Walking around neighborhood

The carpenter bee's wings seems so
 small compared to its fat little body.

Yellow Trumpet Flowers

As I was out walking today, a couple huge, black carpenter bees caught my attention. How can something with a fat little body like theirs actually fly? The wings are going so fast, they can hardly be seen while in flight. I was able to catch a closeup of this on in flight as it took off from the bright yellow trumpet flowers.

Carpenter bee was covered in pollen when done.

ZenDoodles sent to North Light Publishers

Tweeting on the Magic Carpet

I sent off 4 ZenDoodles today that were picked for publication with North Light Publishers for a book on Zen Doodles that they are publishing in the fall of 2013.  They sent out a call for Zentangle or Zen Doodle designs a couple months ago. I submitted 6 drawings. I was so shocked to hear from them and then to find out they picked 4 of my drawings for publication!! I was speechless!!  Then, found I had to draw 3 step outs and clean up the drawings and have everything returned to them in 2 weeks time!!

Sixteen perfect drawings, with no erasure marks (since they are in ink!!). Whew! The pressure was on!! I was burning the midnight oil. I drew the first step out 4 times before I was happy with it. Just when I thought I was done, I'd make a mistake and have to start over! Oh, it was nerve-wracking! To strive for such perfection - oh!! Finally... after making about 30 drawings, I got 16 good ones to send in!!

Spring Excursion

Thank goodness for patient husbands and good friends!! My poor husband had to cook most meals and do the dishes, as I was too busy drawing!! My house didn't see any cleaning during this time (so I'm not the best housekeeper anyway-that's not the point!) 

Wings of Freedom

My girlfriend, Rita kindly took photos for me before I overnighted the originals to North Light. Just in case, something happened to them in the mail. She even took me to the post office to overnight the photos, as I was so tired and fuzzy-brained, I couldn't make heads or tails out of her directions to the post office by her house. (I'm not real sure how I made it back home!)

Ribbons and Rain

What a relieve to have this done! Didn't realize how stressful it would be!! But it feels good. Now it's a "hurry and wait" for the book to be published!! Will let you all know when it comes out, so you can run right out and buy your own copy!!