Weekly Challenge #120

Happy Monday everyone!
First of all, as always - a few house keeping items:

• If you're NEW here (and there've been a lot of new additions to the party!) I'm working on creating some tutorials to help you out.  You can click on the links above or:  See "Getting Started"  and "Tutorials" 
• To see all the past weekly challenges - click the tabs above
• Please grab the button for the Weekly Challenge (on the right  sidebar) to display on your blogs! share the fun!
• The limit of submissions to the slideshow is TWO, but please feel free to post as many as you like to your blogs.  I will take the first two presented to each challenge. 

• I know that some of you have told me that the paypal button does not work, and some of you have had no trouble, i'm not sure why it's inconsistent, i've redone the code a few times... If all else fails you can donate to my paypal address which is madam_diva ( a t ) yahoo ( d o t ) com - also to those people who donated this week... THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Happy Monday!
And a Happy Memorial Day to my friends to the South in the States.

This week Chewie had a big day when he graduated from Preschool.  We went to the Forestry Farm to have his big celebration.  My dad came along as his special guest and had a great time playing with Artoo on the playground.

So Proud of our little guy.

Right after he got his diploma it started raining, thankfully it waited until we were done.  Huzzah!

We've been spending more time outside and the boys have been having a great time in the sandbox.

the boys playing in the sandbox

And on Saturday,  my friend Tara and i spent the day at the Saskatchewan Marathon Expo.  You may remember Tara from this challenge about Beads of Courage.  We have organized a 5K Colour Festival Fun Run to raise money for this program in Saskatchewan, it's happening next Sunday, so we spent the day spreading the word.

beads of courage

then yesterday Artoo and i had some fun with sidewalk chalk.

cutie pants

i can't get enough of his little face.

Weekly Challenge #120: "Tangleation Nation; Bales"
One of the wonderful parts of Zentangle is how it is always growing and changing and becoming something beautiful and new.  Part of the way this happens is through tangleations or variations of tangles.

In this week's challenge we are going to explore the tangle Bales (follow the link for the step outs) -  one of the staples of Zentangle. 
There is so much possibility in this tangle, so much room for variation.

Play with this tangle, really open it up and take it for a drive... put the top down and let your hair loose!  Where can it go? What can it do.  What are you and Bales capable of together?
Have fun!

Bales of fun

Create a Monotangled* tile or Zentangle Inspired Art using only Bales and it's variation.

*Monotangle is a term referring to a tile or ZIA that uses only one tangle - either in it's true form or tangleated form

If you have a blog, add the site-specific URL where your tile is posted to the linkey machine below! Don't forget to link back here so that others can join in the fun! (if you don't know how to find this, you can see my half assed tutorial here)

Also,  please feel free to come back often and visit the links of those people on the linkey machine - don't forget to leave a comment or feedback, everyone loves feedback. ;)

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate, you can email your tile to me and i will post it here. (please email to weeklychallenge(at)mail(dot)com).  I just ask that you put in the subject line:  Challenge # ________

The deadline for each weekly challenge is Saturday night so that i can round everyone up by Sunday. What this means is that i will stop adding tiles to the slideshow on Sunday. You're still more than welcome to do the challenges and add your name to the linkey machine.

I will be more diligent with the linkey machine - by editing out the ones that don't work, the doubles, the links that lead to nowhere, the links that go just to blog home pages (this is why we need those site specific urls), and the spam. And there is some spam.  PLEASE do not put your *home* page in the linkey machine... please? for me??

Weekly Challenge #119

Happy Tuesday everyone!
First of all, as always - a few house keeping items:

• If you're NEW here (and there've been a lot of new additions to the party!) I'm working on creating some tutorials to help you out.  You can click on the links above or:  See "Getting Started"  and "Tutorials" 
• To see all the past weekly challenges - click the tabs above
• Please grab the button for the Weekly Challenge (on the right  sidebar) to display on your blogs! share the fun!
• The limit of submissions to the slideshow is TWO, but please feel free to post as many as you like to your blogs.  I will take the first two presented to each challenge. 

