Spring... And a new found "talent"

So, I've been working away at my job,  working on chores (well, kind of) and working on art. I'm keeping up with Zentangle, though nothing worth note has really been made. I've been plugging away at my art journal and recently made a cool "egg-cellent" Easter-y/spring-y page. I found a neato doodling book on the clearance rack @ Barnes And Noble. All that has steered me back to drawing. Some of you who've known me for a very long time know I adore arts and crafts. I can honestly blame Girl Scouts, since my troop was very artsy/craftsy. I was a very lucky kid. That started me down the crafty road I'm on. If I can make it, I'll certainly try!

When I was younger ( like grade school age) I always had drawing paper, colored pencils, crayons markers and pastels around ( mom and dad drew the line at paint ) and I was forever creating and making things. So yeah. Paperarts is my shtick.

My new discovery is chibi's. I'm not really into manga, and I stopped reading comic books many many moons ago, but every time I saw/see these cute cartoony drawings I've wanted to try drawing them. So, I finally sat down and worked on it. With the help of various online tutorials to get the basics down, here are a few chibi's I've drawn.

The nice thing is, since they are almost caricatures, I envision chibi's taking center stage on some of my art journal pages.

And totally off art topic, but I swear that the turn of the seasons means people forget how to drive. When it hasn't rained for a while, the roads are slick with oil residue... Duh!

A time to wait...

Well, spring might be coming, but the weather here in Southern Indiana has been 2-3 season in one day lately. My sinuses hate it. Which means I do!

I've been having to utilize the time to car shop, so the chilly and crummy weather has actually helped that some. No salesperson seems to want to stand out in the cold! Luckily the whole defective car thing is basically handled.... Not exactly how I wanted, but handled none the less. Once I have a new lease, I'll feel better. I detest car shopping...

There's not much going on, but I wanted to share a cool site a friend told me about. It's called free rice, and its tied through the UN. Regardless of your feelings about the UN, this is pretty cool.

You play trivia online (everyone knows I love trivia!) and for each question you get right you earn rice for the hungry.

Click the link below to play the game!

Link to freerice.com

Well, hope everyone is well! Have a blessed week!

Thinking about "things"

I heard a poem today that really made me think.

"the bestiary" - by Joanna Macy. Search it on Google.. Pretty heavy stuff.

I'm not sure that "global warming" is actually a man made thing or if it's a cycle of earth. I'm not a scientist. I do know that data is easily manipulated to make it look like one thing or another though, for or against…

Now, with that being said, I also think we need to acknowledge that SOMETHING is going on climate wise, regardless of who or what is causing it.

We as humans have a terrible superiority complex. Razing the earth for all its worth… I'm not some big eco-warrior. I just think we need to stop and look at things a bit. We can do things to help the planet. We can be more aware of recycling, using less fossil fuels and trying to pollute less. Because when it comes down to it, it's not about USA or UK or Uganda or what ever country your from, it's about being part of the planet. And it's not just about humans… since we appear to be the most sentient beings on the planet, we should be stewards of the planet. If we kill this place, where do we go? Ya know?

I don't normally get riled up about stuff, not like this at least. But I just had to get it out there, and off my chest. We can do better… and we should…

Ok, off the soap box…

What else… hmm…

Art journaled some, working of some zendalas and challenges for Bright Owl and the Diva.

My Art Journal is a bit larger thank my
scanner can handle but you get the gist of it. 

Spent an awesome afternoon with my Brother, Sister-in-law and nieces and had a nice phone chat with my best friend yesterday.

I hope everyone has a great week!

New Years (non)Resolutions and workbooks

So, I haven't posted since the end of November... I'd say it's been crazy, but the truth is, it hasn't. I'm just sucked dry of energy. My co-workers have been passing around a wicked cold/cough thing, and I'm hoping I don't get it. I'm already running on empty, getting sick will do me in.

Since the end of November, I have been puttering around on things though. I've been keeping up with zentangling a bit, though I haven't done the Diva or Bright Owl challenges. I got money for Christmas, so I went shopping multiple times. We got gifts and cards sent at the beginning of December and since we Skype with my parents Christmas day, I bought and wrapped all my "presents from them". It was pretty cool.

I got some much needed clothes as well as art supplies I've been eyeballing. My art journal is a happy camper! I only have a few more things I need to get, one of them being a few different types of "punchinella" or sequins waste, for adding texture to my art journal pages.

Another thing I do at the end of/beginning of the year is a nifty workbook thing I found a few years ago through a vlog I follow.. I'm not good at really taking stock of things or planning hopes and dreams and things, but this workbook clicks with me. It gets me really looking at all the positive and good things that happened through out the year and gets me pumped for the coming year. Some people I'm sure will look at it like it's a buncha hullabaloo or silly or what ever, but I like it. This year I smashed it together with some other neato workbook-y things I found online and made it even more "me". I glue all the sheets I've printed off into a notebook and spend a little time every day filling it out. I've just completed the bulk of it. I'm feeling pretty good about this coming year.

I don't do resolutions. Resolutions are typically forgotten by the end of February and (if you're like me at least) you feel guilty. This workbook guides you to made goals for the various areas of  life. A few of mine are:

• Really develop and stick to a budget
• Get fit (I'm not as worried about weight or size - that's just a number. but I want to FEEL better)
• Do something creative every day

This workbook also guides you to come up with a few super-huge-not-sure-if-they-are-possible-dreamy goals. One I came up with is to take a "big" vacation. Like not a long weekend somewhere, but a week plus long vacation. And since we've done Disney for our last 2 big vacations, this one needs to be non Disney. (for Hubby at least! I could do Disney every year!)

I'm thinking my lack of energy might actually be related to the weather and dark because all I want to do is hibernate. It's pretty blah. I'm not sure exactly what is is, but i could sleep the day away under my electric blanket in my recliner... Ick.

Anyway, I'll try and scan some of the art I've done and post it soon. And I'm hoping to get back into the Diva and Bright Owl challenges too. 

Finally, if you're into fashion, check out this blog!

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!