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Diva Challenge 55 in my Tangle A Day calendar
“It is the little bits of things that fret and worry us; we can dodge a elephant, but we can’t dodge a fly.” ~Josh Billings
Today has been a bit trying. I’ve been uneasy all day, worrying over this and that. Maybe the terrible weather is part of the problem or maybe not. Maybe it’s just the contrast after a couple of intensely focused and productive workdays to find my thoughts bouncing around like rubber balls. Trying to get my thoughts to settle, I decided to tackle the latest Diva Challenge. Maybe I could tangle myself back on track.
Laura Harms challenged us to use the Moebius strip in our tangling for this week. I have always loved the Moebius strip and have a bracelet with the word for “mother” engraved in 32 different languages. It is also the symbol, along with the color purple, for Moebius Syndrome. Laura’s little boy has Moebius Syndrome, so it is a cause very close to her heart. I don’t use color all that often, but since the color purple represents the syndrome my Prismacolor pencils were calling. Not to mention as a LSU alumni – I love purple, live gold 🙂 I got a little carried away with those pencils, visible manifestation of my inability to focus today.
So, where did the quote for today’s post come from? My inability to focus yet again, but it made me smile. I couldn’t settle on anything to use, much less write about when I saw this quote. Immediately my thoughts turned to my husband’s basset hound, Bandit. He passed away the day before Father’s Day last June. He was a sweetheart of a hound dog but a bit of a character. He was terrified of two things – cameras and flies. He just ran from the camera – much like dodging an elephant. But flies, oh my. His wrinkles would deepen and that frown would come out. Bandit would park himself in a corner and track that fly’s every movement with life or death intensity – an expression on his face that was the very epitome of worry. He was smart enough to know you can’t dodge a fly. I think there’s a lesson to be learned from that old hound dog.
A very rare photo of Bandit taken in 2010
Diva Challenge 54 - Purple Haze
“The process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained. By the age of fifty you have made yourself what you are, and if it is good, it is better than your youth.” ~Marya Mannes, More in Anger, 1958
For some reason it seems someone, usually me, is always sick on my birthday. This year was no exception. I spent my birthday in a hospital waiting room. My gift the successful removal of a blockage and gallbladder for my daughter after two days of tests and waiting for the “emergency” surgery. I shared encouraging stories with a brother and sister waiting to see their mom, tangled a little and thought about life in general. I was especially grateful that my husband resisted bribery for the gluten-free pizza he brought to the waiting room while I was in pre-op with our daughter for waaay too long. Hospitals are not very friendly for people with food allergies and gluten intolerance. I hate cold food but that was the best cold pizza I have ever eaten!
I decided to use my Tangle-A-Day calendar by Carole Ohl to capture my “thoughts” for those days – particularly my birthday. When I went to scan the images for this post, imagine my surprise to find my birthday week blank! I know I was a little distracted, but I’m positive I tangled those days. Oops! It seems I tangled February 18 – not January 18. Oh well, I know what I meant. They say the mind is the first thing to go.
After getting through the year I was forty-nine, I was relieved to reach fifty. It has been a year of exploration, understanding, creative growth and spiritual maturity for me. I suppose that’s part of the reason this quote by Marya Mannes appeals to me. I have come into who I am meant to be and I like this woman, even if she is over fifty.
Tangle A Day Calendar - my birthday is really Jan 18.
My finished mixed media piece
“I’m creative – you can’t expect me to be neat too.” ~Author Unknown
I must confess to relief that the holidays are behind us once more. It’s the same every year for me. I love the anticipation, preparation and celebration but by the time it’s all over my only thought is “enough already!” Impatient to get on with regular routines and pick up on things left undone while I was in holiday mode, I find myself with a sort of mental ADD. Like a grasshopper, my thoughts jump from idea to idea rarely staying on anything very long. A mental hangover from the overload of things to do during the season. I’ve noticed my grandchildren haven’t had that problem. They have adhered themselves to all things electronic to the point of overload. They especially like to hole up in Bear’s Man Cave, only coming out for food and water.
Knowing I would have them for the entire weekend, I resolved to find a way to pull them out of the cave and away from the wonders of Club Penguin enhanced by the stack of gift cards they received for Christmas this year. Strathmore is offering a series of online classes for 2012 – FREE. I decided to enroll in the Mixed Media workshop. After watching the videos, I knew this would be a stretch for me and would draw both kids like flies to honey. It’s a messy approach using just about everything but the kitchen sink. Zentangle is neat, requires few tools and supplies and is controlled in approach – that’s what appeals to me about it. Nevertheless, I gathered various supplies and announced to the kids we would be doing art on Saturday afternoon. What ensued was a messy, disorganized and thoroughly FUN afternoon for all of us. Each has a unique approach to the creative process and clear ideas of what they like and don’t like. This messy, anything goes approach was perfect for them – though I struggled mightily. The contrast in the three pieces reminds me a lot of my Zentangle classes. We used the same supplies and had the same instruction, yet each piece is unique. We all agreed to move forward with the entire workshop as a team of three and packed up our ugly vinyl tablecloth along with our supplies in preparation for next weeks lesson. Even better, Saturday was a day free of the cave and electronics. They never even missed it. Mission accomplished!
