Zentangle Challenge #124 - Calgary in my heart

This week's Zentangle Challenge from Laura at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca is very open to interpretation. The news about the flooding in Alberta, particularly Calgary and immediate area is really overwhelming. I was born in Calgary and lived there until I was 13, and have been back to visit a number of times over the years. The two districts I had lived in were both evacuated - Sunnyside and Roxborough - both located near either the Bow or Elbow river. We also spent a lot of time with close friends in Bowness... My father and grandparents are buried in Calgary. I don't keep in touch with anyone in Calgary any more, but my best childhood friend from Sunnyside now lives in Bragg Creek - also evacuated. And my husband's cousin was evacuated from Canmore. The devastation is beyond what I can imagine. So it was hard for me to even start a tile or ZIA that showed what this meant to me. I had traced out the outline for a Zendala (Dare #16) that I had never done and decided I'd work on that while I thought about it. One thing I wanted to try was to use MI2, Huggins, Summer Sitter, and 8's flowing into each other and this template was perfect. Once I got going and while I was working on it, I thought of my time in Calgary and remembered things I hadn't thought of in many many years. When this ZIA was done I could see, perhaps, that each of the four sections might represent those areas I'm most connected to: Sunnyside, Roxborough, Bowness and Bragg Creek, and the Charz could be the mountains and foothills. EEZ could represent the circle of life, and/or the people affected and helping. It's a stretch, I know, but there was a sort of blank spot that was just the perfect place to write in "Calgary" and add a couple of hearts. It is all about the Zen!

Zentangle Challenge #87: "String Theory v. XII: Pinwheels for Peace v.II"

This week's Zentangle Challenge (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca) was to use a pinwheel for our string - in celebration of International Day of Peace, Sept. 21, 2012. My first pinwheel string (or pattern) is a quilt pinwheel... it turned out fussier than I would have liked. Tangles used are: H2O Lilly, Facets, Trimonds and Rose (Rose is supposed to have the accent over the e, like the blush colored wine, but I can't figure out how to do that on my computer).

My second pinwheel is simpler - two tangles: Tortuga, and Efilys

The third is from a pattern I found by browsing through google images of pinwheel coloring pages. This was my favorite to do, and out of the three tiles, I managed to do four new to me tangles. I've had a lot of fun with this week's challenge! The tangles I used in this third tile: MI2, Archer, Golven, Lokomotive, Yabbut and Huggins (and woodgrain for the post)