what do to during a Cold Day (or four)

It's no secret that the Midwest has been suffering through some ridiculously cold and snowy weather this winter thanks to the high pressure system that's giving the west coast a horrible drought and shoving the arctic "polar vortex" too far down the continent. Thanks to extreme cold, Ben and I have had four bonus days to stay home from work this month. Hooray! Ben is going to be teaching until late June at this rate, but I've enjoyed the extra time to relax and recover from the horrible headcold I've been dealing with for the past several days. Plus, I actually love being stuck at home, since I have too many hobbies and my funemployment period trained me well in the art of filling time.

Here's our typical "Cold Day" routine:

Step One: Sleep in a little later than usual, obviously.

Step Two: Make a luxuriously fancy breakfast. Don't worry, I'm planning on sharing more recipe posts again!!

Step Three: Crank up the space heater and get some actual work done, because you are a responsible adult. (And your supervisor might read your blog…)

Step Four: Work up a sweat and burn off some cabin fever by bundling up and hiking to the gym (for the super dedicated only), or find a workout you can do in front of the space heater. I've curated quite the collection of at-home workout ideas on Pinterest! Find me at amv201, or search for Anna Locke.

 (frozen strawberries blended with coconut water)

 (vegan tuna salad via Oh She Glows)

 (fancy salad for vitamins)

 (pureeing coconut flakes is magical)

Step Five: Make an ambitious gourmet lunch and/or have a kitchen adventure.

Step Six: Snuggle up on the couch with some tea or wine and knit an enormous scarf to keep yourself warm.

And repeat!

How have you been surviving the cold? And how many days left until spring???

you are enough

2014 so far has been a whirl of endless snow, dark mornings and evenings, fleece lined leggings, wine nights with girlfriends, dinners on the couch, waffles for breakfast, lots of sewing and cutting lace. 

The other day Jenni from Story of My Life wrote a post about running your own small business, workaholism, and balance that hit home because it pretty much summed up my life right now. With the start of a new year comes a clean slate, a fresh start, and a load of pressure to make THIS YEAR the BEST ONE EVER, to complete all the projects and achieve all the goals. I am an achiever and a perfectionist, I am driven by an unrelenting inner fire to be successful at every single thing I do. And I do a lot of things. My main goal for 2014 is to continue to grow my Etsy shop, and I have so many visions and plans about how that is going to happen. But the reality is that I also have a full time job, which means I have to work nights and weekends to sew and list items and promote myself, which turns a fun creative outlet into a legitimate second job that starts affecting my relationships, my mood, and my energy. I think the crux of the whole thing is that I know my success is directly dependent on  how hard I work, that the work is never going to be done, and the more "successful" I am, the more work there is, so I guess I really need to re-think what success means to me. Last night I decided to stop thinking and stressing out, and just relax on the couch with Ben. I read an actual book. We went to bed early. I felt like a normal person and it was amazing. 

I guess what I'm fully realizing is that life has no deadlines. There's only so much you can accomplish in a day, and that is ok. What really matters is your actual life, the small victories each day, and being joyful and content within yourself so can then be a light to others. I'm learning that balance doesn't mean feeling like you spent enough time on every single role you play, but instead finding peace in the chaos and going to bed with satisfaction that the work you did was good, and that the people you care about know that they are loved. 

oh hey

Greetings, internet!

Yes I am still alive.

Life got a liiiiittle crazy over the summer and the craziness never really stopped, and since I'm an "all or nothing" type of person and it's hard for me to commit less than 100% to an endeavor, this blog kind of fell off the plate. But I want to bring it back! Can you believe I've been blogging here for four years now? Me neither. I'm scared to click back and see what I used to post about.

I'm going to kick off my blog revival with a reverse timeline of the past five months' highlights, beginning from last weekend, because why not? So settle in and get ready for a long catching-up.

Ben's birthday was this past Sunday the 3rd, so naturally we celebrated with a costume party! I was a My Little Pony and Ben was a brony. If you don't know what a brony is, I highly recommend educating yourself via this video. We busted out the wedding silver, ate Pinterest cupcakes, drank a huge jar of caramel apple cider punch, and a tree was in attendance. Ben also got an extra hour to celebrate his day, which might be the best gift ever. Sorry solar system and ancient Romans, but I think 25 hour days should be AT LEAST a monthly thing.

All summer I was in a pretty deep creative slump, but now that the air is getting crispy and cool I'm ramping up the Etsy shop again! I'm hoping to boost my inventory in time for the holidays, but this dang full time job keeps getting in my way. I did celebrate a small/huge milestone recently by hitting 100 sales! I posted a celebratory coupon code on my shop facebook page, and (shhhhhh) it will never expire. My tip for anyone contemplating opening an Etsy shop is to just do it. Tip number two: the more work, love, stress, and joy you put into it, the more sales and amazing customers you will get back. I love when the universe works out like that.

In August I made a commitment to my personal health and joined the Tone it Up community, which is a fitness and nutrition program. I have no words that can fully describe it, but it has really changed my outlook on life, connected me with hundreds of amazing women around the world, and boosted my self confidence by a million levels. I've become addicted to eating clean (aka almost no food from a box), working out, and documenting it all on Instagram! You can follow me if you want, but expect to see lots of sweaty workout selfies and strange foreign cult-like hashtags. I'm @joyofanna.

On October 6th Ben and I celebrated our first anniversary with a mini-vacation to Madison, WI. We ate copious amounts of delicious Midwestern food, drank beer with some cute dogs, and went apple picking at a tiny little roadside farm. Everyone keeps asking if we saved some of our wedding cake, and to that I say are you crazy??? Who wants freezer burned cake?? We got ourselves some fresh cake, and then realized that it's really hard to split a whole cake between two people. Good thing I'm doing that healthy living program the other 95% of the time...

This is just a random collage of things that make me happy. Our weekly date night, low humidity hair days, my sister moving back to the States after 2 years abroad, and Monet at the Art Institute.

When life gets extra crazy and stressful I try to make an effort to relax and re-connect with the outdoors. I LOVED seeing a gorgeous wintry sunrise (and coyote!) on a recent visit home. One thing I really miss while living in Chicago is being able to see the sunrise and sunset, since we're stuck in a first floor apartment in the city. Also, dahlias and cone flowers are two of my favorite late summer blooms. And I came up close and personal to a great blue heron! I feel very lucky to work in Lincoln Park, the most gorgeous little part of Chicago. I would go crazy here without my green space!

 And wayyyy back in June we made a trip to the breathtaking Black Hills of South Dakota to watch two of our good friends tie the knot and smash cake into each others' faces. We also saw lots of buffalo and rock formations carved both by nature and by humans. I sure do miss the mountains.

Well I think that about covers it! And now my eyes are glazing over from staring at a screen for an hour, which I think is the sign to hit publish and go to bed.

I'm planning on making blogging a weekly event in my life, so I will see you again soon!

Love, Anna