Bee's Knees

New Friends, New Weather, New Ideas, and Lost RAM

By Bee's Knees on September 13, 2012

This post is about new friends, new weather, great new ideas, and lost RAM. Get ready.

We made a few new friends today. Meet Madison and Abrael, they’re OT (occupational therapy) students at OU. They’re working on a project and came to see how things are done at Bee’s Knees.

Have you been outside today? The weather’s great, especially here in Oklahoma! It’s kind of cool, kind of rainy, and the iPhone weather app says that the high today is 68 degrees. Bee’s Knees loves the rain, especially Chris. In honor of what we’re ~~considering~~ hoping to be the end of summer, we started working on our all new fall 2012 product line.

Part of our product line will be an original 2013 calendar. We’ve created original calendars for the past three years and each year they seem to get better. We have high hopes for the one we’re creating this year. It will feature artwork by the masterminds of Bee’s Knees and in the famous words of David Blose, it will be “all new, all fresh, with a cool new look.”

Every time we begin work on a new project, we start by brainstorming – ideas, words, pictures, what materials to use, how to use materials, characters, stories, etc. There’s a lot of power in brainstorming. Everyone in Bee’s Knees has such an interesting perspective, brainstorming can be just the place to piece those perspectives together for something truly special. How else do you create stories about an interplanetary dinosaur camping trip or pictures about snails dancing on UPS trucks?

To begin our 2013 calendar project, we started by brainstorming ideas for each month and then sketching a rough draft of what the artwork for each month might look like.

Here’s a sketch Allie made for the month of April. If you haven’t had a chance to meet Allie, she’s all girl. She loves hearts, weddings, being in love, and all kinds of other girly stuff. It’s no surprise that her sketch is about flowers 🙂

This next one is a sketch by David. There are some really quirky things he likes about each month. His favorite thing about January was New Year’s Eve and storing up Cheez-Its, Oreos, Poptarts, and Sprite. All that to say, if you’re looking for a for a good time on New Year’s Eve, just go to David’s house. Here’s his sketch for the month of February.

That big guy with the horns and the wand in the upper left is Cupid. David said Cupid is getting all the candies to the loved people. FYI, David loves sweetheart candies.

BRANDON: David, what’s your favorite thing about sweetheart candies?

DAVID: It’s super fantastic for the loved ones!

This next one is a sketch by Chris for the month of April. Chris is a really gifted illustrator and creates some of the funniest pictures.

If you’re lucky, you could make a guest appearance in one of Chris’ drawings, but you might not look like what you think – you might be a carrot, or a pumpkin head, or you might be a hotdog, or you could be a clown, or you could have really crazy hair. The possibilities are endless. Anyway, this picture is of Ashley, a fellow artist in Bee’s Knees, hunting for Easter eggs, but she’s getting rained on. If you haven’t guessed it, she’s the one with the big head and ponytail. She’s also crying. She’ll have a bone to pick with Chris when she finds out 🙂

We’re also playing around with the idea of creating Christmas ornaments for this Holiday season. Here was our first go at a prototype with some supplies we had in our supply closet.

While we were working on our ornament prototypes, David shared some of his technology comedy material. Check it out.

DAVID: Knock-knock.
BRANDON: Who’s there?
DAVID: Lost RAM.
BRANDON: Lost RAM who?
DAVID: Lost RAM crashes the computer!

Brandon caught this sneaky picture. He says David lost his RAM.

Later that day we packed up and went home. It was just another day in the life of Bee’s Knees.

What do you think about our ornament idea? We want to know what you have to say. Leave a comment in the space below! We look forward to reading!

Bee’s Knees is cosponsored by Youth & Family Services, Inc. and AutismOklahoma.org to promote self-sufficiency for young adults with developmental disabilities through entrepreneurship.

The Tragedy of the Worn Out Button

By Bee's Knees on September 10, 2012

WARNING: This post is about tragedy, the kind of tragedy that strikes when a button falls off of your favorite suit jacket.

On Thursday, September 6, a group from Bee’s Knees went to exhibit at the CCAN Fall Conference at the Embassy Suites in Norman, OK. We had been invited to set up in the exhibitor area by our friends Jimmy Widdifield and Brenda Gentry.

