Arukas day 26-30

I have been celebrating christmas with my sons, daughter in law and my wonderful grandchildren so I have not been able to post the last days of Arukas, but here they all comes:

I made this one as a congratulation to Today´s
tangles - Keeping it classic that reached 1000
members recently!

I felt a little sad to say goodbye to these 30 days of Arukas, but also I was happy to have done them. Arukas can go any way, and there are so many more possibilities! I guess I could go on for another 30 days!!! But I won´t. But I will use Arukas on tiles and not fear a string that looks like it won´t fit! Because now I know Arukas also can go with any string!

Traveling tangles - next chapter.

Quite long ago I was participating in Stephanie Jennifer´s project "Traveling Tangles". I enjoyed it then. It was a great way to get friends all over this globe. Then I got too busy to keep it up so I stopped doing this. At the CZT32 Seminar and after, I got new CZT friends. Friends that I don´t want to lose.  I used the idea with traveling tangles but this time I sent them to people I had met. For a start just a couple of them, all new friends of mine. I prepared 2 starters to each of them and posted them. After a while the first "Happy mail" arrived in my own mailbox and a couple of days another one! Here is my first post about a completed Happy mail!

Here is my mail to Katrina Thiebaut. One black tile and one recycled watercolor-tile. And this is the exciting outcome from her:

The tiles she finished so carefully fills me with great joy! I could not have imagined this! I love it!

Here are Katrinas mail to me:

Two lovely starters to go ahead with. Here is my first finish:

Have you seen the boarder! Letters all around! I am so fascinated of this one! 
Then I hesitated - How to give Anita Katrina a hairstyle matching this beautiful lady??? I had to send her to the hairdresser for a while and when she got back to me she looked like this:

She told me she was happy with her new hair so I did send a pic of her to Katrina and guess what! Katrina had another lady at her side, that must be a cousin of Anita Katrina, since she had got a similar
hairstyle recently!

Well, you find a lot of these beautiful people that belong to the Zen Kin family here. 

I had not done anything like this before and would probably not have done it if I had not got this happy mail from Katrina. I am so happy to get this new experience, thank you Katrina!

Arukas Day 20-25

I don´t belive it! Only 5 days left!!!! 

Arukas Day 16-19

Arukas as a string.

I almost gave up on this one but remembered
Ricks words on the seminar: Respect what
comes out of your pen!

I saw Sandy´s prompt in TT-keeping it classic.
Thought Arukas would like it and she did.

19 days. It doesn´t feel like it. Just 11 more days to go. Acutally I am looking forward to do the next day! Is it possible? No plan. Except doing it!

Calendar 4th-9th of December

I belive the red spots is pointing out December as the month of Christmas. Can´t help thinking in that direction. The patterns: Florz, Zenith, Icantoo (Hanny Nura), Icanthis, Bales var. Ing, Locar and Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner). About the last three days with Ing: After the seminar there was another gathering of CZT:s called Zenagain. I wasn´t there, but after that I saw some wonderful Ing variations and I kept those in mind since I wanted to give Ing a round with fragments this time. I loved to do that, using fragmens from the Zentangle Primer.

Arukas Day 11-15

This is a tangle-adventure. When I sit down with my little journal I never know what it will end up with. I hope you can read my notes.

I think it is a good idea to try Arukas in different strings. This string is offered by Sandy Kelley Jones in the Fb-group Today´s Tangles -Keeping it classic.

One more try on the same string as day 12.

These five days I think Arukas lives her own life. I think of Arukas as a female no doubt. And I do love her still. She is too adventurous, I have no chance to get bored!

Calendar 28th of november - 3d of December

End of november, Auraknot is preparing for Advent. Got a little to active on friday and messed herself up! But that´s the way it can be this time of year when the stars in the windows are going to shine together with candlelights!

December starts with music ofcourse. And tangles are moving: Toodles, Drawings, Fescu, Striping, Verdigogh and Brizl (Susan Kelley Pundt/mine).

Arukas day 7-10

These are the last days with Arukas. I still enjoy it. A lot!

Daily tiles and a classphoto!

To me it is important to do my daily tile (=daily meditation)in one way or another. It helps me to keep my focus, to appreciate, to relax and stay calm. Every tile, and I mean every single one, represents something that is important to me. Every tile is a moment of gratitude for something in my life, gratitude for the method that says "anything is possible, just one stroke at a time". 

Tangles: Quandary, Pokeroot, Pokeleaf and Heartvine (Lori Howe). In gratitude for a short meeting that created a difference in my life.

Tangles: Pokeroot, Pokeleaf, Diva Dance rock-n´roll. In gratitude for Bach´s cello suites played by Jo Jo Ma.

Tangles: Mooka, Shattuck, Tipple, Pokeleaf and Knightsbridge. In gratitude for the Zentangle Method created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas.

Tangles: Qua-Sahnt (Heidi Halpern Kay) and Brizl (Susan Kelley Pundt and myself). In gratitude for friendship that means a lot in life.

Tangles: Zenith and Bales tangleations. In gratitude for little friend Bijou!

Of course there are days when everything seems to happen, almost no time at all left for tangling. But there are always at least 10-15 minutes! Who can say there isn´t? And 10 minutes is what it takes to make a little Bijou! Bijou is always a friend in lack of time! Yesterday was such a day. I had to go to the vet with our black Pumi Bisse, she has been limping for a while. It is one thing to be sitting in a waitingroom by yourself, another to take care of your dog during the examinations and x-ray and waiting for results. You can´t tangle. You just has to stay calm, and be comforting. Home again, having supper, taking care of other things that had to be done, I was very happy to have my little Bijous to go to before bedtime! 

Why do I write about this? I do because I want to stress the fact, that zentangle is not a competition, it is not about doing the perfect tile, it is not about being clever, it is not about having lots of time to spend on yourself, it is not about perfectionism and all that. It is all about the process. To slow down, to appreciate what comes out of the pen and leave the worries behind. Then appreciate the little piece of art that came out of the process. It is so simple!  

At last the classphoto from the CZT 32 Seminar! Love to look at this and remember the days we shared!