The Adventures of KJ & The Dreamy Giraffe

Adventure #105: KJ & A Month Of Sundays (& Saturdays, Too!)

Dear You,

I was SO productive this weekend and I'm positively bursting to show off what I got done.

But I can't.   It's a big commissioned project, that's sort of a surprise, so I have to keep zipped lips for the next month or so, and it's killing me not to be able to share!

But I CAN show off the art I did the OTHER Saturdays & Sundays this month.

A few weeks ago, my 2 & 1/2 year old niece, Kaylee, spent the weekend at my house, and we painted (okay, I just put the colors she picked out on the brush --- she did the rest):

Drew circles and houses:

 

Traced her feet, hands, and whole cute little self (which is much, much, much cuter than the outline would indicate!):

And did projects (that's what she calls any art that's not painting or coloring):

She seems to be developing quite the creative streak already.  And not just when it comes to art!

The other night, she, my mom, my sister and I were at Red Lobster, and she got out two little packets of creamer and was pretending that one little packet of creamer was The Mommy and one little packet of creamer was The Daddy and was making up this little dialogue between them (one of them kept asking if they could go to Monkey Joe's tomorrow and the other would respond "SURE, we can!").   The funniest point of the whole show was when she dropped one of the creamers one the floor and look at us and said, "I want a new daddy!"

Adventure #97: It's True, KJ Will Paint Whatever You Want Her To

Dear You,

I've been keeping pretty busy lately with working on commissioned custom pieces (which I'm always thrilled to do...the more, the merrier...hint, hint ;)), but yesterday, I took a break from painting to go get supplies so I can do more painting.  Oh, and so I could go to lunch with my friend, Summer, (Unofficially) The Nicest Person On The Face Of The Planet.

We hadn't been to lunch in a while, so we went to our favorite restaurant, Red Bone Alley, where we had a waiter so ridiculously attractive that my math skills flew out the window and I forgot how to do basic multiplication and I think I left him like a 40% tip.   Girls, this is how the good-looking menfolk begin to affect you when you work at home and don't see many of them live and in person (so McDreamy & McSteamy do not count) on a regular basis, so just be aware.  It was a lot of fun catching up.   (For those interested in the details, I had the Mexican Pizza Dip.) 

Then I hit Hobby Lobby.  One truly awesome thing about being an artist is the supplies.  Love, love, love supplies.  Love, love, love anything made by Die Cuts With A View.  Love, love, love that Hobby Lobby had all scrapbooking papers 50% off this week so I got 2 matt stacks for the price of one.  (The  Rock Star one & The All Dressed Up one.)  It kills me that I can never find any of the Once Upon A Time line in stores.  But, then again, it's probably a good thing -- because if I did find that one, I probably wouldn't be able to limit myself to the matt stacks. 

Today, I'm back to work, spending the weekend on more commissions that I'm really psyched about and ready to get going!

Here are some shots of the ones I've just finished up:

An idea sketch of a dragon, which is more detailed than my usual idea sketches, but I'd never painted a dragon before, so I wanted to be sure to get it just right!:

And the finished piece:

The idea sketch for a little girl perched atop a car:

And the completed painting:

AND something really different for me, here's part of a more traditional portrait, which I was VERY intimidated by, but I'm kind of pleased with how it turned out.  (I wrote more about this one here.)

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work I go (though, on days like today, when I'm working on something as fun as a blonde queen bee-girl, it feels kinda silly to call it "work" !)

Hope you all have a fabulously dreamy weekend!

KJ

P.S. Is it heigh-ho or high-ho or hi-ho?  I do not know!

Adventure #93: KJ Gets Her Holidays Mixed Up

Dear You,

Happy Halloween! 

Look what I made yesterday to celebrate the occasion:

Yeah, I know what you're thinking (though I'm ordinarily not in the mind-reading business):

Uh, KJ...typically, snowmen are not used as Halloween decorations...you should be saving that for December, and Christmas, and cold weather!  In October, you should be carving pumpkins!

Ah, but my friend...that IS a pumpkin!

That's my entry for the Pumpkin Junkin contest.

My friend Sheila came over yesterday armed with two pumpkins and we spent the morning junkin' and it was so. much. fun. 

 Though working for yourself can be stressful and worrisome sometimes (as I think I've mentioned once or twice ;)), doing this totally reminded me that creating is my passion and I love it so much, so so very much and I am so blessed to be able to do my art for a living and that I should be enjoying each day I get to do this and NOT ever let the stress and worries overshadow those facts.

Anyway, we were sitting around, staring at our pumpkins, and brainstorming, and I said, "You know, we should've gotten three pumpkins, and we could've collaborated and made one big project instead of two small ones...we could've made a SNOWpumpkin!!!"

And Sheila kind of looked at me like I'd lost my mind (Sheila, if you're reading this, you DID, but I don't hold it against you).

And then it occurred to me that there MUST be two more different-sized round objects around the house that I could paint white and use in lieu of two other pumpkins -- I could make a snowpumpkin all by myself!

And shortly thereafter, Funky Junky was born!

I really wish I'd taken pictures of all the "junk" I used before it was transformed, but I was too excited to think clearly and plunged in before I thought of doing that.

