Zendala Dare #25

This is going to be a quick post this week.  The husband has been away camping for the last 9 days and just came home about 30 minutes ago.  I should probably give him some of my attention.  Have a great week!

Zendala Dare #25

Here's the weekly template:

Zendala Dare Week #25 Templates

Tangles:  Paradox, Beadlines, Ramy

This template presented one of those of wonderful Zentangle moments when the finished product is superior to what I had envisioned.  I like that the Paradox parts almost look as if they split and form "fins" on either side of the black.  That probably doesn't make much sense, but if it does, that would be awesome!  The black rods were meant to add contrast but now this reminds me of a wagon wheel.  I quite like it.  

Please remember to link up below and have a fantastic week!

Erin

Zendala Dare #24

It's our first official Saturday Zendala Dare, and by "official" I mean that it was actually supposed to come out on Saturday.  Not Friday with a late Saturday arrival!  I hope you all had a fantastic week.  Mine was only mildly exciting but did contain some high points.  I arranged an impromptu birthday lunch for a friend that went very well.  I had dinner with the family and planned a fun game for the kids that turned into an ultra hilarious game for the super competitive adults and included an embarrassing traffic stop on the way home.  (That's a story I will save for another time.)  But the most inspiring event of my week was a movie that I had not heard of and I am guessing you haven't either so I would like to share it with you.

A few weeks ago my friend Sue invited me to movie premiere that was being sponsored by her company.  My friend Andrea and I drove down to the Mission district in San Francisco to meet Sue and a few of her co-workers.  Sue had mentioned that we "would grab something to eat" and me being a foodie and a control freak, I took it upon myself to make some reservations.  I picked a place called Mozzeria because it looked good on Yelp and I made reservations.  It wasn't until later that I learned the owners and most of the staff are hearing impaired.  The food turned out to be amazing and the dining experience was very interesting because many of the patrons were hearing impaired as well so there is almost none of the ambient noise you would normally encounter in a restaurant because almost no one is speaking.  If you happen to be in the San Francisco area I strongly recommend this little gem!

After dinner we headed down the block to see Freedom House: Street Saviors, a film about a group of "unemployable" African-American men in Pittsburgh, PA.  Two men, Philip Hallen and Dr. Peter Safar believed that many of these men could be trained in emergency medicine and then provide service to the under served community that they came from.  The experiment was a huge success and soon these men were providing life saving care that was unheard of in 1967.  In 1975 a new, less forward thinking mayor was elected and many of the existing paramedics were pushed out using unjust testing procedures and other bureaucratic loop holes so that could be replaced with new paramedics that happened to be primarily Caucasian.  

This movie really made me take a step back and think about why I became a paramedic.  I love my job and the company I work for has been good to me but let's face it, I work for one of the largest EMS corporations in the United States and sometimes "helping people" feels like it gets lost in politics, statistics and the bottom line.  This movie inspired me to get hold of my paramedic roots and remember why I go to work everyday.  It sounds cliche to say that "I just want to help people" but that is what I really want to do.  Some of the paramedics from the movie were at the screening and it was nice to be able to thank them for paving the road for me to be able to have the career that I do.  

Zendala Dare #24

This week I went for something pretty straight forward.  Sometimes straight lines bother me but something about this templates screamed "POSSIBILITIES" (yes, it's in caps because it screamed).  

Template for Zendala Dare #24

Tangles:  River, Mosaic, Paradox, Betweed,
Tipple, N'Zeppel

I felt like this template cried out for simplicity.  Now that I have finished however, I'm not so sure.  I may have to make another, just for comparison, of course!

Please remember to link up below so we can share

and inspire.

Have a great week!

Erin

Zendala Dare #23

Never fear, your Zendala Dare is here!  Hi everyone.  I hope you all had a fabulous week and I apologize for the Zendala Dare being late.  This is the third time I have had to post the dare later than usual.  That doesn't make me happy.  I'm the kind of girl that likes to have things done when I say they will be done and I am starting to notice that a lot of you are the same way.  So many of you write to me about how you look forward to Friday mornings to see the new dare, so it must be a let down to find it isn't there and I don't want that to happen anymore.

When I started the Zendala Dare almost six (yes SIX!) months ago I thought it was something I would do mostly for me and a couple people might join in but it has turned into so much more than that.  CZT's are using templates for classes, people are making Zendala's with their children, and more and more I am seeing people use Zentangle and Zendala's as a way to relax and enhance their daily lives.  I now must admit, that this is much more than just a weekly dare for many of us and I am thrilled that I can say that!

