Catching Up and starting PTO

I've been doing the weekly tangle challenges, but have been neglectful in posting them. So I will catch up on these now. I am on PTO (supposed to be paid time off, aka vacation, but it's really pretend time off) in order to work on vacation bible school, which I've been working on a lot lately. More about that later after I roll through the challenges.

1. Diva challenge 172 - Duotangle of Auraknot and Mooka. Neither of these am I great at, but I think I'm starting to get the flow of them and experimented a bit with my Mooka style.

2. Made By Joey Challenge 13 - Tangle in a Circle. Key words: IN A. So I used a lid to create my circle. Then I did a "string" to make it look like one of the Roids. Then I selected using my handy dice randomizing 4 patterns: Peeks, Quandary, Sooflowers and Finery. I really like how it turned out.It was my first time doing Sooflowers, and that's one I hope to play with a bit more.

3. Tackle It Tuesday "O" - Artful Creations is back with the next letter O. Not sure if I love this as I did no shading on it to make it feel light and airy. Patterns I used are Onamato, Ojo, Opus and Organza.

4. It's a String Thing 45 - String 108 with patterns Diva Dance, Dex, Demi, Diamonds & Squares and Dooleedo. I didn't send this in on time, so this will just be posted here. All but Dex was new to me, but I enjoyed getting to know the rest. I especially liked Diva Dance and did it Rock N Roll style. I'm not sure I enjoyed the final product though.

5. Diva Challenge 171 - Beads of Courage. This was a challenge in honor of Artoo and all the beads he has earned by being such a sweet ( and cute) patient so many years. Some hospitals have these programs that have children who are frequently in the hospital earn beads each time they do something brave (like getting a procedure or getting a blood test).  I opted to do a heart (after all, that's where bravery comes from) of Bead by Bead and Stone Necklace and fill it with beads of Roids, Jetties and Cruffle and a center large bead of Paushalov and Queen's Crown with a dangle of Loveline. Yes. filled with Beads and Love. When I was doing this I was thinking of the girl that had been stabbed by her "friends" and how much recovery she will have.

6. It's a String Thing 44 - String 44 with Navaho, Nipa, Nzeppel, and Neuron. I actually liked what I did, but check the link to see some really great tiles.

7. Made by Joey Challenge 12 - EZ as Pie - use only patterns beginning with E or Z and optionally include pie. I had fun with this and basically made a drink and a vase with flowers with the pie - I don't like the fork, but otherwise I like it. It was different as I usually don't do pictures with my tangles.

8. Mojo Challenge 61 - Charlie, Pegs, Wartz and Page Curl. Other than Wartz, this was trying out new patterns again. When it was done, it either looked like a fish or a tree.

9. Mojo Challenge 45 - a little catch up with Keeko, J-Burst, Squell, and Dragonaire. Feeling a wave coming on...

I will go into the PTO and VBS in another post.

Late night tangling

Here it is 1a.m. and I am sitting here posting tangle tiles knowing that in a few hours I will be helping build pre-fab houses. But I've got my second wind so I thought I'd take advantage of it. Here are a few challenges I'm responding to this week.

I am the diva challenge #169: use circles for string. I used patterns (from inside out) Man-O-Man, Vega, Aa's, Meer, and Reticulated. I had put together the string using various common objects around the house as concentric circles lying to one side. I noticed Betsy Wilson had the same idea as I did (only executed it better than I).

Artful Creations' Tackle It Tuesday: the letter "N". Here I used N'Zeppel, Nipa, Navaho, Netting and Nvelope. I really like Navaho here, and I feel like I am starting to get the hang of N'Zeppel. 


















Made by Joey's weekly tangle challenge (which I had been meaning to do for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it) #10: use "10" as your string and use only tangles with straight lines and circles. Here is the string I made, followed by the completed tile, where I used Quare, Ahh, Up and Across, Purlbox, Navaho and Chartz.

Adele Bruno's It's A String Thing #42: using Tanglepatterns' String 038, do a monotangle/tangleation of Knightsbridge. I think I did 8 variations on this busy tile.

