A Fitting Mat to Feature

It is now the 10th day since our arrival in Barbados. Man, time sure does fly when you are having fun. We have crammed lots in but are trying to pace ourselves and save some special places and pastimes to meter out over our stay.

I think when I was at the airport hotel the night before we left, I received an email from Diana, one of my students in Edmonton. She was sending me her finished piece from the Photo to Mat class. And she gave me permission to share it with you.

It is such a sweet mat of her grandson. And coincidentally, my grandson Jackson is arriving here on Monday with his parents. I am sure that many of the pictures I take of him will look exactly like this little fellow.

Tomorrow, a group of us who are all rug hookers from Ontario are getting together for a Zentangle session. I first learned about them when I was out west and have been doing a few of them since I arrived. Although it is very early in my journey, I am finding it very calming and a perfect thing to do here. And I can see why so many people enjoy doing them. Now that I am aware of them, they seem to be everywhere.

These early explorations have been done in pen instead of the preferred fine point marker and pencil, but I can already see how you can create movement and shape within the shapes. My ultimate goal is to try to interpret this into a hooked piece.

I am hoping that once I do a few more, I can find shapes that capture the beauty here - of the sea, sky, sand and water. And that is what I am planning on doing with my worms that I showed a couple of posts ago.

Whatever the outcome, it is a wonderful way to de-stress (not that there is very much stressful about this beautiful place).

On this morning's coffee walk, we finally saw a family of green monkeys and I took lots of pictures.
This is another thing that might just have to be incorporated into that mat somehow.