Diva Challenge 286 - Straight to it

This is just what I needed this week, Laura. Thank you for a 'straightforward' challenge.
This week - just use straight lines. No nice softening curves. B-rad thought Laura's tile looked 'angry' and a bit frustrated because Laura likes to use nice curves and it was quite difficult for her to stick to straight lines.

I actually needed to something that needed no artistic involvement. I needed straight lines and deep Zen. I've begun teaching again - not after a long, hazy, relaxing summer - after a couple of quiet weeks. All summer, I've been teaching intensive English classes and it's been...well, intensive! My present to myself for all the extra work has been to get a new car! Not a bad payoff, but something we've needed for quite some time. I'm very happy with it apart from I seem to have put my sacroiliac joint out of place - not used to a manual gear change - and being reminded that I once broke my left kneecap. Sigh. However, I love driving and I love my new car. Perhaps it's time for a new body!!

Straight lines - no need to engage brain too much. And a lot of Zen to be gained.
I used C-Wing, Yincut, Fassett and my own, Skwirl - which I promise is only straight lines, but with the shading, creates the impression of circles.


Thank you Laura.

Diva Challenge 219 and Square One - focus tangle, Purk!

Hello again! How the weeks fly by. Loved Laura's running story and the 10k 'STOP' sign! I just wish someone could tell me it would be OK to stop from time to time.....

I won't bore you with the details but my trials this week involve making a teapot costume for my daughter's performance in the school play. They are doing 'Beauty and the Beast' and Romy is Mrs. Potts, the teapot. She has a big singing role and has to look as wonderful as she will sound. I am doing my best and currently sport plasters on my thumb, index and middle fingers in recognition of the work I am putting in behind the scenes!! Makes tangling difficult.

Fortunately, it was a 'straight lines only' challenge on the Diva's blog. Not sure it makes any difference, actually, but I'm prepared to think it might have proved more difficult with some curves to negotiate with my bandaged fingers. It took me a few minutes to remember that one of my own tangles could feature - Skwirl is all straight lines, but with some nifty shading, it gives a subtle hint at circles. I teamed it with Steps, by Helen Williams, and Paradox with an assymetrical nod at Florz in the background.

A great challenge - thank you Laura!

In addition, I managed - before the needles took their toll - a couple of tiles for the Facebook page, Square One - Purely Zentangle. I post them here because I gave both tiles away as little tokens of appreciation. One to a colleague who was nominated for a national award in Human Resources - and she made the top ten! The other to my daughter to wish her good luck in her performance next week.

Here they are - I do so love Purk!!

Underwater Purk

Purk with Nzepple, Aquafleur and
aaargh, the name escapes me but it's by Michele Beauchamp...
A new one to me and I love it!

Thanks for looking. Axxx

Diva Challenge 207 - Use my Tangle 'Unbatz'

Minimal post this week.
Unbatz by Sandy Hunter, with my own tangle,  'Skwirl' and the Square One: Purely Zentangle pattern for this week,  'Sez'.
String 146 is by Lily Moon.
Thank you Laura.  I do hope you all have a better week.
Axxx

(Is it just me, or do some of my 'Sez' look like rather worried pairs of eyes...? Now I am a bit disconcerted.)

What a difference a day makes!

Today, here in Andalucia, the rain is lashing down and the hills are invisible under layers of cloud. Last night, one of the plugs in my daughter's bedroom began smoking and as my brave husband was investigating, there was a 'PLAS' (Spanish sound for anything that explodes!) and all the lights went out. Hubby was fine, I hasten to add.
This morning, we're awaiting a visit from the electrician because although most of the lights and electrics went back on once the fuse was fixed, both bedrooms where the boys sleep were left without any electricity. Bad wiring is suspected but I am no expert so will wait for the official - and probably expensive - verdict. Not the best start to the day.

However, this morning, I had a little message from Holly Atwater - who this week is the guest blogger over on I am the Diva, whilst Laura and family tend to Artoo following his surgery - congratulating me on having my new tangle 'Skwirl' published on TanglePatterns. I was so excited that I was almost late for work - so busy I was checking out the page and the link. Thank you Linda, thank you Holly - and thank you to the 2000+ people who have visited my page since last night! Gosh - I feel famous! What must it be like for people who are coming up with new tangles every week? Well, I may never know...I enjoy learning new tangles so much that I don't focus too much on creating my own - but forgive me for a morning's basking in my own reflected glory - in lieu of the sun, you understand.

