This week's Zentangle challenge from The Diva just reinforced my dislike of most grid patterns. I can't draw a straight line most of the time, and Jonqal is just a bunch of straight lines (for the most part). Other people can make it look so flowing and beautiful; mine just looks blah.

But I did like playing with Opus. It reminds me of a few of my other favorite patterns, and I'll be adding this one to my go-to list.

It's almost time for my favorite holiday, and in celebration, Angie @ My So Called Chaos and Beth @ Living a Goddess Life are hosting a Halloween themed swap!

You should join in the fun and meet some wonderful new bloggers while your at it!

I am off to the beach for a few days, even if it is supposed to rain the entire time. Our first road trip with the Little Man. We'll see how he does and I'll be sure to take loads of photos.

Happy Friday, everyone!

This week's challenge is for Pinwheels for Peace. If you get a chance, pop over to I am the Diva's website, do the challenge, then enter to win a set of Pocket Pages for your Zentangle tiles.

Our interwebs went crazy last week.

Seems that when CenturyLink installed our DSL, they installed a "temporary" line running from the pole to the house. There's this thin orange cable running down the road (through the ditch and trees), across our driveway, around the back of our house and to the box on the side of the house. They were supposed to come out and bury this cable a few days after installation.

That was on August 12.
It has not been buried yet.

We've had road crews repaving our street and adding gravel and doing shoulder work the last two weeks. And last week, they broke the cable. Oh, they didn't tell us or anything. They just tried to twist it back together, then throw it up under some trees like it wasn't their fault. So every time the exposed wires would touch, the internet connection would go out.

A tech came out and fixed it last Saturday, so we finally have internet again.

As of yet, NO ONE has come out to bury that cable, despite us calling and bitching and CenturyLink claiming they've put a ticket in and someone should be out within 24 hours to bury it.

And we STILL have road crews working on this street almost every day. Who knows how much longer we'll have internet, if the crew cuts the cable again.

I have a few posts I'm trying to write, but it's been so difficult with the Little Man deciding not to take naps during the day EVER, and nursing CONSTANTLY. I'm pretty much tied to the couch feeding him, since he eats every hour, on the hour, all day, every day. It takes 30 minutes to feed him, he gurgles and kicks and squeaks for 30 minutes, then he wants food again. Not a pacifier, not formula... no he wants me, the all-he-can-eat walking dairy bar.

And don't tell me he's just going through a growth spurt. He's been doing this routine for the last three weeks. It was actually worse when he was going through a growth spurt -- he'd nurse for 10 minutes, doze for 5 minutes, then nurse again for 10, allllll day for about 3 days. Then he went back to the hourly feedings.

Supplementing with formula does no good. He can eat a good 6 ounces of formula, and STILL want Mom within 30 minutes.

I'm doing my best to give him what he needs, but there are days when I don't get to shower. Days when I feel guilty just for putting him down so I can go pee. Days when I don't eat until dinner because I can't disturb him or put him down long enough to fix something to eat, let alone eat it.

I hope it will get better soon. Mainly because I'm tired of smelling like a hillbilly from lack of bathing. And because I want to make a sammich and eat it all without dropping crumbs all over my baby.

And because I want to get back to blogging and photography and making MORE art. I still make some art because I can draw Zentangles while I'm nursing the Little Man, but I want to be able to make the scrapbook pages for him, and draw his nameplate for his room.

As part of Mamarazzi's Favorite Colors swap, I've made a new awesome bloggy friend: Myya over at Myya Says...  She's just the coolest chick ever and has the most adorable little girls.

I got my swap package yesterday evening and did it ever cheer me up (the last couple of days have been kind of crummy). All the purple-y goodness made me smile. I totally forgot to take a pic of everything all wrapped up, but it was wrapped in yummy cupcake printed tissue paper.

Excuse the slight blur on some of these photos; I couldn't use the flash last night because it's the one thing that startles Ian. Loud, sudden noises don't faze this kid, but camera flashes startle him and make him cry (or wake him up, then make him cry). 

