Diva's Weekly Challenge #375: Burtz and Gratitangle2018

It's good to be here.
I briefly considered skipping this week, which found me very un-Zen. My friend Ali sometimes says she has the attention span of a wet fart on a hot skillet. That was me this week. Until I made myself pick up my last Renaissance Zendala, a brown Micron 01 and start drawing. (I didn't say "sit down". That was part of my problem this week, with my achy-breaky hips. I've adjusted my drawing table so that I can stand and draw. I still have to sit to work on the computer, so I'd better move on before the hips have their way with me!!!)

This tile is destined for my favorite pen shop: Crazy Alan's Emporium, here in Chapel Hill. I am so grateful for Alan's hard work and dedication, his sense of humor and friendly attitude! 

Thanks for your visit! Have a wonderful week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #374: Splotch-tastic AND....Inktober 2018!

Happy November! To celebrate, I'll begin by unveiling (ha!) my Inktober challenge.

Inktober 2018 (9 x 12 in.)

I enjoyed the daily challenge, trying out new-to-me tangles and learning how to unclog a Micron pen!

The background is gouache, which is a bit grainy and likely to clog up your Micron 01. I was using 4 different purple Micron 01 pens, which kept skipping and clogging. Finally, I took a cup of water and swished them around a bit, then drew around on my scrap paper. (If that didn't work, I wet them again and placed the tip on a Kleenex.) Voilà! The ink began to flow.

I wish I had remembered to take the "before shading" picture to show what a difference the Prismacolors and graphite make. Shading is always my favorite part of tangling. This took a couple of days, but was well worth the time.

On to the Diva's challenge to incorporate a "splotch" of something. I grabbed my unopened black gesso and splotched a couple of scrap tiles. I was a little surprised at how much tooth the gesso had.

Normally, I like to use the Signo Uno for white, and did so in the first tile. I think the ink is a little thick and not as bright as when I bought it.

For the second tile, I did a "dingsplatz" with Moonlight Gelly Rolls and a white Gelly Roll. 

This week, I was grateful for several walks in the forest, Monarch butterflies in the garden, fall colors and a relaxing anniversary with Lar. From my gratitude journal:

I hope that you're enjoying the "softer" seasons of fall and spring in your hemispheres.

Thanks for your visit! Have a great week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #373: Draw with your non-dominant hand

When the Diva announced this week's challenge, she acknowledged that there would be no middle ground in our reactions. It was groan or grin at the idea of drawing with our non-dominant hand. Personally, I grinned :)  Because Zentangle is all about the  process, not the product, we focus on our mindfulness during our practice. Drawing with my non-dominant hand forces me to do this, and to    s l o w    d o w n.
I sat down for the challenge on Wednesday, which happened to be the day when "Patience" was the Inktober prompt. I had done my Inktober drawing that morning. However, when I came back to it that evening, I realized I had goofed in the last two steps. (That's why it just looked like N'Zeppl!) It took me a while to find a way to re-program my hand and pen, and once I found it, I didn't want to stop! I decided to continue with the Diva challenge, and draw Patience with my non-dominant hand. At first the squiggly lines were annoying, but I focused on the sequence of steps I had personalized. After over an hour, I liked the look, so I started inking in the areas between the "blooms". I did a few, and decided that I like the open look best. It reminded me of delicately tatted snowflakes my aunt Kathleen used to make.
Only later did I see the connection: non-dominant hand drawing takes a lot of patience.

I found much to be grateful for this week: the fall weather, time to work in the garden, my enormous  clouds of Sheffield mums that are feeding pollinators and appreciating shinrin-yoku, or "forest bathing". I also took some time to play with "dingsplatz", the latest Kitchen Table Tangle.

Monarch butterflies bring me so much joy!!!

Thanks for your visit. Have a lovely week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #371: Onion Drops

Better late than never : )

My DC#371 tile came into existence in my gratitude journal this week, after the worst of Hurricane Michael hit Chapel Hill. I was grateful for a safe, dry place to seek shelter from the 60 mph (90 kh) winds which were downing trees all around me and knocking out power lines.

Lar and I were happy to get out of town after the storm, to visit my daughter and her husband. We had a relaxing Sunday together making Halloween decorations for the front stoop.

I left the sharp instruments to them and tangled three small "zebra" pumpkins.

Thanks for visiting! Have a safe and happy week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #372: Dewd

Inktober certainly keeps me tangled up! Between Inktober, substitute teaching, hurricane cleanup and medical stuff, my Dewd came to life only this morning. This was my first go at the wonderful Jody Genovese's WigWag. I definitely need to practice it.

Thursday I enjoyed teaching another "lunch and learn" class in a local company. Here are some of the Halloween-themed tiles:

Today is our last class of 2018 at the Durham Southwest Regional Library. I like to show examples of Zentangle for holiday decoration and gifts. We'll also be doing a "Blowing Leaf" greeting card. (I found this great templates for leaves.) Here's my demo, which uses some of this week's Inktober prompts.

Thanks for coming by! Have a great week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #270: Mezzanine

When I saw the Diva's challenge tile this week with Heidi Sue's Mezzanine tangle, I thought about henna designs and India. I used Mezzanine three times in my gratitude journal, and each one was totally different. (Apologies for the blurry scans.)

Mezzanine for the string (my favorite)

For Inktober, I decided to do one large piece with all the tangles rather than 1 small piece for each day. I also thought it would be fun to introduce Inktober to my class today with a 5.5 x 8.5 piece using this week's 7 tangles and a string with the number 10. Here's my demo:

How's your Inktober coming along?

