There's gold in them there hills

It's that wonderful time of year again when the aspen trees turn their beautiful gold in the Colorado mountains.  It has been unseasonably warm here still, with a high of 87 today.  Good day to head for the hills and see some gold colors.  For those of you in northern Colorado we headed up the Buckhorn Canyon to Pennock Pass road and over the pass to the Poudre River.  The aspen's were beautiful all the way over the pass.  If you're close by, I hope you take advantage of this weather and head to the mountains.  We packed a lunch, the fishing rods, and my Zentangle tiles.  Doug stopped several places to fish the streams and while I could have joined him, I opted to tangle instead.  I really enjoyed sitting next to the river (nothing like that sound), seeing the fall colors, and doing the Diva's weekly challenge. 

This week the Diva has us doing another duo tangle, JONQAL & OPUS.  I love these challenges where we use two tangles that are quite opposite, because they always surprise me!  In the 1st one, I started with Opus around the outside, using that as my string for Jonqal.  I didn't plan on doing a second, but Doug was having fun fishing so I started another.  I decided to do the opposite, and started with Opus in the middle and used Jonqal around the edge.  Since I was out among the fall colors, I took a picture of them there. 

What a beautiful day!  Enjoy the pictures. 

                         

"The mountains are calling and I must go." and "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." (John Muir)

Challenge #40 Pinwheels for Peace

I was out of town all week and just returned in time to do and post my contribution to the Diva's weekly challenge.  I hope all of you enjoy a few moments of peace each and every day! 

Challenge #39 - Love is all you Need

Laura Harms, at I am the Diva blog has another wonderful challenge for us this week.  In remembrance of the tragedy of 9/11, Laura wrote a very poignant post about love triumphing over hatred.  It is filled with beautiful quotes and words from Laura.  This week we are to do a zentangle tile in the spirit of love, whatever that means to us.  When I think of love, I think of hearts.  It could be that living in Loveland, where I see hearts all the time, has something to do with that, hmmm.  Anyway, I drew 3 different size hearts all overlapping as my string and tangled all of them (can you see them).  I didn't have any music on (rare for me while tangling) and I thought of a song from the 60"s (yes, this will date me) that goes...come on people now, smile on your brother, etc. so I had to look it up.  It was done by The Youngbloods and is called Get Together. I always liked that song and the words still ring true today.  (Posting lyrics at the end).  Anyway, back to my tile, I decided to write the words of the chorus around my tangles and then didn't like the way it looked.  Hmmm, do another tile or just keep going and see where this one takes me in the true spirit of the zentangle art method.  I covered the words in black, but didn't like the circle of black around the tangles, so before I knew it the whole thing was black, which in turn invited  a silver pen and some Mooka.  Mooka always reminds me of love too because the pods look like hearts sometimes or the long arms look like they are hugging the inside of the pods.  So here's my tile, love and hugs to all of you!

Get Together
The Youngbloods

Love is but a song to sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Through the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

Chorus:  Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Some may come and some may go
We shall surely pass
When the one the left us here
Returns for us at last

We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass

Chorus (3 times)

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

Chorus (3 times)

Challenge #38 "Better than a Pair of Ducks"

When I first saw Rick's Paradox tangle I thought it was really cool.  I had some trouble getting it down until I read the tip somewhere, that if you turn your tile with each line that you make it is a lot easier.  Sure enough, that worked and I have been using Paradox a lot whenever I had a triangle shape to put it in.  Wow, it really is a cool tangle!  But wait...then Margaret Bremner/CZT came out with a wonderful tutorial, (check it out here) on Paradox and I had a light bulb moment (a little embarrassed to admit...why have I only limited Paradox to a triangle shape?  You can do Paradox with a square...and so much more.  Wow, this really cool tangle is over the top really cool now!  Thanks Rick for creating Paradox!  Thanks Margaret for the wonderful tutorial!  Thanks Laura for another great challenge!  (Love that you think Pair of Ducks when you hear Paradox-what fun!)

Challenge #37 Kiss My Grids

Another good challenge from the Diva, Laura Harms.  This week the challenge was to use all grid based tangles.  Another week where I am down to the last minute, so no words of wisdom, just my two tiles. (the 2nd one is a little out of focus).   I haven't had time in the past couple weeks to review and comment on all of your tiles, so I will anxiously await the slide show!