're mending fabric at Goodhart's Mending Shop. Through the years they've discovered an important life lesson--everything is mendable...one stitch at a time. THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY OF "CRICKET
ISLAND" Once Upon a Time there were two sisters named Krystal and Suzanne who lived on an island in Northwest Washington. While the rest of the family would cast off on a fishing voyage, the sisters would stay with their Gram who was quite a creative and inventive seamstress. Gram's day was filled by sewing, mending, and caring for the gals' most curious spirits. One Valentine's Day a most terrible accident occurred. You see, the girls' father and uncle each captained a boat and on this very night both ships disappeared. Their father, uncle, cousin, and eleven other men were lost at sea. Indeed, this was the worst commercial fishing accident ever to be heard of. A few years later the sisters' only brother was lost in yet another boating tragedy...this time it was closer to home and again the grief was too much to bear. Their beloved Gram, the matriarch of the family, comforted her girls and reminded them to keep their hands busy and call upon an old island charm which could be used when hearts needed mending or if ever in harm... "Bunnies are our best friends indeed. They do delight and give glad dreams." Once two sisters spoke this charm. Their broken hearts were lifted because some special rabbits quietly assisted. With much delight we share with you, our hearts did mend and our dreams come true. PS Visit anytime at www.bunniesbythebay.com Go to http://www.josonline.com/ to see pictures of these cute bunnies and accessories! (This is a store in Atlanta and they also have pictures of the Spring ornaments in case you haven’t seen them yet.) Peek behind a flea-market gnome and you may see
the Kovels By LINDA SHRIEVES Knight Ridder Newspapers 1/6/2002 Bedpans, rusted bathtubs, wooden chicken cages ("we have one in the basement," Terry says), a collection of tin sap buckets. After 15 minutes of trolling, nothing jumps out at them. This does not look promising. Not for a collector, and especially not for a television show called "Flea Market Finds with the Kovels," which is broadcast at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. every Wednesday on Home and Garden Television, HGTV. But the cart rounds a corner and Terry Kovel (rhymes with oh well) spies a table full of dishes, some Depression glass, a few pieces of Vaseline-colored glassware and assorted tchotchkes - before she zooms in on a treasure. An entire set of Liberty Blue dishes. Wedgwood china, it is not. Spread on the table before her are stacks of everyday dishes, featuring a Paul Revere pattern in blue on a white background. Sold at grocery stores during the nation's bicentennial in 1976, they were inexpensive, 58 cents for a plate when a customer bought $5 worth of groceries. In New England, where the dishes are especially hot, collectors are now paying $30 for one plate. Terry Kovel checks out the seller's price - $180 for a set of the dishware - and returns to the golf cart, their rolling office, to consult with Ralph and the TV show's producer, Al Fisher. "We should do a piece on the Liberty Blue," Terry says. "I can't believe the price." They prepare to videotape Terry with the booth's owner, Gary Logan. But there's a snag. Logan's 15-year-old dog, Sandy, died early this morning, and he's too upset to go on camera. Fisher and Terry sweet-talk him for a while. Finally, he agrees to go on camera. The crew - a free-lance camera man and sound technician - hook up Logan with a mike and start to tape. During the 30 minutes it takes to tape, a crowd slowly gathers. While some shoppers shoot pictures of the Kovels, one oblivious woman browsing for bargains stumbles right into the shot. Otherwise, the shoot goes smoothly. But, as the sound man removes the microphones and the cameraman packs up, Terry Kovel cannot leave. She returns to the golf cart and begins to debate with Ralph the virtues of Liberty Blue dishes at this price. "The last time I saw Liberty Blue, the prices were so high my mouth was hanging open," she says. Clearly, this price is too good to pass up. Still, she hesitates. "What do I need with another set of dishes?" she asks aloud. "If you like it," Ralph grumbles, "buy it." And so goes the traveling Kovel roadshow. Let "Antiques Roadshow" go to places such as Charleston, S.C., and New York. The Kovels - the duke and duchess of the antiques world, with more than 30 years and 83 books on the topic, as well as a syndicated column that appears in The Buffalo News on Saturdays - spend their