A few tangles and a few beads!

Yep, I'm back doing some tangles for note cards. So relaxing and nice to have on hand or just to make up when you need a card!
Today was one of those days I needed to just relax! YIKES! Gracie was having one of her screaming fits...if you've never heard a parrot scream, you're lucky!! It's one of the top reasons folks get rid of their parrots as it can be quite unnerving. It's almost like scratching nails on a chalkboard! Really gets to you!
So besides listening to Gracie scream...Kalee is good as gold but LOVES to grab the newspapers off the end table and RUN!!! It's her game but not our game! Hence, this a.m. it seemed like I was always letting her outside, threatening her with the spray bottle or getting the newspapers from her mouth! I know, I know...it's good exercise, right!
Anyway, I also started to play with putting some tangles on my fabric paper along with some beads, of course! I stitched around the larger heart on the machine then added a heart from some suede fabric I had on hand. Of course I had to finish it off with the rope stitch in beads. I have to edge this piece and put on the address label, but I think it will make a good fiber card. It's 5" x 7".
I'm back to beading some more rings. I'm making these for my friend here in Florida (Carol). She picked out the pink beads and the crystal beads. It's just the peyote stitch then once you have your size, just sew up the edges and you're done.
I made these for myself too. I love the crystal one and the purple color will match my Valentine shirt!
Yesterday I cut up some of the fabric paper I talked about in my last post and started to zentangle designs on the pieces. I'm going to have to make up another piece of the fabric paper as I only had enough for about a dozen fiber cards. I need at least 20-22 pieces. Gives me a good excuse to have another play day!! Like I need an excuse!

Black and white tangles finished

I finished this one I showed a few posts back. I just love working in black and white. I'm going to look for some gray paper to work on. I watched some zentangles done on the gray using white for shading and adding color. Next on my 'to do' list!
This was my 'yin/yang' version. Kalee and I have only had two walks today but did some more of the lessons for crate games. What a hoot! These are some training techniques by Susan Garratt, a trainer from Canada. My friend loaned me her DVD and I'm thinking I'm going to have to buy it. It's a really interesting method for preparing your dog for recall, agility and just playing games with them. Puppies have to be kept busy so this is perfect for Kalee. Especially with all the rain we've been having. Florida is sounding better each day!
Bob and I are still hacking away and blowing our nose. I can't believe how many boxes of Kleenex tissue we've gone through!!! Hopefully, tomorrow we'll both be feeling a bit better! Let's hope!

Back to tangles

Weather has been rainy and or windy all week and in the 40's or 50's but feels like the 30's. Today it was windy and rainy and just miserable to be out and about...which I had to be.
Tomorrow is the same with running around but we're not suppose to have any rain. It sure would be nice to take Kalee outside without my raincoat and hood!
Before I show some of the zentangle pieces I've
been working on, here is half of my beaded butterfly completed! Well, almost half...a bottom wing and body left to do! Yippee!! I might get finished before 2012 after all!

Several weeks ago I took another Zentangle class at the Edge Gallery in Fenton. The class was learning to creating zentangle mandalas. We also learned several new Zentangle patterns (a few of the patterns pictures are below in this post). Since I can't do my beading while watching Kalee and TV, it's back to zentangles!

This is one of the mandalas we started on in class. I finished at home then added some color.




I did this one two nights ago. I love working in black and white and I'm looking forward to finishing this one.
At the class, we had to make snow flakes to trace onto our paper to then make a symmetrical 8 sided design. this was my funky snowflake.
Some of the patterns we learned in class that night.

And this is another one I did last night using my snowflake for a pattern. I'm still not sure if I'll add anything to the white areas or not.
So that's all so far. I work a few minutes on my daughters table topper at a time so not much more to show on that. Echo quilting will take some time. Most likely won't post any work until after the weekend. Just hope we see some sun while taking our daily five walks!

