Of Petunias and Mice and Things

I have a funny story about a boatload of purple petunias and ex-in-laws. I just never really found it funny.

When they were planning a visit, my ex informed me his mother really loved purple petunias. As we were spiffing up the place, I potted up tons of them to decorate the porch and the patios. She had no idea what they were, was not much impressed by the flowers or the effort and barely spent any time outside enjoying the gardens.

You may really like purple or petunias, but I fall squarely into the camp that finds purple overwhelming and petunias a lot of trouble.

And all that applies to certain people, too.

All of which came to mind when "petunia" popped up for the word at EIM:

This week, it's "Mice."

The word for the week at the 2 x 2 is "jewel." The toughest part of this black-on-black drawing  of a scarab beetle was making it all show up.

I kept the black paper out for the Diva this week, a focus on "Centre Square."

That's fluorescent gel pen with free-form squares.

And finally posting last week's:

That's coffee splotched on there.

I did last week's IAST, too:

The combination of "Fengle" and "Shattuck" naturally lent itself to a starfish and sealife. I was transported to Dunedin, Florida; a glorious trip to the Gulf Coast a few years ago and watching the sunset from the seashell strewn beach.

For this week, it was a hurricane for inspiration. While my relatives were battling what was left of Hermine, we had Newton. And aftershocks from an earthquake. And a fire. Nothing major,  mind you, but it was getting a little too exciting there for a bit.

Speaking of excitement, this was drawn while waiting in the ER with my daughter for test results. It appears she is the epitome of good health except for some stress-related symptoms. We think she'll be better when she stops eating In-and-Out burgers at 2 AM. (Or, as we found ourselves at Denny's afterwards for Grand Slam breakfasts in the wee hours. It was good. But we are tired).

 Lastly, as I had threatened previously, the finished poem to water for that 2 x 2:

There's a joke in our household about arroyos or desert streams. New River is so new they forgot the water! Arroyos are dry river beds until it rains (And then, watch out!). So, I just HAD to add the "just add water" part. Along with glitter, fabric paint and an antique rhinestone. I can't say if it's an improvement or not; I sure used a bunch of different materials.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy what I share with you. Please take a moment to check out the other artists that tackle these challenges and perhaps? Try your hand at drawing, collage, zentangle or whatever intrigues you. Especially the TwobyTwobyTuesday! Next time it's "astronomy."

While you ponder the stars (or next year's total eclipse of the sun here in the States!), I wish you the "just right" amount of excitement and a brilliant day! c

I'm Melting!

It's our rainy season and it hasn't been so much hot as it has been humid. Never did like that much when I lived on the East Coast; I forget how that feels. I look forward to the return of warmer, but drier, weather.

The weather factored into my thinking for the EIM this week. The word is, "sheep." While I've been doing plenty of my version of counting sheep (I count backwards from 100), I couldn't possibly do something so straight forward. I've been doing a lot of internet searches for the upcoming TwobyTwo and I went with a wooly (sheep = wool) blanket pattern called, "storm:"

I drew this with markers from this antique blanket for sale. The central design is called a "whirling log," a sacred symbol for all things good and is no longer used by the Navajo. I think you'll understand why that is so.

Rain also seeped into my Diva piece, a chance to try out a new pattern, Knightstar by Daniel Lamothe.

I can almost hear the corks popping for the celebration at the IAST, Adele's third anniversary:

Every day is a celebration; bring on the Champagne!
Be sure to see what all the other creatives are dishing up and if the spirit moves you, try out the TwobyTwo--two-inch art (you have plenty of time)!
Have a brilliant day!

Putting My Heart into It

I was kind of ahead of myself, again, last week while I was speaking of "rain" before the EIM this week. The week before last we had rain and have had none since. This is our rainy season; we should be getting rain.

Instead, this is what we're getting:

We're not even getting virga, also known as phantom rain--it doesn't even touch the ground!

I'm not so secretly praying for rain as we're tinder dry and forest fires are a reality. So far, so good.

Other than that, this is what I have to give to you, my world, this week:

It's a collage specifically for the Two by Two. And a personal statement and challenge to do what I must.
What is YOUR "must?"
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!

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!

Water, Water Everywhere

Last weeks Diva Challenge was to do some Zen tangling with water. I have a few VERY different renditions that I drew last week and each has a very different view of water. This is my most challenging piece as I had been knee deep in water the better part of Tuesday. I pulled out a coffee-stained watercolor paper from a different challenge a few weeks ago as that's what color the water was all around my house. I didn't post this or any of the others to the challenge as I was kind of pre-occupied.

 

This drawing is fairly representational of the chaos we were experiencing and my general state of mind. That the coffee stains were a mess to begin with just adds to the tension here. I'm not too happy that the weather wonks have been forecasting more rain today, thunderstorms and more flooding. So far, that hasn't happened, but the day ain't over yet!

Yikes, Stripes!

The Diva Challenge (#182) for the week was to incorporate Stripes into the art. I had already wanted to tackle the It's a String Thing's Challenge that utilized a diagonal line pattern from Linda Farmer (#51, pattern 051) and only tangle patterns starting with "fa-."
But first things first.
I'm amused that everyone is talking about "back to school," soon when the students of the Big City started July 30. I know it's an anomoly, but the lucky students had three weeks in when our little hamlet got thrashed with flooding. Four inches of rain in fewer hours for the second time in a week. The local elementary school was turned into a Red Cross emergency evacuation facility last Tuesday, which was the basis for my first set of stripes. I was lucky that I didn't have to take them up on their services.

I think my neighbors thought I was some uppity yuppy who would be a total wuss under pressure, so I named that one, "Earning Stripes." I had to prove my street cred and boy! There's the stripes, the rain and lightning, the freeway, the waves of water and turbulence from the flooding. And a heart, as I live in the "heart" of Arizona.
The other is my answer, quite belatedly, to the other challenge. There is Fandango by Vicky Bassett and Fassett by Lynn Mead, Fantails by Neil Burley and Facets by Nancy Pinke plus Fafolia with unknown origin. I found that and some other interesting patterns at mentalfluff.com. I'll be humming the Talking Heads all day: "Fafafafafafa..."
Thanks to all those tangly people that helped keep me focused today. Check out the various websites to see what others have done with the tasks at hand.

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.