The Adventures of KJ & The Dreamy Giraffe

Pre-Adventure Terms & Conditions

Friends, Romans, Dreamers, Giraffes & Adventurers, lend me your ears:

Okie dokie, before embarking on any adventure contained herein, you must agree that neither KJ and/or The Dreamy Giraffe and/or anyone affiliated, related or associated with either of the aforementioned parties are responsible for any eyestrain you may experience due to embarking on any adventure contained herein.

KJ is so.extremely.wordy and has been officially diagnosed with incureable keyboard diarrhea.  Therefore, each and every adventure will probably go on about ten paragraphs past the point where any normal blogger would write "The End".   If you attempt to read any adventure in its entirety (approximately 28097987232 words) in one sitting and have to get some of those non-perscription reading glasses from Wal-Mart as a result, that's all on you, kid. 

Also, you must be at least as tall as that sign over there to ride.   Buckle in, watch your hands and feet, and enjoy.

Adventure # 110: KJ Plays Games (Part 2?)

Dear You,

I wonder, if, when the inventor of Scrabble (who apparently was named Alfred M. Butts) invented Scrabble, if he anticipated that, decades later, his game pieces would become such a hot item in the world of arts & crafts supplies. 

The first time I saw a Scrabble component used in such a way, was in Littleput's genius Scrabble journal, which uses the actual game board as a cover. 

And then came her delightful Scrabble tile pendants.

And her Scrabble tile pendant tutorial.

And now...if you search Etsy for "Scrabble", you'll get 302 pages of results, mostly pendants (though none by Littleput, who is no longer making them.) 

I wonder if all the other board games are jealous.  If you search Etsy for Monopoly, you get only seven pages.  (AprilAdriance has some very cool notebooks made of the Monopoly cards in her shop.)

What does this painting have to do with Scrabble, you ask?  Well...as Littleput proved with her journal...the tiles aren't the only valuables in that Scrabble box!  I did the above painting on an actual Scrabble board!

It will be listed in my shop tonight.  In real life, the background is sparkly and glittery and that is completely lost in the scan.  <insert sad face>  I wanted to use more of the layout of the actual Scrabble game -- the squares and everything, in the painting, but Scrabble boards do not accept paint readily and easily, let me tell you!  (The girl and her dice-seat and game pieces were actually painted on seperate canvas and collaged on.)

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I have plans for the little letter holder thingys, too!  And, yeah, I may even have to use a tile or two...though no pendants here. :)

I hope your July is off to a super duper dreamy start!  May there be many adventures this month for us all!

Love,

KJ

Adventure #109: KJ Smells Like A Science Project

Dear You,

(The above is my two-for-a-few-more-months -- yipes! how fast they grow -- niece, Kaylee, or rather, a painting of her, which was a Christmas gift for my sister, or was supposed to be, but I didn't get it finished until May, so I actually gave it to her on Mother's Day.  And, to be 100% honest, it's still not completely done -- Note to self: change the color of the shirt to pink!  Note to everyone else: Kaylee is much cuter in real life and, not to knock my skills as an artist, but I really don't think the painting looks like her.  Everyone else says it does, but I think I got something wrong.  Maybe with the eyes?  Anyway, I think it's much harder to capture someone you actually know on canvas, but I can't figure out just why that is.)

Anyway!  I intended to write this yesterday, but yesterday was not such a good day.  You can read more about that here if you'd like, but this post is not about sad things.

This post is about happiness and smiles and days that are good.

This post is about Kaylee, whom the day before yesterday, told my sister, "Mommy, you smell like a potato."

Then, asked what other people smell like, she responded, without hesitation, "Kathy (that's what the K in KJ stands for) smells like a science project!" and "Mimi smells like a painter!"

I do not understand though, why my mom -- Mimi -- smells like a painter!  I totally should be the one that smells like a painter...whatever that smells like, exactly.  See this?

That is an actual picture of a section of a pair of my "painting pants" -- I am the one that smells like a painter, dang it!  :) Proof!:

By the way, when Kaylee was last here and saw me in those pants, she asked, "Are your pants painted on, Kathy?'

And when I said yes, she told me I need some different pants.  (Strangely enough, though, the other leg has next to no such acrylic embellishment!)

Oh!   And, by the way, what does Kaylee think she smells like?

"A princess!"

Of course!

KJ

P.S. I finished the "Sweet Dreams" painting!  This is the second one I've done where the girl has her eyes closed (prints of the first are here).  Eyes are such a huge part of my work, it surprises me how much I love these eyes wide shut girls.  I definitely want to do more and have ideas for several!  Perhaps I'll get it scanned in properly this afternoon and can show the completed painting off. 

Adventure #108: KJ And The Dreams (Both Sweet & Not So)

Dear You,

The above painting is going to be titled "Sweet Dreams" and I got to spend all of yesterday working on it. 

Yep, my jury duty was short -- um, not quite sweet,  though.

You see, at my last "real" job, I worked at a law firm.  Now, I had some really great times there.  Really great.  For a while, it was the best job I'd ever had.  I had awesome friends there (most of whom left around the same time I did).  I loved it.

But when it got bad, it got bad fast and towards the end...things were not good.  And by "not good", I mean, when I think about ever having to step foot within the walls of that place again, I sort of break out in hives, to this day, almost three days later.  Other than my wonderful friend, Summer, I've not seen anyone from there in a really, really long time.

