Catching Up...Diva 181, 179, and a Peek at the Second 176

ok, I am a bit behind. Admittedly, it has been a rough last couple of weeks. Another trip to Florida to see my sister-in-law, Marie, as she continues her brave battle with cancer. Dealing with the suicide of Robin Williams. And to top it all off, one of my Army buddies and her husband (also a veteran) were killed in a freak motorcycle accident, leaving behind 2 small children.

This would be enough to get anyone down, but dealing with, and living with, depression is a tough roads sometimes. It can greatly interfere with your desire to do anything, much less anything creative. But, I have found that if I can get started, especially on a tile, I can get out of it a little. That's where the prompts from the Diva, Adele Bruno, and Square One (on FaceBook) have been a godsend. I don't have to think about what to start (the hard part) and can get into the mindfulness.

So with that being said, I've made a lot of effort on a few projects that required minimal mental effort. I am almost done "up cycling" our dart board case (icky old Miller Lite thing,)  which, of course, I had to add some tangles to. I'll post the finished product next week.

I got out this week's Diva Challenge #181, with the theme of Water. I went to the beach yesterday, and it was rather soothing listening to the sound of the waves crashing. I hope you can see some watery-ness in my Mooka.  Signo UM-153 pen in blue, Signo Angellic in light blue, and General's Chalk Pastels (white, light blue and indigo) on Renaissance Tan tile.

I did get some Bijoux done, but I was on the road when I did them, so I didn't get them posted. But...here they are!

I really love doing these. I will often draw Bijou on several tiles in different positions with my dip pen, and after they dry I tangle him into someplace. I love that these have given me the impetus to try some tangles I don't normally use as well.

Speaking of Bijou, since he sends us tiles in these adorable little tins, I found one at JoAnn that fits 3.5 inch tiles perfectly...check it out.

I had "colored" 2 tiles to use for Diva's Challenge 176: BYOB, but I only finished one in time for posting that week. I have now finished the 2nd one. Here is the before pic again:

So this is the wine stain on the left on Renaissance Tan.

I think it came out pretty cool. I was on a Cadent-esque tangent that week, after doing this one for Square One:

And contenting off my Initials from Diva #178: Duo of my initials, I did this cute frame from Michael's dollar rack with all C and K tangles:

Whew...I think that catches me up for now!

Stay crazy!

Char