An Accomplishment Worth Sharing

My seven year old son and I have been sitting on an idea for the last two years and managed to successfully keep it under wraps. We recently published our first book!! I must say, it's a very surreal feeling for me and for him it's just sheer excitement and non-stop telling everyone he meets, even folks in line at the local grocery store, the bank drive thru, the doctor's office. He is so proud! We have worked on the project together in my spare time, which is next to non-existent as a mother and entrepreneur (I'm sure that many of you can relate) and it is very rewarding to see it come to completion. The children’s book titled “The Cordial Cricket” named after our retail store, tells the story of a young cricket who learns a valuable lesson about what it means to be “cordial” during the planning of his birthday party. My son, who is currently in first grade and an avid artist, drew the cover illustration for our debut children’s book, which was released this week and is now available for sale.

This turned out to be a wonderful and rewarding project for my son and I. We are both very excited to share it with other children and hope that they will enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed working on it. The short chapter book is geared toward children from pre-school age to early elementary, whether read aloud or enjoyed by children learning to read on their own. The subject matter of the books is very fitting as I also teaches etiquette classes for children at my retail store and because teaching children proper etiquette and timeless values such as writing thank you notes is a subject very close to my heart. My mother made certain that I knew and valued these skills, which still serve me very well today.

I am thrilled beyond words to have already been contacted by several local schools in central Virginia to come and read to their students (since I leaked word of the book a few days ago, oops!). I plan to donate copies of the book to their school libraries. My son and I have also decided to donate $2.00 from the sale of every book to the Richmond SPCA, a charity which he chose. He is a true animal lover and this will be a great way for him to give back something tangible and know that it helps local animals without homes. We couldn’t think of a more fitting way to share some of the proceeds from our project.

The book is now available for sale at our store, The Cordial Cricket in Chester, VA and in our online store located at www.thecordialcricket.com. Two book signing events have been scheduled thus far, one on Saturday, May 8th and one on Saturday, June 5th, both at 11:00 at our retail store in Chester, VA. During both events there will be a children’s story time and my son and I will both sign copies of the book for those who attend.

Thank you very much to everyone who has already shown tremendous support for our new accomplishment!

Local Event Showcases Creative Women, Their Art and Published Works

The Cordial Cricket, a Chester, Virginia retail boutique, specializing in custom invitations, stationery and gifts will hold its first annual “Creative Women’s Showcase” on Saturday, May 1st from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at their store. The idea for this unique retail event was developed in part by a book one of the store’s customers brought to the attention of owner Elizabeth Howard. The book, entitled “Women Embracing Creativity”, written by author Christina Thompson of Raleigh, North Carolina, is designed to help women uncover their true creative talents, learn to take their ideas seriously, and lay the foundation for a lifetime of creative enjoyment. After learning about the book, Howard contacted the author and purchased a copy. Since then, the idea for this event has been cemented. The book’s author, Mrs. Thompson, will attend, sell and sign copies of her book during the event. “All the ideas in the book are ones I use each day to keep my imagination strong. It’s a treat to be able to help others by sharing what I've learned on my own creative journey!” stated Thompson.

Howard is also proud to feature a local fiction author at the event. Michele Young-Stone, originally from Chester, Virginia where The Cordial Cricket retail store is located, has just released her first published novel. Her debut novel, “The Handbook for Lightening Strike Survivors”, went on sale nationwide on April 13th and is already receiving rave reviews from all over the country. Michele will also attend the Creative Women’s Showcase, where she will sell and sign copies of her debut novel. The unique event will feature many creative women and showcase their art for sale from jewelry to paintings to books and more. There will also be door prizes given away from many of the participating artists.

“Planning this event has really brought the subject of creativity in all its varied forms to the forefront of my mind. I am thrilled to be able to host not one, but two female authors, with local ties to our area, one non-fiction and one fiction, both debuting their very first published works, along with many other creative women and their artwork,” stated The Cordial Cricket’s owner, Elizabeth Howard. “I think that many women have creative talent, however, they don’t consider themselves to be “creative women”. I hope our “Creative Women’s Showcase” will be just the type of event to inspire women to recognize their creativity and use it to its full potential,” stated Howard. Mrs. Howard hopes this will become the first of many “Creative Women’s Showcase” events during which she can feature many different and unique creative local women and their talents.

For more information or media inquiries about The Cordial Cricket or this event contact Elizabeth Howard at:

Phone
804-425-9768

Email
info@thecordialcricket.com

Mail
The Cordial Cricket
3524 Festival Park Plaza
Chester, VA 23831

For more information Christina Thompson, author of “Women Embracing Creativity” visit her website at:

http://www.womenembracingcreativity.com/

For more information about Michele Young-Stone, author of “The Handbook for Lightening Strike Survivors” visit her website at:

http://www.micheleyoung-stone.com/home

What Does Your Handshake Say?

Recently, I attended a business meeting where I was networking and meeting some new colleagues in my industry. To preface this little story, let me say that I have always, at least since business school in college, recognized the importance of a good, firm handshake when meeting someone new. It is something that I always try to do and I find myself noticing when others offer a limp hand or just their fingers for a handshake. It seems the older I get the more I seem to notice what type of handshake someone gives and take note of it. Probably seems odd to most of you and you're probably thinking that I should have more important things to worry about right. Well, call me weird or Miss Manners or whatever you want, but these are the things that are important to me.

Anyway, back to the business meeting. A gentleman came up to introduce himself to me at the meeting and we promptly shook hands. As soon as we shook hands, he complimented me on what a nice firm handshake I gave. Well, as you can imagine, I couldn't have been happier with his comment and we went on to discuss how annoying it is when someone doesn't give you a nice good handshake. Seems like he "got it" too!

