Wishing you success, love & fire in your belly

Until next time . . . keep blazin’!

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Creativity, Portfolio | Tagged with: desktop, wallpapers | Posted on: 02/01/2012

Ash Ambirge @TMFProject (The Middle Finger Project) – “Don’t stand out, stand the fuck up”

Speak soon . . . I promise!

Copyright © 2008 Annie Anderson | Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact annie@anniandersonblog.com so we can take legal action immediately.

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Around the Web, Entrepreneurship | Tagged with: | Posted on: 01/30/2012

You’ll notice if you go to the blog in the next 24 hours, it’ll redirect to a strike site about the SOPA bill that US Congress is trying to pass. Lots of folks like me on the ‘net are protesting by making our sites ‘go dark’ . . . so don’t be alarmed!

I’ll be back very soon with some new stuff. I promise!

Until then . . . keep blazin’!

I’m Annie Anderson and I write about living a kick-ass life and doing epic shit. I’m a writer, designer, thinker, life coach and mom who lives in the Pacific Northwest, loves cats, coffee, old VW’s and bicycles.

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Announcements, Miscellaneous | Tagged with: censorship, sopa | Posted on: 01/17/2012

I’ll be back later today with more.

Until then, keep blazin’

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Miscellaneous | Tagged with: | Posted on: 01/01/2012

You can download the zip files here.

Set 1 contains wallpapers 1 thru 12. – 2012WallpapersV1(set1)
Set 2 contains wallpapers 13 thru 16. – 2012WallpapersV1(set2)

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Creativity, Portfolio | Tagged with: artwork, design, wallpaper | Posted on: 12/28/2011

It’s a wonderfully inspiring letter and I hope it brings you a bit of holiday cheer, regardless of which holiday you celebrate, be it Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, Yule or any other.

Until next time . . . keep blazin’!

Wishing you success, love + fire in your belly . . .

P.S. –> Went to the doctor yesterday for a follow up on my thumb, and my blood pressure is even better than it was 2 weeks ago @ 114/74.

========================================

“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Life | Tagged with: Christmas, family, holidays | Posted on: 12/23/2011

First, a bit of background which you may know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while – but anyway, for the past 5-6 years, I’ve had high blood pressure and for the past few years, I’ve been on prescription medications for that as well as high cholesterol. But back in July when I became vegan, I started noticing changes and on the advice of a doctor I spoke to in September, I quit taking those medications.

Well, when I went to the doctor last week, my blood pressure was 124/77!!! WITHOUT medication! That is the best it has been in 6 years. I’m so freakin’ excited about that, I get all giddy every time I think about it.

Plus, I have officially lost 30 pounds. I can wear long-johns and sweatpants both under my regular jeans, they’re so loose! LOL (I know, on the verge of being TMI, there.) But that is so good because the weather is very cold here right now – between 25 and 34 degrees lately. Too cold! At least there hasn’t been any snow!

Listen, I keep hearing things from family and friends about how eating vegan is so hard and cooking differently is so time consuming and so difficult. Well, you know what? That’s bullshit. Total bullshit. It’s NOT hard. I’m one of those people who refused to cook 2 separate meals for the kids and the adults in my family – I know a lot of people who do that – they cook something for the kids and then something else for themselves and their significant other. I’ve always been against that.

When I became vegan, though, I didn’t want to force my family to eat that way if they didn’t want to so I started cooking different meals. Actually, what I did mostly was double the amount of vegetables I cooked. They ate the “main” meal – steak, chicken, or whatever meat product – and some vegetables and I ate vegetables. Since we eat a lot of Asian style food in our house, doubling the veggies and stuff is simple. Plus, we often eat rice with our meals.

It IS pretty easy, folks.

And there are so many good recipes out there! I have found tons of recipes that use vegan ingredients that taste just like what you would expect. For example, things like pumpkin pie, gravy, spaghetti. You can cook very simply without eating ‘boring’ stuff and have it be not only be filling and delicious, but also vegan.

Now, there are a lot of vegan advocates out there who say to stay away from “white” foods like rice, potatoes, bread, flour, etc. that I don’t agree with completely. I do agree on the flour and bread – white flour is bleached (YUCK!) – and that’s just not cool. But potatoes and rice I don’t agree with. I still eat those. I think where people get in trouble with rice and potatoes is not the food itself – it’s what they put ON it. Stuff like butter, ranch dressing, etc. You can’t put all that on there and expect it to be healthy.

Just to show you that vegan food doesn’t have to be boring, here’s a typical daily menu for me -

Breakfast – hashbrowns cooked in a non-stick skillet with NO oil and NO cooking spray then topped with salsa and green onions.
OR corn chex cereal with rice milk.
OR 10-grain hot cereal with a little brown sugar and maple syrup.
Lunch – baked potato with green onions, black pepper, chopped tomatoes and a bowl of split pea soup.
OR corn tortillas filled with vegetarian refried beans, green onions and taco sauce.
OR a huge bowl of steamed veggies like snow peas, broccoli, spinach, carrots seasoned with some kind of no-salt seasoning and rice with low-sodium soy sauce.
Dinner – spinach and romaine salad with tomatoes, green onions, green beans, chick peas and roasted red pepper dressing and a bowl of rice with soy sauce.
OR 3 bean chili over a baked potato and topped with green onions and tomatoes.
OR yakisoba noodles tossed with steamed broccoli, onions, carrots, peas and cabbage and seasoned with low-sodium soy sauce.

