The Adventures of KJ & The Dreamy Giraffe

Adventure #104: KJ Plays Tag (But Makes Up Her Own Rules)

Dear You,

I've been tagged by the charmingest of Sams and my favorite Good Girl and Ali J of aussiepatches (though that one was a while back, but I didn't get around to participating back then).

Rules of “tag”:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. DONE!
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.  DONE!
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. 
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I've done this before (here and here) and though I'm a quirk-filled individual, goodness, it's hard to do this without repeating myself!  But here goes:

Okay, those aren't my real answers.  But that's a nifty little thingamabob I found on Good Girl's blog and thought it was too funny, so couldn't resist.   I couldn't get the HTML to work right, but if you'd like some humorous trivia tips about your very own self, you can get them here.  (And if you can figured out and tell me how to post the results to my blog properly, it'd be much appreciated!)

Seriously, though:

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1.  I didn't have a boyfriend until my sophomore year in college.  One morning, at the beginning of the semester, I was walking across campus and saw this absolutely gorgeous guy.  And I thought to myself, "I'm either going to marry that guy, or never see him again." Imagine my almost falling out of my chair when, the next afternoon, Mr. Absolutely Gorgeous walked into my fiction writing class and took a seat.  I was wrong on both accounts: I DID see him again, and we did date for a little while (making him boyfriend numero uno), but as you've probably surmised by the fact that I've never mentioned a husband, did not get married.

2. Growing up, I said I'd never ever, ever, ever be a teacher.  My first job out of college was teaching language arts (and one math class) at a small private school.

3. I did not want to be an artist growing up.  If you'd have told me that's where I would have ended up, I would have laughed at you, because never in a million years would I have considered myself even talented enough to sell one painting, much less, you know, to sell them on a regular basis.  To prove this point: The first painting I sold, I put a price tag of $15.00 on it (though the buyer, a friend, gave me $25.00) and thought that was fair.  I think it was a 9" X 12".  Or maybe a bit bitter?  $15.00!!!

Here's the painting:

And how unseriously I was taking it?  I didn't even SCAN the piece before I let it go.  This is just a snippet -- and, as you can probably tell, it's a very bad quality picture taken with my digital camera -- the flash (why didn't I turn it off?) glaring against the varnish (back when I used gloss, before I learned the wonders of satin or semi-gloss).  The painting had text on it that read: In her free time, Stacey liked to paint men on the walls.  Unfortunately, though she gave them hearts, none of them seemed at all interested in being her boyfriend.

4. I hate mouth noises.   Talking's cool, but any other sounds people make with their mouths -- yuck.  Especially chewing.

5.  I have a bad habit of asking loved ones if they're on crack or smoking dope.

6.  I am terribly backed up on my Guiding Light-watching.  I currently have 8 episodes on my DVR -- yesterday it was 13, but I spent most of the day in front of the t.v., painting while listening.  I can't seem to catch it when it actually airs and somehow continuously wind up several weeks behind.  But I can't manage to give it up, either.  I mean, Ricky Paull Goldin is leaving?  How the heck are they gonna write out Gus?  I must know.

7.  One of my favorite books is Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman -- but I HATED the movie.

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Speaking of books, I also got tagged by Fria for the Literary Challenge.

Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). DONE!
2. Open the book to page 123. DONE!
3. Find the fifth sentence. DONE!
4. Post the next three sentences. DONE!
5. Tag five other people.

The nearest book:

Page 123, Line 5:

"William, I am a much better jet pilot than a car driver."

Fekadu laughed loudly and joyously.  William wondered how this poor man could be capable of such happiness, however temporary it was.

"Your stories," said William. "I want to believe you."

"Then believe me," said Fekadu.

That's actually five sentences, BUT the fourth and fifth were so great, I had to tack them on.  Ten Little Indians is a book of short stories I picked up last weekend from a thrift shop.  I've only read one of the stories so far, but so far, so good.

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to play either game: You're it!

Dream on,

KJ

Adventure #103: KJ, The Original Peanut Butter Girl

Dear You,

Long, long ago, and far, far away, when I was a little girl, a friend of my maternal grandmother always called me "The Peanut Butter Girl".

