March 20, 2020

2020

March 20, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday…a cloudy day that started out very wet:

Trying another grocery store – first thing in the morning again. We found meat! It wasn’t our usual organic…but we bought it anyway. We also found some spray Lysol but not disinfecting counter cleaner…we are using our backup plan which will involve gloves, open windows and fans on (fortunately we are going to have some warm days). We got the medicines we would need if we got sick and my husband’s favorite protein shakes. Still no toilet paper or cat food. We ordered the cat food online when we got home.

Reducing toilet paper consumption dramatically. We have water in spray bottles beside our toilets now. We haven’t eliminated toilet paper entirely…but we are building up our skills with the water. It should enable us to manage with the toilet paper we have in the house for a few weeks even though we have not been able to find any in stores recently. Maybe this strategy will last beyond this crisis….it would make sewage treatment easier and reduce the number of trees felled to make toilet paper.

Noticing that I am sleeping as well as ever (according to my Fitbit…and not feeling tired). It’s an indicator that I am still handling the stress of the pandemic and changing habits very well. Another indicator from my Fitbit: my resting heart rate has stayed below 65 (normal for me) the whole time.
Cooking sweet potato hash browns. We cook and eat at home most of the time. But I have more time now, so I am beginning to experiment. I got the idea for hash browns from my husband requesting the frozen variety of hash browns when I went to the grocery store…but I changed the potato from russet/white to sweet for my dinner! I scrubbed the sweet potato and cut off the ends…chunked it so it would fit in the food processor with the shredder attachment…cooked them in a little olive oil seasoned with onion flakes and no-salt seasoning. It made a good meal with scrambled eggs…pretty orange and yellow colors on the plate.
Filling the bird feeder. We let the bird feeder hang empty for the past week to discourage a hawk that has become too interested in our backyard. Now we get to observe how long it takes for the little birds to find the seed again. Are the juncos still around?
Unpacking the bin prepped for a Zentangle® class. My plan for 3/19 from back in January was to lead a Zentangle session for my fellow volunteers after a training session for spring field trips. That has all be cancelled – of course. I am unpacking the bin I had already prepped: color zipper pouches with square paper coaster tiles, Pigma Pen 05, and pencils. I am going to use the bin to put all the photos I found in decades-old boxes in our basement…put the smaller bin of pouches on a shelf in my office. I couldn’t resist opening one pouch and tangling!

Browsing through emails and feeds with suggestions from others re navigating through the upheaval coronavirus is causing. An email from Coursera (lots for free online courses) had several interesting links that I want to pass along:
- If you or someone you know is learning online for the first time: You can share these 8 tips from our Teaching & Learning team.
- If you’re looking for ways to keep learning with your kids: Talk with parents around the world and share your favorite resources.
- If you’re looking for advice about moving in-person learning online: You can reference these best practices from our Teaching & Learning team.
- If, like Coursera, you and your team are shifting to remote work: You can join others in our community to discuss strategies and share advice.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16, 3/17, 3/18

March 18, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/17/2020

March 18, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Picking earrings to wear that I haven’t worn in a long time. Yesterday I wore some from Orlando FL and today they are from Watkins Glen NY. Earrings are my favorite item to purchase when I travel…small keepsakes that I can wear! Both are over 10 years old, but I still remember where I got them.
Maintaining the compost pile and walking around the yard. I’m trying to get out of the house at least once a day….enjoy that it is springtime here!

Watching the second installment of the Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safari (about Rico the Porcupine). They have established a website where all the videos will be available after they air live. I am watching the recorded version, so I don’t have to pay attention to the time to be online at 3 PM EDT!
Calling family far away, I had planned to be in Texas this past week…but I was already ‘staying at home as much as possible’ a few days before I was going to get on the airplane. Talking on the telephone is the next best thing for keeping in touch until it is not as risky to be out and about in larger groups of people.
Making a Zentangle® butterfly. I was straightening up my office and found a few extra butterfly tiles left from last summer’s experience with summer campers. I couldn’t resist using the tile…thinking that this would be a good activity for anyone needing a quiet calm time. If you want to learn a new pattern, checkout out https://tanglepatterns.com/ . Later in the afternoon. it was warm enough that I saw a real butterfly - a cabbage white.

Watching the 4th video in the ‘Life in the Universe Pandemic Series’ from Charles Cockell - Why didn’t dinosaurs build a space program? His pet gecko, Europa, is part of the lecture too!

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

January 17, 2020

Maryland State House Ceiling as Zentangle® Prompt

January 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I am always noticing potentials for Zentangle patterns. An easy one was in the skylight at the Maryland State House (when we visited back in December). I made a tile without much thought about deconstruction. The stained glass ‘flower’ is was my primary interest.

