Travel and many firsts!

In April I traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico to attend Tangle University where CZT's from all over the US and many different countries, come to learn from other CZT's about our craft. It is in it's third year and it is something I look forward to every year. The CZT crowd is a bunch of like minded, fun people that are always a blast to meet up with, if only for a long weekend. There never seems to be an end to good food, good friends and a mind blowing amount of things to learn. I have come back with many unfinished projects and some cool new tools that I have yet to play with. The one project I did get done was taught by Kate Lamontagne. We used a new tool called a Helix Angle and Circle Maker . This is an inexpensive and very simple tool to make Mandalas, or in our case, we made dream catchers, and learned to use colored pencils. It was just fascinating.

I was home less than a week and repacked my bags for an adventure by car. Oh what fun! I drove to a fellow CZT, Chris Titus's home in upper New York  state and spent a few days in her wonderful studio where we actually took a class in renaissance tiles via Skype from fellow CZT Meredith Yuhas. (A first for all of us!) The following is her tile as I left mine behind in Boston.

We used black and brown micron pens, white charcoal pencil, white gelly roll pen, graphite and we were all amazed at the results. Meredith's work is just yummy.

After a few days of "playing" in the studio, we were on the road again along with Deborah Bartlett on the next leg of our adventure. We drove to the American side of Niagara Falls and walked about, having lunch at a casino just so we could see inside and spend a small amount on playing the games (another first for me!) We all left with 2Cents! 

We then crossed the boarder (another first!) and saw the falls from the Canadian side. Just amazing. We took a ride on Maid of the Mist:

We walked in tunnels behind the falls, which were amazingly loud, if not a bit scary and then just spent time at the bottom of the falls watching the water and listening to the power of them. It was a beautiful morning and I believe we spent 4 to 5 hours just taking it all in.

From here we traveled to the tiny, beautiful town of Elora, Ontario where we attended a weekend workshop called "Tropical Tangled Garden" taught by Cherryl Moote and hosted by Brenda Shaver and her sister in law Mary Hudson-Shaver. What another great group of people! We had the most wonderful weekend of shopping, eating and creating that could be had. Cherryl is a fabulous teacher with many talents and such a down to earth wonderful soul, it was a pleasure to spend the weekend learning from her.  Work In Progress:

After this fabulous weekend we headed back to New York where Chris and a friend were to fly out the next morning to Southwest Harbor Maine and spend a few weeks soaking up the Maine coast and I was to drive back to Boston. Well, things do not always go as planned and Chris and I were in the car again, this time heading for Southwest Harbor Maine! Ten hours later we arrived in a beautiful spot her sister rents every year and I was asked to spend some time. Well, why not! More good company, in a State I love, I couldn't say no. I found myself celebrating Cinco De Mayo at a restaurant in Maine with half price margaritas (original and blueberry basil) while my youngest celebrated his 26th birthday in Brooklyn NY. I stayed for several days then made the journey back to Boston.

It happened to be the fourth anniversary of my eldest sons passing, so I made a stop in Andover and walked up to Holt Hill to spend some quiet time and leave a little something. It is a beautiful spot where you can see the thirty miles to Boston Skyline.

He will always be loved and never forgotten. Shine on!

I stayed in Boston for the weekend and packed up for my summer in Mid-Coast Maine where I am now. A new trip is planned for July! Again to Canada but a whole different part! Woohoo! 

Tangle University

I enjoyed four wonderful days in Portland Maine with fellow Certified Zentangle Teachers that came from South Africa, Netherlands, Latvia, Taiwan, Australia and all over the US and Canada who shared their ideas, taught classes, stayed up late into the night tangling together and of course we ate a lot!

First night started out with a fancy dinner at Hugo's Restaurant. So many tastings of wonderful food.

 Fluke Tartar

 Crabmeat Salad in compressed Apple and Tofu foam and Sea Moss

 Scallops wrapped in Nori with Pickled Daikon Radish

 Tempura Ramps

 Skate roasted yummy vegetables with a citrus oil and a smoked tomato sauce

 Meat of some kind (I am sorry I can't remember because I don't eat meat but it was enjoyed by a friend)

 Smoked Monkfish

 Lamb

 French toast with Carmel topping sitting atop hops

 Grapefruit sorbet, granola and egg yolk

Homemade Marshmallows, Lemon curd, and Torrone

All was very good and the waiter took our picture after every course was served. He also went to the kitchen and looked up Zentangle and was very interested. I wished we had had a tile to leave behind :(

From Pizza to seafood, we ate it all and had a wonderful time together. It always goes so fast but, we are already looking forward to Tangle U Santa Fe in 2015!

Fellow CZT Chris Titus then spent the next five days at our home in Round Pond Maine where we "mostly" played with our new supplies. What a lot of fun to have a fellow tangler in the house for many days. It was funny that most of our time we spent at the same table and did not speak a word for hours so engrossed in our projects we were. She is a wonderful cook and took care of the meals, was an awesome house guest and a really great friend. What follows are some pictures of our finished works. The colored piece alone took each of us a couple of days to complete and so much fun. The idea came from Marizaan van Beek who traveled from Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa to Canada for a visit, but took some time to teach a class before her journey to Tangle U. CZT's are a very generous group.

 Tangled and Colored with Tombow markers by Chris

Tangled and colored with Tombow markers by Me 

Zendala Lesson - Same string and instructions - different results.

 Above Chris's below Deb's

We had a mixture of some rainy days, some beautiful days, some windy days and several visits from eagles both young and old.  Quite a pleasurable week!

Weekly Challenge #111: "More-Mooka-Madness Monotangle-Mania" 


That's a mouthful!  It just goes along with the weekend I just came off of.  I spent my weekend in Northampton MA at Tangle U!  Hopefully the first of many.  The group was a manageable a size and I was able to connect with most of the attendees which adds to the fun and friends on facebook!  There were many wonderful courses from color to mandala strings to meditation.  All fabulous and extremely informative.

Mooka is such a fast tangle it was easy to complete two.  I found that meditatively breathing before each tile slowed me down, relaxed my hand and helped me find my strokes more smoothly.  I thank Meredith L. Yuhas, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Zentangle Teacher, for the wonderful reminder to meditate and the exercises she guided us through this weekend.