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Tangled Tuesday No. 27 + 100 Happy Days – Day 53

Today’s happiness is brought to you by a childhood breakfast favourite: crisp, buttered toast sprinkled with a blend of cinnamon and sugar – while the toast is still hot, of course, so that the mixture melts into the butter and saturates everything with its sweet spiciness.

100 Happy Days - Day 53

100 Happy Days – Day 53

Oh, so delicious… particularly when accompanied by a mug of piping hot coffee. Such a sweet way to start the day!

The 100 Happy Days web site
My 100 Happy Days posts

So now that my appetite has been satisfied, let’s move on to this week’s Tangled Tuesday post.

Tangling Goodies

If you missed yesterday’s post where I raved about my new pad of Strathmore 6″ x 6″ Artist Tiles, check it out! Because they really are quite wonderful.

New Tangles

This week I finished learning the last of the tangles (for which I could find directions*) from AlphaTangle: A Truly Tangled Alphabet by Sandy Steen Bartholomew, namely Juke, Man-O-Man, Marasu, Opus, Pinch, Quabog, Quipple, Raddox, Squill, Tortuca, Twing, Umble, and Vermal.

* As I’ve mentioned before, there is often overlap and some repetition between the various Zentangle®1 books, and this one is no exception, so several of its designs were ones that I’d already added to my repertoire. Plus, the book is made up of finished and labelled tangle examples rather than specific instructions. I managed to piece together instructions for a number of the designs from both TanglePatterns.com and the author’s Tangle Library iPhone app (more about that in this post), but there were several that I had no luck finding – quite possibly because they are “official” Zentangle designs which are only taught at the workshops and not available online. (Guess I’ll just have to get myself to the workshop to learn them!)

Just for the record, the AlphaTangle patterns for which I couldn’t find instructions were Braze, Bumper, Evoke, Frondous, Knase, Lace, Mysteria, and Warble.

Tangling-in-Progress

I have a confession to make. Remember in last week’s post when I said that my “big project for this weekend” was to convert and edit the digital files for my tangled alphabet series, then start setting up monogrammed products for sale at Ten Thousand Tangles?

Ahem.

As it turned out, I got so wrapped up in actual tangling (see “Finished Projects” section!) that I didn’t get to the digital editing bit.

This week. I hope.

Finished Projects

This week I finished two ZIA (Zentangle-Inspired Art) projects, both on my new Strathmore 6″ x 6″ Artist Tiles.

ZIA 21

ZIA 21

ZIA 22

ZIA 22

Both took many, many hours to complete (the second piece in particular)… and I have to be honest and say that I’m fighting a degree of guilt about that fact. I’m not sure whether these feelings are being generated solely by my own thoughts (“You know, you really SHOULD be cleaning the house, or balancing the budget, or trying to achieve world peace”), or based on the perceived judgment of others (“Can you believe how much time she wastes on DOODLING?!”), or perhaps a combination of the two.

I don’t know.

But then I remind myself of some of the reasons I do this…

  • When I am tangling, I feel relaxed and calm and un-stressed.
  • Tangling quiets my spirit and gives me time and space to think and process what’s going on in my life at that moment.
  • Tangling keeps my brain active and constantly learning new things.
  • Tangling challenges me to think creatively.
  • I feel happy when I produce something (that I think is) beautiful.

…and I wonder if maybe it’s ok, after all – maybe even worthwhile? – to spend all this time on something I love.

P.S.

Previous posts in this series are all tagged Tangled Tuesday.

For background on how I discovered and got involved in Zentangle, and links to further information and resources, check out my blog post For the love of tangling.

You can browse my entire tangle gallery at Ten Thousand Tangles.

And, if you’re interested in having a little piece of my art for yourself, please click on the GoFundMe button below for more information and also visit my Zazzle shop Ten Thousand Tangles. (Pssst… links to my international Ten Thousand Tangles shops are in the Alphabet Salad sidebar – just click on the appropriate flag and you’ll get to the place you need to be!)

1The Zentangle® Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

So… what made you happy today?
Please share!

NaBloPoMo November 2014

Laurel Storey, CZT – Certified Zentangle Teacher. Writer, reader, tangler, iPhoneographer, cat herder, learner of French and Italian, crocheter, needle felter, on-and-off politics junkie, 80s music trivia freak, ongoing work in progress.