2020 01 img246.jpg — I used a string to guide the pointed arc shape around each flower…then just make the curves. I filled in the spaces between the ‘petals’ to add some drama…and then it was just the tried and true Zentangle auras to fill in the rest of the space.

I did a simple step out of the way I deconstructed the pattern after I made the tile!

Zentangle prompts are everywhere! I’ve been looking at books about ancient pottery recently….lots to patterns to glean from them. I try to limit myself to one of the ‘Zentangle prompt’ posts each month, but I am very tempted to do another this month.

January 01, 2020

Zentangle® - December 2019

January 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I made a lot of tiles in December. Some were the round paper coaster tiles that I was making for the tree which are thick enough to make patterns on both sides (so they count as two tiles when I scan them).

The Paradox pattern was one of my favorites this month. Notice how the meta-pattern changes depending on making Paradox clockwise or counterclockwise…and in relation to the positioning of the neighboring instances of Paradox.

Chairs is a new pattern published in December that I enjoyed too.

There are quiet a few instances of the gingo pattern this month as well. It was new in August….and I like it a lot.

December 19, 2019

Christmas Trees at the Maryland State House

December 19, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Another holiday themed outing – driving over to Annapolis to see the trees decorated by garden clubs for each of the counties in Maryland. It’s evidently the traditional display in the central hall of the Maryland State House this time of year. We did it yesterday – a cold but sunny day…and before the wind picked up in the afternoon. I took pictures of just about every tree.

My favorite was the one done for Worcester County – lots of natural material. I particularly liked the pinecones that were cut and painted to look like flowers (they reminded me of zinnias).

I also liked the Charles’ county birds made out of felt (with the bald eagle at the very top of the tree),

Dorchester’s painted shells and pearls (the overall color of the ornaments all over the tree was a light blue),

And the dried roses on Anne Arundel County’s tree…very golden color.

The decorations for the other trees and wreathes were very creative too.

The garden clubs all did an excellent job! I took a lot of pictures and might use some of the ideas for my decorating next year.

December 11, 2019

Decorating for Christmas

December 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Our decorating has lagged this year because of my travel at Thanksgiving and then the flurry of volunteer gigs right after I returned. My husband put the wreath on the door before I got home from Springfield, Missouri but it wasn’t until this last weekend that we put the tree up.

We are keeping it simple this year – just lights and Zentangle coasters on our white tree. I’m still creating more coasters so there will be others added to the tree as the month progresses. I started with about 40 this past weekend.

I put the cards from past years on the door scrunchies as I usually do….and more cards will be under the plastic on our breakfast table.

Festive…without a lot of effort.

December 01, 2019

Zentangle® - November 2019

December 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The 30 tiles I picked for November were all ‘project’ tiles. 28 of them are 3-inch paper coasters with patterns made with red Sharpie Ultra-Fine pens. The round coasters are thick enough that both sides can be tangled. My plan is to punch a hole in the coasters and use them as ornaments on my Christmas tree or hanging between the newel posts of my stair and loft railings. I’ll be making more in December and will post about how I am displaying them.

The other projects were 4-inch tiles made with window plastic…patterns made with Sharpie Fine point. These tiles will go in the corner partitions of a glass paneled door at my daughter’s house.

Overall – this continues my tilt over the past few months toward Zentangle tiles with a purpose beyond the Zen of their creation.

November 11, 2019

Chuy’s Tiles as a Zentangle® Prompt

November 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

We stopped at a Chuy’s restaurant on our way home from Staunton River State Park and I photographed a few of the tiles because they were excellent Zentangle prompts.

I combined several ideas into one and made a reticula that I tangled in 3 orientations on Bijou tiles (2” squares). What fun! The same pattern with different orientations.

The idea reminded me of a symmetry course I took on Coursera back in summer and fall of 2014. It’s no longer available from Coursera and my notes are more about crystals and the semantics to talk about symmetry than the videos of symmetry in plants and tiles that were side lectures for the course. Still – I remember enjoying the course more because of those side lectures.

October 17, 2019

River Boot Tangle

October 17, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I decided to make my river boots (that I use for field trips with high schoolers into rivers and streams looking for macroinvertebrates) unique with a Zentangle®.

I chose the gingo pattern – which has become one of my favorites since it was shared on the TanglePatterns site in late August. These boots are several years old and are scuffed from the river rocks near the foot part of the boots…but the surface I tangled was relatively smooth. I used a Sharpie and only worked on the outer side of the boots…so I still have room for more tangling.

So – even if I somehow take off my boots and they get in the pile of boots we have for the students…I’ll always be able to spot mine!

October 01, 2019

Zentangle® - September2019

October 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I had plenty of tiles to choose the 30 to feature in this Zentangle-a-day post for September. There were some patterns that came up again and again during the month. The dominant one was gingo. I’ve always liked the trees and was thrilled to see the pattern posted on TanglePatterns.com site in late August. 13 of the 30 tiles I picked for September were this pattern…sometimes as a mono-pattern tile and sometimes with other patterns or a background. The ones with the dark background below were made on the iPad…others were done on square heavy paper/light cardboard tiles of various sizes and colors.