I always thought this was because I liked peanut butter sooooooo much (and still do -- make mine crunchy, please!), but recently, I asked my mom, just to make sure, and turns out I was misinformed.  I earned the name Peanut Butter Girl by looking like the little girl that was on the jar of some brand of peanut butter back in the day.  (I have Googled extensively and cannot for the life of me find out which brand it was and my mom doesn't remember.)

On a seemingly unrelated note: I like painting superheroes.  Along with mermaids, princesses, pirates, fairies, and my versions of fairy tale heroines, they show up fairly often in my work.  And to me, Peanut Butter Girl sounded sort of like a superhero name.  A superhero with very laidback superpowers, for sure, not the type that's out leaping buildings in a single bound or battling dark forces with deadly ray-guns, making bad guys sorry they were ever born.

And so I started dreaming up what Peanut Butter Girl would look like.  What WOULD her powers be?  And, of course, she'd have to have a sidekick, 'cause what's peanut butter without jelly?

And soon thereafter, Peanut Butter Girl and Jelly Bean, her faithful companion and partner-in-(lowkey)-crimefighting were born.  They're not your average superheroes, oh, no! Their superpower is the ability to discern the precise moment someone is absolutely going to freak out if they don't get a PB & J, and to bring aforementioned PB & J to the poor about-to-freak-outter. You might say they're saving the world, one sandwich at a time.

Here they are, starring in their first adventure, "Peanutty":

 

WELL.  A painting of two peanut buttery superheroes is kind of a quirky painting.  Um, what I mean is, it wouldn't fit as neatly and easily with traditional and  typical living room decor across the world as, say, a nice landscape or abstract piece would.  It would take a certain, special, unique, peanut butter-lovin' individual to have the wall just right for it to hang on.  Not just any setting would do for art with this sort of offbeat subject matter.

I actually kind of believe that each of my paintings don't sell until that right, perfect buyer comes along and finds them.  Like, you know, if a painting takes a year to sell...it's because it took that long for the person who absolutely, positively was meant to have that painting to see it.  (That sounds a little hokey, but, I do genuinely hope that is how it works.)  And that was certainly the case, I think, with "Peanutty".

Adventure #101: KJ & The Most Beautiful Sunset In The History Of Beautiful Sunsets

Dear You,

I usually go get the mail sometime around lunchtime.

However, today, pretty engrossed in a commissioned portrait, I totally forgot.

And when I realized I forgot, around suppertime, my first reaction was, "DANG, I forgot to get the mail."

And then I opened the door, and was suddenly oh so very GLAD I forgot to get the mail.

Because, due to the mail-forgetting, I got to see the most beautiful sunset in the history of beautiful sunsets:

(These pictures haven't been doctored or photoshopped in any way...a disclaimer I feel the need to add, because, man, can you believe the beauty?  It was simply the most magnificent display I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died and I missed some shots...there was a lot of bright pink and red involved moments later.  Wow.)

I may just "forget" to get the mail at lunchtime tomorrow, as well!  For now, it's time to go dance with the stars...and change the batteries in my mouse.

Longer letter later, as we used to say in junior high!

KJ

Adventure #98: KJ Learns She Is Not Perfect

Dear You,

Last week, at the post office, I was standing across the counter from my Friendly Postal Worker, while he was weighing one of my packages, when I noticed something amiss on one of my labels.

"Oh, no," I said. "Can I have that one back for a second?"

You might be thinking the same thing Friendly Postal Worker must've been thinking, as he handed it to me: That I'd misspelled the addressee's last name, or had the street number wrong, or only had four numbers in the zip code.

Um, no:

I'd just left out the comma between Dallas and Texas, so the address looked like:

When I told Friendly Postal Worker that that was the oopsie I wanted to fix, he said, "Ah, you want everything to be just right and proper, yes?"

And I said, "No, I want everything to be perfect."

Which is true, kind of, but ugh, but what a drag is that.  Because is anything perfect?  No.  So that goal always leads to disappointment and letdown. 

So, my fellow perfectionists, let's stop trying for perfect.  Let's just wonderful and fabulous and sweet and understanding and friendly and funny and caring...and imperfectly good enough.  Chances are, after all, no one expects you to be perfect but your very own self!   So, let's be our best, which will never be perfect.  Our best, which includes our flaws, because they are apart of who we are, and without our flaws, we aren't really being our best, because we aren't really being US.  

Where is all this coming from?

