D1 and Square One

I was excited to see that my virtual friend, Marguerite Samama, is the guest blogger for the diva this week! YAY Marguerite! Challenge 329 is to use the fragment D1. I was not familiar with it, but was sure inspired by all of Marguerite’s gorgeous samples. Just wow!

I decided I would use D1 along with the new tangle by CharKat, Abukas. Oh my! What a FABULOUS new tangle! I will definitely revisit it often. It is open to so many variations… I. Am. In. Love! 

Thank you Marguerite and Charlotte for inspiring a wonderful day of art!

I am thrilled and honored that today my new tangle, haKrall, is the focus tangle for the FANTASTIC Facebook group, Square One™ : Purely Zentangle® this week. Here’s the tile I created as the sample for the group.

I’d LOVE to see any and ALL creations with haKrall! Please remember to #haKrall for any art you post to the Zentangle mosaic (@hadesignsCZT) or Instagram (@hadesigns)/Facebook.

Thanks for spending a bit of time with me… have a wonderful, art filled day! 

A Garden View

Yayyyy! It's time to work on another Diva Challenge! The guest blogger this week for challenge 328 is Suzanne Fluhr. I regularly see what she is up to via her awesome blog. The challenge she set forth was to use her lovely tangle, Aloha, in a tile. 

I was first introduced to this tangle while attending Lynn Shelton Mead’s class at Tangle U in Naples, Florida earlier this year. I loved the bold floral look!  After reading Suzanne’s post about the creation/inspiration for this tangle, I was definitely feeling the island atmosphere. I added my new tangle, haKrall (step out updated today!), in the background and added a sunset of colors… creating my “Garden View.” 

Diva Challenge 328 : "Garden View" 

Thank you again, Suzanne, for a fun challenge! It was wonderful to escape to the islands for a bit! 

Weekend Inspiration & haKrall Tangle Step Out

This past weekend was so. much. FUN!

Norm and I had a little getaway to Santa Barbara. We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast, enjoyed time with friends, I attended a fantastic heart centered meditation workshop with our daughter, we saw DIANA KRALL at the Santa Barbara Bowl, AND I deconstructed then reconstructed a pattern! Phew! It was busy!

Santa Barbara is such a beautiful seaside city… it feels like a vacation even if you just stop by for lunch! Our daughter, Leila, lives in the area, so we always have a good reason to go. I find it to be such an inspiring place… the architecture, flora, and weather are all delightful.

Simpson House Inn... Fantastic Bed & Breakfast place.

Front of main house.

More cottages in the back of the property.

Many lovely fountains adorn the gardens.

Norm had the great idea of inviting friends to join us for the concert and weekend. We had delicious dinners around town, and spent the days enjoying the weather and our gorgeous location. 

Lovely lunch with friends at the Four Seasons.

Gorgeous lotus beginning to bloom in one of the fountains.

Look at that vine!! 

Oh my... this is amazing!

These hibiscus blooms were as big as dinner plates!

I had been looking forward to this particular trip for months in anticipation of attending a Diana Krall concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I purchased the tickets the moment they became available! She is one of my VERY favorite musicians. I think of her as my creative muse… I tend to listen to a Diana Krall station while creating and/or cooking. 

I was so happy that I brought along some drawing supplies, just in case I had some moments to create. The weekend got even better when I had a few relaxing hours to work in my art journal/sketchbook in the garden. Earlier in the week I had taken a photo of a pattern that intrigued me… I began deconstructing and reconstructing it one line at a time… my pen tickling and whispering along in my journal as it told it’s story. 

The inspiration pattern found on a tv show!

It spoke to me of complicated ideas born from the simplest of seeds… of fragments turned on their axis to create something new… of exploration and the impact of scale. 

Drawing in the garden...

A tangle is born...

After completing a couple of samples, I started searching tangle patterns to see if a tangle had already been published similar to what I had just deconstructed. The closest relative I found was Pezember… however that tangle does not weave at each connection. If anyone knows if this has been deconstructed already and published somewhere, please let me know. In the meantime… here’s my step out for this tangle that I’m calling, haKrall.

