Thanksgiving, challenges and other sundry things

I really like Thanksgiving. Its all about family, being thankful, celebrating bounty...

For my hubby and I, it's another year to remember how lucky we were in surviving the awful motorcycle accident we were in (Again, helmets really DO save lives!), but I personally an thankful every year for him. Cheesy to most people but it really is true. With all the crapola he and I have had to endure, it really is a testament to our commitment and love for each other. I'm happy. and I'm thankful.

Ok, no more mushies, for now at least!

I've been busy making by hand and filling out preprinted Christmas cards, decorating, cooking on Thanksgiving and such, so I'm a few days behind my normal challenge posts.

Here's The Bright Owl challenge, #32. I was feeling rainbow-y and wanting to play with watercolors, so I did 2!

All sorts of tangles, on 6x6 watercolor paper

All sorts of tangles, I was feeling hearts this time around.

On to the Diva Challenge# 96. I'm not too unhappy with this. I need to practice more with Zinger I think!

Zinger is a bit wonky... oops.

And finally, I was playing around with Zendalas and was still feeling Rainbow-y... This is a zendala template from the bright owl and I played around with my stabilo point 88 fine line pens and Bunzo! By the time I was done it reminded me of the song De Colores, hence the title...

Bunzo, rainbow-y bunzo everywhere!

It's after Thanksgiving, so our tree is now up and decorated. I still have to put lights in the windows, but we're pretty well finished with decorating!

Have a great week!

Weekly Challenges plus Halloween is over and "the holidays" have begun!

Halloween was uneventful here. We typically only get a dozen kids, so this year since money is tight we opted to skip giving out candy.The passing of the ghouls, goblins, spooks and other sundry halloween-y things means "the holidays" are upon us. "The holidays" vary depending on background and beliefs... Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Festivus (Yes, really. And yes I have friends that do so, and yes it is pretty awesome) and others I'm sure exist but I'm not familiar with.. and then we roll right into New Years, and then my birthday! (While may not be one of "the holidays" to you, I've always considered it one!)

This is great. BUT...... WAIT!!! What happened to Thanksgiving?

Case in point. Sunday we went to shopping to pick up some things. Walmart and Menards are in full "holidays" swing. Decorations, music, displays hawking "tis the season" shirts, signs and booze. Yep. there was a booze display touting "make your season bright" with bottles as holiday lights... I was a bit taken aback.

Not by the booze display. That was amusing. But that nowhere (short of in the poultry section at Walmart where they had frozen turkeys) did I see anything resembling Thanksgiving... No turkeys, no pilgrims, no native americans, no cornucopias... nothing.

I'm sad. I love thanksgiving. The ideology is pretty cool. A day to give thanks for all we have?! Heck yes. It's too easy to take it all for granted. Trust me, been there done that. A day to spend with family, eating a feast until you are in a food coma and watching football?! Double heck yes.

And I respect everyone's take on all this, it's cool. But me, personally.... The holiday decorations don't go up until Thanksgiving. I typically start the turkey in the oven, prep everything else I can, and then start working on the decorating. My family always decorated the day after thanksgiving as I was growing up, but I like the idea of working on decorating and visiting and all that other fun stuff since everyone is gathered together anyway... plus if I choose to shop on black friday (though not very likely. I haven't ever, yet. I don't foresee going to either.. too many people.) I can.

To all this (and I suspect there will be a post somewhere over the next  7 weeks regarding the commercialism of "the holidays") I say, RESPECT THE TURKEY!!!

Here's a turkey ZIA I did to decorate my craftroom/office. It's cute, though I'm thinking about adding some color so its not currently shaded... I found the outline online and traced it into my sketchbook to tangle on.

And now for the Challenges!!!!

Here the Zendala Dare from The Bright Owl:

Inapod, Eke, Echoism, Pinwheels

And the weekly challenge from The Diva:
 

Eddy, Pouf, LaceCurtains, Socc, Mooka and one tiny Paradox

Weekly Challenges

So this week's Diva's Challenge is using the new official tangle Bunzo. I like this one! It grows fast, it fills spaces nicely and it looks so organic. It reminds me of the videos of the non newtonian fluid, "oobleck" on speakers and reacting to the vibration. Maybe that was even more geek than usual or a bit odd, but it's the first thing that came to mind when I saw this tangle pattern.

Ballot (filled with other tangles), Chillon, Onomato, Bunzo,
Copada (with Flora), Purk, Dewdrops, Fescu and Betweed

Also I did the Bright Owl Zendala Dare. I love the zendala shape. I'm only "so-so" on my attempt at it. Maybe I'll do another in the future. It just seems "eeehh" like it's a bit flat or blah.

Angelfish, Crossroads (I'm not 100% sure of the name, the one with the black squares),
Bollywood, Bubbles,  Alice, Betweed, Fescu, Awdry

In non Zentangle challenges, our fat kitty seems to be a bit better at least. She's eating again and acting frisky and lovable like normal. We have a follow up urinalysis for her once she's done with the antibiotics to see if she's better. *fingers crossed*

It's also been a butt kicker of a week at work. I'm happy tomorrow is Friday and I have the weekend to decompress... I need it!

Hope everyone is great and had a wonderful Halloween, Samhain, All Saints/All Souls, Dio de los Muertos!