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- Hand’s on – messy!
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- My finished mixed media piece
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- Creative mess
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- Jack’s Final Piece
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- Maggie’s Final Piece
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- Creative Teamwork
Original Zentangle design for 2011 Christmas cards
“When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things – not the great occasions – give off the greatest glow of happiness.” ~Bob Hope
One of the things I love about the Christmas season is the continuity of tradition. We really didn’t have any set traditions while I was growing up, but I have very consciously established a few with my own family.
The oldest of our traditions revolves around the Christmas tree. I began buying dated Christmas ornaments for my children every year since they were born. I have carried it on with my grandchildren. There were a few lean years along the way, evident in the simplicity of the ornaments for those years. I even have one lone survivor from our first tree after we were married. A plain glass dime-store ornament that has managed to survive through 35 Christmases and various moves. Even my grandchildren know to handle that one with care. Once my girls moved out on their own, I gave them their collection as a start for their trees. That was when I realized I would be losing a LOT of ornaments and started to collect for myself. We gather ornaments from various travels, usually buying at least one on each vacation. I now have a huge 9 ft. tree that is completely covered with unique ornaments. My new son-in-law was stunned to learn that many of the ornaments my daughter has from her childhood are worth quite a lot of money. Katrina was outlining the procedure for decorating their first Christmas tree, complete with Christmas music playing the whole time. I was touched when I realized how thoroughly she embraced our traditions when she gifted me with an ornament purchased on her honeymoon for me. Or course, I had ornaments to commemorate their first Christmas together from our trip to Branson.
I started two new traditions last year. Once I began to embrace Zentangle, I decided to design my own Christmas cards. I especially love this year’s creation – a Christmas tree – done with Sakura pens and Derwent Inktense pencils. The second has to do with Christmas morning. I always cook supper and usually have my grandchildren as my daughter works every Christmas Eve and Christmas in the ER. She comes to our house on her way home from work Christmas morning to open gifts with the kids before getting some rest for her next shift. I’ve been following the FlyLady for about a year and she included a recipe for cinnamon buns in one of her newsletters last year. It was so simple and intended to be a no-fuss, no-muss treat served on Christmas morning. The kids and I assembled them the night before and I popped them in the oven on Christmas morning. They were a huge hit and I am told they taste like Cinnabon (I have to take their word for it, as I have to avoid gluten, so don’t eat them.) We’ll be doing these again this year. In the interest of spreading a little tradition, I am sharing this wonderful recipe with you. Enjoy and take a moment to think about your own traditions – or start a brand new one and make some memories for the people you love.
Christmas Eve Shortcut Cinnamon Buns
From the Fly Lady
These are made the night before and popped in the oven Christmas morning when the kids are attacking their presents.
Ingredients
20 unbaked frozen dinner rolls (Bridgeport works well)
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup instant vanilla pudding mix (this is NOT the whole box)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
Directions
Lightly grease a 10 inch Bundt cake pan. Place frozen rolls into the pan.
Combine the brown sugar, pudding mix and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the frozen rolls. Pour melted butter over the top.
- If you don’t have a Bundt pan, you can use a muffin tin, but they turn out better in the Bundt pan.
Cover with a clean, damp cloth and leave overnight at room temperature to rise.
In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Turn rolls onto serving plate and dig in!
Makes 20 buns
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- Another tradition – homemade caramels as gifts for friends
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- Completed tree 2011
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- 2011 Christmas Card
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- A few more, puppies, planes and Cinderella’s coach
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- In honor of the chocoholics – Maggie and me
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- I am a huge fan of the Grinch and have all of these.
