Maddie Lynn: Nature

Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Growth

Monday, September 5, 2016

Jumper: Made

Shirt: Thrifted

Shoes: Thrifted

Necklace: Vintage

Well, it sure has taken long enough for me to get these pictures up on the blog, but considering that Fall is right around the corner this shoot seems like the perfect way to say farewell to summer. Today is Labor Day after all, which in itself seems to close the doors on summer fashion (goodbye whites) and usher in a new season of styles and colors. While I can't wait for the crisp fall weather to get here (yay for fall colors and sweaters), I can't help but think back to all of the lovely memories from this summer! This shoot particularly was a great memory because I had been dreaming of shooting at our local plant nursery for the longest time. Thankfully I persuaded two of my friends to come with me for a photo shoot day (just so happened to be right before I headed back to college) and boy did we get some lovely shots! Definitely a day to remember.

With all that being said, and considering that I am completely surrounded by the loveliest plants in all of these pictures, it makes me think about "GROWTH." While growth definitely makes me think about all of the beauty in nature that I am surrounded by every day, it also makes me think about growth in my own life. Whenever I think about growth, so many thing pop into my mind such as beauty, new beginnings, lessons, and letting go. Specifically for me, I think about the amount of growth that I have done over the course of this current semester (even though we are only a week and a half into school).

College itself has been all about growth for me, as I have had to trust God with areas of my life that were hard to trust him with and have faith that his plans were better than my own! I truly believe that the only way you will grow in life is when you learn to let go. However, letting go is one of the hardest things to do. Nevertheless, when we learn to let go we learn that it can be one of the most rewarding things because when we let go of our own desires we open ourselves up for God's greater plan in our life, and when we do that we grow in ways we would never have imagined! When I reflect back on the growth in my life I can't help but think back to a quote from Elisabeth Elliott which reads:

“There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul."

We have to learn to let go in life in order to grow! After all, trees let go and loose their leaves so that they can grow new ones when spring comes.......sometimes we have to be willing to let go of our leaves too, so that new ones can grow. Growth is soooooo important in our lives, because without it we would never learn what we are capable of and even more so, what God is capable of in our life!

Have you experienced any growth in your life recently?

What do you think about letting go and growth?

-Madison

//Summer Happenings// Inks Lake Camping

Friday, May 29, 2015

Can you tell it is summer and I am on no schedule at all (hence the post on Friday and not Thursday). However, there is a slight excuse for my falling off schedule this week due to the recent camping trip I took with my mom, sister, sisters dog Toby, and brother this past week (we just got home yesterday). And while I had already planned to do a project/outfit post of what I wore last Saturday to my friends graduations I decided to postpone that post till early next week (yay...an early post!) in exchange for a post more on the "natural" side of things and share one of our families summer traditions:)

Every summer our family goes camping at least two times and one of the two times is usually to the beach (next weekends plans). However, this past week we went to our most favorite summer camping place Inks Lake State Park! We were there from Monday-Thursday. Unfortunately, due to my dad being a teacher at a public school he was not able to join us and was greatly missed:( Nevertheless, our camping trip was filled with lots of laughs, glories of God's magnificent masterpiece, summer sunshine, chilly water, kayak trekking, fishing, reading, hiking, swimming/wading, picture taking, game playing, s'more making, and oh so much more!!

So here are the tales told in pictures and some words of our camping trip to Inks. Be ready to see the outdoors, natural, and totally casual version of me which consists of tshirts, sport shorts, tank tops, hiking sandals, no makeup, pale legs, and french braids:) hehe.....

The Infamous "Devils Water Hole" in which crazy people jump of the top bolder a height of 37.5 ft. into the water. I however have only ever jump off the ledge just below the bolder.

A View of the cove just before "Devils Water Hole"

The View from our hike up the mountain in which you get a perfect view of Inks Lake.

While I quite enjoy camping, exploring, hiking, kayaking and spending time in the great outdoors basking in Gods glorious masterpiece of creation, I am also a fan of camping for the perfect quiet times in the morning by the water relishing the messages and love of God. Oh, and all of the great reading spots and time for reading (I finished two books on our trip).

