in like a lion, out like a lion

During my third year at Syracuse University, it snowed every day for three months. Every day from January through March, I made a tick mark on my calendar when I woke up each morning (er, or afternoon...I was a college student after all...) and saw flakes falling from the sky. After graduation, I was happy to escape that frozen hell.

February and March 2014 in Virginia have felt a bit like that. Snowflakes falling from the sky seemingly every day. And yet, I didn't really mind. Oddly enough, this was the first year since childhood that I didn't hate winter. In fact, it was kind of cozy and really quite productive. Most of this is because winter has made me really appreciate the fact that I work from home when the weather is cold and snowy. If I had to scrape ice off my windshield/shovel snow/commute on frozen roads/freeze my ass off at the bus stop, etc, I would be back to my old winter-hating ways. But this year when it snowed, I could just stay home. I'd turn on the fireplace, drink hot chocolate, and work on projects from the comfort of the inside of my house.

The first day of spring was March 20th this year, but winter wasn't over yet. We had several more snowstorms after the equinox. The snow-covered trees are really quite pretty and I finally pulled out my camera to capture a few of these last snowy days. True to my commitment to stay inside and my tendency to be lazy, all the photos were taken looking out through our windows. Thank goodness for my 200mm lens:















Now that the world outside my cozy lair is finally starting to thaw, I suppose I'll have to come out of my introspective hibernation. I'm looking forward to reuniting with friends and living a more active lifestyle in the warmer months.

perspective + changes

March was a difficult and introspective month. We spent some time visiting Larry's dad, who was in the hospital recovering from somewhat unexpected triple coronary bypass surgery. Scary, eye-opening stuff. As Larry and I were driving home to Virginia after several days spent in the hospital, we turned to each other and said "Life is f***ing brutal." It was a difficult thing to witness and it was definitely a thought-provoking weekend.

Larry and I have been making some pretty drastic changes to our lives since the beginning of the year, and the events of this month have further fueled our desire to change many aspects of our lives. We've been keeping to ourselves a lot lately, which has given me a lot of clarity and time to evaluate the choices we make, our health, and our relationships. My perspective on so many things has changed for the better over the past few weeks.

Between the quiet post and the productivity post and the changes we are currently working on, I feel like I'm going all self-helpy and inspirational, but never fear, my sarcastic potty-mouthed self is still alive and well. I'm just really liking this new direction and the new priorities in my life, and I'm feeling way more relaxed and motivated, which is an unexpected reaction to such a stressful event.

The changes we're making aren't things I'm ready to write about yet, as I feel like I set myself up to fail whenever I make set-in-stone lists of goals to accomplish. Instead, we're adapting and evaluating the choices we make as we go to achieve what we're comfortable with. Changing our lifestyle is bigger than crossing things off a list, so I'll share what we've accomplished if/when I feel confident that we've succeeded at making permanent changes. (Does that sound cryptic? I didn't mean for it to - we're simply trying to live healthier, smarter, happier and more aware.)

As for Larry's dad - his surgery was a success, we were impressed by the care he was getting (big thanks to all the hardworking and compassionate nurses out there!) and he is now finally home from the hospital. He has a long road of recovery and change ahead, but then again, don't we all?

first anniversary

On March 4th, Larry and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. It felt a little strange to be celebrating a first anniversary considering we've been together for over ten years. We're typically pretty lax (or lazy) with the celebration of special occasions, but ever since our wedding, I'd been thinking that we needed to start a few anniversary traditions that we could look forward to every year:

1. A March beach trip. 
Since we got married on the beach and since March is a great time of year to escape winter with a warm weather vacation, I thought it would be fun to take an anniversary trip to a different beach each year. (A few suggestions for future reference, Larry: Florida, California, the Bahamas, any Caribbean island, Canary Islands, Fiji, Costa Rica, Belize, Kauai, Mexico, Turks & Caicos...no we can't afford all these trips, but I can dream...)

2. Coconut cake.
After we eloped on Waimanalo Beach, we drove to Oahu's North Shore and grabbed a celebratory slice of coconut cake. As an anniversary tradition, I'd like to eat a slice of coconut cake (or a cupcake) from a different bakery each year. (Preferably from a bakery in a beach town - see #1.)

3. Anniversary photo.
A picture of the two of us each year, taken on March 4th. (Preferably on the beach and maybe with cake - see #1-2.)

