Autumn Walking

She greets me

Warm hues against crisp air

Fallen leaves, crunching

Scattered beneath 

Boots stepping, geese waddling

Autumn finds me here

She greets me

With still ponds 

Soon turning icy

Snowfalls melting, not too quickly

Aspens fluttering, elk bucking

Autumn finds me here

She greets me

Where harvest's ending

While life's shifting

Flannel's warming and pie is baking

Full moon's glowing 

With barn doors swaying

She greets me

As Autmn's walking here 

photo via tumblr

Meet Megan of Crazybananas

The first time I came across Crazybananas, Megan boldy wrote about her ups and downs with a bright red lip. I just loved this post. What struck me was Megan's transparency, along with her witty writing style. So I kept coming back for more. And the more I came back, the more I just loved knowing Megan. Her photographs, artsy eye, youthful yet mothering heart, and the way she sees the world is refreshing. A true lifestyle blogger, she writes about everything from the daily bedtime stories with her kids, unexpected adventures, room redos, and relationships. And she's been doing it since 2004. Way to be (this is where we applaud Megan for not giving into the comparison trap, pursuing her creative space despite what life throws her way, and sticking something through). I can only hope in ten years that my blog is as bold and transparent a place as Megan has created hers to be.

Meet Megan:

Megan has a great life, one she tends to enjoy sharing with all of her very close personal friends on the Internet. Her personal lifestyle blog, Crazybananas, has been around since 2004. Megan is "Mama" to a seven-year-old who believes fairies are real (of course they are!) and a two-year-old who believes he is a dinosaur (the jury is still out). Her life is quite glamorous, as you can probably imagine. Her blog is a place where she write about things she likes and people she loves. Her favorite things include (but are not limited to) photography, personal style, good music, Doctor Who, the color orange, YA novels and Britney Spears. She went to Space Camp as a kid and she's proud to say it is the best place in the whole world. She is not easily embarrassed. Megan is based in Kansas City with her husband and kids, and spends her free time pursuing her love of photography, art, balance and all around happiness. 

One of Megan's Favorite Posts: I'm a Quitter 

Megan is so fun. You should find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! (PS, Isn't her family just gorgeous?!)

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In this mini-series you'll get to meet the ladies behind a few of my favorite blogs, and hopefully spend some time exploring their creative spaces, reading their inspiring words, and feeling like you just sat down for coffee with a dear friend. You can read more about the features here. And catch up on past MEET features like Anne's here and Christina's here.

Reality and Dreamers

What C.S. Lewis says about reality couldn't be more true. But you know what caught my attention? Do you not agree that dreams can be odd, not as obvious, not at all what we expect, and a bit messy as well? I think to take it even further would be to say, that dreams and reality aren't that far from each other. And that we need to allow them to meet more than we do, allow ourselves to let them, because I think that's when the magic happens. That's when God shows up, or we see Him more--when we let go and allow the messy and complicated reality meet the odd dreams that are on our hearts--those dreams that we can't control. What would happen if those dreams, and reality, did intertwine? How would our world look different? Would the logical dream more? Would the dreamer see potential in the real?

Venturing West (Disclaimer: This One Wanders)

Almost a month ago now, we ventured West. We packed up the car, stuffed Shelby in the backseat, intentionally planned out our music for the 17 hour drive ahead, and mapped out our camp site. Everyday, I plan to write about this trip. Everyday, I plan to get away and reflect on our adventure--finally putting the story in words. Yet, I can never get to it. I have yet to even upload all the photos from the scenic stops where we stood jaws dropped, astounded by our country's beauty--and with the week I've had, I could probably use a little reminder of creation and its majesty.

But life is a little bit jam packed right now. 

And although I'd love it to be, blogging is not my full time job; and writing, editing, and doing both well are on pause for a moment. You see, I decided a while ago that it is better, for me as a writer, to wait for that time I can really get away and focus on whatever creative part of the process it is rather than rush and post something for the sake of having daily content. And my desire is that, as readers, you are okay with that. So, California, and the stories, the camping, the photographic journey--all of that is waiting patiently for the afternoon or moment that I can escape and put pen to paper, fingers to editing tools, and mind to blogging. 

Meet Anne of Anne the Adventurer

You might find yourself curled up on the couch reading their love story, as if it were the latest romance page turner. Or you may begin by perusing her weekend style, and love for lettering, prints, and design. And maybe you'll spend a Saturday morning catching upon her Love Yourself series, filling yourself on warm tea and kind words. But perhaps most of all, when you come across Anne's blog, you will find yourself coming back more, and more, and more...beacuse she writes her life like a story. She shows her brave moments, her joyful times, and the ones where she feels at rock bottom. She values community, one that is authentic--and you will soon feel a part of it. You'll come back for more because Anne is relatable. She is real. And she is a darn good writer. 