And back to Holly, who gave us a wonderful challenge this week using tangles that make us thankful - 'THX' - Trio, Huggins and Xyp. As well as being thankful for my moment of fame in the Zentangle world, I am thankful to be part of this lovely community of people and that I found - by accident - the art of Zentangle. I have many, many other things to be thankful for too and I have put a little extra time into this week's challenge whilst being mindful of what those things are. I really enjoyed learning Xyp; Trio is a new favourite and Huggins, hiding here a little, is an old favourite.

If you haven't seen Skwirl on Tangle Patterns and want to have a look, I have used it in these patterns and shared them on my blog already - here, including stepouts and here. Please let me know if and when you give Skwirl a try, won't you?

Diva Challenge 190, String Thing 63, Square One and Wacky Challenge...busy week!

Hi everyone - I've been doing a lot of tangling this week and have a variety of different tangles to share here.

First up is the Diva Challenge, which this week honours Laura's Grandma Ardath, who suffered from breast cancer and as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, I can't think of any better inspiration than to honour Grandma Ardath's memory this way - and of course, promote the practice of self-examination and awareness of changes in our own breasts.

I had a mammogram a few months ago and all seemed fine - until I got a phone call asking me to go back. I was momentarily worried but in the end, I was reassured that there was no problem with me, but that the left X-ray hadn't been done as well as it could have been. The radiographer told me there and then that the new X-ray showed all was fine. Phew.

Laura said to use pink, which seems such a good idea, and here is my 'Pink for Ardath' tangle based on the pink ribbon logo, with just two tangles - Heartstrings and Crescent Moon - the background is a tangle of my own based on an optical illusion I saw - there are no curved lines in the drawing, but if you join the 'corners' of the squares and shade, then little circles 'pop' out all over! The stepouts are here and I call it 'Skwirl'

My second contribution to the challenges on the go this week is for 'A String Thing', run by Adele Bruno on 'Tickled to Tangle'. Adele gives us a string and a set of tangles - and off we all go. The results are always fantastic for their invention and diversity and I love this challenge. Especially as it included Quandry and Quib this week! What's not to like. Here is my tile. It went a bit skewiffy in the scanner but never mind. Also included are Quere and Quiltz.

Moving swiftly on, I think the Square One - Purely Zentangle group over on Facebook - has attracted dedicated Zentangle folk from all corners of the earth. This week we had the eternally inspiring and glorious Aquafleur to play with and I did enjoy it - and seeing all the wonderful contributions.

This is one of my entries, together with a modified Meer and Chillon in the background - oh, and a few beadlines. There have been some incredible variations on this lovely tangle and it's a very supportive and inspiring group.

Also on Facebook is the Wacky Zentangle Challenge, which is sort of opposite from the purist approach of Square One. This week, we were challenged to do teeny tiny tangles - as small as coins. I have here four that I did - and you'll just have to take my word that they are all the size of a 1 euro coin...which is not big! I really enjoyed them but wish I had made them into 'Inchies' with the borders around. Maybe if I have some time I will do this.

Aura-Leah and Tipple

Peanuckle with a hached background

Cyme and Fescu

Heartstrings and Florz

And that's it - if you made it this far, thank you so much for sticking with me to the end. Hope you liked what you saw. Axxx

Another take on Dex and my tangle 'Skwirl'.

I did another tangle for the Square One - Purely Zentangle challenge over on Facebook this week. I included a tangle I have recently created which is based on something that 'did the rounds' on Facebook too...

Picture from an original on Facebook

I was fascinated by this and thought what a great tangle it would make.






I have simplified things but obviously, shading and more lines could make it look even more intricate but if you like the 'pop' of Zentangle, you'll love this one!








Here it is with another squares and lines one, Dex:

And these are my stepouts together with a little ZIA. You can add more 'circles' if you see them...for example, look at step 2 and you might just see a big circle that could go around all four squares....give it a go and let me know!