Over the last two weeks, I bought a house, moved myself and my belongings from my old house into said purchased house--while simultaneously moving clients into their new homes-- flew to Detroit to stand up in my best friend’s wedding, and dealt with my mom's life-threatening medical emergency. I have spent one 12-hour block of time in an emergency room, changed my flight three different times, ordered three different sets of King size sheets to fit ...

The tree in front of my house is dying. Actually, I think it's already dead. It's a small tree--a young tree--with birch-like bark and almond-shaped leaves and it's directly in front of my house. My desk is positioned against the window, and its street view often lures my eyes away from the screen in favor of languid people-watching. Since the tree is directly in front of my house, directly in front of my desk, it ...

Our internet family sends me lots of great questions and messages all the time. Sometimes, the messages seem to me to pertain to a wider audience, whether because they're broad and abstract in theme, or because they're specific in scope, and in either case, I have no choice but to take to the blog. Today is an example of the latter c/o my homegirl Joyce. She writes: [Hi Annie, I follow your blog and Instagram religiously! I ...

It's right about this time of year that I start to think of the parents' of wee babes quandry; as learning institutions resume their regularly scheduled programming, so, too, do all those wonderful works of art which all those small humans will soon be creating. Kids are essentially cute craft pushers, you heard it here first. Oh, it isn't that the parents won't be equally (read: much more) proud of the works of art. Only, that ...

I'm part of a very informal group of lady bosses here in Seattle. Though most every one of us works in different industries, we connect on the shared ground of having borne an idea, and of nurturing this idea into a full-fledged company, and all the daily effort that entails. Last week we gathered around a patio table to enjoy the sunshine and talk shop, as it were. And somewhere in there, the subject of ...