Proof Positive

I just finished reading a book by Dana White titled, "How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind." It's a hilarious take on real-world cleaning strategies. (Spoiler alert: Do the dishes).
I'm sure you're thinking why would anyone as organized as I need to read about home management?
HA!
In reality I'm just a crazy old cat lady hoarder-in-training. I mean, I don't even have one cat yet! I'm not so old! But if there were need of any proof that I have the hoarder thing going on, here is my entry to the Every Inchie Monday this week:

This is a clipping of a child's sweater from the Fall 1999 issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting magazine. I'm not sure why I still have the periodical, my knitting skills are not very, well, skillful. One of these days I'll actually knit a sweater. Maybe. It won't be that one.

For the Diva challenge this week:

The objective, to use Hamadox in a sentence (Ah ha!). Here, I put a few tried and true tangles to work. I'm really enjoying drawing with Prismacolor colored pencils and I'm trying to keep notes of which colors I'm using for future reference. (Yeah, like keeping a knitting magazine that is soooo last century. But, you have to admit, it came in handy this week!).

My last entry is for the TwobyTwo, where the word is "news." I like reading and am grateful that I can access whatever it is I need to know on the Internet. Otherwise, the papers might pile up ad infinitum. It could get out of hand.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a brilliant day.
I have to go do the dishes now.

From Here to Eternity

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to move along from all the hearts, even if it's to shamrocks, chickens and bunnies that are poking up on the calendar. It's not that I'm a real curmudgeon, just we're both under the weather (what a silly concept, since it's sunny and 80s--absolutely glorious!) and it took a lot of effort to be all lovey-dovey.

Three Heart  Bijoux for
IAST 131

I met the love of my life 12 years ago Monday and it has been such a thrill! And while we were all so peachy over the weekend, we ventured out to spread our germs, er, ah, go shopping for meaningful exhibits of our love. Cards and flowers were bestowed upon me as were white chocolate-covered long-stemmed strawberries he made. Awww!

The man bears striking resemblance to "The Most Interesting Man in the World," has a resume to match the fictitious biography and when he drinks beer, he prefers Dos Equis. Dark.

Jonathon Goldsmith aka
The World's Second Most Interesting Man

Which is the perfect segue to the EIM theme for the week: Beer.

Beer

What we have here is Emilio Estevez in the grocery store pouting a beer on the floor from the movie "Repo Man," my modest attempt at recreating the logo from a Billy Beer can, a line drawing of a frosty mug of beer and a small portion of the lids from Dos Equis, which can be measured in pounds, that we just can't seem to part with. For the record, I stick to wine!

In between putting these images together, I knitted a swatch that I wanted to make for "sweater," the TwobyTwo challenge from last week. I just kind of eye-balled it and was surprised to find out that it indeed was a two-inch square! That's the most success I've had knitting a sweater ever!

That's what I have so far this week. I'll be back to doodling before the week is out, I'm sure. Thank you for stopping by.

Update 02.18.16: The link to this week's Zentangles is here.

All Hearts and Flowers

If you know me, you know I'm not quite the girlie-girl kind of woman. Sure, I like my share of bling and baubles, glitter and glitz. I just much prefer jeans to dressy dresses and stuff.

So it shocked more than a few people when I broke out a LBD complete with high heels and hosiery to wear to a concert with Gilbert, Jesse Cook at the Del Webb Center in Wickenburg Saturday night. I also had some jeweler friends, Linda Bortone and elizabeth Hake (little "e"),  make sure I was properly accessorized. [NB: You can meet them at the Celebration of Fine Art through March 27].
I guess I can clean up good, as one friend put so eloquently. And it was an important event as the music is the soundtrack for our love affair, this our valentine to each other.
We're also quite amused that a Canadian born in Paris plays Spanish flamenco, right, eh?
And if you think it's boring, try this out. (yes, you can hear the pots and pans--they really do play with them!)

It should be no surprise, then, that I wear Birkies for slippers. Most of the year it's pretty warm here (Finally, it's going to be 80 today! Woohoo!), so fuzzy slippers don't quite do it for me. Although I keep trying to make a pair just because I've kept the instructions for forever.

Birkenstocks in "Titanium"
Wearing them right this minute!

That's French for
Slippers

So that takes care of the inchie challenge for the day, though I really thought I'd try to draw Cinderella's slippers as I felt like a princess on Saturday night. Then there's our household joke, "someday my prints will come." See, we're photographers in real life. Prince, prints...get it?

Yeah. Right.
That mutilation of the English language (and I guess the fuzzy slippers) segues to "sweater," the twinchie this week.
Composed of elements for clothing in a crochet magazine (with apologies to Huey Lewis):

Square

A little bit off of center, yes? No real surprise, if you know me!
I also like my Zentangle on the non-representational side (that's the idea, right?) rather than all the hearts that are popping up this week.
Not that there's anything wrong with that! (With apologies to Seinfeld).
So, for the Diva's heart-focused challenge this week, you'll find a heart as string buried underneath all the patterns.
Somewhere. Really.

Heart in Flowers
Nymph, Cadent, Bales, Lanie, Flux, Tipple

I finally posted a bunch of stuff on my Flickr feed. I should keep up with that more; you'd have the perfect excuse to burn some time and to see more of just about everything!
And, yes, I can do hearts! Have a whole week full of love, heart and emotion! Do the tangle tango! Or a rousing rumba!