Race #2!! and other challenges

      Good morning!  I hope all is well with each of you.  Welcome to my new followers! I am so glad to have you.  I promise you won't get an over abundance of posts!  I try to post once a week due to challenges.  Occasionally there are extra posts, but not too often.
      Every Inchie Monday was the country of Eucador.  I thought I would chose an animal from this county.  Lots of wonderful choices!  I decided on the capybara.  I just like the sound of that word, lol!  The flag was a little more complicated with the symbol in the middle.  So I hid it - mostly.  I mean it is an inch!

      Joey's challenge was a trip to the beach for me!  We started her "finish my string" challenge with waves of Diva Dance.  I then added some underwater elements including one of my new favorites - shell xcape. 

      Diva's challenge was to do a monotangle with the tangle paradox.  She didn't have to ask me twice!  I love that tangle.  When I was in high school, I entered a piece of art based on this tangle.  It has another name - Huddy's Doodle.  I think I like the sound of paradox better.  Either way it is a wonderful tangle and I love using it.  I used the idea of a zen button to put this monotangle in.

      Yeah!  It came!!  My coveted green envelope came in the mail today.  It has my t-shirt and medal for my "Race to Hana"  virtual race.  I get so excited to see this!  It really does keep me motivated.  I am now working on the "Avenue of the Giants" race, one that takes place in the redwood forest (California).  The scenery is gorgeous!

        One of my new coloring books from several weeks ago is Creative Haven's Beautiful Birds.  This past week I colored the Carolina Wren.  I love to color flowers so this group of roses was lots of fun.  Incase you want to hear this bird's song, check out this link.  The other coloring sheet is from Tropical Blooms. 

      And lastly I hope everyone had a Hoppy Easter and beginning to Spring!  See you next time! Hugs!

Stormy weather

     I do not like storms.  I am fearful of them even though I try very hard to be brave.  I am not.  They (the weather people) are saying that there is a very good likelihood we will have severe storms in our area this evening and tonight.  My stomach has already knotted up.  Since I won't finish this post til tomorrow, I will let you know how it went.  Hopefully nothing to report!
     Joey's challenge was to use the tangle coil.  I like this one a lot and need to remember to use it more.  That is one of the things I like about challenges, they remind me of tangles I had once used and put on the shelf.  Thought I would play with the hollibaugh effect with this tangle.  The center tangle is krokus.

     My heart has been filled with a lot of sadness this week.  You may have possibly heard that Tripp Halstead passed away.  He was a little boy who captured the hearts of thousands when a tree limb fell on him at his daycare.  I followed the family on FB and became quite attached to them.  I had prayed so hard he would make at least a semi recovery.  But five years after the accident he simply could not battle any longer.  I feel so sorry for that precious family.  I feel as though I know them even though I don't really.
      Every Inchie Monday's country this week was Russia.  My first thought were those gorgeous onion dome buildings!  I love them. I had my inchie all done and realized that I had the colors of the flag in the wrong order - arghh!  So I had to redo the whole thing.  I should pay more attention.

      Diva's challenge was to use our name as a string.  I have recently fallen in love with the tangle feathering so I decided to fill this tile with feathers.  I love the flowing and ease of this tangle.  It definitely defines zen to me.

       Weather update:  We had one slight storm, but nothing else.  No high winds or hail!  No tornados!  There were some areas around us that had some major problems, but we were blessed!  I am so thankful.
      Some days getting on my bike is hard work.  Today was not one of them.  I finished my Road to Hana race - 59.5 miles!!  I hopefully will get my shirt and medal this week!  Now I am off to the California Redwood forest for a journey through the woods!
      My coloring book focus this past week was from Beautiful Flowers and Arrangements by Creative Haven.   I was able to do quite a few because they are really quite simple.  Very relaxing and fun.  Hope you don't mind if I share this past week's work.

      Thank you for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine.  Have a great week!  Hugs!
     