Hopefully our first anniversary isn't an indicator as to whether these will become yearly traditions, because I give us a score of 1.5 out of 3. We hoped to take a trip to Florida, but this wasn't feasible due to a family emergency. So we made the best of it and made reservations for a lovely dinner at Restaurant Eve. We were too stuffed from the five-course tasting menu to go out for dessert after dinner, but we did get coconut cake a few days later from Society Fair in Alexandria, Virginia - not on the beach, but still delicious. As for the anniversary photo, I set up my tripod when we got back from dinner and Gravy proceeded to photobomb 30 timer photos in a row. The lighting sucked, we were tired, and Larry was over it, so this will have to do:

It may not be on the beach, but sometimes life gets in the way. Marriage is full of compromises. I had meant to write a post on my thoughts on marriage after the first year, but I'll just sum it up like this: Being married is awesome.

It's even better than cake.

what I did during olympic break

I've been quiet lately, but I had a really productive and creative Olympic Break. Basically, I converted my house into a sewing sweatshop and spent two weeks toiling over my sewing machine and rooting for Team USA. I'm really excited about these projects and many are worthy of their own blog posts, so I will photograph and share details soon, but for now, here's a sneak peek at what I accomplished over the past few weeks:

+ Sewed two quilt tops!


This was my biggest accomplishment. Ever since I sewed my first quilt last summer, I've been obsessed with quilting, and snowy February was the perfect time to work on these projects. In true Rachel fashion, I started the second quilt without finishing the first one, but I hope to have these both quilted and bound soon.

+ Framed and hung artwork:



Top two pieces are original mixed-media paintings by me. I hope to add abstract art to my shop this spring. Dog illustration by Kelly Puissegur/Retro Whale. Smiths poster by Wasted Rita.

+ Baked Ina Garten's favorite chocolate cake:


+ Experimented with stitched art:


+ Read The Orphan Master's Son:

Great book, though I had dreams about being in a North Korean prison.

+ Designed and sewed pillows:


+ Survived for a week on a can of refried beans, a dozen eggs, and a jar of salsa. Some delicious combinations: omelet-quesadilla, chili topped with a runny egg, omelet stuffed with chili, huevos rancheros.

+ Watched hours of Olympic coverage. My favorite event to watch is snowboard cross, but I love watching everything...except curling.

+ Had a recurring dream that I was using my sewing machine while on skis. Maybe this should be a new Olympic sport?


I learned that it is important for me to schedule time to focus on personal projects. Productivity and creativity breed more productivity and creativity - I found that completing personal projects got me inspired to work on business projects, too. My Olympic Break was so awesome, satisfying, relaxing and productive, that I now plan to schedule break weeks every few months throughout the year - a time to unplug and make things and live.

thoughts on productivity and taking a break

My view during Olympic Break: 

A creative and messy workspace, a quilt in progress, a dog butt, a fire, and the games on TV.

At the beginning of the year, I decided to take a different approach to tackling my business goals and scheduled out an entire year's worth of projects with deadlines, launch dates, and focus weeks all blocked in on my NeuYear Calendar with colorful labels and tape. I also blocked off weeks/weekends for vacation time, and scheduled a two week break in February, which I deemed my own personal Olympic Break.

The plan was to use the time to focus on personal projects and eliminate distractions. On February 7th, I deleted Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from my phone. I stopped reading blogs. I set up a folding work table in my living room and another in my dining room. Larry was on a business trip, so I spent my days with my dogs, the Olympics, and my sewing machine as we were hammered with a February snowstorm. It turned out to be one of the best things I could have done for myself and the most relaxed and productive times in my life in recent memory.

I spend so much of my life staring at a screen - my computer, my phone, even being behind the lens of my camera - that I sometimes feel like I'm not really living my life. To be honest, once I got past the first two days of absent-mindedly picking up my phone and finding my finger instinctually going for the Instagram icon, I found I wasn't really that interested in social media anymore. My brain was no longer saturated with a constant deluge of information from blogs, Twitter, and Facebook and I could finally focus and concentrate without feeling overwhelmed. During the day, I worked on my projects. If I needed a break - those times I would usually glance at my phone - I sat down and read a book. I interacted with my dogs. I tasted my food. I looked out the window and appreciated the snow with my own eyes instead of looking at 20 photos in a row on Instagram of other people's snow-covered porch furniture.

