the peonies are here.

My love affair with the peony continues.

Last year, I tried to articulate why they affect me: "These huge heavy bursting blooms are an access point to wonder, to that unwavering truth that spring comes again even when our hearts try to convince us it won't."

This year, I find myself just whispering, "Yes, yes" whenever I walk by them in my new house.

Follow along on my love affair with peonies on IG at #allpeoniesallthetime. 

xoxo,

Liz

the dahlia garden

On Sunday we wandered through the dahlia garden at Point Defiance Park. And as I literally couldn't stop myself from talking out loud to the dahlias about their beauty, I was reminded how much getting out into nature, into the wonder, into the truth that I am one small being in this universe grounds me and helps me come back to center.

May these photos serve as the beginnings of that reminder to you too. Get outside honey. From sitting on a bench in a park near your home or outside your office to taking a walk to even just sitting on your front step and listening to the birds, get outside. Get outside. Get outside.

Yes.

PS If you want an excuse to get outside and take some photos, the prompts in my In This Moment Field Journal might be an awesome fit for you. It's like a mindful photography ecourse. But it comes to your mailbox instead of getting lost in your inbox.

here

Here. A special package that kicks off a new project I'm starting over here inspired by Lori Portka's 100 Thank Yous Project. Getting out of the house using my Action Journals (and Staedtler pens) to kick the overwhelms to the curb. Candlyland (and this week so many rounds of Uno). Huge granny square blanket. Somehow always getting to that place of love and cuddling and just being together by the end of the day. The altar that's beside me as I chat with the ladies in my new one-on-one offering (in the beta testing phase - will be open to anyone in June!). A card that pretty much says it all (sending me a card in the mail is a way straight to my heart). Ellie's favorite evening activity has become these beads by B. Toys. A peek at the current studio altar. And I just keep rounding those corners as I granny away over here in the evenings while watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on Netflix.

Gathering up photos like this is a way to really see evidence of the ways I'm living over here. It helps me to push aside the old stories and the shoulds. And it helps me see the textures and colors and rhythms of our days in this little house. 

In This Moment: Field Journal and Photo Album

 

I'm becoming even more passionate about getting our photos out of our phones and computers and into our hands. Ellie loves to look through my photo albums from my childhood, from when Jon and I were first dating, and from the trips I took before everything went digital. She also loves it when a new set of Instagram photos printed from the various sites I use comes in the mail and she can hold a photo of herself and put her favorites up in her room.

Printed photos are a way for us to hold tangible evidence of our lives in our hands. We can literally hold a piece of our story and then put it someplace to remind ourselves of the feelings, the true stories, of that moment.

And when we pair these photos with words that help us go even deeper into the story, we hit a frequency that helps us feel seen.

I really believe this is why I used to sit in the guest room/office in my childhood home and slowly, repeatedly, flip through the photos from when I was little. I was feeling seen by looking through these pieces of my story. 

That isn't to say that we can't feel seen sharing our photos through Instagram and Facebook. These moments of feeling seen do happen in real ways online. I love Instagram for the connection I feel there. And in the Facebook groups I use for my ecourses, I see real, deep connection happening when stories and photos are shared.

But the connection to the memories, to sharing these moments, can be fleeting online. And when we only share on social media, we sometimes forget to take that important step of feeling seen by ourselves that happens when we interact in more hands on ways with our own photos, with these pieces of our stories.

In This Moment: Field Journal and Photo Album

Helping you capture the beauty and realness of your everyday moments by printing out your photos + pairing them with words to share even more of the story is the reason why I want to get the In This Moment: Field Journal and Photo Album into your hands. It is one way I'm saying: It's time to stop talking about how we want to find ways to tell our stories and start doing it.

This field journal is a beautiful book you can fill with your photos and your words that tell the story of where you are right now. It is your reminder to see and to notice, to root yourself deeply in the beauty of your everyday life (even on the messy, rainy, tough days). The 27 prompts throughout the journal are the prompts I turn to daily, and they give you a place to begin. There are also blanks pages for you to come up with your own prompts and ideas.

In This Moment really is a mindfulness meets photography ecourse that arrives in your mailbox. You can actually hold it in your hands so it doesn't get lost in your inbox.

 

Previously, In This Moment was available only through The Gift of This Moment Home Retreat Kit. But I now have about 100 of them in my studio ready to be sent to you. You can buy it in my shop right here. 

glimpses {2}

oh mango popsicles, i adore you

i couldn't stop myself
(these colors are making there way into the 1993 Collection)

i made an alchemy deck with mindy this month
(it was awesome. more about it soon.)

i took this photo to remind me that:
somewhere between the push and pull, between the gentle sweetness
and the fierce growth, there are pieces of summer.

viv always spots the love (in PDX)

there was so much crazy joy in this moment at WDS

jedi or jawa?

date night. remembering why we moved here 10 years ago.

*****

Over on Instagram, you can find me sharing "the true stories" with glimpses of my world. I still think it is the best social media community out there. And it somehow feels like this really safe space where I can process the real and the beauty and the hard stuff with a circle of kindreds.

If you're on Instagram, come over and say hi. I'd love to connect with you there.