Happy New Year

2017 has been a big year, there has been a few downs and thankfully plenty of ups!
Paul and I plan to see in the new year quietly, no whizz bang exit from the past year and no fancy new year resolutions. Life will flow on no matter what expectations I have.
If my Opus tile is a plan for 2018 there will be plenty of rumpus with twists of exotic ellish, travels with tripoli, flowery patches of fife, mooka for a touch of magic, bonza time with bunzo, toodles of highlights and to balance things some shady bits too.

Thank you for visiting and all your wonderful comments, hope your 2018 is full of delightful highlights, lots of laughter and especially good health!

Merry Christmas

It's been 8 years since I found Zentangle! We were in the newsagent in Wynyard Tasmania on Boxing Day 2009, buying motorcycle magazines for Paul when I spotted the magazine 'Cloth Paper Scissors'. I was flipping through the pages when an article about Zentangle by Sandy Bartholomew just popped out. From that day on I have tangled almost every day, enjoyed so many special hours tangling with friends from here in Tassie, main land Australia, the US and Germany. What a treat, back in 2009 I certainly didn't realise how special Zentangle was going to be.

Merry Christmas to everyone in our wonderful Zentangle community and hope you enjoy a fabulously delightful holiday. 

Have you been enjoying the 'Twelve Days Of Zentangle' on Mosaic? If you haven't seen all the great videos check them out on YouTube. 
Here are my favourites.

Day 1

Day 3....Rumpus

Day 10

Day 6.......Toodles

Day 12

Framed

Ooops had to much fun with mooka and ellish last night......you can have a chuckle, it is a bit over the top, in the end I just had to frame them in!

Tan Opus tile

Afterglo

The Diva's
 Weekly Challenge #344: "UMT: Afterglo by Carole Ohl"

Time to start thinking of Christmas......... bring out the decorations, wrapping, ribbon and bows.

Tripoli Travels

A rainy day perfect for time spent with tripoli which is one of those tangles that just travels and merges in so many ways just like a mystery bus tour.
In all these tiles I started with tripoli first then without a plan, no map, just waited patiently to see which tangle came onto view next!

Around the round-about with keeko and squill

Construction on the way, tripoli held up with strutz

From the density of the city out onto the freeway without a word spoken

Lost in the woods.......

will I find my way out by the light of the noom? 

Dewd

The Diva's

 Weekly Challenge #343: "New Official Tangle Dewd"

Hey dewd!
Cool dewd!
Super dewd!

Pre-string tan Zendala

Paradox with Bunzo

The Diva's
 Weekly Challenge #342: "Duotangle: Paradox vs Bunzo"

Just the ticket for this week with an ATC.

Going Big

The Diva's
Weekly Challenge #341 "Go Big (Or Go Home)"

Opus tile with 05 Pigma pen with gold and green jellyroll pens - I started with a spoken/mooka combo and went big with Zentangle's new tangle dewd.

Framed

Back in September I finished a 4 piece Opus tile mosaic for Joshua and Nan's new home. You can see it here close up.  Rod from Scottsdale Art Gallery Café framed it for us and Paul hung it in their living room.

While tangling it I was thinking of a winding path but after it was framed and I stood back, a large M stood out, Nan is from Myanmar so I was happily surprised. I had the idea of their life path of ups, downs, filled with lots of little gems, I wanted smooth flowing, many tangles to make life interesting but be able to stand back and see the big picture with a smile.

As I like to say 'Life is full of surprises just like a Zentangle'!

Wibble

The Diva's

 Weekly Challenge #340: UMT Wibble by Shawna Martin

Wibble in a spin. My wibble went a bit crazy going up, down and sideways. 

Quiet afternoon, new watercolour pencils and a Renaissance Opus tile.......happy!!

White on Black

The Diva's

Weekly Challenge #338: White on Black!