weekends jetting to places such as Kutztown, Pa., and Brimfield, Mass., homes of the nation's great flea markets. What they'll shoot at each flea market depends on what catches their fancy - whether it's Little Red Riding Hood figurines, cowboy spurs or chenille bedspreads. "We keep thinking we're going to go to a show and not find anything," says Terry. "Never happens." And despite the mathematical probability that eventually they will run out of storage space, they keep on buying. "We have not gotten out of a flea market yet where we didn't buy something," Terry says. On this trip, in the course of one day in Mount Dora, Fla., they purchase the set of Liberty Blue dishes, a half-dozen enamel-ware cups and plates, a bottle opener that advertises a gas station, two 5-inch dolls they purchased for 25 cents and a bone china cup. "We're shoppers," Ralph says dryly. However, they started out as browsers. Haunting the house sales More than 50 years ago, when Terry was a young college student in Boston, Ralph would drive from Cleveland to see her on weekends. (This was before interstates, Terry says.) Together, they browsed in antiques shops along Boston's Charles Street. In those days, antiques shops were owned by blue-haired old ladies; the customers were blue-haired old ladies, too. Nobody in their 20s was remotely interested in antiques. Except the Kovels. Within a few years, the Kovels graduated from browsing to buying - this time at house sales and garage sales. It was not a glamorous way to acquire one's possessions. "At the time, the only people at house sales were people who didn't have any money," Ralph says. "If you had money, you inherited your furniture," Terry adds. Needless to say, the Kovels didn't inherit furniture. Instead, they furnished their first apartment with Sheraton and Hepplewhite, good furniture that they picked up at house sales. Their home in Cleveland - "a normal-sized house, not one of these 35,000-square-foot houses," Ralph says - is a testament to their shopaholic tendencies. The living room is decorated with Hepplewhite; the library is Egyptian Revival Victorian. Their bedroom is decked out in Victorian furniture; the office is done completely in Mission style furniture. "That's our joke. We finally got all old furniture - it took us years," says Terry with a laugh. Of course, with a serious collecting habit, one does not stop at furniture alone. The Kovels' basement is crammed with so many antique cans and labels that they've created an old-fashioned country store there. The other collectibles - from Ralph's collections of old toys to Terry's assortment of art pottery - took over their garage. So they built another, then another. Now, with oodles of antiques and a reference library of 18,000 antiques books, they are on garage No. 4. The ever-expanding garages have had one benefit, Ralph says. Their garden is much smaller now. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom. Is it genetic? The Kovels believe that collecting runs in families, that the habit is passed along in the DNA, along with curly hair or brown eyes or flat feet. To no one's surprise, their daughter bought a Miami Beach home built in the 1950s and scoured Miami flea markets for '50s and '60s furnishings. And she has amassed her own collections of pottery and glass. But the Kovels' son, inexplicably, does not collect. His parents shake their heads in wonderment. "Our son is a noncollector, which we think is hysterical," says Terry. "He collects black-and-white pictures and lives in a big gray box." Ralph grunts at the thought of the modern house in California filled with Ansel Adams photographs. He doesn't get it. "Well, he's in the advertising business," explains Terry. "He has to be focused on what's new, not what's old." She tries to understand. But it's hard. Consider this. They are in their 70s now, but their hearts still race when they spot a good find - whether it's another can label for Ralph's collection of food labels or even a banana sticker for Terry's banana-sticker collection. Yes, that's right. Ralph and Terry Kovel, the royalty of the antiques world, collect food labels and banana stickers. "Oh we collect everything," Terry confesses. "Literally everything," Ralph groans. At first glance, Ralph is the curmudgeon, the grumpy counterpoint to Terry, the talkative optimist. But Terry is the straight man to Ralph's humor, the Abbott to his Costello. His humor is dry, but underneath that crusty exterior lies a playful side. It's evident when he spies a kooky collectible, like the time he bought a giant Buster Brown head, once used outside Buster Brown shoe stores to blow up balloons. In