Diva #278 - UMT KLnightstar

This week's Diva challenge is to use Knightstar, which is a tangle by Daniel Lamothe.

I highly recommend reading Daniel's blog. He is young - late teens? - and the youngest CZT. His blog posts are funny, insightful and full of his unique take on life and art. And his art is incredible.

http://thetanglecorner.blogspot.com.au/

My first tile started life this morning as I was doodling before a meeting. I'd arrived early (did not know what to expect from the traffic) so filled in time by experimenting with this week's challenge.

Here's my doodle and my finished tile. The finished tile includes tangellations of squill, ellish and knightstar. Not sure I like it much but I did like the process.

Since I wasn't too happy with my first tile, I had another go. This one owes a little inspiration to CharKat and the way she shaded knightstar. I added something extra to the white spaces - a product called Glossy Accents.  But, of course, the gloss didn't come out in the photo. 

Other drawing

I haven't been Tangling much this last week due to life, the universe and everything. I did, however, complete a tile on Monday, which I posted on the Zentangle Mosaic. 

Bertie

A huge, huge, huge event in my life recently has been the purchase of a car. This is my first new car, just for me, that I chose, that I could have customised if I'd wished.

My car is a Mini Cooper S. That means almost nothing to me other than it is a Mini and that it's a sports model which means the driving should be fun. And it is very, very fun to drive.

Why Bertie? Apparently it is customary for Mini Cooper owners to name their cars. I named mine Jeremy for a few days, which is a reference to a British TV show called Top Gear. However, the name didn't suit. So now it is called Bertie.

Here's a piccy. The angle is bad because I didn't want to post a photo of my number plate.

Health, fitness, weight loss

I haven't posted about this topic for a while. I guess it's because my fitness program has become such a normal, almost everyday part of life. It's common for me to go to the gym up to 5 times a week and spend an hour or so working out. If I miss the gym then I walk our dog, Milo.

Results in terms of weight loss have been gradual, if not a bit slow. Have to work harder on cutting down sugar and refined carbs. 

Results in terms of losing size has been noticeable. Clothes are looser and the body is toned.

Results in terms of strength have been amazing. Today, for instance, I did 10 x 5 sets of full push ups and 3 sets of 30 stomach crunches. Did the same yesterday as well. Feeling quite proud of myself.

The other activity I've taken up is meditation. I've been using an App called Headspace. So far I've meditated for 10 minutes a day for 22 days straight. Looking at the time now, I'd been finish this so I can get a session in before bed. 

Thanks

Thanks for dropping by. Thanks especially to people who add comments. Love to read them and then visit your blogs. Page views for my blog are now well over 10,000 and it's not quite 1 year old.

Have a great week

Miss L

Diva #276 - moving tangles

This week's Diva challenge is to tangle while moving. I don't have a tile like that or an opportunity to create one - I have only a 10 minute car ride to work and I'm the driver. However, I do have a page of my Zentangle Primer Journal that I worked on at an airport. 

I started the page at Melbourne Airport on my way to Tasmania to draw with Shelly Beauch, I addded to it during the week, and then did some more while waiting at Melbourne Airport for my delayed return flight to Canberra. 


Here's the tile and my selfie, primer opened and pen in hand.

You might notice the pressure garment on my left hand. It extends all the way up my arm, is a relic of having cancer and is something I have to wear every time I fly. It prevents me getting lymphedema. 

Zentangle Primer and Journal

I've had some pretty nice comments about my use of the ZT Primer journal - both on this blog and on the ZT mosaic app. Remember that there are no mistakes in Zentangle. Don't let the loveliness of the journal stop you from using it and making it your own. The journal is meant to DRAW IN. 

Here's one of my recent drawings, based on the image on page 46 of the Primer. My favourite tangle in this is Shattuck - I've learnt how to vary the weight of my pen lines in it, which is something I've not been confident to do before. 

Tasmania trip

Readers of this blog would know that I love to travel, and I'm enjoying travelling solo sometimes. My recent trip was to Tasmania. 


Here's some photos. Photos were mostly taken in the Bay of Fires region in the NE Tasmania.

Have a great week. 

Miss L

Diva #275 - Give peace a chance

Winter weather update

We have snow. We don't get snow in Canberra very often and when we do it quickly melts. It also creates lots of excitement.

My daughter Moo leaves for work before 6am so she's been keeping her car in the garage to avoid having to de-ice. This morning she would have had to de-snow.

Here's my car outside at 6am this morning.

Here's our backyard at 9am.

