Making pretty
By
I took this photo while I was on my photo shoot with Erin. It’s like the flower was leaning towards me begging me to photograph it.
So I did.
I love it because it’s so phenomenal but also because it makes me think of that perfect spring evening with Erin. Erin has been through some stuff in her life, but she’s also turned it around and is uplifting and amazing. Today is a “worstiversary” of hers. I encourage you to go to her blog and read about it and leave any words of encouragement. You’ll read and your heart will drop and you’ll continue reading and your heart will be lifted again. She truly is amazing.
Know what else is amazing? All of you.
I make almost no money off of this blog, but I do make a little bit. (maybe $70 a month, if you’re wondering) I sometimes get free stuff, I’ve gone to Disney World and I’ve talked to Patrick Dempsey. But the biggest reward from this blog is YOU. Your comments. Your encouragement. When someone tells me “I love your blog” it’s like a little present handed over to me in the most simple, yet beautiful wrapping paper.
You can take away the free stuff and the celebrity conversations and I would be just fine. But take away you? and well, blogging would honestly not be the same.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing your words with me.
Today, I hope, will be better. I’ve decided to paint my office. I picked up cheap paint (which I’m sure I’ll regret later) and I’m going to tackle it.
Pictures to follow.
Unless it looks like crap.
oh good luck! Can’t wait to see the painted results! I would totally paint my office as well, if it wasn’t filled to the brim with junk. It’s just too much effort…
What a beautiful flower.Thanks for sharing. Good luck with your office!
Well, I want you to know that I am so glad I found your blog because I love reading every word of it. You are a talented designer, fabulous photographer (LOVE the new etsy shots!), and all around awesome person! We’ll soon find out what kind of a painter you are, too. LOL Thanks for sharing “you” with all of us!
I loved your blog the second I came here. You are one inspiring and gifted woman and an incredible mama! You are real with your writing and thats what I like most about you.
Gorgeous picture and yes the flower does in fact look as though its leaning in
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Oh, I love that shot – it’s beautiful. Gorgeous yellows. Have fun painting!
Good on ya! Can’t wait to see the results
I need to paint the living room – I’m not looking forward to it at all.
i adore you. your post from yesterday is my life. not all the time. not now. but it is my life. sounds like i wrote it. thank you so very much. i hope today is full of happy for you. much love…
jamie
This photo is beautiful. And I love your blog. Cha-Ching. You just got paid a little more.
That is a beautiful shot!
And if your office looks like crap, still post pictures! If needed, you could wallpaper over it with pictures from your Etsy shop! They’re very uplifting!
You brought the first tears of the day, but Beth, they’re good tears, and I can’t thank you enough for that. I love you so much and all that you’ve been for my life. Sometimes I sit here and realize that I haven’t known you for that long, and it amazes the hell out of me, because I feel like I’ve known you forever. I’m so thankful for you, especially today of all days.
Thank you for sharing YOU with us! You truly are an inspiration, you make me strive to be a better human being!
I love this photo (all of yours are amazing)! I will say it again – you have more talent in your little finger than I have in my whole person!!
I so get what you’re saying. I make no money on my blog and really don’t get anything for free, but the comments (the very few I get) make it all worthwhile. I love the comments.
I love your blog. I get excited when I see that there is a new post in bloglines.
xoxo!
That flower is absolutely gorgeous! Great shot! I just discovered your blog recently and wanted to let you know that I love it so far!
I don’t post comments on blogs often (why is that? why do we still have fear of rejection/not being important even when semi-anonymous?) but I have posted a few on yours. I will pipe up again to say I continue to enjoy your words and your photography. Your spirt. And to thank you for introducing me to Erin. Who is another amazing spirt and another blog I now follow. I will also go post my first comment on her blog today, though I don’t know what to say.
Gorgeous pic! That would look awesome in a print.
I don’t think anything you could do would look like crap.
love the photo.
with going through this divorce I have thought about closing my blog to “private” but you said it exactly, it wouldn’t be the same without all of the wonderful people I’ve met in the blogosphere…and future people I may meet.
Just popping in to say hello, and to let you know (again) how much I do love your blog. You seem like such a sweetie, and I feel bad when your heart hurts.
I think you are so good at finding bright spots when things are gloomy, so I hope you found a bright spot to make you smile.
What a beautiful picture! Thanks for sharing.
Lovely flower.
And I do love your blog. I’m so excited to check it everyday. I’ve never met you but I feel like I have.
Hopping on over to virtually hug Erin.
Thank you for being here. Even your thoughtful posts make me smile. I would miss you too. And your photos always make my day.
You are an amazing woman and photographer. That shot is breathtakingly gorgeous.