• I know that some of you have told me that the paypal button does not work, and some of you have had no trouble, i'm not sure why it's inconsistent, i've redone the code a few times... If all else fails you can donate to my paypal address which is madam_diva ( a t ) yahoo ( d o t ) com - also to those people who donated this week... THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Happy Tuesday!
We had such a great Long weekend at Casa Diva.  B-rad did some work at his brother's place, building a retaining wall - building up some "favour-credit" for when we rebuild our deck in a few weeks... and on Sunday morning i went on a 6 km walk with some friends, canvassing a neighbourhood for a charity 5K run my friend and i are putting on in two weeks... *YIKES* and Monday morning B-rad did some yard work, and then put together our brand new fire pit before we all headed to the zoo with my mom and dad.

Artoo and Mama, me and B-rad, a sleepy old bear, a nesting Canadian goose,
and Chewie holding mama's hand

 The weather was just beautiful, and the kids were mostly well behaved. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa are awesome.

A mountain Lion, my mama and me, a swan, and Chewie gettin' close with a Peacock

 After the zoo, we all went back to our house and had a wiener roast in our new fire pit, complete with bush pies!  It's been a pretty great weekend.

hard at work, writing my blog post

Weekly Challenge #119: "Ebony and Ivory"
I've actually had this challenge in my back pocket for a while  A few weeks ago, Maria had popped me an email letting me know that a fun post was going up on the Zentangle blog that would make a great challenge.  This week's challenge was directly inspired by this post on the Zentangle Blog where Rick and Maria showcase some gorgeous pieces where the black and white are evenly distributed throughout the tiles. 

having had a few weeks to think about this, i pondered how i would go about creating my tile... but in the end, i decided that i wasn't feeling very zen about my pre-designed tile - that that was too much pre-planning and wasn't in the true spirit of Zentangle... so, i scrapped that idea and just sat down, got out my pens... and just tangled. 

Ebony and Ivory....living in perfect harmony

Oh, how challenging this was for me.  I just can't get the "look" of white on black that i want... in fact, i've been struggling for a long time to find a nice opaque white pen that will do what i want it to do both in my Zentangling and my art journaling practice...  I've had mixed results with my Sakura Gelly Roll White pens, and in fact, i think the pen i used on this tile is an Inkssentials Opaque White pen by Ranger products, which i then went over, a second time with a Sakura Glaze White pen.

So, this week's challenge is to try to use equal parts white and black within your tile... if you don't have access to a white pen, you could try using tangles with high contrast like knightsbridge, bunzo or zedbra!  Or just browse through tanglepatterns.com for some inspiration.

Have fun!

If you have a blog, add the site-specific URL where your tile is posted to the linkey machine below! Don't forget to link back here so that others can join in the fun! (if you don't know how to find this, you can see my half assed tutorial here)

Also,  please feel free to come back often and visit the links of those people on the linkey machine - don't forget to leave a comment or feedback, everyone loves feedback. ;)

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate, you can email your tile to me and i will post it here. (please email to weeklychallenge(at)mail(dot)com).  I just ask that you put in the subject line:  Challenge # ________

The deadline for each weekly challenge is Saturday night so that i can round everyone up by Sunday. What this means is that i will stop adding tiles to the slideshow on Sunday. You're still more than welcome to do the challenges and add your name to the linkey machine.

I will be more diligent with the linkey machine - by editing out the ones that don't work, the doubles, the links that lead to nowhere, the links that go just to blog home pages (this is why we need those site specific urls), and the spam. And there is some spam.  PLEASE do not put your *home* page in the linkey machine... please? for me??

Gone Fishin' - and a slideshow

Good morning everyone!!
Here in Canada, it's Victoria Day; where we, as part of the Commonwealth, celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria with a long weekend. 

The challenge will be back Tomorrow!  Have a great Monday!

