olympic break

It seems a little silly to be taking an official break on the heels of an unofficial break that's been going on since Christmas, but that's exactly what I'm doing.

Every two years I profess my love for the Olympics, (I can't believe it was four years ago that we were watching the Vancouver Games at Lost River Modern!) and I've been excited about the XXII Sochi Olympic Winter Games since the beginning of the year, though I have to say that the pre-games coverage coming out of Russia is disconcerting. Let's hope Sochi does this right.

That being said, it's not enough to dampen my Olympic obsession, so I'm declaring the next two weeks my own personal Olympic Break. Aside from gluing my ass to the couch and my eyes to the television to watch every minute of Olympic coverage that I can, I'll be working on some creative projects and trying to be as active as possible (nothing like watching world-class athletes to shame me into moving my own butt).

I'm NOT going to read blogs or participate in social media. It will be nice to have a break to focus on me, my projects, and the real live people in my life.

I'll be back in this space at the end of February after what I hope is both a relaxing and productive break. Until then, here are some things I've been loving this year:

+ These nuns adopted a 9 year old pit bull. "She's a senior and we're seniors." This is the best story I've read all year.
+ The best chocolate cookies - they taste like brownies in cookie form. This recipe is Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin's favorite. I made them on whim the other day and they were delicious and easy. They're even better the second day. I'm obsessed and will definitely be making another batch during my break.
+ Blurb photo books. More on this later, but I've had the goal to make photo books for the past seven years. I finally got some of those photos off my computer and into print and designed three Blurb photo books in January. I love them and can't wait to share and design more. (There are 83,000 photos in my iPhoto right now - yikes!) (Affiliate link.)
+ Lumosity app. I've been obsessed with doing these brain teasers every day to supposedly improve my brain function.
+ NeuYear calendar - I've used this calendar in the past, but this is the first time I've planned out my entire year ahead of time (with stickers and colored markers!). I have lots of goals and plans mapped out for Funnelcloud Studio in 2014. Exciting!
+ Congrats to Emmy on the Grammy for Old Yellow Moon. (And to Rodney and Brian, too. An exciting day for the whole family. I may be biased, but I think the Americana category had the most talented group of nominees this year.)
+ A Field Guide to Procrastinators. Guilty, guilty, guilty.
+ Reminders app. Ok, so I've owned an iPhone for four years and I just discovered the Reminders app (that comes on the phone!) a few weeks ago. My list loving self LOVES this app. (So much better than typing my grocery list into Notes! Duh!)
+ I've been focusing our meal planning on a different cookbook every month and right now we're cooking up delicious recipes from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and Edward Lee's Smoke and Pickles.
+ The Instagram feeds of The Travelocity Roaming Gnome (@roaminggnome) and National Geographic (@natgeo). One cracks me up and one takes my breath away. Both make me yearn for more travel.
+ Decomposition notebooks by Michael Roger. I'm obsessed with notebooks and love a good composition book - but not the ugly black and white ones of my childhood. These guys are gorgeous (and made of recycled materials). I just ordered a few to plan out my personal and business goals for the year.

Over & out.