Tangle challenges

Today is the last day of school holidays. Even though I've been teaching for over 10 years, I'm still nervous the day before term starts. I'm ready for the term, I'm looking forward to working with the kids, I like my new school, I have some fun technology to play with, but I'm still nervous.

There's always that little voice of doubt that asks: have you prepared enough? Do you really know what you are doing?

These holidays have been very different. Started off with a technology conference for a couple of days, then a few days of cleaning out the garage and doing a lot of gardening and tidying up. A few days on my own bushwalking, horse riding and driving, a few days sick with hives (ended up in Emergency one night, the itch was so bad), a few days doing school work, more gardening and a few visits to the gym in amongst it all. 

Diva #313 - Earth Day

I started this tile last night, before the Diva released her challenge. I think it fits. It was one of those times where I started with a vague idea and then kept adding to the tile, very much in the Zen moment of it all.

It's on A4 card, with metallic gel blue pen, some Zen Gems (where have they gone this year?),  lots of Poke Root and Flux.

Made by Joey

We are up to the letter Q. For this challenge I used Q-Belle, with Quare and Queen's Crown. I tried to add gold-ish coloured pencils for some colour but that didn't work out so well.

Looking forward to finishing the alphabet challenges so I can get out of the diary that I've been using. The paper is soft and hard to work with. But I set myself a goal of completing them all in this diary so complete them  I will.

Exercise

I've been a regular at my local gym for the past months. Recently I started working with a personal trainer, Nick. While my weight is stable and not going down, my strength and fitness have been increasing to an extent I didn't think possible.

Here is my favourite piece of gym equipment. It's a sled.

What you do is push the sled from one end of the grass carpet to the other. One direction you push using the vertical poles, which is the easiest way. Then on the return you push using the low horizontal bars. It works your legs and butt very hard, as well as all those upper body muscles you didn't know you had.

I started out barely being able to push 20kg. Now I'm up to 50kg. Nick has dared me to push him. I reckon I could do that in a month or two, or maybe three.  Seeing progress makes me try even harder. Loving it.

Have a great week and thanks for dropping by. Your support and encouragement does make a difference.

Miss L

Zentangle challenges

Hi all. Thanks for all the positive feedback I've been getting lately. I truly appreciate the comments, feedback and support.

At the moment I'm sick with the worst case of hives I've ever experienced. I'm doped to the eyeballs on antihistamines, steroids and tiredness. 

Diva challenge #312 - coffee, tea or me

This week's challenge was to use a stain or spill as a string. The spills in both tiles are mist sprays applied to water spills.

First tile is Crazy Huggins, Frunky and Bubbles. Tip for creating Crazy Huggins - complete each Hug before drawing the dots for the next Hug. This helped me ensure each Hug went the right way and that I had the right amount and placement of the dots.

Second tile is a tangellation of Zenith, with Printemps and Florz.

Made by Joey

This week's letter was P. Very hard to choose with P tangles - Printemps, Paradox, Pixioze, Ponio, Poke Leaf or Poke Root?

I kept it simple with the featured Pea-Fea (new to me), Prestwood (which I found on Ilse's tile and is new to me), plus Pixioze and Printemps.

Other drawing

I was very productive over the Easter. We filled a massive skip with rubbish and I completed several Opus tiles. The first tile is a combination of Dingbatz (you need the Zentangle Mosaic to see the video for these) and some striped flowers that Michele Beauchamp has been using in her work lately.

Travelling Solo

I've been away for most of the last week travelling on my own. I stayed in a little town called Jindabyne which is the gateway town to the Snowy Mountains. 

Snow gums and storm clouds, Charlotte's Pass

Riding my new friend, Boofhead the horse.

Autumn colour, Thredbo River.

Have a good week.

Miss L

This week's tangling

This week I've been trawling the net and have found a tangle library that I've not come across before. The site is  http://pattern-collections.com/. Only a couple of days later Joey sent us to this website for a pattern.

