On the Upswing

Where's the time go? WOW!
The time vampires have really made inroads into my house. Some traveling kept me from home, but then catching the mightiest of flu bugs really leveled me for a few days. I'm feeling better, but whatever this is, you DON'T want to get it.
I'll just stay over here.
I'm playing catch-up in so many ways. And holiday decorating? Baking? Greetings? Are you kidding me?!
As they say in the land of my birth, "Fuggedabboudit!" More on that later.
I'll start with some random "stuff," then move along to some holiday inspired artwork.
First up, a random number selected string with an emphasis on water-related tangles:

Fifty Percent Chance of Rain

Next up, a design I doodled en route to Philadelphia. I had a little note pad stashed and this is what I did. I was going to leave it for the next passenger, but I left another instead.

The object was to visit sleeping man's parents as they are 88 and infirm. Better now than later was the mantra. Got to see his sister and his brothers and their wives and adult children. We spent some time revisiting areas of our youth that I've not seen in, ahem, 35 or even more years. Nothing looked familiar; it was very disconcerting.  And EVERYONE looked and sounded like extras from "The Jersey Shore" reality show. 

When did THAT happen?

Then this germ kicked in and I might as well have been on Mars.

A friend suggested taking Oscillococcinum by Boiron to combat this thing and WOW! This stuff is amazing. 

Now that I'm back home for a bit, I feel almost my normally deranged self again, ready to tackle some of those challenges that have piled up, and they all seem holiday related. 

This week's IAST:

And last:

Festive

And if you do the Diva Challenge, too, you're having fun with Arukas. Maybe? I don't know yet if it behaves well with others. This was my first and so far, only, stab at the new tangle.

Last but least of the yuletide artwork, my twinchie for "Santa." 

There's still my Inchie to do from Monday (and I know already that I'm a little left of center on that one, per usual) and a couple Monday Mandalas to do before, well, another Monday comes along! And I want to thank everyone who commented on my Malibu Ken post; I guess I gave a lot of people something to chuckle about!

Tomorrow's forecast says, "Fifty percent chance of rain!" Funny, that!

Malibu Ken

Miss me?
I hope you enjoyed your holiday, if you're in the States celebrating Thanksgiving. If you're elsewhere, and everyone, I hope you are enjoying whatever holidays you wish. Mine included a visit from the paramedics. I am grateful for the persons who had the foresight to dial 911 and for the wonderful folks who attended to my health.
Lucky you, I'm back to my normal and pretty demented self. I say that as I really went on a limb with the Diva's challenge today. The guest post host went all girlie and asked for doll-inspired art and all I could think of was Malibu Ken. While I know where my Barbies are packed, I just did a little research and found some really awesome examples of hideous Ken clothes. And a real-life human Malibu Ken on Twitter.

That was entertaining, wasn't it? I know you looked.

[12.02.14: I really think he's on tumBLr or whatever that is. I'm sure you'll find him if you're really looking...!]

I used the fabrics of those clothes as inspiration and String 008 from tanglepatterns.com.

Mod Cloth

I also finally did LAST week's Diva challenge:

Yuma Grid

The Inchie for the week is Xenon. I learned that it glows blue under certain conditions. Once upon a time I knew Chemistry, but this was new information for me, so I doctored up some plain type:

And for the Twinchie, for Advent, I found this great photograph on Ski Australia:

I love lights, I wish I could keep them up all year. The challenge is that all of mine have been packed away for almost three years and I suspect this will approximate the mess I'll be getting into next week! I did not take the photograph, and cannot claim ownership of it. I just think it's funny. 

Tis the season to celebrate the LIGHT!