Meet Christina of Tide and Bloom

It was through Anne's Tuesday Love Yourself Linkup that I cam across Tide and bloom. Christina had been writing about her decision to pursue art as a career, something that went against the grain in her world, and this immediately caught my heart's attention as I myself was going through "against the grain" notions in my own career path. Since first meandering over to Christina's space, I have loved getting to see bits from her sketch book (i.e.. here, and this one here), continuing to hear about the journey in finding herself as an artist and individual, and reading the lovely features she does of other creatives. To top it off, she is so humble and sweet, real and honest, and builds community within her blog.

Meet Christina:

 "At the core of my being, I am an artist. I’ve always had the inexplicable urge to create things and art class was hands-down my favorite part of school at every stage in my life. Now that I’m older and maybe just a tad wiser, I realized that this is never going to go away because I always come back to beauty. It’s what I want more than anything, in everything I do. So instead of trying to fit myself into the professional career box, I decided to accept my fate and pursue it with all the dedication that I would give to any other opportunity."

About Tide and Bloom: 

"Beginning this blog went hand in hand with the decision to get back into making artwork. The words “tide” and “bloom” made sense to me as a description for the constant ebb, flow, and growth we all experience in our day-to-day lives. It is this push, this instinctual desire to move forward, that has brought me here. Tide & bloom is a space to share and inspire creativity, in all forms that reveal themselves to me and you. I’m most inspired by natural wonders, culinary delights, thoughtful films, charming abodes, and of course other creative individuals. It’s my hope that reading this will be like reading letters from a dear friend or colleague and that it might motivate you to seek beauty in your own life and pursue the dreams you didn’t think possible."

Noteworthy Pieces:

Dear Me

The Value of Your Work

Chocolate Fixes Everything

Your Invited

Creative Matters

photos via Tide & Bloom

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In this mini-series you'll get to meet the ladies behind a few of my favorite blogs, and hopefully spend some time exploring their creative spaces, reading their inspiring words, and feeling like you just sat down for coffee with a dear friend. You can read more about the features here.

Meet | A Blogger Feature {mini-series}

One aspect about writing and blogging alike, is that your path crosses with other talented individuals whose writing and work impact you just so, that you keep going back for more. Whether you go back to their blog to be wowed by their latest project or to continue along their story, every reader has their niche. When I first started venturing into the world of html and Blogspot endeavors, I would often find myself scrolling through design spaces, do it yourself havens, and fashion sites--and fell in love with all things "design" when it came to blogging. But as I have matured as a blogger and writer over this past year, what I continue to find is myself being drawn into the creative spaces of those individuals whose writing has so much more depth. A depth that is authentic, real, and honest. A blog space that makes me come back to read more because they are true to themselves, true to tell their unique story, and all very much their own. 

Without truly knowing the full extent of it, the blog spaces that I visit influence my very own writing and creative ventures. So perhaps I owe a thank you to these ladies! As a blogger, I want to surround myself with other writers who take pen to paper, or fingers to keystroke, about those things that lift up, inspire, and cause others to search for something deeper within themselves--just as I want to do the same with a community of friends in all aspects of life. How thankful I am to have that when I visit these blogs: 

Anne The Adventurer

Crazy Bananas

The Lipstick Gospel

Thoughts By Natalie

Tide and Bloom

Sand in My Toes

Over the next few weeks, I want you to meet these ladies. The ones who make me want to read more of their story, see more of their style, and hear more of their honest and true words. Its funny, because I hardly know them from in person interactions, but I feel like I know so much about who they are from what they've been open to write about. So I hope you'll take the time to meet them, explore their space, and read a few of my favorite pieces of theirs. Get excited!

Sunday is.

A metaphor for your Sunday, and mine too. Here's to the binding up of the week. And tomorrow, Monday oh Monday, the start of a new volume. Fresh. Blank pages. Ready to be filled. What will be written on yours?

Photo via Pinterest with graphics added by me.

Wander Over

Friends. After a day at the airport waiting for our delayed flight yesterday, then making it home safely, I was up all night with foods poisoning. Ugh. So, I'm playing hooky from the blog today and sending you elsewhere to read some pieces by other bloggers and writers from over the past few weeks. Wander over and enjoy their talent.

// Anne Taylor, who hosts the Love Yourself Linkup each week, has this way of being transparent and real even amidst struggles and recovery. She is so brave to write about the inner workings of her spirit. Read her article on Prodigal Magazine, It's Too Bad I'm Fat, here.

// This darling pin cushion diy over at Poppy Haus totally caught my eye. 

// Stephanie May doesn't seem to miss how the simplest things are the most beautiful in life. Read more of the Loveliest Things here and explore her writing collection over at The Lipstick Gospel.

// This  small bloom by Christina Kwan is just so pretty.