This lead me to wondering what tangle library/collection sites people use. The only one I use is http://tanglepatterns.com/  but I have stumbled across others. The tangles on tanglepatterns.com seem closer to Rick and Maria's definition of a tangle than the tangles I've found on these other sites. The next question is does it matter so long as you are not selling your work and using the Zentangle name?

Your thoughts and experiences?

Diva #311 - circle square string theory

I could have played with this theme for ages. Here's my first tile, using Pepper, Dex and Box Spirals.

My next includes Bales, Tipple, Ponio, Dex and Florz, with a little gel pen which hasn't come out in the photo.

Made by Joey

My Made by Joey tile is about the letter O and uses O2, Onion Drops and Omen. The colour comes from 3 different Mist sprays (orange, fairy floss and yellow). I found the base line for Onion Drops was much harder to draw than it looked on the step-out. Time for some practice I think.

Other drawing

Here's an Opus tile that I worked on over a couple of days recently. Tangles used include Enchanted (which I found on pattern-collections.com), Squill, Golven, Tripoli, Rixty, Mooka, Marasu, and a tangellation of Zander. The latter Tanglation is one that Michele Beauchamp CZT uses quite a bit and which she taught me a couple of years ago. The colours are Denim and Green Mist Spray.

Other stuff

I've working with a personal trainer at my local gym. He pushes me hard in a good way. As a result of that I'm getting noticeably stronger and fitter. Pity the cancer fatigue still kicks in. C/F just pays a visit whenever it thinks I'm forgetting that I am and always will be a cancer survivor. Time past diagnosis doesn't change that fact.

This week I attended a two day Google Apps for Education conference. It was brilliant and I came away with so many ideas. Need to take some time to play with some of the Apps I learnt about to see how I can use them with my students. Would never have thought my technology skills would get to this level.

This weekend is Easter so I have The Husband home and not at work for 4 days.  Waiting for us out the front of the house is a large skip/hopper. We will fill it with junk from the garage, the yard and inside the house.  Looking forward to a massive de-clutter.

Have a great week and thanks for dropping by.

Miss L

Tangling

After a month or so of losing my Zentangle mojo I'm now in a better place for drawing. I'm trying to just go with the flow a bit more - draw what I want, when I want or not draw if I don't want. That means going back to the original tangles from the Mother Ship while still playing around with some of the new tangles that appear on challenges.

In this week's Zentangle Apprentice class I'm showing the students Paradox and Mooka. I remember learning Mooka from Shelly Beauchamp CZT. I couldn't get this one on my own and needed a teacher to guide me. Now it feels so natural for my pen to flow into those shapes. And with Paradox, I'm still amazed at the wonderful patterns that emerge from such a simple technique.

Other happenings in the world of Miss L

• still waiting for our bathroom renovations to start
• feeling the results of having a personal trainer. Nick pushes me hard which spurs me onto to push myself even harder. I loved feeling smashed at the end of a circuit session. 
• Autumn has arrived. Cold nights and cool days already. 
• School holidays are nearly here, which means I've been at my new school for one term. Very happy at my new place - the students, the staff, even the built environment are all good.

Diva Challenge - #310 - Frunky

This is a new tangle for me. I had fun playing around with it this morning. I suspect this one will creep into my work without deliberate thought as it combines elements of other tangles I already use.

My first tile is my disaster tile which I didn't finish. The tile got too crowded, my take-offs and landings were bad and my pen was running out and becoming scratchy.

Here's a revised version. Simpler, cleaner and with a new pen.

Couldn't resist doing another tile.

Made by Joey

Tangles include Natti, Narwal and 'Nzeppel. It's been a while since I last tried to draw Narwal. I'm happy with what I drew today. It's worth revisiting tangles from the past because, with increased experience and skill, you might be better at drawing them now. 

Other drawing

Thanks for leaving comments and for dropping by.

Miss L