A String, A Dare, and A Prayer

My head is sloughing through the sinus stuffies here and it is crazy windy outside this morning. I thought it got windy where we lived in Ohio, those mid-west flats could get pretty wild sometimes, but they've got nothing on the coastal winds and weather-whew!! We're having gusts as strong as when Sandy blew through late last fall and it sounds like the house is wanting to let loose some shingles or shutters, the storm windows rattling hard in their frames. I need to investigate the bird feeders and windchimes once the sun comes up, make sure none have blown away during the night. Crazy!!

The good news, though, my car is safely home again from the shop--hallelujah! She's thirteen years old, my little Kia, and I was worried her transmission was trying to quit on us. Turned out to be a brake rotor catching--all fixed and they even flushed and refilled the tranny fluid for us, just to be on the safe side, and less than $125 later--she's good as new!! How sweet is that?? I love my car. I love seeing it parked out front in the driveway even more. Yay!!

So I finished the week's Zendala Dare yesterday. Not sure if I really like it or not...If I look quick, I do like it, but if I look too long, it causes the eye to struggle between the delicateness of Paradox against the stronger, bold graphic patterns of the circles, and it feels harsh to me:

Paradox

 

 

Then, the Diva's Challenge this week is String Theory, using String 3, and I'll be honest-I'm cheating here...I'm just not feeling the strings lately. I'm much happier letting things develop more freestyle. Though, I do have a 'thought' for an answer to this challenge, I did this one a couple months back using String 3 and figured I'd share it just in case I don't get to work on the idea that's floating round in my head...I started something in my Tangle a Day calendar that I don't want to rush, so I may not get to the string thing in time for the cut off...

 

Knightsbridge, Poke Root, Tipple, Hollibaugh, Festune

And the morning's prayer:

 

In everything you do today, may your spirit be one of eager expectation and patient trust.

Eagerly expect your Father to return any minute, but patiently trust Him to do what is right.

 

“Our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior,

the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.”

Philippians 3:20

 

AEDM Day 14 (...10...)

Well, most of yesterday was spent dealing with my Lack of Phone issues...I bounced from the Verizon store to an AT&T store and ended up on the phone with Verizon's customer service (always the way to go!) who've kept me from jumping ship at the exhoribitant cost of almost $300 for early termination of my contract--yikes!! Sorry AT&T...I told the guys who waited on me that I'd be back. I won't. At least not for two more years...But I am happy with Verizon (when they give me what I want--I truly am a brat, I confess...) I'm getting a super cool phone--a Droid Razr M and all is right with the world once more. Like anyone really cares about my phone issues, right? I know--it just took all of my morning to get that sorted out and after spending all of Monday playing, I'm way behind house-wise and I didn't get much caught up after lunch but I will jump on all of that today. Projects are piling up!

I did sit down after dinner to do the day's Zentangle project. Patterns for the day were Vega and Purk (one of my favorites!) And I did a little fill with Tippled Hollibaugh for this result:

 

I was worried the Tipple might muddle the effect of the Purk, but my only issue with this is that it's hard to discern the smalled Purk sitting on top of the larger. It's a little eyeball bendy and I like that!

 

Today, as I said, is playing catch up on finishing the laundry and housework since tomorrow I'll be at my sister-in-law's for a good chunk of the morning--a good time to catch up on reading! I'm trying to finish Fevre Dream so I can at least start 11/22/63 before we go see Stephen King speak in Lowell! Too many irons in the fire! Aaahhh! Haha--it's good to be busy with so many happy things! Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday!

AEDM Day 11 (...7...)

Woohoo!! Even in the midst of our busy day yesterday, I still managed to find time to squeak out the day's zentangle! Okay, granted, that's not how you're supposed to do zentangle...it's supposed to be a quieter, meditative process, hence the 'zen'...But, I had a little time before Bug's tournament to go over and sketch out the day's exercise, even managed to ink it in and start coloring some before the bowling got under way (the boys had a great day and fun was had by all, I believe!) Then later in the day I finished coloring and shading...and here ya' go!