Just some more tangles

Before I show more of my tangles...here is the Humbug bag I made for my friend as a BD gift. Karen does a lot of hand work in addition to her art quilts so I made her bag a little larger to hold all her different threads she might need to carry around. I just noticed my bag I made over a year ago is sitting in the background. I use my bag for carrying my needles, threads, small scissors...all the essentials for hand applique or just sewing on binding. I think Karen will use hers as well...let's hope!
Here is the 1st tile I did in class on Monday. I have tiles I ordered before and I was looking at the work I did on those and the work I did on Monday! huge difference! I can't believe all the tips I got from the class with Sheryl!

This was my 2nd tangle. I think we did learn seven different tangles.

Sheryl showed me two pieces of shrinky dink she had tangled and then beaded! So on Tues. I got out the shrinky dink and did a small 3" square of different tangles. Here's the piece shrunk! I'm putting it on the front of a note card. My hubby said I should make a necklace but I don't think I would wear one...but who knows!

And while I sat outside in our beautiful Michigan weather yesterday I tangled two more note cards. I made up a set last Sept. for my daughter of note cards in black and she really liked them. They make great little gifts.

No tangling today! It was my last full day with the kids until after school starts. We ran some errands and then played 'putt putt'. It was fun and we had a good time. Tomorrow is our CCC fiber meeting and lots going on there. I hope to have some good show and tell to inspire you with on Friday!

Zentangle 101

For those who have followed my blog, you know how much I love to 'tangle'! Last night six of us from our fiber group attended Zentangle 101 class held by Sheryl Lamarand a certified Zentangle teacher at the Edge Gallery in Fenton! Sheryl was great and this is one of her pieces which I think is beautiful! Sheryl had so many examples of her work but I was too busy looking at her art work and only got a few of her pieces photographed.
Sheryl gave us each a kit which included a pen, pencil, stump (for shading), black paper and of course our Zentangle tiles.
And off we went tangling our little hearts out. We learned 7 different zentangle designs and it was so interesting to see how one design was done by everyone in the class.

These are some of Sheryl's Zentangle art work.

These were our class tiles. We each did four different patterns.

Here are the remaining tiles by the class and these were our first lesson.

My little tile starting out

I was too lazy this a.m. to take pics of my finished tiles. I'll post those later. Sheryl lives in the Lansing area and does classes all over! She is also a wonderful beader and we were fortunate to see some of her beautiful beaded jewelry. If you're interested in contacting Sheryl to find out where she's teaching next, just go to the Zentangle teacher web site here and look up her name or contact the Edge Gallery and ask when Sheryl is teaching next!

I was cleaning out some of my art supplies and took a box to Little Monster's, a kids toy store in Lake Orion. They offer free craft sessions on Wed.'s for the kids so I thought they could use some of my excess. While pulling out items for them, I came across some wallpaper sample books my sister sent to me years ago.
Isn't this neat! Well, it's not the sample! It's actually a doodle I did this afternoon on one of the wall paper sample pages!







This next picture is what a page looks like in the book. It's just dots in a design and each page is a different color. I think they are really cool!! I used a white gel pen given to me by Carol T. and it worked pretty good. The pages are 8" x 10" but you could make a nice clutch purse or a cell phone & Ipod bag!


This is what's on the back of each page. They are pretty sturdy but not too heavy that you couldn't sew through them. Now I have to get some different color pens to match some of the dots on the pages. There's a great sepia colored page that I want to do next but my brown pen is dried right up! Michael's here I come!





Most of yesterday and last night I spent trying to figure out the triangle pattern! You see these triangles are beaded together to make a bracelet..which isn't what I'm doing! I just wanted to make a few of them just to say I could, right!

Well I couldn't! Geezzzz I even had a dream about making beaded triangles last night!



But SUCCESS! I finally 'got' it this afternoon!!! Now I can quit! I only made one full triangle and then started with the next attached triangle! They look like little soldiers sitting in a row...ok, maybe not..but they are cute...
You can see the front and the bigger one in the back is attached, by the hip!

