He Will Quiet You With His Love

Shot with 35mm film/Minolta x-700

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. 
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing" 
-Zephaniah 3:17

I read the above verse this morning during devotions and it just really hit me.
How amazing and perfect God's love is.
It's overwhelming sometimes.
He loves us so much.
His love is so great and so vast that it can calm even the most drastic and extreme fears.
His love can reassure and comfort us like nothing else can.
What an incredible thing that is.
I'm letting His love quiet me today.
Letting it envelop me and embrace me and cover me completely.
You'd think it'd be a suffocating sort of thing. 
A love that big.
But it's one of the most, if not the most, freeing things in existence.


Blog Design Giveaway With The 25th Hour


I'm super excited to share this giveaway with you all today!
Up for one lucky reader is a free blog design package (a $150 value) from Melissa of The 25th Hour!

Melissa recently launched MAV Designs, where she offers graphic design and photography services. You can browse her portfolio website or check out her lifestyle blog, The 25th Hour.

This girl is fabulous. I'm speaking from personal experience here. She's featured me on her blog, as well as bought a few of my knits, she's used her design skills to help me tweak a few things here and there on my own blog, as well as make those cute tabs on my Facebook page!
She's so super talented and such a pleasure to work with. 
Again, I'm speaking from personal experience.
She's the bees knees. :)
Read on for how you can enter to win!


* Blog design giveaway*
Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry...

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Remember, the more entries the more chances you have of winning!
Giveaway ends June 4th at 12am EST

*Winner will receive the Sweetheart Blog Design Package valued at $150*

Check back to this post next, next Tuesday to see if you've won!
Good luck everyone!


Routines

Shot with 35mm film/Minolta x-700

I've become somewhat of a morning person this past month or so.
There's something rather lovely about waking up and getting your day started when the sun is getting started too.
It also has to do with the feelings of this quote.
Coffee has also become quite a routinely thing for me in the mornings as well.
I don't even think it's really the aspect of "I have to have it or I will be a zombie for the rest of the day", because honestly I'm quite fine without it (then again maybe I'm just not addicted yet). 
But I like the routine of it. 
The act of going downstairs, heating up a cup of it and walking back upstairs with it to do devotions and check email and get my day started.
It's nice to have little routines sometimes.
It gives you a starting point for things.
A point at which you can know how things are going to turn out afterwards and plan accordingly from there.
Granted we should always hold our routines loosely and remain flexible, because there will inevitably be unforeseeable changes and interruptions at times, but I think it's okay to have them still.
Just so long as they don't become the end all be all for us.



Life According To Instagram

This week I...

-Posted a second Fashion Friday's post!
-Finished reading The Sun Also Rises. Loved it. So happy to be reading on a regular basis again.
-Introduced a new feature called Things I Love Thursday
-Had a fun travel themed shoot with a pretty beautiful gal. Photos coming soon!
-Went to THE BEACH. Oh it was glorious. A very needed little getaway from work and busyness.
-Shared some photos of a recent out of town adventure
-Talked about some just givens
-Found some photos from a favorite rainy day



Follow me on Instagram at @agirlnamedleney

Forgotten Places

These photos were taken a little over a month ago while location scouting for this engagement session.
Kourtney has shown up on the blog before, and I always love photographing her because (once you see the photos you won't need to take my word for it) she's gorgeous.
Not to mention one of my dearest friends.
I'm not biased about her beauty though.
Promise.
I loved this little abandoned house we found. 
We didn't end up using it for the engagement session, but it made for a perfect spot for an impromptu mini shoot.
Forgotten places are often just right for that sort of thing.
It almost brings a little remembrance and beauty back to them.
And I like that.


See?
I told you she was beautiful.


Fashion Friday's: Second Shooting

Hurray!
Finally another Fashion Friday's post.
This was an outfit I wore while second shooting a wedding with Meagan last week.
General rule of thumb when shooting a wedding: Always wear something with pockets.
There's always a rushed moment where you have to have another memory card, battery, or stick a lens cap or business cards somewhere. And it's hard to have your camera bag on you 24/7.
Second rule of thumb: Wear comfy shoes.
When shooting a wedding you are pretty much on your feet from morning until late at night. It's a long day. A fun and super exciting day, but still long!
So you want your feet to not hate you afterwards.
Especially because you will inevitably start dancing along to Thrift Shop during the reception.
You know, at some point.
It's just a given.