Here's Junky's Ingredients & Recipe:

1 Pumpkin

1 Very Old Round Sewing Kit Container Thingy

1 Round Bottle of Herbal Essences Hair Product Bottle

Paper Towels

Parts of 1 Old White Silk Shirt

1 Rubber Band

1 Bottle of Off White Acrylic Paint

1 Jar of Snow Texture stuff (I think made by DecoArt)

1 Bottle Sparkle Acrylic Paint

1 Bottle Bead Texture Gel

1 Medium Small Little Round Cardboard Craft Box

1 Small Small Little Round Cardboard Craft Box

1 Wooden Flower

1 Blue Safety Eye

1 Green Cat Safety Eye

1 Mini Clothespin

1 Orange Marker

Some Ribbon

Some Curly Brown Hair-Like Stuff

Some Little Birdies

1 Arm that I suppose is supposed to be used in creating some sort of a doll

1 Foam Paintbrush

Some Claytoon Modeling Clay

A Few Strands of Purple Fiber

Assorted Buttons

Letter Tiles

The pumpkin, which I painted white (warning: acrylic paint on a pumpkin's surface takes quite a while to dry!) makes up the base.   It was also coated with some bead texture gel and sparkle paint, just because I like sparkle and the bead texture stuff. The Very Old Round Sewing Kit Container Thing ( which was at one time my late grandma's and Kaylee (my two year old niece) calls "the yellow ball"...well, she did call it the yellow ball...it's not yellow anymore, because, well, as we all know, yellow snow is not good snow) makes up the midsection.  I covered it in the Snow Texture stuff, which I luckily had a jar of sitting around in my studio (it pays to hoard!).  The Herbal Essences bottle was emptied, the spout thingy taking off, and wrapped in paper towels to build it up a bit.  Then I wrapped that in part of the old, cut-up silk shirt and held it together with a rubber band.

All three of these parts were just sort of precariously stacked together, using a bit of Claytoon to hold them here and there.  (Good grief, this is boring!)

The craft boxes, which were painted black, make up the top hat, the foam paintbrush was cut in a mitteny-shape, the clothespin was painted a carrot-like orange for the nose, and everything else was just sort of junked on thereafter!

Junky has had two accidents, but luckily unlike Humpty Dumpty, I was able to put him back together again! 

This entry is a part of The Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun Halloween party ("a creepy Bloglandia event").   Head on over here to check out all the other partyers!

The Ghostess With The Mostess,

KJ

P.S. There's more pictures of Junky behind the cut...a camerashy snowpumpkin man he is NOT!

Adventure #89: KJ & The To Do List

Dear You,

So, forever and a day (which is quite a long time!), on each and every To Do List I wrote up, the following To Do would appear:

• Yoga Girl

That is Yoga Girl, as in Y is for Yoga Girl, the missing Alphababe. 

And finally, finally, yesterday, I made myself sit down and finish her up.  Because A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X & Z does not a complete alphabet make.  Close, but no cigar, as they say.

So, anyYay,

• Yoga Girl

is now:

• Yoga Girl

Here's she is, which means the first series of Alphababes are D, O, N, & E. 

(I thought about putting her in a more adventurous pose, but in the end, settled on something simple and serene.)

Last Friday, I took a break from the To Dos and went to breakfast with my friend (since 7th grade) Sheila for her birthday.  She turned 30 and that requires a celebration, even if that celebration only consists of a croissant combo and chat at Burger King.  I don't know what to tell you.  We are party animals.  

Anyway, somehow, I wound up with NaNoWriMo getting tacked onto my list of To Dos.  NaNoWriMo, for those of you not in the know, is National Novel Writing Month, where a bunch of overly ambitious and quite possibly crazy aspiring writers pledge to pen a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.  Now, these days, the only breaks I have time to take are potty breaks, so I really don't know how I'm going to manage 1667 words a day, but I guess I shall just have to learn to multitask better or forgo the potty breaks.  Could they not have chosen a month with 31 days, at least?

Seriously, I'm kinda excited about it.  I made an attempt at doing it back in...1873 or something, but didn't get finished.  Actually, I barely got started.  But 1667 words a day isn't really that much, is it?

Other things on my To Do List (and if they aren't on yours, they should be):

• Penelope of Illustration Friday is hosting something called Monster Mash 2007.   The Deadline is October 31st, so you've still got time to get in on it!                       

                                                                                     &

•  Also with a deadline of October 31st, is the First Annual Pumpkin Junkin' hosted by the wonderful Holli Conger.  The aforementioned friend Sheila is supposed to be picking up our pumpkins today and we're getting together Tuesday morning to tackle junkin' some punkins!  I'm super psyched about this one, and it only adds to the psyched-ness that there's a prize, and it's a piece of the wonderful Holli Conger's wonderful work (and it's a piece I've loveloveloved since I first saw it on her blog ages ago!). 

So...I'm off to get to doing!

KJ

P.S.  Most of the (series one) Alphababes are in new homes now, but B, E, J, L, N, Q, R, & Z are still available in the shop.  Y will join them shortly and O is at Glitter & Grunge.  If anyone's interested in getting their letters on. :)

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Update: I got a phone call from Sheila a l'il while ago and pumpkins have been purchased!  Whoo hoo!  There will be photos Tuesday, once they're junked up...those pumpkins don't know what's about to hit'em!