Weeeeell, this morning, I was going through my art, getting a bunch of stuff ready to list (oh my gosh, the hoarding -- I had NO idea that I had like thirty something pieces finished or veryveryvery close to being finished -- why don't I listen to the advice I so often give other -- if people can't SEE your work, they can't BUY your work), and I picked up a painting that I've never listed the original of, but have had prints of available in le shoppe for a long, long, long, long time.

And imagine my inner perfectionist shrieking in horror, and possibly curling up into a teeny tiny ball of humiliation and shame, upon  my realizing, that yes, the girl in this painting?  Only has one set of eyelashes.  And it kind of makes me laugh -- because I am normally so picky about each and every little detail -- but, um, yeah.  No robots here, obviously.

 

And, yes, I really and truly listed her that way and all this time have never even noticed.

You can see the actual listing here -- I've not changed it yet, but tomorrow, after I give her that second set of lashes, I will.  Actually, I may take the print down and list the original. 

In other news, I had three really, really, really, really bad nights, totally sleepless nights, so I've sort of kind of fallen off the NaNoWriMo bandwagon.  But I AM going to get back on tomorrow morning.  Thank goodness, I was able to sleep last night.  Actually, I slept most of yesterday-day, then last night.   I don't want my blog to be known as The Drugged Adventures of KJ & The Dreamy Giraffe, but I think I have to say:  I am so very, very, very grateful to the makers of Tylenol PM.  I am just not a girl who can function without her zzzzzzzzzzzzzz's.

Imperfectly,  Well-Rested-ly Yours,

KJ

Adventure #90: KJ & That Time Of The Month

An old, pre-entry comic-like thing:

(In case you can't read my handwriting:

Girl One to Girl Two: Why are you wearing a turtleneck?

Girl Two to Girl One: Why are you holding a man's toupee?

Girl Three to Herself: Why are my feet so freaky-looking?

And the answer to all the girls' questions: Because Kathy (b.k.a KJ) shouldn't draw in pen.)

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Dear You,

I've been thinking about worrying.

The end of each month is always one of the most worrisome times for me, because the end of each month is closely followed by the beginning of the next month and I don't know how it is for you guys, but for me?  Every single bill is due either on the first or the fifteenth...the vast majority on the first.  So...not having a steady paycheck, there's always the breath-holding, toe-tapping, oh-my-goodness-oh-my-goodnessing, starting around the 26th.  Will there be enough money?  What if there's not enough money?  Oh, my goodness, my car's going to be repoed and I'll drop to a size four because I won't have anything to eat and then I'll be skinnier than I ever dreamed of being (hurray!), but I'll be naked because I'll have no clothes to fit and no extra cash to buy any.  Woe is me.

Yet...somehow, the first of the month comes, and the bills get paid, someway, somehow, and it's okay.

I've been doing this for a little over two years now, and it's always okay.  There've been months when I had to borrow some money from my parents (and that kills me a little), there've been months when I had to put a bit more on the credit card than I would like (and since I never even HAD a credit card before I started doing art for a living, that kills me a lot), there've been probably more months than not where I had to do without something I wanted.  But it's been okay.

For twenty-five or twenty-six months, it's been okay.

So...in the past, it's been okay for THAT many months.  So why, each month, no matter how many months pass, do I continue to freak out and worry and convince myself that THIS month will surely be the month where everything falls a part and I will bounce checks and find myself on my hands and knees in the lobby of a local law firm, begging and pleading for them to give me a Dictaphone and a desk?  

Each month that little voice in the back of my head whispers, well, this is it.  You're not going to make enough sales and the phone will be shut off, and you won't be able to use the internet, and then you're out of business, kid.  And each month, it turns out to be a dirty rotten lie.  The doubtmonster is a liar.  The past evidence supports that as a fact.

What I'm trying to say is...why is it so easy to believe the worst case scenario, which has never happened, over the not-a-fairy-tale-ending-but-okay scenario that's been reality over and over and over?

It's kind of like trusting someone who continually breaks their promises. 

I'm not saying nothing bad will ever happen, because that's simply not true...but personally, for me, and I hope for you, as well, looking back, though there have been some awful times, though I've had my heartbroken, though things have been a struggle here and there...my good memories far outweigh the bad.