Happy Birthday, your Majesty... 194 looks good on you.

to tide you over, here's the slideshow for challenge #117


If you have trouble viewing the slideshow you can see the online album here

Weekly Challenge #118

Happy Monday everyone!
First of all, as always - a few house keeping items:

• If you're NEW here (and there've been a lot of new additions to the party!) I'm working on creating some tutorials to help you out.  You can click on the links above or:  See "Getting Started"  and "Tutorials" 
• To see all the past weekly challenges - click the tabs above
• Please grab the button for the Weekly Challenge (on the right  sidebar) to display on your blogs! share the fun!
• The limit of submissions to the slideshow is TWO, but please feel free to post as many as you like to your blogs.  I will take the first two presented to each challenge. 

• I know that some of you have told me that the paypal button does not work, and some of you have had no trouble, i'm not sure why it's inconsistent, i've redone the code a few times... If all else fails you can donate to my paypal address which is madam_diva ( a t ) yahoo ( d o t ) com - also to those people who donated this week... THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Happy Tuesday!

It was so nice bask in the sun this weekend and the warmth of my family Sunday night.

Saturday night B-rad and i went out for dinner and a movie.  My parents gave us a "Night Out" for Christmas, and we've just now used it up.  We had dinner at this AMAZING Thai restaurant - i had coconut curry chicken.  mmm.  Then B-rad and i had a beer on a pub patio and then we went to see "The Great Gatsby"...which i loved.  I really dig Leonardo DiCaprio and Baz Luhrmann.

Sunday morning B-rad made breakfast while i slept in, and the boys made me mother's Day cards, and birthday cards with drawings included.  It was really sweet.  We spent most of the day outside, and then Chewie and i went to get hanging baskets for the Grandmas and i picked up some "Mother's Day To Me" annuals and I even managed to get my flower bed done this weekend!!  Huzzah! 

I bet you're wondering where all the pictures are... they're on my phone, and B-rad is using it to chat with an old family friend.  ;)

sorry.  =) 

Weekly Challenge #118: "UMT v. XVI - Kuke"
 As many of you know, the first Monday of every month is a UMT challenge (or Use My Tangle), as last week was an official Zentangle tangle, we moved it to this week this go-round.

The challenge is to learn and use one of the tangles created by YOU.  (if you have a tangle you'd like to submit, please read the guidelines here) 

This week's tangle come to us from Katy Abbot, CZT - it's a really cute little tangle, and funny to me because i was JUST looking at a cucumber the other day thinking - hey, that's a tangle! lol.  Katy beat me to it. 

You can see the step outs to this tangle here
This tile is so unlike my "style", but the more i look at it, the more i kind of like it.  i used Kuke in the bottom and on the top right. 

Have fun!

If you have a blog, add the site-specific URL where your tile is posted to the linkey machine below! Don't forget to link back here so that others can join in the fun! (if you don't know how to find this, you can see my half assed tutorial here)

Also,  please feel free to come back often and visit the links of those people on the linkey machine - don't forget to leave a comment or feedback, everyone loves feedback. ;)

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate, you can email your tile to me and i will post it here. (please email to weeklychallenge(at)mail(dot)com).  I just ask that you put in the subject line:  Challenge # ________

The deadline for each weekly challenge is Saturday night so that i can round everyone up by Sunday. What this means is that i will stop adding tiles to the slideshow on Sunday. You're still more than welcome to do the challenges and add your name to the linkey machine.

I will be more diligent with the linkey machine - by editing out the ones that don't work, the doubles, the links that lead to nowhere, the links that go just to blog home pages (this is why we need those site specific urls), and the spam. And there is some spam.  PLEASE do not put your *home* page in the linkey machine... please? for me??

Challenge Postponed! (Sorry!!)

Because i've been having an amazing Mother's Day and Birthday with my family today, i'm postponing this week's challenge until Tuesday!! 

Thanks for understanding, see y'all back here Tuesday Morning...

Weekly Challlenge #116 Slideshow!

If you have trouble viewing this slideshow you can see the online album here.

