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New Year, who’s this?

Wow. We made it.

A whole year has gone by – some days it felt like it would never end and other days it felt like it was just whooshing by without a care in the world!

I don’t know about you, but it’s made me re-evaluate some things in my life. I’m not setting any resolutions for this year, though I have decided to eat some vegetables and take the stairs more often. Basically, this was me all 2020:

via GIPHY

I did make some decisions about what to do about my artwork and my classes. And I’m really excited about them!

All of my classes are currently available on Etsy for instant access (unless it’s a pre-order) and my favorite prints are available there too! I’m hoping to stock the inventory with other fun things like stickers and t-shirts too. So long as 2021 behaves and let’s me do my thing!

I’m also really excited to revitalize my private Facebook Group for current and former students. I want to make it a fun and safe space to post pictures of tangles and ask for advice.

And, I’m bringing back to life a Zentangle® and mindfulness curriculum program that I developed about 5-6 years ago. It’s a yearlong program that will help folks use the Zentangle method and some other techniques to practice mindfulness and gain more control over themselves emotionally and mentally. Stay tuned for more information on that! I hope to have everything finalized by the end of the year!

via GIPHY

If you haven’t watched Schitt’s Creek yet – I highly recommend it. Of course, I’m a big Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara fan, so I may be biased. But, it got me through some days this year!

So, first thing up this year is – it’s my 10 year Zentangle birthday on January 8th! 10 years since I was first introduced to this thing that has had such a positive impact on my life.

To celebrate I’ve created a fun little freebie for all my email subscribers, if you’re already subscribed you don’t have to do anything! If you’re not – easy peasy! I’ve included a form for you to complete so you can join!

I created this freebie because I really want to help people increase their confidence in their Zentangle practice, and by doing so I truly think their personal confidence will grow too! I’ve also included a little extra special offer that you’ll just have to wait to find out about!

Aside from that I’m kicking the year off by joining the 7F5R Fragment of your Imagination Challenge – a super fun challenge that will keep the creative juices flowing!

I’m also digging into the Zentangle® Zenthology issued to Certified Zentangle Teachers™ to see what tangles I can unearth. I’m basically acting as the Indiana Jones of Zentangle archaeology 🙂

There are a ton of patterns in there that hardly anyone uses. So, I’m exploring those and sharing videos of them with my Instagram followers. It’s super fun to dig around in the ancient archives of patterns and dust off some neglected tangles!

So my year is off to a regular start, not going to jinx it with anything too exciting or too many plans. We’re going with the flow over here! 🙂

What have you done to mildly celebrate the new year? I’d love to hear!

Cheers!

Sarah, Zen & Zin

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Summer is winding down…

Ha! As soon as I said I might start blogging on the reg, I should have known that was a lie. Summer is now winding down, and it’s my favorite time of the year: fall! and my birthday! At the beginning of summer I started a new job. It occurred right after my last post and it’s been a whirlwind summer ever since! I’ve actually been working two jobs as I stuck around and helped my old employer out while they found a replacement. I love my new job and everyone there is amazing. I hope to stick with them a long time and grow in my adult education background.

  • Infinity Room at WNDR museum
  • Perspective is everything
  • Love this quote and this exhibit

I’ve also had a lot of fun this summer. Ted and I took a bus down to Chicago and had some amazing deep dish pizza followed by a trip to WNDR museum – super fun and super Instagrammable. My mom came to visit, which was so wonderful and so needed! We went kayaking, which I’ve never done before but can’t wait to do again! I showed mom around Madison…now I’m looking forward to my BFF’s visit next week for my birthday! I love my birthday, and even more so here in Wisconsin because the weather is always amazing — not hot like it was growing up in Phoenix! We’ll get some kayaking in as well as a little Ice Age Trail light hike, eat some good food, and catch up!

  • Let’s kayak! At Devil’s Lake
  • Penny loves when Grammy’s in town!
  • Me and Mom on Capitol Square

I have been working on another Skillshare class the past few weeks. Since I’ve been working with auras so much in my practice recently, I figured I might as well find a way to share my approach with the world! It’s funny timing, too, because Zentangle HQ also released their Project Pack series that featured a lot of auras. I find it curious how so many tanglers seem to be on the same creative wavelength. If you haven’t checked out Zentangle’s videos yet, I highly recommend them!

  • New pen from Ted as a reward for starting my new job! Isn’t it pretttty?
  • Blackest black background canvas
  • Melted Wax Mooka
  • Got the blues?

If you’ve followed me on Instagram you’ve seen me playing with a lot of fun art supplies and techniques. I recently picked up Blackest Black acrylic paint from Culture Hustle and it’s gloriously black (read the amazing back story to this pigment here). I painted a canvas with it and I am currently working on tangling over it in white with one of my fountain pens. I was really excited to discover a white fountain pen ink, and I think it’s really going to increase my white on black tangling productivity–as well as help me reach my goal of using all/mostly sustainable and renewable art supplies, one less thing to throw in the garbage! And, it’s going to look awesome! I haven’t decided yet if I will sell it or keep it, I guess it depends on how it actually turns out!

