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I'm sure everyone is sick about talking about how cold it is. However, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that aside from when I'm sleeping at night under my warm down comforter, I haven't felt warm for more than an hour straight over the last week or so. Apparently I have the metabolism of a hummingbird, because once I'm cold there's no going back. So how do I survive the cold with the metabolism of a hummingbird?

I go with a pair of socks, a pair of skinny jean, a pair of knee high socks over said skinny jeans and original pair of socks, and then some boots just for added insulation.


Then on the top, I go for a tank top, a tee, a long-sleeved shirt, and then a sweater. I like to add a scarf and hat to keep heat from leaking out of my head. And then.... then. If I'm still not warm enough, obviously I turn to my hot foil press as a heat source.


And that, my friends, is how I survive the cold with the metabolism of a hummingbird. Hope you're all staying warm out there wherever you may be! And if you live in a warm location... well, just don't talk to me! ;)

I'm having a little fun for Friday and thought I'd look back again on a really important aspect of every year-- music, obviously. As the year came to an end, Pitchfork put out their Top 100 Tracks of 2013. To me, their lists are always ridiculously overly pretentious or predictable. I mean, how many of you know most of the bands on that lists, and three tracks for both Daft Punk and Kanye? Really?...

I'm having a little fun for Friday and thought I'd look back again on a really important aspect of every year-- music, obviously. As the year came to an end, Pitchfork put out their Top 100 Tracks of 2013. To me, their lists are always ridiculously overly pretentious or predictable. I mean, how many of you know most of the bands on that lists, and three tracks for both Daft Punk and Kanye? Really? Really?

After an in depth conversation with my sister about how ridiculous Pitchfork's music preferences are, I decided to take a stab at my own version. However, to spare you the most ridiculous blog post of all time, I decided to stick with my top 10 tracks for 2013 (read-- top ten tracks I probably listened to the most in 2013). So here they are. I give you Heidi's Top 10 Tracks of 2013.

10. Wild Things - San Cisco

9. Railway - Boy

8. Heavy Bells - J. Roddy Walston & The Business

7. You Can Be All Kinds of Emotional - The Lone Bellow

6. Morning Song - The Avett Brothers

5. Farrah Fawcett Hair - Capital Cities

4. Departures (Blue Toowong Skies) - Bernard Fanning

3. Hope - Kopecky Family Band

2. Made Up Mind - Tedeschi Trucks Band

1. Just Beneath the Surface - Dawes

What are some of your favorite songs from the past year?

As always, I like to set some new goals for the new year. I don't like to think of them as resolutions because I feel as though I am setting myself up for failure. I'm a goal-driven person and if I set my eye on something that I truly want to do, then I often will work to accomplish it. In addition, I feel that resolutions are not really reasonable for the most part. They don't allow you to get...

As always, I like to set some new goals for the new year. I don't like to think of them as resolutions because I feel as though I am setting myself up for failure. I'm a goal-driven person and if I set my eye on something that I truly want to do, then I often will work to accomplish it. In addition, I feel that resolutions are not really reasonable for the most part. They don't allow you to get halfway there or slip up. Goals, on the other hand, are always a work in progress. After looking back on my 2013 goals, I felt good about how far I've progressed in the past year. And as 2014 is beginning, it's time for me to find a new focus.

1. Be showered and dressed by 9:30am. This may sound crazy, but it needs to happen. It makes me feel awful when I have realized that I spent half of the day in yoga pants. I was warned this would happen when I started working from home, and it has. Now it needs to stop. Being fabulously dressed makes me feel fabulous, and I prefer feeling fabulous than gross.

2. Follow through. There are a lot of ideas that I write down or verbalize. Sometimes they don't happen or they happen months later. I want to seize the moment and follow through on these ideas rather than just sitting on them and thinking that maybe they should happen. I will go back and forth in my mind about whether or not to do something. It's wishy-washy. I need to stop bullshitting myself and just do it. I was off to a better start with this already in the latter part of 2013, but I need to keep the ball rolling. I have big projects I want to accomplish for my business this year and it's time to just do it.

3. Cut out negativity. Time to let go of anything or anyone that is causing unnecessary negativity in my life. This is something I started after we got back from Australia. If the habit wasn't good, I stopped. If the relationship wasn't productive or was giving me negative vibes, I moved on. I decided that it was time to stop worrying about whether or not I was stepping on the toes of others and just do what is true to myself. That in itself has already generated a lot of positive vibes in my life and I hope to continue to cut back on that negativity as I continue to seek a positive, creative, and fulfilling lifestyle.

4. Live like I'm on vacation. I wrote about my new found perspective after our return from Australia. I want to enjoy every aspect of my life. I don't want life to feel like a burden. I want it to feel light and enjoyable, so I'll continue to think about how I can make every day feel like vacation. What can I do each day, even if just for a few minutes, that will help me depart from the idea of life being a daily grind? That is what I'll continue to challenge myself to do.

5. Unplug and spend more time in the moment. This is easier said than done as my business is an online based business. I was good about this when I first quit teaching. When the work day was done, it was done. No more responding to clients after hours. My brain turned off the work day. That hasn't been the case recently, and I would like to make that a priority again. I also want to be more purposeful in the time I spend using social media with my business. Rather than checking in constantly, I want to think of it more as a scheduled use of time. In other words, hello productivity and goodbye time suck.

This year I'm feeling more positive than ever about my goals! I feel as though 2014 has a lot of momentum that has built up from the previous year, and I'm excited for what is to come.

Do you set goals for the new year? What do you hope to accomplish in the year to come?