Thanks for your time. Now that I've figured out that I can't post  comments using Safari, I look forward to seeing your blogs and expressing my gratitude for your ever-present inspiration! Have an inspiring week!

Inktober Tangle Prompts

Diva's Challenge #369: Absorbed in orbs

Thankful, so thankful, for the Diva's challenge this week to use orbs. This one gave me some peace and perspective in an incredibly wrenching week for our country, when women seemed to be eternally doomed to second-class citizenship. 'Nuf said. Here's my journal.

Yesterday was a very peaceful day. (No news!) The autumn seems to want to settle in, so temperatures are a little cooler and the air is a bit dryer. For the first time in weeks, I could leave windows open and enjoy the fresh air. (If you've ever had a hurricane come your way, you know what I mean. The humidity is stifling.) Pete had his first sniff of the (local) great outdoors, albeit from his perch near the window sill in a sunny spot!

"Une maison sans chat est comme un aquarium sans poisson."--Jean-Louis Hue

("A house without a cat is like an aquarium without a fish.")

I wanted to draw something different, and found it in Eni Oken's "Blue Sun". Although I didn't quite have the right colors, I really enjoyed doing this.

Thank you for your visit. (I enjoyed visiting your blogs last week, but was having no luck getting my comments to show up on blogspot.) Hope your week is pleasant and peaceful!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #368: Just Straight Lines, and a new friend

This week I've been in post-Florence mode. My dear friend Anne-Yvonne has called me from France every day for over a week to make sure we're okay. (This is why she's my bestie.) My French has improved a bit, especially in terms of hurricane vocabulary, e.g. "storm surge", "crest", "flood stage", etc. We've spent hours together every day. In between calls, I cleaned up my garden, used the emergency stock of water, helped to load some trucks filled with relief supplies for eastern North Carolina, celebrated my 59th birthday and got a cat. His name is Pete and we are in love. I tried to take his picture and this is what I have to show for it. Not very flattering for either of us! No worries, you'll surely see more of him in the weeks to come!

I have a lot to be grateful for, and have used the Diva's "straight line challenge" in my gratitude journal this week.

I also made a new journal, this one in honor of Pete.

Although I don't usually think of myself as a straight-line kind of tangler, I did enjoy this a lot. The new journal cover, which has a used tea-bag, was especially relaxing to fill in with the aura lines.

How about you? Were your straight lines relaxing? Did you learn something new about your tangling?

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #367 and Florence, the unwanted houseguest

The lights here have been flickering this morning, so I want to quickly post this.

Here in North Carolina we've had a frightful week with Hurricane Florence, who doesn't know when she's worn out her welcome, if she ever had one. Though she is now a tropical storm, she still lingers over our state. Lar and I live in Chapel Hill, which has been spared most of the destruction from her rain and winds. Our ground is completely saturated, which makes us a little nervous about all the surrounding trees, but we are grateful for being safe and dry, for having electricity and water. I am also grateful for the daily calls from friends in France who are checking to make sure we're okay. My gratitude journal has been a constant companion this week, on my lap as I sit in front of the news updates on TV.

The Diva's focus on N'Zeppl was a joy.

Starting Wednesday, my drawing had a definite spin going on. Thank you, Florence.

By Friday, we were starting to experience the hurricane's bands of wind and rain, and consequently, to see more debris from the trees.

Last night's drawing focused on the easy "Mooka" that Maria posted on the Mosaic app this week.

If you can send some loving thoughts to those touched by Florence's devastation, it would be greatly appreciated. At this point, 11 people have died, including a young mother and her infant. Sadly, the long awaited departure of the storm only means more danger, as evacuees try to regain their homes and fatigued rescuers deal with massive flooding of historic proportions. I also think about all the animals who were abandoned as their owners left in haste.

Thankful for you all, for the hundreds of folks who have come from across the country to help, for the outpouring of concern and well-wishes, I want to pass on one comment from a respected meteorologist here in our area. "Hurricanes exist in order to re-distribute an excess of heat that has accumulated over the ocean. When there is too much heat for the planet, a hurricane forms to pick it up and move it to an area with less heat." We must learn to respect our relationship with the planet, to understand that the planet is an entity with an operating system that supersedes our imagined needs for fossil fuel produced energy. I'm hoping that we can move to put more resources in environmental protection and eventually lessen our need for emergency management, and that the three or four hurricanes still off the coast will weaken and disperse.

She's back!!!!

Hurray for Laura Harms, our Diva CZT who has graciously returned to post another weekly challenge after a well-deserved break! I know we were all so excited to see her 365th challenge this week.  I probably would have missed it had I not seen Annemarie's and Michele's posts in my email box! Thank you, ladies!

The challenge was to return to our beginnings and do a basic tile, with corner dots, border, string and black ink on white paper. This was so relaxing. No need to think or plan.

Inspired by Margaret Bremner's post on Printemps

Yesterday I spent a few hours in my art journal on the "strength" prompt.  Starting with a used tea bag, I added the collage and then some tangles. Since I'm reading Reckless Daughter, David Yaffe's biography of Joni Mitchell, I thought I'd listen to her music while completing the page. So relaxing.

I don't usually listen to music when tangling. (If I watch the evening news, I always tangle, to keep me calm!!) I may just do this more often.

What about you? Do you listen to anything while you tangle? Does it depend on your mood?

Thanks for visiting! Have a "back to basics" week!