Bingo!

Dedicated to Freebird

If you've been around these parts and you follow links to other challenges, you will find Freebird and her beads. But, perhaps, this week, she may be silent as she lost her mother AND her brother in the space of eight days. 

I was thinking of her the other day while I was making spaghetti sauce. She posted a couple weeks ago that she tried a recipe from that weird wide web called the Internet and found it to be just dreadful. Using her creative brain she was able to save that day's dinner by adding some salsa!

I'm posting my recipe. I never make it exactly the same way, but it seems to get to the same result every time, for me anyway. (NB: there's a reason why I'm not a baker. I mostly wing it in the kitchen with whatever floats my boat that day or whatever I have in the fridge to work with). 

My prayers are with you, Free! And if I could drop in, I'd bring a big tray of lasagna. Food is love and the recipe will just have to do. For now. Just follow this link!

Onto other things.

For the TwobyTwo, for "tangled," I went with a spider and it's web in Loteria fashion. Loteria is, essentially, Mexican "Bingo!"

Loteria card #33 is of La Arana, the spider. Collage with dictionary definition page of "web."

I guess it could also factor in one of the recent Diva Challenges as she's had spider webs on the brain as well. And I think it is kind of fitting for today, Dia de los Muertos. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a brilliant day!

She's a Maniac!

Over at EIM the theme this week is "Nymph." Unlike many weeks this past year, I was not at a complete loss as to what to do. However, I learned that there is a tangle called, "Nymph," by Melinda Barlow that I'd not seen before (or was blissfully unawares).
If you have been here before, you may recognize my discontent with patterns featuring triangles.
UGH.
But, I will NOT be defeated!
And as my procrastinator self loves a good distraction; I dove right in!

Nymph Bijoux

Nymphie Twinchies and Zinchies, oh my!
on Waffle box paperboard

Then I pulled out a box of Staedtler Karat Aquarelle, which up to now I had not opened. 

Little did I know what I've been missing!

Nymph
Mixed-Media Fridge Magnets
Aquarelle, Sharpie, Perle Cotton and Sequins

Whew! I even made a French knot with some antique Perle cotton from my Nanna's stash. I could hardly contain myself. That's when I started singing the disco song from "Flashdance," which started out more from the Nymph side of things than the mania. 

Think about it. Uh huh.

But I digress. This is a (mostly) family-oriented venue, after all.

Where were we? Oh, yeah....

I wanted to see what these Nymphs could do in a more traditional setting, so this came about:

Nymph
Before Shading

Nymph
After Shading

Which do you prefer?

Along the way I saw samples of this week's Diva Challenge focusing on simplicity, or at least giving tangles some space to breathe. I enjoy Laura's challenges, but I had not done one in a bit.

So you get this:

Simple Flower
Free!

Totally unadorned, I want you to have this to do with it as you like. If you do decide to use this, please do me two favors: 1) credit me for drawing this simple pattern in the first place and 2) show me what you did with it by link or attachment to:

1xeritas@gmail.com

I'd love to see what, if anything, happens with it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a brilliant day! 

Secretly Praying for Rain

I haven't been sitting still much this past week. My son has his one-week vacation and wants to do "stuff." The beauty of self-employment is that I can make time for "stuff." Our original plan kind of got way-layed, so we slipped into Plan "B."
I won't do that again!
When he was learning to drive, I had sonny boy drive up Schnebly Hill, a nice off-road experience, with some pretty views of Sedona as a reward. It was a lesson in caution, patience and attention for a brand new driver.
This time it was a lesson for this driver. That road is mess, the worst I've ever driven. My car performed admirably, but I won't punish it again.

The Red Badge of Courage

The Reward
Affectionately known as
The Cowpies

I'm not done with that story, but I need to move along. Sonny boy is hungry, wants to "do" lunch and that requires thought, perseverance and a big wallet. There's a lot of him to fill.

But before I go, I'm posting my responses that fit the TwobyTwo and the Diva Challenges. The first is "Rain," and the second is to "go Organic." Here's what I came up with:

The top two are just doodling. I was working on this umbrella idea for "Rain," which I was kind of successful with. The bottom left represents umbrellas, looking at them from above. I used Spectrum Noir markers, but could not find a nice yellow to finish the third one. Hmm. The bottom right represents my Diva response, gel pen over watercolor. I was thinking about how raindrops ripple on the water surface in our pool. I guess it worked out okay. 

I need to loosen up and experiment more, but I have to allow my adult self a chance to play more with my toys. It's a slow process, but I'm gaining on it.

For now, it's lunch time!

Bonjour, Bijou!

C'est fantastique, n'est pas?

While i've been working on some fridge magnets to decorate a relatively new fridge (it replaced a 41-year old harvest gold charmer that came with the house. Know anything that has lasted 41 years? And still WORKS?) and was thinking, wouldn't it be great to do a bunch of Zentangles about two-inches square? The black fridge is just demanding to be decorated!
Of course, somebody had already figured that out, that "somebody" being those tangly people at Zentangle [NB: I had nothing to do with it.]

So, this week's challenge from the Diva was to break out the Bijoux, work on those "twinchies."

While I was at it, I worked on another challenge I found along the way (another idea I got scooped on!), to use my name as a string, but went with my "art signature" as it's kind of loopy (like me!), and some other ideas that my brain's been playing with.

I also finished a project I started on yesterday and finished in Photoshop (gotta keep the digital muscles flexed, too!). I'ts not perfect, but supposedly no mistakes, right? I had onions on the brain as my daughter was visiting and one of her favorite meals starts with caramelized onions, goat cheese and bread. Today I'm putting onion sets in next to my roses (I read they make roses smell sweeter, crazy, huh?) and tomatoes (to keep pests away). And dinner? French onion soup! Tres magnifique!

Check out the how-to for "Allium" by JJ LaBarbera here.

With gracious thanks to all you tangly people for inspiration and encouragement. And for also checking out My Flickr Page. Merci beaucoup.