Look Into My Eyes

Look into my eyes...

 

I started playing around last night with my new handy-dandy circle template from Michael's, and made a string on the tile with just a big circle in the middle (sort of - I didn't measure),  I have said I don't really get the Zendala part of Zentangle very well.  I typically don't like repeating parts all around the circle, and of course, my OCD thinking won't let me NOT make it the same all around, so I just have avoided them.

 

This one just sort of happened by accident.  It reminds me of something an old-time hypnotist would hold in front of your face and spin.  I may have to reassess my position and try Zendala for real!

 

P.S. OK, now you all know what my kitchen counter looks like - Hehe...

 

 

Weekly Challenge #178 - Duotangle By The Letter

In my blogger profile, I claim "wife" as one of my titles, and the truth is that title is very new for me. Had I taken this challenge four months ago, This newlywed would have used different initials!  I have also promised myself I would use these challenges to try new (to me, at least) patterns and materials. One day you may see a larger format ZIA - what a concept!

I brought home some new toys the other day to use in my Tangles.  They are charcoal and chalk pencils in white, black, charcoal, two shades do sepia and something called chalk red. That's pretty adventurous for me. My thought was to use them on the tan tiles, and I'll include a tile I did last night later in this post. But...I wanted to try something else today for The Diva's Challenge.

My initials are now "AK", so I chose two patterns I haven't used before: Amoeba and Knot Rickz.   I used a black tile with a white Jelly Roll pen and the light sepia, white and red chalk pencils for shading.

I wasn't sure at first if the pencil really added much, but once I started blending the white, the Ameobae started to get a nice little ghostly look.  And then, there are the levitating pillows, which I do like. I attended an opera once by a contemporary composer that left most of the opera goers scratching their heads, and not a few cut out at intermission.  Most of the audience thought the one redeeming feature of the production was the levitating choristers. They were all suspended in the air in harnesses like Peter Pan, just singing away...kind of fun!

So, anyway, here is the other tile using these pencils. It has nothing to do with the challenge, but I like it:

Truffles and Lace

Good morning!  Most days we head out early to enjoy the morning air here in the Valley of the Sun, but this particular day, there is nothing pleasing about that air - hot and stuffy! Highly unusual, as even hot days usually start with a fairly pleasant morning.  This one is akin to the rainy days of old back in Chicago.

When I was a little girl, I waited for a rainy day so I could color or make paper dolls from Sears catalog models and then draw clothes for them - always adding the necessary tabs to hold them on.  I looked for my subjects in the bathing suit or (gasp) underwear sections of those venerable publications. I'd cut the models out, then glue them onto stiff paper or cardboard.   Then, cut a vertical slot in the bottom, cut a half-circle out of cardboard with another slot at the top of it, and fit the pieces together.  Voila, the doll stands up!  Sometimes, if I was lucky, there were some pictures of clothes already in the catalog that would fit my new dolls.  Yay!  Cut those out, keeping little tabs at the shoulders and sides, and my doll had a high-fashion outfit straight from the pages of the source of our fashion sense - Sears and Roebuck last season catalog (of course I wasn't allowed to cut up the new one!).  But mostly, I just drew my own outfits, colored with crayons or colored pencils, and dressed them with my interpretations of high fashion.

Since I have been Tangling, I have been more of a purist.  Use those "official" tiles, stick to black ink with pencil shading.  Go really wild with tan tiles and add shading with a brown pencil and highlight with a white pencil and maybe a dot or two of gold from a Jelly Roll pen.  Color?  The how and why has escaped me, even though I thoroughly admire the colorful images that others produce.  Beautiful!  But I can't do that.

So, this week, on the I Am The Diva blog site, the challenge was for a new pattern called "Truffle".  I have been trying to figure out how to respond to these challenges, and finally figured out you must have a blog of your own to post your responses.  Hence, my new blog!  Right here!

I started working with this new pattern, and got something very lacy looking.  I went nuts with adding a different pattern to each Truffle, and it just looked to me like lacework stretched out in a frame.  Then came the part where I usually shade my shapes and get something with dimension and form.  This time, it was different.  If the object of a challenge is to make you stretch and grow, then my stretched lace needed something very different from me.  I decided to add some watercolor pencil glow around the edges of my lace.  I think it works.  New directions are sometimes trial and error, but this may grow on me.  So, anyway, here is my Truffle tangle:

For the Zen part

We retired to Arizona for sunshine (plenty of that!) and easy living.  What I forgot is that we still keep getting older...OH NO!  My joints actually get stiff and achy even here - who knew?

I decided it's time to revive my interest in yoga. I used to do this - about fifteen years ago!  Since I am not ready to get out the door for a 6:00 am class, nor do I want to give up my morning walk around the neighborhood with Mr. Joe, I decided to try a DVD for beginners.  So, mat unrolled in the living room, strap and blocks at the ready for all those places I cannot (yet) reach, I embarked on my new plan.  Arms up, palms forward, inhale, bend down, step back to downward dog...OK, I can!

Standing up, I do just fine. Once I need to bend over or get on the floor, I'm in a bit of trouble. Oh, I can get down there all right (for the up part I need to pause the action for the lengthy getting back up plan execution, though).  The big problem is I can't see what the heck they are doing over the top of my glasses!  This, I'll have you know, has nothing to do with advancing age!  Since about age six, I have been extremely myopic (that is, blind as a bat)!   Wait, what is he doing now???  I think I missed a pose...  I'm supposed to what??  So now, contact lenses in for 25 minutes of yoga?

Namaste...

A BYOB tangle

So the Diva (in this case, her stand-in) posted a challenge but I didn't have a blog to link with.  So...I'm giving this a shot to start my very own blog. Here is the tile for the challenge I missed last week - oh well!

The challenge was to use a beverage of choice in a tangle. I love my cuppa joe, so that's what I used. Dribbled first, let that dry, then spattered.  Then I tangled on that.

Now I just need to figure out how to connect with the Diva!