SO I wish I could just program my head to automatically expect the best, instead of being fearful of the worst. 

I want to renew these affirmations, which I wrote in...well, you can see the date.  I want to stick to them and really, truly believe them.

 

(The pre-entry comic-like thing was drawn on the same day as this affirmolist was compiled, so when I said it was old, I wasn't lyin'. )

Now, all together, let's repeat:  All is well, all is well, all is well.

KJ

P.S. If I ever get to the point where I'm billing people, I'm totally going to make my bills due on the 22nd.  And in other news, I finally cleaned my monitor's screen so every website I visit isn't polkadotted anymore.  Yay!

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& relevant quote for this entry:

"Do what you can, with what you have, right where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

Adventure #86: KJ Is Not Quite Rapunzel (But Getting There!)

Dear You,

Okay, just in case you're keeping a list of the various emotional and physical states I wake up in, so that one day you can make a spreadsheet and track them to see if there's any pattern*: this week, I've woken up cranky and productive, and this morning, I rolled out of bed on the headachey side.  I mean, the type of headache where it feels like you've got ten mini elephants line dancing on your brain (which is not quite as bad as the headaches where it feels like you've got ten full-sized elephants line dancing on your brain).  Sinuses.  Okay, enough about me, more about me!

I tend to really change up my hair every few years and back in...oh, 2004?  It was super long (well, halfway down my back, anyway) and I got it chopped somewhere between shoulder and chin-length.  No hesitations for me.   And since then it got shorter and shorter and shorter.  Don't get me wrong -- there's nothing wrong with short hair.  I've had some short cuts that were super sassy and cute.  But I really, really, really have wanted to grow my hair out and have it be super long again and so I've not had it cut since last January, when I got it cut the shortest it's ever been.

Goodness, KJ, get to the point, No One Cares What You Had For Lunch and no one cares what's on top of your head.  But the point is, the other day, I got out a ponytail holder and guess what?  My hair could be put into an actual, legitimate ponytail, not just a little sproutlet of hairs bundled together and protruding straight out from the back of my head resembling a rabbit's tail.  An actual ponytail, people! Yay for the small victories! 

Speaking of hair:

Oh, no, I'M not getting a trim (and go back to the sprout thingy protruding from my head instead of a real, genuine ponytail -- no way!  I know, I know, split ends, blah blah...eventually it'll be taken care of, but just not right now!) -- BUT the little girl in the above print sure could use one, pronto, Tonto!  When your hair starts tying you up in protest over its length, it's definitely time for a trim!

That's just one of the versions of this print I'm going to be offering  in the shop each in a different color with a different saying, like: 1) All bad hair days are not created equal. 2) Some days her hair just had a mind of its own. 3) We all get into hairy situations from time to time.    They started out with a drawing I did in colored pencil and graphite, and then scanned in and fancied up using my graphics program and a steady hand and a whole lot of patience!

The original of this one is also going to be available for purchase.   It isn't quite finished yet, but it' s going to be another one of my Rapunzel Variations** and will say something like "She really wanted to let down her hair...but her hair had other ideas". 

If YOU come up with a saying you think would be cute on one of the prints, comment or e-mail me with it and if I use it, I'll send you a free (yes, FREE) copy of that print!  Yay for free!

And I totally had something else to say, but it has slipped my mind, which I hear is one of the symptoms of having ten mini elephants line dancing on your brain.

Ta-ta for now!

K to the J

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* If you are, in fact, keeping such a log, please don't tell me about it.  I might get a wee bit frightened or something.

** The other Rapunzel Variations, the first two which have gone to new homes and the third which is quite obviously still a work-in-progress:

Adventure #77: The KJ Diaries

Dear You,

I've been meaning to blog about this for approximately 95 years (which is quite a feat since I've only been alive for 30), but have you heard about the Diary 2008 project?  It's too late to participate, but it's not too late to check it out, and it might not be too late to still order one and you can purchase a copy of your very own right here, if you'd like to.

What exactly IS Diary 2008, you ask?

Well, it's a diary (duh) for 2008 (duh again), which was started and put together by Fantazya and consists of over 390 pages (one for each day of the year, plus address pages, notes pages &  such).  Each page was designed by a different artist (all who sell their work online), following the same basic format (including the date, space for writing, some kind of artwork and the page creator's link).  The covers are blank so you can decorate them however strikes your fancy.

