Janelle Houston

Remember my friend Janelle?
Well she recently came to Richmond and had me take some photos of her lovely self to promote a new single she has coming out which she and Ryan Scarberry collaborated on together!
I'm pretty excited about it myself, I really love Janelle's music. 
In fact I had one of her songs stuck in my head the whole time I was with her during the shoot and didn't even realize it until she said "Hey... are you humming my song??"
So there you go.
Anyway, Janelle is not only gorgeous but such a joyful and sweet person to be around. She truly is such a giving and generous person and I've loved getting to know her better and can't wait for her next trip to Richmond!
Her new single is called The Waltman Song and will be out on Valentine's Day!
So keep an eye out for the link on her Facebook page and on her bandcamp.
In the mean time check out the photos from our shoot in the city!

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See more photos here

Follow Janelle on her

And of course you can buy her current album here!

*UPDATE*
You can now download the The Waltman Song here
(Listening to it as I type and it's so lovely!)

Sweetheart Sessions: Bryce + Laura

Bryce and Laura are some very dear friends of mine.
With that in mind, you might think I'm a little biased when I say they're quite the handsome couple. However, I think once you look at the photos you'll see I'm hardly biased. 
I actually took some Valentine photos of them last year and so I was super excited when they asked me to do some again this year!
I love that they wanted to incorporate the heart straws again.
I had so much fun shooting with them.
It's basically the cutest thing ever watching these two interact. The way that Bryce teases Laura and makes her laugh is so funny to watch.
I said something similar in last year's post, but that just goes to show how true it is!
You can definitely see these two really love each other and that they make perfect Valentine's.

Thanks for having me take your photos again this year you two, I love you heaps!
♥

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Check out more photos here.
Interested in getting some portraits of your own done?

Email me for more info: by.leney@gmail.com


Life According To Instagram

This week I...

-Wore my newly knitted red scarf pretty much every day
-Shared another Richmond Restaurant post (hint: pie is involved)
-Picked up sock knitting again
-Added some more strips to the travel blanket (for those of you who don't know, every new place I travel a buy a skein of yarn and add it to a blanket)!
-Shared some photos from one of my favorite photoshoots ever
-Went to a watercolor workshop event at Anthropologie, taught by Laura Trevey of Bright Bold & Beautiful! It was so much fun. Made me want to get back into watercolor, the little that I did a few years ago.
-Finally tried a french macaroon! My life is now complete. I still plan on getting some in NYC though.
-Ate a lot of donuts.... What else is new?
-Had a super fun photo session with musician, Ryan Scarberry in a recording studio! Can't wait to share these photos.
-Shared a favorite quote
-Shared some thoughts on yarn
-Talked about why I take photographs and the inspiration behind it.
-Listed a one of a kind Valentine elephant in the shop! Go get him before he's gone!





 Follow me at @agirlnamedleney


P.s. The winner of the Shabby Apple Giveaway is..... *insert drumroll*

Congratulations Sarah!
Shabby Apple will be emailing you shortly :)



Proper Pie

A few weeks ago my friend Meagan and I visited one of Richmond's newer eateries.
I'd been wanting to try this place out for quite some time and so I was super excited to finally be going.
It did not disappoint!
Proper Pie is pretty much one of the cutest ideas for a restaurant I've ever seen.
True to their name, they serve New Zealand style savory pies as well as some amazing dessert pies. They basically have any kind of pie you could ever want.
It took me a good five minutes to choose which to get, they all looked so good!
I don't remember the exact kind I got, but all you need to know is that it had raspberries and chocolate.
Guaranteed deliciousness.
I ate every single bite.
Unfortunately Meagan and I were in a bit of a hurry so I didn't get too many great shots, but here are a few to give you an idea of the feel of it!
I will definitely be going back.
I mean, let's be honest, who doesn't love pie?


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You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter
See more posts on Richmond eateries here. 


Tomorrow Is A New Day

Via my instagram

My stars.
I've been so busy lately!
I currently have ten folders of photos awaiting editing on my desktop. 
Ten.
I also have quite a few Etsy shop orders to fill for next week, as well as various other usual daily and weekly to do list things.
Not to mention Valentine's Day to get ready for! 
I love Valentine's Day.
Always have, ever since I was a little girl.
Anyway...
I've been busy.
But I'm in pretty high spirits.
Things are going really well and I've definitely been blessed with an abundance of work!
Hopefully I can just keep up the motivation to get things done.
I leave you with a little inspirational quote, something I'm trying to keep in mind over the next few days.
Especially since I won't have much of a weekend, what with all the work to catch up on. 
But that's ok. 
Cause I get to do what I love.


"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

 Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as 

you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too 

high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense ” 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson



I Guess I Like Taking Pictures


This (making silly collages) is pretty much what I do when I should be doing more important things.....
Side note: Thanks to everyone who ever creeped on me and made this collage possible.

Happy Thursday!

P.s. Don't forget about the giveaway going on!

P.p.s. Reached 700 followers last night.... what????
(I know I do this every time I reach a new 100 mark but I still just can't believe it...)

A Good Yarn

Photo Cred: Jackie Kelly
During my trip to Scotland last year


Disclaimer: If you are not a knitter you will probably not understand the majority of this post.
However, you will probably think it's hilarious and ridiculous that I would go to this extent to write this much about knitting.
If you are a knitter you will probably sympathize with me on a lot of this.
Or maybe you are a knitter but you'll still be with the other lot and think I'm ridiculous.
To each his own.
Read on at your own risk.