Can’t wait to see the office tomorrow!
i don’t always leave comments, but wanted you to know that i love your blog. thanks for being real….sharing about the good and the bad. i hope your week ends on a better note!
Better than Patrick Dempsey? Are you buttering us up for something?!
That flower is amazing. You are amazing.
Steph
Today is my first visit to your blog. I have not had a chance to read of one of your posts from the last how ever many years you’ve been posting I have to admit that I’m going to try. That flower photo is AMAZING. As someone who wishes everyday to be better photographer I always in search of awesome people to inspire me and that picture did. Thanks for sharing. Off to learn all about you:)
Great, another print I am going to have. Hubby is going to kill me at some point. Oh well, I’ll die with lots of pretty pictures in my house. I really truly love your work. You should be very proud. Don’t worry abouot anyone leaving your blog. We are all here forever. At least I am, but I bet everyone else is too. You’re awesome!!
Oh. That flower. I love it! Do you know what kind it is?
You know how special you are? You are just YOU and yet, you touch so many people’s lives every day, including mine, just being the amazing you that you are. Whether it’s photography, or your words, you have this innate ability to just get to the meat and potatoes of this crazy thing we call life, with your own unique perspective, and whether your aim is to make us laugh or cry with you, you achieve it flawlessly and in such a way that makes us addicted to every single friggin’ word.
You know that talk you had with Emily and Andrea at Disney? The one where I sat so quietly, because I had nothing to share myself? You were talking to them, and I didn’t want to intrude (and I felt I was) but unknowingly you were talking into the depths of me, too. I took every word you said and drank it all in until I felt I wanted to burst, and so I walked over to the railing and cried a little. And then a lot later. There aren’t many who can do that, who are that powerful.
Thank you for showing us Erin. I feel like we were kind-of meant to ‘meet’, even if only in bloggyville.
And thank you soverymuch for you.
Is that the same flower you have in your esty shop? I just pulled Hubby into the room to look at the black and white print, gorgeous!
Today is a better day here, so I hope it is there too. Hugs and love!!!
You have an amazing eye! That picture is just beautiful. You got skills! You’re a great photographer and you’re an incredible writer and that’s why I love your blog. So thank YOU for sharing your life with us! Can’t wait to the new office!
Posting a second comment for two reasons:
1. I realized I did not say anything about the lovely picture at the beginning of this post. I adore it! I want to take a picture just like it. It’s beautiful.
2. To point out my own typo from earlier and ask forgiveness. I was typing fast and I had a feeling that I misspelled something. Hit post anyway. See, this is why I don’t comment often. Is there a way to go back and fix it? I tried but it won’t let me delete it. Please don’t let it take away from what I said though, you totally have an amazing spirit…… not spirt. SIGH.
AMAZING photo as are YOU.
Can’t wait to see the pictures of your paint job!!
What a sweet blog post. I will go read about Erin’s worstiversary now.
Oh, and go ahead and eat that second Klondike bar
Oh Beth, all I can say is I love ya! That flower smiled at me when I first saw it. I needed that!
One of the many, many reasons I love reading here so much is that you always tell it like it is. You don’t shy away from saying your paining job might turn out like crap. You don’t sugar coat things, but your telling of your days and your thoughts isn’t ugly or mean or spiteful, either. You speak truth in a beautiful, powerful, uplifting way. That, my dear, is why people always tell you how much they love this blog. People are hungry for a truth that doesn’t blink in the face of pain, and yet tells the story in a way that all can appreciate and relate to.
Blessings on you today, mama. Thanks for sharing your life with us.
That photo is incredible. Do you know what kind of flower it is? I want to put a million of them in my front yard!
You know, one of the things that I love about your blog is that you are so down to earth. When I read, I feel like you’re talking with a couple friends. When I first started reading, I felt like I’d discovered this secret that I wanted to shout to the world. I love how you’re so real. You share both the good and the bad and you’re not ashamed about it. I admire your strength and, seriously, just you. I’ve said it before…I feel like you’re one of the cool kids and I just hope that by reading and commenting, maybe a bit of your coolness would rub off on me.
I think you’re awesome and I wanna be just like you when I grow up. Keep up the good work, Lady! 
I found your blog at the weekend and I just wanted to let you know how inspiring you are. I have shed a tear or two reading some of your posts. My mum lost two children shortly after birth before I was born and I know that it is something you never get over. Thank you for sharing your life so honestly, and allowing me an insight into what my parents went through all those years ago.
Oh paint, that sounds like something good. It will brighten the room I’m sure. hugs! I love your blog,
I really need to pick up my camera again.
*sigh*