And I found that once I stopped wanting to look at my phone, I stopped wanting to look at all screens. The thought of sitting down at my computer (the one that I've stared at all day for years) repulsed me. I wasn't reading blogs or social media, but I also had no desire to google anything or edit photos or even look at my computer. (Which is why it's taken me a month to finally sit down and write this blog post.) I didn't want to pick up my camera either - I wanted to savor real life. I wanted to experience without documenting. I was able to reclaim my headspace as my own.

During my two week break, I was filled with an almost manic energy. I woke up excited about my day, I went to bed fullfilled, I slept better than I have in years. There was a freedom to not caring what anyone else thought or what anyone else was doing. I focused on my own projects and I got stuff done. I wish I could bottle up the way I felt over Olympic Break and dole out the magic of those weeks throughout the year - a sip here and there to regain the productivity, drive, and peace I felt in my life.

When the two weeks were over, I logged into Instagram, added a few pics, and scrolled through my feed. I re-added the Facebook app to my phone and then promptly re-deleted it. I read a few of my favorite blogs to get caught up. But I found my productivity start to dwindle again and my anxiety start to increase. If these things are causing me so much stress...then why do them? Because as much as I needed a break from the world, I also love staying in touch with people. I love my family and friends and I love seeing what they are up to - their travels, the photos of their children, the things that are going on in their lives. I love connecting with people online. As a self-employed person who spends most of her day alone, opportunities to socialize are important to my sanity and survival. So I hate that the solution to being more productive and less anxious seems to be to become a hermit! (And surely this would slowly drive me crazy.) I need to find a way to balance productivity and socializing. I need to prioritize productivity. I need to prioritize myself, my family, and living and experiencing my own life.

It's obviously time for a change - a big one. It's time to schedule more time for myself. It's time to be deliberate and present. I'm not going to give up social media entirely or stop blogging because these things are important to me and have benefits, but I am going to be more deliberate about them. Maybe I'll only check social media and read blogs on Fridays - as a reward for a productive week. I'll take fewer photos but be more deliberate about what I photograph. My blog posts will be shorter (unlike this one) and focused on the important stuff. I'll share the highlights of my life. I'll share what's going on with my business (one of the founding reasons for starting this blog, which has seemed to go by the wayside). Less quantity, more quality. More focus. Keeping it up won't be easy, but now that I have a taste of the productivity that awaits, I hope to maintain my momentum.

And I have lots of things to share coming up - especially what I actually DID during my productive break and a whole bunch of new ideas for Funnelcloud Studio. But right now I'm more interested in actually working on them (and hopefully finishing them!) than photographing them. So stay tuned. Good things are coming.

quiet

I spent the past few weeks taking a break from social media to focus on personal projects during the Olympics. It was one of the best things I've ever done for myself and has totally changed the way I think about how I spend my days and experience my life.

My break coincided with Larry being away on business and with a big February snowstorm (and then more and more little snowstorms - evidently it snows every day here now?), so my life these past few weeks has been quiet. While everyone else seems to be complaining non-stop about the cold weather and "Not another snowstorm! When will winter end?", this winter-hater has been relishing being snowed in. There's been time to work on personal projects and dream up/plan/experiment with business projects. There's been time to sit by the fire and read books. There's been time to snuggle my puppies and watch Mother Nature's snowglobe outside my window. While it may sound like I've spent the past month sitting on my butt, it has actually been some of the most productive and thought-provoking weeks of my life. And I'm not quite ready for it to end.

So even though the Olympics are over now, the snow has melted (and fallen again), and Larry has returned from being stuck out west due to airport closures across the country, it is still quiet around here. Our Valentine's Day dinner, one year engagement anniversary dinner, and an anniversary trip to Florida were all cancelled due to snow and business, and yet I'm content. This weekend, I watched my boys playing frisbee in the snow and snapped photos through the window screen and savored real life and being in the moment. I ventured out a few times after the Olympics ended - a hike with the pups, cocktails with a friend, and dinner at Restaurant Eve with Larry to celebrate our first anniversary before he jetsetted off again on business.




There are signs that spring is coming - a huge flock of robins (confused and puffed up as round as baseballs) roosting in our backyard during Monday's snowstorm, crocuses peeking up through the ice, and soon I will crave adventure and will want to be outside and rejoin the real world. I have lots of thoughts to share about my Olympic Break, but for now, I am still happy staying in, being cozy, and relishing the quiet.