"Let go for dear life, just free fall." Emily Rowed

Hi, friend,

From newly un-iced palace of ice, I send a missive!

I had to change this note from December to January and now to what it is. Life just hit me that hard.

But here I am, having discovered an 8-oz cappuccino breve with lavender, living in this body, with these children, and these snowdays and delays, and I will be OK, and you will be OK, too, maybe.

Here's a lot of what's going on for me artistically:

Made me smile

I had no idea the difficult life Roald Dahl had until I fell into a reddit thread about him. I'll let you discover the sad parts. But I thought I'd share the part that made me smile. From Roald's teacher in early school years:

"I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended."

Roald attributes his creative genius—which didn't exist before this event—to his crash landing and broken skull from being a fighting ace. Yes, that Roald.

Taking a YT break

But in the past few months, I found a good groove and brought about 199 people together to chat art and journals. It's so satisfying to be watching these videos and making my own, it makes this channel and practice a real escape that has purpose.

That said, I am taking a little break while my heart and energy heal. But I hope to be back with weekly videos (scheduled this time, so I don't start and end streaks so much) very soon. I'm still capturing life in tiny doodles just about every day.

Pen rodeo

In December, I made a trade with a pen friend and acquired my first Sailor Realo, a Japan exclusive called Acorn. Realo means you don't use cartridge or converter to put the ink in; the body of the pen has a function to do that. Here she is in all her brown demonstrator glory:

I've never had a Pro Gear style pen with different cap and finial, the little white bits on the top and bottom. I really like it! It looks seriously so good next to the white 1911L I have, and my other gold trimmed pens. And the nib is a music nib—and I took it to my nib guy at the Philly show in January to check things out and he tuned it up a little.

My vision for the pen is that it will be in a my set of gold finish pens, along with a 1911L, 823... and something fun coming in the mail for Christmas! (eeeeee!)

Spoiler: the something fun was a black and gold Waterman Carene in a fine nib! Truth time? I thought this pen would be celebrating a new job. Then I promptly got booted from the interview process. I'm glad I got the pen anyway, lol!

In existing pen news, I am entertaining a soft goal of, when a pen runs out of ink, putting in an ink that's never been in that pen before. It keeps things spicy, and allows me to discover new combinations that might be fun. So here's my Ringless 1911L with a Naginata grind with a new sample I received from a friend: Sailor Manyo Kikyou.

I also started the new ink log for 2026 and it's funny how bare it looks compared to the previous year... I can't wait to fill it up with new experiences:

Celebrities passing

Two celebrity deaths hit hard this year already—Catherine O'Hara and James van der Beek. I think it's lovely that as an artist, your face and voice can become so important to some one. Almost like we can have a relationship, one-way, with these icons of whatever generation we're in.

I think a lot about my parent's generation, and what it must be like to slowly watch all the stars and musicians and cultural icons you grew up with start to leave the space and even pass away. Does it feel like the world's dying on you? Or you're dying? I hope I have the chance to find out by getting very old, myself.

OK this took a morbid turn, especially for a Saturday morning. I am in much better spirits than it might seem, I just haven't finished my tea yet. :)

Writing letters

I wrote several letters over the past few weeks, most notably new friends in Oregon, Texas, and Georgia. I love sending packages and letters, and I always look forward to my desk time where I get to pretend I'm a Bronte sister and stare out the window and pick the right pen....

I usually take pictures of the notes I send so I can remember what I wrote or talked about. I don't have a good system for finding the letter after though... it's just in my phone. It'd be smart or good to organize those in some way.....

OK I've got to hit send before I put off writing you for another month. Shorter, more frequent! Haha!

Much love for whatever you may be dealing with yourself,

Sarah G.

​p.s. where's the chapstick?​

P.p.s. I made the call to not host my watercolor/ ink drawing session at DC pen show this year. This would have been my third year! I also got invited to do it at the Chicago show. Unfortunately, my health is just not reliable to travel and do the session, and I usually get sick after the trip. So I need to troubleshoot if the room is making me sick with my mold issues, etc. I will be at the DC show to shop, though! Thank you so much those who have attended the show and let me know your feedback. It's definitely been a highlight of the past three years.

P.S. if you like the emotional atmosphere here, invite a friend to join us. there's not enough time to chill and rest among friends nowadays.