Finally, I joined the Line Weaving community, where they have weekly Mojo challenges. Here are 4 weeks I did:

Week 58: Camelia, Worms, DNA Chips and Diagonal

Week 57: Smokestack, Unme, Bowties, and Swirly Dot

Week 56: Chainging, Beelight, Sunny Grid and Barberpole

More later, I suppose....

Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day and I spent most of the weekend cleaning and changing over things from winter to summer. We are starting to enjoy our patio and the new chairs my mom gave us. I've started back at knitting and so spent some time doing that this weekend too. Yesterday, we went and saw a matinee show of the new X-Men movie. I did a couple of tiles last week, but have been remiss in posting them.

Here is the one for challenge #168 at I am the diva, which was a tangellation of Rain. I also added Aa's and 2-N-5 (Ar2 - Artoo)

And here is the one for Artful Creations' letter M challenge, where I used Maisie, Meer, Miander and Moonpie:

Frustration

This has been a frustrating week and it's only Wednesday morning. Sigh.

So, last Thursday/Friday, my CPAP decided it didn't like its SD card - you know, that thing that controls the pressure etc. So on Monday, I called my sleep doctor/clinic that gave it to me. Um, they shut down in December - no notice, nothing. And the records went to another place, who said they are terrible and they can't help me - I needed to talk to the equipment company (who didn't give me the machine). I call the equipment company and it is 48-72 hours before they will return the call. In the meantime I can't use my CPAP machine.

Then yesterday, I go to workout and I notice that I have no cell service. I don't think anything of it until I look again at work and there's nothing there. Only wireless. I can't make or receive a call or text. I take it to the store, they can't fix it. It's the SD card that's gone bad. Now I have to take it to another place to get it (hopefully) repaired. So I spent most of last night saving data, writing down apps and logins and contact info in case I lose it all when they fix it today. There was also some temporary frustration with work-related report testing, but that finally worked out.

The rest of last night I worked on my tile for the String Thing #40 challenge posed by Adele at Tickled to Tangle.I had never done Beadlines before, and I didn't like Betweed before, but I think I got the hang of it this time. And I had done and liked the other two, Beeline and Beelight. I like the way the tile turned out.

Quick

Just a quick post of some tangles.

In response to I am the Diva's challenge #167, here is my first duotangle using only the two Zentangle patterns Punzel and Well. Happy Birthday, Diva! I had never done either before this challenge, so I did practice a bit. I don't care for the way Punzel does not flow from my hands, but I liked Well, even though I messed up a bit on one section of it, and played with it on my tile. Here is the result:

And a quick response to Artful Creations' "L" challenge. I liked her new pattern "Lori" so much I incorporated it into my tile. Joining Lori are tangle patterns Lachrymose, Lokomotive, La Bel, Laced, Lettuce Farm, Lacy and Logjam. Whew, I packed a lot of L's into this tile - oh yeah, the string was even the letter "L" (below it is on its side).

Celebrations

This week I actually finished two tangle challenges by Wednesday, but have been unable to post them as I was out of town Thursday and Friday. My cousin graduated from University of Tennessee with his Ph.D. officially, then yesterday my husband found out he got another A for one of his class. So we celebrated that too. These celebrations meant a lot of traveling and a lot of eating out. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but I tangled the graduation cards to my cousin. I plan on doing a Mother's Day card tonight too.

Here is the tangle I did for the Diva challenge #166: I enjoyed her new tangle pattern very much and thought of satellites for some reason.I hinted a little at Pweeko within the pattern, but also included Tiding, Laced and Greating in the tile and used string #17 by Joyce Bruns.

Tackle It Tuesday challenge of K patterns where I used string #11 by Yamit Fridman and patterns Keenees, Kuzek, Knightsbridge Kunstler and Keeko.

Happy Mother's Day in advance!!

And then there were three...

Three tangles this week - some were challenging.

First up, the weekly Diva Challenge #165 - this was a UMT (Use My Tangle) challenge and we were challenged to use Anne Marks' pattern Camelia. At first this was challenging to learn, but eventually I got the hang of it. I decided to spice it up a little by also using one of Anne Marks' string patterns from the Tangle Patterns site. I used String #71, with patterns Camelia (of course), Puf, Nipa, Warped Eggs and Kunstler.

