Kelee: Comic Book - Part Two

This is Part Two of my Comic Book. 

If you haven't read Part One, you can read it here.

 I recommend that you click on the first panel and then you can flip through them.

Click here to go to Part Three.
Click here to go to Part Four.

Kelee: Inspired Crochet Hats

After the fantastic rush of creating and presenting my comic book (you can read Part One by clicking on these words) to such a receptive and astonished (“I'm astonished that someone could spend so much time talking about poop!” ) audience, I assumed that by the next day I'd be fending off paparazzi and denying babybumps like all those super famous and adored comic book writers. That's why I was so shocked when I found myself picking up steaming dog poop laced with half-chewed earplugs off of frozen mud while still in my frog pjammies and winter boots. 

Nina says, "You let your dog eat what?!"

 Apparently, writing an unpublished comic book is not the way to throw yourself into extreme stardom. You live and learn.

I'm doing some studio revamping. My current studio (aka The Portal) is turning into a closet (so sad), but my blogmate Alison offered me a chunk of her studio (so nice). I think it'll probably all turn out to be pretty cool, but in the meantime, I carefully wound and stored my yarn in organized crates that I then crammed haphazardly into my closet. So despite having a decent stash of yarn, I've only had access to one box of tangled ends and small balls. Whew. I can hear my southern accent even when I type “small balls.” 

After a week of sitting next to this box of yarn and starting approximately a gazillion hats and mourning the loss of my lucky crochet hook, all the sudden everything came together at once. First, it snowed. 

The Flying Disc in Enosburg Falls, Vermont

There is something quite lovely and inspiring about two feet of snow. It is typically the norm in Vermont in February, but this winter has been a weird one weatherwise. Second, I found my lucky hook. One minute I was using a crappy plastic pastel one with snagging ridges and then my favorite shiny, metallic blue N appeared in the remote control caddy.

Ol' Bluey

Third, I regained my crocheting genius and stirred up a big ol' batch of hats each more glorious than the next. Too much? You won't think so when you see these hats. 

Row of Gorgeousness

Since I don't get many comments on my blog, I'll go ahead and comment on each hat what you wish you could comment on them if you just weren't too busy saving small babies in Ethiopia or fighting rabid gators in that part of Louisiana that isn't New Orleans. And bless you for that.

 Each one is a little piece of art unto itself. 

 

You wish you could hang it on your wall. 

Oh, and you didn't realize how lovely I am, too.
You are too kind.

Too pretty to wear. 

 You. Love. This. 

The upside of being married to me is all the handmade hats you could ever want. The downside is having hats constantly yanked on your head, a camera flashing away in your face, and someone yelling at you to "work it." That's my indirect way of thanking my husband for modeling these hats.

You can buy one of these hats from The Flying Disc in Enosburg Falls, Vermont, or at my etsy shop.

Kelee: Comic Book - Part One

Welcome to Part One of my comic book. 

You can just click on the top panel and then use your arrow to move through the "pages."

Click here for Part Two.
Click here for Part Three.
Click here for Part Four. 

Kelee: Writing Comics

A few months back our friend Rebecca asked me to be the guest artist at the Celebration of Expressive Arts in August. Despite having an intense fear of speaking in public, I agreed to give a little speechiloo about all the crap I make. I often mistakenly believe that the me-of-a-few-months-from-now is going to have little in common with the me-of-now, despite the fact that the me-of-now has a lot in common with the me-of-a-few-months-ago. . . . I hope I just said that I don't change a lot while thinking that I will. So when Rebecca asked me to be the featured artist last summer my brain went all, “Uh. I'm like totally not an artist. I'm so a crafter. Like, an alternative crafter.” Because apparently my brain is constantly a 14 year-old girl from the early 90s. Then Rebecca asked me to be the featured writer for February and my brain went all, “Uh. Writer?! I am so not a writer. I'm totally an artist.” That's when I told my brain to shut up and agreed to do the CEA presentation. I'm hoping that she'll ask me to be the featured musician soon so I can feel like a writer.
I sat down to do some writing and realized I had no idea what to write about. I called my writer friends for tips. One said to start at the beginning. I tried it: I was born as a small baby in the late seventies when the daffodils bloomed.
 Another writer friend suggested that I write about what I know. I tried that: This story begins the week that I saw four poops that were shaped like penises.
Another writer friend suggested that I write about the differences in growing up in the Mississippi Delta and living in Vermont. I tried it: In Vermont people eat corn muffins as a breakfast muffin – right along side a blueberry muffin or a bran muffin. In Mississippi a corn muffin is eaten as a dinner accompaniment used to push peas or sop up gravy.
And maybe there was a story in one of these, but I couldn't figure out how to write the parts that connect up the separate thoughts. How could I write a story without the connectors? A comic book was the only solution I could think of. Then the problem became that I cannot actually draw.
First I tried to use real photos gimped (which is the free version of photoshop) into submission for the pictures, but it was way too much work and looked sort of boring.

