Tuesday, January 29, 2013

It's Tuesday...do you believe it?

Ha! It's Tuesday and I have already completed this week's Diva Challenge. Laura's family is sick yet she still rallied to put out the challenge to us all; to use String #3 for our Zentangle. Here's the string...

Here's my tile using Knightsbridge, Pinch, Leaflet, Yoga, and some flowers  :


AND the amazing thing is that this was completed LAST NIGHT......that's Monday night! It's amazing to me because I'm usually thinking about the tile all week and then finally get to it on Friday or Saturday. I'm so glad that this is done because my husband has bought a new ski helmet. It's white and he wants me to tangle it for him. I've started it but it will take a while to get the thing completed. I will be sure to upload pictures once it's done.

I love the way Zentangle brings balance to my life. Who knows, I just might be posting more this week.

Have a wonderful week.
Tangle more.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Moebius Syndrome Awareness

This week's Diva Challenge is in honor of her son, Artoo, who has moebius syndrome. You can check it all out on her webpage. I'm so glad that I have learned about little Artoo and the syndrome. He is such a strong little guy and is lucky to live in such a loving home. Diva Laura is an amazing woman, artist, mother, wife and I am very thankful that Zentangle has led me to her and the many other amazing people in the wonderful Zentangle world. Yahoo!

The challenge was to use the Moebius Syndrome symbol and create a tile with it. Here's mine:

The color purple is also related to the syndrome so I used a purple micron pen for the symbol. Funny how what you first have in your head as you are laying the design out can be completely different than the result. I guess my mind decided to go in a different direction. It's all okay though.

It's just like the seven minute write I had to do at a Wellness Conference earlier in the week. We were given a choice of writing prompts then had 7 minutes to write continuously. If the mind wandered we just wrote what was going on in our heads. I though it was a wonderful exercise. When we were all done there was a "contest" to see who wrote the longest piece. Since it was a fairly large group, we all stood up and read our pieces out loud all together. The last person reading their piece out loud was declared the winner. It was fun to hear everyone reading at the same time.

Zentangle is similar. You put pen to paper and begin drawing patterns. Sometimes you know which direction you'll be going in, other times it seems as though it all has a life of its own. Life is like that. Just roll with the punches and life will be okay. Life can change midstream of what you thought and still something beautiful can come out of it.

I'll be busy tomorrow cross country skiing in a ski-a-thon to help Vermonters in need with their heating bills. The event is called Ski For Heat and I've been skiing and raising money for it since it's inception 13 years ago. Since its inception, Ski For Heat has raised more that $225,000 for fuel assistance! If you'd like to help out, you can sponsor me (even after the event). Just put my name, Jane MacKugler, in the boxes describing the skier to sponsor.  Thank you!!

Have a wonderful week!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Zentangle Challenge #102

Phew! It took me all week to complete this tile. Bunzo was a bit slow for me. We were to make a duo-tangle using Bunzo and Auraknot. For some reason I always seem to go the extra mile and create something that takes me forever to complete. I suppose I like a challenge. Here is what I came up with:


Crazy, isn't it?

I'm glad that I finished it tonight, just in time to get it uploaded. I took a trip to CT yesterday to visit my dear childhood friend and to finally meet her grandson. It was a fun but quick trip. We xc skied on the golf course then I drove back to VT in time to go for a night XC ski on lit trails. The trail with the kerosene lanterns is my favorite. Wonderful..... but my tile wasn't getting done.

Have a wonderful week.

Thanks to Laura for the fun challenge. Go visit her site so you can either join in on the fun or see what others have created.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Weekly Challenge #101 UMT v.XII: "Phicops"

Laura, our fun tangle-loving Diva, gave us a challenge this week to use her husband's new tangle, Phicops. I love organic tangles, and this one is great fun to do. I think I could use some more practice with it, but I do enjoy it immensely. Instead of a tile this week, I chose to work on a bookmark. If you click on the picture, you'll get an enlargement of it.


I have a new respect for Simon Beck. He's the guy who makes those wonderful snow patterns with his snowshoes which look like beautiful zentangles. Amazing work. A while back I went snowshoeing with my husband and good friend one night and after a jaunt around the lit trails (so beautiful) we went to the field and began tangling. A little Henna Drum here.......



A little Leaflet there.......


Wow, it's a LOT of work! I'm thinking that it would be good to figure out what you are going to make before getting to your snowfield of choice, and choose a pattern which can be made continuously
(like what you would do if you were machine quilting the pattern). Next time I'm going to do it in the daylight and do it somewhere where I can take a picture from a higher spot. It was a lot of fun! I wonder if we could do a group snowtangle.