Oy - What a Day!

Last night - the Book Signing Party for Yoga for Your Brain was GREAT!! So much fun. Totally exhausting. Really yummy food. I am very grateful to my friends and groupies who came and filled up the store and kept me from the nightmare of "what if no one shows up!?" And it was also really wonderful to meet some new people who told me heart-warming stories of how Zentangle has changed their lives - or their kids' lives. That is so cool. And I think I will never get used to signing books - I still blush - but I am very willing to keep practicing! I snitched these shots from Wingdoodle's Facebook page. SherRee took the pictures (thanks SherRee!!) -she said I could borrow a few. Laurie also took pictures - I'll get her to upload some of hers too. Go look at the gallery of pics - the little girl in the pink shirt with the Panda bear is my daughter Lilah. She was very excited to come to "mommy's party". My son, on the other hand never showed. ;-( He told me later, he thought it would be boring. Boring!? Wha... what planet does he think I am from?!

Posed. A boring, normal mom a kid could be proud of.

Reality.

Posed. Kayla, Krystin, and Jen. Kayla made all the yummy and beautiful food.

Reality. My quirky minions. And, yes, those ARE chocolate covered strawberries!

So, speaking of boring - I was going to be mean and say that I had to go to his concert tonight (Friday) so he should have come to my shindig too. Yes, I can be obnoxious when pressed (I am a middle child!). ;-D But his concert wasn't boring either, as it turned out...

This morning - I felt like I had an enormous hangover (social hangover!) I was cranky and exhausted and my daughter didn't sleep AGAIN last night. And a package to Australia had disappeared - I hate customers being unhappy! And one to Buenos Aires, too. Post office said - "not our problem." I accidentally listened to the news for a second and heard about the nuclear reactors in Japan. I learned some really sad news about a classmate, on Facebook. I pissed off my mom by admitting my inadequacies... Then I told her to (please) pick up my kid from daycare 'cause I was giving up and running away (to Borders).

I gave myself plenty of time to get to my son's concert. It was a big deal after all - it had lots of letters in its title - NHME... something- something. Anyway - it was a NH music ensemble thingy and he was honored to be picked to play there (only 2 kids from his school). I had the instructions they'd sent and it was only a couple of exits up from Concord. Well, every single step of the directions were WRONG!! I was bumping down a dirt road into a pasture at 7pm - as the concert was starting and I was very, very close to tears! I had no idea where this high school was! Aaagh! I still feel like screaming, even now.

And, yes, my new iPhone was at home. Forgotten in the charger. sigh. Oy - what a day. I shoulda' stayed in bed! Luckily, I am a total tech-nerd and I had my iPad (to play Angry Birds at Borders, right?) and finally tracked down the teeny town and the school - it totally wasn't where the directions said! (A few more !!!!! - that's better). Breathe. I had to park at the back of the school and I RAN around to the front because all the other doors were locked, paid my five bucks admission and stood in the back of the filled auditorium as my son's saxophone ensemble FINISHED their set. Agh. It was a very good Duke Ellington. But I was trying hard not to cry by then. Frazzled. Yep. They had switched his group to play first. What luck. I snuck back out and found him in the cafetaria. He took one look at me and said "you look really sad and depressed." Yeh. Another set of parents walked in - they had gone to southern NH looking for the school. I guess I am not the only incompetent parent after all. One of the kids made me feel better when he said the buses had all gotten lost that morning trying to find the school too. They had ended up on some crazy bumpy dirt road out in a cow pasture. "Hey, I was there too!" Then, my totally awesome son... he really is!... convinced the conductor/maestro and the remaining sax players to perform for us - despondent parents- right there in the cafetaria! They piled chairs on the table to form music stands and we had a private concert. These kids are really talented! Later my son told me hilarious stories about all his teachers at school - all the way home - and I was crying with laughter this time! Oy, what a DAY!

Clever and musical. (Alex is on the right, in back)

Zentangle Classes for Spring 2011

Finally! I haven't taught a class since January, but I think I am recovered enough to get back in the swing of things. The hardest part is choosing days without other commitments... so, we'll see how this goes. To download a PDF of the class schedule, click here to go to my website.

If you would like a class and none of these dates and times work for you, email me with dates and times that DO work for you. To schedule your own classes you need four people minimum. If you have lots of friends (lucky you!) you might like to host a class/party and get free stuff (yes, like a Tupperware party!)

You can now sign up for classes using PayPal. There is a Shopping Cart button on the upper right margin of the blog. If you are reading this post in an email, you will need to click through to the blog page.

And lastly, if you were signed up for my classes at Art & Soul in Virginia, in April - those classes will be taught by Suzanne McNeill. I had to back out due to problems from the eye surgery - I could go into detail if you really want to know! But Suzanne was kind enough (brave?) to offer to do the classes. If you don't know her - she is my publisher at Design Originals and she teaches all over the country. She's from Texas, too. Y'all will be talkin' tangles with a twang by the time class is over!

Tech-free Part Two

On Sunday, we toured a Sugar Shack with the Sunday School crowd, got to dunk home-made donuts into fresh maple syrup, and narrowly missed a terrifying encounter with a HUGE mud puddle! Then, while Lilah played Barbies with Abby, I took my son, Alex, and my mom to the Currier Gallery in Manchester for "Tea".

I have had a membership to this great Art Museum for years, but I hardly ever find the chance to go visit. But this year, I learned that they serve high tea on Sunday afternoons! My son was really excited to sample the little sandwiches and desserts - and I was thrilled to have an excuse to go somewhere art-y. The tea is served in the enclosed courtyard so it is bright and cheerful (even though it is cold and gloomy outside!) and feels like you are in Europe somewhere. The sandwiches are adorable and delicious and the scones, lemon curd, clotted cream AND desert.... sigh. Yum. (We spent almost as long perusing the museum bookstore!)

