STRESSED. DisSTRESS. DEstress.

I have been absent from the blog since my Grandmother's passing. For those who do not know, this is the second significant death in my family in the past year, for my father passed away tragically last August. As July snuck up, so did the 4th, my fathers favorite holiday. It is amazing how one weekend can be filled with so many reminders of love and loss. The Monday after the 4th, my sister moved away to Connecticut. What a week/weekend.

 In the last two months, work has picked up, in both good and bad ways, and with that stress has risen. I have had little time to tangle, except for last weekend when I dropped everything and spent a weekend at the first ever Zentangle Expo in Madison [More on this amazing weekend later!]. It was a wonderful weekend of tangling, networking (including meeting three amazing DETROIT area CZTs!), and catching up with an old friend from CMU. On my way home I had a bus-layover in Chicago, where this happened:

Unfortunately for my sleep and sanity, the amazing and relaxing vibe from the weekend was interrupted quickly upon return with work and personal stress. The amount of anxiety I felt just Thursday night upset my stomach, led to an almost sleepless night, which then was a factor in a difficult  Friday work morning.

Zentangle® has always been a wonderful de-stressing activity for me. I emphasize this factor in my classes, public and private with clients. In fact, I have worked with a handful of clients for the entire purpose of using Zentangle to reduce anxiety and anxiety-induced seizures.

Why, then, is it so hard for me to practice what I prteach?

There is no answer, just a concept of time and that everything comes before taking time for oneself. Thursday night, at midnight, upon jumping out of bed in a fit of worry that I had misplaced something, I grabbed a micron and a small stack of tiles. I will 'force' myself to spend a few minutes before bed with a tile. It helped me that night clear my fretting mind and sleep. Or at least try to sleep.

This article from Psychology Today this past March explains many wonderful benefits of The Zentangle® Method for relaxation and well-being.

Friday and Saturday I worked on this tile, part of the It's a String Thing Challenge. I have wanted to complete the challenge every week, but it has just not happened. Saturday night, I slept the best I have all week. Hopefully more good sleep, and lots of Zentangle de-stressing is in order.

Tangles here are Rick's Paradox and Tripoli, my two favorite go-to tangles. This is in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Zentangle! Here is to many more years of Zentangle, and many more nights of good sleep for me.

Grandma

On Friday this world lost one of the most amazing and inspirational women, Julie Schneider.

Roz and Julie Schneider, 2012

She was born on March 13, 1918 and when she was 18 she moved from NY to Washington DC where she spent her next 78 years. She was a friend to everyone she met, and didn't retire until she was 88, when her boss was retiring. She married, had four children, was widowed, and continued raising her kids without thinking twice. She was a cancer survivor, she broke bones, but never her spirit. She was on Facebook, and during her weekly Sunday morning calls to my mom, she would ask us about pictures we posted or adventures we took. She stayed in contact with past colleagues, and no matter where in DC we went, she knew someone, who owned the business 30 years earlier, and people gave her free meals. At the ripe young age of 94 she decided it was time to move into a senior living apartment, where doing "nothing" included exercise, a bus trip for lunch, and mahjong almost daily.

She loved White Russians, and she drove us up the wall in the way only your 90-sometime grandmother is allowed to do. She always needed chocolate around, a trait she shared with my dad, and she made the best matzah brei. She did multiple crossword puzzles a day and watched GSN for hours.

Even to her last day, her mind was quicker than most, but her body could not keep up with her brain. Somewhere she is now cooking a brisket for my dad and they are engaging in their typical banter; an exchange we will miss for the rest of our lives.

Grandma, you finally get to see your husband again after 50 years. I hope you are celebrating the 96 years of inspiration and life you shared with us with him, Aunt Edie, Marge, and dad. We will miss you so much.

Bringing in Spring with a Bonfire!

Slow week on the blog, but a busy week outside! Glad to finally have nicer temps again, even though I did not get to spend time in the hammock this weekend.