Next up is the weekly letter challenge at Cheryl's Artful Creations: J!! I used string #91from David Rae, then used tangle patterns: Japonica, Jeewels, Jetties, Jonqal and Jalousie with bordering of Joy and Jambalee.

Finally, at Tickled To Tangle, the challenge was in celebration of Tangle Patterns' 4th anniversary on May 4th. So we were to use String #38 (which looks like a "4"), and 4 A patterns: Aquafleur, Aura Leah, Axlexa and AA's. I had only ever tried Axlexa before this challenge, so there was quite a bit of learning here too. I really like the flow and fun of AA's, but I seriously do not care for Aquafleur - I had to constantly do over and over again in pencil because I could not get it to look anything like it should. There was nothing fun or relaxing about it for me. Other than Aquafleur, I did enjoy the challenge, though. So, without further ado,,,

And so I anticipate a very busy weekend: Free comic book day, interNational Scrapbooking Day, and May the 4th be with you day.

H-I! Earth Day Tangled

A few tangles here.

First, an Earth (aka Amanda) Day tangle for the challenge #164 at I am the diva blog. I found a string at Tangle Patterns (#77) that reminded me of the earth, but also had the yin/yang feel to it that I feel best represents how I feel about the Earth Day initiative - that the Earth is in a delicate balance that we need to keep in check. And I decided to be different and color instead of shading. A little practice for the present I am working on for my husband. I used in the corners Paradox, Nipa, Magma and Droplets, and for the inside Grubz and Sedgling with some Croon and Wartz swirled in. I really love the Grubz.

Next up are a couple of challenges over at Cheryl's Artful Creations. She's been going through the alphabet and this week she is at I. Of course, I had done last week's challenge and hadn't gotten around to posting it yet, so without further ado, here is "H" (Hopscotch, Hypnotic, Hibred, Huggins, Hollibaugh, and Hoodie), using TanglePatterns string #76 - I actually put it into a sentence - "Hollibaugh  in her Hibred Hoodie plays Hypnotic Hopscotch with Huggins.". Yeah. OK.

And here is "I" (Inapod, Ixorus, Indy Rella, Inersis and Ibex), using TanglePatterns string #93:

An inspired tangle

So I was inspired in two different directions this week with my tangle. First, I was inspired by Easter here coming in a couple of days and created a "string" with the cross symbol.

Then I was inspired by the challenge over at the I am the diva blog with the weekly challenge to use the new official Zentangle Rixty (named so in honor of one of the founders of Zentangle Rick, who turned 60 - get it, Ri(ck-si)xty?). At any rate, I was planning to use Rixty for the lines of the cross, so it worked out perfectly! The rest I did rather randomly - I used the official Zentangle patterns Rixty, Hibred, Huggins, Tipple, Quandary and Ixorus, and unofficial tangles Arnia, Y-Ful Power, Pavonia and FishNet.  Here is how it turned out:

I really like how it turned out. It feels so organic and alive.

Zentangle-Inspired Tangle

I recently started going back to doing an art form called Zentangle, and related tangled doodling. I was inspired to blog again in response to a Zentangle challenge posted by CZT Laura aka I Am The Diva. In the challenge, our string is supposed to be our initials; so I used my full set - LADC. This is the string before I started on the actual drawing.

I had done some die rolling to find select some patterns semi-randomly and that's the notes that you see. I followed some of those, but ended up doing a few things differently. Here is the final product, which I kind of like:

I put the names of the official (Keeko, Beelight, 'Nzeppel, Paradox, Jetties, Ennies) Zentangles used as well as some un-official ones (Bead by Bead, Paushalov, Puf, Waves, Stone Necklace, Reticulated, Quare, and Onamato).

I am hoping to get some tiles to use, but for now I am using some Canson sketch paper. I am using Pigma Sensei instead of the recommended Pigma Micron, and I've opted to use blenders to help with my shading. I also hope to take a class one day with a CZT. Luckily, not too far away is Carole Ohl, a CZT whose work I really love and has designed a number of un-official tangle patterns (such as the Puf one I used in the above drawing).