Last week, knowing about jury duty, I had a nightmare that one of the attorneys from my old firm, and his paralegal, were the defense for the case I was put on the jury for.  And they came in on the last day with guns and went on a shooting spree.

Well.

You cannot -- heck, I cannot -- imagine the look that was upon my face, when I filed into the courtroom with all the others there to do their civic duty -- and the first person I saw was that paralegal, and the second was that attorney.

These kinds of things happen to me all the time. 

But, anyway, I was excused from that case, since I knew involved parties, and wasn't picked for the second, and was sent home to paint, and I have a good chunk of "Sweet Dreams" done to show for it. 

And, in case any of you have the same concern my mom had, let me just allay that and say: Yes, the little girl napping in the soon-to-be chocolate frosted doughnut, will indeed have a mouth!  So no worries. :)

Since a couple of people asked about the mermaid (hi, guys!), here's a little sneak peek of her:

She's entangled by quite a few octopus tentacles and is appropriately titled "Entanglements".  She's not 100% finished yet.  I'm going to be putting some text on her, like this piece, but I haven't decided completely what I want it to say yet.  She was the type of girl who didn't let anything hold her back?  Maybe.

Oh, and sweet Kalina, I have actually done a hula girl! 

She was actually done as a part of this project (the rest of which has been postponed for a while -- but it's okay!).  I would love to do another, who looks more like a native of Hawaii, one day...that's definitely on my list!  Since this one's audience would be mostly children, we decided to put her in a bathing suit underneath her grass skirt -- but I really want to do one wearing the coconut bra!  You can't find THAT at Victoria's Secret. :)  (And thank you for your sweet words!)

See you later, alligators!

KJ

Adventure #107: KJ & The Very Big Goals

Dear You,

Long time, no blog!

Do any of you who happen to have any spare time at all, want to donate to the Let's-Give-KJ-27-Hours-In-A-Day fund?  A minute or two here and there would add up, y'know! We could get me there!

My goal for June is to list a brand spankin' new piece in my Etsy shop…every single day.

It's the ninth and…so far, so good.

Here's a sneak peek at what's already up over there:

I have enough new pretties to last through the 17th.  But to meet my goal, I have to come up with 13 more! And I have jury duty this week!

Can it be done? With only 24 hours in my day?

Well, we shall see! I certainly am going to give it the old giraffe-y try!

And my goal for July is to revamp this here blog…and my goal for August is to blog everyday!

Anyway, over the next week, in the shop, there will be (in no particular order): the butcher, the baker AND the candlestick maker (but rub a dub dub -- no men in that tub!); some bunnies, a girl who doesn't quite fit in, a mermaid who refuses to be held back, a gnome, a girl who dresses to impress, a former marionette, and a girl who is on pins and needles.  Which one will make an appearance today?  I don't know...but she'll arrive sometime between seven and ten p.m. (east coast time!)

Hmmm. There are no fairies in that list. I'll have to do something about that!

So…I have approximately two hours to get myself together and to the courthouse.

Hasta la vista from Juror 0062!

 

KJ

Adventure #106: KJ Is Back In An Office

Dear You,

So, back in Adventure #105, I mentioned a big commission project that I couldn't show off. 

WELL. 

Here are the details!:

Though all I've fought to do since I quit "the real world" is to support myself with my art and to prevent having to ever, ever again work a conventional 9 to 5...to stay OUT of offices -- it seems that I'm going to be back inside one, in a fairly big way.

Well...my art is anyway!

I am doing quite the collection of custom 11" x 14" paintings for a pediatric dental office in the northeast U.S. 

The process has been an absolute blast thus far and the dentist who commissioned the pieces is an absolute dream to work for.  I worked in a pediatric dentist myself for a while, while in college, so I know firsthand how scary those visits can be for little ones and it makes me so happy and honored to have my art on the walls of such an office, where maybe it can help calm some nerves and cheer some fearful hearts!

This is going to be the biggest number of my paintings in one place (other than my own house, that is!) and it's so exciting to  think of there being sort of a little gallery of my work!

The super cool thing about it is, though, that the majority of the paintings are going to be of the staff, with a painting for each employee, done in my style, based on their appearance and personalities and interests.   That was all the dentist's idea and I think it's such a neat one.

We're doing them in batches of three and are still only about 2/5ths of the way done...but the first fifth has been packaged up, sent off, arrived safe and sound (THANK GOODNESS!) and seen by everyone, so it's no longer a top secret surprise and I can finally share those with you!

So...without further ado...here they are!

There's a female dentist at the practice, so of course, I had to paint her as the tooth fairy:

 

(I had a really difficult time deciding what color the tooth fairy's dress should be, so I asked in the Etsy forums, and got a variety of opinions -- so I just made her dress ALL THE COLORS!)

I think the story behind this next one is the sweetest.  There's a girl who works there whose parents are both deaf, so she is fluent in sign language.  When I found out about that, I absolutely had to do her painting incorporating some kind of sign language...the sign for "I love you" to be specific!

 

And, though I don't like to play favorites, sometimes you just can't help it...and I think this one is my favorite out of these three.  I had such a difficult time with the unicorn, at one point, I really and truly believed I wasn't going to be able to do it.  BUT I did!  And I completely love him.  I will definitely be doing more paintings with unicorns in the future!

 

Well...as I said, we still have quite the ways to go, so I have painting to do, so I better go get busy!

Have a super duper weekend!

KJ