The Unruffled Podcast

Today, Tammi and Sondra share their creative and recovery mentors and teachers. Sondra’s first teachers were in one-on-one situations or direct studies, while Tammi’s first teachers were discovered from books and blogs, but they had something in common: their first teachers had something they wanted. Some of the names they mention in this episode are Mary Karr, Krista Tippett, Natalie Chanin, Anne...

This week, Tammi and Sondra talk about thrifting as an easily accessible creative act to repurpose your life. Tammi’s experience as, “My first real and honest creative act as an adult” differed slightly from Sondra’s “first experience in expressing myself”. However, they both used thrifting to transform aspects of their lives, including their “altars to alcohol”. From necessity to crafting a new l...

Tammi and Sondra excitedly take on this sometimes boring topic by first examining the different ways in which they both tackle productivity: Tammi, a former legal secretary, is more of a taskmaster while Sondra, a former hippie, likes to follow her impulses and ride the wave. People in recovery have to make time for creativity, as it competes for the other things that have priority, like meetings,...

On the heels of the She Recovers conference in NYC, where 500 women in recovery gathered to commune and listen to speakers Glennon Doyle Melton, Gabby Bernstein, Elizabeth Vargas, Marianne Williamson, Nikki Myers, Elena Brower, Ann Dowsett Johnston, and many bloggers, Tammi and Sondra recap the event (Tammi attended, Sondra watched via livestream). Details of the event become a perfect segue to ta...

Today, Tammi and Sondra talk about creating a community built around recovery and creativity. They talk about online groups and how that has helped them find other sober creatives, which led them to project ideas like the #artexchange. They also offer some ideas to building a face-to-face sober creative community as well. The ladies share their top three tools in their recovery-slash-creativity to...

When we quit drinking, we have a void to fill, but where do we start if we think we aren’t creative? Tammi and Sondra dive into this topic starting with the permission slip: it’s okay to call yourself an artist, maker, writer. They cover many ideas to get you started, places for inspiration, jumping off points like Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like An Artist or Lisa Congdon’s Creative Bug drawing cl...

We turn the tables today and Sondra interviews Tammi. The OG Cali girl, Tammi talks about being very driven and a need for gold stars, opting for a career path but how her love of Martha Stewart sparked her creative flame. Always a seeker, even when her drinking amped up after a divorce, she eventually found herself blogging and journaling to find the good things, “I wanted proof of life”. Getting...

Tammi interviews Sondra in this episode. They cover where she grew up (spoiler: Texas), that her biggest childhood creative pursuit was daydreaming, watching MTV + making mix tapes, and becoming Molly Ringwald. They go into drinking, when that began to look like a problem and how that affected her pursuits of sewing, photography and writing. “There is no room for anything to grow when drinking is...

Sondra and Tammi introduce themselves and talk about how they met. They talk about the creative projects that make them jump out of bed every morning. They also lay out the ideas, hopes and dreams for the podcast going forward.