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.

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!

Look to the Horizon

We're in the midst of full-on fall here in Arizona and the leaves are indeed a-changing. Nothing quite so lovely as Vermont sugar maples here on the homestead (but I can get my fix by running up to the West Fork of Oak Creek in Sedona anytime I get myself moving...). The mulberry trees that provide deep shade in high summer are dropping a tremendous amount of yellow leaves that turn brown before they hit the ground.

So when the Diva asked all the tangly people to use leaves for inspiration, I steered clear of the front of the house (and the thoughts of having to do all that raking!) and slipped out the back door to the citrus trees, which are evergreen. I used some leaves to create a stencil for some Eric Carle tissue paper and drew the veins in with my trusted Sharpie. The circles are meant to mimic the concrete walkway between the trees...and perhaps I'll color in the pebbles sometime soon.

That was just plain fun!

Then I used the same papers for the EIM. The word is "horizon." From our house, we don't see where the land meets the sky quite as we're surrounded on the east and west by 7000 foot mountains (that's over 2100 meters and we're at only about 2000 ft/610 m). Our view looks similar to the inchie on the left I made with tissue and the magazine cut-out on the right. The little artwork in the middle is meant to look like the ocean when the fog rolls in and you can't discern sky from the water, a view I miss from back East.

The word at the TwobyTwo this week is "quill." Originally, the thought came from porcupines and their nasty barbs.

Along my way through art challenges and such, I have met three fine quillers in the blogosphere: Zoe, Kia and Annette (and you should check out their work! I'll wait! Their work does a much better job of describing their craft than my words ever will).

Perhaps, I thought, I'd try my hand at that paper art. Let's just say I'll keep trying!

While researching for the TwobyTwo, I learned about quillwork, where quills are used to create functional art. I came up with an idea to kind of combine the two art forms--using paper strips instead of those barbs, which are in short supply around here. I don't know what to quite call this. "How to take 250 square inches of paper and reduce it to 4" probably doesn't sound very appealing. But, that's pretty much what I did.

Sunset with Wrapped Paper

All the same, I'd do it again. At least, I gained some insight into paper economy.

Be sure to check out the various art blog challenges and if the mood suits you, try your hand at the myriad techniques and ideas. There's still time to submit to any of these, particularly the TwobyTwo!
Thanks for stopping by and have a brilliant day!

On the Edge

Dedicated to Suzanne.

Suzanne asked the blogosphere if we'd ever stood "on the edge," no matter how literal we took that to mean. What a great jumping off point, isn't it?

What first came to my mind is "The Abyss." No, not the movie, but that's a good point. There's an overlook by the name that affords a look deep into a portion of the Grand Canyon. Supposedly, you can see rocks 200 million years old or more. If what "they" say about the Canyon that the average person stays a whopping 20 minutes, we're throwing the curve.

Most people must miss the Abyss since you have to either hike or take the bus to get there. Pity.

Even better is the view from Toroweap, mostly because of the effort required to get there. It's 60 miles off-road, about three hours from the last bit of pavement; high-clearance vehicle required. The Park Service suggests that you pack an extra spare tire as most drivers pop at least one and to get a tow truck is $2000, if you have cell service at all.

Badge of Courage

My Lexus (2001 RX300 with over 225,000 miles) performed superbly (no flat tires!) thanks to one very able driver (thank you, Gil!). I wish I had a video to send to the company so they can see what that car can really do, but I wish I had better photographs from the viewpoint. Seems as "the" shot is at sunrise and because of the cliff height 3,000 feet above the Colorado, sunrise in summer is around 3 AM.

Eight PM

Missed that by a MILE!

Erica on the Edge
Can you find her?

TJ on the Edge

Our first glimpse of the Canyon was 20 years ago. I don't know how we did it, but we found a spot where we walked right up to the edge. No sidewalk, no plaques, no guardrails. Just that giant hole in the ground. Took my breath away. That and trying to catch my fearless three year-old daughter from being, well, fearless.

Everywhere we went in Arizona, she would pick up pebbles and drop them into my camera bag. She was particularly fond of Sedona red sandstone. (Shh! Don't tell anyone). I still fish one out every once in a while.

That trip put into action wheels that turned in such a manner that here I am, in the Grand Canyon state. If I wanted to, I could be staring into the Abyss by lunch.

I've been on the edge of my seat.
I've been on the "Edge of Seventeen" (and recently celebrated my fortieth anniversary of same).
I've been hanging on the edge of numerous cliffs in search of Indian artifacts.
I've been on the edge of each side of this continent, staring out onto the horizon in all directions.
I've been on the edge of four states all at once.

I'm on the edge of a new beginning, each and every day.

So, yes, where have YOU stood, "on the edge?" Be sure to let Suzanne know!

