Quaran-tangling

First things first.   I didn't create that word and I don't know who did because googling it got me nowhere tonight but it certainly is appropriate for the time and what I've been practicing daily.

One of the artists that I follow on Instagram posted a link to a daily free Zentangle class being offered by a certified Zentangle instructor in Spain.  I had to figure out the time change for the feed which turned out to be 12:30 EST - perfect time for me to block out the newscast that HWNSNBP is usually glued to at that time.

It's all in Spanish - of which I understand about 1%, but I can follow along by watching what she is doing.  She usually has some soothing music in the background and listening to her speak is interesting.  I'm trying to figure out some of the words that I hear repeated.  We'll see about that. 

Anyway - if you have an Instagram account you can follow along with @mindandtangle .  You don't need any special paper.  Just start with a 3.5 x 3.5 inch square.  Grab a fine line marker, a pencil, and a tortillon or q-tip (used for blending the pencil) and you're good to work along.  She goes very slowly so you don't need to rush through.  And the live feed cuts off after an hour, but just tap in again to rejoin. 

So here's what I've gotten done so far and the tangles used  -

3/19/20

Baton, Tripoli, Membranart

3/20/20

Ixorus, Pearly, Sez, Dex

3/21/20

A-Dalfi, Fiore, Diva Dance, Dragon Scales

3/22/20

Amun, Sails, Florz

3/23/20

Fe-Ba, Edie, Frunky

3/24/20

Banderole, Diamond & Square, Log Jam

3/25/20

Feathers, Paizel, Tunnel Vision, Tipple

3/26/20

Panthe, Panepinto, Palrevo

3/27/20

Camelia, Mazorito, Moving Day

And the four with the diagonal stripe together.

Please do join in if you'd like to give it a try.  

Jingle Belles - Fa La La La La

There's a musical theme to our Jingle Belles Challenge this fortnight.  I had several ideas brewing but after going through a bunch of ideas and pulling out a bunch of supplies, I finally chose to go with this Concord & 9th Turnabout stamp set using the Andy Williams holiday tune for my sentiment.  

And since I didn't get a card done last week, I did two this time.  

I'm going to hop on over to the Jingle Belles blog to check out the other melodic entries.  You can join me by clicking here.

Zentangle Project Pack 8 - Tangling with Moonlight Gellyrolls

The folks at Zentangle teamed up with the folks at Sakura to introduce their Sakura's new Moonlight gellyroll pens and how awesome they are to work with when tangling.  The kit included 5 of the new colors, a Zentangle graphite pencil and white chalk pencil, a couple of tortillons, and all the tiles needed to complete the 8 days plus a few more.  All the instructions are on Youtube to follow along with so even if you don't have these exact supplies, I encourage you to check out the Youtube videos for some inspiration and if you're game, give it a try.  Concentrating on placing lines, relaxing your hand, and breathing do help with anxiety.  I did these while my sister was in the hospital and the week after she passed to try to take my mind off of things.  I'm finding other ways during this world health crisis to do more tangling.  I'll share some of that in the days to come.  But for now, here are my finished tiles for Project Pack 8.

Day 1 

Day 2 

If you can imagine, the center of this design is actually a small triangular tile that is inserted into slots at the corners and the initial tangling was done on that.  Then the outside lines were added.

Day 3

I can see me doing more of these on any kind of tile or just in my sketchbooks.  This was fun.

Day 4

So I screwed up this one.  There were supposed to be four of the lavender shapes and four of the green shapes, but I got distracted and didn't place them correctly so I threw in another color.  

Day 5

Click on this one to get closer.  It really is more vibrant IRL.  As a note: these round tiles come pre-strung - meaning there are faint lines on them making the sections.  You could see the sections clearer in the tile above.  This one not so much as they had us dividing up some of the sections to make more.  I do like the way the gellyrolls give it so much life.

Day 6

Again using a pre-strung tile.  

Day 7

Something a little botanical.

Day 8

These were pretty cool to do.  There were six of them.  If you notice the design in the center highlighted with the white chalk pencil you can see that 3 are clockwise and the other 3 are counter clockwise.  When alternated and touching points it makes a nice mandala of its own.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Happy Birthday Dear

Last week HWNSNBP had a birthday.  I was, admittedly, quickly scrambling for an idea for his card and just happened to pull something together from some things on my work table.  But I do like the way it came out.  I used stamps from three different sets I think and decided to just stamp them in blue and give the center oval all the oceany color.  

Sympathy and Get Well Wishes -

Boy, this has been quite a year so far hasn't it!  I've lost two cousins, a great aunt, an aunt, and my sister since the beginning of January and I'm kind of hoping that I don't have to make any more sympathy cards for a long time.  

One of our school nurses fell at school a couple of weeks ago and had to have surgery to fix her broken leg.  There is a shortage of school nurses already which makes not having her in the district ever so much more of a challenge.  I thought I'd send her a card to cheer her up.  

Tonight we were notified that tomorrow will be the last day of school for our students until April 14th.  Our teachers are using Monday and Tuesday to prepare remote class lessons.  What this means for those of us who work in the office is yet to be determined.  There's only so much of my job that can be done remotely.  I'll keep you updated.  

In the meantime, make sure to wash your hands and keep your hands away from your face.  And let's all hope that these quarantine practices will slow down this virus.  

Jingle Belles - Stuck On You

The goal this fortnight was to use stickers on our Jingle Belles card.  I had these cute stickers that someone sent me for Christmas.  I love the colors and the whimsy of them. I was lucky enough to have some of these papers out on my work table from the last challenge and they seemed to go together pretty well.  I may have to redo that sentiment though.  It seems a little out of proportion to the stickers on the circles.  

Here's a little closer picture of the stickers in all their cuteness!

I managed to get a little pink into this card to match the llama and fox.  Always good to have a little pink for Christmas.  And always good to see what the others have come up with for this challenge.  Won't you take a look by clicking here?

Happy Flying Pig Day!

I'm having a hard time writing this post today.  I know that I should have prepared it earlier, but the last month has been a bit more stressful than usual.  My sister was in the hospital and on life support at one point, rallied and she was then sent to rehab.  She has COPD and Lupus and they believe pneumonia was what put her in the hospital.  I won't go into the details, some of you close to me know the situation was difficult to say the least.  Unfortunately I got a call very early this morning that she passed away at the rehab facility.  The situation is still difficult, but we'll get through it.  I am sad, but she was suffering and I have to believe that she is at peace.

The window in the rehab room she was in had a broken catch on it so it wouldn't close completely.  She was okay with that because it let in a little cool air and she was always hot.  I had called about them fixing that window a few days ago when it was raining, but it was still slightly ajar when we got there this morning to say good-bye.  I couldn't help but hope that her angels, whether pigs or not, lifted her up and helped her escape through that broken window to a place with no more pain or suffering.  A place where my father and my other sister, and her two little babies that she lost would be waiting to welcome her into their arms.  

I will keep on celebrating Flying Pig Day in spite of the memory that I now associate with it.  I gives me a chance to show my support to my "Pig Ladies" and thank them for all the support that they've given me.  We all need that, don't we?

I had a few Friendship plants that I handed out for FPD.  I hope they multiply and are shared over and over again.

Love you guys!