Monday was the first night of Passover, the week in which I crave pizza more than the rest of the year combined. I went over to my friends early to help prepare dinner, which was really nice. The Seder did not end until after midnight, which is earlier than some I have been to, but past my bedtime for sure. Tuesday was a nice relaxing day of errands and another Seder with good friends. Wednesday I had a "Treat Yourself" day, which was also wonderful. I felt more awake and alert at work on Thursday, so a couple days "off" really helped. Perhaps the lack of bread also helps? The rest of the world took Friday off, so it was a slow day for me, which was also appreciated.

This weekend I have been working on some super exciting projects that I cannot share yet. I am really looking forward to the CZT Hideaway in May, and one of our to-dos is bringing a gift. It does not need to be a craft, it can be a great lesson plan or markers, just is supposed to cost under $5. I am making a ZIA object, that as I perfect my product, I will possibly sell on Etsy and teach the project at my local studio. I took prototype #2 to the owner of the studio and she LOVED it, so she is also excited to incorporate it into classes. I realize this is a tease, but it is so hard not to post pictures of it now, I had to at least mention it is happening. Stay tuned! I will post tons of pictures after, or during, the retreat!

As I was distracted with my super-awesome project for the weekend, I almost did not finish my It's a String Thing project for the week! Thankfully I did, and submitted as soon as this guy let me up.

This week's It's a String Thing was very different from my usual strings, and I would do the tangles in a different order if I re-did it. This is a good example of not knowing the end product while you are working on it, I really had no idea what to expect with how the tangles would go together. Plus, Bunzo and I struggle with each other. Some CZT have been posting some amazing versions of Bunzo that I cannot yet reproduce. Here is one by CZT Brenda, I just love how it looks. I ended up happy with how mine turned out, it is just a different interpretation of Bunzo.

I really love having grid patterns next to each other. Bucky is a great tangle to test patients, for it seems easy to rush but really needs to be slowed down. Sometimes it takes me 2 hours to do a section this size. I did not keep time this week, though I did complete it in multiple sittings.

Today was a beautiful day and really ended this past low-key week in a wonderful way. Except for the short time in which I couldn't find Alex, only to discover he had hid from who-knows-what and gotten himself stuck under the couch. We had a nice dinner at Mom's this evening, complete with our first bonfire of the season. Everything reminds us of Dad, and a bonfire is one he really taught us all to love. Mom and I had a nice reminiscence conversation sitting by the fire, watching the carpenter ants relocate.  

Happy Easter to those to celebrate, and those of us celebrating Passover, less than 48 hours until we can have pizza again... not that I am counting.

It's a String Thing

I have been following some Zentangle "challenge" blogs for some time now, but I have not had an opportunity to participate in them. Finally this week I did.

This is "It's a String Thing #35" Submissions will be put into a gallery on Monday, I will be sure to let you know if mine makes it. I am just happy to finally have participated.

Tangles are Cadent, Crescent Moon, Chillon and Cayke. 

ZIA Pottery

A couple weeks ago I took multiple clients to pottery painting studios. I never know what to paint, and often try to accomplish very difficult, detailed pieces that I cannot finish in the time my client finishes their piece. The first session I decided to try a Zentangle Inspired Art bowl, and this past week I picked it up. I do not have any before pictures, but here it is.

I cannot wait to see how the vase from my last post turns out. When my client and I went back to pick up this piece and continue working on his, I started another piece.

I did not finish this one yet. Looking forward to finishing and seeing how it turns out!

Zentangle inspired pottery

Today I took both of my clients to a paint-your-own-pottery place. I decided to use it as an opportunity for some ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art). Hope they both look good! I only took pictures of the second one before.

On Zentangle and my new iPad

The past year has been one of significant learning for me. Most recently I learned how bad I am at keeping a blog. I hope to remedy this quickly!

This past Friday I bought an iPad. For a couple weeks I had been using an old iPad that had belonged to my father. I liked having it around, but not how slow it ran and how outdated the software was. So I took the plunge and purchased yet another Apple product. I love it.

I want the iPad to assist in my Zentangle practice, or at the very least my teaching and blog-updating practice. Yesterday I purchased and downloaded a digital book, Step Out in Style, written by a fellow CZT. I encourage you all to take a look at this book: More information on the book here!

Below is my first tile using some of the patterns in her book. I love getting to learn new patterns, and I really love so many CZTs create their own.

More pictures to come soon.