Guest Post Tuesday: Thankful for Amberly & Joe

Hello friends! It's Amberly from Life with Amberly & Joe, taking over the blog for Kaeley again! Fall is quickly coming to a close and the holiday season is in full swing. Even though I'm sad to see the amazing autumn weather and my favorite season disappear, I am excited about the holiday season. Time with family, traditions, delicious food, and the spirit of the season, just the thought of it all makes me giddy!

I feel like holidays are becoming more and more commercialized every year. Christmas stuff is on the shelves before I've even thought about Halloween, Black Friday is creeping into Thanksgiving parties and festivities and we get so busy that the holidays are more stressful than fun. "The hustle and bustle of the season" has taken on a whole new meaning to me the older I get. This year I am trying my hardest to make the holidays fun and relaxing again! I am looking forward to Thanksgiving week when I have five and a half days off of work. It will be great time for holiday baking, family parties, time with my husband, and relaxing by myself! Each season I create date night bucket lists on my blog that focus on the season and the holidays that come with it. It is hard to get everything crossed off, but I try because I really want to do fun, seasonal things with my husband and enjoy life. In honor of the season, I set a Marriage & Relationship Goal this month to start a new tradition in our little family. We now have a Thankful Jar that sits in a prominent place in our apartment. Each day I write things that I am thankful to my husband for and things that I am thankful for in life. My plan is to read the entire jar together, on the morning of Thanksgiving, before we rush off to stuff our faces with delicious food at family parties.

How do you remember the spirit of the season and not let the stress of it overwhelm you?
Amberly

I absolutely LOVE Amberly's Thankful Jar and just might have to copy her next year :)

Guest Post Tuesday: My Lovely Sponsor, Kelly

Even better than the opportunity to sponsor other blogs and guest post for them, is when other lovely ladies choose to sponsor ME! Even better than that, when those sponsors agree to write a guest post! I love following Kelly's blog, Today Was a Fairytale, and if you haven't met her, you need to.

************************************************************************************************************************************

Hello fabulous My Mind's Lens readers! First off I'd like to thank the amazing Kaeley for opening up her blog to little old me. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Kelly. I call a little blog named Today Was A Fairytale my home. A little bit about me... I'm a 20-something newlywed, social media addicted, country music loving, picture taking, craft attempting, all things pink, girly girl. I love meeting new people but have a tendency to be a little shy. I'm most comfortable in a sweatshirt and jeans. I love photography and the story that a picture can tell. I think it's important to have pictures so that we can remember all the amazing little things. I love music. The right song can make me cry for absolutely no reason. Did I mention I have a tendency to be a little emotional? I live in Washington State, not on the pretty green side. It's more like a dessert, but it's home & so I deal with it.

During the time that I was trying to come up with what I wanted to write about I went to Idaho for a family reunion. While there I was reminded of all the amazing things about my family. So I decided to share some of those things with you - and since Kaeley's blog is called "My Mind's Lens" I decided to do it through pictures. Some of these are from a recent photography session we had.

- We don't take ourselves too seriously.

- After a couple times of my dad having to do the same thing.. he looses interest.

and yes.. that is the only pictures of me & my dad that is in focus so we're stuck with it

- We get our awesomeness from my Uncle Johhny.


- Asking my brother and sister to take a picture together will result in the following..

- We might be 7 years apart but my brother and I have a pretty awesome relationship. 75% of the time we spend together {or on the phone} we are laughing.

- When my brother and hubby get together there is bound to be some kind of adventure.

they were convinced they were going to break the fence

 - My brother can be super shy, but he is one of the funniest people I know

yes, he answered his cell phone in the middle of our session.. how rude!

We might be a little crazy but we're fun and know how to laugh. I wouldn't trade this crazy bunch for the world!

************************************************************************************************************************************

If you would like to sponsor My Mind's Lens as well, just click here to head over to my sponsor page and ad store.  There are a couple of options to choose from and it just takes a minute to get started!