The feather-like pattern that I enjoyed so much with the campers is still one of my favorites…with variations.

I did an experiment with the paradox pattern – making the ‘same’ tile on paper and with the iPad. I love the meta-pattern that paradox creates and made two different ones. I was going to pick a favorite (meta-pattern and media) but I liked all of them.

Periodically I enjoy making a tile with a crazy string and then just filling in. Both tiles below were simply filling in shapes where only a point touched the area I had just finished coloring. For the second one – I made some red dots on the tile after I drew the string but before I started filling in shapes. It is surprising how different they look….so dependent on the scribbled string!

Then there were 8 tiles that didn’t fit any of the above categories. Sometimes it’s just fun to try something different!

September 05, 2019

Zentangle® in the Transom Window

September 05, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

In my September 1st blog post, I talked about the large Zentangle I was making on window film…and then forgot to include the photos of the segments taken before it was huge (from right to left). So here they are now –

My husband helped me attach the window film to the transom window above the French doors in our breakfast area. I cleaned the window thoroughly before wetting it a little then positioning the plastic film and using a shower Squeegee to smooth out the air bubbles. The matte white film with Zentangle patterns is very effective at making our dinner table less sunny! I wish I would have thought of doing this sooner. If I get tired of the patterns…I can take it down and make another.

This is prompting me to think about what I might do with window film for Christmas. Right now I’m thinking: red Sharpie for the patterns and the same type window film….for the narrow windows on either side of my front door.

September 01, 2019

Zentangle® - August 2019

September 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The August Zentangles included a lot of variety. I collected up 31 to demonstrate. There are nine general tiles created on the iPad (black background usually with white ‘ink’ created using Procreate and an Apple Pencil).

Three general tiles are on card stock using a Sharpie Ultra Fine pen.

Everything else has something different for my ‘norm.’ I found a pad of black paper left over from my daughter’s teen age years (over 10 years ago). I drew 3.5 inch squares on the tiles and made tangle patterns using metallic gel pens. The silver shows up the best. I’ll be gradually using up the rest of the pad this fall.

The butterfly tiles I had left from the activity are 2 of the 31 tiles this month.

And then there are the feather themed tiles I made preparing for the activity with summer campers and guiding the Zentangle class.

Last but not least – I tangled a long rectangle of window film for a transom window over the French door in our breakfast area. I used Sharpie Fine Point pen on slightly pebbled mist film. The photographs below are segments before it was hung. This project is -by far – my biggest Zentangle to date!

August 01, 2019

Zentangle® - July 2019

August 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

There was quite a lot of variation on the Zentangle front in July. There was a challenge on the long road trip days and then being very busy the rest of the time. Some days there was plenty of time to make several tiles…other days were too short to do anything other than on the critical path to get my daughter moved to Missouri! In the end – I still had a lot of tiles to choose from to come up with 31 tiles for July. The normal variation is seen in this first group made on the iPad with the Apple Pencil using the Procreate App. I found the iPad the easiest to work with at the end of a long day of driving.

I started experimenting with some square paper coasters for tiles early in the month.

There was also a series that were created with a spiral string then a single pattern….all on the iPad.

The most different tiles the samples I made using the butterfly tiles I used with the summer campers last week. It was fun experimenting with the shape and working with symmetry.

July 18, 2019

Zentangle Pattern from a Dog Bed

July 18, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

It seems like everywhere I look these days I see Zentangle pattern possibilities. My parents had a dog bed with a pattern in the cover that was easy to deconstruct.

2019 07 dog bed.jpg — The first tile I made using the idea was a round coaster….and some old gel pens. The pens skipped but I decided that the skips simply made the pattern look more unique – maybe like part of the lines had deteriorated with age or usage.

The second tile was on my iPad. I didn’t worry about make octagon shapes. It’s surprising how little variations make the pattern look so different.

I’ll always think of this pattern as ‘dog bed’!

July 01, 2019

Zentangle® - June 2019

July 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I had a lot of tiles to choose from in June….it was the usual challenge to limit myself to 30 – June having only 30 days.

2019 06 phicops img111 (1).jpg — I did a series of tiles with the phicops pattern for the whole tile – using it like a string for other patterns. All of these were physical tiles.

2019 06 img098.jpg — And then there were all the others – the black tiles are digital (iPad)…which shows that about half my picks for June were digital…half physical.

I’ll be doing a several road trips in July. It will be an adventure in Zentangle-on-the-go. I anticipate that I’ll create tiles at the beginning or end of the day….unless there is a substantial storm and I stop to wait it out.

