Childhood!

This is a MAGICAL AND  BEAUTIFUL AND EXCITING picture that my friend Trisa and I made when we were in like... I dunno, 4th grade? SO GOOD. It's beautiful and I love it. The fact that she had it/found it again makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. 

Those are horses playing in the hills... playing soccer. Ya know. I think that we did it by mostly tracing little bitty horse erasers that looked like this. Though it looks like at least one of them was hand drawn. The dinosaur looking one. CHILDHOOD WAS SO FUN.

TRUEBLOOOOOD

My roommate and I recently had a True Blood themed party which was really fun! It gave everyone a chance to dress up as who they liked best (I was Pam) and me an opportunity to wear a zebra striped, sequined, puffy one shoulder number that I could never wear in the real world for fear of looking like a damn fool. And I'm just slightly too practical for that. 

In getting ready for it, my roommate thought that it would be fun to make posters of ourselves like the character posters that HBO did for the show to put on facebook, so she did hers on an older paintshop program and then tried to do one for me... but my skin is too ghostly white to look like anything and I just looked like a giant squid eye when she was done. So that we could match I had to take matters into my own photoshopy hands... 

I was only going to work on it for, like, 15 minutes. I swear. And then suddenly it was an hour and a half later and I was still trying to adjust things until I went, "wait a minute - what the hell am I doing here still?" and stopped. 

But in the end it kept making me laugh so I'm putting it on here for the world to enjoy: 

 

Mine. 

Not mine. 

I'm not sure that this one really counts as art, but I made it on photoshop, so it probably does. 

Plus during the party there was (among other things) a fun black light that made everything white, including my snazzy dress, glow in the dark! 

 

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 

Fresh. Well... Fresh-ish.

Sometimes I get home late from doing something fun with my friends in Astoria and sit down at my blog to, ya know, just quickly check and see how popular I am and... get really, really, REALLY distracted. Tonight was one of those nights.

I was all, "wow, that mermaid on the header only looks 'meh' so maybe I should just change it real quick" and then I realized that there were new layouts that I wanted to play with and then I realized that they looked nice for the first 5 minutes but I hated them and thennnnn... I had to back and try and fix it, which was impossible since I just screw around changing and moving stuff until I like it/get bored, so I made a new layout. Which led to how my blog looks now.

Which is like this:

I figured that I'd put a nice little picture in there, since I am 98% sure that I'll be changing it in the morning. We'll see if I forget to or not.

Also it is technically the 4th of July now, so HAPPY AMERICA DAY! Let's all eat some hotdogs, drink a beer, watch 'Independence Day' and look at some fireworks.

Like these. 

I straight up took that picture from here because it's pretty, so thanks Kelly Davenport (whoever you may be) for that picture of fireworks over Louisville. Nice.

TA~DA. 

I am so overtired you guys, and I keep getting surprised by the sound of assorted fireworks/crackers/snappers/poppers/whatnot outside in my neighborhood which I can still hear over the sound of my AC even though it is LOUUUUUD. 

I don't know why I'm still doing this right now. 

SO I WILL STOP.

YUP.

Even though there are too many posts with my face on them recently, this still has to happen - because in case you every wondered how much I love teal and sparkles the answer is, this much:

Exactly this much. 

I may look slightly derpy in this picture, but make no mistake - I AM ALWAYS VERY EXCITED WHEN I PAINT MY NAILS THIS COLOR. The color is 'Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie' which is a damn exciting title for this nail polish considering the lack of sexy I'm working here. Instead, I am literally trying to show the world even though I know that it will never appreciate it as much as I do.

  WHAT NOW SUCKAS, BECAUSE YOU'RE LOOKING AT THIS REGARDLESS.

Win. 

I suppose that I could take pictures of myself holding onto the bottle of nail polish with the nail color on in dramatic lighting and close up shots like the rest of the internet seems to like to... but then you'd get something like this:

Look, my nail polish isn't even the right color. But it's still sparkly. 