Here's an info page about the project, including all the nitty gritty details, a list of all the participants, some examples of pages, and a bunch of other neato stuff.

Here's the Flickr group for the project, where you can take a looky-loo at even more of the pages.

And here is the page for January 31, 2008, designed by a certain dreamy giraffe you may've heard of:

                      

It was SO much fun to do and if there's a Diary 2009, I definitely want to be involved again.

Speaking of diaries, I personally have never been able to keep a handwritten diary consistently for more than a week and a half or so, but I did have a personal (VERY personal) Livejournal that I wrote in regularly (like more than once a day) for nearly five years.  And now, for your amusement, via a snippet of that (VERY personal) LJ I'd like to introduce you to the March of '05 version of KJ, y'know, the one that was still a stressed out officemonkey in a local law firm:

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I'm sick. I've been sick since, like, birth. It seems. Unwell in this winter that's like a recurring dream. Saturday, we went to the beach, and it was a perfect beach day. Sunny and blue and warm. Then, today, I found myself drinking hot chocolate.

I never drink hot chocolate. I despise hot drinks. AND it may sleet. And/or snow. HERE. In South Carolina. It is almost April. April in South Carolina should not require a hoochcoat, it's wrong. But what is really, extraordinarily wrong, is that an hour after we came back from lunch (which consisted of the aforementioned hot chocolate and CHEESECAKE), I was STLL wearing the hoochcoat.

Huddled up in the hoochcoat, hovering around Summer's heater (which on typical days I despise almost as much as hot drinks) like it was a freakin' fireplace, shivering like I was working up to a nice jitterbug.

And it occurred to me that I am a very hot-natured individual that doesn't get cold like that and the room was sort of spinning and I wanted to ask if, you know, I could just clock out and sleep on one of the couches in an attorney's office until the feeling passed.

I think I've finally succumbed to the flu.

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Hee.  I occasionally read back over those old entries and laugh and smile and realize that indeed life does consist of more good times than bad and...I wish that I'd documented more of them.

I was going to take a picture of the hoochcoat to go along with this post ('cause I KNOW somebody on there in blogland's gotta be curious, but I can't find the darn thing, so just picture the J.Lo-iest coat you've ever seen in your life and it probably looks something like that.  It is honey colored quilted satiny material with a matching faux fur poof poof collar and cuffs and, yes, I wore this thing on a regular basis.

Much love from the '07 Version of KJ!

P.S.  Who says DUH anymore, anyway?  And unwell in this winter that's like a recurring dream?  Who, other than Shakespeare, TALKS  like that, man? 

Adventure #76: Surprise! KJ's a Weirdo!

 

(dreamy plate with giraffe & butterflies by Oladesign)

Dear You & You (And You -- Yeah, YOU!),

I was tagged by Jo & MrsDragon (linked above), for the 6 Weird Things About You meme, so here are six weird-ish things about moi, and since I was a sick giraffe for pretty much the last half of August, surprise, surprise, half of my weird-ish things are health related:

6. I will never, ever, ever eat a tomato, but I love some ketchup & have no problems with spaghetti sauce, either.

5. I didn't get my driver's license until I was in college, and I didn't particularly want it, then.

4. I occasionally have nocturnal seizures.  I've never had one when I wasn't sleeping -- but I'll wake up in the morning with sore beyond belief legs and arms, a headache, bruises here there and yonder, and, yes, a bit of amnesia, too.  This happened early last week and the next day, I had a chat with my mom about how I was concerned that I hadn't heard from a buyer whom I was waiting to approve a custom piece so I could varnish it.  Later that afternoon, I was looking through my old mail and saw that I HAD gotten an e-mail from that buyer and read it the night before at 2:23 a.m. AND had gotten a Conversation via Etsy from her as well and had read that, too -- and had no recollection of it.  The time before that, for whatever reason, I hid my glasses in my computer stool underneath all of my disks and it took almost two months to find them.  Once, back in 2004, I went on a first date with a guy I really liked, had one of the seizures that night, and didn't remember the date the next morning, until my mom told me about it. Only once has anyone seen me having one of the seizures, and that was my sister waaaaaaay back in 1999, and they took me to the hospital and all of the tests came out normal, though they did put me on medication for seizures and I wasn't allowed to drive for six months.  My "seizures" may actually involve some sleepwalking, too, as during one (the 2004 one to be specific) I have knocked over an entire exercise bike.  But who knows. THAT'S WEIRD. 