 

I like yesterday's tile much better than this one...The day's patterns (only two) were Isochor and Printemps, with the added 'sparkle' technique, which I hadn't tried before. Isochor still confounds me. I had been drawing it a completely different way than the step out in the book (One Zentangle a Day), and I think I like my way better than this way (but does that make it something other than Isochor??) Anyway, I do love the sparkle (should've sparkled my Crescent Moon, I think...)

So this morning is church and then yard clean up for a good portion of the afternoon. I have Erin's weekly zendala dare printed out and ready to go and I'm pretty sure what I plan to do with it (though those weeks I seem to change completely and do something altogether different than what started out in my head...) and I will do my best to do Day Six of One Zentangle a Day--and I didn't think I'd get any arting done all weekend! If I didn't have the challenge, I would've skipped it though, so a great big Thank You to Leah over at Creative Every Day for helping me (make) take the time to tangle and create!

AEDM-Day 9 (er, 5...)

 Continuing on with AEDM--we should do this every month! Of course, there is a Creativity Every Day challenge...Just somedays it's hard to find the time to sit and play. And looking at the long weekend coming up so quickly here, I'm wondering just how much art I'll be able to accomplish over the next three days. Saturday we have the Father/Son bowling tournament then family adventuring after. Sunday, weather permitting, is more yard clean up from these storms that have dumped leaves and branches all over, and Monday Bugga's home from school for Veteran's Day. So he'll either be gone all day or I'll have a houseful of boys crammed in the office playing video games on the computer and eating everything in the fridge and snack cupboard...Then next weekend's Thanksgiving already! How can that possibly be?? I really need to get cracking on wrapping for Christmas... and baking! This time of year always flies by too fast....

 

Anyway, I wasn't completely happy with my first tile response to the Diva's Weekly Challenge #94-UMT Socc and something in the auras made me think of Mi2, so I wanted to play with a combo of the patterns...and, I don't know, maybe I need more practice with Socc...it's still not quite what I was thinking of...

Then for Day Three of One Zentangle A Day, the patterns we were given were Poke Root (yes, I mislabled my sample as Poke Leaf but fixed it this morning after I saw it in the picture...my brain stops working after, well, it's not really worked all that well since Michael was born??...), Festune, and Hollibaugh. And my tile, with a little Tipple thrown in as well:

Ta-daaa! I do like this!

So, time for breakfast and some quality time on the treadmill before I get on with the day. Oh, I did make some great progress on the pet portrait as well yesterday (it was a good, good day!! And aren't you curious to see?? Haha!) Happy Friday everyone!! Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I'll have more to share tomorrow!

 

Art Every Day Month (Technically Day 8, for me Day 4...always been a late bloomer...)

So I'm jumping on board the AEDM train a little late because I didn't really find out about it until it was well under way-but I'm playing along anyway. Day One would've been my PIE zendala, Day Two the Diva challenge Socc zentangle, Day Three I started a new six week course called One Zentangle A Day, which should carry me well through AEDM and almost up to Christmas! Yay! These are the pics for Days Three and Four:

You are given three patterns a day to work with to create a Zentangle. Using an old leftover sketchbook--figure this will be a great reference piece when the course is finished.

 

I'm really excited about the next six weeks of zentangle as I work through this course. I've been playing with this since April and am totally in love with the art and the process. There's an amazing online community of incredibly talented artists who share their work and techniques, along with being a constant source of inspiration! I enjoy learning from them but I also hope to attend a certification course next year and then be able to teach Zentangle to others. Too much fun!

 

(On a side note for AEDM-I'm also working on an acrylic painting of a pet portrait and got the background completed yesterday. Not posting pics every day, but will update progress reports as it comes along...Nothing like a teaser!)

 



And, completely unrelated:

Things You Can Do With A Bassett:

She really does have eyeballs!

People can be so annoying....