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- A few ornaments from our tree – notice the Disney vacation 🙂
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- 2010 Christmas Card
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- Triple Dog Dare from A Christmas Story – a family favorite
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- Original Zentangle design for 2011 Christmas cards
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- The fish is from our vacation in Branson, and of course we need Charlie Brown
Christmas Lights
“If God had really intended men to fly, he’d make it easier to get to the airport.” ~George Winters
I am starting to sense a theme in my life over the past few months and it has to do with my wallet. I have to travel to Dallas today for meetings starting at noon. I am every bit as careful with my company’s money as my own and opted to fly in very early this morning to save hotel costs. Even though it meant a 6 am flight. A supreme sacrifice for me as I am not a “morning” person. This necessitates getting up at 4 am to dress and allow travel time to the airport. Ugh! As I arrived at the airport this morning, I discovered my wallet missing from my purse. Not only can I not board the plane, I can’t reschedule another flight since I don’t have my credit card. Allllll the way back home and pounding my brain the whole time to figure out WHAT happened to my wallet. As I pulled into the garage, there it was. It had evidently fallen out of my purse when I loaded the car and I never noticed. I am really not awake at 0-dark-thirty. Sooo, at least it wasn’t lost or stolen. New flights are booked, but I will be several hours late for my meeting. Lessons learned: check for your wallet before you pull out of the garage, don’t be pennywise and pound foolish – go up early and deal with the hotel cost.
Since I am up at an ungodly hour, with a little gift of time, here I am. I’ve been playing around with color on my Zentangles and have actually completed a couple of Diva Challenges, though I didn’t get a chance to upload them to her slide show. Challenge 49 was to use a red string. I decided to do two of these. One that really celebrated the string and the other keeping it simple. I was surprised that the simple string – even though it was red – really disappeared into the tile once it was all tangled. I had to go back and add more red ink to really see it. Challenge 50 was to “Biggify.” This involved taking a few favorite tangles and making them much bigger than we would ordinarily draw them. I decided to do three – normal, big and BIGGIFY. They are shown with the same string and all together so it’s easier to see the changes in each tangle as the scale increases. This is a very good exercise for those just getting started with Zentangle. Because the tile is only 4.5″ square, the tendency is draw smaller scale. Pushing the envelope with scale give some freedom in shading but puts more importance on making each stroke carefully. Most people come to the realization that some tangles are much better when they are drawn larger. If you are struggling to find the right scale for your work, try this challenge and keep it to one tangle on a tile – or mark out a few tiles on your sketchbook page. Enjoy the process and remember there are no mistakes in Zentangle!
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- White Ink on Black ATC tile
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- Biggify
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- Diva Challenge 49 – simple red string
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- Christmas Lights
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- Green Ink and Watercolor
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- Diva Challenge 49 – celebrate the red string
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- Black Ink and Watercolor
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!
~Author Unknown
Our family has much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. We will all be together this year – plus our new family member. We’ll eat too much, talk too much, make a big mess and maybe get started decorating the tree after supper. Surely we’ll reminisce on Thanksgivings past and good times together. We will laugh together, watch a bit of football and glory in LSU’s undefeated season as we head into the Battle for the Boot on Friday. And we’ll give thanks for the blessings we enjoy throughout the year.
I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Diva Challenge 48
“It’s a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you’ve forgotten about.” ~Alan Ball, American Beauty, 1999
Today I taught a beginning Zentangle class followed by an advanced class. I always like to start out by asking if I have any artists in the group. No hands this morning. “How many of you can’t draw a straight line?” Thirteen hands this time. “That’s good. You don’t need to draw a straight line.” I got some smiles and we were on our way. As we worked through the first tile, there were a few groans here and there followed by reminders from me that there are no mistakes in Zentangle. After the first tile was finished, I had everyone put their tiles together in the class mosaic. And the magic of every class was there once again. Total silence as they study what they have done. Stunned at the end result. Finally, I remind them that they told me they weren’t artists when we started. “What else do you THINK you can’t do?”
I love teaching Zentangle and this is my favorite part of every class. That moment when my students surprise themselves with what they’ve done – and realize the possibilities.
Class Mosaic #1
Class Mosaic #2
“God is in the details.” Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
This is one of my favorite quotes, first introduced to me in design school. I often get caught up in details, but believe the extra effort always makes the difference. We are still waiting for the “official” photos from the wedding, but I thought I would share a few captured by various friends and family along with the details that contributed to an absolutely perfect wedding.
The Zentangle inspired logo I created for the couple became a theme piece used on everything from invitations, to RSVP cards, to favor boxes and the program. Favor boxes were filled with my homemade caramel and Tiger magnets (again made by me) with the couple’s name and the date. I was even able to find paper to wrap the caramel that resembled the Mooka background on the logo (I usually use clear cellophane) My candy wrappers hated the paper because it was difficult to use and hard on the fingers, but everyone agreed it was worth the end result. Extras were used to fill clear glass serving bowls at the reception. Lest you think I was the only “artist” contributing to this event, take a look at the Bride’s earrings and her sister’s Bridesmaid necklace. I have a wonderful friend, Karen Firnberg, who is a very talented bead artist. She took the belt worn with the wedding dress and designed these fabulous earrings especially for Katrina. Light as a feather despite the way they look, they were not only gorgeous, but comfortable to wear as well. Karen also made every bridesmaid necklace, Katrina’s gift to each of them and a big hit. You can see more of Karen’s artistry on her blog.
