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May 19, 2011 by Anya Elise

tips for the rain || Colorado weather

My sister, Emily, loves.loves.loves the rain. She is better suited for the damp air of the Pacific Northwest than anyone I’ve ever met before.

Clearly, she and I are quite opposite on that front. I for one, love Colorado’s 300+ days per year of sun. The drier, sunnier, brighter a day is, the more I perk up. The sun and myself are honorary BFFs.

However, as the sun has apparently decided to take an indefinite leave of absence, Emily devised some tips for rain survival.

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May 18, 2011 by Anya Elise

wilted || bits of things

When I woke up this morning, one of my sunflowers had lost the will to go on.

Apparently, its “Let’s Throw in the Towel Initiative” was highly persuasive, so the pink fellas to its left joined the dismal descent.

And to be honest, when I saw the lot of them, I thought, “Amen, brothers.”

The Sunflower, the Pink Petals and myself had officially joined the ranks of the wilted and downtrodden.

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May 9, 2011 by Anya Elise

in a windmill || Weekend roundup

These are the things that happened this weekend. Minus two. Two of the following I just made up. Because it’s Monday. And I can.

And because it’s Monday.

Which two do you think are fictitious?

(1) I rescued Elise from the above windmill. What you don’t see in this photo is the dance studio that’s connected to the windmill. Where she was practicing dance. For poms.

(2) I rescued Chris from a runaway horse carriage. Sadly, no photo exists.

I’m not that good at multitasking.

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May 2, 2011 by Anya Elise

“the world spins madly on” || Monday thoughts

You all know the news.

You’ve all seen the reaction.

It’s been a surreal, and in some ways overwhelming, 20 hours.

The images of celebration, the constant updates, the never-ending speculation and analysis bursting through the pipelines to be filtered via my Twitter stream…it’s a lot. After some time, everything begins to meld into one giant clutter of scraps taped one atop the other to the insides of my brain.

Through all the layers of information pinned there today though, one thing has remained clear.

That image above.

Nine firefighters from Ladder Company 4 in New York City. A team that lost seven firefighters in the devastation of 9/11 nearly 10 years ago.

And along that same line, this quote from President Obama’s speech last night: “Let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 that we have never forgotten your loss…”

That’s what this whole thing is all about. Those lost, and those that continue to sacrifice day after day for our safety: firefighters, policemen, our troops, their families.

So today, thank them. Thank veterans. Thank those who serve this country with strength, resilience, and compassion.

And then thank them every day to follow.

To read more about the photographer who shot the above image – Michael Appleton – and the image itself, click here.

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April 28, 2011 by Anya Elise

Progress || Little bits of things

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” -Ira Glass

Patience and progress go hand in hand. Without patience, you won’t progress.

Sometimes, this is just a frustrating reality.

I am a dreadfully impatient person. I have big dreams gleaming off in the distance, beckoning to me, but it takes small, often slow, and ever-steady steps to get there.

You have to build one piece at a time. You can’t let the impatience dishearten you, make you quit or throw you off of your goal.

“It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

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