The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #227

Another guest blogger with another great challenge this week at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com. The guest blogger is Lee Darter, CZT and the challenge is Circus Life - to use the tangles Cack (by Adele Bruno), Tropicana (by Kate Ahrens) and either Florz, Fescu or Linq (by Lara Williams).

I felt like this week's challenge needed some colour. Here's my tile with Cack, Tropicana and Florz.

Tangle with U-N-I

I was a little confused when I was choosing patterns for this week's challenge from Diane and Carolien. I am trying to first use original zentangle patterns listed on www.tanglepatterns.com. I noticed there is only one listed for U (Umble) and as we have been through the whole alphabet with this challenge already I thought I must have used it. Then I worked out there it has only been made available on the internet since the challenge including U. Last time I chose the pattern Unyun. I have used Umble before but not as part of this particular challenge so I used it, along with Ing and Nzeppel. Three of the original tangle patterns for me this week! Ing was a lot more fun than I imagined it would be.

Tangle with X-G-K

This week's letters for Diane and Carolien's Weekly Zentangle Challenge are X,G and K. I'm still making my way through original tangles and chose Keeko for K. For X and G there were no original tangles that I haven't already done for this challenge so I had to look further afield. I chose Girdy by Karl Stewart for G. What a great one! I'll certainly be using it again. For X I chose Xenso by Sue Clark, CZT. Another interesting one and worth some more practice I think. 

5 poems in 5 days - Day 5

It's the final day of the poetry challenge I have been participating in on Facebook as well as here. Today's poem was written a couple of years ago about events more than 19 years ago. It was published last year in Ochre, an anthology by the Ochre Coast Poets. 

I love you already 

Pregnancy test in the post 
spots of blood in the night 
talk of the flying doctor 

A bumpy road 
and a car full of strangers 
hours without words 

Voices outside 
the window 
of a motel room 

Alone 
with an air conditioner
and the hope of you 

Repetitive reading 
of signs and symptoms
fear so loud 

Another day 
stark, gray walls 
a bladder too full 

Blip blip blip 
on a screen 
reassurance 

In this moment 
all is well 
future unknown 


I chose to start the challenge on the 14th of July so the fifth day would be today, my daughter's birthday. 

This post is doubling as my post for Six Word Saturday - 

Happy Birthday to my fabulous daughter!!!

Today is also my Grandma's birthday. My day 1 poem in this challenge was about her. She was born on this day in 1918 which is also the day that Nelson Mandela was born!

My grandma holding Alysha

5 poems in 5 days - Day 4

I was excited and honoured to win first prize in the poetry section of the Positive Words Short Story and Poetry competition 2014 for my poem, Mosaic opportunity. 

Mosaic opportunity 

I chose 

from dusty shelves saucers without cups 

a lone salt shaker 

teapots missing lids 

wobbly stacks of plates 

each piece unique 

leftovers 

My heart, my mind 

I search through the rubble 

Smooth and shiny 

or dull and dappled 

beetroot reds and sunshine yellows 

the sparkle of a golden rim 

I imagine 

the breaking of the old 

to form something new 

The chosen will soon hold 

just a trace of its former purpose 

I watch as she wraps 

newspaper around my purchase 

layer after layer 

I almost tell her not to do her job 

that the breakage she aims to prevent 

is no concern 

I am not buying a plate 

or a saucer 

or a teapot missing a lid 

but the possibility of what could be

5 poems in 5 days - Day 3

Today's poem began with a mis-write in my journal. Cope instead of hope.

Tiny glimmers of cope

At times your mood may feel so dark 
As if there is no hope 
Until you catch the light, some sparks 
Tiny glimmers of cope 

The sparkles settle on your skin 
To seep into your week 
A quiet birth of hope within 
Is it really all so bleak?

5 poems in 5 days - Day 2

Today's poem is a reminiscence on fun had at Moana caravan park where I spent a few school holidays. This poem was published last year in the anthology my poetry group put out, Ochre - an anthology by Ochre Coast Poets. 

Playground, present 

Holiday lessons in physics 
where to sit on the wooden plank
to compensate for variations in weight 
keep it even and fair 
up and down 
to and fro 

The children from neighbouring vans 
met earlier in the day 
become playmates 
our limbs coated with sunscreen goo 
faces with smiles 
sand between toes 
a summer uniform of bathers 
under shorts and t-shirts 
sandals discarded at the gate 
we salt the air with laughter 
nervous giggles and gasps 
as we take turns 
to bounce off half tyres 

With new friends called to caravans 
learning continues 
how to keep the plank 
parallel to the ground 
my body a letter x 
toes curled, tense 
a shifting of weight 
from side to side 

To balance in the now 
was easier then

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #226

This week there is another great challenge at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com. This week the challenge is 'Simplicity' from guest blogger Katie Crommett, CZT®.

Simplicity - not always easy! Fun to think about and try!

5 poems in 5 days - Day 1

I am participating in a fun challenge on Facebook, beginning today and will be posting a poem a day for the next 5 days. I thought I would post them here as well. I waited to start today so I could begin and end with dates that are extra special for me. 

Today's poem has been posted on this blog a couple of times before. 