These were some of the other triangles I made..the one in the bottom left actually was the start of the correct pattern. I was just working on the 'decreasing' part of the pattern..next you start increasing back to a triangle...hard to gt this out of my head now!

Whew..glad that phase has passed!!! Tonight I'm going to work on Georgia on my Mind..just because my friend, Susan, doesn't think I'll have it finished when I see her next winter! HA I'm actually over 75% finished with the reverse applique so two or three nights of baseball should finish it up! Susan's working on her piece which is HUGE!!! I'll have to confirm the size of it but it's taller than she is and about 10 ladies wide! How's that for a measurement! It's a beautiful piece!!

Temps back up into the high 80's today. I think we're going to wear out the central air!!

Doodle Time

The above picture is a snapshot from the local paper that shows just some of the art exhibits that are close to the house here in Ocala! There's an Art Walk every Friday and these are just some of the places in the downtown area for you to pop in and see some local and national art work. There is so much to do here in Ocala. We went out to dinner with our friends on Friday but 'we' ladies are going to plan a Friday art walk before I leave.

So without my sewing machine to do some quilting for my BJP backgrounds, I've just been doing some 'doodles'. These are some of what I finished so far.




















Then I decided to color in some of the designs. This is a WIP for sure..but gives me a nice break from beading.

I also started on my BJP 2011 January journal. This is the letter 'T'. I'm beading again on the Friendly Felt and then I'll attach to my quilted background.
Yesterday, Carol and I did some 'tooting' around town and ended up at The Dish which is a "European-inspired fine grocer and deli-style establishment". It's so cool!! And the food looked and tasted great. I bought some crab cakes which Bob and I will have for dinner tonight. And they had the BEST chocolate cookies ever! Not too sweet and not too much chocolate...SO good!!

Carol, Peggy and I signed up for a wine tasting and "decadent food pairing" on the 27th of this month at The Dish! It's only $15 and on 2 1/2 miles from the house, heck, we can walk home if need be! You can see why this new establishment can/will get me in trouble!

Peggy and I just got back a little while ago from our bike ride. It's only 40 degrees out but it was actually very pleasant bike riding. I'd prefer it cool over hot any day.

Monday, Susan and I are going to lunch then stopping at two quilt shops. My machine is ready from it's 'spa vacation' and at the same spa/quilt shop they are having a demo on quilting and sewing gadgets. Yes, I'm a gadget person for sure. Always fun to see what's new out there, how you can use or not use it! or how you can make up your own at home (that's what hubby's are good for!). Enjoy the day! I certainly am!

Book Early!

For you folks who are just getting into zentangles, check out Suzanne McNeill's blog post from this past week! Suzanne always posts a new zentangle pattern at the end of her blog post and she's featured one of my zentangle journals! How nice is that! If you are just starting on creating 'tangles', do check out older posts from Suzanne for inspiration and patterns! Also, check out her new book 'Zentangle - Fabric Art - Quilting - Embroidery'. And yes, I've purchased it and love it!

Today we had our first snow on the ground. So that means now I'm ready to head to Florida. I always have mixed feelings on leaving our home each December. But as soon as the cold wind and snow hit, baby, I'm ready to head south!!

Now to finish Christmas gifts (yes, I'm still working on them!!) get all my art supplies packed up and have holidays with the family. Then off we go! I just made our reservations for our favorite hotels on the way and ended up with some great deals!!! Book early and save, as they say!

Just being busy...

Mandy watching her 'dog friends'

Cody (far left) & Logan! He's new to the family next door. He's a Labordoddle!

Speaking of 'doodles'..you have to put down the glass of wine (ok, or whatever!) and rotate your head to the right..I forgot to rotate this pic. This is the small canvas piece I'm doodling on. I still have lots of areas to fill in...just whenever!










I also updated Ian's stats for Cross Country on my widget. This article was in the local paper & I removed all the kids last names for 'security sake':

Andrew W. came in 13th with a time of 18:20, while Brett M. was 17th (18:43) and freshman Ian P. rounded out the scoring for the Jackets with a 20th-place finish in 18:51. This was Ian's best time (grandma added note!).