This time we were at Inks the masterpiece of nature was painted full of bright and bold colors, fragrant blossoms, and buzzing bees. There were so many different types of flowers everywhere I turned I don't think I even captures every one that I came upon, but aren't they simply breathtaking!!!

However, before I leave I must say that every camping trip is not only an adventure for we never know what lies around the bend, on the other side of the mountain, or at the end of the trail, but camping is a time full of much laughter for our family. Jokes are constantly made, blond moments are forever embedded in our file of memories, and new friends or might I add "new persona's" are met with. On that note I will embellish to say that not only was my brother on the trip with us but "Steve" the Australian Naturalist and Tour Guide also made an appearance most every day in various activities and kept us in stitches constantly:) LOL What would I do without a brother?

Swimming by the waterfall which was actually running for the first time ever since we have been going camping at Inks!!

You readers usually don't see this on the blog (due to makeup) but I have an abundance of freckles which when out in the sun become more abundant :)

Well that is all for now dear readers! Hope you enjoyed this summer happenings post:) Be looking for a project post coming early next week.

Do you have special summer plans/traditions?

Does your family go camping?

What is your favorite place to camp?

A Musing Skirt

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Dear readers, boy am I happy to be sharing this post with you all today! However, I will not reveal to you all the reasoning for this just yet :)

This week the weather has ceased to be nippy and I feel as though the attitude, atmosphere, and ambiance of campus has somehow changed simply because the weather has chosen to smile upon us. While it might have been rainy yesterday morning, the day proved to be quite sunny and inspire the need for photos, reading books, and taking pictures of natures marvels.

If you cannot tell, this is my current read, and after skimming the first line upon starting this book, I fell in love...with everything about it, from the writing style, to the characters and words. This is definitely a highly recommended book from my perspective, as is the movie based on this book (which is fabulous in itself).

As I mentioned above, since the weather has been splendid, it has brought out all of the wonderful beauties of nature:) These rain lilies have been a favorite flower of mine since my days of dressing up and picking these beauties to grace the play house table for tea time. I absolutely adore the aromatic aroma they give upon a quick sniff :) and an interesting side note is that you can actually eat their bulb's because they are like miniature onions.

I am not quite sure what type of tree this is, but it smelled heavenly, and the buzzzz bees thought so too!

Oh, and let us not forget about the graceful dandelion whose feathery seeds inspire withing us the need to close our eyes and blow our wished into the wind, taking them away to far off places!

Okay, for the big reveal (it is really not that big)....have you guessed the reason for today's blog post? Well, lovely readers, for those of you who had the chance to watch my Q&A video, I answered a question as to which Minnie's Menagerie item was my favorite! However, as you all now know, Minnie's Menagerie is what I title all of the pieces I have collected from my grandmother. Thus, in the video I mentioned a wonderful multi colored striped full 50's skirt....and finally today it has been given the opportunity of gracing the pages of the blog!! Hurray!!!

Skirt: Vintage (Minnie's Menagerie); Top: Thrifted; Sweater: Old Navy; Shoes: Sperry's; Socks: Forever21

What do you think? Isn't it just splendid!!! I absolutely love this skirt and for some reason it always urges me to mix and match patterns and prints. Therefore, most often when I wear this skirt I pair it with a checkered button up shirt. For this ensemble I paired it with a fun red and white checkered button up sleeveless shirt. Funny thing, I actually wore this outfit to work last Friday over spring Break and I was blown away by the number of complements I received, many of them being that they loved the mixing and matching of prints, and as always that was fun to hear and smile about :)

I was so happy that the day proved to be so lovely, I only wish I had the time to actually enjoy it longer than sneaking away for a quick photo shoot before my last class of the day.Quite honestly I was surprised at how quickly the weather heated up, but then again, why should I be surprised, I live in Texas for goodness sake!!! However, despite the looming elevated temperatures coming our way, I am sure the rest of this week I will find the time to escape outdoors and bask in the glorious sunlight while doing homework, finishing my book, or maybe even do a little writing, who knows:)