Thursday, June 28, 2012

New Tangle!

Greetings!

You can tell it's the school holidays because not only did I get the Diva's challenge done and posted in the first 2 days, I'm now adding another post!! 

I haven't scrapbooked for about 2 years...I started when the eldest gannet was 1 year old - she's turning 13 next week- and taught workshops once a month on a saturday afternoon. I'm afraid I got to the point where I ran out of ideas! I'm a "focus-on-the-photos-scrapper" and can't stand all the embellishments that have taken over that have you spending 2 hours preparing the chipboard letters etc and then only adding one photo (which you can't really find because of all the other stuff on the page!) 
So.....I was really excited when I came across Scrapping the Music....and did my first page in years! I missed the deadline for submissions though, but I might have got my scrap groove back!

"It's a good life" by One Republic


The latest Zentangle Newsletter has an exciting twist to their new tangle! They've shown us the finished tangle, we have to work out the steps and give it a name! All will be revealed next week in another newsletter! When I looked at the tangle, I immediately thought of a Celtic Knot and Paradox - so my interpretation is just that! 
My deconstruction of HOLLIDOXAT with 3 points.
HOLIDOXAT with 5 points


Have a look at all the great names people have come with for the new tangle on the Zentangle Blog!

Play nicely
Pennyb



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Rain, rain, rain...

OMG! We had sooo much rain today, the pool overflowed! SO while the storm rages outside, I tangled The Diva's latest challenge: HOME.  

I live in the Fish Hoek, Cape Town. I can see both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans from my upstairs room! We have south easter winds and beautiful days in summer and lots of rain and north westers in winter. My special place is at the beach where I can walk and watch the waves. The whales will soon be here again, which makes it even more special.

Cape Point! Hopefully this year, I'll be on one of the press boats during the Cape Point Challenge and take a photo like this myself!


My tile for this challenge has Drupe in the LH corner and Mist in the RH corner-for the wind,the rain and the sun. We spend loads of summer time at the beach and in the water - so I used  C-Scape for the sea, and mountains with indigenous fynbos.
Challenge #76
Pennyb

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Holidays!

Yay!! School broke up yesterday for our 3 week winter holiday....mid year holidays are great, but we have to have plan A,B,C and D in Cape Town, because we have winter rainfall, so it usually rains rather a lot in the holidays! Luckily for me, both the gannets love crafting and art, so we buy canvases and paint, and make jewellery and visit book shops!

Our indigenous Western Leopard Toad - found this little guy in the bathroom! They come out at night looking for water and warm places and are unfortunately endangered. He's only about 7cm long!



It's been a busy week - with netball matches and parents meetings for the children who haven't done so well this term, so I'm really late with my tile this week! THe Diva's challenge this week was to play with cadent! I enjoy cadent because of the many variations you can invent. Some tanglers have come up with awesome renditions this time! Dianne the Dabbler and someone who I can't remember - aaaaagghh!- did a window of cadent and then smaller cadents inside! It was awesome...and soooo clever!


Challenge #75: Cadents with a little Meer.
Have a wonderful week everyone
Pennyb

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Youth Day

One of the fairly annoying things about SA, is that we have so many Public Holidays! This one at least falls on a saturday... Youth Day is a celebration of the Country's Youth (now a positive celebration) and a remembrance of June 16th Soweto uprising in 1976, when the black school children protested about the language of instruction in schools.

My husband has bought yet another water toy...! (He loves anything that csn be played with on the water). We have surfskis, surfboards, malibu's (kneeboards which the girls use for Life Saving) and now we have 2 SUPs - Stand Up Paddleboard. It's like a surfboard, just much wider and more stable and you "Stand up" to paddle it! It's great fun and very easy!!

The oldest gannet paddling at an SUP Family Day held last weekend.

Now, the board that hubby bought is a beautiful yellow, with a white deckpad(the non slip part) and the logo, which is pictured below has been tangled!! How awesome is that!!
 


















We've had really cold weather lately - even though the sun has been shining, it's had no warmth, so we decided to dig out the potjie pot and do a proper winter potjie! Potjie is an Afrikaans word for small pot and it is a cast iron pot that you put over a fire and slow cook whatever is inside! Meat is always at the bottom because it cooks longest and then potatoes and lastly the veg. Rule number 1,2,3 of potjie cooking is that you never stir!!