I find that repeating the same meals weekly is quite satisfying. The basics stay the same – rice, baked potato or hashbrowns, beans – and then I just change the other things that go with it – broccoli, tomatoes, chickpeas, asparagus, salad, etc. I’m pretty content eating the same things over and over, though. Like split pea soup – I could eat it everyday for lunch for weeks and not be tired of it.

I think the key is to find things that you really like and then add other things once in a while for some variety. Your body will tell you when it’s ready for something else. This is what Tim Ferris says in his “4 Hour Body” book and on his blog. He eats pretty much the same things every day during the week and eats something different and more varied on the weekends. In fact, he advocates a “pig out” day once a week where he eats junk food all day. I’m not sure I’m ready for that but possibly at some point when I’ve reached my goal weight and all of that.

Anyway, this post is already longer than I intended but I hope it gives you some ideas. Even if you just do vegan a few times a week, it’s a start. That’s how I started, actually – I’ve been eating partially vegan for about 5 years. It started out as a few times a week, then I went to eating vegan during the week and “normal” on weekends and then I finally graduated to vegan full-time.

At this point, I seriously think that decision was the best decisions I’ve EVER made in my entire life.

And that’s no exaggeration.

Until next time . . . keep blazin’

Wishing you love, success + fire in your belly . . .

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Food, Health & Fitness | Tagged with: health, vegan, weight | Posted on: 12/14/2011

I have 2 web design specials to offer you today but you gotta hurry because this offer is only good from Today until Friday December 16, 2011.

Special #1 — $850 (reg. $1800)
Simple Web Presence w/Blog

What you get:

• Up to 10 pages including blog, contact form, etc
• Built on the rock solid WordPress platform using the highly acclaimed Genesis Framework
• 1 full year of hosting – FREE! (a $250 value)
• 1 domain name of your choosing – FREE (a $15 value)
• 1 full year of monthly maintenance and updates – FREE (a $1200 value!!)

Special #2 — $1250 (reg. $2500+)
Simple e-Commerce Solution w/Blog & Shopping Cart

What you get:

• Up to 10 pages including blog, contact form, etc
• Up to 50 products in your e-Store
• Shopping cart with PayPal integration – FREE (a $75 value) others available for additional fee)
• 5 hours of FREE training on using WordPress and your e-Store
• Built on the rock solid WordPress platform using the highly acclaimed Genesis Framework
• 1 full year of hosting – FREE (a $250 value)
• 1 domain name of your choosing – FREE (a $15 value)
• 1 full year of monthly maintenance and updates – FREE (a $1200 value!!)

Why should you work with me?

I have been a designer for 22 years and a web designer for about 7, professionally, although I started designing websites way back in the mid 1990′s when the web was new and uncharted. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Design, know HTML & CSS, am an intermediate expert in WordPress and I love design!

What do others say about working with me?

“Annie is very organized and has a meticulous attention to detail. Always gets the job done the way you want it.” — Neville Swaby

“It’s like Annie can look right in your mind and create exactly what you want. She is great to work with! I highly recommend her for any design work you need.” — Anna Shiney

Interested in getting your business on the web?

Or redesigning what you already have? Then just fill out my contact form with a bit about your project and your contact info and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.

Until next time . . . keep blazin’

Wishing success, love + fire in your belly . . .

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Announcements, Work | Tagged with: special offers | Posted on: 12/12/2011

And that is . . . faith.

Faith is everything.

But I don’t mean faith as in religion. No, I mean something more like trust, belief, confidence, conviction. Faith in yourself. Faith that the Universe will not let you down. That everything works out perfectly as it should. And that even when we don’t understand why or how or when, the Universe is conspiring on our behalf to fulfill the life we desire.

This kind of faith is what I call a Knowing.

It’s knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s 100% belief. Absolute confidence. Total conviction. You know it. Fully, completely, no question.

And this is where we mess up, friends.

Because we *think* we have that kind of Knowing but we let the doubt in somewhere along the line. Just before the thing we want comes to fruition. And instead of getting what we were after, we’re let down.

Do we blame the Universe? Our neighbors? Our family?

Unfortunately, yes, we do. But we must realize and understand – it’s NOT their fault. If you want to lay blame, go look in the mirror, dear. Take responsibility. Because that’s where it starts.

It starts within. Nothing is without.

All the answers you need are right inside you.

Know without a doubt that you are a powerful being. Know without a doubt that you can do great things. That the dreams you have can be reality. And that they WILL be reality if you have faith.

Faith is everything.

Until next time . . . keep blazin’

Wishing you success, love + fire in your belly

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Motivation, Trailblazing | Tagged with: | Posted on: 12/01/2011

And sometimes, that’s what we need more than anything – more than the right words, more than the message. It’s the passion that carries us on, that ignites the hearts of those around us. So when the fire just isn’t burning that brightly, it’s easy to get discouraged.

I keep setting the post aside and working on something else for a while, thinking that maybe I’m looking at it from a different angle than I should be. Or that maybe the world isn’t ready to hear it yet. (It’s not THAT important. LOL) Or that maybe I’m not capable of writing with that much passion and purpose.

But I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s any of those things. What I think it is, rather, is that I want it to be more perfect than it is. More powerful than it is. And maybe it’s because *I* believe so much in it, I have higher expectations than necessary.

So, perhaps what might seem mediocre to me will be exactly what lights your fire.

And that’s my mission in the first place.

In any case, look for that post soon.

Until next time . . . keep blazin’!

Wishing you success, love + fire in your belly

© Annie for Annie Anderson | Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Posted in: Miscellaneous | Tagged with: | Posted on: 11/29/2011