Persevering

I don't know if it's the heat or what-have-you, but I'm just muddling through some of these weekly challenges. Or am I making things more complicated than they need to be?
Oh, that could NEVER be it!
HA!
Last week's IAST was to work up Fengle as a string then work it. A couple sleepless nights and boy did I make some messes there. This is what I actually confessed to making:

Fengle

For the Birds

From there I tried the media treatment at the Diva. Let's just say that whatever that is didn't work for me, with a LOT of paper hitting the recycle bin. I have plenty of markers and they just didn't blend like that. I thought of taking my trusty Sharpie and using rubbing alcohol on it. Then I thought differently.
Zentangle is supposed to be meditative and relaxing. I didn't want to get caught up in the materials so much as the method. And while this shows none of the point of this week's challenge, the result was less stress and more Zen:

Then it was a last minute attack on my very own TwobyTwo. This week the word is "diamond." At first it was all about the sparkle, then I considered the geometric shape. Oh, there's trouble just waiting to happen there!
In real life, one of the things I do is print giclees, or more technically correct, archival inkjet canvas prints. While producing the latest project for a client, I ended up with a lot of sample pieces. So I cut one section up into diamond shapes, after spending hours figuring out the angles and tried to glue it all back together.
Uh huh, not happening.
It all curled up. It'll be pretty once I straighten it all out. Maybe.

So I tried to "just do it" on paper. An attempt at "Tumbling Blocks."

Yeah, well....
Then I tried another cut and paste and the resulting fridge magnet will do.

At EIM, the word is "radio." When I moved to Phoenix, 95.5 was a smooooooth jazz station. It's now a "whatever we want" station on IHeart radio. I give you, "The Mountain."

I actually did one Zentangle JFF:

And I'll leave you with a revisit to Diva 268, to use more black than "usual."
Be sure to check out the various blogs, there is plenty of inspiration to be found out there. Pay particular attention to the "Beads of Courage;" there's a lot of good going on!

(If you're looking for me, I'll be out in the yard. I sent 100 grapefruits to the local food bank yesterday and I need to do it again!)

P.S. This is what 100 grapefruits look like:

The Second 100