Mount Dora, Ralph is busy shooting a segment on Guardian Ware pots and pans when he spies a strange piece of art, a $15 "painting" made with strips of bark. It's so peculiar, so bad, so kitschy that it cries out to him. "Doesn't it look crazy?" he says, laughing. Terry groans. "Hey, it'll go with our cork collection," Ralph says. "Besides, for $15, I can put it in the bottom of my suitcase." No worries about shipping it home. Not like the time Ralph bought a 300-pound German garden gnome in Atlanta, and waited months to get it home - till an antiques dealer came through Cleveland, hauling the weighty statue in his van. From hobby to occupation Life has been good to the Kovels. Terry started her career as a math teacher; Ralph as a food industry salesman who later worked his way up to senior vice president of Sara Lee. But their passion for antiques spilled over from a hobby to an occupation. First, they came out with a book of "marks," teaching antiques buyers the trademarks of famous and not-so-famous brands. Soon, that book - which one newspaper reviewer said "rivaled the telephone book for a plot" - led to the syndicated newspaper column and a newsletter that now boasts 200,000 subscribers. Today, the Kovels have more work than they can handle. They write entries for the Encyclopedia Britannica. They write for Forbes when they can spare a few moments. And they keep churning out books - their latest is "Kovels' Antiques & Collectibles Price List 2002, 34th edition." Now they have a 20-person staff to help them churn out the newsletters, columns and books. And that gives them the time to hit the road again, heading for flea markets hither and yon. And buying a little something at each stop along the way For those who went to KC last summer for Jubilee and enjoyed the cows, I thought the following article would interest you. Maybe we can hope for another artist signing in KC this coming summer! Teddy
bears will follow Cow Parade into KC
Posted on Wed, Jan. 09, 2002 First cows, now bears. Teddy bears to be exact. Following in the hoof prints of the Cow Parade comes "The March of the Teddy Bears." Yes, it's what you think it is -- 150 to 200 decorated fiberglass bears to be plopped throughout the area in the name of charity, tourism and community cuteness. Look for the first bears in early July. The project honors the 100th anniversary of the teddy bear. Like the cows before them, the bears will be auctioned off following their display, with the proceeds going to charity. This year's beneficiaries are Children's Mercy Hospital (which has a teddy bear mascot named Mercy) and the Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City (which will open a yearlong celebration of the teddy bear on Jan. 24.) "What a great match," Children's Mercy spokeswoman Barbara Mueth said. "Teddy bears, the Toy and Miniature Museum and Children's Mercy Hospital. It's just perfect, and we are thrilled to be included. I mean, I loved the cows. But teddy bears are much cuter than cows." This time they're truly a hometown creation. The cows were manufactured in California, but the bears will roll off a production line in Independence. Although the public embraced the cows, some local artists were less than thrilled. But Jesse Small, a local sculptor who didn't fully support the Cow Parade, said he didn't have the same problem with the bears because of the organizations it will benefit. "As long as it is kept light and fun...and legitimately needy parties are getting the proceeds of the auction, then I'm all for it," he said. The majority of the bears will be decorated by local artists. But regional and national artists are welcome. The bears will be accompanied by a merchandising campaign that will include a coffee table book, hats, T-shirts and other items. Maxine Odell, spokeswoman for the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Kansas City, said the bears, like the cows, will likely lead to increased tourism. Although she said there was no way to calculate the exact economic impact of the cows, it was clearly significant. "Of course we're hoping the bears do that same thing," she said. In addition to making money for the national Cow Parade Inc., the cows generated a half million dollars for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the American Royal and the Kansas City Zoo. Once again, the project will be promoted by Mitch Wheeler, president of MAI Sports of Overland Park. Why bears? "You can almost name any animal -- turtles, pigs, fish, horses, lizards -- and it's been done somewhere," Wheeler said. "But nowhere in our research did we find anyone that's done teddy bears." Besides, he