For my Grandma

Katherine Eliza Rachel Mathews (18/7/18 - 14/7/98) 

I remember you waiting for me out the front when I came to visit.
I remember meat pies with their lids off and sauce inside.
I remember you telling me about your trips to the supermarket ,
to buy my favourite cordial and ice-cream.
I remember a White Knight bar at the movies.
I remember two Minties after dinner - no more and no less.
I remember the time I had to write, to sing, to dance,
to invent new games when I stayed with you.
I remember meeting your friend in the city.
I remember, at your urging, reciting the limerick I had written about her.
I remember, it started:
"There was an old lady called Walk,
Boy, did she know how to talk..."
I remember how proud of me you both were.
I remember laying in bed, talking for ages, before calling out the final goodnights.
I remember the stories you told me.
I remember how your eyes lit up when you saw me.
I remember that you were always happy to see me.
I remember that you loved me.



originally written 14/7/09

photograph - my Grandma holding Alysha 4/8/96

Snow is big news in Adelaide

My six words for Six Word Saturday this week -

Snow is big news in Adelaide

 



It's been a colder than usual day here today. There was a little snow in South Australia. It snowed a little at Mt Lofty as well as in the Mid North (Peterborough and Burra). This is big news here in Adelaide as it only occurs every ten years or so and there were lots of photos on Facebook as well as news pages.  

I didn't see any snow but I did see hail twice today. I took a few photos this morning at around 8am when there was quite a lot of heavy hail. The cat ran to the door when I opened it, as she normally does, but stopped short suddenly when she looked outside. Too cold and wet!

As it was quite cold this morning the hail was around for quite a while. Usually it disappears almost as quickly as it appears. Half an hour later though there was still quite a lot around today.

It was quite clear this afternoon when I drove to Flagstaff Hill to pick up Brianna and her friend. On the way back though I drove through hail that started very suddenly and was a little scary to drive through and there was no easy spot to pull over to where I was.

We are in for a windy night. I can hear the wind howling outside. The estimated temperature for tomorrow is 12C which is rather cold for Adelaide. We certainly know it's winter this week!

Tangle with L-Q-D

For Diane and Carolien's Weekly Zentangle Challenge this week I decided to use Limpitz, Quandary and Diva-Dance.

You can join in the fun at http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog/2015/07/weekly-challenge-14-tangle-with-l-q-d/.

Zentangle elephants

Please welcome my guest blogger for this post, Teya - aged 8.

 -----

This is my first zentangle that I have done.

It is only my first but I think it is my best.

It took me forty eight minutes and it went really really well.

I hope you like what I have done......................

Now onto Kylie she used lots of different ways and tries to impress you.

Kylie used her time not just to teach me but to show you what she can do.

 I hope that you like..........

                    

                                              Kylie's    Elephants.

Like it? Well put them together. They make awesome friends.

      

 TEYA

--------------------

 

Thanks Teya, you were fantastic as my first guest blogger. It was a lot of fun doing these with you this morning. They look like they are great friends!

 

 

The template we used for these cute elephants can be found at http://krokotak.com/2013/11/squared-elephants/. 

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #225

Quandery, Limpitz, Sooflowers and Ahh. With colour!

This week there is a guest blogger - Jen Crutchfield CZT - over at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com. The challenge is to use colour, perhaps 2 or 3 colours you don't normally use or think go together. I stretched myself a little with this one, choosing orange and green, which I wouldn't normally put together (at least not with other colours as well). Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop and I'm not sure if I went a little too far with the colour on this one. I actually quite like the two colours together though.

Lots of journals on the go...

I've been journaling quite a lot lately. I have always written quite a lot but since beginning to do zentangles I'm doing a lot more visual journaling too. Then there's also the online things like this blog and my other one, www.pausingforsmallstones.blogspot.com. I'm a regular rather than a daily journaller. Some days I write or draw more than once a day, other times it might be days (or longer) between journaling. I began thinking about how I journal this morning as I have signed up for an online course (Lisa Sonora's FLOW: 30 day journal project). I printed out the first three days of prompts this morning. What wonderful and inspiring ideas! I will be dipping in and out of these wonderful ideas and choosing some to explore deeper. I would love to do it all but life is rather busy at the moment and it's not feasible. That doesn't mean I have to miss out altogether though!

I've been journaling (on and off) for quite a long time. At the moment I have 4 journals that I am using regularly (almost daily). I was thinking about all this as well as what my six words would be for Six Word Saturday and came up with

 

Lots of journals on the go...

 

 

 

 

Some of my writing/drawing is for my eyes only and this is really valuable. The green spiral book and the visual journal are more public and I do show others what I have done in them. I use the green one for drawing ideas and practising tangles while I am learning them. The visual diary is mostly zentangle 'tiles'. Here are a couple of my latest ones -

 

 

For Adele Bruno's It's a String Thing #99

 

This was going to be part of a bigger piece but after drawing this I wanted to stop.



 The brown book is mainly used for writing poetry. It's where I scribble down ideas and work on poems. There's lots of repetition and lots of crossing out, rearranging. I feel like I need an A4 size book for this. I bought a smaller one recently as this one is nearly full but gave it away as it felt too small. I also really want it to have the elastic closing. The butterfly book was given to me by my daughter late last year when I needed a new journal. It's my main writing journal and also contains ideas for poems as well as various other things - lines I love in books, things I've done, feelings, etc. It has blank brown pages. I like to change what type of journal I write in. Sometimes lined (although often I don't keep to the lines) and other times blank like this one. I tend to doodle more in the blank ones.

I'm looking forward to receiving the next email prompts for the journaling course and continuing to enjoy all the creativity.

 





Tangle with Y-H-A

You can't hurry Hurry! This week for Diane and Carolien's Weekly Zentangle Challenge the letters are Y, H and A. One of the patterns I chose is Hurry. I found I had to really concentrate to get the lines straight and not bumping into each other. It looks quite effective I think. I try to choose original patterns but now that I've done a reasonable amount of tangling there are some letters that I have to look further afield for. For Y this week I chose Lianne Woods' pattern YNY. A simple but effective one with lots of possibilities. I don't love how it turned out on this tile but it is one I will be playing with more. The other tangle I chose is Ambler. Lots of fun - spirals are great to draw. I can imagine playing with this one more too.

Anyway, here's my tile -

Now to begin L, Q and D!