Monster claws and crazy eyes.

No one wants that. Except maybe me, because when I looked at that I after I took it I loled a little bit.

But as you can tell, I like nail polish. I seem to be focusing almost it as much as I focus on art recently (It's not real art... but it could be art too so too bad! I forgot that I'm trying to say 'art' in these posts more). Simple pleasures I suppose, and I look real simple in these puppies... youuuuuuuu're welcome. Because teal and sparkles are so pretty. 

ART. Kinda.

Every time I get sick all I want to do is post about cats.

I sound like a velociraptor right now. It is the weirdest thing: I kinda feel okay, not completely horrible, but I sound the way a dinosaur would if it were going through puberty. Talking on the phone is a chore in squeaky ridiculousness and when I go to work the children stare at me like I may turn into a monster at a moments notice. I also have to keep blowing my nose. This is extra exciting/horrible when you have to do it on the subway and you just *KNOW* that everyone is judging you. I AM A HOT MESS OF SOUNDS. 

So here are some cats to make it all better. Plus Kristen Bell and sloths. 

 This cat likes to bite me which makes me fight him. 

He may or may not have launched himself at my face after this picture was taken. 

This cat lives in the Museum of Natural History

I'm pretty sure that I gave up on filling in all of those spots up there after about ten minutes. So many, many spots. On a different note, I also had a serious 'demon-monster-laugh-of-doom-and-illness' this morning re-watching this video of Kristen Bell on Ellen: 

I love Kristen Bell. 

Cars cars. Cars cars cars.

I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to drawing cars and stuff like that, but I can fake it pretty well. This comes in handy because boys tend to not be as interested in mermaids as I am (to be fair to boys everywhere - it's hard to be as interested in mermaids as I am), so sometimes cars it is. 'Cars' cars to be exact. 

Children can be verrrrrrrry particular about how they believe/know that things should look, so when I did these Charlie very kindly got me his 'Cars' DVD cases so that we could try and figure out what the cars actually looked like... I feel like I got sort of close. Ish.  

He is such a diligent little art maker. I am always impressed. 

He picked out all of the cars that we were going to make and then we each colored half of them (I'll let you decide which of us did which) with some colored pencils. He particularly likes 'Cars 2' and wanted me to do some of the random race cars that are in it, buuuuuut I didn't know what they looked like and we both decided that it would be better if we stuck to the more normal ones. GOOD TIMES. 

Sometimes I am like a Goldfish.

I like shiny things, always have, probably always will. Apparently so do goldfish, so we have that in common. I mention this because I made a really shiny collage that I had almost forgotten about until I randomly came across it last night while showing something else to Audrey.

So here it is:

Collage, 12"x 9"

It also happens to be goldish like a goldfish, so... that's cool. I made it over the summer while running a small art camp. We used newspaper, origami paper, magazines, and whatever else was handy. The kids ended up making really good ones. Fun times.

I also have a shiny teal snowflake that lives on a wall of my room year round which I love. It makes a good edition to this post because it snowed for the first time this winter last night (unless you count when it snowed in October... which I DON'T). Also it is teal.

You know you love it. 

All this talk of snow makes me wish that I didn't have to work tomorrow though... rhyme. Sigh. 

Happy Birthday to Me.

Hello ladies. 

It was my birthday this weekend and it was SUPER DUPER FUN. We went out and did some exciting karaoke and stuff, and I thought that I would commemorate it on my blog with ponies. They live on my bookshelf and are amazing. Basically anything on my bookshelf should be considered amazing. 

Please note that, as I mentioned before, I love these and that I GOT THE BLUE ONE. YEAH! Aww yeah. 

Silky.

This has ABSOLOUTLY NOTHING to do with anything... but I am 99% percent sure that I could drink an entire carton of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk in one sitting.

It is just that good. 

One day I will test this theory...

and I probably won't even get sick.... 

Merry EPIC Christmas

I love Christmas.

I love the carol of the bells.

I love this.