said, they're just a good fit. "In many ways the teddy bear is a good icon for the kind of people we have here in Kansas City," he said. "Warm and friendly." Wheeler said he hopes to have some bears to show the public in time for a formal announcement in late January or early February. Sponsors are planning to hire a local company to make the bears -- Hemco Corp., a 43-year-old manufacturing firm in Independence. The company makes laboratory equipment for schools and for science, crime and research labs. Company president Ronald Hill said he has a verbal agreement from the organizers. Karen Holland, a community volunteer who first ignited interest in the Cow Parade, also was pleased to hear about the bears. "I think the fact
they are even venturing into this project is an indication that the cow
project was successful," she said. "And from that standpoint that
makes me feel good. The community really enjoyed these cows. And what they're
banking on is people will enjoy a similar project. And if it benefits
worthwhile institutions, I hope it is every bit as successful." New 'Tale of Two Teddies' celebrates toys' centennial By Samantha Critchell The Associated Press January 17, 2002 NEW YORK -- It's Teddy Bear's birthday. He's 100 and he's an icon who deserves a big party. But who gets to blow out the candles? According to A Tale of Two Teddies: The First Teddy Bears Tell Their True Stories (Portfolio Press), two bears, one born in New York City, the other in a small town in Germany, claim to be the original. "I did a tremendous amount of research," says the book's author and illustrator, Kathleen Bart, "and there really is no definitive answer on who is the first teddy bear." The bear made by Brooklyn, N.Y., candy store owner Morris Michtom was named Teddy from the start, Bart says. One morning in 1902 a newspaper cartoon depicting President Theodore Roosevelt -- known to everyone as "Teddy," -- caught his eye. It showed the president refusing to shoot a trapped bear cub while on a hunting trip. Michtom had the idea of making, in honor of Roosevelt, a soft stuffed toy bear which could be sold at his store. He wrote the president and asked if he could use his name. Michtom claimed he received permission from the White House but then lost the letter, explains Bart. (The letter sounds like something Roosevelt would write, notes Linda Milano, the assistant director of the Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based Theodore Roosevelt Association, but the letters have never turned up and the story can't be verified.) By 1904, the bear had become an unofficial mascot of Roosevelt's re-election campaign, and Michtom closed his candy company to open the Ideal Toy and Novelty Co. so he could manufacture bears full time. Meanwhile, Margarete Steiff, who was busy throughout the 1880s and '90s making small felt animal toys in Giengen, Germany, was inspired by her nephew Richard's drawings of bears at the Stuttgart Zoo, according to Bart. So Margarete and Richard together designed a toy bear made of mohair with shoe buttons for eyes. Eventually, all Steiff plush toys would get buttons in their ears, a signature of the Margarete Steiff Toy Co. It still manufactures toys today, with its North American headquarters in Raynham, Mass. The Steiff bear, first sold in Europe in 1902, was introduced to the rest of world the following year at the Leipzig Toy Fair. An American buyer ordered 3,000 of the plush toys. Once this bear crossed the Atlantic, he, too, became known as Teddy. A Tale of Two Teddies recounts the controversy through a friendly debate between the Steiff and Ideal bears and accompanying colored-pencil illustrations. The book is based on historical fact and Bart's interviews of the Steiff historian and Michtom's grandson. "The way we look at it is, Margarete Steiff probably made the first stuffed bear and Morris Michtom made the first teddy bear," says Milano of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. Ironically, President Roosevelt didn't particularly like being called Teddy once he was an adult, since he considered it a childhood nickname, says Milano. The president also hardly ever spoke about the plush bears, although he was keenly aware that the toys were made in his honor, and bears were used on campaign paraphernalia, adds John Gable, executive director of the Roosevelt association. There also are very few photographs of Roosevelt and a toy bear. But one that immediately comes to Gable's mind was taken in 1910 in Cambridge, England, when students set up a prank with a bear greeting Roosevelt on a walkway. Teddy bears were so popular that, when he left office, toymakers