{NOTE: The variation shows how you can scale or expand the tangle. As you become familiar with this tangle, you will start to notice that if you create sections of the fragments in a certain order you can create most of the transitions without the little hollibaugh style bridges. The shown variation is the easy peasy way of showing how I made the larger spaced samples. It looks great with less/more aura lines in step 3 as well!}

Tangle : haKrall

I’d love to hear how you like it! Please include #haKrall on any posting of art that you create and post in the Zentangle Mosaic app or instagram/Facebook. I’d love to be able to find your creations! {You can find me on Zentangle Mosaic @hadesignsCZT and on Instagram @hadesigns.}

Here are a couple of tiles completed with haKrall:

Beans, Bears, and Peanuckles... oh my!

Oh my… weeks sure do go by quickly! Here’s a super quick look at the highlights… 

I enjoy messing around with recipes and adding my own little twists. This week I wanted to use the last half of the bag of Royal Corona beans I had left from my last Rancho Gordo purchase. (Rancho Gordo is a purveyor of Heirloom beans… each variety that I have tried has been AMAZING! Definitely not your grocery store dried bean.) The Royal Cordona is a HUGE bean that is so yummy and creamy once cooked. I initially used this recipe (with minor adjustments) when I cooked a batch a couple of months ago. Now it was time to relook at the recipe and make a few changes that I had made note of the last time I made it, plus use some extra ingredients I had in the fridge. It’s fairly quick to put together… especially if you have an Instant Pot to cook the beans in! (I posted my version of the recipe in my recipe box for easy printing.) It was a FANTASTIC meal!

Shrimp with White Beans, Sausage, & Arugula

About mid week I got VERY HAPPY mail… I finally received my “reward” for a Kickstarter that I supported… BEARS vs. BABIES!!! I backed another fabulous game a couple of years ago by the same creators, called Exploding Kittens. I know this new game is going to be a big hit too. I coerced Norm to play a round with me, and even on the very first try it was a blast. I’m looking forward to playing in a couple of days with both of my daughters when they’re home for a brief visit! 

Fun in progress!

I was hoping to work on a LOT more art than I actually got to this week… but at least I took some time to work on the Diva Challenge #325 by guest blogger, Jessica Davies. She challenged us to play with the tangle, Peanuckle, by Molly Hollibaugh. This is a tangle that I have only used a couple of times, and I wanted to explore using it a bit differently than I had previously. I really enjoyed "Peanuckling aRound" with this exercise… Thank you, Jessica!

Diva Challenge #325, "Peanuckling aRound"

I used a Tombow Mono Drawing Pen for this tile that I received from Tombow to test. WOW! I used the 01 and boy did I love the feel of the tip as it tickled the tile... easily transitioning from very fine to slightly bolder lines as you can see in the texture of my tile. The pen weight felt a little lighter in my hand than the Micron. The ink is a deep black, and dries quickly to avoid smudging and streaking. The ink flowed steadily and it made it easy to achieve crisp, precise lines. I really like that the top of the pen (the cap) has the nib size embossed on it. I'll still be able to quickly see the size at a glance, even after months of use. I've always loved my Microns and Copic MultiLiners... now there is a NEW pen to add to the group of favorites!

I’m looking forward to the week ahead! I hope that your week brings you happy moments and time to create.

Catching up and finally back to art…

It’s been an interesting past few months… I’ve done some traveling to Tangle U in Florida plus additional time to explore and visit Norm’s mom, a family vacation at an amazing ranch in Arizona, and Southern Utah while my dad had surgery. We also moved our youngest daughter to a new place to live while at college, and dealt with a scary health situation that my husband had. Norm is still recovering, and hopefully he will be completely healed soon. 

Needless to say, besides the Tangle U portion (WHICH WAS AWESOME) of my traveling, I haven’t had a lot of time to create. The past couple of weeks I’ve been starting to steal bits of time here and there and it. feels. so. good! Here are some photos from some of these adventures… (I promise there is art in this post... just scroll quickly past these photos!)

Lovely location of this year's Tangle U

We enjoyed staying here!

A beautiful sunset to welcome us

Wonderful dinner out in Naples... Stone Crab!!!

Alligators near the road in the Everglades. HUGE!!

Lovely time together with relatives.

Celebrating Norm's birthday and enjoying dim sum.

Seeing a Perfect Circle at the Hollywood Bowl.

Family vacation in Arizona

We had such a wonderful time together!

Leila bravely holding the DEAD rattlesnake!

