Molly Bee's Attic

Business first. This week's Diva Challenge was to use the tangle 'FLUX' in a tile. I've been working on the quote and main design in my doodle book for a couple of days now so I added FLUX to it. It's the plant like bits nestled in the border curves. I don't use FLUX much so it was nice to get acquainted with it.  Maria's version of the pattern is on the top border and Rick's is in the lower border. Saturday was our Wisconsin Zentangle Artists' Coalition meeting out in Waunakee. I love this group SO MUCH! I wish the meeting was more than quarterly! It was nice to meet up with my doodle buddies again and see what everyone is working on and to learn new techniques. As an added bonus, the president, Katie, brought along a couple of special guests; two lovely, young women from the Latter Day Saints church who are here in Wisconsin on their mission. One of the girls is the daughter of Jimmy Osmond, Donnie and Marie's little brother. They were ...

This week's Diva Challenge # 210 was to use a spiral as a string.  I had an idea, but it all blended in together until I added the shading.  It's better but it's still not like it was in my head but it was fun to play with anyway.  I always put my first try up so here it is. I know that my friends and family are all totally buried on the East Coast and I really don't have any grounds to complain, but that's never stopped me before...so...  All our snow was gone. We even had a couple of days in the 70°s! Spent Sunday at the park, rejoicing in the open water... Hunting for fossils...  Walking by the river... Communing with the chittering muskrats... Walking a new path in the spring woods.... That had fun bridges over the melted snow and mud. My crocuses bloomed on Sunday afternoon! Then Monday morning I woke to this! We were supposed to get 1-3 inches...we got 10-12 inches instead! ...

I generally operate under the rule that if I don't think before I open my mouth, I get to be as surprised as everyone else at what the mind monkeys fling out of it. On the best of days it's pretty harmless, but occasionally this approach backfires and I want to throw myself off the roof.  Today is one of those days. We had a breakfast this morning with colleagues from around the world. France, UK, China, Italy, Japan, Germany, Brazil  and Spain were all represented. And Switzerland as evidenced by the very, handsome, new, guy seated next to me. Those of you that know me know that, generally speaking...I'm generally speaking. It's not always fluid or sensible, but I can keep up my end of the conversation- word count wise at least- and I can help you with your end too if you need it. But around the International folks, I tend to be a bit shy, reserved and even more socially awkward than usual. So I'm sitting with the French and Mr. Switzerland. We're talking a...

I was a little bummed that I wouldn't have time to do the Diva's Challenge this week, but when I looked this morning [ I'm like a little kid at Christmas every Monday morning; pulling the paper off  to see what the challenge/gift will be for this week! Whether I can do the challenge that week or not, it's always exciting to see what it is! ]  and I saw that it was a St. Patrick's Day challenge, I realized that I already DID the challenge last Saturday after my Celtic Zentangle class! We learned all kinds of Celtic-y patterns in class and then Katie, Zentangle teacher extraordinaire, sent us home with 'extra credit' which was the instructions on how to do the knot below. I came right home and tried it out. I even put it on a real tile!  I suppose it's cheating a wee bit, but I'm submitting it anyway. Can I help it if I'm psychic? Or perhaps a time traveler? At any rate, I hope no leprechauns get me for this submission! Happy St. Patrick'...

I was fortunate to have several bits of time to work on my doodle collage this weekend. Several folks have asked for progress updates so here they are: Overview Full moon tree...still working on smaller branches and twigs.  Also filled in Celtic chain with brown pattern Butterfly.  Need to go over the whole thing again. Rice paper doesn't take the color well. Dandelions  Nautilus shell and fossils. Will look a lot better with shading. I have a feeling this piece will take as long to shade as it did to doodle!  That's it for this weekend!

I worked a shift on the farm this morning. I hadn't been over for about a month or so, so it was good to catch up with the fur and feather babies again. I didn't take many photos, I was too busy and my hands were full. After everyone was fed and cleaned, I set up a beauty parlor services for the donkeys and goats. The sheep were quite put out that they weren't included but I can get a curry comb through their winter wools so I gently did their noses to appease them.  Frances' eyes rolled back in his head he liked that so much! I spent about an hour and a half getting everyone done. It would have been shorter, but Diane, Opal and Frosty (goats) would get back in line and try to convince me that they hadn't been done yet so they could have another go....more than once. But here are a couple I took: This is Billie and Nillie-both of them loved beauty parlor. Today was Nillie's birthday so she got a little extra attention! This is handsome Blaine.  He i...

This weekend we had a much needed reprieve from the brutal cold we've had all winter. It was just in the nick of time too since morale was at an all time low and Cabin Fever was at an all time high! I had a Celtic Zentangle class with Katie Butler on Saturday afternoon so I went over to that side of town extra early to do some errands, get the car wash and take myself out to lunch. It was 40° and I didn't wear a jacket!  I had some time before class to I visited the Antique Mall just down the street from Lynn's Craft Shop. I've lived here for going on 25 years and have never been there. So cute and just endless little spaces with wonderful antiques! I could easily spend a weekend in there. I don't collect (and can't afford) antiques, but it was like visiting a museum.  I'll be going back soon as I have some questions about some things they classify as 'antique' that I still use in my house! I'm not THAT old...yet.  Anyway it was AMAZING! ...

I took my first hit of Malbridgio yarn last week. Sweet mother of all that's Holy, it's the heroin of yarn.  Friend Jen has been touting it's magnificence for a while now but I wouldn't drink the Kool-Aid. I finally knit up a skein into a free cowl pattern I found on line and now I'm hooked. If it weren't for my extensive stockpile of yarn in the basement, I swear I would buy every color and knit exclusively with this stuff. I love the colorways, the smoothness of it, and the fact that it's as soft as unborn, baby panda pelts doesn't hurt either! The pattern was fun to do. It's a free pattern that's based on another free scarf pattern called Falling Water by Bonnie Sennott. It's on Ravelry.  It's a false cable pattern with only an 8 stitch repeat so it's a breeze to knit.  Falling Water is a flat scarf and Water Goddess is knit in the round, so I had to run it by my mathematician and engineer before I got started and they got me ...

There has been a video going around Facebook about marbling paper with nail polish. I only saw it once and couldn't find it again, but it looked like just the thing I like to try; something that could be cool or a horrendous, messy disaster, so with no clear instructions but the ones I remembered, I got right on it.  The plastic container is one of those that deli meat comes in and is the perfect size for Artist Trading Card-sized pieces of paper or smaller. Do not use container that you want to use for anything else ever again. It will have scridlings of polish on it when you're done.  Fill it about half full of water. I found some old nail polish and I mean OLD. It was all separated and stuff but still quite liquid when I shook it up. It needs to be on the runny side so you can make drops on the water. . I think if you had some chunky drier stuff you could add a couple of drops of nail polish remover to loosen it up and it would still be fine.  Drop som...