Congratulations Ola! One Million Giraffes!

Do you remember the One Million Giraffes project I heard about just over a year ago, and submitted a photo of my giraffe sculpture, then some drawings of giraffes which the kids and I made?

The project was started by Ola Helland, as a bet with his friend Jorgen, that he would be able to collect one million images of hand made or hand drawn giraffes.  That was a lofty challenge, and one which I was happy to lend my assistance, as did many people in 102 countries.  I am happy to hear the Ola has recently reached his goal of one million giraffes, after 440 days of collecting giraffes.  The web site One Million Giraffes continues to collect more giraffes - so if you missed being part of the first million, there is still a chance to submit your photos, perhaps toward the next million giraffes!  A nice coffee table book (a sort of Where's Waldo? of giraffe images) containing most of the one million giraffes has emerged as a result of the project.

The book is available from Amazon.ca here or Amazon.com here, or possibly at your local bookstore.  More photos and information about the book can be found here.  So if you participated in the project, you can purchase the book and look for your giraffe.  Or if someone is looking for something to buy me for Christmas, this is one possible idea.  :-)

Family Giraffe Night

As a result of our family's giraffe-drawing night, the One Million Giraffes project is 4 giraffes closer to one million (actually 5, since I wasn't sure about one of the uploads so tried again, and it looks like I ended up uploading that giraffe twice).


Here are our entries:

1
2
3
4

Confirmation Code: GNMVCBV14378608

Noteworthy Giraffes

After encouraging readers to add to the One Million Giraffes project in my previous post, the kids and I each drew our own giraffes on yellow paper, and submitted them. (I'll post again once they're up on the site.) Then after sending them to bed, I've been spending waaay too much time flipping through the pages of giraffes at OneMillionGiraffes.com.

My husband, who is also my boss, shakes his head, since he knows how much work (and work around the house!) I could or should be doing instead. But I am fascinated by the giraffes... how international the "project" is, with submissions from many many countries, and how different each and every giraffe is.

The following are some of the giraffes which caught my attention, and are worth a peek.

Some are whimsical, like those from:

Lana in the Ukraine
Sarah in the UK
Zaneta from Lithuania
Amyfaerie from the USA
Pajeczno in Poland

Some are creative, like those from:

Kitiamara in Germany
Raffizaek in Germany (who is a bit too modest about his age)
Inezinha from Portugal
Sheila in the US
Lillian in the US
Sandra from Hong Kong
Peter from Australia
Josse from the UK
Arnaud from France (love this one!)

Some are artistic (I wish I could draw like this!), like those from:

Martin from the UK
Pam from the UK
Kristine from Norway
Ehouse in the USA

Okay, that's enough giraffes for tonight, for me.

"One Million Giraffes" Project

After my mom saw my driftwood giraffe (by the way, she says it looks better in real life than in the photos, which I consider a nice compliment), she noticed an article in the newspaper about a young man (I assume) who is trying to collect images of 1 million hand drawn or hand made giraffes (not computer generated), and forwarded me the link: http://olahelland.net/giraffes/.


So last night, I submitted my giraffe photo, and the email confirmation says it was added as giraffe #244,748. So only 755,252 more giraffes to go, and mine will be "one in a million". See my giraffe HERE.

I am encouraging my kids to draw and submit giraffes, and encourage each of my blog visitors to do so, also (and if you dare, please leave a link to your giraffe in my comments section). The process is very quick and painless (except that it asks for your age, and then displays it on your giraffe page!) - just click the green "Please send in your own giraffe" box. There is no limit on how many giraffes you can submit, in case you get carried away drawing or creating.

You can also follow the blog about the one million giraffes project, and even guess the successful date of reaching 1 million, to win a stuffed giraffe.

Lots of fun for the whole family, on a rainy day (like today!). Go ahead, be part of history!

Giraffe "Sculpture"

Tonight I talked the kids into some painting projects, so that I could finally tackle the giraffe project I've been planning since... oh my, August 2008, when our family took a trip to Quadra Island, and I found a tall (over 5') piece of driftwood which looked awfully like a giraffe's head.

I had decided to try to paint it, to bring out its "inner giraffe", and then put it somewhere on the edge of my garden, maybe sticking out into a pathway (like along our stairs from the lower to upper back yard).

At first, I wondered if I had made a mistake, trying to paint it, but when it's done now, I think the result is amazing:



Ha, this is a funny angle. Looks like he's chewing.

I think I'm too fond of it already, this giraffe may end up inside the house for a while, perhaps until next spring. If I'm smart, I'll incorporate him into the upper garden reno project which I'm still hoping to take on this year.

The kids also finished their projects. My son painted a fence knob (hmmm, there is probably a proper name for this) which we picked it up at a whim from a bin at the cedar shop, thinking it would make a cute little person for the yard some day. Sure enough, my son managed to make it into a little lady:

My daughter finished our last wooden birdhouse:

Ha, now I'll have to figure out how to get some of these birdhouses out into the yard, rather than on my kitchen counter. (See my previous post.)