The 4 Elements for Challenge #115

"Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year."

A quote from WikipediA, where you can read more about this subject.

With Weekly Challenge #115 the Diva asked for our attention to Mother Earth and to express what she means to us.... I knew quite quickly, I wanted to use a circle as my string, representing the globe. The circle had to be divided into four quarters for drawing the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. They are the components of our surrounding reality, of Nature, to which we belong too. And.... they are indispensable in order to survive, they fulfill the basic needs of every living being. The earth produces our food, and water quenches our thirst. The fire keeps us warm, usually in the form of the sun. And we can do only minutes without air. Which means we have to take good care of our environment!!

The next step was choosing the tangles! I chose to do Sooflowers (earth), Aqua (water) and Brandee (fire). Lately I have often seen some swirly things to create clouds (air), and I decided to give it a try here.

Because at first the total result was a bit dull, I've traced some lines with a black Sakura Glaze gelpen. But now it's a little too bold here and there. Well, it is as it is:

Tangles: Sooflowers, Aqua, Brandee and "Cloudee"

I would like to call the clouds pattern "Cloudee", with the usual addition -dee as my personal tag. Haven't seen this pattern anywhere in the Zentangle community before, am I right?? If I'm wrong, please tell me. Should the name already exist, please do the same!

I guess, there is no other song that expresses the character of this Weekly Challenge so well as Michael Jackson's Earth Song! You'll find a small part of this song on the "Lovely lyrics ♫" page.

Thanks to:
Livia Chua for Sooflowers;

CZT® Christina Vandervlist for Aqua;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this very special Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Maria's Zentangle has arrived!

It was another big surprise for me, to receive Maria's Zentangle so fast! Last Friday, only four days after Maria had sent it to me and crossing a whole ocean, it has safely arrived.
How exciting, to see my name and address so beautifully calligraphed on the envelope. It felt like profanation to open it.... but of course I was very curious which gorgeous tile was inside! It was such a thrill to see Maria had sent one of her tiles with her inimitable Mooka-esque strokes. It's amazing to see in reality how she swirled her pen across the paper!! Not one hesitation and all distances equal, so many details.... so much to learn from this Zentangle:

The day before its arrival I bought a 3D photo frame of which I thought it would be perfect to show Maria's "frame inspired" tile.... And it is!

Need I say how happy I am with this precious work of art? It's so dear to me!

With great gratitude to Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, the founders of Zentangle®, for this lovely gift and for their warm approval to write about it in this post.

Happy Tangling everyone!

Diamonds in the sky

As I already wrote in my previous post, just when I finished my first entry for Weekly Challenge #114 I felt like drawing more stars. I was happy with the design of the big star in the foreground, so I used that again.
Then I fantasized a bit about twinkling stars.... in my fantasy it was Purk that makes them sparkle. A little later they played Rihanna's song "Diamonds (in the Sky)" on the radio and that became my inspiration for drawing diamond-like gems instead of pearls. DL Nebula is a very suitable companion!

Tangles: Purk, 'Nzeppel and DL Nebula

The stripes of Purk and the hearts of DL Nebula are done with a white Sakura Glaze gelpen, so in reality the tile has some embossing.

Thanks to:
Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Purk (video!) and 'Nzeppel;
CZT® Donna Hornsby for DL Nebula;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this twinkling Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Two surprises and a Challenge

Still can't believe it.... One of the most exciting things happened to me last Monday!! Maria left a comment on my "Who's that girl?" page to let me know I have won one of her gorgeous frame tiles from the blog entry "A Frame of Mine[d]" on Zentangle.blogspot! I was totally confused, even had to send her my address in two times, because in the middle of the first message I pushed the wrong button.... (blush)
And now I can't hardly wait for it to arrive!!
Will be continued of course!

Yesterday my daughter Em also had a lovely surprise for me. She had uploaded one of my entries to the diva's Weekly Challenge #110 "Get Rid of the Box" to have it printed by Vistaprint on a mug and a number of cards:

How sweet is that?!

Weekly Challenge #114 "You with the Stars in your Eyes - Stars v 2.0" really appeals to me, so my first star was born in less than 30 minutes. The first time I've succeeded to do so, hurray! Not so many details, not such complex tangles, that makes a big difference. And I love drawing those small pentacles....

Tangles: Betweed and 'Nzeppel

While I was drawing I found myself singing and humming the amiable song of Perry Como: "Catch a falling star (an' put it in your pocket. Never let it fade away!)"....

Wouldn't it be a great gesture to dedicate all our stars to the victims of the horrible bombings in Boston, their families and the very brave people who gave first aid?! My thoughts are with all of them.
I want to draw some more stars tomorrow....

Addition
Posted  on April 29, 2013 (with Jane's permission)
Watching the Diva's slideshow today, I was touched by the lovely "star in the pocket" from Jane Menard
(Tangle Jam)! She didn't only sing Perry Como's song, but it also inspired her to draw her wonderful interpretation of it. Please make sure you don't miss it and follow this link!!