On your way to Toroweap (or the North Rim or Lake Powell or Monument Valley...), you can take a quick detour to see Dinosaur Tracks on the Navajo Reservation. Which is a great segue to the EIM, "dinosaur," this week:

Which is also a great segue to the Diva this week. While you are at Dinosaur Tracks, you can visit the little booths set up and purchase a "Dreamcatcher" from the Dine people. Mine is frayed and frazzled. Must've been doing a swell job catching those pesky spirits.

And "Dreamcatcher" by Daniel Lamothe is the tangle focus of the week!

The pattern snuck its way into my twinchie this week, too. This wasn't anything like what I wanted to do! Somewhere I have a sheet of copper I was going to emboss, but where, oh where could it be?

So I went with a collage of Tim Holtz stickers, copper gimp, gold nail polish pen, copper beads on a light turquoise envelope and paint chips. I think I have to revisit this idea. There's still time to make something else. Indeed, if you're interested, submissions to the TwobyTwo are always welcome!

Meanwhile, I'm going to see about finding the copper that I must've put in a great place that I'd remember where. Thank you for stopping by. Have a brilliant day!

Of Whales and Birds

I'll start with my contribution to the EIM. I had a whale of a good time finding information about cetaceans, the big mammals of the sea.

First up, the biblical account of Jonah and the Whale, a detail from the illustration by Everett Henry titled, "The Voyage of the Pequod," for the story, "Moby Dick," also known as just, "The Whale," by Herman Melville, the tail end of a whale and an image of a breaching whale.
Did you see the story of the whale they call "Granny" in the news this week?
Life can be funny that way, don't you think?
Ah, whale tales all! You can call me Ishmael.

Moving right along....
Next I tackled the TwobyTwo. The first two drawings are kind of self-explanatory.

This one requires a bit of back-story. I was in Sedona one day a while back and stopped by Garlands, a gallery for exceptional Native American jewelry, ceramics and weavings. I saw a beautiful Tree of Life (Bird Pictorial) wall hanging depicting hummingbirds and metallic yarns were used to make those lovely birds shimmer. I knew then that it would haunt me forever that I didn't buy the unusual piece (Navajo like to use only wool from the sheep they raise themselves. Metallic threads are unheard of), but the tag had more zeroes than I had.
Sigh.
So here I've attempted to draw a hummingbird that doesn't look like the Twitter thing:

I dream of hummingbirds, which I guess is a good thing.

Before I let you go, I'll share the Diva challenge piece for the week.

That's it for now. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a brilliant day!

Channeling Jules Verne

The EIM for the week is "underground."
This me, underground. See? I really do exist.

This is Team LoudandStinky geocaching in a lava tube, Flagstaff back in 2005. Photo by Sr. G.

We've been talking about doing it again, at least "Stinky" wants to. So we'll go soon and report back. It's always chilly in there--40 degrees year-round, so it'll be a welcome diversion from our heat. It's just funny that it's been a topic of discussion and here we want to go "underground" for the EIM.

I was thinking of sharing a photograph from Antelope Canyon, but my old hard drive just crashed and with it...about 25,000 photographs. UGH. This is from the Travel Channel:

The canyon always finds its way onto bucket lists, most recently on AOL. Go ahead, there's some cool stuff there.
I feel blessed that I've seen all four of them listed in the States. Moving along...

And I found in today's news, a brand new World Heritage Site, Dolmen de Viera, in Andalusia, Spain is an underground tomb from 4,000 years ago. Pretty interesting!

I've been mostly bouncing around this internet thingie. Too hot to do much else. I dragged myself from underground and started heading to the "exit," the word for the TwobyTwo. I was trying to channel my inner rocker and create something along the lines of "In through the Out Door, " by Led Zeppelin. I always thought that album cover art was really cool. Especially the paint-water-and-it-changes-colors part.
Hmm, no.
What I found was a "documentary" on street artists called "Exit through the Gift Shop." Paintings associated with the film show lab rats, so I went this a-way:

Exit Strategy

Having seen a massive lab rat once try to escape our school, it just kind of, almost, makes sense.
Riiiiight.
Thanks for stopping by. Stay cool. Have a brilliant day!

This is Your Brain

This is different. I started this week's goodies LAST week. It's quite unlike me to not procrastinate.

First, a carry-over for the IAST:

IAST 143

My scanner went to that great technology graveyard where so much has gone before....so it's a bit dark.
C'est la vie.

Then, it was on the search for....BRAINS!

It's the word for this week at EIM. Oh, the choices were plentiful!
I was going to go all-out Zombie, which would have required a LOT of thought as I'm not really into blood and guts. My favorite cartoon occasionally swerves into the territory, so I have to share this by Doug Savage:

Thusly, I can skip over the Zombies and move onto the choices I did go with:

We have: Stephen Hawking, brain extraordinaire, Brain from Warner Brother's "Pinky and the Brain," Einstein's Equation to describe Special Relativity and the image from the public service message from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (1987 version). You know the one, where they fry the egg? "Any questions?"

