Website still down

Hello everyone! My website is still down. And I can't get email until it's resolved. If you need to contact me, please use zaknaps@yahoo.com. :) Thanks so much. I'm sure everything will be up and running super soon. Thanks for everyone's patience!

App love

I thought I would share some of my favorite apps. I have tons of them, but I use a few EVERY SINGLE DAY. (Pretty sure some of these are available for android, but I'm not sure how many of them. ) Okay, here goes...

1. Nike Training Club ... hands down the best at home workout ever. The workouts come in 30 and 45 minute lengths and there are tons to choose from depending on what you want to focus on.

2. Hipstamatic ... super fun camera to play with on your phone. almost every image I post on Facebook comes from this little app. Love it.

3. Motivated Moms ... Okay, I sorta hate the title of this one. I'd rather have it be Kick-Ass-Cleaning-List or something like that. BUT, it's a great list of stuff to do that you can check off and have your house relatively clean in the process. I almost NEVER get everything done on the list, but that's ok. :)

4. Pandora ... if you don't have pandora, you are either 85 or don't love music.

5. instagram ... Another super fun way to share images.

6. Pocket Informant ... I was never a fan of iCal, so this is what I use. :)

7. Starbucks ... get the app, register a card, reload it as needed. For every 15 times you use it, they send you a postcard for a free drink. Plus, if you are vegan like me, you get free upgrades to soy milk if you use it. Worth it just for that.

8. Nike + GPS ... This is GREAT! Perfect for knowing how far you run/walk/crawl. And they give you cheers at the end of every session. Love.

9. Society6 ... Amazing and awesome wallpapers for your phone by wonderful artists. Check it.

10. Meal Board ... I've tried a number of menu/grocery list apps. This is the one I've settled on. A bit of work in the beginning, but really saves time in the long run.

Have fun! :)

Public announcement

Life is a gift...

What you you going to do with your life today?

The saddest part of my day...

When all that's left is soy-foam. :)

Happy Friday everyone!

A long walk today, doing some art and soldering, and then some weekend shopping.

Sounds like a pretty good couple of days.

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Just thinking about

my husband, how thankful I am for him...for always having my back, for almost never telling me my hair looks bad (even when it does), & for happily eating cereal (again) for dinner when my mind is on everything BUT dinner.

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Who's your best friend?

You know...the best friend that's waiting for you to come home. The friend who curls around your feet while you're cooking in the kitchen. The friend who's whole life is happy when they look into your eyes and know that they are safe.

I have a very special session available for your best friends. :) And now is the perfect time of year to do it!

Pet Session: $200

1 hour session

20 images in private online viewing gallery

digital files of all images

$100 of session is donated to National Mill Dog Rescue

Super fun. :) Contact me to book a very special pet session.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Or as our 15 year old son calls it "Singles Awareness Day".  Love that! I'm happy today because my husband is taking me to Whole Foods to get a big-ass-vegan-cookie. Yum! AND I splurged and got myself a soy latte this morning...we'll see how my stomach takes the coffee-ness. I just couldn't do tea today. Tea is tame and meek and mild.  I want to kick today in the bootie and make it call me mommy. Or something less creepy than that. I feel like I need to be fierce today. And creative. And when you have that feeling, you just need to run with it.

Thankful friday

Thankful for...
1. Vegan chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods...omg. amazing.
2. the internet...sometimes it's overwhelming, but today I found a mixed media artist/psychologist Seth Apter and the world of art/creativity/hope felt smaller, more intimate, and something that, one day, I could be part of.
3. 5 mile walks with my dear friend Traci.

Thankful for...

Tangerines with leaves still attached. :)

3 things

Today I'm thankful for:

1. My messy office. I have a huge room for my computer/photography stuff, an art work area, and a great closet for storage. Pretty awesome.

2. For the flowers from my mom. LOVE them!

3. Frost!

Happiness

I found this TED talk on Karen Walrond's blog and it is AMAZING. Please, if you have 12.5 minutes, take a break from your day and watch. :)

The reluctant tea drinker

I like tea. I do. But not in the morning. Not to get me fired up for the day. 

My favorite part of getting up in the morning is the smell of the coffee brewing...so earthy and smooth. I used to drink it with a flavored creamer, but nixed that while trying to cut down some calories and chemicals. I still miss creamer. It's been over a year. Can you tell I don't take to change very well?

But I adjusted to just drinking it black. You can really taste the coffee that way. So dark and pungent and beautiful. Coffee was my business partner and my best-friend-pick-me-up. Coffee said "GO!". Coffee woke me up and kicked me in the butt...in a good way.

Til a few weeks ago.

Apparently when I am under stress, drinking a whole bunch of coffee doesn't always work. Instead of it getting me fired up for the day, I just felt a painful burning fire in my stomach and throat. 

Not good.

So. I am rocking out the tea. Which really means I am pouring myself a cup of tea in the morning with a really bad attitude and overflowing resentment at the way coffee betrayed me. 

now.

Sorry I've been MIA for a bit.  Lot's of stuff going on. Almost none of it is appropriate to talk about on a blog. :) It's strange, this blog thing...how it's changed over the years, as my business has grown. I yearn to be real and open with the world. To the extent that I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself in the name of authenticity. But this is not the place to pour my soul. There is a very real amount of censorship and editing with every single sentence I write. I think about image and respectability and consumer confidence.

Needless to say (and sorry for being so cryptic!), it's been a rough start to the new year. My birthday is next week and every time I think about it, I get sad and maybe even a little panicked. I start thinking about where I should be at this place in my life. Like my life should be neat and contained, wrapped with a pretty bow.

But life is messy. And sometimes there is nothing to contain you, define you, comfort you with labels and bows.

My vacation from the blah is living in the now. Sitting with it. Accepting it. Being in it. Rather than being fearful of the future, to enjoy every single detail of now. Instead of thinking "I am never going to get all of my work done today..." I will choose to listen to the typing of my fingers while I write this. Congratulate myself for showing up on my blog today (for the 4 readers out there...and btw, thanks Mom for being one of them!). To taste, REALLY taste my green tea. To be so thankful for the shelter we live in while it's so windy and cold outside. To do one thing at a time. One breathe at a time. Now.

(Okay, so that would be a really good place to stop this blog post, but I want to take a moment to put people at ease...my marriage, health, & business are fine. Much is thriving. It's just been one of those months. )

Thursday

Today is a new day. A day that has never been and never will be again. And today, I feel that newness, that hopefulness, that sense that something good will happen.

It feels like it's been a while since I felt like that.

To be honest, it's only been a week. But it was a rough week. I won't go into the details, but ya, a rough week.

Thank you Thursday, for being a new day.