Whellp, I made Christmas in my apartment last weekend. AND IT LOOKS AWESOME. I love the whole Christmas season with giving presents, the shitty music (AND ALSO CAROL OF THE BELLS), the lights outside, and the general feeling of goodwill towards men.

Also this tree. 

We, however, have a little baby fake tree with itty bitty ornaments and all kinds of random snowmen and Santa's and a menorah.  I. Am. Ready. Bring it on holidays. Now all I need is for it to 1) get below 48° for more than a day 2) snow 3) still be able to pay off all of my student loans after buying presents and having friend shenanigans. Because, for anyone who doesn't know me: I love giving presents. Love it. I, like Santa, make a list throughout the year - but unlike Santa, it's not of who's naughty or nice, but rather what I think good gifts for people would be. Some people are better gift getters than others...

... for example my sister.

She can be damn near impossible. She is a world-saver that Christine is (and therefore a lot of the time likes for gifts to be practical), so for part of her Christmas present I'm donating/trying to get people to donate to Oxfam of America! It's a charitable organization which means that you could even claim it on your taxes after helping others. WIN WIN!! SO HELP ME HELP HER HELP THE WORLD. Any amount helps those in need... and it'll only make Santa like you more.

Feel free to let me know if you do and I'll draw you something as thanks... maybe a tiger or a unicorn. Or a mermaid. But for now you can look at pictures of my apartment looking XMAS 
SWAAAAAAAAANKY. 

Happy National Cupcake Day!

Sooooo, this is an exciting time! Today is National Cupcake Day! 

This cute little blurb above from punchbowl is also exciting because its all teal... and a teal cupcake is 562% more awesome than a regular cupcake. Teal in general makes things 562% more awesome. 

In an coincidental turn of events, yesterday I bought myself a little Kidrobot blind-box from the tokidokoi UnicornO series while out Christmas shopping for others... and it was a cupcake one! HUZZAH! A few of my favorite things all mashed together: unicorns, tokidoki, cake, and awesomeness. 

So cute.                                          So fun. 

I want to god damn catch them all.

...because I really wanted the blue haired cow one... 

Children: Making the Impossibly Terrifying/Annoying Possible, One Toy at a Time

By now it should be no mystery to anyone that children can (or think that they can) do just about anything if they put their pleasantly moldable little minds to it. Sometimes, however, they do things best when they're not trying to - and had they tried it probably would have been impossible.

Take this Rapunzel hair styling bust for example: 

Her hair is long and flowing, little pieces of glitter added in, giving it a sheen as it blows in an imaginary wind... or at least that's how it looks ten minutes out of the box. The reality is a little more like this: 

POW. 

Give a bust of princess Rapunzel to a three year old and you end up with... a bust of princess Rapunzel with dreads. HARDCORE DREADS. Legit. I tried to comb them out, I really did, but something about that goddamn tinsel sparkly business makes it pretty much impossible without ripping all the hair from her head. Which defeats the purpose of the hair styling part. In the end, all all I could do was braid it... but instead the child decided that she wanted it up in three ponytails. Meh.

Or there is the case of the My Little Ponies:

"Oh hey there purple pony, I'm just gonna play with this other pin-"

"GAAAAAAAAAAH!"

It's almost like the child's version of 'The Godfather'. You reach into the toy bin to play with your favorite pink pony, ONLY TO DISCOVER ITS HEAD. And only its head. I have no idea where the body was. I looked. Were I to find it, I would have tried to put it back together, but instead I just stuck the head back into the toy bin for the next unsuspecting child to come along. I'm a good person like that.

THEY HAVE TO LEARN SOMEHOW. It takes effort to rip off the head of a toy. IT TAKES A MANIACAL CHOICE.

Somewhere, I know, there are teams and designers and they work hard to make toys that are pretty and fun to play with, but I can't help but think that they never really give them to real children to play with ahead of time. Otherwise they would see these things coming.

I can't not see it...