Look at all these wonderful pretties! Myya is so sweet and generous. I love everything!

This is really pretty.

In an "OH MY GOD, IT'S A SPIDER, KILL IT! KILL IT! 
KILL IT!" 
sort of way.

Yeah, I'm not sitting out on my porch until it snows now. 

Whew! My little Squeaky Burrito has decided to space out his feedings to every 2 hours today, and take naps in between. I can write another post! Woohoo!

This is my attempt at the Diva's Weekly Tangle Challenge. This week it's a monotangle of Paradox, suggested by Maria (one of the creators of Zentangle). At first Paradox made me angry because I could never get it to look as awesome as everyone else's tangles. After practicing with it many times, I'm finally getting the hang of it and starting to love it. Reminds me of Betweed, and in some areas, Sanabel.


I used one of my 'bleed-through' papers that I cut into tangle tiles a few months back. I love the colors of bleed-throughs, especially this one.

This is one of my first attempts (but I like it less, so I'm showing it second). There's no shading, but I may go back and shade it later.

I read that babies are supposed to sleep 12-20 hours a day. Yeah, my baby didn't read that manual. Nor did he read the part about eating every 2-3 hours. Instead, he eats every hour to hour-and-a-half. He does sleep for a good 4 hour stretch at night, then a 3 hour stretch, but once he wakes up during the day, that's it. He's awake until bedtime and he's eating every single hour on the hour some days.

This coloring contest from Letraset and the Diva's weekly tangle challenges are the only way I can do any art these days, and even the coloring pattern took me a full week to color. But it's for a chance to win a set of Letraset markers. Everyone knows I'm a marker junkie -- and not just for the smell! And if you want something to just mindlessly color or meditate with (it is a mandala, after all) enter the contest here!

I used my Tombow marker set, along with an aqua brush to fade out some of the colors. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner anymore, so I have to photograph everything and crop it down in Preview, that's why you can still see the wrinkly paper from the watercoloring. 

Today's blog entry is brought to you with a baby on my shoulder -- meaning I typed it allll up with JUST ONE HAND. That's how much I like WWTKW!

Join up with Mamarazzi and Queso to avoid housework (but don't put your baby down). This week's questions are by Queso, and she's got the right idea about getting to holiday stuff now. Maybe I should follow suit and start shopping around a bit. :)




1. What is your favorite holiday?
2. Do you have any fun holiday traditions? What are they?
3. When do you start Christmas shopping?
4. What is your favorite holiday food?
5. Share a favorite childhood holiday memory
6. Have you ever actually tried fruitcake??


1. What is your favorite holiday?
A toss up between Halloween and Christmas. I love both so much, for the same reasons -- decorations! But Halloween is all ooky-spooky, and Christmas is all ethereal and beautiful. Such different holidays, but both so much fun.

2. Do you have any fun holiday traditions? What are they?
Not really. Does hiding in my house on Black Friday count? And out of respect for all retail workers the world over, I refuse to shop on Christmas Eve unless it's for something important like medicine that's needed NOW (not the day after Christmas).

3. When do you start Christmas shopping?
This sounds bad, but usually around Dec. 10. unless there's a damn good deal on Black Friday. I tend to avoid shopping during regular business hours, too. This year may involve everything being purchased online just so I don't have to leave the house with a squirmy baby.

4. What is your favorite holiday food?
The Red Velvet Bingle. It's basically a red velvet twinkie with cream cheese filling. It's worth the effort to find even one package. They're usually only available in this area during Valentine's Day, but I've seen them packaged in twin packs under the Mrs. Freshley's label in gas stations in the western part of the state.

5. Share a favorite childhood holiday memory
The Christmas I got my guinea pig when I was eight. I came downstairs and opened all my presents, then my mom presented me with one more -- Miss Piggy, a squealing, long-haired guinea pig that ended up living for almost 9 years.

6. Have you ever actually tried fruitcake??
Yes, I'll try just about any food. I've made fruitcake, and if you get a good recipe, it's actually VERY good. But those store-bought bricks are pretty nasty.