// I just love how my friend Natalie is styling her summer outfits lately. Like shorts and tops, layered necklaces, and Sseko sandals. And how refreshing is it to see modesty meet fashion and brands that empower women.

// Ashlee Chu reminds us that we need to embrace our beauty in this piece over at All Things Beautiful. After I read the article, I left asking myself the question, "Am I resting in the beauty I was created with?" Such a sweet sweet reminder that I am beautiful, and you are beautiful.

// Have you met Allie? She has two videos up on her blog I just loved watching today. One, a flower crown tutorial, the other, a lovely little inspiration video with lace, a vintage trailer, and dainty details. 

What squeezes out of your life? | Love Yourself Linkup

What do I live passionately about, would do anything for, and over anything else am consumed by? 

These are the questions camping out in my thoughts this week. The words I've been thinking about, intensely. And certainly, this is something I've reflected on a lot during my walk as a Christian -- but an important note is that these questions, Jesus lover or not, are ones that everyone should ask themselves. And not just ask once and answer plainly. But ask often enough and answer completely, because daily we can stray away and stop giving the answers that we truly want to live by--getting swept up into a life that is void of living passionately about what truly matters and void of those things we should be consumed by--all easily taken over by placeholders and things lacking depth and meaning. 

These are life giving questions. These are self defining questions. These are soul searching, breathe taking, stop you in your tracks questions when you ask them honestly and are vulnerable to answer. 

When asking myself a few days ago, my response was full of answers that look pretty on paper, a list of things that I am truly passionate about and living my life for. All wonderful things, and true. But then I realized in the days following that my rolling out of bed thoughts, my walking around the city thoughts, and my at home after work thoughts were all consumed by an agenda that I made for myself: preplanned writing topics, self focused ideas, an inability to be in the moment, exercise, with no room to stray away. Not to say I cannot ever think about my to-do list, what I want to write about, or thoughts of self-awareness -- but to have these be the things that I am consumed by and think about first thing over everything else? That type of realization is gut wrenching when you have it - -and that realization, I had (and am still).

I have this image in my mind of someone coming up to me, hugging so tightly, with me wrapped up in their arms, that the things I am consumed by squeeze out. Right onto them. What is it that squeezes out? I know in a literal sense, this would never happen. Things don't just squeeze out of us onto others. But what we live passionately about, would do anything for, and over anything else are consumed by -- this completely one hundred percent drives our actions and our thoughts. This is what directs our day and our "in the moments". This is what squeezes out. And the person who says otherwise, I still have yet to meet.

So when you ask yourself  What am I consumed by? What do I live passionately about? What would I do anything for? Are you stopped in your tracks because you are blown away by the affects of intentional living? Or are you stopped in your tracks because you're realizing that your answers are not the ones you want to hear? 

I challenge you, in the process of loving yourself, to reflect on what it is that consumes your thoughts. What is it that you are (or are not) living passionately for? What do you want your answers to be -- and if they are not how you want your life, your day to day, and your outpouring to look like -- why not change that, right now?

photo via Pinterest

Stuck | Love Yourself Linkup

Can I be honest with you? I am stuck when it comes to writing this week on the matters of self worth, body image, and inner beauty. I had the words to write about life simplified, but the thoughts are not completely ripe. I wanted to write more about where I am at with my anxiety, but I am still in the middle of that too. I started to write about moving past disappointment and  how realistic expectations set you up for loving yourself, and your life, more --but my page on the topic? Still blank. And I really wanted to write about how I am learning to be truer to myself, and more caring toward myself, but those words, well--not ready to be picked, still needing time to grow. 

I've been trying to write for the Love Yourself Linkup for two days. And it has been a pattern of typing a paragraph, deleting a paragraph, typing, and deleting. Then repeat that a few more times. You see, I'm stuck.

To write the way I write best, solitude is essential. I can hardly hear myself clearly when I am surrounded by the things that I let myself get distracted by. Key phrase--let myself. I write best when I leave my house, take my computer or journal, and just go sit awhile. In the busiest coffee shop, I can find more solitude than in the quiet of my home at times. Can you relate? That has been me this week: Lacking solitude, even in the quiet and still that our home provides. And getting distracted --by everything.

Perhaps to love myself better, I need to extend more grace and be okay with not having my thoughts spilled out "on paper" or pieced together "on time". I need to love myself even when I'm stuck, distracted, or lacking the words.

The place I have found the most clarity this week has been in the pool. And while not much writing happens while swimming, ripening of thoughts and an intrinsic fulfillment so essential to reflection happens for me there. So, while I don't have much to write today for the Love Yourself Linkup, I wanted to share the quote that has lingered in my mind, over and over, while swimming this week.