Side note: My punctuation and skills at writing long chunks of text are not the greatest so excuse the foreseeable/excessive amounts of run on sentences.

Whenever I read one of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books (for those of you who don't know, she writes hilarious essays about knitting. She has like eight books. I've read them all. Multiple times. Fangirl status over here), I always think in knitting terms and scenarios a little bit more than usual.

Granted, I think like that a lot. 
Being the avid knitter that I am (except in August. When it's too beastly hot to think of anything yarn related, I don't care if it's cotton). 
However her stories and anecdotes always turn the gears in the knitting side of my brain (which is a rather large part I have to say) a little faster. 
And so I was thinking today about yarn. Glorious yarn. I've spent more money in yarn stores than most people spend on a normal shopping trip. Ok, maybe not quite, but pretty darn close.
I remember telling a friend once, a few years ago,  how much I spent at one of my local yarn shops (which there are a scant number of, they all keep going out of business, it's extremely depressing) and she didn't believe me.
The words "You spent THAT much on YARN?!" were possibly used, several or more times.

I actually wrote about it in this post over a year ago. 
(Note: that whole thing about not knitting in movie theaters? Totally out the window now.)

But anyway, today I was thinking about the various types of yarn you can acquire.
In my mind, there are two different categories:
There's craft store yarn and then there's yarn store yarn.

Craft store yarn is like buying clothes at Forever 21.
They're cute, they're cheap, but they don't last very long and after a while your dress gets a little pilly and discolored after a few washes.
Granted, you can find a pretty good dress if you shell out a few extra bucks, but overall the quality isn't the greatest.

Yarn store yarn is like buying clothes at Anthropologie.
They're not cute, they're gorgeous, and as soon as you walk in you just feel this overwhelming sense of peace and wonder at the beauty that lays before you.
Until you check a price tag.
However if you do decide to splurge, you know that that dress will last you for ages and ages, if not the rest of your life, and it won't go pilly on you and the sleeve won't rip off on your third wearing of it.

That's how I see it anyway.
Don't get me wrong, some of the stuff you can buy at your local craft store isn't bad. I like most of Lion Brand's yarn, and Paton's and Bernat make some good stuff too.
But the stuff you get at the yarn store is the good stuff. 
Noro, Rowan, Malabrigo, Koigu, Manos Del Uruguay... the list goes on and on with even more obscure names that you're not quite sure how to pronounce but represent beautiful skeins of soft, colorful and glorious potential knitted goodness.
However I cannot afford to buy a $25 skein of Cascade 220's Magnum every time I want to knit up a new cowl (and that's not even the really good stuff).

So most of the time, it's craft store yarn.

But every so often I splurge on something or pull out that beautiful skein of cream colored handspun Adrienne Vittadini that I've been keeping in the stash for two years and knit up a new hat.

People ask me how I don't get tired of knitting and I'm honestly not sure. 
Because I really don't.
I think I've just come to the conclusion that knitting is in my blood. 
I've been doing it for the past 13 years so if I'm not tired of it now I never will be. 

How about you guys, do you knit? 
Can you sympathize at all with what I'm saying?
Or am I just a future Crazy Cat Lady to you...

I feel like most of my readers aren't knitters since I don't write about knitting all that often, but maybe I'm wrong?


Cheyenne

This is definitely one of my favorite photoshoots to date.
Cheyenne is such a gorgeous girl.
She has such a fun and carefree spirit and a beautiful and infectious smile, she was so much fun to shoot with!
Not to mention she's basically the definition of a natural beauty.
I mean hello, look at those pretty freckles!
We had a lot of fun with this location and concept.
So much fun that there are entirely too many photos for one post actually, so there will be another one soon! Make sure you check back for them next week.
Until then, enjoy the first set and let me know which one is your favorite!

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Check out more photos here.
Interested in getting some portraits of your own done?

Email me for more info: by.leney@gmail.com

Check back soon for part 2!

Already Are


Over the weekend I realized something.

 It's not that I like making people look pretty.
I like helping them realize that they already are.

 I love taking photos of people. 
For many reasons.
One of which is because I find confidence in it, but also because I love helping others find confidence in themselves too.
I love capturing moments.
Candid moments, posed moments, spontaneous moments.
All of them.
There's just something about the feeling you get when you capture something just the way you see it in your head or with your eyes. It's like you're freezing a perfect moment that will never happen again. 
It prevents the memory of that moment from potentially running away and being lost.

 Dorothea Lange once said:
 "The Camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

 And I think that's true too.
In the years that I've seriously pursued photography, I feel like I have become more observant.
I notice the unnoticeable.
I look at the overlooked.
I see the unseen.
And that has to do with people too.
Helping them see that they really are beautiful.
That their quirks and unique laughs and silly expressions are the things that make them them.
Sometimes those things aren't always noticed, and I like making them noticeable.
Of course I'm not an expert at this by any means, and I'm definitely still learning how to capture the essence of what makes each and every person beautiful, it's a process.
But it's one that I'm very much in love with.
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This photo is from a recent shoot I did with my friend Cheyenne. 
I think she's what they call a natural beauty.
Don't you think?
I'll be sharing more photos of her soon!