Friday, May 31, 2013

Monotangle #12 - Verve

     My schedule is hectic.  Things are changing for me.  I have been on an emotional rollercoaster.  So when I saw Roy's choice for our monotangle this week, I nearly shouted with joy!  Verve is one of those wonderful, relaxing "go to" favorites of mine.  I love this tangle.  And it was exactly what I needed for a few minutes of peace.
     I did the first with some gel pens on a piece of black.  I love the neon effect. 
     For the second tile, I drew a string then filled the two sides with verve.  The large white space in the center bothered me. Too much white space.  But to fill it with verve also . . .  well, that would be too much.  And using another tangle was out, because of the need for a monotangle.  What to do?  Aha!  I grabbed a pencil and used it to fill the space with verve, but because of the contrast it didn't overpower the piece.  I liked the "shadow" effect.  It shows up a bit better on the original.
      Maybe now that school is out - as of today - I will be a little more "chilled".  It was a hard day.  Saying goodbye to 20 of the best kids I have ever been fortunate enough to teach and add to that I have had almost all of them for 2 years . . . well, the emotions were on overcharge.  They are permanent part of my heart and will be missed.
     Add to that, my principal has decided to move me to another position . . . whew!  The other position sounds exciting, but I am like a two year old at heart.  I hate change of any sort - even if I like what I am changing to.  My feelings on the change - well, they change about every few hours.  I love it.  I am afraid I won't do a good job.  Why is this happening?  What if I don't like it?  This will be so much fun.  You get the idea.  Put on top of that I must change classrooms.  Eek! Another change!  I hate moving and packing.  I have been in the same room for about 10-12 years and have accumulated a lot - A LOT - of stuff (junk).  Cleaning it all out is a major endeavor. 
    Anyway, that's my rollercoaster ride.  Thanks for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine.  I love hearing from you and I promise by next week this time, I am going to be much more relaxed - I hope. 

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Challenge #120

     When I first started tangling I used "bales" a lot.  It was a major go-to tangle.  Then I found so many others that I loved better, bales became forgotten.  So this was an interesting challenge to go back to bales and explore other ways to use it.  My string isn't very creative.  I just used bale to make a few ribbons and then added some of my new favorites in the middle of bales.  Nothing spectacular, but it was fun!
Have a great day and thanks for dropping by!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Long Weekend!

      Yahoo!  It is Memorial Day weekend here in the states and I have a wonderful long weekend.  I don't really have any school work to take one of my days.  That is not to say I don't have school work - I do, tons of it.  It is just moving and packing and cleaning.  Which means none of it could be brought home.  Ah, poor me.  Not.
      I loved the template for Bright Owl this week.  I always print all three sizes, but seem to only have time for one or two.  This week, I got to do all three.  The first one reminds me of a dream catcher for some reason. 
Dream Catcher
     Then I did the next one with my browns and sepia pens.  I love those colors and use them a lot.  Actually brown tones are among my favorite colors.  I also experimented using different sizes of pens rather than just grabbing the 01.
     The last one, I am not too sure about.  It is okay.  Again I played with different pen sizes.  I am just not sure the results were what I wanted, but hey, two out of three is not bad.
      I also got to work on the inchie for Every Inchie Monday.   The word of the week was melody.  I started to take a picture of one of my sweeties in my classroom - her name is Melody.  Then I decided that might not work. So I layered some scrapbook paper onto my inch.  There is a really pretty piece of vellum that has musical notes all over it, but it doesn't seem really visible.  Then I took the black gel pen and drew a single note.  Not real fancy, but it does fit the word.  If you want to see some gorgeous works of art within a one inch frame - check out the side bar.  They are always stunning.
    The weather is gorgeous.  The lab is (im)patiently waiting near the back door.  I feel a football game coming on.  I am so glad to be back to being able to "move".  That bronchitis is for the birds!  Hope your weekend is beautiful and filled with sunshine!  Thanks for dropping by and as always, I love your comments! 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Duet

  I suppose if last post was a trio, then it makes sense that this is a duet.  I am very busy with school things so I don't have a lot of time to post - or to visit other sites to comment like I want to.  I miss the inspiration.  This summer I hopefully will be able to stay caught up.  Here a couple of pieces to get me "sort of" caught up.
    