Outfit details
Skirt- Vintage (used to be my Aunts when she was my age actually!)
Belt- Vintage (thanks Mom)
ShirtPrimark
Shoes- Thrifted and given to me by my pen pal  (Thanks Alex!)
Watch: Michael Kors
Sunglasses: Asos
Striped Bag: Baggu
Brown Camera Bag: Vintage via Etsy

All photos by Meagan Abell


Things I Love Thursday


What's with all these series?
You might be thinking.
Well, as a photographer/Etsy shop owner my days are mostly filled with taking photos, editing photos, buying supplies, marketing, trying to do math, emailing, driving, sewing, knitting, making other artsy things and all around general craziness that goes along with all of that.
Which leaves not as much time for blogging as I would like.
And since I always have more ideas than time to actually implement them, I thought having a series/feature, a regular routine of some various posts, would help me during my busier weeks, so I at least know I'll have one or two posts scheduled as opposed to being radio silent over here. 
And hopefully you'll enjoy them too of course!

This series is one that, similar to Fashion Friday's, I've been thinking about for a while. 
I think it all started when I was doing some cleaning out in the fall and I came across various treasured things of mine that, as silly and unimportant as they may look to the average Joe, actually mean quite a lot to me.
For instance, the colorful lion piggy bank that used to be my Mom's when she was a little girl, the collection of hand sewn felt Winnie The Pooh characters I made when I was 8, the miniature peter rabbit tea set that my grandmother bought me when I was little, or that necklace my best friend made me in high school which I really probably wouldn't wear now but I love so very much.

I love the stories the things we own tell.

They seem insignificant to most, but to us they hold cherished memories, stories from the past or of the future, and a seemingly unimportant knick knack can be oh so much more.

And while I was cleaning things out I realized this.
It also made me realize what things I really valued and meant a lot to me and helped me realize what I needed to keep and what I really didn't. 
It's not so much that I'm putting too much value in the things of this world, and owning stuff, but it's more that I appreciate more the things I do have.
Because I really have been blessed with so much.
And if showing you a few photos of some of my cherished belongings/junk each week helps remind me of that and prevents me from buying less junk when I go thrifting, well gosh darn I'm going to do it.
Because that's partially why I started this blog in the first place.
To be reminded of the little things in life that make me happy and that even when there's seemingly nothing to be happy about or thankful for, there really always is.
You just have to look harder sometimes.

So, starting next week I will be introducing...


I'm pretty excited about it.

Urbanna

A few weeks ago Meagan and I took a roadtrip to Urbanna.
Adventures with this lady are always the grandest.
We usually end up belting out soulful ballads at the top of our lungs in the car (Sometimes actual songs, sometimes made up songs. All completely in tune of course) eating Chickfila at least once, exploring abandoned houses and of course documenting everything with our cameras/iPhones all while pretending to be models.
My kind of outing.
Here are a few photos from the day.
Also be sure to see Meagan's gorgeous post from our trip as well!
P.s. I know. Meagan is stunning. I can't get over it either.


Just Givens


Photo Cred: Meagan Abell

There are some things that are just givens.

Like listening to Norah Jones on a rainy day
Or going to the dollar store before you go to a movie to load up on as much junk food as possible
Or if you can't sleep you listen to the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack
Or if you wake up at dawn you listen to the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack
Or that you drive with the windows down as frequently as possible, good hair day aside
Or when you're reading a story to little kids, you obviously have to have different voices for all of the characters
Or if you pass a field of dandelions you have to pick at least one and make a wish
Or when a Taylor Swift song comes on the radio, you turn it up and sing along at the top of your lungs, because let's be real, everyone does it regardless what they think of her
Or when you take a photo with your film camera you always look at the back of it to see the photo, forgetting for a split second you're not shooting digital
Or going for a walk barefoot because it's warm enough to
Or getting sand in the books you bring to the beach but being okay with it because when you re-read them next fall it will remind you of good times
Or drinking coffee in the morning, even if it's not to wake you up but to just hold something warm
Or telling a stranger you like their dress because they look like they could use someone being nice to them
Or when you're in the middle of nowhere and it's the most gorgeous day you've ever seen, you stop, stand still, close your eyes and just breathe. Because you need to take it in and feel the way you feel right then and there and not forget it