Also - if you are interested in participating in Guest Post Tuesday, I am now scheduling spots for the month of October.  You do not have to be a sponsor to participate.  Just send me an email to kaeley *dot* a *dot* mull *at* gmail *dot* com {or click the envelope icon in the sidebar} and let me know what you would like to share about and the link to your blog!

************************************************************************************************************************************  Weekend Recap: Since it was a long weekend for the Labor Day holiday, I am a day late....but I think that is justified.

1. Went to Costco - Costco and I have a love-hate relationship.  I love stocking up, but it gets so expensive so quick!

2. Have you ever had these Sun-Dried Tomato & Parmesan kettle chips?! I'm a little bit obsessed...I vegged out on these while watching TV, enjoying the quiet house while my honey was out was friends.

3. Got to go see these handsome guy!  Just in the last week, he started sitting up on his own {although he still falls backwards and side-to-side all the time} and crawling!!

4. Did a little bit of editing . . . I'm trying to stay on top of it this week!

5. Made some yummy zucchini bread out of a massive zucchini Tristan got from a guy at work last week (our niece later ate THREE pieces of it!).

6. Put Little Man to sleep . . . he was a trooper for most of our Labor Day bbq, but eventually enough was enough *Thank you Justine for this photo!!*

I also got to do pictures for a local family, as well as the first of 11 monthly sessions I am going to be doing for a sweet baby girl.

I am so excited for the short work-week, but that means I have a lot to fit in during the next few days. But, bring it on!

************************************************************************************************************************************  FINALLY: I have a SECOND giveaway that I am participating in this week. I am a proud sponsor of Geez, Louise, and pleased to help Kalyn celebrate the first birthday of her blog.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Labor Day Reflections

What is Labor Day really about?  Good sales at the mall and a day off from work, right?  When you think about it, there are quite a few holidays that are observed in the United States every year that many people don't know the real purpose of or history behind.  For example, Memorial Day or St. Patrick's Day.  Even Christmas is just presents and food to some people.

So what is Labor Day really?  Labor Day was established in the late 1800s to celebrate the achievements of the American people, particularly the American labor force.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor, "It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."  I am proud to say that my home state of Oregon was the very first state to pass legislation to officially recognize Labor Day as a holiday.

Today I am celebrating by not going to work, and instead spending time with friends and sharing some more pictures from last week's trip to Seattle!

Gas Works Park features the remnants of the last remaining coal gasification plant in the United States.  *Don't ask me what a coal gasification plant does...I could only guess*  The structures that I shared pictures of last week stand in the open, while the ones above have been restored and turned into a covered play area.

Yes...I am a child sometimes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Probably the highlight of our trip was getting to visit friends!  Saturday night we got to meet up with one of my dearest friends, Miss Elana Mae.  Elana and I spent 3 months together in China during our study abroad trip (along with Miss Natalie who we were missing last weekend!)

These are our "sad 'cause we miss Natalie" faces

I wish we lived closer so that we could get together more often.  But once a year is about as often as that happens, so we have to make up for it in a short period of time.

That meant happy hour at my favorite sushi bar in Seattle (Umi Sushi on 1st Ave. in Belltown - if you are ever in Seattle and like sushi you should try it.  They have a great atmosphere and some different types of sushi that I LOVE - including the Crunchy Seattle Roll), photo shoot at Kerry Park, and dinner at Jai Thai in Fremont.  Actually, I didn't even end up eating at Jai Thai because I was still full from sushi...but that's okay, it was still fun.

We aren't very good at being serious for too long.....

Actually, before going to Jai Thai we headed over to another little park just down the road to watch the sunset over the Sound.

To see more pictures of this sunset, as well as some tips for shooting the
sunsets/sunrises, head over to A Beautiful Day, where I guest posted last week and shared some of these.

I think I will be able to wrap up my Seattle trip with one more post later this week.....We shall see.

*********************************************************************************************************************************

The last thing for today, a follow up on last week's 5 for Five {this might get ugly...}

1. Get caught up *and keep up* on the laundry.  Actually, I did manage to do this, which is a major feat for me!  I even did the same with the dishes - double wow!

