Wednesday-10:15am

The rest of my Amazon order came yesterday.  You can see the chair cover on the floor in front of Karma claiming the air pocket strips.  She only popped one--which, amazingly, she took no notice of at all.  Either she's lost a little weight or the air pockets are sturdier than I thought--LOL!

All that packaging in a big box for such a small amount of goods.  Which means they flopped around a bit inside the box.  The Martha Stewart doilies got curled around the chair cover.  I have them flattening (hopefully) under a big book right now.  I'm hoping I can maybe use these as stencils.  

I wasn't too lucky with the books this time, I guess.  I wasn't able to "look inside" any of these on Amazon.  With  Zentangle Basics it's easy to see why they wouldn't want to show you anything. 

It's actually a pamphlet not a real book, for one thing--if they showed you a few pages you would have seen almost the entire book--LOL!  I should have looked more closely to the number of pages.  Twenty...and that includes both sides of the front and back covers as four of them!  

I was hoping for a good reference book on how to go about drawing zentangles.  Here's the first page spread--well, actually pages 2 and 3.

Up in the right hand section is what she tells you about supplies:

A pencil.  She only mentions one type of pen--a micron in a certain width.  And a 3.5 inch square piece of paper.  Now, even I know that you can use a much wider variety of supplies than she states and you don't have to have a 3.5 inch square to work on.  You could even use a ballpoint pen and a piece of computer paper.  

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When you turn the page she begins her instructions for the 3.5 inch square.  1--dots in the corners.  2--connect the dots to make a square.  3--draw a zig zag inside the square.  

But then look at number 4?  Switch to a pen...wavy lines everywhere and a different design?

Obviously, she continues on with filling in the zig-zag design on the following page, but what was that?  Confusing.

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There's 20 step by step diagrams in the book, but they are really pretty simple.  I laughed out loud when I saw this one:

You can go online (and I have) and find much more.  I was very disappointed.  Wouldn't recommend the book even to a beginner.  You can learn a lot more online for free.

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Then this book. 

Creating Mandalas: For Insight, Healing, and Self Expression.  I expected it to actually show how to make mandalas, right?  Nope.  There are hardly any pictures in this entire book.  I looks like it's all about the history and what the colors, numbers, and forms mean within the mandala (without picture examples, mind you).  Talk about dry.  

In the book description on Amazon it does say she talks about the history, etc--but says "She then shows you how to make your own, offering guidance on choosing art materials and techniques".  Well, it turns out that in her 24 page chapter (out of 207 pages) entitled: Creating and Interpreting a Mandala these are the only illustrations in the whole chapter!

Huh?  

How does that help anybody learn how to create a mandala?

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And the color illustrations in the center of the book?  They're all pictures of these odd mandalas that her students have drawn.  Here's a couple page spreads.

Well, I might learn what colors, numbers, and forms mean in mandalas and some history, but this book was nothing like I expected at all.  Disappointed.

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At least the third book was a winner!  The Decorated Journal goes into great detail on picking the type of journal to use (even some basic information on making your own), the types of journals people keep, the supplies used, many techniques, and tons of picture examples.  I had seen this one recommended someplace online, but I can't remember where now.   

So, only one good one out of three.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

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Dagan is stopping after work.  Leah has the chiropractor and a work meeting to attend, but I think she may stop by later if Dagan is still here.  We are checking out all the wiring and cords behind the triple dresser in the living room to see if it can all be moved down to the right side end of this wall...  

...to kind of to trade places with the art table.  As you can see, because of the dresser blocking the light it is always kind of dark at the art table even in the daytime.  And because of the thermostat and light switch on the wall I would have to hang the new shelf unit awfully high for somebody as short on one end as I am.  ;) 

So, the plan is to kind of switch them.  I will have more light to draw/paint and can hang the shelving lower, too.  Where there's a will there's a way, right?  Might need to buy more stuff to extend the cords/wires, but it should be doable.  I'll know more after tonight.

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  BTW--that good sized box under the folding art table is what those few things arrived in from Amazon.  Three times the size needed. How wasteful.  Maybe it was a new employee?

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I put on the other new matching chair cover while Karma was snoozing.  She couldn't resist waking up to see what I had done out on the porch.  I had also clipped up that one side because the wind keeps blowing it down.  Now she can always get to her water and food out there under that chair...but the way she came slinking out there you would have thought she expected something to leap out at her and steal her cat grass--ROFL!!

Didn't take her long to see there was no spooky monster under the chair. 

My smoke alarm started chirping Monday about 4:15pm.  Even with my two-step stool I can't reach the ceiling easily at all.  I called the office and they sent Chris over.  I was so glad it started BEFORE he went home for the day.  He replaced the batteries in both my smoke detectors for me.

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Then I had to call Tuesday morning because the bathtub drain was nearly plugged up.  Happens about once a year.  Never had that problem anywhere I lived in the past.  The maintenance men have told me it is because of the shape of the pipes or something.  Chris came again.  He's such a nice man.  

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Oh!  And the first thing he asked me when he came about the smoke alarms was if I had heard any pounding.  Nope!!  No more dryer flap banging against the building.  It has been so nice.  After seven years...I can't tell you how wonderful it is.  Let the wind howl and whistle--tis no matter to me.  Love it!

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I felt a lot better by last night.  Today I am back to "my" normal and all is well.  Whew!  :)

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Still hot and humid every day--whether it rains or not.  I'll let you know if this moving furniture is going to be easy or will mean things have to be purchased.  ;)  

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Hugs to everybody!  

Have a super day!!  :):) 

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"No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody has to help you."

Althea Gibson