May, oh nice! Must Art. Catch Up!

Caroline's Easter Egg, featuring her tangles Decoloca
and Bunears. She did this entry yesterday in her
Tangle-a-Day Calendar. :-)
Stay tuned for step-outs (directions) for Decoloca and Bunears.

Happy Easter, to those who celebrate this miraculous holiday! Happy Spring to everyone! I am posting one of my daughter's designs today. Thank you, Caroline!

It's barely April...um, why is my title about May? Because I need to catch up. Ketchup...Catsup...whatever. Get the full pun range now? If you are not a pun person, please accept my apology. I'm sorry. But I love a fun pun, and if I waited a month, I'd surely forget. May is always a crazy month for me. (But then, aren't they all?!) Plus, cookout season is here, and I am excited...my husband is a grill master!

So there is soooooooo much for me to catch up on! You might think that I have stepped away from tangling for a while, but that is SO not true! I tangle every chance I get, and I tangle in my head when I can't be tangling on tiles. (Mentangling?) I have started numerous Diva challenges, but not quite finished them as family comes even before tangling. A few weeks ago, we had Spring Break, which meant ROAD TRIP! To Orlando! We did the Magic Kingdom...then Universal Studios...then E.P.C.O.T. (my former "stomping ground" as I did the WDW College Program a couple of decades ago)...then Sea World...then Sea World again, as you get a second day FREE! :-) We really enjoyed SeaWorld. (Tanglefish--DUH!) They have an amazing, unique roller coaster call Manta, which we loved, but our favorite thing there was feeding the stingrays. What cool creatures! They actually seem friendly, approaching the sides of their pool to take food from our hands, and seeming to give us "high 5s" with their fins as they glided so gracefully by, sometimes splashing us.

It was NOT a relaxing, restful vacation...but it was great fun! Unfortunately, it left very little time & energy for tangling. I was utterly exhausted at the end of every day! On the one day that we did not visit a theme park, I did find time to tangle another metal ATC, this time in ink, using my Sakura IdentiPen. It was the week of the Fengle challenge...I will add a photo as soon as I get it scanned. I started a traditional tile featuring Fengle as well, while my kids and I were enjoying a meal at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant at Downtown Disney. I'll post a scan of it when it's finished. Caroline also started a Fengle tile, working in white-on-black--I don't even know if she's finished it yet. She is working on homework, so I will ask her later.

I have lots of news--like the fact that last Tuesday I presented Zentangle to the most wonderful audience: the Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild. What a fun, gracious, talented group!!! There were about 80 quilters there...I'm not a quilter (though I AM a quilter-wanna-be), and I want to join their group just for the fun and to be around all that creative energy! Here is the mosaic of tiles they created during the hands-on portion of my presentation:

Contributing to the group mosaic was optional, so there were even more cool tiles created that night that did not make it into the photo. I am so appreciative of those who did bring their tiles up, though. It was truly a beautiful sight to behold everyone's interpretation of the tangles I taught!

Caroline helped at the "Zentangle Marketplace," which we stocked with a wide selection of goodies. Stay tuned for a "Products" page here on my blog where I will list what I have available for local tanglers here in East Tennnessee! I have a great inventory of  Zentangle Kits and Design Originals Zentangle books. I even have the new Zendala Sets and all of Sandy Steen Bartholomew's books, including her newest, Tangled Fashionista!