...in the Art Nouveau Tarot Deck that I mentioned before there are some really lovely illustrations full of leaves and flowers and flowing fabric. The deck itself is 90% pretty ladies but every now and again there is a dude thrown in there, and that dude is King Triton. 

Not really. 

But pretty much.

See?

Under da sea. 

He's a hell of a lot less fatherly, but that up there is King Triton. I mean, he's got everything from the white beard and crown to the scepter and tail-like fabric. He's an angrier, more mythic King Triton which is an accomplishment since King Triton is already pretty good at both of those things. 

"I am about to make your life miserable."

I have never looked at so many pictures of him in my LIFE as I just did to find that. I also never realized quite how cut he is... LOOK AT HIS SIX PACK AND MASSIVE ARMS. I hope that he never intends to take those decorative man cuffs off, because there is no way that they're getting off of his huge, meaty hands.

OH HAY LOOK. I ended up talking about mermaids again. Who'da thunk it. At least it was a man... maid this time. 

Popular

(As you read this you should probably listen to this song. It helps.)

So, one of the things that I do when I am mindlessly on the computer/my blog is constantly check my stats page. It gives me intense satisfaction to walk into my living room and announce to no one in particular, "Yesterday I was only SIXTEEN popular, but today I'm already thirty-six." Which is typically followed by a fist pump. Unless the number is less than the day before, in which case I am sulky.

It looks like this. 

The most popular that I have ever been in one day thus far was ninety-nine... but that still made me annoyed because I hadn't made it to one hundred. Come on. Just... come on. ONE MORE VIEW AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EPIC.

OptimusPrim gets the most play of any of my posts, but I ALSO show up first when you type laura kelly mermaids into google. SUCCESSSSSSSSS. I. Am. (sort of) Internet. Popular.

SO DO ME A FAVOR AND TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS BLOG AND MAKE THEM LOOK AT IT SO THAT I CAN SEE MY POPULARITY. Here is a picture of some weird stripy lady that I made on construction paper with a marker as thanks.

You're welcome.

p.s. I was 65 popular yesterday. Keep it up.

EDIT: SOMEONE LOOK AT OPTIMUSPRIM SO THAT IT REACHES 300 VIEWS. SLKDFLSDKGSLKG. It kills me when that happens... I like for things to be in groups of 5. My only weird OCD thing. 

"Hunger is golden"

So... today after I picked up Brooke, the 10 yr old that I watch, she wandered into her room to accomplish (what I assumed was) her homework. I went in to ask her about dinner options a little while later she squealed and covered some colorful looking stuff on her computer, telling me, "It's not done! YOU CAN'T LOOK YET!" 

I was intrigued.

What this mystery project turned out to be was, as she described it, The Hunger Games - based entirely on the images that she had seen on my blog and things that she had heard me say about it. 

"You can't look at it... but you have to put it on your blog. Okay?" 

So I obviously told her that I would if she could figure out how to email it to me. 

She did. 

TA~DA

Hunger is golden - the title of the email in which I received this file. I laughed. I laughed good and hard. 

SO MUCH SUCCESS BROOKE, SO MUCH SUCCESS. There are so many amazing aspects of this I don't even know where to start. It's a little bit like when she saw the trailer for the last Harry Potter movie and declared, vehemently, that Hogwarts exploded. I just could not convince her otherwise until she actually finished the book.

I think that she made it with some sort of pre-set comic program.

Love it.

Dear Brooke, 

You are going to look back on this once you 

have read the books and love it too. 

Love, Laura. 

...guess what?

Still ill.

So here's a picture of a tiger cub that I sketched at the Museum of Natural History. Apparently illness = kitties for me right now. Deal with that. 

Uggggg.

I'm sick today.

So here are two pictures of my cat, Nefertiti: one when she was bitty kitty and one current one (where she is undoing all the clean that I had just done to some sheets. I bet they were warm sheets).

I wish she were here with me to snuggle and not upstate... where I can't currently snuggle her. Even though she is sometimes a monster, she is a mad good snuggler.