decided to dedicate a new stuffed toy to new President William Taft: the Billy possum. "It was a very bad choice," says Gable. "Who wants a possum?" Bigger retailers join eBay's fold BY MARY ANNE OSTROM Mercury News Online auctioneer eBay, once the exclusive haunt of Beanie Baby and baseball-card collectors, now hosts some of the nation's largest retailers. Amid the kitsch, KitchenAid offers cookware, and Kodak sells digital cameras. Sears has Craftsman tools; Home Depot hawks Price Pfister faucets. Just as online auction sites have proven an efficient way to sell goods for mom-and-pop retailers, corporate America is discovering the sites are a good way to find value-conscious shoppers to take extra merchandise off their hands. San Jose-based eBay, the leading auctioneer, is courting the small, but growing, corporate marketplace in a bid to vastly expand its reach and hit its ambitious, annual growth targets of 50 percent. ``The eBay story is no longer one of the collectibles market,'' said Deutsch Banc Alex. Brown analyst Jeetil Patel. ``EBay wants to be your source for all sorts of stuff.'' EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman estimates 2 percent of the company's $9 billion in gross merchandise sales for 2001 came from major retailers, ``a nascent but growing business,'' she said. While high-tech manufacturers, such as Sun Microsystems and IBM, have been off-loading goods on eBay successfully for some time, brick-and-mortar and low-tech merchandisers are only now beginning to experiment. They are attracted by eBay's big user base of 42.2 million, but they are sensitive to the dangers of tarnishing their brand names or cannibalizing sales from their own stores and Web sites. Most items listed from these companies are small quantities of overstock, outdated, damaged or returned items that would have been disposed of through traditional liquidation methods. The taboos about auctions, however, are disappearing in the name of dollars and cents. Low overhead and direct access to buyers mean auctions can typically double a retailer's take on unwanted goods -- although it still often is far below 50 cents on the dollar. Sears, which in October began integrating eBay auctions into its own online retail site, had received 32 bids near the end of a Friday auction for an artificial, 7 1/2-foot-tall northern spruce Christmas tree. At $152.50, the bid price was well below retail, but likely higher than what Sears would have received otherwise. ``We like what we see so far,'' said Sears Online vice president Chuck Cebuhar, who expects to expand offerings on eBay beyond the current couple hundred. Whitman remains careful not to inflame smaller users, who've inundated message boards complaining that eBay's strategy will hurt their sales. ``We are excited about the possibility of attracting big users,'' she said, but added that ``the core of the platform will remain small businesses.'' Whitman has been touting eBay to computer and consumer-electronics companies at major trade shows. The company estimates about 30 percent of its computer-equipment sales now come from big merchants -- a business that took off when Sun Microsystems, IBM and others found eBay an efficient way to dispose of leased equipment returned from failed dot-coms. Online auctions account for about 10 percent of e-commerce sales, but that could grow to 25 percent in the next five years, says Forrester Research. Some conventional retailers who'd been slow to adopt e-commerce say they don't want to be left behind. EBay's overtures are appealing. Retailers pay very little to get their brand heavily promoted, and the transaction and listing fees are a pittance for them. ``They give us prominent promotion,'' said Andre Brysha, chief marketing officer for RitzInteractive, which is affiliated with Ritz Cameras and was among the first major brand-name retailers to link with eBay. Having stomped its auction competitors, eBay is becoming more like a virtual mall. It's poised to compete there with Amazon.com and shopping portals offered by Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's MSN. Big-name retailers are key in the virtual-mall environment. Many of the corporate sellers are using eBay's buy-it-now feature, which mimics an online shopping mall by encouraging fixed-price purchases. ``Having quality merchants brings buyers to the site,'' said eBay Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta. ``It's kind of like having an anchor tenant in the mall.'' But some small eBay sellers are worried they can't compete. Larry Jordan, vice president of AuctionWatch in San Bruno, said ``sellers complain the large players have better cost structure and out-compete the smaller guys.'' EBay, Jordan said, has become a traditional marketplace, and there is room for small and large businesses to coexist. While one analyst suggested corporate auctions could be eBay's ``secret sauce'' to maintain its torrid growth pace, other observers are skeptical. ``Some of it is selling, but this is a very big experiment,'' said Munjal Shah, president and CEO of Andale, a Mountain View company that provides auction services. ``Retailers are very fussy. EBay is a comparison-shopping model with lack of control over prices. That is very scary for most retailers.'' The following
