Thursday-1pm

Okay, I am going to put the two challenges first thing since short posts are preferred and I'm still going to chat a little, of course.  That way anyone just looking for those can peek and leave.  I won't be offended.  Just happy that I felt well enough to take an art break and play this week.  ;)

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The template this week from Erin at The Bright Owl was supposed to be a monodala (a word she made up meaning you would only use one kind of zentangle doodle). 

Well, how about none?  Sorry.  All I could see were a tangle of those big Christmas bulbs that used to get so hot you'd worry the house would burn down--LOL!  Maybe the fact that it was 37 degrees when I woke up this morning might suggest the holiday mood a bit more?  LOL!  ;)

 The challenge from Jennifer for the Artist's Play Room over at Just Add Water, Silly this week was JUICY!  I'll show more below, but this is my unfinished offering.

 I unsealed the new Silks, stirred each one with a toothpick, and got one picture before my battery died yesterday.  Then I closed them up and shook the heck out of them.  Not a good shot of how shimmery they are in real life. 

 Karma knows I am doing interesting things up at my little art table and commandeers the chair whenever I take a break.

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What am I doing up here?

Who me?

Nothing.

 I'm just resting here.

Way too tired to climb on your table.

Really.

Just look at me.

Do you see how tired I am?

  

I'm not even looking at your old table.

Promise.  

You can just look away.  

Honest.

Look away. 

You can trust me.

 Cats are notorious liars.

 Anyways, I had no plan for what I was going to do for "juicy" (and I don't think this is finished) except that I wanted to use the new Silks somehow and be a loose woman.  ;)  

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I started out with acrylics and a bit of water for the background.  Took some kid's brushes and blobbed on some red and blue paint along the bottom.  Was thinking of flowers in a field.  Dripped yellow paint.  Splattered yellow paint.  Took out my extra-fine, carbon-black fountain pen and scribbled flowers, stems & leaves...

...and then started blobbing on several of the Silk acrylic glazes... 

 ...here, there, and everywhere.

 Looks pretty juicy to me all along the bottom where I used the new Silks.

 Couldn't resist a bit of shimmery misting all over, too.

I am very pleased that I had minimal trouble blobbing and scribbling.  :)

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Obviously, I was able to chop veggies for soup (the back test) and then take my art break this week!  Whoohoo!

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Yesterday I asked Dagan to stop by and remove all the books and magazines from the top two sagging bookcase shelves.  (They were seriously beginning to worry me.)  He managed to fit them all on the shelf between the kitchen and main room and on the end of my desk.  I covered the ones up on the ledge with an old art towel so they won't get spattered by droplets since they are right above the sink.  

Here I thought I was finally free of having a mess in here, at least.  Well, that was short-lived, wasn't it?  Now I not only need my bedroom blinders but had to dig out the heavy-duty main room blinders again--LOL!  Harder to ignore when you look at it all the time.  If I don't have to actually see it or only catch glimpses...well, I have a tremendous capacity for denial...as evidenced by my former love life--ROFL!  ;)  

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At least with all that stacked where it is my desk, craft table, and art table are still free and clear--tada!!  Needed to figure out a way to keep them open and useable since I have no idea when Dagan and Leah will ever be able to make it over to Lowe's.  They are busy with picking out light fixtures and such--and are going to wire the whole house for the internet themselves--pretty soon, too.  Dagan thought maybe even this weekend.  :)

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Oh, I forgot to tell you that I won second place in Goulet Pens ink drop contest with the mandala!  

Won a ten dollar gift certificate!!  Nice!  I knew when I saw somebody had used the inks to kind of watercolor paint a picnic scene by the water that they were going to win first...and they did...by a landslide!  I purposely didn't vote.  Didn't want to influence the outcome.  Thrilled to get second.  :)

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Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon (before Dagan arrived) I turned on the TV to watch something I had recorded and MS Media Player crashed to black screen.  I waited till Dagan got here.  The TV would still switch over to the DVD player, so the TV still works.  It's MS Media Player in the TV computer.  But I could go online and get to Netflix to watch streaming, so that's something.

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This morning I wanted to try it again when I was on a painting break.  It doesn't want me to try to move the recorded selections over or it gets really upset and crashes to black screen.  Then I have to manually shut down the TV computer and reboot it.  As a matter of fact it doesn't even like the cursor to move too far from the middle of the screen or it crashes.  But if I picked a selection from the very center of the screen it would let me watch it...twice.  

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But then I made the mistake of picking something a little right from center and it crashed.  I'll deal with rebooting when I am done blogging.  For the rest of the day I'm going to stick with Netflix streaming.  I don't think it is good for its metallic brains to keep crashing like that, so I guess I will be recording the TV shows but not be able to watch them.  Unless Dagan figures out how to fix MS Media Player or (if I have to buy something) until I can afford to fix or replace whatever is broken.  Such is life these days with all the electronics that aren't made to last.  ;)

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Oh, and everything seems to have glitches lately.  I ordered (in a buy two get one free deal) business paper from Office Max.  First I got an email telling me the 32 lb paper was backordered.  Next I got an email saying they were all three coming.  Then FedEx brings me one box of paper yesterday--the backordered 32 lb paper. Huh?  I sent them an email, but I am going to try calling them now since I haven't heard anything.

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Saggy shelves, flukes, crashes, boxes of paper roaming the streets, and lying cats.

 I think I will play with paints...or doodle...or write letters...or throw a little black TV computer box out the window...LOL!  

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Only kidding.  

Have an uneventful weekend.  ;)

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"The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it."

Jean-Baptiste Moliere