See? She's pro even when I look all weird and smushed. 

BE GONE FOUL ILLNESS.

EDIT: I also found this picture of my cat being a snuggle-master. She somehow managed to wedge herself between the bottom pillow and the window. Different trip home, same small animal pushing me around as I try to sleep. Neffy always wins. Always.

Little Birds

Tomorrow a bunch of my stuff is going to be for sale at the Nightingale-Bamford School at their yearly festival! All of the proceeds are all going toward the school and it's activities and kids and the like, but there will be a ton of fun activities. Board games, raffles, a dunk tank, Wii, and a 'handmade' section where all of my various contributions will be! I did some water bottles, a little (jazzy) animal coloring book, and this funzie: 

Night Flight

Mixed Media, 11"x 8.5"

We'll see how I do tomorrow!

EDIT: I apparently sold 25 coloring books, all the water bottles, and 7 prints. Go team. 

Happy All Hallows Eve.

I can't help but want to share this picture of my cat doing the classic "RAWWWWR, I'ma get chuu!" Halloween pose. She was *very* little here, but let me tell you something - she is still a monster. Don't you forget it. Meow.  

I recently watched an old History Channel special on the history of Halloween and how it progressed through the ages. It went a little something like this: 

Serious business with the Pagans and Druid priests → serious business adapting the Pagan/Druid rituals for Christianity → less serious, more fun times and parties and beginnings of costumes → serious business making it seeming less 'witchy' with those costumes for the church; slightly less serious business for the rest of the people still celebrating it. This happens for a while in Europe, while the Puritans head over to North America and take the fun out of everything → later, the masses immigrating from Europe (see also: Ireland, land of awesome Druid lore) start bringing the life of the party back to October 31st in America → things are fun for a while, still a mostly adult holiday, but teens start taking it to the streets and putting the 'trick' into trick-or-treat. And by trick mean fire → in order to not have people killed, Halloween is put fourth as a holiday where kids are really excited and cute and parade around in bumblebee/Buzz Lightyear/princess/Elmo/ Frida Kahlo/witch costumes and beg for candy. Halloween is no longer life threatening (except for that whole razor blades in apples scare in the 70s... but that was found to be mostly untrue) → those kids who grew up in Halloween-fun-era dress up their kids and take them out... but also want to go out themselves and pretend to be something their not. Like a raccoon. And the cycle continues. 

Which brings us to this: 

Some of us may be more excited than others to be dressed up. But only some

of us are raccoons. Suffer with that one pissed-off-cat-man... and sorry I tried to bite you. 

Again. 

EDIT: I had forgotten how very different it is for trick-or-treaters in the city versus upstate. Personally, I had the classic 'you dress up and your parents take you from house to house' or if I was lucky, I had the 'you dress up and your parents stand in the road so you can go up to the house alone'. My sister and I would take pillowcases as bags and tromp around with friends and neighbors, working our way through the town for maximum candy ownage. Here in the city though, people seem to either trick-or-treat strictly within their buildings (weird) or at businesses in their neighborhood (weirder). I mean, I suppose it's not REALLY that weird, but it is weird to me. Either way, I'm sure they make bank on candy. There are way more places/people around here then in my hometown.

Have a super fun holiday everyone!!!

The Hunger Games III - The girls are back in town.

What's that? 

 I AM A BIG NERD. 

Which is probably why I ended up being a citizen of District 3. Go tech. ANYWAY, I got really pumped by the release of the posters for the Hunger Games movie that came out yesterday (which can be seen in all their glory here), so in their honor I present some of the more likable characters/few female friends of Katniss from book one: 

Rue was the very first character that I drew this summer, and when I started on her... she wasn't Rue yet. She was just some girl with curly hair that I wanted to be intertwined with flowers. So that's part of the reason why she looks so very, very much older than she probably should. I know already. I know. 

Also some Lady and Buttercup action up in here! What whaaaaat. I think that's the first goat that I've ever drawn...