2. Plan out next week's blog posts.  Fail - I only got through Tuesday :(

3. Work out at least 4 times. Yes!  I made it to the gym three days this week, plus spent an entire day cleaning my house {which in my book, as long as you're sweating, it counts}

4. Drink 8 glasses of water EVERY DAY.  I made it a couple of days, but there were also days that I barely drank any.  Looks like I will have to try this one again next week.

5. Write down daily tasks, and stick to them.  Eh...better add this to next week.

SO . . . Goals for this week:

1. Plan out next week's blog posts.>
2. Drink 8 glasses of water EVERY DAY.
3. Write down daily tasks, and stick to them.
4. Get caught up on editing photos and get them in the mail.
5.  Keep track of all food and activity points.

What are some of your goals for the week?  Link up with Jenn & Jessica and share!

 

Happy Fourth of July...And Little Things Thursday *LATE*

So - I had every intention of doing a 4th of July post.  But instead I enjoyed time with friends and family.  I still really wanted to do this post, though, because I had put quite a lot of thought into it.  It will just be better because I can share photos from the Fourth :)

For Little Things Thursday, I want to mention some of the little things in life that I think we tend to take for granted and not appreciate enough.

*Deep relationships: In the past I did not realize the importance of having these in my life.  Relationships with long-time friends, and even those with family members and your significant other, can be extremely superficial.  Maybe not all the time - but sometimes it is easy to just float apart when it comes to serious issues.  Does that make sense?  I love my husband to death, and I know that I can talk to him about just about anything.  But what about the days that he just pisses me off - well on those days I have to have close friends to vent to :)  And I know he does the same.  I am so grateful for the people that I have in my life - especially in the last year.  I have grown a lot when it comes to relationships and there are a few people in particular that I can credit for helping me with that.

*These are NOT the only friends I am referring to...just the only ones I can find good photos of at the moment*

*Beautiful scenery: In my opinion, there is something extremely calming and peaceful about beauty in nature.  The other night, I was driving home from an evening photo shoot and the sun was getting ready to set. <I know I already shared these the other day, but they fit perfectly here, so I need to post them again!>

*Don't mind our bridge which seems to be continually under construction*

The whole way home I was just thinking about how beautiful the sunset was in my review mirrors.  If I wasn't so anxious to get home to my honey, I would have pulled over just to watch it.  I don't know how to describe it, but scenes like these just bring me a sense of peace.

I'm sure the skies are not the only thing in nature that can bring on this feeling, but that is when I, for one, feel it.

*Simple Joys:

From the time the parade got over yesterday morning, until we left to head home in the evening, I don't think I saw my niece without a sucker in her mouth.  She just kept going back to her bag of parade treasures for more.  Wouldn't it be nice if all it took to make our day wonderful was a sucker?

Maybe that doesn't work as we grow up - but there are still small joys in our lives that we should cherish more.  A hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning.  The start of an early (or holiday) weekend.  A simple note left for you on the kitchen counter.  We can let the troubles of the day bring us down, or we can hold on to these sweet moments and let them carry us through.

What are some of my simple joys?  Waking up next to my husband. The giggles of my nephew.  A warm sunny day.

Our little town used to have a pretty great 4th of July celebration.  A grand parade, carnival rides, live music and lots of vendors in the city park and a finale of fireworks at the end of the day.  The last couple of years have just been a little disappointing, though.  It is still fun to watch the kids enjoy the parade, but the afternoon festivities at the park have dwindled and the fireworks show is hit or miss.

None-the-less, we had fun with the kiddos and other family at the parade and with a little backyard BBQ.

Aren't these kids adorable? I don't know them, but I love their ear-muffs!

I think I mentioned this the other day - but if any of you want to share your own 4th of July photos, post them over at my Facebook page!

Oh - and if you haven't already, go check out Kelly's SUPER CUTE 4th of July nails at Today Was a Fairytale.  She is one of my sponsors this month and her blog is definitely worth taking a look at! 

Finally, don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin' to keep up with new posts!

HAPPY FRIDAY!