I did a little research on this topic and found that a nice firm, but not bone-shattering handshake is considered important and appreciated by most, both in the world of business and beyond. It is also important to remember to make eye contact with the person whose hand you're shaking.

So what does your handshake say about you? Do you appreciate and value a nice handshake when greeting someone? Share your thoughts on handshakes by leaving us a comment here on this post. The best handshake story may just receive a little reward.

Happy Handshaking!

Scenes from the Store

Here are some scenes from the store of some of our new displays. Stop in soon to see them for yourself, even though a picture is worth a thousand words, they don't do these items justice! Enjoy!

Beautiful new nautical items from Midwest-CBK and Two's Company.

Ready for a beach or lake house near you, or maybe even yours!

Our theme table this month is all ready for your summer Mexican Fiesta!

One of our best selling cookbooks, Chronicle's "Delicious Dips"

Beautiful spring bird tabletop from Mariposa.

Handmade summer clutch from Katie Lemon Designs,

quote paperweight from Ben's Garden, Colors address book from Random House.

Cute Cakes!

We recently celebrated the beginning of Spring with our Annual Spring Fling event at the store. We had lots of great new spring merchandise, a Mystery Easter Egg Sale and drawings and door prizes galore! We appreciate all of the great customers who came to celebrate Spring with us and we also have to give a huge thank you to our friend Marie at The Paper Menu for sending us these adorable cupcake wrappers with our custom logo on them for our special event. The Paper Menu is one of our wonderful vendors for personalized gifts from onesies and t-shirts, to framed wall art, vinyl decals, invitations, calling cards, stationery, gift wrap and much more! We loved showing of these cute cupcake wrappers for our special event! Thanks Marie! Visit our store to find out more about all that The Paper Menu has to offer.

1st Annual "Creative Women's Showcase"

We are very excited to announce our first annual "Creative Women's Showcase" on Saturday, May 1st from 10-6. Do you know of a very creative woman or maybe you are one yourself? We are looking for a few local creative artists, each representing different artistic mediums and types of art who we may select to showcase and sell their creative wares at our event. They will be joined by our special guest, Christina Thompson of Raleigh, North Carolina, author of "Women Embracing Creativity - Unleashing Your Inner Artist". Christina will be signing and selling her wonderful book during our event and we will select a few other very lucky creative women to participate and showcase their creative talents and artwork as well. It will be a fun, creative event for women of all ages, so round up your girlfriends, mothers, daughters, sisters, and any other women you know and mark your calendars to attend this inaugural event that celebrates creative women. This event also falls on the first day of the Chester Farmer's Market, held on the Village Green right outside our store. What a great coincidence!

If you know of someone local to our area who might fit this description, drop us an email at info@thecordialcricket.com to let us know about them and what they create. We may indeed contact them and request samples of their work.

Please mark your calendar and plan to attend our first event of this kind celebrating Creative Women!

Creative Women's Showcase

Saturday, May 1st

10:00 - 6:00

The Cordial Cricket (click on link for Google Maps info)

3524 Festival Park Plaza

Chester, VA 23834

Do You Know A Creative Woman?

We are very excited to announce our first annual "Creative Women's Showcase" on Saturday, May 1st from 10-6. Do you know of a very creative woman or maybe you are one yourself? If so, drop us an email at info@thecordialcricket.com to let us know about them and what they create. We may indeed contact them and request samples of their work. We will be selecting a few very creative women to showcase their artwork/merchandise for sale at our "Creative Women's Showcase" along with special guest, Christina Thompson of Raleigh, North Carolina, author of "Women Embracing Creativity - Unleashing Your Inner Artist".

Christina will be signing and selling her wonderful book during our event and we will select a few other very lucky creative women to participate and showcase their creative talents and artwork as well. It will be a fun, creative event for women of all ages, so round up your girlfriends, mothers, daughters, sisters, and any other women you know and mark your calendars to attend this inaugural event that celebrates creative women.

National Letter Writing Month

I must say that April is one of my favorite months of the year as a retailer. Why, you might ask? Doesn't seem like a particularly special month in which customers would be beating down the doors like the holiday season. If you're in the business we're in, which is stationery, invitations and gifts, then you know that stationery gets its own special recognition in the month of April when National Letter Writing month is celebrated. Of course, there are many great reasons to send handwritten correspondence every month of the year, but some folks may need a little extra boost to mail that letter they've been meaning to send and National Letter Writing month could be just the thing!

In celebration of National Letter Writing month we will be having a special sale on all of the beautiful and unique stationery in our store. We have many loyal customers who indeed still cherish the written note and love to have stylish and appropriate stationery for every occasion. If this describes you, then this is your month to stock up and get a fabulous deal on some new stationery to add to your paper wardrobe. All in-stock stationery will be 20% off for the entire month of April and we have some great deals on special order stationery as well, such as Crane & Co.'s great Signature Event described below.

Crane’s Signature Event

Consumers will get their name or monogram and return address dies free on engraved and letterpress personalized stationery orders of at least 100 sets (a $96 retail value). Or they may receive a free return address on thermographed personalized stationery orders of at least 100 sets. The number of printed envelopes ordered must match the number of thermographed or flat-printed cards, notes, folders or sheets ordered.

So, are you up for the challenge? We are, and we've even cooked up a great challenge here for our staff to see who will send the most handwritten notes this month. There is sure to be lots of friendly competition!

Oh and one more thing, to help encourage folks to write lots of notes and letters during National Letter Writing month, we have a huge jar set up in our store for customers to drop their letters in and we will buy their stamp and mail their letters for them all month long! No excuses now, so stop in soon to pick out your new stationery and drop off your letters and notes for us to mail.

Sincerely,

The Cordial Cricket