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."--Mark Twain

Here's to extending grace. Because I need to do it more often. Here's to being distracted. Since it seems to be my jam these days. Here's to the growing and ripening of thoughts. And the part where we wait and may lack words to fruition. Here's to the process of finding out why. Why we are born, what we are meant to do, and loving ourselves to the core while doing it. Loving ourselves, because we are worth every bit of it.

photo via 

Writing Over at Darling Magazine

An article I wrote for Darling Magazine was up this past weekend. And I have to say, the process of writing on a specific topic can teach you so much! Unlike past articles I've written--on friendships, travel, projects I've done--this one stretched me to really dig deep and research a topic that I only knew from the surface. I can now say, I feel well equipped to take on even the toughest laundering task. Thanks to tips from women in my life, and a bit of old fashioned book research, I was able to put together The Art of Laundering. You can scroll down and read it in full, and see the original article over at Darling Magazine online.

You are out shopping with your best friend and you've just found the most beautiful piece of clothing to add to your wardrobe. Its versatile and completely you.The fabric on your skin, the color hue against your complexion, and the fit—as if it was made for you, ready to be off the rack and worn out the door. As you hold the textile up and see your reflection in the mirror, you hesitantly reach for the tag near the neckline. Three words stare back at you: dry clean only. Oh how three words so delicately printed and hidden in a garment can stifle the shopper in her tracks! And how quickly your decision to purchase the piece is swayed. All due to laundering.

One Year.

A year ago today, we were living in Burbank, California with the future ahead unknown and wide open. Soon we would be leaving towards the Rockies to deepen our roots in a new place we would call home. A year ago today, the first post to ever grace this little blog was written and published. Here are a few words of that very first post, "A blog for the reader who wants to feel lovely. Revisit soon for new posts on topics such as classic beauty, home design, artsy hobbies, riding bikes, picking daisies, simple cooking, thoughts on faith, music, fashion and accessorizing, and other tidbits related to the endless adventures being a girl."

It is amazing to see how God works. How He plants a seed in your heart and sees it to fruition. PPP has been a catalyst for my self discovery, a stepping block to my passion for writing, and an outlet for my love with design and aesthetic. Its growth reflects mine, in a sense. And I just love that. As far as writing on the endless adventures of being a girl, and for the reader who wants to feel lovely, I have been blessed to be a contributor for Darling Magazine. The opportunity to write alongside other women who live out true beauty--I couldn't have asked for anything more fulfilling. Who would have thought that when I wrote the very first post a year ago, that today I'd be sitting here today seeing that seed planted actualized in my life. And still ever blooming, with still so much growth ahead, how so excited I get thinking about that.

Anyways, happy birthday pearls poppies pinkies up--and so much love and thankfulness for the friends & readers of this little blog from the very beginning!

On books and taking time.

To be a better writer, thinker, and leader, reading is simply essential. A goal of mine is to read all of the books that sit on my bookshelf that have either been half read or untouched since the day they arrived in my home, by next year. And yes, if I am completely honest, there are a lot that stack up in this category. This goal has come and gone and come back again, but this time I am taking it seriously.  Life in the past has seemed to steal away moments where I could curl up with a good book. Lack of discipline and complacency have been the culprit more often than not. How am I not going to let this happen anymore?-- always have a book with me. There are so many little moments throughout the day where I could sit and read while waiting for whatever it is I'm waiting for. Reading turns on my creative gears and brings out the best person in me. Just like water and exercise, reading is a key ingredient to life. Is it funny that I get excited about setting aside a full hour to just read tomorrow morning? What are your thoughts on books and taking time to be still and just read?

Thanksgiving with a side of DIY.

Hi friends! I know I said I wouldn't be on here until Spring, BUT had to let you know of the Fallen Leaves Wreath over at Darling Magazine that I contributed. You can read the article in full under The Hostess--over here. (You may remember my inspiration for the wreath HERE). In less than five hours I am on a plane headed straight West. California here I come! I have not been back to see my friends and family since before this blog was even created...crazy, right? It is way past due. I hope you enjoy your time giving thanks with loved ones!

Bon Voyage for Winter.

photo source

We are enjoying the last stretch of warm days before the snow arrives. Luckily, cold days in Denver are still paired with sunshine-- and that I am thankful for. You may have noticed my lack of new material on the blog over the past month. Part of that lack is due to my need to get outdoors, be with Matt, and spend time cultivating friendships. Another part of that is related to my heart-- the layers beneath, and seeking the Lord. Just as there is summer, fall, winter and spring, there are also seasons in life. Currently, I am going through a season of needing to simplify and step back from a few things. One of those things being Pearls Poppies Pinkies Up.  So as I am signing off for a bit, know this isn't goodbye, its only just see you in a little while.

You can still catch me writing and sharing projects over at Darling Magazine. I am excited to say that I will be contributing on a more regular basis under The Hostess, so definitely be checking in to read what myself and other women are writing about--over here.

xo,

Lauren