Still Alive ... Painting and Knitting ...

I decided to paint some old ugly furniture in cheerful colours ... but am starting small ...

I have applied several base coats in ochre to a box that belonged to my father and has had a colourful history. He used it for stamp collection records and then for jewellery. I used it when I was head of the English department to keep the book room organized and ensure that everyone got the books they had ordered. It is not a pretty box ... but it will be!

I have decided to try zentangling it all over using a pencil and then colour in the spaces I don't want to be ochre. I am thinking the colours of Provence ... ochre, deep red, olive green, bright blue and black.

Zentangles dictate to you. You don't tell them how to behave ... so I will see tomorrow what the box tells me.

If you want to check out Zentangles, you can google the word or check Tamarakstable on my blog roll. She had a post on it a while ago. I tried one just for fun at the time and loved the meditative quality of it ... and the way one thing led to another. All your strokes are deliberate ... and there are no mistakes.

I think Erin did a Zentangle on her mailbox about a year ago. She posted a photo on her site at the time. (Intriguingtimes.blogspot.com) It was Sunday, June 15, 2008 ... the day my father would have been 100 years old.

I am about halfway through the first of the socks I am working on ... beautiful wool ... mohair and wool in hand dyed blues of the sea. The baby blanket is going more slowly but I am happy with it too.