June 26, 2019

Springfield Art Museum

June 26, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

When my daughter and I traveled to Springfield, Missouri in early June, most of our time was spent on logistics for her to move there at the end of June. We took a break and walked through the Springfield Art Museum. It was well worth the time spent.

Two pieces had strong associations for me: a Nick Cave Soundsuit that reminded me of a wookie

And the fountain in the courtyard that reminded me of a much smaller fountain that my mother has in her garden (the swirl of shapes that channel the water from the top of the fountain to where it spills into the pool).

I got a little sidetracked with the flowers growing near the fountain too.

Another Nick Cave piece was thought provoking. One of the benefits of walking through a museum that allows pictures (without flash and staying far enough back) is photographing the write up about the piece too.

I noted the butterfly at first glance of the crazy quilt that was made in the 1880s of satin, silk, and velvet…with appliques. The quilt was a bit of whimsy from a time very different than our own…a product of a hours of work with a beautiful result. Happiness coming through this creation – then to now.

June 02, 2019

Zentangle® - May 2019

June 02, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

May was a busy month…but I made time to keep my Zentangle-a-day plan and did more than one on some days. 18 of the 31 tiles I picked for May were made on the iPad. My favorites are still the black background with white ‘ink’.

There were some with a different color background or ink.

Toward the end of the month I started experimenting with complex loopy strings and mixed patterns that made some different looking tiles than my usual.

Switching away from the digital tiles - I am still enjoying the 3-inch round coasters. I did a lot of experimenting with the phicops pattern in May.

I made very few square tiles. I will probably be making more in June in preparation for my first ‘class’ as a CZT to dry run the module I will do with summer campers during the counselor training in mid-June.

I’ve been making small tiles (2” squares, Bijou size) with single patterns that I will use as prompts when I’m teaching…or to help select patterns for my own tiles.

As usual – looking back at the Zentangle tiles I produced in May is very satisfying. It’s awesome to see all of them collected together…realizing I made all them…savoring them again.

May 01, 2019

Zentangle® - April 2019

May 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

At the beginning of April, I was in the Certified Zentangle Trainer class…creating tiles as we learned best strategies for teaching others the Zentangle® Method. The tiles were put into a journal with corners like were used for pictures in old scrapbooks. My two favorite tiles that I did during the class were the ‘creature’ tile and the triangular tile (the different tile shape and color).

I didn’t include the tiles from class in my 30 picks for April (I averaged over 3 tiles for each day of April…so had a challenge to pick just 30 for this blog post!). I’ve grouped them into 2 groups below:

The tiles I made on the iPad. I keep returned to black background and white ‘ink’ – even though I sometimes am in the mood for color…change up a little…temporarily.

The big experiment of the month was some round coasters I ordered from Amazon (here). They are 3-inch rounds rather than 4.5-inch that we did in class (and I found overwhelmingly large). The coasters are a good thickness and texture for Zentangle. I’ve used two pens: the Pigman Pen 05 (used for younger students…which I will have in summer campers this summer) and the Sharpie Ultra Fine (lots of colors). At some point I might experiment with a sealer and use them as coasters!

April 01, 2019

Zentangle® - March 2019

April 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I made some physical tiles this month since I am going to class in March where all the work will be with Micron 01 pens and card stock tiles. I felt like I needed to reacquaint myself with the feel of the pen and paper. It’s been almost a year since I started using the iPad and Apple Pencil…and once I made the change – I didn’t look back. Until now. Here are 6 tiles that I made the old-fashioned way – reacquainting myself with pen and pencil and tile.

Of course – I still enjoyed creating iPad and Apple Pencil Zentangle tiles as well. I like the black tiles and white lines. I appreciated the shading I could do with the Procreate app too; color matched to the ink…a lot more flexible that the graphite pencil and tortillon. Note that one tile in this group is only half done --- it is one to come back to sometime…and finish the other half!

March 01, 2019

Zentangle® - February 2019

March 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Only 28 days in February; I had a lot of tiles to choose from to pick the 28 in the mosaic below. I’ve continued to be more experimental during the month –

With and without a frame.
Starting with a string or not. There are times I like to start with something in the center or off to the side and then just let the tile evolve from that start.
Picking a pattern from the tanglepatterns.com or finding inspiration in other sources (this month it was basketry books and early 1900s architecture/home decoration…art deco). Many times, a portion of the tile is just auras or other ‘filler’ of blank space.
The ‘screen’ filler has become one of my favorites although I also have experimented with the ‘screen’ as a grid.
Black tiles with white ‘ink’ for lines and shading is my favorite on the iPad but I switch to a color or overlay a color periodically just to be different.

I’ll be creating some physical tiles in March to prepare for my upcoming CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) training that will happen in late March; going back to traditional paper and pens will be quite a change for me.