Diva Challenge 202

I feel like I am soooo out of the loop! I'm rusty, I can't find my art supplies! I haven't drawn up anything beyond a grocery list in over a month!
This week's Diva Challenge seemed like a good place to get back into things. The objective was to make a duotangle of Margaret Brenmner's (the ENTHUSIASTIC artist) "Copada" and "Chabacto." All I was thinking about was ciabatta, so I fixed myself lunch, THEN I pulled out a bar coaster. Not having seen or nor tried either, I think it's okay! Certainly a respectable attempt.

(For the record I had the most sinful baked potato with butter, sour cream, broccoli, cheese and bacon. It's how you take a very healthy 100 calories and turn into a 500 pound cholesterol monster!)

Now back to my grocery list!

Twitchy for Twinchies

I miss the Twinchie challenge and I think I need to do something about that, the adage of "if not me, then who?" But I'm working on the "if not now, when?" part of it.

In the meantime, I like the Inchie challenge, Trillian at Every Inchie Monday does a great service to a world of artists who challenge themselves weekly to produce very teenie art. It's a great group of talent and make sure to check them out (and try your hand at it, too!).

Based on her prompts, I've put these together.

Week 1: Eggs

This came right out of an advertisement for Sherwin-Williams paint. For me, there's no perfecting this concept: Robin's egg blue eggs in a nest. It's beautiful. I'm working on a collage of elements from all the egg ads i found in ladies magazines along the way. Soon.







Week 2:  Giraffe

An emerging trend on Facebook has people changing their profile pictures to images of giraffes after failing to solve a riddle. I saw this on the London Mail. 

The riddle poses the question: ‘It’s 3am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors! It’s your parents and they are here for breakfast. (really?!!) 

You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. 

What is the first thing you open?’ 

Facebook users who fail the challenge must change their profile picture to a photo of a giraffe and re-post the riddle, according the article. (Did anyone actually do this?! What's a giraffe got to do with it??) I don't "do" Facebook, so I don't have to "do" this, but if I did, this would be the image I'd choose. Because you KNOW I'd have answered, "WINE" and I would have it wrong as far as the riddle goes. If, in fact, my parents arrived here, there would HAVE to be wine involved. 

Let's move along, shall we?

Week 3: Elephant

I peeked at all the artwork that the group at EIM created for this entry. Some were cute, some were stylistic and most were of the front side of the animal. Like the parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant (check out the Wikipedia page here to get a handle on it, if you're not familiar), I wanted to try a different side. Okay, the backside. 

I came across the image of this pachyderm parked on the bench and had to do a speech bubble, which should bring me to the next prompt on the list!

I'll still be working on this weeks by the time the next one rolls around, but for me it's not so much to get the job done ON Monday, but to take time to just do the work, to make the art. 

Make sure to check out all the inchies for 2015. It's eggs-cellent! 

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!

Malibu Ken

Miss me?
I hope you enjoyed your holiday, if you're in the States celebrating Thanksgiving. If you're elsewhere, and everyone, I hope you are enjoying whatever holidays you wish. Mine included a visit from the paramedics. I am grateful for the persons who had the foresight to dial 911 and for the wonderful folks who attended to my health.
Lucky you, I'm back to my normal and pretty demented self. I say that as I really went on a limb with the Diva's challenge today. The guest post host went all girlie and asked for doll-inspired art and all I could think of was Malibu Ken. While I know where my Barbies are packed, I just did a little research and found some really awesome examples of hideous Ken clothes. And a real-life human Malibu Ken on Twitter.

That was entertaining, wasn't it? I know you looked.

[12.02.14: I really think he's on tumBLr or whatever that is. I'm sure you'll find him if you're really looking...!]

I used the fabrics of those clothes as inspiration and String 008 from tanglepatterns.com.