3. I am 98% sure I have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, which is a rare form of aura that comes before migraines.  That IS WEIRD.  In fact, that's how I tend to describe it: "I feel weird."  You can Google it and read more about it if you like, but it's pretty much impossible to explain, except, "I feel weird."

2. I have two uteruses.

1. I didn't find out that I had two uteruses until I was 27.

Weird enough for ya?

I wish I could show you what I've been working on this week, because I'm pretty much in love with it, but it's a commission for a gift, which is a surprise, so I have to keep it under wraps for a l'il bit longer.  Speaking of surprises, though, it's Try Day @ Create A Connection once again and this week, Try Day is all about SURPRISES...so head on over there, read my post, and get involved!  Ooh, and if you're wondering just WHAT the story is behind the picture with this post, that's explained over there, too!

Weirdly yours,

KJ

Adventure #71: Playing Tag With A Brown-Eyed Fox

Dear You:

I was tagged for the Four Things meme by the brown-eyed Carissa, pictured above in her Dreamy Giraffe-ized foxy, foxier, foxiest glory, so here goes nothin':

4 jobs I've had: Waitress (which is totally uninteresting until I throw in the fact that it was at a truck stop), 7th & 8th grade language arts teacher, costume shop assistant, and paralegal.

4 films I'd watch over and over: These days I really don't have enough of an attention span when it comes to zoning out and relaxing to spend an hour and a half to two hours watching a movie - within fifteen minutes I'm usually get antsy and am up and doing something -- but I will totally turn the channel to Hitch every single time it comes on, which is quite often on Starz.  I do the same with Little Black Book, though not as frequently.   I don't know why.  Ooh, and Cellular.  Because let's face it: Chris Evans is just plain hot. If you were asking me this question ten years ago, Scream would totally be on the list.  I have seen that movie so many times it's borderline crazy.

4 places I've lived: I've never lived outside of South Carolina, and have only lived in two cities here.

4 favorite t.v. shows: Grey's Anatomy, though I don't know how I'm going to deal with no Dr. Burke (say what you want about Isaiah Washington, the actor, but I will miss the character a bunch) and I loved him and Cristina together, and hmmm.  I watch Guiding Light everyday, if that counts.  And Big Brother.  I like Side Order of Life & State of Mind on Lifetime, but they've not been on long enough yet to achieve favorite status.

4 favorite foods: pizza, Breyer's Dulce De Leche ice cream, my mom's blueberry cobbler, and Mexican Pizza Dip from Red Bone Alley.

4 websites I visit daily: Etsy, Bloglines, Typepad, um...actually, I visit Etsy enough for it to count twice.

4 places I love to be: With my niece, Kaylee, any kind of art or craft supply store, Florida & fall...which technically isn't a place, but I'd still love to be there! (And, of course, I love to be at home, but, who doesn't?  I mean, it IS where the heart is, no?)

4 favorite colors:  I refuse to choose.  But maybe pink.

4 names I love but wouldn't use for my children: There are none I LOVE that I wouldn't use.  I mean, if you love them, why wouldn't you use them?

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 & as an added bonus, here's a picture of me, showing off my mad waitressing skills circa 2000. 

             

Why would anyone take a photo of that, you ask?  Well, because that's not me ACTUALLY being a waitress (the "uniform" at the truck stop wasn't that snazzy -- in fact, I wore jeans and a t-shirt); it's me playing one on television stage.  Sorry the pic is so small and grainy and you can't actually tell that I have facial features -- it's actually from the local newspaper -- the FRONT PAGE of the local newspaper.  Bet ya didn't know I used to be famous, did you?  Don't get all starstruck, though.  It was just a college production (of David Ives' All in the Timing, and my part lasted all of about five minutes or so. )  But it was fun.  Those guys didn't tip me, though.  

I'm supposed to tag somebody so -- TAG, you're it!

Love,

KJ

P.S. Out of all the artist's in the whole entire world Ms. Brown-Eyed Fox actually chose l'il old me to do the artwork for her website -- and that painting is what we came up with.  You can also see it on her lovely site here.