A Brand New Tangle!

    I was roaming around on Pinterest (I spend too much time there, but that is another story) and found this really cool pattern.  So I started playing around with it and ta! da!  I have a new tangle.  At least I think it is.  If I have accidently copied someone else's tangle, please let me know.  You saw this last least week on one of my tiles.  Remember I asked for a name suggestion?  Well I really liked the suggestion of "Two Wise".  Think about the way it sounds - "two y's".  Isn't that cool?  Thank you Joyce!  I worked out the step out, though it is fairly simple.  I also discovered you can play with lots of variations with this one.  Have some fun  with this one!

     The inchie word / country was Samoa.  My first thought was to hunt out a Girl Scout so she could help with a few boxes of inspiration.  Decided against that and went with a more diabetic friendly option of Google.   Wasn't as much fun though.  This country is gorgeous! I loved the blues of the water and the lush greenery.  My inchie doesn't really capture that too well so you need to look this place up!

     Diva's Challenge was to use one of my absolute favorite tangles - verve.  I use this one very frequently and I love it. 

     Joey's Challenge was another string to copy.  She had a really pretty ribbon in the left upper corner and some pokeleaf in the bottom right.  I added some mooka flowers and a toodle flower.

     My new coloring book from Color It came this past week.  I love their books because of the spiral binding at the top and the quality of the paper.  Here are the two I did this past week.

     My new stationary bike came this past week also.  I love it!  I am now able to do a bit more toward my challenge each day and that is super.  It is a bit hard on the uh, . . .  seat.  I need to figure out how to help that out!
     Take care and thanks for leaving me some sunshine!  Hugs!
    

A Bit of Sunshine

      Good day!  I hope you are having a wonderful week.  I have had a good one.  It's been really hard to do what little walking I usually do.  We have had some sunshine but it is back to cloudy today and they even say the mountains are going to have some flurries.  I really wanted some snow, but now that the flowers are blooming and looking so pretty, I hate to see that.
     I have a new adventure!  There is an organization called Send A Smile 4 Kids.  They collect homemade cards to send to children's hospitals.  These cards can be used for the children to send to people or for caretakers to give to the children.  SAS4KIds is going to be a lot of fun to be involved with and I promise to tell you more as I get information.  I am so excited to have an outlet for my card making.  I also get to be the volunteer for our area and collect cards and deliver them to the hospital.  Exciting!
     Diva's challenge was to use the tangle siri.  She chose to use a lot of blue in her tile to honor her mom's birthday.  I decided to stick with the color and add a bit of purple (because that is my very favorite color).  I also used a tangle of mine for the border on the top and left.  I haven't figured out a name for it yet.  Any suggestions?

     I am so glad there is the saying "there are no mistakes in zentangle" because I set out to prove that wrong with Joey's challenge.  She gave us a perfectly lovely string to use and a very nice unnamed tangle.  For starters I struggled with the tangle.  Then I had an idea about making it a beach scene.  the crescent moon that was to be the hills just didn't have that effect.  Moving on I hoped arukas would work for some sunshine.  It might have if I could do it correctly!  Despite it all, I do like the tile, but it certainly has more than a few mistakes!

     The inchie this week was for one of my most favorite places - Australia.  I have never been there, but I really would love to visit!  When I taught - in the years before the curriculum became so rigid - I did an around the world theme.  It lasted all year and we "spent" several weeks on each continent or in various countries.  We read stories from there.  Ate foods and sang songs.  All our math and spelling and language was tied to where we were studying.  It was delightful!  Australia was always one of the children's favorites because of all the wonderful creatures from there.  Anyway (I digress) my inchie has the Sydney Opera House and a graphic style kangaroo.

     Now off to work on a coloring page.  There is a contest and if mine is chosen I could win $100 gift card.  Don't think I would turn that down, lol!!
     Hope you have an awesome week and stay safe!  Hugs!