Thanks to:
Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Betweed (including a video!) and 'Nzeppel;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this twinkling Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Second entry: Delft Blue squares

A very quick post! It's been a long day, I should be in bed, but tangling is very addictive you know ;-)) And I have a very good excuse, my second entry for the Weekly Challenge had to be finished in time!!
On Zentangle.blogspot Rick asked, how a trip to a museum or gallery inspires us.... Well, this is how my visit to The Royal Delft (read and see more here and here) did inspire me:

Tangles: Mooka, Tortuca, (Blue) Pearlz,
Many Moons, Twisted Rope and Scoodle

My intention was to draw a detail from the edge of an imaginary, square saucer....
This was even more fun, than my first contribution!!

Thanks to:
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for Challenge #113;
Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Mooka, Tortuca and Scoodle (no online instructions);
Also Rick and Maria - I guess! - for (any kind of color ;-)) Pearlz;
CZT® Margaret Bremner for Many Moons;
Trish Walter (littlebrownwren) for Twisted Rope;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Challenge #113 "Hip to be Square", and more!

Subject of Weekly Challenge #113 was playing with squares as your string. Or in the Diva's words: String Theory v. XXIV "Hip to be Square". I didn't have much time to think it over before starting to draw.... But on the other hand, that's what makes this a real Zentangle!

Tangles: Lucky, Spawn and Crescent Moon/Mr.E

Such a fun challenge, so little time! But one of the things that kept me busy this week is in line with the topic of Rick and Maria's blog about how to look at frames in a museum.
From the time I got familiar with Zentangle, I look at things with my "Zentangle eye": on the street, in shops, and of course in a museum. Last Tuesday I've visited the "Royal Delft" (in Holland it's known as "De Porceleyne Fles", translated: "The Porcelain Bottle"), together with 10 other members of the women's association "ZijActief". It is the only factory left, which produces the genuine Delft Blue earthenware. This is a collage of some photos I've made:

Beautiful designs on Delft Blue earthenware

Sadly enough, my camera had a malfunction, and I lost the first 30 pictures I took that morning...
 
And this is what I saw yesterday in a department store called "Hema", when I went shopping in Delft with my friend Dee:

A pillar decorated with Zentangles and doodles

I enjoyed both my outings very, very much, as you can understand!
You'll find  more pictures, when you click on the tab "More!".

Thanks to:
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for challenging us again and again;
Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Crescent Moon;
CZT® Adele Bruno for Lucky;
Shoshi for creating Spawn;
CZT® Shawn Hayden for Mr.E;
CZT® Linda Farmer for introducing new tangle patterns;
You!!.... for reading this "crooked English"!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"Tuxedo", topic of Weekly Challenge #112

Last Monday was April 1st and every first monday of the month is "Use My Tangle" time! Topic of Weekly Challenge #112 was Tuxedo by LeeAnn aka Ledenzer. You really should take a look on LeeAnn's blog, what she does with Zentangle is incredible. And amazingly fast too: most of the time she's the first to submit!! She also takes the time to write sweet comments on the blogs of other submitters (I guess all of them!).
Tuxedo is easy to do and it has countless possibilities. Once you have drawn the basic steps, you are challenged to use your imagination to change its looks over and over, for example with tangleations!!
My week was too busy to do exercises on my scribbling pad, so I made my submission right away on a correspondence card (more space!). While I was drawing, Linda Farmer's post about Mr.E by Shawn Hayden came in and that was the perfect pattern to use in my piece, also without practising, uh oh!
With the initial T from Tuxedo as my string (my habbit), this is the result:

Tangles: Tuxedo with Printemps, Black Pearlz, Cruffle and Mr.E

Yesterday I just wanted to do one more, but now on a tile:

Tangles: Tuxedo with Tortuca and Pearlz

I expect, you had as much fun with Tuxedo as I did!!

Thanks to:
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for another nice Challenge;
Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Printemps (here and here) and Tortuca (no online instructions);
CZT® Sandy Hunter for Cruffle;
CZT® 's Shawn Hayden and Linda Farmer for Mr.E;
You!!.... for reading this "crooked English"!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Advocaat-tiramisu, an Easter tradition

Yesterday, on the first Easter day that even was colder than at Christmas, we had a simple, yet tasty dinner. To prepare pork fillet with fried potatoes, corn and applesauce didn't cost much of my time. So it was a very relaxed day with lots of tangling, more about that another time!!
The "pièce de résistance" however is the dessert: advocaat-tiramisu, our little family tradition at Easter (and Christmas, and birthdays, and so on, LOL). I always prepare it the day before, so the flavors can blend and the macaroons can absorb the coffee.

Soaking the macaroons

Adding the mascarpone cream

Ready!

As with all previous occasions, there was little talk when the dish was on the table.... ;-))

I will upload the recipe on a new page Recipes as soon as possible!!