The Adventures of KJ & The Dreamy Giraffe

Adventure #100: KJ & The Milestones

Dear You,

I know, I know.  You were probably just about ready to send out a search party, but never fear: I've not been kidnapped by aliens, or runaway with any circuses.  I haven't abandoned my blog.  Okay, I DID abandon my blog, but it was a temporary abandonment.

I've been putting it off, figuring that Adventure #100 was sort of a milestone, and worthy of a super special post...a post with confetti and cupcakes with pink frosting, balloons and fireworks, and maybe some kind of earth-shattering announcement.  

Alas, I've none of that.

BUT, instead, I'll ease back into the blogging with a fairly low-key post about ANOTHER milestone:

It was one year ago today I sold my first original painting on Etsy.

The exact e-mail I sent to my friend Lisa:

AND man, that seems like a decade or two ago, but nope, only 365 days.  That was only my fourth or fifth sale...and now I'm 12 sales shy away from 200.  200!  

I'm excited to see what # the Adventure I post on November 18th, 2008 will be, what milestone I'll be nearing a year from now, and if, looking back then, I'll be amazed that only a year has passed, at all that happened in those 365 days.  My one wish is that no matter how many sales I have, that each and every sale between now and then still makes me feel like I've won the lottery. 

To the next 365 days, reaching milestones, and adventures.  I'll be back to documenting them on a regular basis starting in the a.m. and you're invited!

Love,

KJ

P.S. If you've not checked out the shop in a while, there's bunches of new stuff and will be more coming everyday!

Adventure #91: KJ, The Mermaidballerinasuperheropiratefairy & The Seahorse Prince

Dear You,

Finally, at last, I finished the painting I wrote about here, the one for Creative Challenge #71 in the Etsy forums, the one that was supposed to represent my shop, the one that I said was like a self-portrait of my innards?  That one. 

I also said that I'd take pictures of it as I worked on it and I swear, I remember taking at least a dozen, but my memory card argues that I only took two.  Two!

The Dynamic Duo:

And, complete:

And detail:

(Pssst...she's in the shop, just in case anyone was wondering. ;))

The type of girl who really, really wants to believe we can be anything (and everything!) we want to be,

KJ

P.S. Oh, and Johanna, never fear, your mental picture of me is not THAT off -- I'm a dark-headed giraffe, not a blonde!

Adventure #87: KJ's Self-Portrait (But Not Really)

Dear You,

Saturday's early morning easy breezy peasy errand-running and productivity was so nifty, I decided to do it again, so here I am, blogging at you from 5:55 a.m.  (Sidenote:  Normally, I do not go to the grocery store twice in one week, but Food Lion is having a crazy sale on Del Monte Summer Crisp corn, which, is the best corn you will ever eat out of a can.  In fact, it's almost as good as corn you'd eat off the cob, straight out of someone's garden.  Well, not STRAIGHT OUT of the garden, but y'know, cooked and stuff in between the removal from the garden and the eating.  It's 4/$2.00 when it's normally 4/$3.78.  Math isn't my strong suit, but that's practically half off, y'all!)

There's already been a glitch in my early morning easy breezy peasy errand-running and productivity repeat plan, though, and I lost about ten minutes freaking out because I couldn't get my camera to turn on.  I pressed on and it...did nothing.  Now, I know, I know, a bright person would've just replaced their batteries and moved on with life, but I had just replaced the batteries a week or so ago and had only used the thing once since, so before going to fetch more batteries, it was logical to me to take a few moments to imagine the price of a new digicam on next month's credit card statement and have the appropriate panic attacks.  And then I was so worried I couldn't even take the time to run into the kitchen to get brand new batteries, I just ran around the bedroom, muttering "oh no, oh no, oh nonononononononono" and yanking batteries out of other random battery-operated thingys -- the remote control, the mouse, my Craft-Lite Cutter -- and shoving them in the camera.  And it STILL wouldn't turn on.  But then I forced myself to take a deep breath, went to the kitchen, and got brand new batteries...and I have pictures to show you that were taken this very morning, so obviously: All's well that ends well.

I am SO jazzed about the weekly Creative Challenge at the Etsy forums.  It's Creative Challenge #71 and here's the rules:

Anyway, this week's challenge is to create something that shows what your shop is all about. A signature piece or show piece if you will. Something that shows what you want your shop to be known for or what your shop stands for. Think outside of the box. Have fun and be creative.