Miss L

Diva #275

This week's Diva challenge asks us to reflect on the recent events in the USA. Black lives matter.

I chose to use organic tangles around a peace sign. Tangles used were Verdigogh, Tamisolo and Iza.

Drawing with Shelly Beauch

Last week I travelled to Tasmania (over 700kms away) to spend a couple of days improving my drawing skills with the delightful and generous Shelly Beauch.

We spend most of the second day working on an Opus tile sampler, where Shelly showed me new tangles and helped me draw some older ones. Here's my Opus tile.

I did lots of other drawing last week, some of which you can find on the Zentangle Mosaic App.

Zen Gems

Zen Gems are something I've seen lots of and tried but without success. Some in person tuition has changed that. Here's a collection of Zen Gems that I created yesterday, complete with plenty of tangling to enhance them and to link each 'tile'. 

Zentangle Primer

My Zentangle Primer and workbook arrived just before I travelled to Tasmania. The book is packed with inspiration and ways to develop and extend your Tangling skills. I spent hours with it, particularly in airports waiting for delayed flights. 

Here's my name plate.

Have a great week.

Miss L

Diva #275 - Give peace a chance

This week's Diva challenge asks us to reflect on the recent events in the USA. Black lives matter.

I chose to use organic tangles around a peace sign. Tangles used were Verdigogh, Tamisolo and Iza.

Drawing with Shelly Beauch

Last week I travelled to Tasmania (over 700kms away) to spend a couple of days improving my drawing skills with the delightful and generous Shelly Beauch.

We spend most of the second day working on an Opus tile sampler, where Shelly showed me new tangles and helped me draw some older ones. Here's my Opus tile.

I did lots of other drawing last week, some of which you can find on the Zentangle Mosaic App.

Zen Gems

Zen Gems are something I've seen lots of and tried but without success. Some in person tuition has changed that. Here's a collection of Zen Gems that I created yesterday, complete with plenty of tangling to enhance them and to link each 'tile'. 

Zentangle Primer

My Zentangle Primer and workbook arrived just before I travelled to Tasmania. The book is packed with inspiration and ways to develop and extend your Tangling skills. I spent hours with it, particularly in airports waiting for delayed flights. 

Here's my name plate.

Have a great week.

Miss L

Diva #261 - stacked tile challenge

Not well - again

I spent today at home drawing. My normal Tuesday involves being at school teaching but I've been unwell again. Same problem as a few weeks ago - asthma - but bad enough to require antibiotics to clear up the chest infection which has now arrived. Blah!

I hate, hate, hate being sick. My mind often goes to the worst case - has the cancer returned as a secondary? I'm 9 years and counting post diagnosis of breast cancer. The fear of recurrence hasn't left me yet.  

I'd be interested to hear if the fear does go away.

Diva challenge #261

It was a relief for this week's Diva challenge to be so absorbing and time consuming. How great is it to be unwell and to have this marvellous activity to keep you going?  One day I hope to train as a CZT and then take this art form to sick kids in hospital. I may have blogged about that before but if I say it aloud often enough it may come true.

My first stack includes Official Zentangle Tangles, Tangles from Tanglepatterns.com, a lovely Tangle called Mel Mel from Adele Bruno and at least one from my new eBook from Sandy Bartholemew. I used all sorts of different pens as well as my Zen stone. My Zen Stone doesn't get used much because I'm hopeless at using Renaissance and Black tiles which are what Zen Stones are intended for. 

My second tile draws inspiration from Jennifer Sparrow's piece. Jennifer is first on the list for this week's challenge. From Jennifer I got the idea to use bright colours and that I don't need to place all the tiles evenly on top of each other. 

The Tangles are all commonly used ones. This is, however, the first time in a long, long time that I've used Paradox and the first time that I've used it as a border. I used squares as the base rather than triangles, alternating clockwise and anticlockwise.

The whole tile is meant to represent a colour swatch, being held together with a brass ring.

Zentangle Mosaic App and my continuing exploration of Mooka

A couple of weeks ago I decided to get confident drawing Mooka. I showed a few of my Tiles in my blog. Thanks for the positive feedback.

I continued to explore Mooka over the weekend but this time I took inspiration from the many Mooka examples on the Zentangle Mosaic app. It was interesting to view the many styles of Mooka that artists have developed. 

I can see a difference in my drawing. The bulbous bits at the end form more naturally now and without me having to think so hard to shape them. Maybe my natural Mooka has arrived?

Here are some tiles from the weekend. You can see I've also been trying out Zen Gems (again). One day I will master them.

If you drop by for a visit, leave a comment and say hello.

Miss L