first cookout + photo challenge winner

summer is here. we had our first watermelon last week and I went to the first cookout of the year!!

// hamburgers // marshmallows // watermelon //

// chips // flowers // campfires // picnic ants // smoothies // sunshine

AND: I am so excited to announce the winner of the photo challenge :

Kyla!! 

congrats, girl! your photo was amazing!!

favorites of a quote junky

{photo by yours truly}

“I've loved you ever since the day you broke your slate over my head”  -Gilbert Blythe

 "It left us speechless, quite speechless I tell you, and we have not stopped talking of it since."

 -Miss Bates (from Emma, 2009)

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads only lives one." 

-George RR.R.  Martin

"You cannot love a fellow creature fully until you love God." -C.S.Lewis

‎"Don't you say you don't have any time, you have the same number of hours per day that were given 
to Helen Keller, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." 

-H. Jackson Brown  {and each day comes with 86,400 seconds}

“That's the worst of girls," said Edmund to Peter and the Dwarf. "They never can carry a map in their heads." 

"That's because our heads have something inside them," said Lucy.” 

 -C.S. Lewis


"Our fingerprints never fade from the lives we've touched."
-Robert Pattinson

"Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
-Mark Twain


"Enjoy every single moment. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the inspiring, the not-so-glamorous moments and thank God through it all."
-Meghan Matt


"Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose."
-C.S. Lewis


"There is nothing like staying home for real comfort."
-Jane Austen

Got a favorite?

photo challenge finalists

it's time its time! here are the entries for the photo challenge. 

these were beautiful, and I loved each one!! ♥

 carli nicole

I love the bright colors and the focus on the raindrops is amazing!

kelsey

this photo just makes me happy! :) I love swinging, the colors are beautiful.

kyla

when I first saw this photo, I sat and stared for 2 minutes. this photo belongs on a postcard!! the shadows are so perfect and the exposure is amazing.

jemimah c.

I love the textures of the petals and the yellow and white look beautiful!

so, there they are!! you can vote for your favorite on the sidebar ------>

and speaking of photo challenges...... I am entering into this one ;)

my sister! :)

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breakfast on a rainy day

(all photos are SOOC - straight out of camera)

i woke up this morning to the pitter-patter of the rain falling outside my window. i adore rainy days. i like them better than sunny days. there is something about rain that just makes me happy. 

i just can't get enough. they are just so perfect. as i made my breakfast, the natural light in the kitchen was so delightful. so I made my breakfast into a photo shoot.

rainy days = the best natural light ever!

hot green tea // photography // blankets // school // books // writing // journals // dreams // blogging // fuzzy socks // sweaters // listening to the rain // coffee // soundtracks // books //

what is your favorite type of day?

p.s. don't forget to enter in my photo challenge! it ends on the 10th

p.p.s. is my chevron background repeating it's self?

a photographer's heart

  sometimes, I get this urge inside to capture life. I want to capture the way the sun slips behind our rugged   Rockies, I want to capture the looks in people's eyes, I want to capture all of life's lovely and bottle them   up for a rainy day. I want to capture the pain behind people's smiles. I want to capture the raindrops on a  spring day. I want to capture the tiny fingers and toes of a newborn baby. I want to capture the love in a mother and father's eyes. I want to capture all the goodbyes, and all the hellos. I want to be able to capture the silent feelings, people's passions, and the moods. I want to capture the way people laugh, love, and live. I want to capture the shared smiles, the love in peoples eyes. I want to capture the life in a child, I want to capture the things said, the things done. I want to capture the beauty in each flower, each little bud, each snowflake or raindrop.

 I want to capture life.

  A couple of weeks ago, I was having some quiet time at a friend's house. I climbed up some large rocks and sat on the top, writing in my journal, and watching the sun set.

 Their cat was curled in my lap, and I was listening to my siblings jump on the trampoline. Hearing all their laughter, squeals, and pure joy just made me want to capture life. I want to be able to grab a memory and keep it forever.  I want to make a difference.

That is why I want to be a photographer, that is my passion. 

p.s. I guest posted over at magnificent obsession today!