Diva Challenge #133 - Tipple

Finally, a few moments to myself! I've spent the time reading, browsing pinterest and re-pinning loads of stuff and falling in and out of sleep. And of course finishing up this weeks challenge. Laura mentioned her anxiety issues in her post this week. How coincidental is that at a time when my own anxiety has reared its ugly head this week and the medication seems null and void. I have to agree with Laura when she says that the "few mindful pen strokes bring peace and calm. I seem to keep going on about it but Zentangle really does help in times of extreme and not so extreme stress, and when I just need for my brain to settle down especially when it wants to behave like my hyper active jack russelle dog. The circles in TIPPLE helped me to focus and to bring my thought process down to a manageable level.


What's your "go to" tangle when you just need to unwind and not think??

I like tipple although I don't  use it often. It's one of those "go to" tangles that come in handy when you get stuck.

Thanks for stopping by. And have a good weekend. My starts today.

Challenge #132 - "Non-Domonotangle" - Bales

We are once again back in Doha after our short but adventurous holiday in Singapore.  Although hot and humid, it was perfect for us as we enjoyed getting away from the extreme heat and extreme humidity here in Qatar.

I took a much needed holiday from the Internet and most electronic media. Except to check in with family all the way on the other side of the world, that was it. Although there was one exception. Can you guess what that was? Yep I had to check in with the Diva to see what the weeks challenge was. As I logged on to her blog and read what the challenge was I immediately wished I hadn't. "Really Erin? That's the challenge? How am I going to zentangle a tile with my non-dominant hand?  Really?"
Matters became worst when I scrolled down and saw what she did. Just perfect. Really!!!????

I used to practice writing with my left hand which is the non dominant hand so I knew writing even a few paragraphs would be okay but to draw shapes such as zentangle, I didn't think it was possible. So I shut down my Internet and pretended I never got the challenge for a day or two. On one particular day while waiting for everyone to get ready to leave the hotel, I pulled out my micons found a piece of paper drew a simple string and started doodling bales with my left hand.

The whole thing was done in 3 stages as time permitted. Every time I had to wait I pulled out the paper I drew it on and did a little bit at a time. Very Slowly, as I was in no rush to get it done. At the end of it all it turned out quite fine I think. There was no need for the panic.

A great big shout out and thank you to Laura for this challenge and pushing us beyond our comfort zones.

Diva Challenge #131 - Monotangle DEX

I like working with DEX. It's one of my favorites but yet I don't use it enough. Our challenge was to use DEX as a mono-tangle. What a lot of squares for this challenge. I filled the tile with squares then went from there.

Black and white would have been to boring for me so I added some watercolor. Interesting effect. Thanks to Mariet for giving me the idea of writing the name in the piece. I felt it was completely unfinished with a hole just suspended there.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zendala #69

It's a whole lot of circles this week. I was stuck on this challenge, but I needed to get it done early before the events of the week got in the way.

By the way I made a pie. Why is that so grand? I've never made a pie in my life before. My mom makes awesome pies. Her most famous is a coconut cream pie made with the real coconuts not that powered stuff. So yeah I made a pie. I made my own pastry, but cheated and used powdered custard since eggs are not my thing. I also made a blue berry reduction with sugar and a little brandy. The result, okay. For a first try, great; there is none left, unlike the red velvet cake that sat in my fridge for about a week.

I'm not a naturally good cook or baker. I don't have the natural common sense that many good cooks I know do. But I try, and for some reason I have no fear to try something new once I understand the recipe. I don't have that passion the good "cooks" do but I like food and experimenting with flavors. Art comes naturally to me and yet I fear to expose that to others. Dunno but whatever. By the way, my red velvet cake was made with beet root and according to my son who gave me a lovely hug and said about my cake..."great job mom but that was an epic fail." Oh dear! No offence taken I already know. But I have to try it again I will not be beat on this one.

Now on to the challenge. With a little imagination lacking this week, I was stuck. However, I used purk and cruffle for this one, and let shading do the rest.

Diva Challenge #130 - Henna Drum

The challenge this week is to use a tangle created by Jane MacKugler, CZT - Henna Drum.
I've never used it but I love the organic-ness of it.
To accompany Henna Drum, I used Hypnotic in the background and a blue twinkling H2O for a little color.

Simple! Simple.

Zendala Dare #68 - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is this weeks template challenge. Divide the template and create two distinctive sides. This is a brilliant ideas.
This Zendala I think has a lot of opposites. Can you find them?

First of all I used Tangles beginning with S and E. Why those letters? Because just as I was pondering what tangles to use, we began putting our final arrangements on our holiday which is coming up in a couple of weeks. So I chose the first and last letters of our destination because they are on opposite sides of the word. SINGAPORE.

More opposites: Organic on one side, but yet a different organic in the star. The geometric black and white as opposed to the black lines. By the way that was supposed to be Erins tangle called SOCC but it just did not work nicely there. So I just went with the lines. But there's more.

The tangles I used are: Sanibelle, Sonnenband, Echo, Embellish, Eye-wa.

Loved loved this challenge. Now I'm on my way to see what others have done.
Thanks for stopping by.

Diva Challenge #129 - String Theory v. XXV

Doing the happy dance 'cause I finally received my package of art supplies. Not to many things, just  microns, my very first book of Zentangles, and another package of twinkling H2O's. I have written a short review about the "twinks" and a colorful cosmic explosion that happened when I was testing them out. So click HERE to learn more.

As for my new Zentangle book, I chose "Totally Tangled" by Sandy Steen Bartholomew. With so many books about Zentangle on the market, it was difficult to choose one. I just closed my eyes and picked.

I am glad I got this one too. There are so many tangles that I was introduced to that I could not resist using a few of my new favorites in this weeks challenge. I like Sandy's book; very straight forward, easy to understand step-outs, and lots of pretty tiles and compositions.

For our challenge this week we were to use string #004 from TanglePatterns.com

Tangles used are anti-dots, bollywood, flora and flutter tile

And last but certainly not the least, I would like to thank everyone who have been so kind to leave encouraging comments from time to time. I am truely grateful. I've been practicing with Zentangles since last year November when I broke my foot, and could not move around at all. These challenges every week and practicing and learning the steps helped the time go by faster. Eight months later,  and mobile again, I'm still at it. What a lovely habit to get into isn't it?