(If Zentangle is a new concept for you, start here.)
Yes, my tile is leaning against a champagne bottle because—-why not?
This week the Zentangle Diva challenged us to use Ellish, a new official tangle (i.e. direct from the Zentangle Mother Ship). This is a fun one that uses the Holligbaugh technique of “drawing behind”. I added Akoya as a border tangle and also tried drawing behind another shape.
I was happy to take a tangle break today because the rest of my “free” time is spent packing for our June 10th move. I’m pretty sure I’m getting too old for this moving thing.
Having to live like this is a little disconcerting.
The good news is that we’re coming up on a holiday weekend in the United States, so Mr. Excitement, Dino and I are planning to head “down a shore” to Brigantine, New Jersey, our summer retreat. After a thus far somewhat bizarre spring weather-wise, it’s even rumored that Mother Nature intends to more or less cooperate. We’re more than ready for some of this:
And this:
A Brigantine Beach sunset.
Meanwhile, back in travel blogger land, I was able to “travel” in my home town when I was invited to attend a reception and tour to mark the opening of renovated rooms at an historic Philadelphia landmark hotel, the Hyatt at The Bellevue, a/k/a The Grand Dame of Broad Street. There’s plenty of tangle inspiration in the French Renaissance revival architecture and design in the public areas of the hotel.
The Hyatt at the Bellevue’s 19th floor Rose Garden Ball Room is a reminder of Philadelphia’s elegant Gilded Age. The hotel opened in 1904.
If you ever come for a visit to the City of Brotherly Love (and Affection), the well situated Hyatt at The Bellevue would be a good choice for a place to lay your head—-especially since we’re downsizing. I’m afraid from now on, it’s a blow up bed for guests at Chez Fluhr-Albelda.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Gosh, Brigantine looks fabulous. The water is so blue and white. I love old hotels, how lucky you were to see around it. I have moved so many times as I always lived on the job, and yet always had my own house in Yorkshire. When I retired I moved for real to come to Ireland but we up-sized. I have never understood this concept of downsizing as you get older.
I love your Ellish and the Akoya border is perfect for it.
Our first down size was because it was just 2 of us and a dog in a 5 bedroom house. We were only using 4 rooms—eat-in kitchen, a TV room, our bedroom and an office room. The house was 100 years old with a slate roof. Slate roofs are great. They last 100 years, so instead of replacing the roof, we moved to a 3 bedroom rental apartment which is actually the perfect amount of room, but nearby construction noise drove us to finally buy a condo of our own. It turns out we could afford to rent more than we could afford to buy, so another downsize it is. We will still live in a great center city area of Philadelphia, so our “downsize” is totally a first world problem which I will soon stop whining about—-but not quite yet. 😉
I just recently did a major downsize, from a three-room apartment into a house with my son and dil. Fortunately I have two rooms I can do whatever I want with, as well as a private bathroom, but even so, it took me about four months to get decluttered and packed, donating, tossing, etc. So you have my sympathy, because there are two of you and only one of me! Good luck!
Your Ellish is lovely, and I liked the Akoya border. Akoya is one of my favorites.
Thanks, Joyce. Did you feel liberated once you downsized?
I especially like the border on your tangle! Very nice! And please don’t get me started on the moving and downsizing thing. Charleston is my 4th downsize/move and I can say that I am definitely too old for this! This last one was a killer:) Though I am sure it will be easier with the 2 of you! And I bet you can hardly wait to get to the shore! Wow…that sunset makes me swoon.Good luck and promise it will all be over soon and you will adjust just fine!
When our boys found their own place and earned their own money, we moved to the Azores where we bought a small B&B with 5 rooms for guests.(www.joesplaceazores.com ) It was very nice, living on a vulcano,in the middle of the ocean and see the dolphins and the wales. We met people from all over the world. In the wintertime we always flew back to Belgium for a few months.
Unfortunately, after 5 years, our oldiest sun had a very bad accident and he was a month in a coma, I didn’t want to live anymore on Pico and we sold the B&B. We returned to Belgium to take care of him. After a year, he recovered well and he lives on his own again and find again (part/time) work.
At the moment, we moved into a lovely quiet neighbourhood in the south of Belgium in a small bungalow, just the two of us and two little dogs. Our sons visited us many times and we are very happy.
Brigantine looks wonderful, and so is also your tile, I like the border of Akoya and the smaller Ellish in the corner!
Love the pictures of Dino with te members of your family!!!
Great tile and good luck with the downsizing! Not easy with all the sorting and packing you have to do.
I love your Ellish, Suzanne. I like the little embellishments (well, look at that – ellish shows up everywhere! 😀 ).
Downsizing is good for your soul – keeps things simple. I’ve moved around much of my life, but haven’t for the last 14 years. I’ve gathered too much stuff and am trying to downsize without moving. LOL Good luck on your move. It’s easier when you can do it in increments, but sometimes you don’t have a choice to do that.
Awww, come on – couldn’t you have posted more pictures of the beautiful old hotel? They are my passion, their entries, their rooms, their history…
Love the new tangle – what champagne is that – I love the label – looks like a tangle itself!
Nan, there are more photos in the actual post about the hotel. Link is in this post above.
Actually, it turns out that the “champagne” is actually cava from Spain, the Spanish version of champagne, only made from apples, not grapes. I love the bottle. The label is actually a 3D decal.
Oh goodness, but moving is a pain. I downsized by two thirds, about a year ago, from a large two bedroom apartment, to a one bedroom less than half the size. But it wasn’t my first…from a 2800 sq ft home in the country to a little 980 sq ft ticky tacky box in town.
Where I am now, I want to stay, though it isn’t my dream home, being a fifth floor apartment in a city…however, I did have my dream home in the country for 10 years, so I am only grateful.
Meanwhile your Ellish is just a curly delight. good work!
Oh, how I would love a trip down the shore. You are sooooo lucky. I find no interest in traveling the world, but just give me some time at the Jersey shore! Nice Ellish! Great with that border too!
Great Ellish and love border tangle. Really sets it off and the champagne too! Definitely why not!! :0)
Until now I never downsized, however ….. I lived in this house (three floors, three bedrooms and an attic) for some years when Kees (who lived in UK) and I decided to go on together. In 2005 he moved in here and …. with so much more stuff it was sort of downsizing don’t you think????
I like your tile, especially the border.
Lovely tile!
Thanks a lot for the wonderful photos!
Enjoy your trip!
Your Ellish tile is so beautiful!
Beautiful tile, I love the Akoya border as well! It dóes go well with the champagne 😉
Oh, my gosh! Have a great vacation trip!
Your tile is so pretty, everything is so consistent, spacing-wise. I need a lot of practice yet, in that area… Akoya is one of my fave tangles, too. I always like running across it.
Like your tile. Akoya is one of those tangles that I have a hard time with. I have not tried it for a while as I was getting frustrated with it. We have downsized. I took a different job in another city. Some was a little easier as we only had one child at home and we got rid of a lot of the kid stuff that was in the house and garage. Unfortunately our current garage still has boxes that we still have not decided what to do with. We went down about 600 sq ft.
We’re losing one and a half rooms and our view and sunlight. The hardest move was the one from the house in the suburbs with an attic, garage and basement to a rental apartment in the city. This move is only 2 blocks away and most of the 1-800-JUNK stuff went out in the last move.
If anyone is inspired by this post to drop by the Hyatt, I recommend the fabulous chocolate shop in the lobby.
Beautiful Ellish tile with the Akoya border! Wonderful photos, too! Have a good time!