The set up to this one is an old lady sweetly saying to Apple, “Oh, aren't you sweet? Are you pretending to be on a horse?”

Then, I tried using pictures of people that I found on the Internet and dropping them into real pictures. Like this:

The follow up to this is, “That baby was born with four testicles. One of them was as big as a softball.”

Again, it just wasn't as interesting looking as I was hoping for, and required more searching of the Internet than I typically care to do.
Then in a flash of brilliance in the middle of the night, I decided to try making paperdolls to use. That way I could use a real photograph background and just pose the dolls like they would be in the scene and photograph them. A tweaked version of this idea is the method I ended up using. I made a handful of the dolls, cut them out, and photographed them lying flat on paper. I gimped out the background to be transparent and dropped them into a real digital photograph of the background. I sized them, colored them, text bubbled them, and was quite content with the result.
I intended on making more versions of the customer paperdoll and adding a bigger cast of characters, but this is what my life has been like lately...

There was also an issue with content. I did a trial comic that started like this...

However, Ben said I went too blue in the ending. If Ben, the guy who made a joke about having sex with the Power Rangers last night, thinks its too blue, it is probably too blue.
Do you remember a few years back when there was a whole flock of memoir writers who wrote these wildly successful memoirs, and then it was revealed dramatically on the television that they had actually made-up their memoirs? Somehow Oprah was tied into the story. I never understood why anyone would lie about being creative enough to invent a story. Isn't that way cooler than just recording what really happened? That is why I'm going to tell you that what I'm going to show you in the comics that will follow is completely fictional. I know it won't seem that way because the main girl is married to a dude named Ben who looks a lot like my husband and because she has the same kids and job and house and name as I do. You can trust me, though, it is all made up because I am, indeed, just that creative.
Please check back to see the actual comic.

Kelee: Making Handmade Valentines

We are sharing a family cold. (Except for Ben, whose clean living has finally caught up with him. It's funny. I figured I'd only ever say that sentence sarcastically.) We've been cooped up for days determined to keep this cold to ourselves. We're stingy like that. When medicated, we don't feel terrible so we have been going a little crafting crazy. Besides, we are all in the Valentine's mood. Even Gritty Kitty. Don't ask about why she's furless in those furless spots. It's best you don't know.

The Girlchild is still young enough to not be jaded about Valentine's Day. She has yet to experience the pain of unrequited love, loneliness, broken hearts, and those obnoxious people who preach about how we should show love all year long and not just on one day. I'm happy I was born all year long, but I'm not going to bake myself a birthday cake everyday. Although, now that I've thought of the idea...

This was us for most of the morning yesterday. Luckily, it was super duper cold so we didn't feel like we were missing out on much by being stuck inside. We decided to make little heart necklaces for Apple's friends at school.

Our original plan was to put three hearts on each necklace, but when we actually got around to making them we found these pretty pink seed beads that we'd bought about a thousand years ago and decided to go with two beads and one heart.

They turned out really sweet looking.

I also got to recycle a bunch of necklace wire because tiny little girls have tiny little necks.

I made them where they'd fit the little girls about the same spot where I like necklaces to fit me. I asked Apple if any of the girls have exceptionally large necks, but she was little help.

While I was making these, Apple spent a very long time working on a butterfly.

She developed her own technique for making it and worked on it for a few hours. It was pretty impressive to see her work so long on something. Must have been the fever. It was a lot of work. Each little blob was individually made and added. I am not saying it is the most butterflyish looking creation, but I am saying I am impressed with her arting skills.

She's going to give it as a Valentine gift to someone but she can't say who, and I'm not allowed to ask questions. She also made a heart using the same technique.

Then we made some handmade Valentine Cards. I cut out the hearts for her and she did the rest. Our supplies were limited to construction paper, red glitter, glue, and markers.

I asked about the "Wee Love" one. She said it was "Wee! like on a roller coaster and love. Get it?" Maybe I do. I suggested that she give that one to Isaiah since we know his parents.

And finally, we made some bigger hearts to give to Apple's favorite teachers as pins. Only we have no pins. I am not sure what we're going to do about that. I've exhausted our one local option for crafty-supply shopping. Oh well. We have until tomorrow to decide.

I think this will be my last blog post about Valentine's Day for this year. However, both kids are home sick from school today so you never know what kind of crafting nonsense we'll get into.