Our lamb potjie with baby potatoes, corns, carrots and marrows...yum! Served with starch of any kind - we had rice, my hubby had samp. For dessert, we had another South African dish - malva pudding and custard. It's like a sticky toffee pudding but with cinnamion and ginger and syrup.


The Diva's challenge this week was to use eccentric circles. Different from concentric circles like the ones you would use for a mandala, these have to have a joining point and are NOT even! I struggled a bit with the string drawing because I like concentric circles! I've used two new tangles this time instead of the usual one, and then sort of made one up as I went along! LinQ by Lara WIlliams is such a fun looking tangle, but I struggled to get the spacing right...I'm working on it! (Have a look at the Enthusiastic Artists version)
Challenge #74: Fleurette, hibred, huggins, LinQ and then bubble-spirals


And last but not least, saw this on someones phone the other day, and had to have it!!

Happy creating
Pennyb

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Wet, wet,wet!


What a wet wintery week we've had!  It has rained the whole week. It did, however, stop long enough for my netball girls to give our opposition a lesson in netball on Wednesday! They were awesome! They played textbook netball, did all the things we've been practising and made me so proud. My U13B won 22-4 and the A side won 14-5!


Caitlin (eldest gannet) as Goal shooter in perfect position during the match!

My brother and nephew are staying for the weekend, and today we went to watch Seb doing his grading at karate. He did really well, and has now progressed to his blue belt!

Seb is the one with the green belt!

Concentration! 

This Friday was our turn to host the Inter schools cross country....as you can see, it was a little cold and wet! It rained so much on Thursday that the race course had to be diverted on Friday morning. Thankfully the rain held off until the last age group was running!
 

Challenge #73 was a UMT (Use My Tangle) called Bridgen by Carole Ohl. As soon as I saw the tangle, I just knew I had to do it in colours! So I dug out my moleskin (which lives in my handbag with one of my micron pens) and my  new set of coloured fineliners, and got to it. I've even started a new one, which is going to be filled with different tangles and a bit of colour!
Challenge #73


Tomorrow, I start my A4 journal with pattern stacks and tangles and all sorts of other bits and pieces! Fun, fun, fun! 

And to end of, a saying am a sugar packet I got in a coffee shop during the week:
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them!

Pennyb

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Comrades Time

My girls have done me so proud! They both got Honours for all their Eisteddfod Dances these last 2 weeks (80-90%)! Now we get to rest a little bit for the rest of term, phew!

My "Commission" is finished! A very good friend of mine asked me to do a painting for her sister's 50th nxt weekend. The sister loves lighthouses, so I found a photo of Cape Hangklip lighthouse - just ask Google, he knows everything!- and got to work. I'm really chuffed with how it turned out, and might just try another one!

Lighthouse 1: photo on the left

Lighthouse 2: taking shape
Lighthouse 3: more shading and the keepers house
Lighthouse 4: finished!

My next UFO (Unfinished Object) is a jersey I started crocheting last winter! I didn't rush it, brcasue I had to lengthen the pattern all over -they just make things for tall people anymore-and finished sewing on the buttons this morning. Rather pleased with the end result.
Interesting trying to take a photo of yourself in the mirror!

Challenge #72 from The Diva was a monotangle of Crescent Moon. I've used it before but always in the same way. Enthusiastic Artist had some brilliant ideas of "changing" crescent moon but still keeping within the concept of the design! Thanks for the inspiration! I'm not overly pleased with my effort this week, it's one of those tiles I just don't like!

Challenge #72: Cresecent Moon monotangle. Not sure whether I should have added bits to the larger one on the left...

The last thing today is the reason for the title this week....on Sunday, the Comrades Marathon takes place. The Comrades Marathon is one of the world's top ultra marathons of 90km, run between Durban and Pietermaritzberg (Durban is on the East coast and is the capital of Kwazulu Natal)). One year they run to the coast, the next year inland. There are in the region of 20 000 runners with a cut-off of 11 hours! The top runners usually finish in about 5 hours, top 10 getting gold medals, silver to those that finish between 6 and 7½ hours, bronze for the rest. I have a few friends (completely insane, I think!) running tomorrow and would like to wish them a wonderful weather and a good finish!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, happy crafting
Pennyb