The crazy thing about this video is that it hits on a major issue that women face today. About two years ago I decided to invite a few of my friends over to have breakfast weekly. Although I (the introvert) was anxious about doing it, something beautiful happened. We all got ‘real’ and we all shared honestly, openly and were able to seek support, advice and high fives from other women our age. It was awesome. And I miss it.

During our breakfasts something became abundantly clear to me…every woman has insecurities. Even the beautiful ones, the ones who look like they have everything together, the ones that seem to effortlessly float through life and motherhood. There’s always something. Something that nags at us, something that brings us down, turns a good day bad and makes us want to hide. The problem with this is that most of the time these things are either not obvious to anyone else or are an exaggerated figment of our imaginations. Obviously we all have imperfections, obviously there are things about ourselves that we don’t like but the problem arises when these things hinder our ability to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. When they hinder us from seeing how wonderful and truly beautiful we all are.

Then I had an epiphany. I wish I could make these women see how truly beautiful they are. Around that time I read a blog post about a photographer attempting to grow their creative side and step out of their comfort zone by having a personal photography project on the side that she was completing. Her theme was tattoos and I thought to myself “I want to do that” but I didn’t want to completely rip her off so I had to think of my own personal project. Then it occurred to me that I’d known what my project would be all along. I can make them see how beautiful they are. I can take their picture. I debated over the next week or so if this would be offensive, or make them feel insecure or even if the thought that I would be editing their images would take away from the fact that I was trying to show their natural beauty because really, how natural is a photoshopped image? I really didn’t want them to think “well that’s just a pretty picture of me cause it’s photoshopped”.

I finally plucked up the courage and set a date. And it was wonderful. First of all it was fun to be taking pictures of people again! After such a long break from photography my heart had really begun to crave it and it is the jump start I needed to start getting back into shooting again. Secondly, I’ve kind of had a thrill these past few days waiting for these ladies to see their true beauty. Not cause I’m an awesome photographer, not cause there were lights or extravant equipment (which there wasn’t), not cause I used photoshop (which was minimal), but because I want them to see how all of us see them. Beautiful. Plus they brought their beautiful babies along. I always see women shine a certain way when they are holding their children and I wanted to capture that too. So here they are, my beautiful friends. Thanks for being open to shining for us all to see. I love you ladies.

If you are interested in a “You are beautiful” session email me at debbie@englexasphotography.com

I’ve been feeling a lot lately like my best efforts are not good enough. That I’m not measuring up, not fulfilling my potential as a wife, mother or friend. As I was pondering this thought I realized that maybe my “best efforts” aren’t actually my “BEST efforts” at all. It’s kinda like (…prepare your hearts for a cheesy analogy…) the show the Biggest Loser…(did I lose you?! stick with me!) the contestants are working out and are constantly saying things like “I can’t” and telling their trainers that they have done as much as thy can do or they feel like they are dying. The trainers always continue to push them to do more or train harder and inevitably those that follow through always realize that they are capable of more than they ever imagined. The ones that stick it out time after time are usually the ones that win the prize.

So have I really been doing my best? Is this my BEST effort? Or do I have more deep down inside of me that I’m not tapping into. Is there more strength, will power and self-control inside of me that I don’t know is there simply because I haven’t pushed myself harder.

Recently when I’ve been ‘wasting time’ (usually social media is involved!) I’ve thought to myself “I don’t have time for this”…there are so many things that need to be done and there is time to do it all, I just haven’t tapped in to the well of time that I think (and hope) can be found. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough? As with everything in life, there is a balance to be found. If I’m only ever “working” I won’t be happy and if I’m only ever “resting” I will be lazy and nothing will get done!

No matter how ready you are to move from a place there is always a sting that comes from letting go of the familiar. I’m not new to this whole moving thing, we’ve done it once or twice (or thirteen! fourteen!) times before.

I’ve learned that people will respond to you in one of two ways…1) they will savor every last moment with you, want to spend time with you and soak everything in that they can before you are separated or 2) they will keep you at arms length, push you away and avoid you so that you leaving doesn’t hurt them too much (which doesn’t ever work out the way they think). My advice to everyone who has people moving out of their life is to not do the latter…moving is a lonely thing and it is so much easier when you are sent off with the people you love encouraging you along the way. It has been a bittersweet last few weeks for us. I’m so thankful for the time I’ve gotten to spend with friends and sad that I’m leaving a place when I am *finally just starting to get comfortable (oh, the life of an introvert!).

