Weekly Challenge #56

Happy Monday everyone!
First of all, as always - a few house keeping items:

• If you're NEW here (and there've been a lot of new additions to the party!) I'm working on creating some tutorials to help you out.  You can click on the links above or:  See "Getting Started"  and "Tutorials" 
• To see all the past weekly challenges - click the tab above, or follow this link
  
• Please grab the button for the Weekly Challenge (on the right  sidebar) to display on your blogs! share the fun!
• The limit of submissions to the slideshow is TWO, but please feel free to post as many as you like to your blogs.  I will take the first two presented to each challenge.
• and i want to say a very extra special big heart felt thank you to everyone who donated funds.  I continue to be amazed by the generosity of spirit of this wonderful community.  HUGS!

Thank you everyone who emailed me or msged me to let me know that they were wearing purple for Artoo this week.  I was so overwhelmed by the support of our friends and family, and it made me so happy that we have this wonderful community for me to draw strength from.  Thank you so much!

my wacky family

 Here we are, all sporting our purple.  You can't tell, but the boys are wearing shirts with purple writing.

Another awesome thing happened this week - i received these letters in the mail informing me that my student loans were now paid in full.  Honestly, i felt like throwing a party, or at the very least, having them framed!

NO MORE STUDENT LOANS!!! best day ever!!

 Chewie and i had some fun colouring with markers this week, you can kinda see how Mama did a bit of tangling on the back side of the colouring book.... oh scallops. ;)

Look Mama, i coloured all of dem green!

 Mister Artoo has been a drool machine, still working on those eye teeth.   Hard work, teething.

so freakin' adorable...

I started taking a few shifts a month at the bra and lingerie shop in the small town where i grew up, it's about 20 minutes out of town - it's been a nice change of pace to spend all day speaking to adults.

Also, thank you to everyone who voted for my blog last week!  i still haven't heard what the results are, but they said they'd notify me by email once the votes were tallied. 


Weekly Challenge #56: "Non Dominatrix* v.2"
This week we are going to revisit a "Fun" challenge from last year.  I first posted this challenge back in March, and this was actually the post that got my blog nominated for Most Fascinating Blog of 2011. 

Those of you who have been around since the beginning may be groaning out loud, or getting excited... i'm not really sure.  The reaction to this one was pretty strong.  A lot of people really didn't like it.... but maybe i'm scaring you.

*I hmmed and hawwed about whether or not the title of this challenge is too racy, but i thought that dominatrices are about control, and this challenge is all about giving up that control.  If you find this title a tad on the risqué side, sorry 'bout that.  :)  Feel free to re-name it on your own blog posts

As the somewhat racy challenge name implies - this week the CHALLENGE (and challenge is the totally appropriate word here) is to do an ENTIRE tile or ZIA using only your non dominant hand.  As i'm right handed, i did my string, tangles, and shading with my left hand.

I'm not going to lie, it will be difficult.  It was for me.  Everything about this process felt foreign - but if i can venture one step further i'm going to say that the REAL challenge is to find a place within yourself where it is okay to let go of the control and let yourself make something that isn't "pretty"
and that is something that is truly hard to do.

Using your non-dominant hand will also engage the non-dominant side of your brain, something that journalers and artists have done for years.

I'm actually quite proud of this left handed goodness.  let's see what you can do!

Don't worry, folks.  We are all in this together! So - let's embrace our wobbly lines and love our not so circular circles.  Heart!

If you have a blog, add the site-specific URL where your tile is posted to the linkey machine below! Don't forget to link back here so that others can join in the fun! (if you don't know how to find this, you can see my half assed tutorial here)

Also,  please feel free to come back often and visit the links of those people on the linkey machine - don't forget to leave a comment or feedback, everyone loves feedback. ;)

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate, you can email your tile to me and i will post it here. (See the contact tab above for my email address).  The deadline for each weekly challenge is Saturday night so that i can round everyone up by Sunday. What this means is that i will stop adding tiles to the slideshow on Sunday. You're still more than welcome to do the challenges and add your name to the linkey machine.

I will be more diligent with the linkey machine - by editing out the ones that don't work, the doubles, the links that lead to nowhere, the links that go just to blog home pages (this is why we need those site specific urls), and the spam. And there is some spam.  PLEASE do not put your *home* page in the linkey machine... please? for me??