Throwback Thursday #4 First Love; Diva Challenge #240 Autumn; TNTM #42 "P"

Greetings Gentle Readers,

If it never rains in California, then it surely never rains in Arizona, right?  How wrong!  This is our fifth year in the Valley of the Sun, as the Phoenix area is known.  My neighborhood is even one of the least likely to get a downpour in this area.  You wouldn't know it from the nonstop series of rainy days we have had.  What??? We even had hail about the size of chickpeas pounding down for about three or four minutes.  The good news is, aloe plants that were really puny brown looking from the scorching summer heat are now fresh and green and turgid with all the moisture.  The golf course, that was looking a bit peaked is now vibrant.  My Meyer Lemon tree has perked up and the fruit should get nice and juicy for picking in another few weeks.  Yay!  Lemon pie time!

Which brings me to the Diva Challenge this week.  Laura has highlighted the beautiful autumn leaves that are a part of this season in most of the northern hemisphere.  But here in the desert, we don't have trees that color and drop.  Our trees keep their tiny feathery leaves all year, only softening to a dusty green for the driest times and brightening up in spring after the respite of cooler winter temperatures.  So, what to do for autumn?  Well, what we do have in abundance are...GOURDS, PUMPKINS and PEPPERS!  And kale and onions, but those didn't make the cut into my tile this week.  I attempted a sort of "Tints on Tan" take on the subject.  I'm sure I could use some firsthand instruction by Marty Deckel, but here is my offering, such as it is.

 

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For That's New To Me, the focus was on "P" tangles plus something from Sayanitka Ray.  I chose Sayanitka's Pots-n-Pans, Suzanne Fluhr's Phirst and added accents of Points and Curves by Cheryl Rotnem.  I hope it has a sort of marketplace feel, as that's what was in my head, anyway.  Fun!

 

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Square One this week focused on Nymph, which starts out like 'Nzepple, but goes all flowery on you after that.  I did two, and can say this is a relaxing tangle to draw.

 

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THROWBACK THURSDAY CHALLENGE #4 - FIRST LOVE

 

Ah, first love...When I was 16, I had the sweetest boyfriend.  He was everything a nice young man should be, and I was so happy! He wasn't at all like the bad boy I had a crush on for a couple of previous years, who never gave me a second look.  I was in heaven.  That love came to an abrupt halt, however, when my very traditional father decided that since my sweetheart was a grade behind me and a year younger, that the relationship was inappropriate.  Gee, if that's all parents have to worry about with their daughter's boyfriends, you'd think they would be grateful! But no, it was over, and I was crushed.  Sniff, sniff...

 

But my Zentangle first love has not dimmed, really.  Way, way back in August 2012, I was still identifying my tiles by number.  This was the 24th tile I ever produced, and I was totally enthralled by shiny beads. I still use them a lot, but in this tile, they were a bit of a star.

 

 

So I decided to go full bore into a shiny bead deal.  I used Akoya, which is the ultimate beaded pattern, and, gasp... I decided to color it!  Well, my colors and beads kind of got messed up when I took a sharp turn, but since that's what happens in my jewelry drawer all the time, I figured it was OK anyway.  I had fun with this one!

 



So the challenge is this:  Think back to your first Zentangle crush and revisit it now.  This is not a call to get better or fancier.  You may want to pare it down to something Picasso-esque, or make it bigger, smaller, or simply do it again just because you love it.

*** Thank you for stopping by today. Know that I cherish all your thoughts and comments, and would love to see your Throwback work in the Mr. Linky list. Namaste, Antonine