It can be a lot of fun to exhibit at different conferences throughout the year, they are a great way to introduce people to the concept of Bee’s Knees and show off our latest product or projects. What we really like about it is the opportunity to meet new people and do things we’ve never done before. So on Thursday morning, David, Lindsay, and Brandon loaded up in the Youth & Family Services van and headed to Norman.

Have you ever had a button fall off? It always seems to happen at the worst possible moment and can be just the thing to put a damper on your day.

Not long after we arrived, the unexpected happened. You could say we had tragedy of sorts. One of the buttons on David’s suit jacket fell off. This was a dissatisfactory button experience.

David: My button fell off!

Brandon: What are you going to do about it?

David: Tape it back on.

Brandon: You can’t tape a button back on.

[long silent moment between David and Brandon]

Brandon: Is this a funny story?

David: No. It’s the worst.

David tried to put it back on, but it just wouldn’t work.

Here’s a special note that David wrote about the worn out button tragedy:

If you’ve ever gone to a conference, you know that what we’re about to say is true -there is a ton of free stuff in the exhibitors area. We’re talking about pens, pencils, candy, keychains, trinkets, etc. Sometimes when we go to conferences, we have to put a limit on the amount of free stuff we grab at other exhibitor booths, it’s so free and so alluring!

Anyway, there were many other booths in the exhibitors area, but there was one in specific that had candy and two beautiful young ladies behind it. David found it and the sweets were free for the taking.

Sweets might be the most alluring thing for the masterminds of Bee’s Knees. We all kind of have a sweets addiction. There are worse things.

After the discovery of the sweets, the tragedy with the worn out button didn’t seem like such a big deal 🙂

Later that day we pack up, loaded into the van, and went home. It was just another day in the life of Bee’s Knees.

Have you ever had your own button tragedy? We want to hear about it! Leave us a comment in the space below this post. We’re looking forward to reading!

The All New, All Fresh, Bee’s Knees Website

By Bee's Knees on September 4, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed, we have an all new website! We’re so excited about it and are looking forward to new ways of telling our stories and showing off our artwork. This site has a few new features that our old site didn’t have so we want to take a moment to walk you through some of the cool features of our new site.

Home Page

Let’s start with the home page. In our all new featured slider you can read the latest post to the Bee’s Knees website. This is also where you can view the latest videos about the artists of Bee’s Knees and the newest featured artwork.

About

Next is the about section. We think this is the most complex section of the site because you can do so much in this one place.

If you click the ‘About‘ button, you can watch a Bee’s Knees information and read a bit of information about Bee’s Knees and what the group is all about.

If you click the ‘Partner‘ button, you can learn about ways to partner with the entrepreneurs of Bee’s Knees in practical ways as a friend and supporter.

If you click the ‘FAQ‘ button, you can read our responses to some of the frequently asked questions regarding Bee’s Knees. (EX: Participation, Startup, Help, etc.)

If you click the ‘Commission‘ button, you can learn how to get your hands on your very own custom Bee’s Knees masterpiece.

Finally, if you click the ‘Sponsors‘ button, you can learn more about our incredible sponsors, Youth & Family Services, Inc. and AutismOklahoma.org.

Artists

In the ‘Artists‘ section of the website you can learn more about the masterminds of Bee’s Knees. This is where you can learn about David, his love for technology, and read his latest blog post. This is also where you can learn about Lindsay and her love for movies.

Gallery

In the ‘Gallery‘ section of the website you can view many of the masterpieces created by the artists of Bee’s Knees over the past few years. You might see some about cats, computers, love, happy faces, and much more.

Fun

In the ‘Fun‘ section of the new site you can view some of our projects that don’t quite fit into the scope of original products or masterpieces. This is where we post short stories, silly pictures, and unique responses to hypothetical questions.

Blog

In the ‘Blog‘ section of the new site you can read posts about our latest adventures. This is where we will most often post about events, exhibits, and special opportunities. Post from this section will frequently be featured in the home page slider.

Shop

When you click the ‘Shop‘ button, you will be directed to our online shop with Etsy, This is where you can view Bee’s Knees merchandise and get your hands on digital prints, greeting cards, and other valuables.