Cami and roommates

They're so much fun to be around!

Weekend in Santa Barbara. Celebrate Leila's birthday and see Boston at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

I love the scenery of my hometown. Southern Utah.

Lovely morning walk with my mom.

Another walk to see the petroglyphs...

They always leave me in awe...

More than a thousand years old. 

My furry son, Clark, turns 7.

Norm's poor leg... Blood infection/cellulitis. Definitely. not. fun. 

You made it! Now time for the art!

Last week I had the opportunity to perform my civic duty and wait ALL day at the courthouse to see if I would be called as a juror. I was prepared… I brought my sketchbook and pens/pencils. It was a lovely day! Uninterrupted art time is a pretty rare commodity! I played with Eni Oken’s technique for twisted ropes for the first time. I LOVED it! Twisty ropes are so organic. I enjoyed adding some mooka weaving in and out of it.

This week’s diva challenge #324 by guest blogger, Jessica Davies, is “Tangled Hearts.” I decided to explore the twisted ropes a bit more with a very loose heart shape and some additional mooka vines. I thought about my journey as I worked on this tile… about how your heart guides you in the direction you should take, yet many times you have distractions or pretty shiny things that mislead you towards a path that may direct you away from the truth of your heart. This is my “hearts journey," a reminder to focus on my path and stay true to my self/heart.

"Hearts Journey" Diva Challenge 324

My Inner Light girl has been patiently waiting for me to finish her for months. I was stuck for awhile as I considered how I could express/paint her inner glow and show her values/goals/mantras. I think I was a little afraid of finishing it and it not being what I had visualized in my mind. I finally forced myself past that barrier and started gluing the dimensional pieces down and added additional layers of color/shading/details… and then it happened… I had that moment when I looked at it and said… it’s done. Here she is preparing for her photo shoot in my lightbox. 

It’s wonderful to be back in this space, inspired by so many, and creating art.

Comfort...

This week's diva challenge 308 is all about your comfort zone... your "Mac n Cheese" of tangling. I did a lot of tangling this week as I prepared to teach an Introduction to Zentangle® class after taking about a year break mainly due to surgeries. 

I thought about what tile I might want to use as my submission, and decided that what meant the most to me this week is the art I created for each student who attended class. I enjoy creating a tile for each person, and tend to choose my comfort tangles to adorn them. Each one is drawn with love and welcome in every stroke. 

It meant more than I could have imagined to teach again... to get into that comfort of sharing such an amazing method with others. My heart filled with light and joy. I am so grateful. 

Thank you for visiting! I hope you have a wonderful and inspiring, art filled day! 

Imagining...

The diva challenge 307 this week has to be one of the most adorably taught tangles... EVER! Indy and Mazzy (7 and 5 years old) showed us how to draw, "Zingo." I smiled the entire time as I watched them create their tile. Such confidence and poise... so inspiring. I went classic Zentangle® with my submission, using a white tile/micron 01/pencil. I did add some light tangling to the background and a few details with the graphite left on my tortillon. In honor of Indy and Mazzy's amazing teaching style and lovely imagining,  I am titling this piece, "Gumdrops & Fairy Wings."

Diva Challenge 307 : Zingo : "Gumdrops & Fairy Wings"

Thank you for taking the time to visit! I hope you have a wonderful, art filled day!

Jewels of the Sea

This week's diva challenge 306 was posted on 3/06! I find that ever so AWESOME! The challenge was to use Lily Moon's pattern, Amphora. This was my first opportunity to draw this lovely tangle... as I experimented with it I realized I wanted to emphasize the feeling of the sea that it gave to me. I selected a tan tile and decided to use sea colors, blue and gray for my ink. Instead of using the first line of the pattern with the diamonds I started with circles to feel more like pearls/jewels to go with my sea theme. As I tangled, my mind wandered to a magical place under the sea where:

The sea waves 

crashed

and rolled

gathering and

selecting 

beautiful

mother of pearl

ornaments...

a gift.  

This tile is titled, "Jewels of the Sea." 

"Jewels of the Sea"

"Jewels of the Sea" side angle view

Thank you for stopping by for a visit today... It's always nice to have guests. Please be so kind as to leave a comment, I'll be sure to pop on over and return the favor! Have an amazing, art filled day!