Weekly Challenge #81

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!

Welcome back everyone.
It's been a week of summer storms here in The Skatch!  It seems we've had one almost every night - which is pretty wild to hear the wind and rain and hail beating down on us. 

One night it felt like we were under attack! B-rad and i jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to see that our deck was already piling up with hail. 

Non-Hail related photo, but a good pic of the canola fields and a little guest star dragonfly

On Tuesday night i shared a bottle of wine with a good friend and had a good chat - and then we chopped all my hair off!!! i'd say we cut off about 8-10" of hair!  (It is short!) I kept going through my pictures on my computer and phone looking for a photo of my hair, but i don't have one. must make mental note: Take picture of hair.

Hanging out at my brother's place in his pool... a shot of the clouds that eventually turned into a thunderstorm

Chewie and my niece, LeeLoo have fun on the trampoline

 Aside from the storms we've had some lovely hot weather... so nice, and such a change from the humidity that we had in Philadelphia.  mmm,....dry heat....

In other news; Artoo is sick.  Again.  He has been fighting off a fever, so B-rad took him to the clinic Sunday - and yep, his tonsils are the culprit.  again.  So more antibiotics for the boy, and today i will call our Ear Nose Throat guy to talk about having them removed.  Sigh.

And now for the challenge:
Today we are having a guest post from Certified Zentangle Teacher, Erin Olson, who blogs at www.thebrightowl.com.  I hope you enjoy!



Weekly Challenge #81: "Guest Post - Relay for Life"

 

I am very proud to announce that on August 18, 2012 I will be walking in the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  The Relay for Life is a 24 hour walking event to support cancer treatment and research.  Your team must have someone on the track at all times for 24 hours to symbolize that cancer never sleeps.  As a paramedic, I encounter cancer patients on an almost daily basis.  I do my best to be optimistic in their presence but I know that the reality is that many of them will not have a favorable outcome.  On the upside, I am the niece, friend, caregiver, and acquaintance of many people who have beat cancer and are living life to the fullest as a result.  It's because cancer has touched my life in so many ways that I decided this would be a worthy cause to donate my time, money and expertise to.

This week I have teamed up with the Diva and been graciously allowed to guest host this weeks Diva Challenge to bring awareness (and hopefully a little cash!) to this worthy cause. 

The challenge this week is to complete the Zendala template below.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, a Zendala is a combination of a mandala and a Zentangle.  Zendala's are a nice change of pace and a ton of fun to do!  Simply fill in the spaces with tangles of your choice and shade.  That's all there is to it!

Click to enlarge

Here's what I managed to come up with.  I used the tangles Anglefish, Knightsbridge, Tipple, Amaze, Flukes, Antidot and Paradox. 

I have included a link  where you can access the template in 3 different sizes.  I have included templates appropriate for both the standard Zentangle tile and the awesome Zendala tiles because I like working on these tile best.  I have also included a full page template if you dare!  If you don't have Zentangle tiles, no worries.  You can tangle directly on the computer paper or easily transfer the image to any other type of paper using this technique.

At this point you're probably thinking "What do Zendala's have to do with the Relay for Life and fighting cancer?"  Well I am offering 5 exclusive, unreleased Zendala templates to anyone who wishes to make a contribution to me in my efforts to raise money at the Relay for Life.  These templates are only available for donors and will never be released on my website so ya, the're pretty exclusive.  Simply go to my fundraising page and make a donation of any amount.  Donations of any size are greatly appreciated but the top 5 donors will be entered in a raffle for an amazing prize that I have yet to put together but can guarantee will be great. Please send me an email at erin(at)thebrightowl(dot)com after making your donation so that I will have an email to send your templates too. 

Erin Koetz Olson is a 911 paramedic and Certified Zentangle Teacher living in the beautiful wine country of Northern California.  Erin stumbled upon Zentangle while searching for quilling supplies in February 2011.  She was instantly hooked and quickly signed up for CZT training.  She became a Certified Zentangle Teacher in October of 2011 and has been going non-stop ever since teaching classes, doing volunteer work with children and hosting the Zendala Dare at her blog www.thebrightowl.com. 

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. 

Hey - i should note here quickly that i try my best to get the slideshows up in a timely fashion, but sometimes my life gets in the way (like when Artoo spends a week in the hospital, just for example) so, please be patient.  thanks.  HUG

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??