Cool Music Purse -un 36 Purchases Cello Themed Gifts for Granddaughter!
Cello Themed gifts are the Same as Violin Themed Gifts
with End Pin Modification
All are great gift ideas for music lovers!
Cello Themed Gifts are on Kathy Plank's mind when she buys for her granddaughter in Ireland. Kathy says the Music Purse is now an International Bag, as her granddaughter is moving to Switzerland! Kathy is from a musical family, and has many musical relatives. She says (it used to be that) getting together with her side of the family meant everyone pulls out their instruments and plays whereas the other side of the family is TV and football bonding. Me too Kathy. Me too. So the cello player granddaughter loves her Violettes Music Purse! She uses it as it is meant to be for musicians with her "music stuff" inside.As I interview Kathy (I know that she is a talker, and let her just talk rather than interview), we
reminisce about when we first met. She is one of several people that I met when I first moved to town about 20 years ago when she first moved to town. We bumped into each other five years later with daughters in the same girl scout troupe, and then with kids in the same middle school and high school. Now she is a neighbor!Not a better way to get to know a neighbor than by interviewing them for a blog!!! Thanks Kathy, and Thanks again for purchasing one of our cello themed gifts!
Kathy Plank comes from an Irish family who settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Kathy says there is a large Irish settlement there, and her relatives first moved there in 1854. She had 5 siblings and her father died when she was 4. So the family all had to help out Mom and became very close. When the oldest brother started working, he handed over all checks to help the family. When the kids were old enough, Kathy's mother worked at the library. She brought the 4 girls with her and plopped them in the "Maryland Room". And, Kathy says, it was like candy getting to read anything that you could think of about Maryland. About the food, culture, fauna and flora, government, history... She loved learning about when President Lincoln put Maryland legislators on arrest!"In early 1861, Maryland was walking a tightrope between the Union and the Confederacy. In addition to being physically between the two sides, Maryland depended equally on the North and the South for its economy. Although Maryland had always leaned toward the south culturally, sympathies in the state were as much pro-Union as they were pro-Confederate. Reflecting that division and the feeling of many Marylanders that they just wanted to be left alone, the state government would not declare for either side.For the Federal Government, however, there was no question about which side Maryland had to take. If she seceded, Washington D.C. would be surrounded by hostile states, effectively cut off from the rest of the Union. The situation came to a head on April 19, 1861, when the soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Volunteers, moving through Baltimore on the way to Washington, were attacked by a pro-Southern mob. When the mob started shooting at the regiment, the soldiers returned fire, and when the smoke had cleared, four soldiers and twelve civilians had been killed.... " (SOURCE: Taken from Maryland State Archives, "The General Assembly Moves to Frederick, 1861")On Sept. 11, 1861, Abraham Lincoln had Secretary of War Simon Cameron order the arrest of Maryland legislators who are openly pro-South.
Kathy held jobs as a reporter and on the PR (public relations) staff for a state agency. Part of her job as PR person was to do event management. When the state decided to give awards for small businesses, she managed the affair. She managed in such great detail, that she tasted the food and checked the displays at the venues before deciding where to book. The first event had a very low turnout, but word got around at how good the food was. By the 3rd year, the turnout was so high that they had to close off the room and used closed circuit television to show the awardees.Kathy and her husband moved to Knoxville about 20 years ago because her husband began teaching law at UT Knoxville. This was the first time she ever lived away from her 3 sisters. She had never had to make friends before because she had all the built in friends she needed in her sisters. That was her biggest culture shock.Kathy and her husband raised 5 children (2 by his earlier marriage). They all began music lessons in public school, but several continued with private violin and piano lessons. With that many children, she has put herself on hold driving kids to all types of sports and music lessons, art camp, girl scouts, dance class, cheer leading, theater, horse back riding , beauty pageants... Two of her children have disabilities, so that adds to her hectic life. However, growing up helping to organize and care for a disabled brother and sister has made her youngest daughter such an outstanding person to be proud of.How about Kathy now? She loves to cook and bake. She grew up loving to sing and can belt out songs about carrots while cooking. You don't think those musicals are for real, but for some people they are! She currently goes to Fitness Together where she has a personal trainer and lost 30 pounds. When her husband got jealous and signed up too, she informed him that eating habits have to figure into the equation. Kathy says laughing, what do you get when you cross an OCD personality with a diet. So they started having to weigh all their foods. With Kathy's trainer, she is proud to be able to dead lift 115 pounds. This is very good for a 4 foot 10 person. In addition to the trainer, Kathy takes Real Hot Yoga*, and loves her teacher Jill Bartine, the Knoxville "Flutist Yogini"!
*I learned that Real Hot Yoga means that they do stretches in a very hot room so that muscles are already warmed up for stretching.
Visit ViolettesbyBecky.com for Cello Themed Gifts!