“Ian continues to run better with each race,” said Jones. “He and Blake, the two freshmen, are getting better and better and we’re starting to see that time gap between the top five or six get a little closer.”

You go IAN!!! You're doing just great!!!

Next is update on Nick's Flag Football..these are clips for the family from last night. Darrin was out of town so he didn't get to see Nick play in their scrimmage, which Nick's team won!

Nick is wearing a red top and bottom. I don't remember now which video is which..but he's hiking the ball in one, catching the ball and then running with the ball.

Good News/Bad News

The good news/bad news came from our grand son Nick..good news - he lost his first baby tooth! Bad news...as Nick was coming out of the shower, he told his mom he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy! AND, he also doesn't believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny! Sigh....guess that TD he got in Flag Football has erased all baby thoughts! My DIL said he did try to recant as she was putting him to bed...guess he had 2nd thoughts about the $$'s!

Back to artwork..I was 'doodling' this small hard canvas piece and decided to put some watercolor on it..which of course removed some of the gel pen doodles I had done. I just went over some of the areas again. Actually, didn't turn out that bad. Good practice..

Yea...just like if I find a blouse or T-shirt I like I buy multiples..when I find a zentangle design I like to do, I do lots of them! That's a good thing as it makes it easier to remember how to do them. I keep a journal book and put in the designs I like as a reference. This is the front of an envelope I did.

And another edge to an envelope...

I mentioned at the MQAI opening there were some vendors so I wanted to share two of my 'buys'. This is a great purse made by Cindy Geist from Scrap Happy . Cindy and Mary Bajcz make some really cool items. Check out their web site.

And this is my artwear I purchased from Lynn Hartley. Lynn doesn't have a web site that I can find. I'll have to email her to see where she displays or sells her jewelry. I purchased a pin from her about four years ago and I keep it on my muslin coat. Now I can switch pins. I also bought a pair of earrings but forgot to take a picture of them.

Yesterday Bob and I attended his presurgical conference which I have to say was really informative! They covered everything from pre to post operation..what to expect, what to do and what not to do. As a 'coach' I even got a giant pin! They really gave us some food for thought as to what chair to sit in and how to get out of bed. It's obvious they'll cover that after his surgery but better to know some of that ahead of time. The room was packed and we were shocked at the number of people having either knee or hip surgery...actually, there were more knee surgical patients than hips.

Today, running errands. I'm finishing up the beaded edge on my Aug. BJP so hopefully i can get pics posted tomorrow. Then on to Sept. to try and catch up!!

Weekend Over

In between my busy weekend, I did a doodle. I'm playing with doodling on a hard canvas board which is only 5" x 7". I have larger sizes that I want to do a lot of doodling on so now I have a feel for which pen(s) work best.

These are some pictures from the MQAI exhibit - South of the Border which opened on Friday. The director of the art council said there were at least 750 people who attened the opening!! You can see more pics from the show on our SAQA Michigan blog. I'll be posting again later today with more pics on that site.

Mary, Marty and her marbling fabrics, Scrap Happy (Mary Bajcz and Cindy Geist) and Masquerade hand crafted artwear by Lynn Hartley did some vending! Yep, I did pick up a few items!
These are Mary's beautiful scarves on the wall and her daughter (face hidden!) who helped vend since Mary and Marty are curators of the show.

Of course there was lots of food!! But four of us, including LoisAnn, who surprised us by flying in from Italy, ate at a local restaurant before the opening! We were so shocked to see LA so she got us again! We'll just start planning on her coming back for each opening!! LA does beautiful work!!!

So now to get ready for a busy week as I'd like to finish up my BJP from August!! Bugs me to be behind and I'm anticipating being more behind after Bob's surgery..but I'm only letting myself down so it's not as bad as not meeting target dates for someone else.