Over at La Casa Diva, it's a duotangle tango, this time with "Drupe," a floral, and "Poke Root." This reminds me of cherries and blossoms in bloom, a visual Haiku. It's a dedication of sorts to beautiful individuals that we have held dear, how loss and life are intricately intertwined.

I ended up shading it, but I like it better without, in it's "elegant simplicity." I was also going to just Photoshop in the black, but chose to draw it in with my trusty Sharpie. It's not quite so neat, but it was the right process, nice and slow.

Lastly, I have this:

I did this for the TwobyTwo. You'll have to tune in next week to see what this could possibly have to do with "Echo." Head over to that blog tomorrow--Tuesday, natch--for the challenge post.

Be sure to check out all the associated blogs! And have a brilliant day!

Multi-Fassetted

Okay, that's not really a word, but it's not really a misspelling, either!
In the Zentangle language, Fassett is an interesting tangle, or pattern, that looks complicated but easily creates a dramatic look. Laura Harms, the diva behind the Diva Challenge, chose the tangle created by Lynn Mead this week for tangly people the world over to concentrate on.
I've used it before, but it falls into the "I HATE TRIANGLES" category. I gave myself permission to not start with a grid this time, but to let the pattern grow organically to fit it's little section.
Much happiness ensued!

My official response to
Diva 262
Fassett Top Left
While Waiting for my
Physical Therapist

New Addition to the
Bar Coaster
Collection

Fassetted Gemstone
Staedler Watercolor and
Spectrum Noir Oil Pencils

At EIM, Trillian asked for "Grandmother" inchies. I've been trying to do four, and I collected these four images:

We have the painting that Grandma Moses did for the United States Postal Service in 1969 (an outrageous six-cent stamp!), "Arrangement in Grey and Black," (aka Whistler's Mother) detail, a granny square afghan that took me 13 years (!) to finish (a hobby taught to me by my Nanna) and Lemon Meringue pie (my Grandmom knew I loved them and could whip one up by scratch. She didn't stick around long enough to teach me that talent).

I did one more twinchie for "Orange,"

Four Inchies
Makes one
Twinchie

Something new I tried was Annette's Mosaik Challenge. It's a community effort to create the tiles, but she must put in a LOT of time putting together the designs. Be sure to check out what she did this month! She sent me this out of what I sent her:

Is That Cool or What?

If you're keeping tabs on my IAST, last week's is posted here. I suspect I'll get the instructions for this week's in time for my next therapy appointment. (All I'll say about that right now is the fine people at OSR are treating me well, if not a little sadistically).

I think that brings me up to date. Please honor and visit the various blog hosts and bestow praise where due. I graciously accept your comments and critiques. Thanks for visiting!

It's a Spring Thing

We know it's springtime in Arizona when the winds pick up. The desert palo verde tree blooms are sent every which way and the fine citizens of Phoenix are sent rushing for antihistamines.
Just about everything native to around here blooms bright yellow--the palo verdes, brittlebush, creosote--with an occasional pink thrown in for contrast.
The last thing to bloom will be the ancient ironwood trees with the palest of lavender flowers come May. They are my favorite as they signal the beginning of summer. And they're NOT yellow!
Our grapefruits are yellow with a pink blush as they are, in fact, PINK grapefruit. And our oranges are, well, ORANGE!

A Small Portion of Last Year's Crop

[Warning: this is blatant self-promotion!]
Which brings me to...the theme for this week's Two by Two challenge is: "ORANGE!"
I'm not going to cheese out and re-use an image, so this is just a tease! Please consider playing along!

Last week's IAST had an egg-shaped string in honor of Easter, but as I wrote to Adele Bruno, all I was seeing was LEMONS!

I drew [the] egg string diagonally and it turned out looking like a lemon. I put the Warped Egg in as I did and it all looked like an Angry Bird and I really had "lemon" on my mind. I still have several yet on my tree and it recently bloomed. So Mel Mel turned into a giant lemon blossom. When I started adding color pencil to it, the middle turned into a suggestion of a butterfly. I kept to a pastel palette as a nod to the Easter theme and added the yellow as I was really stuck on having a "lemon!"

IAST 137

Adele also came out with a new tangle she calls, "Citrus." Lemons, oranges and grapefruits...oh, MY! It continues the fruity theme which I used for the Diva Challenge this week. The objective from guest blogger Jane Reiter is to stack a bunch of borders around a central piece. I started with a Citrus zinchie and a whole bunch of art stuff. I was most pleased with the Sakura Glaze pen in clear drawn on black paper (the outermost border); it has great dimension but doesn't show up very well.

