Maternity | Mary Beth & Dan

So happy for Dan and Mary Beth (and Piper too) and their new little one they have on the way. 
Madi is going to be one loved little girl when she arrives, that's for sure. 
Thankfully it wasn't too hot on this July day, something you always have to worry about when taking photos outdoors in Richmond around this time of year, and I just love how these turned out. 
I mean, isn't Mary Beth just stunning? 
Seriously, what a babe.

Definitely can't wait to meet little Madi and knit her heaps of tiny little baby clothes. 
;)

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Also check out the photos here.
Interested in getting some portraits of your own done?
Email me for more info: by.leney@gmail.com

A Giveaway | Win One of The New Designs!


So I mentioned this giveaway in the original lookbook post, but since I've been traveling and since I haven't been doing the best job of promoting it, I know a lot of you missed it!

So I've decided to just go ahead and extend the giveaway for the rest of July. 
Read on to learn how you can win one of the new designs from the shop!
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In honor of traveling, the new designs and stylish crocheting/knitting loving people everywhere, I am doing 
a giveaway this week for one item of your choice from the shop!
All you have to do is email (by.leney@gmail.com) or message me on Facebook (A Girl Named Leney) a photo with your favorite memory of being on the road.
It can be a sentence, or a small paragraph, whatever you like.
At the end of the month I will put them in an album on my page and people will vote for their favorite!
The winner will get their choice of one free piece from the shop.
So spread the word, the more the merrier!
I want to hear your stories.
Because I love stories, especially travel ones. 


Adventures | Paris Kentucky

Yep, I spent a weekend in Paris recently.
Okay, Paris Kentucky.
But who's being technical... 

I had a wedding in this neck of the woods a little while ago and so of course I hit up a yarn shop and some eateries in the process.
I don't have too many photos from the trip, but I figured I'd go ahead and share these few.
Because, you know, you obviously want to know which yarn store and restaurant to hit up when you're next in Kentucky right?
;)


Places Pictured
Magpie Yarn
Shakespeare and Co.

Immense Discipline

"It takes immense discipline to be a free spirit." | Gabrielle Roth
Walking 20 miles with a near broken toe.
Knitting on the Golden Gate Bridge and being questioned by a police officer who asks, rather concerned, if you're contemplating jumping off.
(Apparently knitting makes you look suicidal...?)
Making Irish friends in Irish pubs and getting called an American cowgirl.
Swimming in the Pacific.
Getting quite adept at using self timers on cameras, because, well, when you're traveling alone it's kind of a necessity.
Eating donuts (some things never change no matter what state I'm in).
Making friends on trains who think you're surely at least 28 because of what you're doing with your life.
Listening to California by Josh Ritter.
Being super grateful for the ability to screenshot maps/Google directions so as to save your always dying phone battery (not to brag or anything, but I really do think I know every trick in the book to counteract this never ending problem).
Getting very very little sleep but being totally and completely okay with it.


This trip has, so far, been quite a memorable one.
Can't wait to see what the rest of it holds.

The Great Affair

On A Chicago Plane
Shot with 35mm film // Minolta x-700

"i travel not to go anywhere, but to go. i travel for travel's sake. the great affair is to move." | robert louis stevenson 

There's lots of suitcase packing going on over here.
I'm going to be a little bit all over the country for the next month or so. 
I'm looking forward to it. 
I am quite in love with traveling after all. 
And what a great love affair it is. 

Adventures | July 4th In Washington DC

I had a wedding to shoot in D.C. over the weekend, so obviously seeing the fireworks on the fourth was a must.
I'd never been and it was pretty much, hands down, the best fireworks display I'd ever seen.
If it's not on your bucket list, well, it should be.
I had the company of this lovely lady, and we had a fabulous time together, taking photos, people watching, eating hot dogs (my first in probably two years... I felt very American), mastering the Metro, and taking 2845 Instagram videos. 
Of course I shot about a bajillion pictures of the fireworks.
Culling through those was fun.... *insert sarcasm here*
I probably am still sharing too many, and obviously these just don't even do the real thing justice, but.... oh well. 


So thankful for all of the people who have fought, and are currently fighting to make America what it is and allow for me and so many others to have the freedoms we do.
Blessed is an understatement.

Things To Miss

Home
| Follow me on Instagram at @agirlnamedleney | 

 Lucky to have things to miss.

When traveling I come to a point, during every trip, after a certain amount of time where I start missing.
I miss home. I miss people I love. I miss my routine. I miss my bed...
And I was talking with a friend of mine recently, another travel loving friend who is actually currently in the midst of some travels, and she made a comment about how she felt the same way, but how lucky she felt to have things to miss.

And I just really loved that thought.
It wasn't something I'd ever really put together before.
Lucky to have things to miss.

But that's how it is.
How lucky, how blessed I am to have things to miss.

Closer To Tomorrow

Photo cred: Meagan Abell

Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.

Yea, I know, one of those cliche quotes you come across on Pinterest.
But, you know, this one has a lot of truth in it. 
And it's something that I'm reminding myself of today as I sit here and I'm trying to get some work done before heading to D.C. to shoot a wedding tomorrow and I have 4392 things to do before I go and I keep getting distracted with instagram and cleaning and Facebook and what in the world is up with this hurricane talk
(and by all your lovely submissions for the giveaway)!
I don't know about you but I need reminders/motivation like that more often then not.
To just stop and re-prioritize sometimes.  

So that's what I'm doing right now.