Last week's monodala was the most popular Zendala Dare to date.  There were so many beautiful entries and I feel like it really challenged many of you without creating the feeling of anxiety we sometimes feel when presented with something that makes us uncomfortable.  I really enjoyed reading every entry.  (Yes, this week I read every one!)

So that brings us to why I was late this week, again.  I have had to re-evaluate the dare and take a look at what I am able to reasonably incorporate into my schedule.  When nursing school starts in January I may have to scale back a bit, but for right now I am keeping it a weekly event.  What I have to change however, is the day.  Looking back, I'm not really sure why I decided to post it on Friday.  I think it may have been because I didn't want it randomly in the middle of the week and I didn't want it on Monday because it would conflict with the Diva challenge.  I work every Thursday night until midnight on the ambulance.  That means I don't get home until about 1:00 am and as much as I love the dare, I don't like to write blog posts at 1:00 in the morning.  I think my initial thought was that I would have the posts done earlier in the week, but I always feel like a little bit of a fraud when writing about "my week" on Tuesday and pretending it went to Friday.  I know, I'm a weirdo.  Plus, I don't think I really put my best efforts into a blog post at one in the morning after working a 12 hour shift.  My heart just isn't in it.  

So where does that leave us?  Starting this week the Zendala Dare will be posted every SATURDAY morning.  I hope this doesn't create any catastrophic Zentangle scheduling changes for anyone but it's what needs to be done in order to keep bringing you the templates that you all seem to enjoy so much.  Sorry this is such a long winded post but I thought you should understand the method to my madness.

Zendala Dare #23

Link to Zendala Dare #23 Templates

Tangles:  Cruffle, Dragonair

Tangles:  Socc, Pearlz, Kwiet

I REALLY loved this template.  To be honest, when I created it, it wasn't one of my favorites.  When I started working on it however, I really fell in love with all the possibilities.  Many of us, myself included, have phases where we use certain tangles more often than others.  Right now I am in a Dragonair and Cruffle phase.  I find that they work just about everywhere!  In my second tile I also used Kwiet, which is one of my own tangles, and it too has become a new fave.  I keep promising to post the directions but I think I might actually do it this week!

I want to thank you again for your continued support 
of this blog and for taking the growing pains in 
stride.

Have a wonderful week!

Erin

Where my Zendala Dare?

Hi there faithful Zendala Dare followers!  There has been a change of plans that I will explain tomorrow morning, so check back then for your weekly dare!

Erin

Zendala Dare #22 - Monodala

Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a great week.  I loved the Zendala's you turned out this week.  There was quite a variety.  I have had a very busy week as usual.  I have decided to take a second job at a small family owned ambulance company that services the town I live in.  I am looking to have a little more flexibility in my schedule when nursing school starts and this job will allow me to do that.  I have been a paramedic for 14 years and have worked the entire time for the same company.  Even though I am pretty confident in my skills, it's amazing how stressful it can be to have someone watch and evaluate me at this point in my career.  I think I will need to do a lot of extra tangling this week to help relieve some of that stress!

A quick note about my Relay for Life raffle:  I promise, promise, promise, that it is in the works.  I hope to have a winner announced by next week.  Thank you for your patience.

Zendala Dare #22 - Monodala

As most of you know, on the first Friday of every month the Zendala Dare comes with a little extra challenge.  This weeks challenge is to make a Monodala (yes I came up with that myself, even though it does sound a little like some kind of exotic disease).  A monodala is a Zendala that is made using only one tangle.  You can create tangleations to your hearts delight but try to keep your tangles to just one!    

I find that one of the hardest parts of a ZIA is deciding which tangle to use next.  This exercise was very liberating because I just picked a tangle and then modified it as I went without having to think about "Oh no, what now?"   It went much faster than most of my other Zendala's and it took me to that restful place that I love so much when I am tangling.

Here is this weeks template:

Zendala Dare #22 Templates

Tangle: Striping

I chose to use the tangle Striping for my Monodala.  I like that I could add a lot of sparkles to my monodala to achieve some depth while still sticking with only one tangle.  The mostly black pieces in the four corners were actually a mistake so I decided to just color them in to add a little more depth to the piece.  I really like the way this turned out and will probably be doing more of these.

Please post your Monodala's using the link

below.  I look forward to seeing your creations 

and hope that you have a fantastic week!

Erin