2011- searching for his own niche

2009 - Integrated with the art!

On the way out to the parking lot, we reminisced about visiting the museum a few years before with his little sister and the funny photo I had taken of them. To humor his mom, Alex crammed himself into the huge, metal sculpture. (He had to turn himself sideways!)

2009 -This one makes me think of The Beatles album cover...

Tech-free Weekend

What started out as a punishment for my son... turned into a really fun weekend. My son has a lot of really amazing projects that he is working on, unfortunately, most involve the computer. Garage Band, Google, his blog, a million things to research. But when he is ordered to bed at 9-something (OK, maybe it was 10-something!?) and he "suddenly" remembers homework that is due the next morning....argh!! GROUNDED!! Tech-wise, that is.

But then I started realizing that I am just as bad. Yes, most of my work, my livelihood, is online. But I seem to spend all my other (free?) time online as well. And no real artwork gets created. And I get cranky. And frustrated. And sad. So, Saturday morning I said, "No computers this weekend!" There was a lot of whining, but once I agreed that pajamas could be worn, and no showers were necessary, things started looking up.

My friend Abby had just built this great table for me for my, yes, MY, Legos. My son and I are both Lego (and organization) freaks. Most of my Lego collection is housed in my treehouse in my studio. But I want to clean it out and use it as a quiet, meditation place. And the treehouse is in total disarray after some kids somehow found their way up there and... well, it was horrible. (shiver)

The table had spent the week in the middle of my mudroom and I decided to paint it and get it DONE with. I set my daughter up with some art supplies in the Playroom and started masking the edges of the table. Before I was even finished with that task, she was begging me to let her "help". After the initial panic attack, I realized that smearing black paint all over a piece of furniture might actually appear to be fun to a four year old! And the grounded 13 year old joined us as well. So they painted black areas, I painted the stones, and "Fantasia" played on the TV in the background. My son identified instruments for his sister and they both gave their critiques of the "Nutcracker" arrangements and the variety of fairy fashions displayed. And no paint got on the rug or the pajamas. Amazing!

I just realized that this photo shows a lot more than just the kids working. Besides one ear of our cat Lilo, and the leg of Lilah's high chair that I painted (lower right), you can see part of a mural I painted on the coat closet in the background. We have a very... odd... mudroom! It was originally part of my studio and where I made rubber stamps. The room in the background was my art studio. Now we don't know what to call it - the Art Room/Music Room/Playroom? We've always been a bit ahead of architectural fashions. But someday, everyone will have a room with drafting tables, musical instruments, Lego tables and a Wii. ("Family Room" just doesn't quite fit.)

Lilah painted portraits of "ME" and then filled them in with paint. When Alex joined us, she become more competitive about filling more space than he did with paint. But I let her use my good brush and taught her not to "scrub." Life is good!

I am told that this is still in progress. Diagon Alley will be set up below.

The Creativity General Store: Book Signing Party Raffle

 Ooooh! This is very cool! If you weren't sure about coming to the book signing party next week - take a look at Wingdoodle's blog to see the cool raffle prizes:

The Creativity General Store: Book Signing Party Raffle: "We are finishing up the plans for Sandy's Book Signing Party and it is going to be so much fun. We will be doing 2 raffles..."

I SO want to go... oh, right. Ahem.

Anyway, rumor is the food gets the big demo table, the demos get a big table in front, and the author gets a little table tucked away somewhere. I think signing books is just an excuse for a great party - what do you think?

I showed SherRee and Adele how to make buttons (pins) today and they looked very excited. Just about ANYTHING looks amazing when it is button-ized. At the party, you can draw a Zentangle (or something else, there is no arm twisting here) on a circle of paper and then YOU get to pull the handle on the machine and turn it into a button. Yes - FREE! I know, right? And you don't even have to buy a book! Life is good.

Book Signing Party on March 17th!

You are cordially invited to attend a party at Wingdoodle in celebration of my new book: Yoga for Your Brain.

Here are the details (I copied them from Wingdoodle's blog, SherRee wrote this):

We have Sandy's new book, YOGA for your BRAIN, and we will celebrate with a book signing party on St. Patrick's Day, Thursday, March 17th from 5pm - 7pm.  Everyone is invited to stop by, meet Sandy and have her sign your book.  We will also have a demo table so that you can do a tangle or show us one of your tangles.  My daughter Kayla will be providing the food, and if you came to the Christmas party you know her food is really good.  We will also be sampling new teas from The REPUBLIC of TEA. Everyone at Wingdoodle is very excited about the party and we all hope to see you there.

Please RSVP by March 12th so Kayla knows how much food to prepare. 
(You can come, even if you don't RSVP - you just won't get a cupcake - tee hee!)


Here are a few shots from the last book signing... just in case you need visual persuasion...

Did we mention Kayla's food is really, really good?


Oh, yes, and I'll be there too.
Signing books.

And I'll let you play with my button machine.
Yes! You can make your own Zentangle button (pin?)
I'm not kidding. (It's really fun!)

PaintWorks Review & CPS eBook

Susan Mynyk from PaintWorks Magazine wrote to let me know that they had reviewed Totally Tangled in the February 2011 issue! Very nice!

Click to enlarge

Also, my article that was published in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine... two years ago (!? is that possible!?) is now available as part of a free downloadable e-book from CPS, "5 Art Journal Techniques". My article is #5.