Bright Owl's Dare #58

    For Diva's challenge, we had to think about black and white - ebony and ivory.  The title comes from one of my favorite songs by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.  I wasn't really happy with this tile, but in the interest of time, here goes.
Diva's Challenge # 119
  I took a white tile and cut it into an irregular shape, then glued it onto a black tile.  I may have to revisit this challenge later on when paperwork is done.
     Hope you are having a wonderful day.  Thanks for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

A Trio

    I feel pretty good.  Now I know that is not a newsbreaking announcement, but considering the last three weeks "pretty good" is enormous to me.  I actually slept all night with no coughing fits.  Yahoo!  I still am coughing some, but the doctor said that may go on for another few weeks.  Either way, I did my happy dance (slow version) around the room this morning after a good night's sleep. 
   I didn't think I would get any challenges or anything posted - I just did not have the energy to draw.  But yesterday, I got busy and here are my entries for the EveryInchieMonday, Diva's challenge and Roy's monotangle adventure.  Check out the sidebar to go and see all the awesome entries.
Every Inchie Monday - Flowers
Monotangle Adventure - Fengle
Diva's Challenge #118 - Kuke Blossoms
     Well, now it is off to grade a massive stack of papers.  I haven't felt like that either so they stacked up.  Hope you all have a great week!  Thank you for dropping by!  As always, I love to read your comments - I plan on getting back into commenting more just as soon as school is out.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Dare #57 and some other fun

      While this post finds me a bit better, it's not the "ready to tackle the world" I was hoping for by Sunday afternoon.  During the day I am pretty good, though I get tired really fast.  It's the night that is awful.  The moment I lay down, I cough.  One day I am going to get a lounge chair so I can sleep sort of elevated.

Dare #57

      If you want to make your own zendalas, head over to Bright Owl's site and enter a contest for some zendala templates by Genevieve Crabbe.  I won them from - somewhere- back over the summer and they are awesome.  This week's template was created with them by Genevieve herself.
      After this one, I decided to do another monotangle challenge from Mindful-Creations (see side bar).  I rarely take the time to do two, but I can draw without talking.  I took Bright Owl's template and filled it with the tangle Hi-Cs.  Was a bit of a challenge but fun!  I never saw this tangle as so versatile until we used it this week in the monotangle.

Every Inchie Monday 

     This week's word was "track".  I used a rubber stamp I have of some tire tracks.  Not really spectacular, but I guess it works.  I hopefully will do better next week.  I have got to get a one inch punch.  I have every other size known, but not one inch.
   Guess I better try to decide what I am going to do tomorrow.  My books are at school and I am here.  Could make for an interesting day.  Just hope I have the energy to get through it.  Thanks for dropping by and visiting.  I love hearing your comments - thanks.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Between Naps

      Sometimes bossy people are the greatest people in the world.  Seriously.  One of my favorite people in the school is Alice, our school receptionist.  I have been fighting this coughing, bronchitis thing for about two weeks.  Dragging through the day with no energy.  I dreaded asking our principal to have a day off.  He's not an ogre or anything, I just hate asking.  And I kept thinking today will be better.  It wasn't.  I got pretty sick at school Wednesday and had more or less decided to take Thursday and Friday, but hadn't worked up the nerve to tell him.  Alice called my room about mid-day and said the sub was arranged for the rest of that day and the other two days.  Bossy lady.  I really love her.
     With two and a half days free, you would think I could get a massive amount of drawing done.  Not really.  I draw for a little bit then head off to try to sleep.   Sometimes I just sit.  It seems all I have energy for.  Fortunately my brother doesn't mind bringing me anything I need so I really don't have to move.

Diva Challenge #117

     Diva asked us to use a new official zentangle this week - schway.  I finished it Monday afternoon, but never had the energy to post it.  I really don't like this one.  Maybe it will be like nzeppel, and one day I will pull it back out and try it and boom!  fall in love with it.  But I rather doubt it.  It is too organized.  Too.  Oh I don't know - just too.  But here is my first and only attempt at schway.

Monotangle #10 - Hi-Cs

     I love this tangle.  It was however rather hard to think of how to make it an original monotangle.  I did just a big tile of this at first.  Nothing special.  Then I had an idea.  I discovered it fits rather nicely into a curvy space.  I hadn't really tried that but I like the effect.

Linework

     Inspired by some of  Cris Letourneau's work.  I just sat played around with lines. Somewhat mindless work, but pleasant.


     I hope you are having a great day and thank you for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine.  I am really hoping to be back to normal by Monday.  There is so much going on this time of year and I hate to miss it.  Also another wonderfully bossy person has told me if I am not well, he - my brother - will drive me to the doctor or the emergency room, but NOT to school.  Bossy.  I am surrounded by these bossy people.  Ain't life grand?