So, as summer comes to a close, keep a look out for my next Skillshare class! It’s going to be thorough and include several different completed tiles. I’ll also start working on my next class – white on black!

A peek at my upcoming Skillshare Class

I have received a few reviews on my older Skillshare classes that have mentioned the video and audio quality. It’s been something I have wanted to go back and change for a long time, and as time goes by I think it becomes a more glaring issue… but that happens when technology is constantly updating! So, I have high hopes too for going back and updating my older classes over the next few months so that the videos are shot with more modern technology 🙂

Until next time!

Tangle.Sip.Repeat.

-Sarah

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New Skillshare Class! And a FREE one!!

I have a new Skillshare class available! Zentangle® 102 covers what we usually do in my physical classes, during the second tile. For a limited time, I’ve made my Zentangle® 101 class FREE! So please go check it out and give it a thumbs up, if you like it 🙂

Even if you’ve taken my classes before, this is a great opportunity to brush up on what you learned. I’ll also be putting more and more videos up, my goal is 2-4 per month! I’ll focus on Zentangle and mandalas, but if there is something you’re interested in, let me know by emailing me or contacting me on any one of my social media platforms 🙂

If you’ve never tried Skillshare, I highly recommend it. For less than $100 a year you can learn anything from marketing to watercolor. I absolutely love it and try to tell anyone I meet who loves learning! Here is a link to check it out, and you can also access the Zentangle 101 and 102 classes there!

I’ve also been working on some fun mandalas the past two weeks. I’ve been inspired by dreamcatchers and have been experimenting with different ways to create dreamcatcher mandalas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been exploring ways to do the same thing over and over again, but still produce different results. In my next post I’ll write a bit about my experience with “tangles stuck in my head.” Think of how you get a song stuck in your head, but instead it’s a set of pretty visual patterns! Until next time!

 

Cheers!

 

Sarah

Zen & Zin

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Summertime Livin’

Summertime and the livin’s…. crazzzzyyyy

I know I have been super quiet these past couple of months, I totally didn’t mean to! I had a few amazing classes in Portland, OR and we created some fun art! I had such a blast teaching at Vine Gogh and Urban Crush, I love meeting new people and hopefully inspiring a few to take on their creative sides!

About two months ago my husband asked me if I was comfortable and had enough space to create art and build my classes. We’d been travelling and living in a motorhome for over a year and while it was SO much fun and an amazing learning experience, we were both starting to feel a little cramped…though, neither one of us wanted to admit it. My art supplies alone took up about 50% of storage in the RV, and I had more in our storage unit! I also had a difficult time creating pieces that took more than a couple of hours, as I would have to clean up each day…which in itself isn’t that big of a deal, but when you have to wait for paint to dry in order to, say, cook dinner, and can get a little frustrating. So, I admitted to my husband that, no, I didn’t have the space I needed, but I was willing to deal with it, don’t worry about lil ol’ me! We didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t afford the rent or mortgage for a place in the Portland area without both going back to our corporate worlds, which…. just… NO. I didn’t want to do that, I couldn’t do it again.

So we started thinking about places we’d been during our travels that we enjoyed and might have a lower cost of living. I did NOT want to leave the Portland area, but I also knew it was time to make a change. One city kept popping up in our discussions, that we kept coming back to, and that we always talked about as being our favorite place when we travelled. My husband was also pretty well connected with a community of his own there, so it would be a bit easier for him to integrate. As for me, any city was going to take a little work to get my Zentangle teaching and connection with the creative community established again, so I was open to the possiblities. We made the plan to sell the motorhome and get ready to move by the fall.

Then, I found a job that fit my needs perfectly, and they needed me to start within a month! Fast forward through the scrambling to pack the RV and storage unit, say our “see ya laters,” find housing, and all the other moving accoutrements…..

And, here we are. We’ve moved, the motorhome is on consignment in Portland, and we’re settling in.

In Madison, Wisconsin!

Hopefully soon I can bring you more YouTube videos, SkillShare classes, and Zentangle tips and support! I have been working on organizing my creative space, and it was a little more slow going than I thought it would be (mainly because I am picky! Lol).

If you had asked me 6 months ago if I would be living in an apartment again in a strange city, I would have laughed! But, so far, it seems like this was a perfect idea. Hopefully in the next couple years we’ll get a house with some property where I can hold Zentangle-related retreats! How does tangling and cheese curds sound to you?!

So, again, apologies for the radio silence over here! I hope to be more noisy moving forward, including continuing my Principles of Zentangle series!

Cheers!
Sarah