The Travel Journal

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We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. || Anaïs Nin 
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I'm an avid journaler, but especially so when I travel. 
I think part of the reason is because when I travel things can often be a blur. A new place here and new place there, a new thought in this moment, meeting a different person with a cool story in that one, going going going. Documenting such things, sometimes as they happen, is a way for me to live them more fully in the moment. To examine and see them a little bit outside of their original context helps me to not take them for granted and appreciate these moments and experiences for what they are.
But of course I also do it so that I can look back and reminisce once I'm back home. 
I not only do this when I'm traveling but in my day to day life as well actually. I have several different notebooks and journals each with their own respective purpose. I'm constantly scribbling notes and sentences and thoughts and new words and clever lines I hear people say that I want to remember. 
I don't really remember a time when I wasn't doing this to some capacity to be honest. 
It's one of those things that's engrained into who I am.

The Rootless Spruce sent some their handcrafted leather goods with me on my trip to Iceland, which included  this incredibly beautiful handmade journal. It's pages have since been filled with quite a few memories which I already love looking back on. 
If you need a travel journal (or the perfect home for your passport) I highly recommend visiting their shop. 

I also highly recommend this Air BnB place we stayed in for our first few nights in Reykjavik. 
Don't know what Air BnB is? Learn more and sign up here for $25 towards your first booked trip!
It's my favorite way to travel.

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This post was sponsored by The Rootless Spruce.
You can find them in their shop as well as on Instagram.

If you're interested in collaborating, shoot me an email: agirlnamedleney@gmail.com 

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Vail Colorado Senior Portraits | Nina, Baylee + Sofia

in ,

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. || Henry David Thoreau

Finally getting around to sharing a few favorites from this mini senior portrait session in Vail Colorado last fall. These girls were a joy to spend an afternoon with. Such sweet and lovely souls.
And talk about killer babes. Am I right or am I right?

Know Yourself

in ,

I just want to remind you to know yourself.
And if you don't feel like you know yourself, get to. 
Spend time with you in varying situations and places and circumstances.
Comfortable and uncomfortable.
Alone. With people. With strangers. With friends. 
Be honest about your loves and likes and dislikes.
Stay true to them when you find them.
But also be okay with them evolving and changing with you as you evolve and change. 
Don't be ashamed of the quirks and inconsistencies and wrinkles and bumps and imperfections.
Whether they be physical or emotional.
Be unwavering in embracing who you are.
The world will notice that. It's what's most attractive about people.
The embracing of their whole entire selves, flaws and all.
The openness, rawness and realness of being intrinsically human. 
If you currently feel like that, open, raw, and in a state of mess and struggle, embrace it.
Be there.
Be all there.
Because it's beautiful.
And you'd be so much duller, flatter, and unattractive without those pieces of you.
Because those pieces help refine and shape you into being a person worth knowing.  

//// Thanks Emily for modeling for these portraits.
I love that you know exactly who you are.
Keep knowing that.