Category: Blanket-Heads!

It’s a blanket…with a head!

Kathryn’s Doggy

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. It’s fascinating to hear about the differing reactions of children to the existence of multiples of their favorite toys — sometimes the “back-up” is simply brought into the fold so that there are two constant companions. I haven’t yet heard about parents successfully rotating identical toys without the child catching on! In this case, “spare” Doggy blankets were simple not accepted by baby Kathryn at all — she immediately knew the difference, of course. Last year, Virginia ordered a portrait of her daughter Jane’s ducky blanket, and now Jane’s older sister Kathryn, now five, will have one of her one and only Doggy.

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Dooced

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. Oh my goodness… I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be able to completely change someone’s world by typing a few words! I’m so grateful to Heather Armstrong for posting about this painting. This blanket belongs to her younger daughter Marlo, and when I saw this terrific photo of it I knew I had to paint it. I don’t know how long it will last, but I just love the steady stream of loyal Dooce readers who are contacting me with their wonderful stories and photos!

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Liam’s Lambie

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. Recently, New York Family Magazine featured my portraits and also ran a giveaway. Here is the painting of the winner, a lamb blanket belonging to 20-month-old Liam. Liam’s father Stephen entered the giveaway perhaps hoping to preserve Lambie in as many ways as possible after it had recently gotten lost. Liam was fairly despondent without it, and when he had finally managed to fall asleep with a substitute toy, his parents ordered a backup “Lambie II.” The next morning they were relieved to find that Lambie had just been left behind at daycare!

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Winnie-the-Pooh Blanket

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acryic, 2011. Of all the variations on what I think of as “blanket-heads” (combination stuffed animal and baby blanket,) this is the sort that makes the most sense to me. It is a complete stuffed animal which is holding the blanket in its own arms. (Click here for another example.) Very clever! I was thrilled to paint this bear, as it is my first Winnie-the-Pooh portrait, and a classic (vs. Disney) Pooh at that! It was will be a gift from Deanna to her two-year-old daughter.

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Sophia’s Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. I just recieved an adorable photo of 4-year-old Sophia holding this painting. Her mom, Dawn, tells me that Sophia looked at it and, after a slow moment of recognition, smiled and said “LOVEY!!” Dawn ordered this portrait after Lovey the bunny blanket had been lost and found for the millionth time, the better to preserve it — just in case. To see more of the many blanket/animals I’ve been painting lately, click here, and for more bunnies, here!

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Emilia’s Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Colleen found me via a local Etsy search, and since she lives mere blocks from me, I had the pleasure of meeting this bunny/blanket in person! Not wanting to separate it from 2-year-old Emilia for any significant length of time, Colleen and I worked together to take a nice photo for me to use. The family does have a “back-up” bunny which stays at Emilia’s daycare, but I suspect that there is no substitute for the home bunny. In this portrait, the bunny is arranged on top of a green blanket that is a another favorite of Emilia’s.

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Jane’s Ducky

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″acrylic, 2010. Jane, who will turn three in January, LOVES ducks. In fact, she loves anything yellow just by association. She was a duck for Halloween this year (really a chick costume, but close enough!) She was given this duck/blanket when she was four months old and the two have since been inseparable. The portrait will be a gift for Jane’s third birthday from her mother, Virginia. My Sonja, also almost three, currently collects rubber duckies of all sorts in a tattered paper gift bag, and she enjoyed watching this painting take shape in my studio! See a gallery of my other blanket-related portraits here.

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Francis, Francis, and Nose

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. I love this: The two rabbits, each named Francis, function as a unit known as the “Franci.” The flat blanket animal of ambiguous species (giraffe?) has always been referred to simple as “Nose.” Megan, who will give this painting to her nephew Carter, says that there was originally only one Francis. Carter’s mother bought the second bunny as backup, and Carter found it by mistake. From that point on the Franci have been equally loved.

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Day and Night Dolly

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. This incarnation of the ubiquitous blanket-with-a-head stuffed toy is extra fabulous: It’s reversible, having both a sunny, wide-eyed “day” side as well as this blue side, sprinkled with crecent moons. Dylan, 2 1/2, lately prefers the “night” side. He can nearly always be found with “Dolly” tucked under his arm — on the soccer field, on a playground slide, in a grocery cart, and, of course, in bed. Dylan’s mother Joy tells me that Dolly was originally a gift for her first child, but Dylan, her fourth, was the one who truly came to love it. For this portrait, I was sure to include Dolly’s satin skirt, which is Dylan’s favorite part.

Clare’s Dolly

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. This Precious Moments doll/blanket combo was once much pinker and puffier, and it is perhaps now a bit grayer and more frayed than you see here in this tiny painting. I was sent “before and after” photos, and after some discussion of strategy, it was decided that the portrait would be of the Dolly in her current loved state but with a bit of the blush restored. This portrait was commissioned by Tina as a gift for her daughter Clare for Christmas!