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- The Bride and Groom at the Reception – that smile never left his face.
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- Framed original logo, favor boxes, and program
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- First Kiss as husband and wife
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- Sisters
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- Wedding Invitations
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- Unfinished Ensemble Tile Set
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- Just some fun at the airport
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- Our resort in Branson
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- Halloween tile inspired by the lovely leaves
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- One more view from our balcony
Kim and I left the next day for a much-needed vacation – even before the ecstatic couple left for their honeymoon in Jamaica. We didn’t go anywhere that exotic, but enjoyed every minute we spent in the Branson, Missouri area. We lucked out and caught the leaves at the peak of their change. The scenery was stunning. The people were all so warm and friendly. This was our first trip to the area but won’t be our last. We were surprised to meet so many Louisiana folks – they were drawn to my LSU shirts. I had to show my support since we were gearing up for the big Bama game that week. This was our de-stress trip after the weeks of wedding prep and for me, the stress of my job change. I did lots of tangling. I am near completing nine-tile, prestrung set. Just two more to go. Plus a few others.
It’s amazing the difference it makes to commit yourself turning it all off. I didn’t bring any work or even my work phone with me. I had a big meeting a couple of days after I got back. One of my new team mates was in town for the meeting and had been at the training meetings I attended just a couple of days before the wedding. When I walked in, he told me I looked like I had shed 50 lbs. of stress since the last time he saw me. I didn’t think it showed and lots of people who knew me better thought I appeared uncommonly calm in those days leading up to the wedding. All things considered, I was. But clearly the strain shows. Yet another reason to keep on tangling – I need all the help I can get as I move further into my 50’s!
“The flower that follows the sun does so even in cloudy days.” ~Robert Leighton
I love sunflowers. They remind me of happy, smiling faces surrounded by sunshine. After I got married and had my first child, I thought it would be fun for us to grow sunflowers. Having never seen sunflowers outside of photos or from the florist, I was not prepared for what sprouted. The things just grew and grew and grew with nary a bud to be seen anywhere. They grew like weeds and looked like them too. Soon it became apparent I would need stakes for these giants. This was about the time my 2-year-old daughter lost interest in the project. She was looking for flowers and my tall, gangly stems were not very promising, nor very pretty. In the end, I finally got a few puny blooms that bore little resemblance to those happy faces I love so much. Maybe it was the variety, but most likely it was my famously abysmal gardening skills. Now I stick to the ones you buy – instant gratification and a splash of sunshine to brighten even the darkest corner of the house.
The Diva Challenge for this week was to incorporate the logo from The Sunflower Fund. This organization was founded in 1999 to support the Bone Marrow Registry in South Africa for leukemia patients. Such an appropriate choice of name and logo for this cause. By the time a leukemia patient requires a bone marrow transplant, they truly need the sunshine and happiness the sunflower represents to brighten their days. I had fun with these tiles. More than once, I thought maybe my representation should be more abstract. But the lure of the sunflower was much too strong. So here they are, fully recognizable as those cheerful blooms – my sunflowers.
Hope Strength and Beauty
“During chemo, you’re more tired than you’ve ever been. It’s like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you’re out. You don’t know how you’ll answer the door when your groceries are delivered. But you also find that you’re stronger than you’ve ever been. You’re clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now it’s instantaneous.” ~Melissa Bank
Earlier this week, my daughter and I decided to have lunch before I chauffeured her home after her visit to the doctor. The hostess commented as she seated us, “You must be wearing pink for breast cancer.” Not purposely, we both just happened to wear pink blouses that day. I realized it was October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month – Laura Harms, the Diva, challenged us to tangle Hope as a tribute to those amazing women touched by breast cancer.
As I gave this more consideration, several specific friends came to mind. The quote I selected for this week captures what all three of them have told me at one time or another over the years. I am always humbled by the quiet dignity of their words and the hope they give others so generously. While my string is not so original, the tangles were selected with these wonderful women in mind. Zander represents the strands of hope that when gathered create a strength that inspires and endures. Purk and Onomato – so very feminine and beautiful. Breast cancer tries to steal those qualities from a woman, but their very strength and spirit hold tight and it shines from within and all around them. Finally, the pearls represent the patina they carry from challenges faced and incredible courage to move forward. It shines from every breast cancer warrior’s face. I count myself blessed that they are still in my life and I am able to call these ladies my friends. Cheers Sarah, Gerri, and Donna!
Tangled Tranquility 