Mod Cloth

I also finally did LAST week's Diva challenge:

Yuma Grid

The Inchie for the week is Xenon. I learned that it glows blue under certain conditions. Once upon a time I knew Chemistry, but this was new information for me, so I doctored up some plain type:

And for the Twinchie, for Advent, I found this great photograph on Ski Australia:

I love lights, I wish I could keep them up all year. The challenge is that all of mine have been packed away for almost three years and I suspect this will approximate the mess I'll be getting into next week! I did not take the photograph, and cannot claim ownership of it. I just think it's funny. 

Tis the season to celebrate the LIGHT! 

Fresh Snow

While most of the States have had incredible cold and massive amounts of snow, we've been spared all of that here in the desert. Which is good as I'm not good at all that (that's why I moved from New England). But there's still something to be said for that first, sparkly snow that makes everything look like it's sprinkled with jewels. (I love to drive up to Flagstaff, see snow and turn around and plop into the jacuzzi by dinner).
Why I say all this is it's what came to mind working on the IAST 68 today.

Fresh Snow

I've also been having some fun with Krishna's Mandala Monday. Here's my first response for MM004 and another one for MM003:

I'm working on more as I can print a bunch of them at a time. I'm not really happy drawing on basic printer paper, but I can work out ideas and just all around have a good time.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone! And when I'm all done our festivities, come back for my recipe for turkey sandwiches. My daughter can't wait--she doesn't mind that she's not going to be here for the big bird tomorrow. Word of warming: it is NOT dietetic. 

And if you're looking for something "interesting," check out the blog of the "World's Best Twinchies" scoped on Flickr. I dont' know how I found it, but I've gone back to look for inspiration and lo! and behold! Three of mine are on there. How weird is that?

Embracing the...Gratitude

This week's Zentangle challenges could not have come from more polar opposites, but I've already begun to appreciate from whence they came and to wither they may goest.
The Diva lined up guest posts this month to concentrate on her family; much better time spent than managing the likes of all us tangly people. This week's really threw me for a loop and at first I was going to pass on it, but then I thought why should this one get the better of me? Elisa Murphy created the challenge to use our non-dominant hand to complete the task, or as she referred to it as, "Embrace the Yuck." While I'm not quite feeling the love yet, I did get a feel for why I really don't use my left hand and perhaps I should give it a better chance.

Diva Challenge 194

I used the random string generator at Tanglepatterns.com and it selected 098, which was a good start and Nipa had to naturally go in as it's already pretty jiggy. I won't get rich off the likes of this, but it was a good lesson in creativity. It's not terrible yucky. (segue to: that's what we call some Chinese food, instead of teriyaki...even though we really, really like it.).
OK!
The other challenge, IAST 67 used string 070 and just drawing that out was giving me fits (yes, I could just print the template, but where's the fun in that?). I had pondered the contents in my sleep so I was good to go this morning. And here enters unconditional love. I have surrounded myself--the "c"--with my significant other and my two children.

Thanks for Three People

It's not the prettiest exhibition of true love ever created, but what it represents to me goes beyond gratitude and so much joy, it brings me to tears. (and a segue to yesterday's post...)
With many thanks to you for taking the time to view my work and for the occasional comment. I appreciate you telling me what you like (or don't) so that I can add it to my body of knowledge.

It's a Stretch

If I had scoped out the Inchie for this week in advance, I may have saved the one I did a couple weeks ago. The word prompt is "weapon." Alas, I used my pistol a couple posts back [click here to rewind]. I scratched my head for a minute and asked myself what is my chief weaponry? And what came back out my grey matter is this form of subterfuge. It may not save me in battle, but it depends on the opponent, I guess, and what the fight is all about.

My friend Corinne suggested something else that totally confounds men: a BRA. Although I don't seem to have that problem, it gives me a lot of ideas to work with.
The twinchie word this week is "magic." Back in college, I had to write a paper on a level of Hell as described by Dante in his "Inferno." I drew a very intense image to accompany the essay with a wizard's hand holding a crystal ball and a fiery Earth within. It won me a lot of brownie points and the professor asked to save my work. I've been meaning to recreate it ever since. For now, this will have to do:

Be sure to check out the Inchie responses this week, which will certainly lead you to some very talented artists and their work. That's where I'm headed now!