Citrus

Can you see the Border?

It was quite a project; the list of art stuff is long and varied and it took the better part of two days to complete. It was worth the effort and I'd do it again. The process kind of elevates the drawings to "real" artwork since it creates its own frame.

SOME of the Materials
Used in the Making of
Citrus

I took Adele's IAST for this week to good use for the twinchie challenge (and because I had a lot of my art stuff out. Still have to do the actual String Thing challenge!).

Orange you Glad?

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I put this together for the Inchie Challenge. The EIM word of the week is "Peanuts."

That would be Charlie Brown's sweater, Lucy Van Pelt's sign, some dry roasted peanuts and Mr. Peanut going ice skating from a label for trail mix (caramels, raisins, peanuts, oh, my!).

Thanks for stopping by. I'm thrilled that you do and I'm honored for your time spent with me. I'm glad that my tutorial on composition was so well received last week--promises to become the most often read post I've written thus far! (My writing teachers would be so proud and I'm sure quite amazed).

And if you come to visit, you will most certainly leave with some citrus. It's a bumper crop of pinkies this year and plenty of oranges, too, still. Dew drop in!

Flukey and Corny

If you were with me last week, you know I busted up my wrist. You may also know that drawing is a part of my therapy, if only because it makes me SIT STILL for twenty minutes at a time. I thank you for all who sent me words of kindness, encouragement and healthfulness. You guys are great (even if there's nary a guy in the bunch. I grew up in Jersey, after all!)!
I'm pleased to report that the bulky cast has been replaced with a removable model in fluorescent pink. Pretty outrageous.
It has been the highlight of the week so far. I can't drive, so I can ONLY get into SO much trouble.
These are the results of my creativity the past couple days:

Based on the tangle choices from
Last week's IAST

All Boxed Up
Grid as String

The Open Road

Sea Kelp

The last one was a warm-up for the Two by Two. The word of the week is, "Unicorn." I was going to do something snarky about how the unicorns "missed the boat (the ark)" and that's why you don't see any or where Skittles come from, but I chose a different path: Narwhals are the unicorns of the sea and the Zentangle pattern, Narwal, resembles the horn.
The Every Inchie Monday word is, "Spaceship." I quizzed Gil about the difference between rockets (which he has been known to fire up from his home) and spaceships. He said the distinction lies in whether the objects leave our atmosphere and go into orbit or not. So in my journal are some spaceships--one from a child's coloring book, from "Teenagers from Outer Space, 1959--" a classic film if ever there was!, Wallace and Gromit's "A Grand Day Out, 1989," and Marvin, our favorite Martian, just for fun.

The rest are "Narwals" and a Unicorn with bad hair, my official 2x2 response.
Which brings me to the Diva Challenge 258. to use Rautyflex in a sentence (see? I did it!), er, on a tile:

Now there're some complicated lines! I like the Tumbling Block look to it, but it sure is a fussy thing. That said I like grid work, so I'll revisit it, and maybe try some of the curvier variations.
Thanks for stopping by and for all your comments. Best medicine money can't buy! And perhaps consider trying your hand at any of these art challenges? Especially the Two by Two by Tuesday!

Jumping From One Thought to Another

I'm going to have to be brief today as I have a lot of running around to do. But I do have some explaining to do.

But first, I hope you take in the TwobyTwobyTuesday blog. I would like to grow the audience and the participation for the twinchie art challenge this year. It's every other week and the prompts are already posted for the whole year. The next one up is "Unicorn" for March 8. All mediums and talents are welcome--it just needs to be two-inches square (or even cubed!?)
This week's twinchie word was, "leap," and that got us to thinking...

Ooooh, danger!

My first thought was of Stag's Leap, a vineyard that produces wines that I like. Then I thought of "Artemis," a Cabernet Sauvignon they bottle that is quite yummy. [Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, which would be an appropriate deity to call upon if you were trying to hunt deer]. From there, we thought of Artemisia, a group of plants that sport white or grey leaves. The group includes a popular garden plant (Dusty Miller or Artemisia stelleriana) and wormwood (or Artemisia absinthia, the stuff from which absinthe is made).
And that's how I got to this, a Zentangle-inspired tangle of leaves:

It's kind of a hybrid between Sampson, Verdigoh and Amaze, I guess. I drew upon this source for inspiration.
It's not the craziest nor the most convoluted thinking, as it was a linear path, right?

The other item I'm posting is for the EIM word of the week, "earth." Trillian, the woman in charge there, put it as earth, little "e," so I went with dirt and my little garden trowel that helps me dig the weeds out of same:

For now, that's what I have. There will be more this week, so please entertain the idea of returning!