A wise man recently said “There’s never enough time. Relationships never get as perfected as we’d like but we are always thankful for the time that we do have. I’m thankful for the stuff we did do, those are great memories in my keepsake box.”…it is so true. You always wish that you had spent more time with the people you love when they leave, so take advantage of the time you have with them now.

To all our friends here, we love you and are so glad we got to spend the last 3 years with you!

The beautiful thing about lasts is that “lasts” mean that “firsts” are coming…

*our kids’ name for my husbands mom

This season of being without a house of our own (*read: homeless) has been really difficult for me. At first it was just all a part of the great adventure that is our life but after the novelty wore off cabin fever started to set in. This past year has really been about defining who I am and not being ashamed of ‘me’ so I really started to crave having a space of my own, something that looked like me. That’s why I’m super excited about the fact that our new landlord is allowing us to paint (and choose a new hardwood stain!) so we have the opportunity to really make this house ‘us’.

It didn’t take me long to decide that I wanted white walls. I had already filled my Pinterest boards with lots of inspiration so we have a clear vision, inspired by rooms like these:

sources:1/2/3/4

When the landlord asked us to send over the paint chip I decided to go over to Benjamin Moore to find the ‘white’ that we wanted. I chose Benjamin Moore because I have heard them recommended countless times for interior flat paint and I didn’t want to mess this up. I typed in “white” and 151 different variations of white were displayed in front of me…uh, is this for real?!

As some of you know I am a hyper-researcher so then became my quest for the ‘perfect’ white for us! Yikes!

What I learned is that there are obviously countless shades of white but so many things can play a factor in how this actually looks on your walls! If there is a lot of greenery reflecting through your windows, how much natural light there is and even what direction your windows face! From my research it seemed that “warm whites” came most highly recommended so that your space doesn’t feel cold, it also helps off-set any green reflection you might be getting. Then there were “cool whites” which are cleaner and is good for offsetting the orange/pink cast that artificial light (if you are using a lot of this) gives off. And then there are pure whites…I’m thinking ‘pure white’ is more what we are going for because we want a really stark, modern feel.

Here were the most highly recommended whites I found:

Decorator White

White Dove

I discovered Houzz a few weeks ago and I highly recommended it. Yes, Pinterest is wonderful but what I love about Houzz is that you can find specific information on the pictures, you can search for rooms that use a specific paint color and even ask where items came from! If you are in the process of decorating it is a great resource!

**catching up from the last few weeks MONTH! (yikes!). These posts were written at the time and do not reflect current events…pretty much you know the ending of the story already **

This week was wonderful…getting to spend time with my family in England is a memory that I will never forget. It was so wonderful to see my kids getting along so well with my nephews…the bond was immediate. Especially between Gracen and Isaac, they pretty much played the entire time they were together and were so sad to leave each other. Of course that makes leaving even harder, but we are hoping that we’ll get to spend more time together in the future.

No matter how short your time together, being with family is something to cherish.

*week one*week two*week three*week four*week five*week six*week seven*week eight*
*week nine*week ten*week eleven*week twelve*week thirteen*week fourteen*week fifteen*week sixteen*
*week seventeen*week eighteen*week nineteen*week twenty*week twenty one*
*week twenty two*week twenty three*weeks twenty four, five and six*weeks twenty seven and eight*
*weeks twenty nine and thirty*week thirty one*week thirty two*week thirty three*week thirty four*
*week thirty five*week thirty six*week thirty seven*week thirty eight*week thirty nine*week forty*
*week forty one*week forty two*week forty three*week forty four*week forty five*week forty six*
*week forty seven*week forty eight*week fifty*

//inspiration for project 52 came from styleberry blog//

here are some other blogs that are part of the project blossoms & vintage // caynay // the crain’s nest // firecracker mama // heather marie portraits // strange & lovely ride // wicked kate // mcclain padilla //
rachel gray // lucas & mahina // love & life

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