Weekly Challenge #115 Slideshow!

Another fabulous slideshow!!!

remember, if you have trouble viewing the slideshow you can see the online gallery here.

Weekly Challenge #117

Happy Monday everyone!
First of all, as always - a few house keeping items:

• If you're NEW here (and there've been a lot of new additions to the party!) I'm working on creating some tutorials to help you out.  You can click on the links above or:  See "Getting Started"  and "Tutorials" 
• To see all the past weekly challenges - click the tabs above
• Please grab the button for the Weekly Challenge (on the right  sidebar) to display on your blogs! share the fun!
• The limit of submissions to the slideshow is TWO, but please feel free to post as many as you like to your blogs.  I will take the first two presented to each challenge. 

• I know that some of you have told me that the paypal button does not work, and some of you have had no trouble, i'm not sure why it's inconsistent, i've redone the code a few times... If all else fails you can donate to my paypal address which is madam_diva ( a t ) yahoo ( d o t ) com - also to those people who donated this week... THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Happy Monday!
We FINALLY had some beautiful weather this week!!

B-rad and i took advantage of the weather and got a lot of work done on our yard.  There was a lot of snow mold on the grass from the looooong winter.  It felt good to get that cleaned up, and to clean out my flower beds and my raised garden bed.  I'm really hoping some of my lilies survived and that they'll grow again this year. 

Chewie and Artoo catchin' some rays

Artoo gettin' his Ride on.

I'm so thankful for our big back yard, but it sure is a lot of work

With temperatures in the high 20s this weekend, i came away with a bit of a burn, but i'll take it if it means there's no more snow.

Also, with us spending the majority of the time outside away from the tv and computer and phones, i realize i have very few pictures to share with you this week, but i think that's okay.  It really was a fun weekend.  

Weekly Challenge #117: "New Official Tangle: Schway"

"Schway"

Ordinarily, as today is the first Monday of the month, it should be a Use My Tangle Challenge - however, this week Rick and Maria released a new official tangle called "Schway", so the Use my Tangle challenge will be postponed to next Monday while we all try our hand at this new tangle!

source

If you want to see some more examples of Rick and Maria using Schway, you can visit the newsletter here or on the Zentangle blog here.

this tangle has taken me a little while to master.  I had a hard time making the rows line up to get even arrows.  Having said that, i LOVE the way this tangle looks.  I love the interlocking arrows, and one of the classic Zentangle elements - complexity through simplicity.   I really think that this one is a "Wow" factor tangle, up there with paradox and cadent. 

See you all next week! (this is where i let it slip that my birthday is next sunday! May 12, which is also Mother's Day! i'll be 33.)

UPDATE: today Rick and Maria posted on the Zentangle blog a variation step-out (aroz) of Schway created by Scott in Colorado.  If you're having trouble 'lining things up', this might be the version for you!  Rick says:

It is so exciting to become aware of patterns in your surroundings, ponder ways to deconstruct them, and then share them with others. With so many people enjoying that process, we will likely see more of this.

Have fun!

If you have a blog, add the site-specific URL where your tile is posted to the linkey machine below! Don't forget to link back here so that others can join in the fun! (if you don't know how to find this, you can see my half assed tutorial here)

Also,  please feel free to come back often and visit the links of those people on the linkey machine - don't forget to leave a comment or feedback, everyone loves feedback. ;)

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate, you can email your tile to me and i will post it here. (please email to weeklychallenge(at)mail(dot)com).  I just ask that you put in the subject line:  Challenge # ________

The deadline for each weekly challenge is Saturday night so that i can round everyone up by Sunday. What this means is that i will stop adding tiles to the slideshow on Sunday. You're still more than welcome to do the challenges and add your name to the linkey machine.

I will be more diligent with the linkey machine - by editing out the ones that don't work, the doubles, the links that lead to nowhere, the links that go just to blog home pages (this is why we need those site specific urls), and the spam. And there is some spam.  PLEASE do not put your *home* page in the linkey machine... please? for me??