I am a little obsessed with jellyfish. Always have been. Got stung rather badly once as a child, but that affected my fascination not at all. It’s like I have jellyfish Stockholm Syndrome.

We are avid warm-weather kayakers, and we live in a place that is overrun a number of times during each season with moon jellyfish, lion’s mane, sea nettle, and my favorite, the bioluminescent comb jellies. While everyone else is on shore, drinking and grumbling about how they can’t go in the water, I’m out in the kayak (also drinking), talking to the jellies. (If you decide to try this yourself, just bring along a spray bottle of white vinegar for stings. Works like a charm!)

When I come across photos of jellyfish, it takes everything in me not to post them as that day’s OBT. Really. I struggle. But I don’t want to keep them all to myself either. So I’ve decided to pile them all into this one glorious, JF-filled post. Lucky you!

By the way, it’s not just me. Even Valentino used them as the inspiration for his Fall 2010 collection, and I’m sure he’s not the first to do so.

And I just learned that fellow blogger and artist, Shawn Carney, who writes the blog DriftAndBurn, has been working on jellyfish-inspired art! Take a look at her blog here.