appeared in the Broken Arrow Community section of the Tulsa World on
2/6/02. Although it doesn’t have
anything to do with Hallmark or collecting, it is about one of our club
members! Parish nurse touches congregation By PAUL TACKETT World Staff Writer St. Benedict Catholic Church, 2200 W. Ithica St., in cooperation with St. Francis Health System, is one of several area churches to have a parish nurse. St. Benedict is the only church in Broken Arrow to have a parish nurse. Jeanne Draughon, RN, BSN, has been a parish nurse for nearly two years at St. Benedict. She has been a nurse for a total of 23 years. She chose to become a parish nurse largely because it sounded like a "really neat job," she said. She also felt that God was calling her to do this type of work, which for her is more than just work, but rather a ministry. Draughon tends to the body, mind and spirit. What is parish nursing? "The primary focus of parish nursing is health promotion and illness prevention with a spiritual dimension," according to information provided by Amy Hickman, parish nurse supervisor, and St. Francis Health System. "A parish nurse is a registered nurse who understands that good health is not only measured in terms of physical health, but also in terms of one's spiritual, psychological and social well-being." Those helped don't have to be Catholic or be a member of St. Benedict to receive the services Draughon provides. Hickman said having to be Catholic is one of the misconceptions attached to a parish nurse. Draughon thinks the biggest misconception of a parish nurse is that they do more hands-on work similar to a regular nurse. Her main focus is to educate patients about health care, not the hands-on portion. She is a professional geared to helping people find the resources they need to deal with their health concerns, as well as being available to provide early detection and intervention of serious illnesses. The roles of a parish nurse include being a health educator, a personal health counselor, a volunteer coordinator, an advocate, a teacher and a referral source for the church, community and health services. For the most part, Draughon said a majority of her work starts out as very informal, such as a question and answer session at the back of the church after services. However, the process does become structured at some point. She simply needs to be available to the people she helps, and she wants to develop a relationship with her patients. Some other services she provides are announcements in the church bulletin, such as warning signs of a heart attack, praying the Rosary and giving spiritual and-or prayer cards to those in need, to name a few. In March, Draughon will educate seniors about how to talk to a doctor and in April she will offer CPR classes. Draughon said in a month's time she makes anywhere from 120 to 160 contacts, but it varies from month to month. As for the spiritual side, she said it is hard to determine who is touched and to what degree. However, the spirituality of her job has made her a better person, she said. There is no cost for patients to see Draughon. The parish nurse program receives funding through a joint venture of St. Benedict and Saint Francis Health System. The church provides her with an office space and telephone and she is considered part of the church staff. "It is a wonderful place to work," Draughon said. There are 53 trained parish nurses in Oklahoma. "It is the most fulfilling job I have had both personally and professionally," she said. Draughon said a patient once told her, "Thank you for being there when I need you and when I think I don't need you." For the first time in Tulsa, there will be a basic preparation course for those interested in parish nursing. The course is scheduled for April 5-7, 19-21 and May 4 at St. Francis Hospital, 6161 S. Yale Ave. For more information, call 488-6888 or log on to Web site www.saintfrancis.com. To contact Draughon, call 449-9331. |
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