Sunday, September 9, 2012

August Zentangle Club

My friend Hetty organized a best friends day to celebrate her 79th birthday. She is such a busy lady that she, sometimes, doesn't see a chance to see us. That's why she invited us ( 7 ladies) to celebrate her birthday at  my son-in-law Remco's Wok Restaurant: Yakimono to have a ladies night out.
But what to give your friend if she likes to give but not receive? In her invitation she had emphatically told us that she didn't want any presents. I didn't want to come empty handed. Then I got an idea what I could give her. She is a soccer fanatic and never misses a game. Her favorite team is  FC Utrecht. She attends every home game. So why not make a ZIA for her and include FC Utrecht in it!! 
 
The two tangles for this month Zentangle Club are Parasail and  Footlites. I decided to use them in this ZIA. After all I only used Footlites. So here is my ZIA for Hetty.

And here when she received it. She was thrilled.
 
Of course she gave us little presents and we were not supposed to bring anything??
  I don't think so!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Weekly Challenge #82: UMT v. VII "Brayd"

This week  is the first Monday of the month challenge UMT (Use My Tangle) using the tangle Brayd from Shelly Beauch . Be sure to check her site , she is very talented!
I took the opportunity to use Brayd for a 40th birthday card to be sent later this month.




Saturday, August 4, 2012

Weekley Challenge #81: "Guest Post - Relay for Life".

Where does time go? It seems there aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done or should it be that I don't use my time efficiently. I think the latter is my problem.  I haven't participated in the Diva's weekly challenge since  # 48.That was in November last year!!!!!  This week I made  time to give it a new start.

The guest host for Challenge # 81 is Erin Olson who blogs www.thebrightowl.com . On August 18 she will be walking in the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society. The Relay is a 24 hour walking event to support cancer treatment and research. By hosting this challenge she wants to bring awareness ( and hopeful a donation) to this worthy cause. Anyone who wishes to make a contribution to this fundraising event can go the Erin's fundraising page and make a donation of any amount. She is offering five unreleased Zendala templates to every one who wishes to make a contribution to her in her efforts to make money for the Relay for Life.

Now back to Erin's challenge. We have to complete a Zendala and this is the template we have to use.
Template can be found here.
A Zendala is a combination of a Mandala and a Zentangle.
It was really challenging and I have spent several hours to complete this, so finally here is my contribution:


Thank you Erin for hosting this challenge.


Monday, July 30, 2012

July Zentangle Club


Just finished the Zentangles for July. Again two fun tangles to try: Floatfest and Yuan.

Tangles Used:
Floatfest, Rockz, Pais, Zedbra and Hibred.

Tangles used:
Yuan, Vortex, Prestwood, Ogen, Eylet & Ribbon and Assunta.





Monday, July 16, 2012

June Zentangle Club

I finally catched up with my "homework" for Joni's Zentangle Club. Here is my June contribution. We had to use Zedbra and Shard. I've never tried Zedbra but Shard I've used before.

 Tangles used: Jute, Zedbra, Purlbox and Prestwood.

When I was ready to work on Shard I received Rick and Maria's newsletter showing how to draw the new tangle: Auraknot. I wanted to try it out immediately and used it with Shard.
Tomorrow Joni will send the July tangles. I better keep up.
Another challenge I have neglected is from I am the Diva. Hopefully I will be able to participate soon.




Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Card for Baby

Tangled this baby carriage......

.......and made two cards from it for two neighbours who were blessed with a baby girl and boy this month.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

A walk to "De Moestuin"

Groupon had a good lunch deal for two persons at "De Moestuin" in Utrecht and I  bought the voucher. I had always wanted to go there and this was a good time. We decided to walk and use a route from "Utrecht te Voet"  These are walking routes from the inner city to the outlying areas or vica versa. We walked the "Waterlinie - Lunetten" 10 km trail which  leads close to "De Moestuin". We started in Nieuwegein.

 Some pictures along the walk:

 Peony Poppy (Papaver Paeoniflorum)
Seed head
Tip: 
Pick the seed heads when they are fresh and hang them upside down somewhere warm and dry for a month. If you want to collect the seed, place a sheet of paper underneath to collect the tiny black seeds as they fall. 

In Lunetten we saw these Giant Hogweeds (Heracleum mantegazzianum) along our trail.
 