(You can see the thread in the forums here, if you like, to see other people's responses as they roll in.)

At first, I was way intimidated by this one, because

1) That could be kind of limiting, like asking you to describe yourself in five words...

2) The Dreamy Giraffe is ME, my art is ME (as hokey as that sounds) and creating one piece to show the world what The Dreamy Giraffe is all about is kind of like pouring my heart and mind out on a canvas and saying, "LOOKY HERE" (which more hokey: is sort of what I do with every painting, I guess, but times 28907879978) and

3) Honestly, if I could only show people ONE of my paintings and have them know what The Dreamy Giraffe is all about, it'd be a painting I've already painted, Humpty Dumpty Was A Girl.  That one is my all-time favorite, I think it pretty much sums up my art, The Dreamy Giraffe, AND me.  My immediate reaction was: I can never top that one.  And if I did, it would absolutely be like a self-portrait, that showed my insides (not the gross body-partsy ones!) instead of my face.

 

But, not a girl that's going to back down from a challenge (okay, I might initially back down from a challenge, but then I'm right up on that wall:  Iwillnotfall, Iwillfnotfall.), I started brainstorming.  Then I started sketching.  And here's what I've got so far:

 

And here's a picture without the shadow that looks like a claw holding a box (but is actually my hand holding my camera, which triple yay! still works!):

 

If my camera keeps camera-ing and my memory (actual memory in my head, not memory card in the camera) does not fail me, I will try to take more pictures throughout the day and update this post. 

Ooh, and hey, if your familiar with my art, if you wouldn't mind, let me know your thoughts 'cause I'm curious: If you were going to tell people about my work (oh, how nice of you, I love you, can I get you some cheesecake?!) and could only show them ONE painting that YOU think would convey exactly what my art is all about, which one would you show them?

Later gators,

KJ

P.S. Ms. Good Girl, provided that BRILLIANCE isn't from a movie or something and using it won't get me sued or thrown in the slammer, you've got yourself a free print.  Let me know what colors (any color you'd like) you want the one with your phrase to be.  And Mrs. Brown-Eyed Fox: I totally agree and it makes me very happy that I'm not the only one in the world that feels that way.  When I'm drooling daily at 3:00 p.m., I'll now know I'm not alone.

Adventure #73: KJ's Big Idea

 

Lately, on the forums at Etsy, there have been a lot of threads about copycats.

Can I just say...I really don't get copying.  I'm NOT saying it doesn't happen and I know firsthand how hurtful it can be to see your work with someone else's name on it. Back in 1847 or 2000 or something, I used to write this story and put it up on my old old nothing-to-do-with-The-Dreamy-Giraffe website and a few months later, wound up stumbling upon that story, my story on someone else's website -- and that someone else was claiming THEY wrote it.  I was so crushed, I vowed to never, ever put any of my work on the 'net again -- obviously that vow was broken.

But, so yes, I understand how awful that feels and I'm sure ideas do get stolen and artists do get ripped off.  It most likely even happens at Etsy.  I mean, every other day there's a thread popping up by someone who feels as if they've been the victim of a copycat, so obviously at least some of those are really cases of someone legitimately being copied.  I'm not trying to minimize the issue, but I truly do have a difficult time wrapping my mind about it being THAT rampant of an issue.

Here's why: I can't imagine needing to take someone else's idea. 

I just...can't imagine it.

Adventure #67: KJ Gets Rainbowriffic!

Dear Colorful Lady or Gentleman Reading This,

A weekly Creative Challenge takes place...um...weekly...over at the Etsy forums.  New challenges are posted on Monday mornings.

Anyway, this week's challenge, which was #61 (but only #2 for me!), was to create something new inspired by one or more of the colors of the rainbow.  You know, Mr. Roy G. Biv.

Actually, in my case, he's Roy G. Bv, because I used all the colors except the i...simply because I've never quite gotten the difference between Indigo & Violet -- isn't purple purple, people? Or is indigo a blue?  See? Don't get it!  And according to Wikipedia, I am not the only one!  (Check out the "Sequence of Colors" section & the #13 of the "Notes" section, too!)

It says: Some days she couldn't decide which color to wear, so she wore them all...

You can see all the other rainbowriffic responses to Challenge #61 here.

And, hey, wear all the colors! Who's stopping you, but you?

KJ

P.S. "Let no one who loves be unhappy...even love unreturned has its rainbow." - James Matthew Barrie.  Lots of other rainbow quotes here.