Diva Challenge 198 - KISS....

Keep it Simple, Silly!

Laura and family seem as busy and cheerful as ever over on I am the Diva but I don't blame her one little bit for wanting to keep things simple at this time of the year. I wish all the family a great Christmas and hope Artoo's recovery continues - he and his brother certainly seem to be having fun!

I did this simple tile yesterday as one of my Christmas card toppers. Verdigogh, one of my all time favourites, is simple, elegant and doesn't usually need anything else to go with it. Rather than finishing it off as usual by subtle shading, I resisted doing any at all in order to keep those simple lines...it was difficult as I love shading! But I like it.
Hope you all have a great Christmas.

Axxx

Diva Challenge 196 - All Dolled Up!

I was interested in the phrase 'all dolled up' - it took me back in time to when I was a child. My grandmother and her friends used this term quite regularly and it obviously came across the waters during the war years. Referring to a woman as a 'doll' is definitely American slang - but, how it rolled off northern Yorkshire tongues...and it's a phrase I haven't heard for a long, long time. So my first thanks to Emily are for this wonderful blast from the past for me as an introduction to her challenge as guest over on the Diva's blog.

And my second thanks are for such a lovely idea. I wasn't immediately struck as I'm not a 'doll' sort and never was, but then I also remembered some lovely Russian dolls that a friend had and this inspired my entry this week. Who doesn't love the Matryoshka nesting figures? (This link is to a shop but it is mainly to show a lovely selection of painted dolls - I'm not affiliated in any way!)

Here is my Matryoshka in Zentangle. The hardest part for me was the face - I toyed with Printemps eyes but she could have ended up looking very spaced out, so I stuck with a traditional style even though this isn't very Zentangle. Hope that's OK. Great fun to do - lovely challenge. Looking forward to checking out what everyone else comes up with this week!

Thanks for visiting - hope you'll leave me a little comment. Axxx