  Lunetten is a neighbourhood in the southeastern part of the city of Utrecht. It is named after the lunettes (bunkers) which were build in 1819 - 1821 to protect the "vlakte van Houten" (plains of Houten). There are 4 bunkers left in  this area. This  picture is part of Lunet I. It is now an educational center where they teach pupils about democracy (Fort van de Democratie) :

This is Lunet III.
It has been modernized and is in use by a scouting group during the weekends and BSO (after school care for children 4-12 years) on weekdays:
 
After about 2 1/2  hours of walking we arrive at "De Moestuin". This is a non-profit foundation. It's an organically cultivated garden in Utrecht where they also preserve traditional varieties of vegetables: the forgotten vegetables.
People who are incapacitated for work carry out all kind of work under the supervision of professionals. It also has a store where their produce can be bought and other organic food. The lunch café is connected to the store.
Woven twigs fence:
 The lunch café:
 The herb garden:
 Did you know that these are onion flowers?? When the onion plant matures this is what happens:
 Mallow (Malva Sylvestris)  Kaasjeskruid:.
  
(Mallow is considered to be helpful in cases of irritations produced by dry coughs, forming protective layers on the inflamed mucous membranes. It alleviates inflammations and mouth irritations. It is very useful in treatment of different sorts of respiratory complaints. It can also be useful in treatment of gastroenteritis and constipation. Tea made from the root acts as a very good diuretic.)


Meadowsweet (Filipendula Ulmaria) Moerasspirea
 
(Moerasspirea Meadowsweet's herbal uses had a base in scientific fact, in common with many other folk and herbal remedies. In the 19th century, chemists isolated salicylic acid from Meadowsweet. The acid was a disinfectant so it not only made rooms smell better but helped the fight against bacteria. It was a painkiller and anti-inflammatory but hard on the stomach. Only after it was synthesised did it become an acceptable candidate for mass production and sold in tablet form as 'aspirin' – 'a' for acetyl and ' –spirin' for Spirea, the original botanical name for Meadowsweet.)

 California Poppy (Eschscholzia Californica) Slaapmutsje:
 (California poppy is used for trouble sleeping (insomnia), aches, nervous agitation, bed-wetting in children, and diseases of the bladder and liver. It is also used to promote relaxation.)

 What is the name of this flower?:

 String Beans:
Working in the garden:
 Zucchini/Courgette:
 Did you know that the female blossom grows on the end of the zucchini and the male blossom  directly on the stem?
 
 They are edible and can be stuffed. Who is interested, here is a recipe. Have not tried it but it looks good.
 Marrowfat Beans (Capucijners)
 
More vegetables and grapes in the greenhouse but it was time to leave the garden. We bought some fresh picked lettuce and radishes and also a jar of date chutney which I had on my sandwich with goat cheese for lunch. By the way...the lunch was great but forgot to make pics ...
I will definitely come back here.
We walked the same route back.......



Thursday, June 28, 2012

May Zentangle Club


Tangles for this month: Chebucto and Prestwood.

How to draw the Chebucto tangle and how it got it's name can be found here. 
Tangles used: Tink, Vortex and Baton.

Prestwood is the next one:
 
I combined it with Skein, Krust and Annee. 




April Zentangle Club

April's Zentangles were: Golven and Pais.

Golven is the Dutch word for Waves. You should keep the curves aligned so they appear to flow as waves between the zig zag lines. Well mine aren't really aligned but I think it still turned out pretty good. Other tangles I used are: Poke Leaf, Dansk and Umble

Next is Pais.
Some of the other tangles are: Zander and Beedz.









Wednesday, June 27, 2012

March Zentangle Club

The two tangles for March were Onamato and Fohbraid.
We had to try to draw a two pencil string and use these two tangles inside. To make a two pencil string, just put a spacer between two pencils, then a rubber band to hold them together while you draw the string.

Other tangles I used: Keeko and Printemps

 Fohbraid:
 

I practised a lot of Fohbraid's in this Zentangle. some of the other tangles are: Crescent Moon, Betweed, Baton, Unyun and Rockz.



February Zentangle Club

 I 'm four months behind with Joni's Zentangle Club but I did some catching up and have finished the February,  March, April and May Zentangles this past few weeks. I will post them seperately, so this will be my contribution for February.

We had to use two tangles: Opus and Dansk. Both were fun to draw.
The three curly tangles are called Opus. Some other tangles I used are Drupe, Riple, Vortex, Dot 'n Dash, Rockz and Poke Root.
 Dansk is used in this Zentangle and is the one with the "aura's".
Other tangles are: Hi Rise, Trimonds, Flutter, Stubs, Scraper, Cadent.