TGIF

I rarely sit to blog on a Friday. I'm usually doing a lot of running around in advance of the weekend, which I try not to do as the freeway is almost always tied up because someone was in a hurry to meet their maker.
But it always seems like I'm doing something when I should just be home.
I'm doing a fair job of keeping up with the zinchie project, making a couple almost every day. My next part of the project will be to get them all in one permanent place--like framing them up or some such thing.

Broke out the black Strathmore and the white Y-K pen today! That was special!

I'm having a fun time reading the blogs and comments that explain how some of these patterns came about. (Gord?! Really?!) Most of them have been catalogued at tanglepatterns.com, where blog-owner Linda Farmer has a collection of wine-themed patterns all her own. (She also has a conversation about how to organize patterns and I really need to do something!)

Gotta get back to what I should be doing. The weekend is fast approaching!

Trying to Relax

After the week I had last, I need some major decompression. I'm continuing my pursuit of zinchies and have done a couple extra already this week. Focusing on an inch at a time is a very mindful and relaxing method to regain my composure. It helps considering I'm looking at the wall where there used to be cabinets and currently are none. It's slow going. Sigh.

LG is, of course, to help honor St. Valentine's Day. (Adele Bruno's story about her pattern is very sweet. When I think LG, I think washer and dryer. Ms. Bruno thinks of her husband). I like hearts and flowers, but right now discussions on flooring and paint samples, floor plans and the like are as romantical as it gets (with a nod to Popeye and Olive Oyl). Oh, baby, baby!
BTW, if you tuned in last time, I was looking for a star pattern and I found "Bales" fits the bill, in an inside-out kind of way.

Mass De-struction

This week was a helluva ride. It started out peaceful enough--the big agenda item was something innocuous like a haircut. I was breaking in a fairly new stylist--Monty at Carefree Salon. (He's also waitstaff at the Chili's in Tramonto). I was quite pleased by the result and in a peaceful frame of mind.
In short order thereafter, my son landed in the hospital (dehydration. I cannot stress enough: fluids, people! Fluids!) and my car was in serious need of tires, struts and a new battery. Veni, Vidi, VISA!
That kept me busy a good part of last week, with a little daughter drama thrown in for good measure.
In between all that is the kitchen reno. When Sleeping Man gets motoring it's go-go-go! We picked up the cabinetry from our friends at Home Depot, which are now cluttering our patio (the cabinets, not the friends!). They need to be finished, so that's a project for another day. Yesterday, the 42-year old stuff came out, but not without a fight. And, more importantly, where to put the stuff that was cramming a running ten-feet of cabinets?
But still, I kept up my little zinchies!

I'm cutting out little squares from whatevers (and drawing with my trusty Sharpie). Last week it was a soda carton, this week mostly from a waffle box. I don't want to deal with the freak-out factor if I don't have the "right" paper or materials. The Alligator was from a beautiful solicitation from Discover Financial, very fancy. The Chambord label has a star pattern that reminds me of Cathedral Window quilting (and a project I've been planning for, well, as long as my kids have been on the planet...). Which brings me to:

The Inchie word of the week is "Night." I really like Van Gogh's "Starry Night," and wanted to do my take on that, but patience is not on the platter this morning. I did some Googling and found a tutorial on creating this star pattern with vectors. I understand vectors, but for the life of me cannot work with them. And this tutorial just made my head hurt.
Thus, my contribution to this week's Every Inchie Monday is this star pattern. I'm sure there's someone out there that has de-constructed this for the Zentangle method, but I wasn't finding it. If you know of it, please let me know. Meanwhile, head over to EIM for the Night inchies! That's where I'm headed for a good dose of creativity from the brilliant minds that like to do teenie little artworks.

Groundhog Day

I know for some people that Groundhog Day is bittersweet. Finding out there's plenty of winter left can only lead to trouble. It's a big reason I moved to Arizona (and come to find out, it's a dry cold and can be downright frosty!).
For me, it was my Pop-pops birthday and he loved me so, as only grandfathers can. So, HB, Pops! (I think he'd be 111, but he's been gone a long time).
I went straight to the Diva first thing this morning after coffee. I didn't know what I was going to do with the tangle, "Athitzi," by Eleanor Holt, but I went to her blog and there were a lot of spirals, so I went with that. It fit perfectly into my new plan to draw out as many tangle patterns as I can on inchies.
I don't know, but if you're like me you can't keep these things straight. There are so many patterns to choose from! I'm starting to create a collection of tangles so, perhaps, I can see at a glance something I'd like to work with. Or, just get the brain going...you know what I mean?
The plan is to just do one-a-day. That can't be so hard, can it? Here's my first bunch:

I spent a good part of the weekend planning out our very first home remodeling project. Our house is a vintage 1970's mobile home and needs some serious updating. What it really needs are places to put stuff and the first place that we're tackling is the dining area, which will eventually be more kitchen than dining. After many visits to the Home Depot and Lowe's, I kind of drew out the plan for this section on a note pad, inchie-sized. Thus, this is my contribution to this week's Inchie Challenge. (Check them out, there's some great talent! Join the fun!):

I still haven't done last week's inchie, but I'm almost caught up for January. Meanwhile, one inchie a day!