Well, well, well, I'm back after an adventure with Paul to Nepal and India. We started our trip in Kathmandu and joined the tour group organisd by Intrepid Travel. In 15 days we made special friendships and incredible memories of places I feel so fortunate to experience like the Taj Mahal, flying over The Himalayas and camping on The Ganges. Sometimes it was quite overwhelming especially walking through the cremation area in Varanasi, seeing the chaos of traffic, rubbish and poverty in Delhi. Amongst it all I have admired the Indian women who walk serenely and calmly wearing gorgeous colourful saris. 'Incredible India'.

My small Zentangle kit actually stayed in my bag the whole trip which is unusual for me and it's taken me a week to settle back into tangling and catching up with Mosaic and The Diva's challenges. I enjoyed watching Rick and Maria's tangleation on Mosaic with the tangle well (which they named well well well) so I've used it in the challenge for this week.

Now for the holiday snaps!!

Rickshaw ride in Kathmandu. Paul always finds a good hat.

That's Mt Everest poking out above the clouds.

Rhino spotting in Chitwan National Park

Lumbini - Birthplace of Buddha.

Boat trip down The Ganges

Sunrise and camping

Varanasi

 Morning prayer and yoga by The Ganges - Varanasi

Sunset - Orchha

The incredible Taj Mahal.......in my Zentangle hat!

Loving the ladies in their beautiful sarees.

 Sad

 Downtown Delhi

Busy Delhi - the horn honking was amazing!

Crazy 'Nzeppel

The Diva's  Weekly Challenge #334: "Crazy 'nzeppel with Molly"

Crazy 'nzeppel with diva dance on a tan pre-strung zendala tile.

Three, Four Outside The Box

Earlier in the month I posted the 1st two Opus tiles which are part of a four tile mosaic for Joshua and Nan inspired by the colours of a mat in their new home..........now to get them framed!

Here are tiles three and four!

Ta - da.....1 2 3 4  together

Recently Rick and Maria posted on blog Zentangle about thinking 'out side the box', my 4 tiles might just fit the criteria.

Cozy up for a Change of Season

The Diva's
Diva Challenge #333: "Cozy up for a Change of Season with TanglePod’s Juliette Fiessinger and Kellie Fellinge, CZTs" 

In our upside down world at the bottom of the Earth our blossoms are blooming, the grass is growing, the sun is gradually getting warmer.........hurray! It is a bit windy today so I'm finding comfort in marasu which is uncurling into a flourish of drawings with printemps drifting on the breeze.

String it: 2² (two squared)

The Diva's

Weekly Challenge #332 "String it: 2² (two squared)"

Phew! It's been a busy week, our  35 year old carpet has been replaced with fresh grey wool new carpet. What a job! Great now that it's down and I'm happy! Our old carpet has survived children growing up, parties and dogs, it was a super quality and still looked ok but it was 'red'. I have procrastinated over replacing it because it wore so well and everyone who visited admired our lovely red carpet and when I mentioned that I was planning to change it, there were always comments "No, not the red carpet!"

One, Two.......

Our son and daughter-in-law have moved into their new home. Lucky me.... they have asked if I could tangle a long piece of Zentangle Inspired Art. What a lovely excuse to design a four square long mosaic using Opus tiles. I love the colours of their living room mat so that was my starting point.

I'm going to try a wave effect.....hope it works!
Here are the first two tiles.

Petoskey Stones

The Diva's

Weekly Challenge #331 - Guest Blogger Jane Reiter

Weekly Challenge #331: "Petoskey Stones in Michigan

A fun, different challenge for us this week! Jane suggested we tangle our own interpretation of the fascinating Petoskey stones. Thanks Jane.

Pre-strung Renaissance Zendala tile

If you, like me hadn't heard of Petoskey stones, check them out on The Diva's blog here.

 

Zentangle Plate

The Diva's Weekly Challenge #330 - Guest blogger Jeanette Clawson - Zentangle Plates

A four tile mosaic representing a plate has been on my list of things to do for awhile. Thank you Jeanette for giving me a nudge to play round and bring out the blue pen.

Happy happy!!