A moment to stand still

 Whew. It's been a flurry since my last post. And I don't mean snow. I think i've gotta slow down. At least that seems to be what my body is telling me.
After such a wonderful Sunday tangling and zentangle quilting, I kicked it into high gear to get ready for a trip away with my husband and his company in the Dominican Republic. I decided to treat myself to a mani-pedicure, and had my haircut.  These things I do --- too little. But the thing is, they are 1 more thing that makes me busy doing things that society says are good for you, but I'm not always convinced. I'd really rather hole up in my studio and sew pieces of fabric together, or stitch quilt designs on fabric. What serves the brain better for rest? I'm really torn.
Anyways, after shocking the hell out of my family with my new haircut (hours before we got on the plane) I dropped down in the warm weather of the Dominican. I won't say much about the resort, Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro, because I was not impressed. I will say I met some really wonderful fun-loving people that my husband works with (at NLTechnologies). It's not often you can get along with people you have never met before, who are connected to your husband through work.  We also met a 2nd cousin of Fred, who lives in the Dominican, Garet and Mayra Kopeschny.

Garet, Mayra, Deb, Fred
Kopeschny

And so, while enjoying myself and letting go, I succumbed to the flu that my son had before we left. So, being sick in the Caribbean is not so bad, after all what do you have to do? but lie in the sun, and drink and eat...I just wish I had felt better longer so that I could have gone dancing until 2 a.m. again. That was a lot of fun, and I'm sure I paid for it the rest of the week.

But really, that's only part of the story. I got home, and my husband quickly pushed me to the doctors office to have my cold checked. out. Sure enough, a chest infection. Then my daughter comes home from work, not feeling well, so off she goes to the doctors. We don't know what is bothering her at first, I just know I couldn't sleep through the night for the next week, between her vomiting and me coughing... Thanks to some of my great co-workers, Joanne Opsteen, NP Extraordinaire, she helped us get Laura better. In the meantime, my son seems to think he needs to get in on the action, and sprains his ankle. UGH. so back to Joanne for a checkup, x-rays... crutches.
I think we're all getting better..... but i do need another vacation... or maybe it's just routine of everyday life, with everything  running smoothly... Hmm.
So here I sit, on a Good Friday, waiting for my Paska to rise. . thinking of the pain and suffering of our Christ. Soon we will hear the sounds of "Lo in the grave he lay, Jesus My Saviour..." And I will remember that out of pain and suffering comes triumph. Glory. Passion. Praise be to God.

Classes Classes Classes!

I've been busy.. with classes. I had a small class in my home in March. Enjoyable and intimate. Here are the photos of the class.

Then some dyeing.  We had a surprise snow storm, and I couldn't resist doing some more snow dyeing.

Then the date finally came for a double class  on Zentangles for Quilting, at the lovely studio of Elaine Theriault. I had 25 people, in two different classes. Thank you Elaine for hosting this meditational and inspiring day. We all went away with new ideas with Zentangles... including myself... sharing and creativity together inspire each of us to grow and develop new ideas.

I began the class with some basic tangles, that are easily transferable to quilting. The next set of tiles we did, began with a discussion on how Zentangles are so transferable to quilting. Then we did patterns that were all continuous line. We did the Zentangle version of a feather - and still there were panics about doing feathers. Practice Practice Practice... it makes it come easier the next time.

Enjoy...
Smiles...
Keep Tangling...