Diva Challenge #194 ~ Embrace the Yuck!

Phew! I started this one out on Monday (several times!) after I read the Diva's Challenge by her guest blogger this week, Elisa Murphy. She wanted us to use our non-dominant hand to do our tangle this week to show our solidarity and support to the Diva while her youngest son, Artoo, recovers from eye surgery. In this exercise, we show our frustration and powerlessness over things that happen in our lives. But as we pick up our pens and pencils in our non-dominant hand, we can learn to deal with the things that cause these feelings and know that we can overcome them.  Well, that's the theory anyway.....  As I said, I started this one several times, but I mostly just sat there with my pencil in my left hand and trying to will my brain to just draw. Do you know how hard it is to think in reverse?  I finally got some scratch paper and picked a few tangles that I liked and practiced drawing them with my left hand until I finally figured out how to draw it "backwards" for me. Apparently, I crochet and tat left-handed or so my grandmother used to tell me, but I just did what was comfortable. And in picking up my pen, which I was reluctant to do until I have managed to actually draw my border on my tile with my left hand, I took a little while to figure out how to hold the darn thing! But I found a way that was comfy for me and regardless of what my son and hubby thought, it was comfortable for me.  I was holding it like a chopstick so that I could control the movement...otherwise I wouldn't have been able to draw as well as my 2 year old granddaughter.  But all that background aside now......Here it is!

Challenge 194~Embrace the Yuck!
Media ~ 4" Tile, Micron Pen, pencil and shading stomp
Tangles ~ Shattuck, Cadence, Y-Ful, and a couple of others I frankly don't remember!

So hurry to the Diva's Place and check out the other submissions for this week right here.  As always, any comments are appreciated and constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome!  Thanks for visiting my blog!

Diva Challenge 193 ~ Thank YOU!!!

Phew!  I am horribly late (in fact, clear into the next week) but I did want to get something up for THX to say thanks mostly to our veterans and current serving military personnel. I worked for the DoD for 30 years, most of the time with a unique group of individuals in an Army Reserve unit that was a helicopter ambulance and service unit. These men and women showed me what dedication and service really was. When they were deployed to Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, I would talk with their families they left back home and reassure them that their soldiers were alright. I was right there with the families to welcome their heroes home. Many of our pilots were also Vietnam veterans and they often compared the reception they got coming home from the Middle East and the reception coming home from Vietnam. It was heartbreaking to hear the stories of rejection after Vietnam. But I do want to thank military worldwide for being able to defend the things they believe in. My entire career (and in fact - my whole life) was spent around military folks. My grandfather served in WWI and received a Purple Heart after being gassed in France. My father served in WWII and Korea. While I did not serve in the military (I wanted to join the Air Force, but due to physical problems, could not), I worked for DoD all my life. My last position was as the secretary to the General of the Regional Army Reserve Command before the finally closed the command. But I could probably go on forever with stories from and about "my guys", but I need to get to the tangles.

So here they are (I got a bit carried away, because I didn't like most of them).  Just a small note on colors, I chose to use red, blue, and purple because they represent colors of military to me...red and blue (along with white) for our US flag and purple for the prestigious military medal ... Purple Heart. I hope you enjoy and if you would like to see all the ones that were finished on time, just drop in to the Diva's blog

First attempt
Media: Micron Pen, Pencil, Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils
Tangles: Trio, Huggins, Xyp

Second Try!
Media: Micron Pen, Pencil, Creative Memories Fine Tip Permanent Markers
Tangles: Trio, Huggins, Xyp

Third Try (My Favorite)
Media:  Micron Pen, Pencil, Creative Memories Fine Tip Permanent Markers
Tangles: Trio, Huggins, Xyp

Unfinished Starts