By the way, have you noticed that I love Phicops?

This morning started out just like I love Monday's to start! I played with my tile until time to take the children to school and just planned to scan the tile at work. I go in early so not a problem.....well it was sort of a problem this morning. With an added 6 or so inches of snow to yesterday's 6 or so inches I wasn't worried at all about driving out of my rather long driveway. I have all wheel drive this year and though I have a 12 mile run into town I haven't had to take any snow days this year. (This snow will make the perfect snowman and boy is it slippery). It also reaches up to the bottom of the carriage of my CRV. Today I slipped right off the road into the deep side area....up to my knee. The all wheel drive wasn't enough for that. An hour later...after much shoveling and pushing my husband was finally able to drive it out to the main road.  Boy am I glad for my hour of calm before the storm! Thank you Laura for the challenge! The string below will be found at tanglepatterns.com 

I really love Erin's dares. Each one pushes my thought processes to new places. Thank you Erin. I hope you all have a great week zentangling!

I have always hesitated when it came to tiles! For some reason they just intimidated me. I felt like I could ruin them too easily and lets face it, they are more expensive than regular sketching paper. Well I ordered a set of pens and in the package came 5 tiles. I dipped my toe into the water, or something like that, and again I froze at the thought. I have some nice illustration paper my daughter gave to me for Christmas and I decided to cut it into official tile size. Now I had several tiles and a little less fear. I am beginning to really like what is happening to me. I love the ease of moving the tile where I want it, I love that I can only go so far before the paper ends, and I sort of enjoy trying to make them work even if at first I am thinking of tossing them. How do you feel about tiles verses sketchbook?

Working in purples we find that differences can be beautiful, even spectacular. As we spread the awareness of Moebius Syndrome this week, we celebrate the lives of these beautiful individuals who must learn to communicate their emotions without the smiles we have so associated with joy and happiness. Today I would like to dedicate this tile to Artoo who is my inspiration! He has the most expressive eyes and he smiles with them in every photo that Laura has shared with us. Yes I would say that he is one spectacular little man! Thank you Laura for the challenge, and for your willingness to share Artoo's story with us. 

The original of the one above was purple but in the program it looks more blue. 

It was a cold brisk morning... -22 degrees... !  The challenge woke me up and gave me the pleasure of zen...while I watched the 2nd episode of Downton Abby season 3 and oh, I did need zen for a few minutes there. Okay, I do not so much watch as listen. Two wonderful pastimes at once. This challenge  is  yes, challenging! I love both patterns but at first I could figure out how to meld them into one duo tangled tile!  This is my first attempt. I am sure there will be more, feel free to come back and see what else I come up with. Thank you Laura for the challenge!

Second try...I think I must be thinking cosmic today!

It is just too much fun to stop thinking about new ways to combine the two patterns!

I broke all my rules with this one. For one thing I never ever use black to shade in color....but today I did.  It is a sort of crazy combination of tangles. It was fun. Thank you Erin for the dare!

Template #40

B-rad  has given us a wonderful new pattern. It is called Phicops and I love it. It was a bit hard for me at first. I had to keep saying to myself.....backward stroke....backward stroke.....and then when the full  was done in backwards strokes I had to remind myself forward stroke. I know, how silly is that. Whenever I broke the pattern of thought I would find myself unhappy with the result. It sort of reminds me of when I would have to count the music notes while playing piano to get the right timing. I still do that if the music is new to me. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. I digress.  I am so happy that the diva is back and the challenges are challenging! Thank you Laura!  Can't wait to see all the fun that Phicops will bring to the net this week! Happy tangling!

This week:

• If you normally use black and white.  Don't.  Try one or more colors.
• If you always shade heavily.  Don't.  Trying not shading at all.
• If you always use a favorite tangle.  Don't.  Try a tangle you have never tried before.
• If you always go to the edge of the tile.  Don't.  Try leaving a border.
• If you always fill every space.  Don't.  This is your chance to be a minimalist.  
• If you always procastinate and wait until the end of the week.  Don't.  Print the template right now and post it.
• If you always look at your Zendala and then post a comment about how your "disappointed" or "just not happy" with how it came out.  Don't.  Your work is beautiful.  Give it the compliments it deserves.  
• If you always stay inside the lines and never deviate from the template.  Don't.  Draw a big X or a squiggly line right through the template and see how it changes your finished piece.  

The dare this week has pushed me to places I have never before gone and I must say that I sort of enjoyed it. I am a rebel and I always try to hide the  template....sorry Erin....but I love the templates because they give me a new direction. Well this time I stayed with the template. I know it will seem like I didn't because my co-worker could not envision it, however, I did stay in the boxes. I used patterns I had never used before. I resisted shading on all but one and I only used a little bit on that one.  I worked in black and white because I love color, well except for the green shading on the one, and I worked with only one...or two patterns per zendala.  Oh, and I made sure I waited to post.....not very long, but not as soon as I could have. 

The new patterns that I used were: Lace Curtains by Suzanne, Florez by Cookie , Meo by Jonathan and  Screen by Margaret